Modern is one of the most fun formats to play in Magic: the Gathering, and has historically been many people’s favorite formats. It’s meta game is pretty diverse and where many decks can do well in a tournament and be fun to play. At the same time, there’s plenty of strong, annoying strategies that you can play against. With the addition of Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2, it feels like those annoying strategies have become the norm. So let’s begin our countdown of the top 10 most annoying Modern decks to play against.
10. UW Control
Control can often feel like a slog when you’re playing against it. It often feels like you have to get lucky that they don’t have a counter spell, or a removal spell or a powerful planeswalker like Teferi, Time Raveler. Either way, Control in Modern has come a long way and their suite of spells is so efficient that if can often feel like you’re running into a stone wall. It definitely is possible to get through if your deck is fast enough, and sometimes, they just don’t have it.
9. Burn
Burn is one of the fastest decks in the format. It has a bunch of 3 damage spells like
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target.
and Lava Spike that can be pointed at the face. It follows that up with some hasty creatures like Goblin Guide and
Monastery Swiftspear
Monastery Swiftspear
Haste
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
that help keep the pressure on. This deck is annoying due to you feeling always under the gun. If you can hold out long enough though, you can definitely beat this deck.
8. BW Stoneblade
One of the new decks that came up from Modern Horizons 2 is BW Stoneblade. This deck can get off to a fast start with
Grief
Grief
Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand.
and Ephemerate[/tootlips] and can absolutely rip your hand a part. It follows that up with a [tooltips]Stoneforge Mystic and finds a way to cheat in Kaldra Compleat, which is just hard to deal with. The feeling of having a good hand and then getting it ripped a part unceremoniously makes this really annoying.
7. Scapeshift
Scapeshift is up next. It’s a control and combo deck. It aims to keep the board clear with a host of removal spells, all while ramping up to enough mana to kill you in one shot with
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
This land enters tapped.
Whenever a Mountain you control enters, if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have this land deal 3 damage to any target.
{T}: Add {R}.
. This deck is super annoying because it has control elements but the explosive inevitability puts a ton of pressure on you to try and win the game quickly.
6. Tron
Ton is a deck that has stood the test of time throughout Modern’s history. At times it has fallen in strength of the meta, but it’s always around. This deck’s annoyance comes in that it can power out cards like
Karn Liberated
Karn Liberated
+4: Target player exiles a card from their hand.
−3: Exile target permanent.
−14: Restart the game, leaving in exile all non-Aura permanent cards exiled with Karn. Then put those cards onto the battlefield under your control.
or
Wurmcoil Engine
Wurmcoil Engine
Deathtouch, lifelink
When this creature dies, create a 3/3 colorless Phyrexian Wurm artifact creature token with deathtouch and a 3/3 colorless Phyrexian Wurm artifact creature token with lifelink.
as early as turn 3. It just goes faster than a lot of decks, and you often dread seeing an Urza’s Tower across the table.
6. Mill
Mill is often one of the most hated decks in existence. The feeling of having your entire library thrown into your graveyard with cheap creatures and spells. If you’ve ever played against this deck, it’s one of the worst feelings in Magic.
5. Living End
Living End is a deck that has been around for a while, and looks to cascade into it’s namesake card,
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.
after cycling a bunch of creatures to the graveyard. With this deck, it’s a race against the clock to try and win because if they get their Living end off, it’s nearly impossible to come back.
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4. 4 Color Elementals
4 Color Elementals is a deck that came up from the release of Modern Horizons 2 with the evoke elementals. This deck takes elements (ha) of Scapeshift and BW Stoneblade and shoves them together, abusing cards like Omnath, Locus of Creation,
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.
, and
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
. This deck really uses Risen Reef as it’s value engine and you feel that you’re behind a lot of the time playing against this deck.
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3. Crash-Cading Footfalls
Similar to Living End, Crash-Cading Footfalls is a deck that wants to cascade into Crashing Footfalls with cards like
Shardless Agent
Shardless Agent
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
and Violent Outburst While playing a control game to put you behind. They can get out to explosive starts that make the game feel hopeless.
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2. Izzet Tempo
Izzet Tempo is one of the strongest decks in the format right now. It plays some really strong and annoying creatures like
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Whenever Ragavan deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card.
Dash {1}{R} (You may cast this spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste, and it's returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.)
and
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
Delirium — As long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, this creature gets +2/+2, has flying, and attacks each combat if able.
, and pairs them with a powerful suite of removal and counter magic. They help close out the game with
Murktide Regent
Murktide Regent
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Flying
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each instant and sorcery card exiled with it.
Whenever an instant or sorcery card leaves your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
which can very easily dodge a lot of the removal in the format, making a pain to deal with.
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1. Hammer Time
Our Number 1 choice for most annoying deck to play against in Modern goes to Hammer Time. This deck looks to abuse
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
to find and cheat into play a
Colossus Hammer
Colossus Hammer
Equipped creature gets +10/+10 and loses flying.
Equip {8} ({8}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
. Then with the help of Sigarda’s Aid, and
Puresteel Paladin
Puresteel Paladin
Whenever an Equipment you control enters, you may draw a card.
Metalcraft — Equipment you control have equip {0} as long as you control three or more artifacts.
to reduce the high equip cost to zero. The deck is annoying because it’s fast and can kill you out of nowhere.
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These are our picks, but what are your thoughts? What deck to you absolutely hate to play against in Modern? Let us know in the comments