Weekly Deck Tech: Modern Gruul Lukka

Greetings.

We are back with another Weekly Deck Tech, where we dissect a list that has caught some attention in Challenges or other competitive tournaments this week!

On today's article, we'll go back to Modern, where the player Mogged placed first at a Modern Challenge with a new version of Ponza, a very well-known deck of Modern , but running a famous wincondition from Standard and Pioneer: Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast!

Ponza is a Midrange deck that seeks to delay the opponent's plan by attacking their manabase with cards like Blood Moon and Pillage, making the opponent scarce of resources while it manages to advance their game plan with low-cost threats like Bonecrusher Giant, Bloodbraid Elf and Klothys, God of Destiny.

The deck usually chooses to run Karn, the Great Creator as access to an artifact toolbox sideboard to take the game.

In particular, Liquimetal Coating stands out, which together with the Planeswalker, can transform any land into a 0/0 artifact, creating a “lock” on the opponent's mana sources.

However, Mogged chose to take another stance with the deck, leaving aside part of its disruptive element to create other types of interactions using a card that did some damage in Standard during the launch of Ikoria: Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast.

As exemplified by the Temur Lukka deck on Standard, you don't necessarily need to be using broken engines like Fires of Invention for the Planeswalker to be useful: you just need to have a very absurd creature to put on the board at a low cost.

In Standard, Temur Lukka seeks to maintain the Temur Adventures base and pull Koma, Cosmos Serpent with Lukka.

In Modern, there are more absurd things:

Everyone who has seen Emrakul on the other side of the board knows the absurd problem that the card is when played at a low cost. There are plenty of decks in Modern and Legacy that exist just to play the Eldrazi titan for the lowest possible cost like Sneak & Show and Izzet Breach.

The great advantage of using Lukka instead of other possibilities is that you don't limit the slots dedicated to the combo so much. If you use creatures in your deck and try to keep a curve that allows you to play Emrakul with Lukka consistently. In the case of this deck, Mogged has a range of quality creatures on turn 3 that, if sacrificed with Lukka, will reveal Emrakul.

That way, the deck needs only one copy of the Eldrazi.

Without further ado, let's dissect the list and see exactly how it works:

The Combo.

We have already commented a lot on them above, and having the consistency of 4 Lukka is important, since the Planeswalker can, with any creature with mana value 3 in the deck (and there are many), bring Emrakul instantly to the board.

Also, using Lukka's +1 can be useful in certain occasions to "dig" the deck searching for creatures to use his second ability.

The Ramp Package.

Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl are already a well-known combination for creating extremely explosive turns, but both also serve, together with Birds of Paradise, to ramp threats and disruptions that cost 3 mana of the deck in turn 2, or even to cast Wood Elves, who would then ramp for 5 mana in the next turn (assuming you play all your land drops), which is enough to cast Lukka and get Emrakul on turn 3.

These cards are your main threats and winconditions that promote a fair game on matchups where you may experience difficulties in comboing since the deck has no cantrips or means of filtering the top.

Bonecrusher Giant doubles as removal for low toughness creatures in turn 2 while it is a considerable clock on an empty board, but it also holds the game well if necessary.

Seasoned Pyromancer offers an absurd amount of value for 3 mana by allowing you to filter your hand, place 2 tokens on the board and still be able to exile it from the graveyard in the late game to create more bodies.

In addition, Pyromancer also serves as a means of discarding Emrakul, the Aeons Torn from your hand in case you end up drawing it during the game.

Klothys, God of Destiny is a great maindeck graveyard hate that also offers a clock, lifegain and ramp when needed in the form of a body that is very difficult to deal with in Modern today.

Your disruption and interaction package.

Magus of the Moon may even be easier to deal with than Blood Moon, but being a cmc 3 creature is important for activating Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast. And in a format where the main Metagame decks right now are red-based or can play around this kind of hate, Blood Moon and the like become less impactful in more matches than you would really like, making Magus is a preferable option as it interacts well with the deck's plan.

And there comes in Pillage, which basically works as a cost 3 Land Destruction that can also remove problematic artifacts like Amulet of Vigor, Pithing Needle or other cards commonly tutored with Karn, the Great Creator.

Finally, we have Lightning Bolt, the best and most flexible red removal of the format that, together with the Bonecrusher Giant's Stomp, allows the deck to have good and inexpensive means of interacting with the opponent's threats while advancing its game plan.

The classic fetch + Shocklands package, primarily needed in a format like Modern.

As this is a deck that runs Utopia Sprawl and Magus of the Moon, it is preferable to keep the manabase clean, avoiding other dual lands and focusing on always having a forest on turn 1 to play your mana dorks, especially Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl.

With a deck that seeks, in most of your plays to jump from curve 1 to curve 3 and with the low possibility of wanting to use cards of cost 4 in this configuration since you give up Bloodbraid Elf and Karn , the Great Creator to the plan with Lukka and Emrakul, it makes sense that the deck should try to adopt the same idea of Mono-Red Aggro by trying to use Obosh, the Preypiercer as a Companion with virtually no cost or restrictions.

Since this is a Midrange deck, it is much easier to cast Obosh on it than on Mono-Red, and the possibility of simply doubling all the damage done by your creatures is a factor that must be respected.

Modern has a significant number of artifacts and enchantments that need to be answered on several occasions.

Cards like Amulet of Vigor, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Utopia Sprawl, among others. Reclamation Sage is your best option, as it interacts with both types of permanents you want to answer while including another body that can be used with Lukka to search for Emrakul.

Between Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista, Mishra’s Bauble and several Planeswalkers, Pithing Needle has more than enough targets to justify their use on the Sideboard.

Dredge is still a deck in Modern, and Lurrus of the Dream-Den is still the main Companion used in the format. Respecting these and other graveyard interactions in the format is a wise decision.

Extra protection that deals with any opponent's interaction on the turn you intend to make your most explosive plays is very relevant on a deck that has a combo-kill.

Veil of Summer has proven to be efficient in several formats for all types of decks: from Midranges to Combos, from Big Mana to Tempo Decks. And you should consider using copies of it if your deck has green on it.

Today, the main aggro decks of the format are Blitz decks, which are mostly red. But Chandra’s Defeat is also very useful in dealing with bigger red threats like Omnath, Locus of Creation, Wrenn and Six and Niv-Mizzet Reborn.

More removal for matchups with small creatures.

Burst Lightning has the advantage of being able to deal with larger creatures in the more advanced turns of the game, being a flexible removal to deal with Stormwing Entity and Omnath, for example.

Magma Spray is a great response against Lurrus of the Dream-Den while it manages to retain its value against smaller creatures in the early game.

That was Modern's Gruul Lukka, which Mogged piloted to reach first place in the Modern Challenge.

The list looks like a great alternative and brings an idea from Standard straight to Modern, where interactions, creatures and responses are more efficient. But the threats that can be played alongside Lukka are much more devastating.

I would not be surprised if we saw other variants of this deck in the future in other combinations or with other bases, but this list is a great starting point!

Thanks for reading!