Where Are They Now? Modern Deck Edition

Going over Modern MTG decks that used to be tier 1 at some point and have disappeared off the map.
Current Stream Schedule: / schedule
Stream Replays: / nikachumtgstreams
Twitch: / nikachumtg
Facebook: / nikachumtg
Twitter: / nikachumtg
Instagram: / nikachumtg
RENTS CARDS ONLINE WITH MANATRADERS! Use Manatraders Coupon Code NIKACHU for 15% off your first 3 months! www.manatrader...
Support the channel today! 🥰
/ nikachumtg
Want to know what MTG gear I use? Deck boxes, sleeves, binders and more check here: www.amazon.com...
Check out www.themanabase.com for great articles and videos! Follow them on twitter @themanabasemtg and themanabasemtg
(Disclaimer: some links in this description are Affiliate Links)
#RIPdecks #nikachu #mtg

[@benmason701]

I didn't expect this to have jokes thrown in there😂 you have your morning show and now you can start the latenight MTG show. funny stuff

[@Poplust1]

The diarrhea joke legit killed me lmao. Good video :)

[@danw.1250]

How about a "What happened to" series? Specific cards could be fun! Snapcaster Mage? Tarmogoyf? Lingering Souls? Dark Confidant? Through the Breach? I mean, FIRE design is what happened, we all know that, but will these cards ever see play again?

[@pairot01]

Most of these can be explained with looking at a shadow decklist lol

[@ahigherplace1542]

Hell, I can help you with that Snappy: Powercrept by a common land Goyf: Why play a 2 mana 4/5, when you can play a 1 mana 8/8? Or even a 2 mana 10/10? Lingo Souls: 3 mana for two 1/1 fliers is good in a midrange mirror, but is just bad in the clusterfuck that is the modern metagame Bob: "I play lava dart" or even more annoying: "I play W&6" Breach: Why play a 2 card 5 mana combo, when you can just play a 5 mana get infinite zombies

[@tommasomarconi9053]

@@ahigherplace1542 i last played modern 5-6 years ago and i'm utterly shocked to read this. Tarmogoyf and snapcaster mage are not being played?!!! that's beyond insanity.

[@landonviegas2643]

I'm here I'm here, I promise I'm here even if barely relevant and only average now!

[@Romans1-8]

Damn mystic sanctuary replaced snapcaster?

[@5I13lV7DI1293]

Where are they now: Merfolk decks in modern.

[@hipumpus]

Savage

[@SRADracer]

Only good players get good results with Merfolk 😊

[@joao17771]

Merfolks went up the ventilation shaft

[@dougswanson4553]

Lol I wanted to downvote but couldn't. The other commenter is right. Got to be good to get results.

[@filipefernandes8669]

I used to play a lot of lantern, like 2-3 years ago. Another issue with it it's that decks don't just fold to a Ensnaring Bridge anymore, back then decks had 1-2 outs to it, now you have Karns, Teferis, Wrenns, Assasin's Trophy, infinite damage combos, thassa's oracle decks, one million burn spells decks, Urza decks with infinite combos, and so on, Ensnaring Bridge does very little in current meta.

[@filipefhn]

Lantern died not because the opal ban, but because controling the top of the library is not a super powerfull thing anymore unfortunatelly.

[@spiritwaker9595]

As a former Infect player, I died laughing at your assessment of it. I actually got bored of the deck due to how much of a Glass cannon it was (the fact I shifted to Blitz says nothing XD)

[@blightedadmiral7006]

Infect has troubles now. Golgari is pretty good rn tho

[@PaulissVegan]

The revival of Infinity is already here, it's Hammer Time !!

[@stevencarter6601]

i loved playing against lantern as an Abzan player with abrubt decay just good fun. The look on their face when you build out a deadly field blow up their ensaring bridge with a stony silence present allowing them to see the torment coming.

[@jorden6978]

This video may as well just be "why these decks can't compete with the nonsense printed in the last 2 years."

[@janspiekermann1593]

I really appreciate this kind of video because it gives some insight what was played before I started playing modern. Really cool! :)

[@ahriik]

good points on Eldrazi and Taxes. I shed a tear when I look over at my pile of Tidehollow Scullers, wasteland stranglers, eldrazi displacers, and thoughtknot seers, but I have hope that one day it shall rise again. Rise of the Eldrazi... and Taxes!

[@Rewwgh]

This is the type of video I was hoping to see actually. :) Thanks for making this Nikachu!

[@ScatterBrainedYouBetterFollow]

How you always looked over to the left to reference notes made me feel like I was on tweak again lmao

[@isambo400]

Not a fan of what has happened to modern since 2019 started

[@grasshopper1153]

Not many Modern players are fans of what WotC has done to our beloved format.

[@poyi1013]

They make us need to make 3 new deck every year….

[@hipumpus]

Edgiest Nikachu I've ever seen that's for sure. 2021 is shaping up well.

[@Tvtyrant2]

The development of Aggro from Zoo to Hollow One to Dredge to UR has been interesting.

[@odioalospoopers]

you either die a RG or live long enough to see yourself turned into UR

[@adamkhan1687]

Nikachu you have such good vibes, wisdom from experience but also lots of little funnies

[@matthewworden6095]

I built Lantern Control a couple years ago and I have to say I love your take on it. I stopped playing it after Opal got banned. I decided to rebuild it as GDS after that. It was fun while it lasted though, for me at least.

[@lordofthemound3890]

There are still Titanshift decks out there putting up decent results. For some reason MTGG just classifies them as RG and sticks them in the “Other” category.

[@DreamPurpleFloyd]

If you really look into it, the 2021 version of old school Affinity is just Hammer Time

[@mahbluebird]

"You can learn a lot about a person's sexual performance by how they play infect" Me: Haha joke's on you, I don't play infect Me: *realises I'm asexual* wait

[@poyi1013]

Why would you ever take up infect if you don’t want to kill them turn 2?

[@E-Ma]

I took a break from mtg for about 2 years so this is a really helpful catchup lol

[@mwilke07]

As an Affinity player I can confirm that it was long out the door before the Mox Opal banning.

[@dimirsafaia4753]

The Infect jokes did it for me hahahaha great content as always!

[@TCGupdate]

I was only half listening to this video (had it playing in the background), I about did a spit take when it got to the discussion about infect, lmao

[@FolloweroftheBlind]

I may be the lunatic of the elf community but I have a feeling there are builds that are possible to play currently...sure modern is a much more dangerous place for 1/1 dorks thanks to horizons but we are beginning to brew and slowly become a more than rogue deck in the modern format. Kaldheim is the first big step for the tribe in a long time. I can’t wait to see what my brothers and sisters of the tribe come up with and how we may innovate this once and still great tribe.

[@NikachuMTG]

I think there’s something viable for elves too. But it’s gotta be a new take on the archetype.

[@FolloweroftheBlind]

@@NikachuMTG so far the warrior elves build is doing moderately well watching streamers and personally playing it. Mono green and splashing black for shaman.

[@lumberjacks4881]

Let's bring elf back on the map warrior package help a lot. Kalhdeim i belive next give a merfolk Wizard to my buddy in the next set so everybody is happy

[@cobberhambone9484]

As a Devoted Druid Player, I can confirm. I played that deck for several years. It was crazy fun playing a toolbox combo deck. But, Heliod’s printing (fuck FIRE) gave Collected Company Creature Combo (which is an umbrella archetype that will never go away, CoCo isn’t going anywhere) a strict upgrade. But I can’t afford to keep changing my deck all the time. So now I just play my Golgari Yawgmoth deck that I also have built. Hopefully that has staying power.

[@willlozinak5182]

great video for people like me who started watching modern a long time before they started playing it

[@rodeofrancisco6130]

Best nikachu video ever!

[@DevilishGuts]

By the way, I don't know how viable it would be, but I would love to see a series of videos from you where you analyee unusual, recent tournament winning decks, either proposing your version based on it, or discussing possible upgrades, things like that. The other day, a dimir delver won something in modern and it looked pretty interesting, I'd like to know your opinion about it (or delver decks in general in modern)

[@grasshopper1153]

I wanted tribal to get some support in MH1, instead we got Plague Engineer! WTF Wotc?

[@blightedadmiral7006]

Nicachu is not only a merfolk master, but also an analogy master

[@FowlPlayFTW]

You're not going to kill it, you're just going to piss it off XD Well said Nikachu!

[@TheAutomedon]

My favorite video yet haha

[@strahanwyatt5671]

"the thing is the value of shit went up" hahahah fucking great

[@Wolfgar-jx5kl]

I loved old school dredge before Golgori troll got banned .

[@armandosolorzano570]

I tried combining scapeshift and evolution sage to ult planeswalkers in historic. Predictably, it was hard to pull off

[@seth2077]

Opal ban was a near death blow to Lantern, but the real end of the deck was Blast Zone.

[@josesundstrom3646]

Merfolk is also at risk. Look at Merfolk in Legacy: Can't win through the usual beatdown plan anymore. Needs to combo off some way or morph to Wizards like TuxDev's list to win games consistently. Hullbreacher is just one finger stopping the water from coming in through the hull breach of Legacy Merfolk's slowly sinking ship. This is because of power creep and Modern Merfolk is not safe either: It is becoming harder and harder to win, so much so that masters such as yourself and MHayashi are looking to colour splash, companions (e.g. Lurrus and Yorion), combos (e.g. Inverter of Truth and Thassa's Oracle) and even other decks (e.g. Prowess in the case of MHayashi) to win. What Modern Merfolk needs to be great again is strong Merfolk. Historically, Merfolk always came with some drawback and that just isn't cutting it anymore, especially with cards like Fatal Push and Plague Engineer getting printed.

[@ben_clifford]

1:18 earned my like 👍

[@pejman3]

I remeber playing pyromancer ascension very long ago, I wonder what happened to it :O. I miss those manamorphose that draw 2 and make 4 mana for 2 :O

[@repreach9668]

Lantern control with mechanized production is fun cus it actually has a win con and dealing with x ensnaring bridges is hard

[@alexanderl187]

I started playing when I was 11 in 6th grade in 00/01 I started with 7th edition, left a while after odyssey, came back for Ixalan.. currently loving my simic merolk commander deck ...edit: have yet to use it

[@DevilishGuts]

Jesus fuck, I definitely wasn't expecting a scatological joke from you, made me laugh out hard, lmao

[@itscommander6564]

Hello there!

[@bigking7608]

General Kenobi

[@coolnezz0944]

You are a bold one

[@martinleithe8251]

Makes sense, Karn the great creator basically Exiled Affinity and Lantern from existence. Banning of Mox opals just took away it's competitiveness against every deck without Karn. So it's two major losses I'm wondering, where is Abzan Midrange? Good ol' Goyf, bob,lilliana with Path to exiles and stuff.. What about Siege Rhino? I remember the days when Siege Rhino saw play in abzan

[@NikachuMTG]

Since Bloodbraid elf’s unbanning no one has felt justified to play anything but Jund. That being said, Path to Exile is hot right now and Abzan should be playtested.

[@martinleithe8251]

@@NikachuMTG I know the Creature base is both stronger in Jund and especially Sultai. But Sultai, I would say Path is really important nowadays. Lightning bolts are useless against uro, Fatal push is basically forcing your opponent to exile more cards from his graveyard to cast uro again. You just delayed the problem. He net's cards on us not Exiling uro. lightning bolts ain't really the solution to Death shadow either, not good against omnath.. Jund does have Bloodbraid and Wrenn.. But why is that enough to make Jund 1.4% of meta and Abzan 0%?.

[@lancetcaballes]

diarrhea reference was hilarious 😂😂😂

[@Bubelmanen]

I began to play mtg 2018ish and I started with Modern! And I started with Lantern Control and still play it xD hahah, now I'm building a Faerie Deck tho! And i boult an Equip deck for my girlfriend, and now she's hooked ;)

[@pacdaddy1518]

As a Devoted Druid player I can agree with you. Do you think it’s possible to combine Heliod Company with the Devoted Druid combo?

[@NikachuMTG]

People have done it, but those lists haven’t stood the test of time.

[@Myky44kinwai]

I was an Affinity player. Luckily, I managed to exit and sold every cards before the Karn was printed. Phew But I still felt the pain throughout ur explanation…

[@scambled_seawater2633]

This video contains my favorite top 20 Nikachu quotes of all time

[@benjaminkaye5119]

Keep up the great work my friend. Infect if my second baby , and I have had to move to golgari version as of late.

[@benjaminkaye5119]

Hit most of my decks lol. Modern is hostile place.

[@endermeap6488]

I 5-0ed with infect in late October. The deck isn’t dead, it just dies to blitz.

[@Dazulolwarrior]

That sex performance comparison on the infect deck got me dying

[@sonsysy4195]

Just noticed that the 'Run' in the flavor text of Prime Titan is not italicized meaning it's included in the effect of the card. So after shuffling your library, run.

[@workoutwithrob1700]

You haven't always played it that way? It's why primeval titan players are typically in the best shape.

[@sonsysy4195]

@@workoutwithrob1700 from restore balance to dredge player to crabvine. Never got to play with prime time lol

[@retrorami]

Nikachu channeling his inner vintage AVGN haha

[@MrSilk13642]

I'm still a massive fan of Lantern Control. Lantern + something like grafdigger's cage solves a lot of the power creep issues

[@markkhutorskoy8836]

Also jund, mardu pyromancer, "classic" 3 color shadows, classic uwx controls like uwr, arclight phoenix decks, hollow one. Eldrazi (tron and Stompy) is almost vanished.

[@NikachuMTG]

A lot of those decks disappeared because of bannings, not metagame changes or the printing of new cards. I’ll make another video addressing them.

[@T4N7]

Thx, I had been wondering wut happened to Lantern Ctrl. Wut happened to Cheerios? With Puresteel Paladin n Sram n 0 cmc equipment into grapeshot. Is it still around? Do people still play Prime Speaker Zigana (I think it's that version of her, the 2GU version that says a creature to search ur deck for a creature 1 cmc higher n put it into play) or other Kikki Jiki decks?

[@NikachuMTG]

Cheerios wasn't ever a real deck. It was just a gimmicky combo deck that loses easily to graveyard hate or creature removal. There is a UR Kiki/Deceiver Exarch deck.

[@GH-un9uz]

I miss lantern in the meta. I know people stick their nose up and call control decks snores, but lantern was a really cool and unique version of control that required a lot of game knowledge, meta knowledge and general brain juice. It's kinda hard to counter people's topdecks when every single card they can topdeck is a good card.

[@thecitizen6860]

Lantern is my favorite modern deck I've ever piloted

[@ahigherplace1542]

Finally someone who understands that Affinity was dying way before Mox Opal got banned. Even before it got banned, Affinity was often seen as inferior to the hardened scales version. Karn was the gun wound, and the Mox Opal ban was the headshot

[@daseinoseven4514]

I have a buddy that tried to build an Artifacts Deck in 2020.... Lol. He quickly abandoned the idea.

[@Janshevik]

they can at least drown their sorrow in hammertime

[@alanyuan8565]

Unban opal!

[@WesternSpace]

Free the robots! Unban mox opal!

[@DualSwordBesken]

Dying, not dead. The Opal ban was unplugging the life support.

[@ilosthope.]

This video got in my recomments and noe im subbed😂😂 love the content😂😂

[@bretttrimble1173]

Great vid, keep them coming.

[@hermitthedruid]

Plague Engineer was a mistake.

[@jackdamon302]

So was Karn the Great Creator

[@alfredjames4530]

Did you see the new saga land, there’s a good chance that brings back lantern control, and shapeshift is back

[@martinr2040]

engineered plagues have surely been the bane of 2020, but not just for magic

[@bananalord3882]

i actually couldn't stop laughing about the "when nature calls" comment

[@OriginalMetaTech]

Free red and bogles don't see much play anymore, not sure if its because they are bad or just old news

[@AsianVoodoo]

As a dedicated affinity player for a few years how did we beat Karn? By killing you before he came down. Could it be difficult? Yeah, but at a local level not too hard. But it became impossible to do without mox opal.

[@tortaahogada9685]

"YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!"

[@blueredlover1060]

I feel like lantern could still see play in some capacity. With Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace both being options to shut down graveyards. Leyline is probably the better of the two for the deck overall.

[@NikachuMTG]

Lantern also used the graveyard to bring back cards with Academy Ruins.

[@blueredlover1060]

That's why I pin pointed Leyline as the choice. Plus, I figured Snapcaster Mage was something to consider.

[@idiotmartyr]

@@NikachuMTG I think the Mox Opal ban killed Lantern more than a rise in prominence of graveyard strategies. We had sideboard options to fight the graveyard as well as Pyxis in the main. Ensnaring Bridge also helps to negate graveyard-based strategies that sought to win through combat. Whir prison was pushing Lantern out of the meta and then they printed Karn, the Great Creator and banned Opal. All that to say, I enjoyed the video, as usual, but think you're overestimating graveyard decks' effectiveness against Lantern.

[@ryancasey1879]

I still play Lantern w/ Mox Tantalite. Its obviously worse, but I still like playing the deck and dont want to give up on it lol 😂 I just play 2 and all the other regular Lantern cards. Works for me.

[@stevesmith5883]

The only way to play Infect is turn 3 wins, turn 2 in Legacy ;). Also Jhoria artifact storm in EDH.

[@FaithlessLooter]

As someone who stills plays elves you hit it on the nose with the removal

[@thenoisyneighbour3705]

great vid man ty

[@chesstitan70]

I miss seeing boggles played more but plague engineer is hard to deal with as well as EE and blast zone.

[@sergiosanmuahahaha]

I still play scapeshift, it turns out that it plays well with uro omnath field of the dead and mystical sanctuary and yorion

[@aaronavey3904]

I miss hollow one

[@RIP_Texpert]

We all do...

[@NikachuMTG]

I gotta make another vid including that.

[@danw.1250]

I don't, weaponized variance was not my favorite thing. But to each, their own.

[@RIP_Texpert]

@@danw.1250 Hollow one was more of an introduction deck, a budget build, now what is there?

[@sethlewis5885]

I'd like to see a part 2 with stuff like UB faeries and bogles maybe ponza idk how relevant ponza is overall but its definitely not relevant in my local meta lol and i miss faeries

[@Jonathan-qk5ed]

Infect players just be like: Let me hit you with my best shot!!! Person B: one pump, okay 2 pumps, wait what that's it?!?!?! Infect player: gets (fatal) pushed over on the bed* Person B: you didn't actually think you'd have it that easy... did you? Infect player: walks away with their head down in disgrace* Nuff said

[@TripIn6]

I play affinity from time to time when I'm not playing faeries or artificers Intuition. When I built my affinity deck I couldn't afford the mox opals so I never used them. I beat affinity decks that did use opals just fine. I also never ran ravagers because in my opinion they slow the deck down. Well technically its not affinity in my opinion, it's boros tempered steel, but everyone I know calls it affinity because it's free and cheap artifact creatures. Its commonly turn 4 win, occasionally turn 5 if they manage to slow me down, and once in awhile its turn 3.

[@leaveswalker1]

I have to say, as an old school affinity player...I have to say that the deck died when they created the modern format and left my artifact lands on ban list.

[@NikachuMTG]

We’ll get them off!

[@Paranoiddruid2]

Remember all those Second Sunrise decks. Geeze..

[@1mBearman]

I miss when titanshift was good. Won 2 pptqs with it. I useto jam that deck daily.

[@TheSkizz89]

Scapeshift is diarrhea Infect is bad in bed Lantern is a sad enema Elves is the wrong combo you ordered Affinity is is on lockdown E&T is bad sushi . . . . . . Merfolk just keeps swimming.

[@andrewmarklowitz2728]

me an a friend of mine brewed a deck in bct that has away of bringing lantern back

[@apotaz3353]

Where is Living End? I tried it and it's a decent deck tbh, it got some new toys recently, like seasonned pyromancer etc.. I'm guessing the short answer is t3feri existing but it was already out of favor before that I believe.

[@NikachuMTG]

Living end was always a fringe deck.

[@KsiazeIktorn]

Exists in version with Electrodominance and is doing well if not better, I would say.

[@Levi-pz8in]

What do you think about unbanning the artefactlands Do you think they are to fair with hate like karn or are they to easy to abuse

[@NikachuMTG]

Unban them. You can look up vids on my opinion.

[@sebastianmaidan1796]

What about Living End? Ps: great video!!!

[@NikachuMTG]

Living End was always a fringe deck. And thanks!

[@ChadZeluff]

What happened to UW Control? Is it pretty neutered at the moment?

[@NikachuMTG]

Because of Uro piles. It will come back after the banning.

[@bluemagemikey]

BAN PLAGUE ENGINEER!!!

[@aceviru]

I will never see Primeval Titan with the same eyes ever again 🤣💀

[@maestrodal]

Hey, what about ad nauseam deck? did it desapear or is it still alive?

[@NikachuMTG]

It’s still alive and is more of a Thassa’s Oracle deck, but it’s still around.

[@maestrodal]

@@NikachuMTG It came back but it was off a time because of some bans right?

[@NikachuMTG]

Yes. It got goods from Modern Horizons 2 like Profane Tutor.

[@noobtuber10]

I feel like twiddle storm might be positioned well this meta

[@batuempedu2050]

pure gold

[@alexcote4919]

good god, no trashtalk about jund hahaha, great video though

[@NikachuMTG]

well, the boomer Jund community still play the deck.

[@alexcote4919]

@@NikachuMTG any plan to interview a jund master? I can ask grmflayer if you want

[@NikachuMTG]

Go fo it. I would love to have him in the show!

[@alexcote4919]

@@NikachuMTG i asked him, i will get an answer tomorrow

[@bluemagemikey]

Omfg the infect analogy ☠️

[@ThunderBirdJack]

RIP titanshift

[@damiandziki]

This must be your best video 😂

[@mateorestrepo9750]

What about BW tokens? :"(

[@NikachuMTG]

That wasn’t ever a deck ☹️

[@isambo400]

That was a starter-level deck around moderns creation. It got worse and worse over the years

[@mateorestrepo9750]

@@NikachuMTG Why have life had to be so cruel :'( Just wanted to play my playset of bitterblossom somewhere