
Deck tech
Top 10 2021 Cards for Modern
In today's article, I present and evaluate the ten most important cards (or cards cycle) from 2021's released sets for Modern.
By Humberto, 22/12/21, translated by Humberto - 0 comments
Versions:
Modern
!Modern in 2021
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Cascade
, which combination that could Tibalt as soon as turn 2 took over the format. In February, Modern had its only banned and restricted announcement of the year, where in addition to a rules change related to Cascade and the cost of revealed spells, Field of the Dead, Mystic Sanctuary, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Tibalt's Trickery and Simian Spirit Guide have been banned. Strixhaven brought to the format one of the best card selection effects ever released in recent times in the form of Expressive Iteration, in addition to the inclusion of other cards that occasionally appear in lists, such as Prismari Command, while Adventures in the Forgotten Realms brought some additions that became relevant later on, such as Ingenious Smith. However, it's impossible not to mention that Modern Horizons II has almost entirely changed the format's competitive landscape, with so many powerful additions and inclusions that pretty much define every contemporary Metagame of the format, with a vast majority of the format's major decks essentially โrotatingโ Modern. Unlike the first Modern Horizons, I believe that MH2 achieved enormous success in its goal of making multiple archetypes emerge, or multiple archetypes needing to adopt cards from the set, but without necessarily breaking the format in any way. So far, we haven't had any catastrophic scenarios in Modern involving a Modern Horizons II card or deck; we didn't have any Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis so far (and they tried many bold mechanics in the set). The problem this has created for the format, however, is the financial factor: The prices of Modern Horizons II cards keep soaring due to the high-demand and low availability of the product these days, as with its predecessor's cards, and today we see cards like Solitude and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer coming in at staggering prices, while cards like Dragon's Rage Channeler and Prismatic Ending are priced relatively high for recently released uncommons. This leaves the Modern community facing two issues, the first being that if you play Modern, you need to upgrade to Modern Horizons II, regardless of your deck... it has become absolutely voided by better archetypes that include new cards: You no longer see a Jund with Bloodbraid Elf, you see Jund with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Lurrus of the Dream-Den. It does not mean, essentially, that your deck has become unplayable, Modern is still a very diversified format and with hundreds of viable strategies, but the non-inclusion of premier set cards like MH2 brings consequences when it comes to optimizing your list, which brings us to the second problem: Prices. Magic as a whole has become more expensive over the past two years, and prices to upgrade a Modern deck have gotten significantly higher (for example, a Ragavan playset makes me disregard the possibility of building my Death's Shadow deck again), and if so, it's already complicated for a player who is familiar with the format, it's even worse for those who want to enter it, as the monetary barrier has become even higher and there are no longer so many options for competitive decks for a very affordable price (currently, the cheapest competitive deck, Burn, is in the $500 range), making the format have trouble growing its player base in local communities.Ad
The Ten most impactful 2021 cards for Modern
10 โ Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor

really
impacted Modern, to the point where Wizards had to nerf the interactions between double-faced cards and Cascade. Essentially, it was possible to cast Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor with any Cascade spell in the first few turns of the game, such as Ardent Plea or Violent Outburst, and practically win the game from this point on, as Tibalt offered removal and card advantage while accumulating both your resources and the opponent's resources, making it impossible for any opponent who was playing โfairโ to win the game. Because of this interaction, Cascade started to consider, for double-faced cards, the mana valueof each side of the card individually
, making it impossible for cards like Ardent Plea to cast spells with a value of greater than 3 mana on double-faced cards, and because it was essentially the reason for this rule change, Valki, God of Lies deserves its spot on this list.9 โ Counterspell

8 โ Shardless Agent

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7 โ Expressive Iteration

6 โ The Elemental Cycle

5 โ Prismatic Ending

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4 โ Unholy Heat

3 โ Dragon's Rage Channeler

2 โ Urzaโs Saga

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1 โ Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Conclusion
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