So this week, time for a change of pace. As you likely know by now, Wizkids will rotate a ton of sets out of Modern on July 29, so instead of playing with old stuff, we decided to try out a…
New Modern Dress Rehearsal
The Team: Solid Foundation.
Format: 2022 Modern (minus SKC, SR Thor and SR Master Mold banned)
Yep, you read that right. We decided to build out of the only 2 Modern-legal sets remaining. And since one of our players has neither Thor or Master Mold, we decided not to use them. Which brings me to my team. It may look like a bit of a Hodge-podge, but there’s a method to my madness, I swear.
The first thing I put together for this team was its ramp engine. Beast needs no introduction: attack with him, Prep a die from your bag. Normally, if he’s unblocked, he goes to your Used Pile and clogs your bag up a bit. However, combine him with Angela, and things get interesting. Angela gives Infiltrate to every character I have, including Beast. So when Beast attacks, he Preps a die, and if he’s unblocked, I can bring him back to the Field. So I get a die out of my bag, without adding a die to my Used Pile. This is similar to the old Ricochet Infiltrate ramp engine we used to have, which is great to keep a lean bag and give you lots of dice.
Now, with Beast’s stats, he’s probably going to get KO’d by blockers a fair bit, so I threw in SR Mystique with Radicalization as my removal engine. Use Radicalization’s global on Mystique to make her an X-men, then field Beast, and trigger Mystique’s Teamwatch to spin an opposing character die to energy. So long as R Mister Sinister isn’t on the other side (because then my opponent can offset Mystique’s removal by getting sidekicks out of the Used Pile), it’s excellent removal.
Well, having ramp is all well and good, but what do I ramp to? With no Thor and no Master Mold, I decided to give Colossus a try. No, not that Colossus. The common, that was overshadowed by Becky for so long. He’s a solid Overcrush character with a nifty Energize ability. Plus, he’s an X-men, so he can trigger my Mystique shenanigans.
I figured I wanted some control to go along with this, especially since Angela provides some protection against force attack globals. I put in Typhoid Mary to blank opposing characters, and Jean Grey to punish global usage (and, as another X-men, to trigger Mystique). With the ramp in this team, I was not concerned with getting to the 4-5 energy needed for these two. Note: Jean Grey would’ve been especially relevant if I used Mystique against a team with R Mister Sinister.
Even though I already have solid ramp, I wanted to test out more tools for ramp and consistency. First, Dark Phoenix. Oh, you won’t KO my Beast so I can trigger Mystique? Fine, I’ll KO him myself. Plus, the discount is very helpful to purchase some of my bigger threats. I also threw in Wolverine for bag fixing in the early game, and Mutant Research Program because I wanted to make that work. Not to mention I already have 2 different founder characters in the team (Beast and Jean), so I figured I’d give it a shot.
And with all of that said, on to the games!
Game 1:
I started off going against a Brotherhood team using spin removal galore (SR Mystique, R Magneto, etc.) and UC Madelyne Prior + R Sabertooth as the win condition. I went for Beast and Angela to set up my Infiltrate ramp. My ramp was such that even when something was spun to energy, it was back soon. And I ended up with a very large field, whereas my opponent had a lean field after doing big purchases. I simply charged in with Infiltrate, and rushed to victory.
1-0
Game 2:
I then went up against a Brotherhood team using UC Magneto, R Sabertooth, UC Madelyne Prior, Living The Dream, etc. UC Mystique was there instead of the SR, which counters Infiltrate’s damage. This time, I avoided Angela and just went for Beast to ramp into Colossus (had 2 Colossus dice in this game – yes, that hurts), with Mystique and Typhoid purchased for control.
UC Mystique did a lot of work for my opponent, even without me using Infiltrate; her other ability allowed my opponent to Prep Magneto regularly. This slowed down the damage I could deal with Colossus, but didn’t fully stop it. Note: with the amount of Brotherhood characters that got KO’d, UC Madelyne Prior could’ve hurt, but by the time she was purchased, it was too late, and she never hit the field. Colossus continued to be a battering ram, my opponent was always on the back foot, and I eventually won.
2-0
Game 3:
My last opponent’s team is a bit hard to describe. Some Deadly, some Overcrush, and a few giant threats (Cable, Storm, Phoenix) to reach for. The reason it’s hard to gauge his strategy is that after I took some damage early (via an Overcrushing Gamora), he just couldn’t roll a character face the rest of the game. So Colossus, Beast and Angela had a field day and I quickly rushed in for the win.
3-0
Post-Mortem:
-Beast and Angela worked like peanut butter and jelly. Angela was definitely an all-star, turning every character, sidekicks included, into a damage engine. And R Beast just made for a quick, reliable ramp engine. Even his purchase tax (on the first die) hardly hurt thanks to Dark Phoenix.
-Don’t sleep on C Colossus. Now that we have less Overcrush options in Modern, he’s becoming more intriguing, and that Energize effect is no slouch with some of the nasty fielding costs we’re seeing.
-Mystique didn’t fire off as consistently as I would’ve hoped, but to be fair, the game never slowed down enough for her to truly be necessary.
-Mutant Research Program showed up exactly once and wasn’t a big difference maker. I could’ve passed on that one. Likewise, Wolverine, while handy, wasn’t that necessary when Beast and Angela were set up. I could’ve used something else there.
-I was, by far, the fastest team tonight due to the ramp engine I chose. That is a big reason why I won. I suspect it’ll get tougher as my locals figure out the pace and ramp of this new Modern.
So overall, this was a fun experiment, trying the new Modern with only two sets. We’re trying it again next week, and I’ll be going for some other dark horses that could be intriguing in this new meta. Which ones? Tune in next week to find out. But enough about me. What cards are you looking to revisit after rotation?
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