Top 10 Ixalan Cards for Modern

[@meatrace]

I seriously love your video illustrations, don't ever ever stop!

[@GoddessOfMysteries]

And another good video on this channel Great work Seth And please let Richard be a part of more Videos

[@Aronia55]

The flavortext on opt refers to a 'captain Storm'? They know what they're doing.

[@JR-xv6mv]

Legion's Landing in Soul Sisters.

[@JR-xv6mv]

... And we already had Hushwing Gryff, which doesnt see any play and is probably just a better card.

[@Volvary]

1 White, get a 1/1, get an additional (pretty strong) land as early as T3 that will win you the long game. I personally think this will be ran as 1-2 of in Martyr Procs deck.

[@dingding12321]

heyyy sister soooul sister gooo sister

[@Nr4747]

I'm a bit late to the party (1 week after Ixalan's release), but I think I can still add my top picks to the discussion since there isn't too much hindsight going on just yet: #1 is obviously Settle the Wreckage - this card will completely change how mana bases are constructed (and affect the strength of Blood Moon in the process). Many people are also overlooking 3 absolutely key factors here: Settle *exiles*, *does not target* (aka wrecks Bogles and Infect decks) and is a *one-sided* board wipe (which is huge for decks like Death and Taxes). #2 is Opt, the card in *incredible* in any blue deck that isn't a Combo deck (also really useful for Miracles, but probably no enough to make the a "real" deck), but is obviously especially fantastic in Control decks alongside Ancestral Vision. #3 is Unclaimed Territory - yes, it's "just another tribal color-fixer", but here's the rub: We're about to enter the territory where you can legitimate play a 4 or even 5 color tribal deck in Modern without worrying about your mana base ! That is *huge* ! #4 is Growing Rites of Itlimoc: While most likely only playable in Elves, having 1 or 2 copies in the main deck might be just what the doctor ordered to turn that deck into a legitimately feared contender. #5 is Legion's Landing, simply because every Soul Sisters deck will run at least 2 copies in the main deck from hear on out - and Soulsisters *is* a "real deck", as much as people love denying that. I could also see this card show up as a 1-of in Black/White tokens (although that deck could easily just stick to discard and removal for its 1 CMC slots).

[@leatherboots8048]

Entrancing Melody is better than Threads strictly because it's a sorcery instead of an aura that can be tampered with. It is a one of a kind in this regard which is why I can't wait to try it at least.

[@higgey12345]

Lots of the Company combos involve a sac outlet meaning they can just sack the honor guard and go off

[@Kurt_52]

I like the spyglass in Eldrazi Tron as you often play Chalice on 1 and the spyglass gives you less cards in your 75 that are hit by your own chalice.

[@Cangaroombi]

Seth for Opt you also should consider that you scry befor drawing the card, which is better than the opposite. I believe deck like Storm won't replace SV with Opt, since they don't really care the instant speed part; at best they will add Opt removing something else. Instead for more controlling lists this is great news. Leaving mana up for Mana Leak for example and having anyway the option to use the cantrip if you prefer is very important.

[@papaversomniferum5247]

Thank you for making these types of videos bro! I think I'm going to start a magic channel once I learn a bit more!

[@justinkp]

Good luck! I've thought of trying to do the same (for magic or possibly other things) but it is not easy, especially alone.

[@dingding12321]

Thumbnail is great! BTW: people forget that the legendary enchantments are RAMP. Literally ramp! How hard is it to swing with 3 things in white?

[@alexbianchi15]

search for azcanta is GREAT in limited. Scrying one every single round lets you get answers and filer through your deck to get past the filler cards.

[@EvilLuisito]

Chart A Course is the new Treasure Cruise and it will see play in Delver, Sultai tempo and Merfolk decks.

[@Brian-ey4xt]

Merfolk won't be playing Chart a Course.

[@conovan5081]

Not that it is a big factor in Kira vs Kopala but Kira stops ad nauseum, which is something I find very neat.

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

Bruno Busto Vaz de Sousa Kira only stops Ad Naus if you have a land in hand and they are going for the Lightning Storm.

[@GaaradancepartyX]

how does kira stop ad naus? it only stops your creatures from being targeted

[@conovan5081]

Given that they go for lightning storm, you discard a land to redirect it to one of your creatures, triggering Kira's ability, they can redirect it again all they want, before it resolves it will be countered.

[@GaaradancepartyX]

oh i didnt think of that

[@drewdouglas5970]

What about unclaimed territory for eldrazi? lets you cast a displacer or others and activate.

[@Thechickensofdoom]

Entrancing melody for the sideboard against Elves or something in case they somehow flip their Westvale Abbey? ;)

[@NPDGX]

Legion's Landing is a must in BW Tokens

[@kmb1800]

seeing search as an honorable mention is pretty crazy lol

[@owensullivan4969]

I opened a growing rites of itlimoc in my prerelease and I thought it was pretty sweet

[@Tyroniix]

Sword-Point Diplomacy is the card I think will see a ton of play in Rakdos burn decks. In a burn deck, they will let you draw 3 because they want you to pay for your lightning bolts instead of just taking 3 for each. Then it gives you card advantage so you don't run out of steam which is a huge problem. I see it as a draw two cards, opponent takes 3 damage for 3 (which is the worst value of the three, but is pretty good value. If you draw 3 for 3, thats good, if you draw 1 and your opponent takes 6 life for 3 mana, thats uber value. I'm interested to hear anyone else's thoughts on this one, because no one has talked about this card yet. Edit: It also gets around Leyline of Sanctity which is big deal for burn decks.

[@k98killer]

Tyroniix doesn't really get around leyline: the opponent will just let you draw your bolts.

[@Tyroniix]

+k98killer it does because that's 3 turns of dead cards and allows to dig for cards to get around leyline. They may take an answer out of the hand, but plenty of creatures helps which red has plenty of.

[@hellsingfan89]

Tyroniix sadly i feel this card never does what you want and is just a trap.

[@Tyroniix]

But I'm curious what is the worst option for me? I think the worst option of drawing 2 cards and opponent takes 3 is the worst option, which is still great. When would I ever want my opponent to not take 6 damage and draw a card? I just don't see downside anywhere on the card. I think everyone has this argument but the card could say lose 10 life per card and draw 4 cards, and people would still have that argument.

[@Zerothas]

Honor guard to coco into itself and hunted horror.

[@MTGGoldfish]

Ohh, I like it!

[@grabbity]

Guessing spyglass will lead to many blowouts vs decks like rg vengevine that run 9,000 fetchlands and 3 shocks.

[@bryantan4228]

Sorceror's Spyglass has one huge advantage over Pithing Needle: Fetch lands. Pithing Needle blind guessing a fetch is an excellent way to look like a complete idiot. Spyglass noting that they have a Polluted Delta in hand to proc Fatal Push rebolt is legit

[@zackestin1368]

I'm thinking rites could make a really good abzan list, black white tokens can now run a craterhoof to push spirit tokens and bitterblossoms to be absolutely game ending.

[@YuioEa]

Im scared of rampaging ferocidon. With my midrange decks, the only hope I have of winning in game 1 is my mainboard blessed alliances. Having that hope taken away will be soul crushing

[@anosmianAcrimony]

I feel like Entrancing Melody goes into Temur Ponza's SB. The deck makes plenty of mana and has trouble with resolved Shadows and Goyfs.

[@PalPlays]

Why play Blood Fast over Phyrexian Arena or Bob?

[@GuyFromCanada]

It's more of an alternative rather than a replacement, it's worse than Arena and Bob, but it's a bit more difficult to remove main board for both sides, and it provides a very nice late game advantage in the form of life gain.

[@subscriptionsjc650]

Please do against the odds field of ruin :D

[@nachos6815]

field of ruin perfect with archive trap?

[@heuchelhonig555]

I think we all know what we want: pyrohemia-dinosaur!

[@belcher8006]

Why no mention of chart a course?

[@honeyham6788]

the problem i have with field of ruin with leonin arbiter, is that now you are paying 5 mana for a free land destruction

[@jniosi6911]

FWIW, Siren Stormtamer counters Gifts Ungiven.

[@caustichyena5906]

19:59 Francis Ford Kopala's The Fishfather

[@anosmianAcrimony]

If you Skite an opponent's spell with Shapers' Sanctuary out, do you draw a card?

[@Guillhez]

Tocatli Honor Guard is another (cheaper) Hushwing Gryff for the Inverter of Truth/Hunted Horror/Dust Elemental deck

[@elizakleinman1332]

Well, new card for Favorable Winds, at least.

[@JonaxII]

No love for Chart a Course?

[@faceoctopus4571]

How Any chance Ixalan worse cavern will see play in eldrazi using only devoid creatures as their only 'colored' spells? They can have 12 that tap for any color, I could see them running devoid using Ixalan worse cavern and Corrupted Crossroads. Kumena's Speaker should have gotten an honorable mention.

[@PirateMaster45]

I thought you can't Snapcaster Mage an X spell? Someone told me you can't Anyway, I want to test Opt in my U/W Turns, but I don't know if I should take out Serum Vision for it

[@yoshikagekiller8044]

www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/magic-rulings-archives/296791-snapcaster-mage-and-x-spells

[@shawnwilson7355]

what about faith of blood HAND or skullcraker

[@dimitrismith9885]

Shaper's sanctuary seems like it fits too well in gw death and taxes.

[@xavisimon3095]

The most interesting aplication of spels like entrancing melody, can be steal big tokens for just UU, like Ormendahl, Profane Prince, or Marit Lage, biously sideboard card. ¿Whats the CMC of a walking balista on the board? 0 or the aount spend on it?

[@DualSwordBesken]

Xavi Simon On the board Walking Ballista's CMC is 0, but they could always just ping you if they risked losing their Ballista.

[@xavisimon3095]

True, you can onli steal stoni silenced ballistas XD But yes , in general is good to know you can steal ani other XX cost creatures like hangarback

[@rezneps]

Arcane adaptation + pack rat thoughts?

[@peewee130946]

Rezneps too hard to pull off just easier to discard cars to pack rat and play rats I play a pack rat control deck and there's no need to play it

[@justinkp]

Even if its not tournament viable its a cool idea. Sounds like a lot of fun in EDH.

[@rezneps]

Yeah or arcane adaptation + haakan, stormgald scourge lol.

[@justinkp]

I like that too - instead of or in addition to arcane adaptation you could also use conspiracy which is I think the exact same card just more mana and in black (good since both creatures you mention are black - I've been thinking of using it in a tribal rat (with some ogres and possibly demons - for some reason a number of ogres are actually rat lords and there are ogres that interact with demons and demons that interact with ogres) EDH deck to do silly things). Outside of EDH it could be useful to have 8 copies of the effect to make some really fun, janky deck. I've been meaning to look into cool things you can do with arcane adaptation/conspiracy but haven't gotten around to it - there must be a ton of fun things (ratcatcher could be good - every upkeep you can tutor up a rat, if all of your creatures are rats that could be pretty strong). There must be some absolutely ridiculous things you can do by making all your creatures 3 or 4 different types, ha.

[@PalPlays]

Why don't they reprint cards that are banned in Modern?

[@josaml791]

I just hope serum visions drops value $$$

[@bajexe]

Pretty poor showing for modern options. Aside from Opt I don't see any of the cards making it long term in the current top tier decks.

[@YuioEa]

I honestly dont think growing rites will increase the speed of elves. They'd rather just play elvish archdruid on turn 2-3 and win the next turn. If anything, I think growing rites would end up being a dead draw if they get wiped and need to reassemble

[@happysideoffear777]

elves will be broken when they can turn 2 coco t1 - mana dork t2 - dwyn elite, heritage druid, growing rites, end turn rites flips and you have 4 green mana for coco

[@kekleon-Gamer]

No new decks? What about Dinosaurs?

[@erickillough6476]

Number 8 counters felidar guardian combo

[@HNO3_68]

Skred Red might like Rampaging Ferocidon as a one of

[@anonofyesterday4650]

Geoff Black SkRed is a slower deck and Ferocidon accomplishes nothing there. You don't win with random 3 mana 3/3 in Skred unless it's the never-dying Eldrazi. Oh, and life gain isn't a problem for skred.

[@HNO3_68]

Filip Tryhuk sorry I should have said in the side. No we don't care about life gain, but our opponent does care about losing life. This would put significant pressure on elves, BW tokens or any other go wide strategy.

[@karfsma778]

3 toughness matters vs Jund. cause they run Tarfire instead of Bolt. But that's IT.

[@frederickremolana9768]

Kopala still affects uncounterable spells and abilities(even though I have yet to see one), while Kira doesn't. This can be significant when the opponent is playing Abrupt Decays and such. Not saying that this makes Kopala better, it just gives him another upside. Star of Extinction also works well with Stuffy Doll for a one-turn kill. 😁

[@Volvary]

12 Needles.dek? Needle, Spyglass, Meddling Mage.

[@UnendingMercy]

Call it NeedleMore and play Nevermore and 4x Peek 4x spyglass

[@Volvary]

Love it.

[@Nrdyco]

The Ikea's lands..

[@Junogray]

Opt, smaller instant speed preordain... I'm sure it'll see play

[@androkguz]

Seth: it's Arcane AdapTAtion not Arcane Adaption. I can't believe you are still saying it wrong

[@theoinkinator8566]

Its funny because unclaimed made 5c humans tier with the help of some other cards.

[@sirpancreasjr3362]

Richard's echo though.. Still a great video however

[@johnshea2679]

How the hell can you not remember hushwing gryph that's the better honor guard

[@matthewmccreight9854]

Opt is way better than visions.. instant speed is always Superior... And the snapcaster justification makes play feel incredibly smooth... I'm not a big fan of spyglass... 2 Mana is a lot for that effect... I don't see a reason to play it in decks that aren't using black anyway... (Which is what would justify paying 2 mana for the effect)... I love opt and I abused visions... Opt is better

[@matthewmccreight9854]

BROLLYKURISAKI 2 Mana is a huge difference... Do you know how the game works?

[@COZYTW]

>complains about honor guard being a torpor orb on a stick >praises ferocidon for being a leyline of punishment on a stick Lol

[@anonofyesterday4650]

COZYTW I see what you mean but the difference between 1/3 and 3/3 menace is like night and day. Not that I think either will see play but there have to be some weak sets.

[@anonofyesterday4650]

BROLLYKURISAKI Thanks for insulting me, that's always appreciated. For real though I think it was established long ago that "see play" means that it'll stick in one of the most powerful ("tier 1") deck. Also GJ on calling me netdecker as an insult. Not only I (generally) build/tune my decks but I'd even say that not taking meta info account when deckbuilding is just plain wrong.

[@zehawk1]

Filip Tryhuk He's just jealous that we win games and he doesn't lol

[@IrritatedIndex]

adap-tay-shun

[@peewee130946]

Honor guard + Torpor orb with any powerful creature with a bad etb deck idea

[@shawndiaz7528]

jacob blackman a bit awkward since the best ones have double black but yeah. Also hate the sound of Guard getting pushed in response to casting me Hunted dude

[@emoryhotchkiss9088]

www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/against-the-odds-inverter-of-truth with a third torpor effect this particular deck can drop the blue making casting cards with the double devotion easier. and even can be semi-budget dropping a 3 color land base

[@emoryhotchkiss9088]

it's still like a tier 12 deck. but it would be fun to play if you like seeing people lose to a deck they know they should never lose to

[@shawndiaz7528]

Emory Hotchkiss It never needed Muddle the Mixture. There are 2CMC transmute cards in Black. Not sure if the deck changes much, you just drop a few Hushwing for Honor Guard and maybe drop Muddle for Shred Memory if you want the mana to be more consistent but you lose draw and your only counterspell. Your opponent can always kill your hatebear in response to casting Inverter and make you lose the game. It's probably better with counterspells. Maybe the only change I would make is dropping all the Hushwing Gryffs for Honor Guard?

[@peewee130946]

Shawn Diaz well you can go crazy in legacy in go honor guard with dreadnought turn 2 or 3 13/13

[@zachgeraets910]

No love for chart a course? Draw 2 discard 1 for 1U is awesome. And if you have evasive creatures (Faeries perhaps?) it's just a straight draw 2.

[@justinkp]

Yeah, I expected that to be there. I've heard people talk about it for vintage even.

[@anonofyesterday4650]

Faithless looting does everything you'd want Chant to do but better. You don't run these types of cards in a deck with creatures (unless you play Vengevine but then colors don't work).

[@zachgeraets910]

Look, I'm a Faeries player. I'm thinking from a very unconventional blue view. I don't have any graveyard interaction and sometimes the discard 2 is rough. the flexibility of being able to either get rid of a dead card or use a flier to keep a great hand is awesome flexibility.

[@anonofyesterday4650]

Zach Geraets It's very possible I underestimate Chant, it probably IS better than some of the cards from this list. The mana cost is putting me off very badly though. Decks that would want this are tempo decks which can't really play a do nothing spell at 2 mana. Why not play Esper Charm then? It'll always draw 2 discard 0 and has some really great utility. Not only that, it's also instant speed! It just costs too much.

[@carbunclegirl]

Opt is better than Serum Visions.

[@justinkp]

Opt is different than Serum Visions. Which one is "better" is contextual.

[@yoye123]

Torpor orb can't be coco'ed or aether vialed

[@Volvary]

Hushwing can though... And he's still not played.

[@yoye123]

Volvary that cost 3 you can't Bluff whit aether and hace thalia

[@justinkp]

The problem is that most of the decks that use coco or aether vial often use creatures that have ETB effects themselves.

[@yoye123]

Naya humans

[@justinkp]

Not sure if this was in reply to me or not, but first of all I said "often" - of course you can make a deck that uses collected company, aether vial, chord of calling etc. in a deck with no ETB creatures. Secondly, I looked up Naya humans since I'm not really familiar with the deck. The lists I saw had 15-19 ETB creatures, mostly 4 of's that looked pretty important to how the deck plays, and no copies of collected company or aether vial (which makes me wonder if you are replying to me despite no other posts showing up - but youtube is weird like that for me sometimes - if you were responding to someone else I apologize). Lastly, despite the reasons given in your reply to the other poster I think Hushwing is the better card - the 1/3 body just isn't good enough.

[@codelicious6590]

This conversation would be more relevant to me if we had discussed why Opt was printed at common and yet seems to be at uncommon (at best) rarity.

[@justinkp]

Why would that effect whether or not the card sees play in modern which the conversation is about? Also, I'm not sure what you're saying, that you think Opt should be at uncommon or that its printed as a common but actually appears as frequently as an uncommon or even less frequently? Neither one is relevant at all to this video but I am genuinely curious what you mean.

[@codelicious6590]

Justin Postlewaite well, I guess the best way to put is any conversation about MTG cards, whether its playability in any given format or simply analysis of cards on a stand alone basis, really should not carry on as though issues like secret rarities and deteriorating print quality are not present- I personally feel (this is of course my own opinion) that awareness needs to be raised to these generally unspoken issues within ANY MTG conversation, for to leave them out is basically to deny the gravity of them and I for one feel like secret rarities and diminishing card quality -being left out of any magic conversation- are an insult to the community made much worse by the absence of discussion and acknowledgement so I guess I just try to mention this stuff whenever im reminded simply because I feel its EVERY mtg player's obligation to raise awareness or try sparking discussion at ANY given opportunity. So we can change these problems or at the very least demand transparency regarding the rarity of cards.

[@justinkp]

Cody Watson I've heard a lot about the deteriorating card quality (and seen it for myself) but haven't really heard much about secret rarities - is there really hard evidence of this? Its difficult to show without a very high sample size and unlike the card quality issue I don't see WotC gaining that much by doing it and see them potentially losing a lot if it became widely known. If you have sources of evidence for this I really would like to see them as I agree that this should be something every magic player knows if its true. I also don't fault you for bringing these issues up wherever possible but saying that it ties into the relevance of the video when the video is not about that isn't correct and probably doesn't help your cause as when you phrase it that way it seems like a non sequitur - I had difficulty even understanding what you were saying in your original post due to how you phrased it. Also a lot of these channels are not going to repeatedly bring up these issues, if they bring them up at all, because they want to have a good relationship with WotC - that's just how it is. So, if you want to spread this knowledge I think your best bet is just to reply to every magic video mentioning these issues with links to good sources of evidence for both (and again, I really would like to see the evidence for the "secret rarity" issue). Thanks for the reply!

[@omegagaming609]

Lol I really wonder if opt is gonna be on the list

[@jojothemagicalelf4684]

This is probably not true but i feel like WotC forgot Opt wasn't modern legal so they thought it was just a modern reprint and realized their mistake to late

[@maxmayer3427]

Nah they knew what they were doing

[@888ian2]

Dude que we've been asking for it for a while now

[@moseskarunia]

They r an established company lol

[@guisseppimelon8224]

Feild it ruin 28th ob nix the fallen

[@eddiechen9968]

They don't believe that any of the cards will actually be good...smh

[@Harry-lc6ww]

1

[@abra-k]

2

[@mostlyokay]

8

[@Harry-lc6ww]

16

[@justinkp]

34...wait...damn it!

[@Dementia55372]

Kira is strictly better than Kopala in modern. Spending two cards is much more important than spending two more mana. In Legacy, where you have things like Wasteland to constrict your opponents mana and Abrupt Decay is more prevalent, I would say Kopala might be better.

[@Aronia55]

That's not what strictly better means but otherwise good points

[@mckennonpiil9916]

Definitely not what strictly better means... People use that term way too much.

[@justinkp]

Was going to reply about the misuse of "strictly better" but nice to see that 2 people already beat me to it. And I agree McKennon Piil people use the term WAY too much and probably more than 95% of the time incorrectly.

[@jonkendall8745]

Was anyone else not surprised in the slightest that the #1 pick is Opt....seriously look at anyone's top cards for Modern, 10 out of 10 times people say it's Opt. I'm not hating on Opt, I'm just bored of everyone stating the obvious.

[@luiscordoba8300]

Opt will be a staple in Storm decks. It even has Strom in its flavor text

[@carbunclegirl]

luis cordoba No, it won't be in Storm. It's worse than both Sleight and Visions at what you want either to do.