Modern: Spanky kc's Restore Balance

A cool deck from these DE results:

This works a bit like the Living End deck -- the ideal plan is to suspend a Greater Gargadon, use a cascade spell to get Restore Balance, and then sacrifice all your permanents before it resolves. (The cycling creatures, which get reanimated in the Living End deck, are only here as "draw a card" spells that you can't cascade into.)

You could play this instead of Living End if you think destroying all the lands is better than getting a bunch of 3/4s, but you need to be luckier with this deck and draw one of 4 Greater Gargadons for the plan to work. This looks like a budget deck and weak to Remand, so we'll see if it keeps winning.

Nice Play: Hetrick casts turn-two Snapcaster

I think it's widely known that turn-two Snapcaster should be played more often, but I don't think many people know when to do it. Here's when to do it.

"Yeah, I think I'm on the Snap plan."

M1G2 of these videos, stuck on two lands, Michael Hetrick plays his 2/1 flash creature on his Scapeshift opponent's EOT. It's a chance to rule the board against a nearly-creatureless deck, and it's a potential third land via Path to Exile. Good play.


In M3G2, Hetrick makes another nice play by waiting to use Tectonic Edge on his opponent's upkeep.

The opponent was playing the "Sharfman version" of Scapeshift, with Peer Through Depths and no Primeval Titans. On Hetrick's turn, he played a Tectonic Edge and considered the opponent's open mana.

"I'm sure he has, like, Peer Through Depths, so it's not entirely an extra tun [gained by land destruction]. I think it's worth it.

"We're gonna pass, though, and do it on his upkeep, depending on if he Peers."

[Pass turn. Opponent plays nothing. Opponent's upkeep, use Tectonic Edge.]

"He didn't Peer. I just wanted him to not know if we were gonna do it, if he did cast the Peer."

Modern: Composition of Melira Pod

Using decks from the last two Modern GPs, this pre-Kansas PE, and a random LSV 4-0 list, here's a grid comparing recent Melira Pod maindecks:

Breakdown of a normal Melira deck:

• 23 lands (3 Gavony Township, 8 fetch, 8 dual, and 4 basic)
• 8 mana creatures (4 Birds of Paradise, 3 Deathrite Shaman, 1 Wall of Roots)
• 7 creature tutors (4 Birthing Pod, 3 Chord of Calling)
• 6 persisty creatures (2 Voice of Resurgence, 4 Kitchen Finks)
• 10 combo creatures (1 Viscera Seer, 2 Melira, 1 Cartel Aristocrat, 1 Witness, 1 Metamorph, 2 Redcap, 1 Ranger of Eos, 1 Reveillark)
• 3 disrupty creatures (1 Qasali Pridemage, 1 Spellskite, 1 Orzhov Pontiff)
• 2 disruption spells (Abrupt Decay or Thoughtseize)

This totals 59 / 60 slots that are quite consistent in all the Melira Pod decks listed.

Distinctions of certain Melira Pod lists:
- Dan Macdonald's list predates the "Pardee template," missing Voice of Resurgence among other stuff.
- The 60th card in Sam Pardee's list is the 2nd Viscera Seer. Pardee has Abrupt Decay instead of Thoughtseize main.
- Pyromaniac4290 played Pardee's 60 cards from GP Portland.
- LSV's version played the 4th Deathrite Shaman over the Wall of Roots, 3rd and 4th Voice of Resurgence over Spellskite and Qasali Pridemage. He played Thoughtseize instead of Abrupt Decay. His 60th card was a Varolz.
- VFS played 2 Abrupt Decay and 2 Thoughtseize, cutting a Deathrite Shaman. He also ran the 2nd Viscera Seer over the Cartel Aristocrat and an Entomber Exarch over the Ranger of Eos.

Distinctions of Manfield's list:

- Dual land over the 3rd Gavony Township.

- Abrupt Decay instead of Thoughtseize.

- 60th card was the 3rd Voice of Resurgence.

Melira Pod decks are all pretty similar right now.

Breakdown of Ari Lax's Kiki Pod deck:

• 23 lands (2 Township, 7 fetch, 12 duals, 2 basic)
• 9 mana creatures (4 Birds of Paradise, 4 Noble Hierarch, 1 Wall of Roots)
• 6 creature machines (4 Pod, 2 Domri Rade)
• 9 combat creatures (2 Voice of Resurgence, 1 Tarmogoyf, 3 Kitchen Finks, 3 Restoration Angel)
• 8 combo creatures (1 Phantasmal Image, 1 Fauna Shaman, 2 Deceiver Exarch, 1 Redcap, 2 Kiki-Jiki, 1 Zealous Conscripts)
• 5 disrupty creatures (1 Spellskite, 1 Qasali Pridemage, 1 Izzet Staticaster, 1 Linvala, 1 Glen Elendra Archmage)

This is the same template but basically all different spells, beyond the Bird-Finks-Pod shell. Two big differences: Noble Hierarch instead of Deathrite Shaman, Restoration Angel instead of Chord of Calling.

Modern: Medvedev's GW Maverick

Medvedev made the finals of a Modern PE yesterday playing 4 Leonin Arbiter and 4 Mirran Crusader:

This deck has 33 mana sources (25 lands, 4 Birds, 4 Hierarch), including a full 8 faux-Wastelands (Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge). It lost to a Huntmaster Jund deck in the final, but it beat a Scapeshift deck and a creatureless Smallpox / Seismic Assault deck in top 8.