The Best Way To Play Modern | A Magic: The Gathering Guide 

My favorite part of professor vids is he just legitimately wants you to enjoy Magic however you choose. He is the anti gatekeeper....he is a...gate crasher

"White Weenie Aggro" is my pro wrestling name.

Wouldn't it be nice if Wizards sold pre-constructed modern decks along with Modern Horizons sets, like with some of the archetypes that the set supports, reprinting some of the older cards those strategies utilize alongside new additions. Like maybe Affinity or Reanimator or Delirium/Domain Aggro or Cascade/Suspend and stuff like that. That would've been pretty cool.

I miss paper magic

Another method is to use cockatrice. It requires a bit of setup but it should not be too complicated. This method allows you to test out decks and practice with them till you decide to get one in paper and play in your LGS. It's free.

6:08 thank you for that. That statement is very important. I always put it like this: The art of modern is to make the best out of your bad matchups and winning your good match ups.

Its always a joy to see you in my RU-vid homepage with a new video professor!

I love modern since a long time ago and you summarised why perfectly. I played a Mono Black Vampires deck for years, completely off meta but it never mattered. When you have your own deck and do 3-0 at FNM against Tron, Grixis, Jund and others 1000$+ decks you feel unimaginable satisfaction. Sometimes you loose to Burn, sometimes to D&T but it doesn't matter. It's always great to refine your strategy and get better for the next battle. For me modern has always been about finding your deck and tailoring it on yourself.

Hey Prof, I am just trying to get into Modern after a long hiatus from 60 card constructed. With the new boom in Modern interest from MH2 and a lot of my LGSs starting to open up their play spaces, I couldn’t be more excited! But I have found myself trying to pigeon hole my way into a meta-ish deck and haven’t had much luck getting anything ready to just play (I am also just starting to rebuild my collections of playsets after dissolving most of them into commander singles)…. Anyways this is just a legitimate thanks for the advice! I think these tips came at a perfect time to reassure me to just start playing!

I just started playing Magic and this was the literal exact video and content I was looking for. Phenomenal video and super helpful!

One thing I would recommend to someone not just trying to build one deck, but start a modern collection is try and make your first deck one that pivots easily. For example, if you build Izzet storm you are at that point pretty close to having izzet prowess too. Then a lot of those cards are going to slide into the borros prowess deck. After getting some of those cards you are pretty close to a regular Boros burn deck, etc. The same can be said for if you are trying to do different formats. Legacy Death and Taxes and Modern Death and Taxes share a lot of the expensive bits. Same thing with spirits if you are looking at the modern and pioneer spirits decks there’s a lot of cross over there obviously too.

Clicked. Saw the link to the Tron Primer. Liked so fast that a black hole began to form.

Loved this video! My LGS announced a revamped Modern scene and I was feeling like getting into it. Being a huge eldrazi fan myself, this feels like the perfect place to build a cool eldrazi deck!

Hello Professor! I just wanted to take the time to say thank you for the information on how to play modern. I primarily play commander in my playgroup and just now starting to play modern. This really helped a lot towards understanding what modern is about and how to play. I wish you the best of luck in all of your future endeavors and hope to get in contact with you to play a round or two sometime! Best Regards!

You've hyped up Modern enough that just as I went looking for this video it appeared. Excited to give the format a try! Thank you.

Prof this is perfectly timed. I’m looking to enter Modern for the first time ever so this is really helpful, thanks!!

Ay I'm early this time. Thanks for this video, professor! I've been waiting for this kind of video to answer some of my questions for a long time. Brilliant!

thank you for all the video's professor you are the major reason i started playing again after a competitive hiatus since 2008

I really enjoy your message of playing what you love. For me, that is UW Spirits. I have been playing on Arena and very excited for Explorer there. Looking at MTGGoldfish, I see that UW Spirits recently had a 5-0 Modern League and without any Modern Horizons cards, I'm tempted to break out my modern spirits deck again.

Great thumbnail Prof. I agree that playing with Scalding Tarn *is* the best way to play modern. 😁

I've been wanting to try out Modern for a bit, and started putting together a Bant soulherder list. Maybe a weird starting point, but it's so fun. Your enthusiasm for the format is infectious. I hope you make some more Modern videos.

Excited to get into Modern. I appreciate your videos.

Love you Professor! This video warmed my heart!

Just watched you on TYSO. That was a great interview.

I like how his videos are non biased + just want you to have a fun. Im going to search for that elf deck you speak of.. also I see a time spiral remastered card in each of those modern decks lol.

Rocking my 4c ally tribal deck and having nothing to be jealous about in an enviroment with Jund and Tron. Great video prof!

My boy the professor with a casual sealed box of Innistrad on his book shelf.

Thanks for this video, it is extremely helpful. Most of the FNMs around me play Modern, which as a relatively new player (started Oct 2018) I have not yet played. Looking forward to it.

Having not played Modern for a few years, I'm looking forward to jumping back in. Yee-haw! Thanks, Prof.

Thank you for this guide. I’m thinking about getting into modern, so this is helpful.

Prof is back and talking about Modern!!!

I just finished putting together my first ever modern deck, mono-black Vampires upgrading from the pioneer version I had gotten at some point, and I am SO excited for it! I get to play it on thursday in an in-store event and I'm looking forward to mastering and upgrading it alongside any other modern decks I might build in the future

What a great intro to Modern! Well done.

Great video and great advice!

Found some AWESOME VIDEOS by MTG Deckmaster on how to play modern storm. I am really looking forward to building the budget deck and playing my first game of modern with it.

Yeeees, finally a video talking about modern! I missed this

Great Video, ans thank you for the lists! Modern really ist the best format for me, too. Such a deep cardpool and so many strategies... Just beautiful

Wow I was just looking into some modern decks I wanted to try!

Just saw your interview with Rick Glassman. I thought it was a great. Keep up the good work !

Four years ago I fell in love with mardu control and after getting a solid deck list together I moved... now four years later; i'm getting back into magic. Looking through decklists still and mardu just has the best of everything- just need to find that solid list. There's so many goood cards for mardu

Thanks for the confidence boost on this prof, gonna try to build the modern deck I was thinking about making

When I got my boyfriend into Magic, he just bought a premade standard deck to see what he liked about it. After that, he was able to determine which cards he enjoyed and didn't enjoy playing and rebuilt the deck accordingly.

Great video as usual, Prof. :)

With the reprinting of fetch lands, I will finally be able to finish my Modern Boros Burn deck, really glad they finally did this.

Great video plus I'm very interested in getting into modern! You da best prof.

Quality context, Professor!

I have a very similar list to the mono-R goblins list you showed off, but it's an older list and I might swap cards around to try yours. My list has done very well against my buddy's various Scapeshift/Titanshift deck, his Naya Zoo, and another friend's mono-G stompy.

Superb video as always, Prof!

Thanks for this video! I am interested in modern but have kind of kept it off due to not knowing the format. I'll try and see if I can make atleast one ok budget vampires deck, as I like that tribe and have most of the stuff for them in pioneer.

Here from TYSO. Cool channel!

Pro-tip for anyone looking to build Tron on a budget: the cheapest version of the lands are the Chronicles reprints, but may not show up on certain sites when searching for the card name (like "Urza's Tower") because they're listed with the specific variants instead (like "Urza's Tower (Shore)" ). This was the case on TCGPlayer at least, but checking again it looks like it's been fixed there.

I'm getting back into modern for the first time in years, I used to play infect back in the gitaxian probe days, always loved infect so I'm rebuilding that. Maybe not the most competitive in a world of Wrenn and Six, Lava Dart and Plague Engineer, but with a few tweaks to the list around that I should still be able to have some fun games and spread the glory of phyrexia around my LGS.

My fav part of modern is playing what you love, like you said. my old living end deck was so much fun, I had so many spicy techs, and i knew how to play and sideboard well, so i could best many matchups, even if its supposed to be an auto loose

I was watching this to find tips on building something pyromancer ascension as my first. And it's budget. So I guess I'm happy, thanks Prof

I have a "Bant Burn" deck I am very proud of. Every color except black, primarily red. It's basically a combo / casino deck that plays cards like calibrated blast and hitting something like Autochton wurm and Blinkmoth Infusion

Great Advice! I was kinda eager to get into modern and shake up the meta! With new Ideas.

Great video! A+

Loving the glasses prof!

Thanks for this video.

I tried modern a few years ago with a deck mainly comprised of old standard cards that had rotated out and I was quite fond of but I never got into it as I often got steamrolled in a few turns by all these crazy combos

You should sell sleeves with your playmat arrrrrt!!!! 😄 love the vids thanks for the content.

I like decks that surprise me by actually working. I don't have really any experience playing modern, but.. I do enjoy finding new styles to play with/in.

The price has always intimidated me to stay away from modern, but now I am tempted to just pick up a bunch of those double face card proxies that come in zendikar packs and just proxy an entire deck. Or at least, just the fetch lands. I can add those as I go.

great job!

Great video! FYI - the decklists for Goblins and Dredge only add up to 59 cards.

Glasses look great btw prof!

I really like modern as well. You can get some really fun gotcha combat tricks even against experienced players. I have used War Report a couple times to really throw my opponent off balance. I still lost, but it's still fun.

Great video

Great video for what I need right now. Standard has become so bad time for me move into Modern.

I didn't know I have a bunch of cards I can use modern in those deck list the professor post in this video. I might build a couple of modern decks and see how I do.

Tip for testing: you can out your deck on moxfield and use playtest. And using obs to cover your hand and view card popup. You can play with people on discord without meeting in person

Years ago my LGS held a modern circuit with multiple tournaments and I ended up taking 2nd place with a weird monowhite flickerwhisp/tax/weenie brew. It was kind of like Agro with Ajani, kind of like death and taxes with flickerwhisps and aether vials and thalia, arbiters, and mindcensors; but it wasn't exactly either. It gave me some dead draws, but it also gave me huge flexibility (especially with a sideboard) to play around every major net deck at the events. There is nothing more satisfying than aethervialing in a leonin arbiter after a primetime slaps down and pathing it. Or using ghost quarters and arbiter to wasteland them while slapping away with cheap creatures. Modern is the only format I'd be interested in playing and it was the only format I saw people genuinely hyped about brewing interesting decks and going through old cards for fun interactions.

Modern is the best format because: -If you played standard for a while, then abandoned it, you already have some stuff legal in modern -Any deck is viable, as the prof said, anything goes, there's no meta, brewers have a shot. -Standard sucks? buy singles that upgrade your modern decks and there you go. -Multiplayer madness? play modern multiplayer, is even more bonkers than commander, because you don't depend on your singleton luck. -Also, is the best to bring old players back to the game. I have so many coworkers and friends that go "yeah, i used to play, but now i have them just for the memories" and i go "but, let's play, bring whatever deck you have and lets play." 8 out of 10 times that decks are legal in modern.

MTGO has helped me test my modern decks

i would suggest starting with burn or 50 bucks 8-rack(how i started) this way you learn your opponents decks and get a taste of everything while you can still keep up with the meta

It's really starting to tick me off that RU-vid doesn't tell me when Prof puts a video up and I find out from Reddit hours later that there's a new video.....

I like the glasses, Prof!

TYSO sent me here. I might get back into magic again... I sold most of my cards in Vegas years ago, though

Fate! I just finalized the sideboard of Modern Monoblack Vampires yesterday.

Hey I love your videos but in something like this it would be cool [ or maybe a supplemental video] showing some examples of decks or staple cards for new comers to the format

While I do agree with you on the proxing a deck to get reps in and see if you like it, I would still encourage that you pick up a playset of the fetchlands since they are low cost right now. Being new to modern, or magic in general, you'll learn your mana base is the one thing you should sink money into. Have your platset of Fetchs as soon as you can for as cheap as you can to open doors for playing later on.

the wine analogy was perfect

I am my store's local jank player and love building decks that are not decks commonly seen in modern. I have played both cat tribal and High Alert decks and have beaten higher tier decks including Death's Shadow and Jund. Nothing is too bad in modern as long as you can build a cohesive enough deck for it. Luck is a very big part in these games and it is a blast.

A 60 card deck? what a novelty! Really liked the Teferi sketch

I dont care what the pros say about which decks are good. I just love doing things I find funny. like getting a 100/100 hydra and flinging it at my opponent, or getting a few thousand goblins and using descent of dragons. Its all about enjoyment. You can make a strong competitive deck for like 20 bucks, and the creative process is just as fun as playing the game, if not more fun. With Commander, I make my decks to tell a story or base on a theme, like the continent of Africa. Its not about what IS good, its what CAN be good.

Pretty recently, I built my first Modern deck. I built GW D&T because Vince inspired me. :)

I love this dude

The best teacher in all of Card-dom.

I actually built enchantress with almost 80% of the deck coming from MH2

I am planning to build mono green squirrel twin deck from SaffronOlive, I can barely control my excitement. Sadly I wanted to build rogue deck, because Thieves' Guild Enforcer is the best girl. But then I saw prices of Bitterblossom and Cavern of Souls... Let say I will keep rogues in mind for future plans.

I find it amusing that Modern has cards from Magics past going back 15 odd years, while Historic has cards going back 3 years... Words are funny.

thanks prof!

Hey Prof and staff! No idea if you'll read this, but with WotC pushing Commander as the Frontrunner format going forward, do you think we could ever see a change in the supplemental set printing rules that would allow cards from precon Commander decks at the very least being allowed in Modern? In this hypothetical situation, let's argue that it would be from the next Precon Deck releases going forward, rather than trying to backtrack all the other cards into the format. Is this something you could ever see happening?

Moxfield is a great resource for people who want to explore different decks. You can build up your own or select one other users have made and play test them in browser.

I figure I better watch this one now, because, I don't know when it might be deleted, like the last one I didn't get to watch before it was gone

"Fetch lands are the most expensive part of the deck" Me: *laughs in E tron*

I've been really enjoying cedh and kinda wanna get into modern so this was right on time

i love playing modern with only singel cards, a "commander" (you can use any creature, but that desides your coloridentity) and ofc against mostly 4 people. in short its minicommander. Its my second favorite format. give it a try. Its also a good midway cause you dont need 4 times a card but also if a strategie is just a bit too slow for commander, this opens the gate. in my case i also got players with different budget so the one with more money run often a ton of commander decks and use the rest for minicommander the other players have the option to build the minicommander and borrow a commander deck. win win :)

I saw you on TYSO. Am i first? did i win?? lol I really enjoyed the conversation with Rick. Stay passionate about anything and everything you do.

I'm a standard player and wish to get into modern. Thanks for the video.