Like A Steam Locomotive Rollin' Down The Track

Uro's gone, no other changes to Historic.

I mentioned in the last post that I'd have something for today, but now that it's happened I don't really know what to say other than what I already said. I think that simple, low to the ground aggro decks get a lot better, which is also going to make other basic strategies like Jund and UW Control a little better, too.

If this metagame shift is going to happen, then there are a few cards I'm interested in playing. First, I think I would want to keep playing Jegantha. Jegs is one of the weaker companions, but what it's good at is just being a big creature. It doesn't need to have any ability that you have to build around, we just want a 5/5, so it works great in this deck. Another is more copies of Esika's Chariot. It's a huge roadblock, hard to attack into, and makes the deck more wrath-proof. To that end, I also like Thragtusk a lot right now, if the format allows such a thing. Maybe Thragtusk takes over the Angrath slot in the sideboard. I've also been liking a 1-of copy of Eliminate in the main, so if you're interested in adding more Doom Blade effects, that's the one I'd likely go with in order to keep the curve of the deck down.

As for cards that I like less now, the obvious answer is Scavenging Ooze and Klothys. But, I mean, the whole point of those cards is that they're graveyard hate tacked onto an already solid card. Ooze is still one of the best cards against any aggro deck, and it's not like Rakdos Arcanist, Witch's Oven, or Emry decks are going away. In fact, if the metagame at large scales back their graveyard disruption in Uro's absence, those decks look a lot better. For now I still like 4 Ooze and one Klothys, but we can scale those back if we need to.

To touch on the rest of the announcement:

Haven't really played a lot of Pioneer, but it definitely looks a lot more appealing to me now. I think that a straight port of Historic Jund into Pioneer wouldn't be that far away from competetive, but there are some great upgrades for us there. Abrupt Decay and Kolaghan's Command probably deserve slots, Dreadbore is a solid replacement for Maelstrom Pulse, and possibly Grim Flayer could make an apperance. I also am a big fan of Courser of Kruphix and Tireless Tracker, with Tracker letting us still play with Jegantha if we want it. Hissing Quagmire would be great as well.

My understanding from watching stuff on Twitch and Youtube is that Modern these last couple weeks has been kind of a train wreck. That said, I'm a little disappointed that instead of banning Violent Outburst and Ardent Plea, they decided to nerf cascade, which means no more Bloodbraid into Valki dreams for us Jund players. Anyways, Uro's gone now too, along with Field of the Dead and Mystic Sanctuary nonsense. Jund's good again!

As for Legacy, they banned Astrolabe, so that's cool. But, they also banned Oko and not Uro, which I don't really understand. They both just say "1UG: Do a bunch of garbage." Any control/midrange deck still needs to play green and blue. It sucks that they hit the one that has situational utility but can be answered nicely with Abrupt Decay and left the one that gives you tons of value unconditionally, can't really be countered or Thoughtseized, but loses to Wasteland. I'm definitely biased but it seems to me like a format where Abrupt Decay is good is a better format than one where Abrupt Decay is unplayable.

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Anyways, that's about that. I'm planning on finishing up the Jailhouse Keys series with a Lands post when I get a minute. I thought about writing one for sideboard cards, but honestly, it's not that hard. Discard, removal, and graveyard hate. I'm also going to be doing some Youtube and Twitch some more the next couple weeks, so I hope to see you there. Thanks for reading.