There are two things that Red has been very good at since the dawning of MTG, direct damage and destroying artifacts. Smash to Smithereens does both of those things wrapped up in one pretty little package. While it is somewhat fringy as it does requires your opponent to be playing Artifacts it has been a very strong sideboard card in the past. There are many good options to fill this spot in the side, but if your plan is to blast them down to zero life ASAP then this might just be your choice. I’m doubtful that we will see a reprinting of it in a Standard legal set, so you’re probably looking at this in Modern against Affinity decks.
The art while not very involved has a flavourful tie-in with the current block depicting Zada and contains a pretty apt quote. Darek Zabrocki did a very nice piece here staying pretty true to Rallis’ original imagery of Zada. And who knows, maybe this is just the tip of the iceberg of Modern playable FNM promos coming for the new year. Good luck getting your hands on some !!!
EJSeltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
ejseltzer@hotmail.com
By Samuel Carrier
As a breath of fresh spring air, modern master 2015 has arrived! I couldn’t wait so long after a great drafting experience with the first set, Modern Masters. An awesome set including great cards and value at the same time! Since the spoiler was available a week before I had a look at articles and archetypes available in the 249 cards Wizards got up for us! So as soon as the set was available and playable at my LGS (local gaming store) I would look forward enjoying a well balanced set and have fun with the new archetypes.
This archetype goal is to put counters when our creatures comes into play to gain advantage with abilities requiring to have counters on your creatures to be targeted.
Aquastrand Spider: a 2/2 bear that gives reach! sign me up!
Cytoplast Root-Kin: a 4/4 for 4 mana that give another +1/+1 counter to those who already have on except himself. Also, the fact you can graft multiple times on bigger creatures is nuts.
Helium Squirter:even if its a 3/3 for 5 mana but the fact it gives flying to another creature can be useful.
Plaxcaster frogling: a 3/3 for 3 mana graft that
and…
as many Thrummingbird as possible… because don’t forget Sphere of the suns, your graft creatures and Tumble Magnet (great to tap creatures) can be proliferated!
Your goal is to dump as many Artifacts onto the battlefield to gain advantage by having three Artifacts or more to activate metalcraft and to reduce the cost of your spells as well.
You have living weapons such as; Flayer husk and Sickleslicer
You do have tons of equipment to be more effective and plenty of good little guys.
Here are the core cards you will look to get:
Etched champion: Quick beater and hard to manage if your enemy is low on artifacts.
Indomitable archangel: A 4/4 flyer for 4 mana that protects all your artifact. So good!
Blinding souleater: A phyrexian tap creature that’s a 1/3 for 3 mana.
Cranial Plating: No explanations needed for this card, it’s a stapple of Modern Affinity deck.
Your goal is to burn and agressively attack your opponent with bloodthirsted guys and cost effictive guys.
Here are the core cards you will look to get:
Ashenmoor Gouger: A big 4/4 for 3 mana that cant block.
Stormblood Berserker: A 1/1 bloodthirst 2 for 2 mana with evasion.
Vampire outcast: A 2/2 bloodthirst 2 lifelink for 4 mana
Your goal is to cast multiple spells that does 1/1 tokens and boost them to kill your opponent:
Here are the core cards you will look to get:
Scatter the seeds: A 5 mana convoke spell that does 3 tokens.
Scion of the wild: aA 3 mana power and toughness of numbers of creatures you ontrol. (I made him 7/7 or 8/8 sometimes)
Kavu primarch: a 3/3 for 4 mana that can be kicked to be 7/7 and can be paid convoke!
And the MVP here
Overwhelm: a +3/+3 all your guys instant and convoke. Really great to finish off.
This archetype use the soulshift ability for redundancy of spells and creature. They also have good comes into play abilities.
Here are the core cards you will look to get;
Thief of Hope; a 2/2 for 3 mana soulshift 2 that if you play a spirit or arcane drain 1 life.
Nameless inversion: A 2 mana +3/-3 removal as an instant that can be recurred with soulshift and can be used as a kill condition later if you play big thoughness guys.
Hikari, Twilight Guardian: A 4/4 flyer for 5 mana that can blink until end of turn when you play a spirit or arcane.
Grixis (U/R/B) good ol’times by Samuel Carrier
I went 2-0-1 with the deck.
So my deck goal was to gain time to drop big bombs and win. Having 3 bounce lands and Evolving Wilds plus 2 Sphere of the suns and Expedition Map made the mana base smooth and perfect to run so many multiple colorful costs( i.e. Gorehorn minotaurs, Vampire outcasts, Cryptic command, Niv Mizzet, etc) This deck also shows that even if you want to follow an archetype, you still need to check for signals. Sphere and Expedition maps are 3rd to 6th pick easily as it stabilize color splashing for removals or bombs if necessary.
Also, having 2 fireslingers and 2 two-drops with burst lightning made the bloodthirst trigger easily. Given I had big cheap guys, I had a race versus Eldrazi decks. The Graft archetype was the hardest one I faced as I had to draw with my opponent for lack of time game 3 on my second match.
After I attended two sealed events, I can tell that Green Red is really the best duo as they’re so many mana accelations in the format to ramp to eldrazis sometimes plus the best cheap burns as Lightning bolt and Burst lightning. They can also run boardsweeper as Savage twister or Wildfire. Affinity metalcraft has to be really really strong to win in the format.
Most of the time, you will use a few artifacts to fill in except in the case of an extremely good Affinity picks. Given of that, Smash to smithereens is a good card to play to create advantage. I wish I could’ve attended GP Las Vegas or GP Utrecht as they both are amazing events to attend to. I wish the best to all of you readers and you can be sure I will be at the next Modern masters GP!!
See you around,
By Samuel Carrier
Wizard announced it’s next installment of Modern Masters 2015 to be released May 22, 2015. The set will take players back to some of the more remarkable Magic the Gathering planes such as Zendikar, Mirrodin, Ravnica, Lorwyn, Kamigawa and Alara. A number of the cards will have new artwork and every card will be legal in Modern format. The set promises players a new draft experience by playing some of Magic’s most iconic cards just like the first MM.
Every box of Modern Masters 2015 Edition contains 24 booster packs [each with 15 randomly inserted game cards, including one premium card in every pack] making it perfect for exciting draft play.
Modern Masters 2015 Edition will be releasing on Magic Online May 29. The digital MSRP will be $6.99. It will not be available for redemption.
