Modern: 5 Decks to Start Playing in 2025!

With the visibility Modern gained during the RCQ season following the various controversies and bans that occurred in 2024, the format entered 2025 with a seemingly stable Metagame, where even the best decks have undergone some transformation with recent additions like Voice of Victory for Boros Energy or Quantum Riddler for Ephemerate lists.

The format, however, is a much more complex space than other competitive scenarios. The available card pool is broader, the number of possible interactions is double-digit compared to Standard, and the competitive Metagame has much more room for transformation and/or a wider diversity of viable archetypes.

In this article, we present five decks that stand out in Modern today and serve as excellent entry points into the format.

Boros Energy

You can't start wrong with the best deck. Boros Energy is a high-sinergy Aggro deck running several powerful cards from Modern Horizons 3 and recent sets to create a fast-paced strategy, but with enough added value and interactions to play well against almost any matchup in the current Metagame.

Its plan consists of having the interaction between Guide of Souls with Ocelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah to establish an aggressive clock and populate the board with creature tokens, which increase the amount of life and Energy we have each turn due to Guide of Souls' ETB, while also being fodder for Goblin Bombardment, which opens up lines of interaction with the opponent's board or ways to end the game faster without relying on combat.

The deck also features other varied threats: Seasoned Pyromancer and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker filter the hand while putting more pressure on the board; Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury doubles as early-game removal and a win condition that can even combo-kill with Guide of Souls and Arena of Glory if the opponent was already dealt enough damage, and Voice of Victory prevents the opponent from using spells on our turn while interacting with Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride due to its Mobilize ability.

Despite its aggressive game plan, Boros Energy is an easy deck to pilot and understand its interactions, but difficult to master and play to its full potential in every game, making it the ideal choice for those looking to start with the best deck while also offering a broad learning curve.

Belcher

Belcher is a combo deck that also grew in Modern from MH3 onwards due to the double-faced lands that enter untapped. Its core strategy involves the card Goblin Charbelcher, whose activated ability reveals cards from the top of the library until it reveals a land—since none of the cards on the front face are lands, Charbelcher will reveal the entire deck for 40 or more damage to the opponent.

To find the key card and secure the early game, we have Thundertrap Trainer and Fallaji Archaeologist, which also interact with Flare of Denial to turn it into a free spell, while Whir of Invention operates as 5-8 copies of Goblin Charbelcher.

The number of blue spells also allows Disrupting Shoal to be used as stack interaction and protection, increasing the pool of free spells we have for the combo turn. Not to mention the synergy between Tameshi, Reality Architect and Lotus Bloom, which, in addition to generating a considerable amount of mana, allow you to return lands to your hand to, for example, cast Sink Into Stupor, Suppression Ray, or Sea Gate Restoration.

Izzet Affinity

A strategy as classic as the format itself, Affinity has gained new tools in the last two years, in addition to being one of the archetypes that most benefited from the Mox Opal unban.

While still an aggressive deck with a fast clock, its current version forgoes cards like Arcbound Ravager in favor of casting Kappa Cannoneer as quickly as possible through the interaction between the new Pinnacle Emissary and zero-mana artifacts, which can be tapped to "pay" the creature's cost and increase its power once it's in play. In addition, Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor ensure we can keep our gas running for longer.

As is typical of all artifact-based archetypes in Modern, Affinity also leverages Urza's Saga as an alternative winline and as a tutor for cards like Shadowspear, Welding Jar, and Tormod's Crypt.

Izzet Prowess

Izzet Prowess is the closest thing to a "Red Aggro" deck in Modern. It combines cheap creatures that interact with noncreature spells with Cori-Steel Cutter and some of the best options available in Magic's history: Lightning Bolt, Expressive Iteration, which was banned from Pioneer and Legacy, as well as Preordain to filter the top deck, and the duo Mishra's Bauble and Mutagenic Growth as free spells.

The advantage of Izzet Prowess compared to other Aggro is the combination of a considerably explosive clock with the individual quality of cards that offer permanent power. Cori-Steel Cutter revitalized the archetype and ensured a much more consistent win line against traditional removals, while Dragon's Rage Channeler, in addition to its aggressive body, also guarantees top deck filtering to remove useless cards and improve draw quality. On the other spectrum, Slickshot Show-Off is capable of winning games as early as the third turn.

Eldrazi Tron

Historically considered the best topdeck in the format, Tron has undergone many changes over the years and gained different variants, with the most popular among them today being Eldrazi Tron, which focuses on the interpalanal monstrosities and their interaction with Eldrazi Temple. Additionally, some of the new Eldrazi creatures expand the consistency of Ugin's Labyrinth, totaling eight lands that can generate .

The plan still involves stacking the lands Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Power Plant to quickly access a lot of colorless mana, but unlike the classic variants, our early game can involve cards like Talisman of Resilience and Talisman of Curiosity to cast Sowing Mycospawn, Thought-Knot Seer, or Karn, the Great Creator early.

Karn remains as important here as in the traditional variants, as it offers a toolbox with several artifacts in the sideboard for specific situations. The top of the curve includes the new Ugin, Eye of the Storms that interacts perfectly with all the colorless spells we have, as well as Kozilek's Command as top filtering and flexible removal, and All is Dust as a sweeper.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!