Modern: Hardened Scales - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Scales is an old friend to Modern players. I remember its popularity, specially in 2019, when it was an option to the classic Affinity. Ever since then, it has been upgraded and adapted to the metagame.

Come with me to explore how these scales work!

Modern has always had its "wild" side, considering it had aggressive decks and also resilient decks. For instance, for many years, Affinity was an ultra-aggressive deck, and, even though it was a bit fragile, it was still an incredibly powerful deck.

We started seeing versions of this "green Affinity" with the card that names this deck, which has proved to us it is resilient and prepared for Modern. A small observation: I find the way people name lists fantastic, from the respectable Dump Truck and Canadian Threshold to many others that would fill an entire article of their own.

However, there's nothing more classic than naming a deck with its main card (or mechanic) - and this is where we'll delve deeper into today's article, which brings a guide to a deck that was named by the following card:

In a simple way, this deck abuses this card to multiply its +1/+1 counters, and brings great interactions with Modular, as the ever-present Arcbound Ravager.

I've heard Scales was a bad version of Affinity, but, if this was one day true, it no longer is now, not by a long shot. Nowadays, it is a solid deck, and some famous players have even conquered great results with similar lists.

Let's start our story with this 2019 list, straight from Mythic Championship IV Barcelona, piloted by Alvaro Torres.

Fortunately, for Scales opponents, like me, Mox Opal was booted out of this format not too long afterward, which almost brought Affinity to extinction and checkmated our Scales.

However, currently, if you go to a Modern event, there is a very high chance you'll find Scales on the other side of the table.

For this article, we'll use as our base a recent list that is ready to play any Modern event. This list is extremely updated, and came straight from DreamHack's $10k's RCQ:

Once again, we'll discuss MH2, which has brought a great weapon for the almost extinct Scales and Affinity, and let them see the light of day again, even brighter than before:

Because we work with artifacts, counters, and a low mana curve, Urza's Saga obviously brought Scales to a much stronger power level, and gave it everything it needs, be it strong creatures, artifacts, or more resilience.

Urza's Saga is a controversial card... On one side, it put artifact decks on another level. On the other side, I have a very different mindset: this card let artifact decks exist after the "rotation" our format experienced with MH2.

This Saga wasn't the only card that boosted decks like Scales: "Standard" sets also brought cards (and what great cards!) that brought even more quality for these decks, once again increasing the number of resources our archetype can access. I'm talking about these goodies:

Agatha's Soul Cauldron significantly improved our list and brought us several possibilities, but mostly: all our creatures will have Arcbound Ravager and Walking Ballista's abilities.

As for Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, it still isn't a unanimous decision, but it can be our sixth or fifth copy of Hardened Scales.

Let's take a look at our classic interactions a bit more:

The fact that they're similar isn't a coincidence. We really want to play Hardened Scales on turn 1 and play these creatures right afterward, already adding 2 counters. Our list will have many play lines like this.

Another important interaction is the Modular ability, which you can find in the cards below:

I want to highlight what this ability tells us: This permanent enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it. When it dies, you may put its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.

This means, when one of our Modular creatures dies, we'll "transfer" its counters, and, if we have a Hardened Scales, we'll transfer an extra counter.

This deck has many interactions, and your head is probably already full of counters, but I need to point out two other things.

First, we have this land, which can win us many games:

One of our win conditions is damaging our opponent with 10 Poison counters. Then, we'll have an artifact creature that Flies, is a land, and has Infect.

If we're being straightforward: we can "transfer" our counters to this creature with Arcbound Ravager's ability, which can also come from an Agatha's Soul Cauldron exiling Ravager, and go over our opponent's blockers to win the game.

Let's see more about our counters, and also take a look at our Ozoliths:

The Ozolith, besides coming to us from Urza's Saga in chapter 3, interacts with our Modulars and creatures that go to the graveyard. And, speaking of graveyards, keep in mind that, with Agatha's Soul Cauldron, we can exile an Arcbound Ravager from the graveyard and have several copies of it on the board!

As for Ozolith, the Shattered Spire; we can't bring it with Urza's Saga, but it has a relevant role as "another Scales!".

I know these are a lot of interactions, but these are only the most basic ones. Scales hides several other possibilities that would probably fill an article of their own.

Another thing I really like about this deck is how it can "steal games", that is, win games very fast if your opponent can't interact as fast and, particularly, efficiently enough.

I hope you're not tired of seeing artifacts, because we have even more of them. In our sideboard, we'll attack our opponent's weaknesses with them.

Resilient decks like Scales usually won't be stopped by target removals (at least not when they're piloted correctly), which reminds me of a simple tip if you need to stop your opponent's Scales: use global removals - that means, if we play with this deck, we must also prepare ourselves to face global removals.

Tamiyo's Safekeeping is our main weapon against removals, particularly global removals, such as Engineered Explosives. Keep in mind that we have Hexproof and Indestructible.

Soulless Jailer is a weapon against SCAM and Reanimator decks.

An important reminder: Soulless Jailer doesn't stop Living End.

Void Mirror is another weapon against the several Cascade decks in this format. It also works against Tron.

Chalice of the Void: Have we discussed Cascade yet? Well, keep in mind, we can't bring this card up with Urza's Saga. It can also be useful against Burn, but be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot with it!

Haywire Mite is our hate for hates, and comes through our Saga.

Soul-Guide Lantern is a graveyard hate that comes through our Saga and can be "recycled".

Dismember is in our sideboard because we interact very little with creatures, and this is an excellent option.

We'll probably add Gemstone Caverns quite frequently; usually when we win game one and need speed.

Pick Your Poison is useful both to be a hate for hates, and to deal with a massive Murktide Regent.

Nature's Claim, besides being another great hate option, also targets our cards to gain life.

UR Murktide

Something interesting about Scales is that, many times, we'll try to protect ourselves against hates, and this match showcases this well.

Your opponent will bring Engineered Explosives up, so we'll have to counter-attack with Tamiyo's Safekeeping, but without forgetting our Pithing Needle, which is already in our 60 initial cards.

We can struggle with their removals and counterspells in many ways, so I suggest you don't bring Gemstone Caverns up, even if you're drawing first.

In

Out

Temur Rhinos

We have different strategies if it is Rhino Temur or Domain.

Rhinos Temur brings the very dangerous Tishana's Tidebinder, which will potentially disable one of our threats.

Remember the Inkmoth Nexus plan; Rhinos can answer us in several ways, but it will hardly be able to block Flying creatures.

In

Out

If our opponent uses the Domain version, we'll bring up Pick Your Poison.

Boros Burn

This matchup is quite interesting. Our Shadowspear can guarantee us an almost automatic victory because it will bring us hates like Smash to Smithereens.

Let's attack our opponent with everything we have!

If you really enjoy Chalice of the Void, it is also an alternative, but I don't really think you need it.

Please remember to only bring up Gemstone Caverns when you're drawing first.

In

Out

BR Scam

First, we need to remember Blood Moon can cost us our game. It will move our Urza's Saga straight to the graveyard, so we have to consider that.

Red also has the best global removals for artifacts.

Keep in mind that Dauthi Voidwalker gets in the way of our Agatha's Soul Cauldron.

In

Out

Living End

Usually, in this matchup, we'll try to attack them as much as we can.

This combo clears our board while it combos. We need speed and assertiveness. We can't just spit out our hand and lose. It is a game of opportunity.

In

Out

Mono Green Tron

Tron has cruel weapons against us, like Oblivion Stone and Wurmcoil Engine.

Of course that, to play them, our opponent needs to be alive, remember?

So, we'll try to be faster than they are and lean on the few interactions Tron has. Don't forget to bring up Gemstone Caverns only when you're drawing first.

In

Out

W e UW Hammer

This matchup is quite interesting because we can't play too reactively and risk losing to our old acquaintance, Inkmoth Nexus with a "surprise" Hammer.

Our sideboard has several hates for this match. You can bring up Chalice of the Void if you're playing first.

In

Out

Amulet Titan

This is an incredibly fast combo, and gives us very few opportunities to interact, but these small windows exist.

Keep in mind that Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is an enchantment, and we can answer the land triggers Azusa, Lost but Seeking creates.

In

Out

Scales isn't only a consistent deck: it is a deck that rewards, quite heavily, its pilot's knowledge and skill.

Even then, I'd like to highlight there are many interactions that aren't clear for those who don't know replacement rules. So play it, read guides on it, and preferably watch someone else play it too. Really study it.

With this experience, your "trick" mastery and sequencing will certainly be more and more efficient each time you play. It is absolutely a strong option for Modern, even in these "Domain invasion" times we're living in. Please keep in mind Pick Your Poison deals with Leyline of the Guildpact really well.

MH2 brought several weapons for Scales. What will MH3 bring us?

See you next time!