Nostalgic MTG Archetype Shines Again in Hostile Environment!

Since Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons Two were released, most Modern decks have utilized multiple powerhouses from these sets. Cards like Wrenn and Six Wrenn and Six +1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
−1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.
−7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace." (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.) and Fury Fury Double strike
When this creature enters, it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers.
Evoke—Exile a red card from your hand. changed the landscape of Modern as power creep pushed some archetypes aside. Decks like Infect and Humans fell by the wayside, paving the way for decks like Hammer Time to take their place. As it turns out, Humans as an archetype may not be dead after all.

This past weekend, a deck centered around the Human Creature type placed 10th in a Magic Online Modern Challenge, and the deck appears to have some unique card choices to help fight the current metagame. The decklist clearly is designed to respect a lot of combo decks out there like Living End Living End Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. . By combining some newer cards with the nostalgic Humans theme, this deck may be a dark horse in the format.

The Old

It should come as no surprise that the Humans deck is built almost entirely around Creatures. In fact, the only non-Creature spells in the maindeck are four copies of Aether Vial. For anyone who has played with the card, Aether Vial is a fantastic turn one play for decks with lots of cheap Creatures. Being able to put Creatures into play for free at Instant speed makes it difficult for your opponent to know what’s coming and what to play around.

In the one-drop Creature slot, the deck still makes good use of Noble Hierarch Noble Hierarch Exalted (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
{T}: Add {G}, {W}, or {U}. and Champion of the Parish Champion of the Parish Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. . Noble Hierarch especially helps the deck double-spell with hands that don’t contain Aether Vial. To help keep the deck’s starts relatively aggressive, this list runs four copies of Thalia’s Lieutenant Thalia’s Lieutenant When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Human you control.
Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. to grow the squad, and four copies of Reflector Mage Reflector Mage When this creature enters, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner's hand. That creature's owner can't cast spells with the same name as that creature until your next turn. to keep the opponent on the backfoot.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the deck is that there are only two copies of Mantis Rider Mantis Rider Flying, vigilance, haste and one copy of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Thalia, Guardian of Thraben First strike
Noncreature spells cost {1} more to cast. , which used to be mainstays in the archetype. Instead, the deck runs some newer cards in these slots that seem like decent upgrades.

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The New

In addition to Thalia’s Lieutenant, the deck now gets to utilize Coppercoat Vanguard. Vanguard is great at keeping the aggression up, and as we will see later, the Ward one ability it grants to your other interactive Humans is a big deal. While it may seem weird that Mantis Rider is not a four-of in the deck, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar Adeline, Resplendent Cathar Vigilance
Adeline's power is equal to the number of creatures you control.
Whenever you attack, for each opponent, create a 1/1 white Human creature token that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. gives the card a good run for its money. The ability to go wide with Adeline while simultaneously pumping Champion of the Parish and Thalia’s Lieutenant with the tokens made by Adeline provides a relatively fast clock that’s harder to interact with.

While the deck did not gain as much from Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons Two as some other heavy hitters in the format, it does get to make great use of Esper Sentinel Esper Sentinel Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power. . Because this deck puts the opponent on the backfoot quickly, it’s quite easy to get at least one card out of Esper Sentinel, if not more. Part of what makes the Humans deck so scary is that, in addition to having a quick clock, the cards are surprisingly disruptive in a lot of matchups. Esper Sentinel further taxes your opponent’s mana, which can make it difficult for your opponent to kill your more important threats without letting you draw cards repeatedly.

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A Plethora of Interaction

While the Humans deck does have a decently fast clock, it’s difficult to beat cards like Fury without adjusting. Luckily, this deck has made a lot of adjustments to the current metagame, especially with regards to combo decks. For starters, this deck runs multiple copies of Lavinia, Azorius Renegade in the maindeck. Lavinia is not only excellent against the various Evoke Elementals from Modern Horizons Two, like Fury, but it also disrupts the Cascade combo decks like Living End Living End Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. and Glimpse of Tomorrow Glimpse of Tomorrow Suspend 3—{R}{R}
Shuffle all permanents you own into your library, then reveal that many cards from the top of your library. Put all non-Aura permanent cards revealed this way onto the battlefield, then do the same for Aura cards, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. .

In addition to Lavinia, this deck plays Annointed Peacekeeper and sideboard Meddling Mage Meddling Mage As this creature enters, choose a nonland card name.
Spells with the chosen name can't be cast. , each meant to prevent the opponent from executing their gameplan. To help against opposing board wipes, the deck runs another card from March of the Machine: The Aftermath besides Coppercoat Vanguard: Jirina, Dauntless General Jirina, Dauntless General When Jirina enters, exile target player's graveyard.
Sacrifice Jirina: Humans you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. . Jirina is a two-drop that helps protect your more important threats and disruptive elements from removal, and even exiles your opponent’s graveyard to boot. All these different disruptive elements really give the deck a lot of tools and options to fight in different metagames, and because of the deck’s five-color manabase, all of this Human-centric interaction is on the table.

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The Manabase

The most interesting aspect of this deck is certainly the fact that the deck is five-color. This is a big reason why the deck runs almost no non-Creature spells, as the manabase does not help cast them. Not only does the deck run Cavern of Souls as a great way to blank opposing Counterspells, including Chalice of the Void Chalice of the Void This artifact enters with X charge counters on it.
Whenever a player casts a spell with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this artifact, counter that spell. , but it also runs Secluded Courtyard Secluded Courtyard As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type or activate an ability of a creature source of the chosen type. and Unclaimed Territory Unclaimed Territory As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type. to help maximize the ability to cast Creatures of all colors. Beyond that, the deck runs a bunch of the Modern Horizons Lands that can be cashed in later for cards and a couple Basic Lands. Being able to cash in Lands for additional cards as an Aether Vial deck is huge, since Vial lets you operate on a low Land count.

Of course, running a five-color manabase does come with its drawbacks. If you can keep the board relatively clear by removing early threats from the Humans deck, slamming a Blood Moon Blood Moon Nonbasic lands are Mountains. can be very problematic. Even with a basic Plains on the field, many cards are simply not castable through a Blood Moon. This is likely the deck’s biggest weakness, alongside the fact that the deck is still a pile of Creatures that can be weak to mass removal.

Still, this deck is fast, interactive, and surprisingly resilient. The deck can still beat Blood Moon by either landing Aether Vial or simply getting an early board presence quickly. In fact, the deck runs a couple copies of Magus of the Moon too, with the intention of getting on the board and then landing Magus once the opponent is on the backfoot. This deck has a lot of tools to fight different types of decks, and if players aren’t prepared, they might get run over by a bunch of Humans.

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