Originally printed in Urza's Saga, Abundance is a very good Enchantment that was reprinted in Magic the Gathering's Tenth Edition Core Set. While legal in Modern, 4-mana enchantments don't really see play in the format. Still, Abundance is a great card that many Commander and Cube players were happy to see reprinted in  Duel Decks: Nissa vs Ob Nixilis.

What's great about Abundance is that it allows you to be able to not draw a land if you want to. It also allows you to draw a land if you do want. In a format like Commander, Abundance can be invaluable. Getting mana-screwed (not enough land to play your spells) or mana-flooded (too many lands and not enough spells)  are common issues in the format. This Enchantment offers very useful card selection, although, it is a bit mana-intensive for a highly competitive format like Modern.

Despite not seeing play in top tournament play, Abundance is a highly sought after card due to having such a useful effect. Green decks often have access to more than 4 mana on turn 4, so this can come down as early as turn 2 in some decks. Abundance was a nearly $4 card before the Duel Deck reprint and it's still creeping back up. While you can't expect to see this card in a top 8 Modern deck, Abundance is a great card that you shouldn't overlook in a trade binder.


Read more Magic the Gathering Modern articles here.

Previously, I looked at a Blue/Red (U/R) Delver deck that was making waves in Modern. At the time, it was relatively budget, about $250 in paper with the majority of that price being Snapcaster Mages. As the prices of Snapcaster and Serum Visions were rocketing out of control, however, that list was no longer budget whatsoever. In mid-2019, that list would cost much more at $350.

The good news is that there is a Modern U/R Delver deck that emerged on Magic Online that is about $165 in paper (as of 4/2019) that went 4-0 in a Modern Daily back in July 2015. It's still a solid list to consider now. Plus, the price is still about the same as it was in 2016!


Here is the list as piloted by Nielsen333 on Magic Online.


CREATURES

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Young Pyromancer

NON-CREATURES

4 Sleight of Hand
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Remand
4 Vapor Snag
3 Peek
2 Forked Bolt
2 Lava Spike
2 Mana Leak
2 Mutagenic Growth
1 Dispel
1 Repeal
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce

LANDS

5  Island
3 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Shivan Reef

Young Pyromancer has been a perfect combination with Delver of Secrets since the Delver deck archetype actually began in Legacy. While Modern's non-creature spells aren't quite of the power level of Legacy, making an army of 1/1 Elemental creature tokens every time you cast an instant or sorcery is extremely powerful. With the Delver deck being mostly about tempo in Modern, having a constant army of chump-blockers and pingers is going to be the foundation of this deck's success.

In place of Snapcaster Mage is a much more aggressive creature from Khans of Tarkir, Monastery Swiftspear. The Swiftspear has already seen plenty of play in Standard, Modern, and Legacy. With her Prowess ability, though, she can become quite a formidable presence on both offense and defense. With spells properly timed, the Swiftspear can deal powerful blows that would put stalwart red creatures like Goblin Guide to shame. With Delver flipping into the flying 3/2 Insectile Aberration, Delver now has more of an aggressive flair than its many tempo components would lead you to believe.

At the time, this list eschewed the typical (more expensive) inclusions of Gitaxian Probe and Serum Visions. This build used more affordable draw options Sleight of Hand and Peek. While the Scry ability of Serum Visions is somewhat superior to Sleight of Hand, this was a more budget way to get basically the same thing done. But, with the reprint in Conspiracy 2, Serum Visions are now about the same price as Sleight of Hand, making them a good substitute for the Peeks if you can get them. Gitaxian Probe has since been banned, as well.

Lightning Bolt and Vapor Snag are the burn and tempo all-stars, respectively. Remand and Mana Leak are the primary counterspells. The rest of the non-creature spells are interchangeable with those in the sideboard. In the board there are: 3 Molten Rain, 3 Rending Volley, 2 Dispel, 2 Electrickery, 2 Negate, 2 Roast, and 1 Forked Bolt. This assortment allows the deck to adjust to many different kinds of matchups.

Also, like previous incarnations of Delver in Modern, the deck doesn't need fetchlands. Steam Vents and Sulfur Falls aren't exactly inexpensive nowadays, but they are certainly less than a playset of Scalding Tarns.

If you're looking for a budget Modern deck, this version of Blue/Red (U/R) Delver should be a great place to start.


Read more Magic the Gathering Modern articles here.

At one time in late 2016, Tallowisp from Betrayers of Kamigawa was getting a lot of attention. At first glance, this Spirit's effect seems cool. As we dig deeper, we'll see it's actually a pretty cool card. With Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon introducing some powerful Spirits to Magic: the Gathering, this card is definitely worth a look.

Basically, whenever you play a Spirit (or Arcane) spell, Tallowisp allows you search your deck for an Aura card and add it to your hand.  So, does Tallowisp trigger itself? Sadly, the wording of its ability doesn't allow it to count itself when it enters the battlefield. This is because it already has to be on the board for its ability to take effect. However, Tallowisp has a 1/3 body, which is solid for 2 mana.  The 3 toughness is relevant in Modern, which is a format with plenty of 2 power creatures.

Tallowisp is already a decent card on its own, and it calls for decks to be built around it. With U/W Spirits already a decent deck in Modern, it seems fair to see how a Modern Spirits deck built around Tallowisp and efficient Auras would work out.
 
There have been some successful deck brews in the past built around Tallowisp.  One that caught lots attention was a Modern Bant Tallowisp Shoal deck that utilizes Shining Shoal and Unflinching Courage.  As cool as it sounded, it wasn't really the flavor I was going for with our deck.
 
We wanted to keep the deck in two colors and make it purely tribal. At first, a deck which featured Geist of Saint Traft as the main creature. But as we look over the newer Spirit creatures, we'll see that we can take this U/W Spirits deck in a much different direction.

U/W Tallowisp Spirits & Auras (Modern & Casual)

Creatures (18)
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
3 Rattlechains
3 Selfless Spirit
3 Tallowisp
2 Spell Queller
3 Drogskol Captain

Non-Creature Spells (28)
2 Ethereal Armor
4 Path to Exile
3 Hyena Umbra
3 Remand
3 Azorius Charm
2 Steel of the Godhead
1 Angelic Destiny

Lands (24)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Prairie Stream
6 Island
6 Plains

Some Quick Thoughts on the Deck

While Geist of Saint Traft is great, running four copies in the deck makes it feel too one-dimensional. Yes, the Geist is hexproof, making him easy to load up with Auras. Also, the 4/4 Angel that you get when the Geist swings is nice. But building around him makes the deck very dependent on him, and therefore somewhat inconsistent. So, let's spread the Spirit love around!

Mausoleum Wanderer is really, really good. It's good against Burn and Control, especially when it grows to 2/2 or 3/3. As a consistent one-drop it can mess up quite a few decks. Heck, against Tron it can stop Ancient Stirrings! It's so versatile in the Modern format, and while people who have already played Spirits in the format know this, it's not really well-known JUST how good this guy is!

Rattlechains is sweet. Not only does he make you able to cast Spirits at instant speed (oh hi, instant speed Wanderer!) but when he comes into play, you can make a target Spirit hexproof. This is super important against all of the removal in the format.

Everyone knows how good Selfless Spirit is. Making your dudes indestructible is just really, really good.

Notice how all these Spirits so far have flying? That's awesome, because even though 1 or 2 points of damage doesn't seem relevant, it all adds up!

Tallowisp is the card that inspired this deck list in the first place. There were four copies in the list initially, but 3 turned out to be fine. The 4th copy was often redundant during playtesting. The tutor ability is extremely relevant and it was activated in every game in which I played this deck. Also, being a 1/3 means it walls 2 power creatures all day! Also, it's actually pretty good to suit up with the Auras, as I found.

Spell Queller was just too good to not include. Not only is he a quasi-counterspell, but a 2/3 flyer is awesome. I only needed two copies at first, but I may adjust this number later.

One inclusion that you probably wouldn't expect is Drogskol Captain. The cool thing about him is he pumps your other Spirits by +1/+1 and gives them hexproof. He doesn't give this to himself, but if you get two Captains on board, this deck becomes EXTREMELY hard to deal with. With everyone in this deck except Tallowisp able to fly, it's pretty awesome.

So what do we seek out with Tallowisp? There are two copies of Ethereal Armor and three of Hyena Umbra. The first strike is important in many cases and Ethereal Armor just gets better and better with each Enchantment you cast. The Umbra has totem armor, which gives your guys an extra protection against removal.

Steel of the Godhead is a two-of and it's the second-best equipment in the deck. While white creatures only get the lifelink, blue creatures are unable to be blocked. White and blue creatures get both abilities and an additional +1/+1 for each color. It's pretty awesome.

The last Aura is Angelic Destiny. While this is not a card you'd typically expect to see in Modern, it is relevant. Getting +4/+4 and flying is good enough, but you get first strike, too!

To protect our gameplan, we have Path to Exile to deal with problem creatures. There are 3 copies of Remand to keep up our tempo, too. I like these better than Mana Leak in this deck, as the extra card really helps. There are also 3 copies of Azorius Charm. I chose the Charm because of its versatility. It can draw you a card, give your creatures lifelink, or bounce a creature to the top of an opponent's deck. The lifelink really does matter, too, especially against burn and aggro.

The mana base is extremely simple. Prairie Stream is extremely good, believe it or not. You can even fetch it with Flooded Strand and the deck plays enough basic lands that it comes in untapped. I may adjust the mana base later on, but it seems pretty solid as symmetrical as it already is. Mystic Gate, the white/blue filter land, actually would probably be a good inclusion, but who wants to spend money on those?

This isn't a final version. It doesn't even have a sideboard! But it's already worked extremely well in playtesting. It would be worth tossing in copy or two of Threads of Disloyalty, which can steal creatures with converted mana cost 2 or less, into a sideboard. It's a nice target for Tallowisp to fetch. It probably also doesn't hurt to throw in a copy or two of Geist of Saint Traft. An Aura-based deck doesn't feel complete without him, although it seems to function well despite that.

While I'm not sure how it will hold up against the top 8 decks, it has a  chance to win some games. For now, I'd say it's a purely casual deck. But it has the pieces to be a very, very strong Spirit deck. If you decide to play "real" U/W Spirits in Modern, this is a great starting point.

For fans of mill decks in Magic the Gathering, it's hard to not like Sphinx's Tutelage. While it isn't quite as nuts as Grindstone, the card that made mill decks a strong strategy in Legacy in the first place,  it does have its similarities.

The major difference between Sphinx's Tutelage and Grindstone is that with the stone, it didn't care if they were non-land cards, only if they shared a color. What makes Grindstone so powerful in Legacy is its combination with a card from Shadowmoor called Painter's Servant.

Painter's Servant is a two-drop artifact creature that makes you choose a color when it comes into play. Any cards that aren't in play, spells, and permanents all become that color in addition to their other colors. When it comes to Grindstone, barring a shuffle effect from a card like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, it would put all of your opponent's library into the graveyard.

Sphinx's Tutelage. has a bit of a drawback in that it will stop at lands. But it's still pretty powerful, and it activates each time that you draw a card. Two cards doesn't sound like much, but it adds up, especially if you're playing a dedicated mill deck that plays cards like Visions of Beyond (which will often draw you 3 cards and mill your opponent a minimum  of 6 cards). The ability for 5U to draw a card and discard a card is probably rarely going to be used. But it is there if you need it

As Painter's Servant is legal in Modern, it may be an interesting idea to build a Servant/Tutelage combo around what is already an effective Esper Mill shell in Modern. Esper Mill has won a number of Modern Daily events on Magic Online. This Esper Mill list went 4-0. It's just a matter of figuring out what comes out for the Servants and Tutelages.

The main issue with this combo, while it's pretty sweet and can mill a whole bunch of cards, you can end up with dead copies of Painter's Servant in your hand. The good news is having multiple copies of Sphinx's Tutelage in play is absolutely fine, as it just offers you additional triggers. Therefore, the Servant should only be in there as a back-up plan. Unlike in Legacy, the combo is not necessarily game-winning, but it doesn't need to be.

What would probably happen is that you would cut the 3 Crypt Incursion and 2 Lingering Souls from the winning Esper Mill list mentioned earlier and replace them with 3 Sphinx's Tutelage and 2 Painter's Servant.

The list would look something like this:

CREATURES (10)

4 Hedron Crab
4 Jace's Phantasm
2 Painter's Servant

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (28)

4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Archive Trap
4 Path to Exile
4 Visions of Beyond
4 Mesmeric Orb
3 Mind Funeral
3 Sphinx's Tutelage
2 Trapmaker's Snare

LANDS (22)

4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Shelldock Isle
2 Marsh Flats
2 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain

SIDEBOARD (15)

4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Leave No Trace
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Extirpate

While Esper Mill isn't a particularly cheap deck, it's become a consistent performer in the Modern format. Glimpse the Unthinkable is the most expensive card in the deck, and can be replaced with Mind Sculpt. The latter card mills 7 whereas the former mills 10, but it will save you quite a few bucks.

The rest of the cards, outside of the mana fixing, pretty much need to be there for the deck to work. It's not a given that the Servant/Tutelage combo actually makes the deck better. Crypt Incursion was the most removable card in the deck, and that card can gain you life that you could need later

Mesmeric Orb is probably the other card that could be dropped in favor of the combo, as it mills you as well as your opponent, but it quickens the clock and should usually hurt your opponent far more than it ever hurts you. Lingering Souls is a tough drop, as it can be cast from the graveyard. But if Sphinx's Tutelage and Painter's Servant works as well together as they seem to on paper, you won't need the extra creatures, as the Servant gives you a 1/3 blocker as it is.

Does a Modern Esper Mill deck armed with this combo seem like something you would like to try?

For those that played Magic: the Gathering during Innistrad Standard, you may remember a certain common Transform card known as  Delver of Secrets. It was a pretty nifty card. So nifty, in fact, that the Delver tempo deck dominated Standard for some time. In fact, Delver is such a good card that Delver-based decks are actually a major archetype in Legacy, also running Green in order to play the mighty Tarmogoyf. Well, it was only a matter of time before Delver made its way into Modern, and even without Ponder and Preordain, the deck has some life.

Today, we're taking a look at a U/R Delver list that went 4-0 in a Modern daily on MTGO. Best of all, this is a fairly budget deck (around $250 in early 2015, but about $350 in mid 2019) and contains zero fetch-lands.

Here’s the list that MTGO user Darkrouge piloted to a perfect record and some M15 packs:

CREATURES

4  Delver of Secrets
4  Young Pyromancer
3  Snapcaster Mage
2  Grim Lavamancer

NON-CREATURES

4  Gitaxian Probe
4  Serum Visions
4  Mana Leak
4  Lightning Bolt
3  Vapor Snag
3  Spell Snare
2  Spell Pierce
2  Izzet Charm
2  Electrolyze
1  Dispel

LANDS

5  Island
5  Mountain
4  Steam Vents
3  Sulfur Falls
1  Temple of Epiphany

(NOTE: Because Gitaxian Probe was banned after this list was played, we will replace the 4 copies of Probe for four copies of Opt.)

Considering that this deck had an original MSRP of about $75, it’s great to see a card with a high value like Sword of Feast and Famine in a deck. It obviously fits the deck quite well. It also somewhat makes up for the lack of fetch-lands in the deck.

Speaking of fetch-lands, let’s look over the no-fetch mana base.

A full play-set of the white-black “pain” land will help you fix for your colored mana, plus two  City of Brass.  A full play-set of  Isolated Chapel,  the white/black “buddy” land will help you also fix without the need for pinging yourself for life, as long as you control a Plains or Swamp. There are 5 plains and 4 swamps to complement them. In addition, there is a  Vault of the Archangel, with which you can tap for 2WB to give your creatures deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn. There is also a full play-set of  Windbrisk Heights, a rather useful card with Hideaway. Whatever card gets put under it can be cast for a single white mana and a tap, providing that you have attacked with at least three creatures in a given turn.

Overall, it’s not a bad mana base, although I would replace the two City of Brass and at least one plains and one swamp for a full play-set of  Godless Shrine. It is, at least, a functional mana base.

An old white/black favorite, sure to see even more play in the near-future in Modern with the existence of  Athreos, God of Passage,  Tidehollow Sculler deprives your opponent of a non-land card until the Sculler leaves the battlefield. It’s a very solid two-drop that compliments the other hand disruption in this deck quite nicely.

Let’s move on to the meat of the deck, the non-creature spells!

The three copies of Honor of the Pure, which pumps all of your white creatures by +1/+1 are an obvious inclusion, as are the full play-set of Intangible Virtue, which gives all tokens +1/+1. Being able to stack multiple copies of this card on the board is key to this deck’s success.

As many speculated, there are also two copies of  Inquisition of Kozilek  in the deck. It’s yet another way to disrupt your opponents’ hands of their early plays, giving you time to build up your forces on the board while they recover. There are also 3 copies of Zealous Persecution, an instant which gives your creatures +1/+1 and your opponents’ creatures -1/-1 until end of turn, making combats a bit tricky for your opponent.

As for tokens, there is a full suite available. A full-playset of  Lingering Souls, with its Flashback ability, is an absolute must. It’s joined by a full-playset of Raise the Alarm, which creates two 1/1 white soldiers for only 1W. There’s also a full play-set of  Spectral Procession, which makes 3 flying tokens.

There’s also  a couple of copies of a fun card from New Phyrexia,  Shrine of Loyal Legions. The cool part about this card is that so much of the deck is comprised of white spells. Each time you cast a white spell (which includes the dual-colored spells) it gains a charge counter. You can pay 3 and sacrifice the Shrine and put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the field for each charge counter that had been on the Shrine. This can potentially be a lot of token generation.

The deck also contains 3  Path to Exile, which is a very pricey removal card nowadays.

Now onto one of the main win conditions of the deck, my favorite card in all of Magic: the Gathering:

Elspeth, Knight-Errant  should need no introductions. Both of her +1 abilities are fantastic, and her ultimate ability, her -8, gives you an emblem that basically wins you the game. Making more tokens, then making them fly over opponent’s creatures is always fun. And making everything indestructible is pretty good, too. You also will have enough blockers to protect her, meaning that her potential of going ultimate is actually pretty high if they don’t deal with her outside of combat.

Overall, the main deck looks quite playable. Let’s look over the sideboard:

Here’s a card you don’t typically see, two copies of  Burrenton Forge-Tender. Obviously, this card exists to help in match-ups against mono-red decks. I’m pretty sure by design that these are meant to replace the two copies of main-board Soul Warden in those match-ups. The cool thing about Forge-Tender is that it can prevent damage from any red source, including board-wipes like  Anger of the Gods  (the bane of this deck’s existence) and Blasphemous Act. Speaking of Blasphemous Act, in those Boros builds that include  Boros Reckoner, that damage isn’t dealt to the Reckoners, either, saving you at least 13 points of damage from that card’s ability. Solid little sideboard option here.

Most of the remaining side-board cards are self-explanatory.  Dismember deals with big threats,  Duress  gives you more hand-destruction,  Ghost Quarter gives you some land destruction ability against greedy mana-bases and  Relic of Progenitus  helps stop graveyard shenanigans.

The last card in the sideboard is a very useful card called  Kataki, War’s Wage. Three copies exist in this sideboard. Essentially what it does is make all artifacts have an upkeep cost of 1 mana. This obviously can be quite problematic for Affinity and Tron decks in the format. It also has a negative interaction with the  Shrine of Loyal Legions, but those can come out when this card is boarded in. It’s nice to have three copies included.

Overall, this deck looks fairly solid. Black/white tokens are a deck that doesn’t necessarily need the fetch-lands to function. Of course, four Marsh Flats and the four Godless Shrine would be nice, but the pain-lands do suffice in this case. Besides, the pain from the fetch-lands and the shock-lands coming in untapped is very similar, and you’re gaining life back from Soul Warden in many cases anyhow.

I think as a gateway deck into the format, there’s nothing wrong with Wizard’s first attempt. Is it worth the $75 MSRP? I would say most likely. Since card price numbers can fluctuate over time, I won’t break it down here, but the cards did add up to well over $75 at the deck's release, if you consider median prices for these cards (double that, in fact!) Unfortunately, as the decks did not sell as well as anticipated, many hobby shops and card stores broke them down to sell the individual cards, deflating the value of many of the cards included. However, the original printings of the cards have maintained their values a bit better due to the fact that the Modern Event Deck cards have a separate set symbol, fortunately.

While I certainly am happy to see the Sword in here, Hero of Bladehold  may have made more sense. It’s clear that Wizards wants to give it the “Bang for its Buck” without having speculators buying them all up, thus making them inaccessible to players trying to enter the format. For what it’s meant to be, it’s pretty good, and it’s put copies of some harder-to-get cards out there more readily available without flooding the market too much.

I can why see this didn't sell quite as well as some might have first suspected, but I think the  Modern Event Deck is a worthy start to what will hopefully be a long line of event decks for the Modern Format.