Planeswalking – Modern Event Deck

We’ve covered Event Decks in the past but, almost by definition, they have all been Standard legal. Standard being a format of play only allowing cards from the most recent Core release and the two most recent expansion blocks. The Modern format allows all cards since the 8th Edition release in 2003 and can be a difficult format to play competitively without significant financial investment. Sure, it’s not as bad as the Legacy formats but to the average player a £120 [mtg]Tarmogoyf[/mtg] is just no more inaccessible than an £800 [mtg name=”Mox Sapphire”]Mox[/mtg]. Those are extreme examples but the requirement for playsets of essential fetch and shock lands will push the price of many decks out of reach for many players.

In an effort to make the format more accessible, Wizards have released their first Modern Event Deck, a premium Black/White token generator aptly named March of the Multitudes with an RRP of £65. Now firstly we should address the price, it’s considerably more than the cost of a standard event deck but that cost is quickly made up by some of the out of print cards you’ll find within. Notable cards include a [mtg]Sword of Feast and Famine[/mtg], a [mtg]Elspeth, Knight-Errant[/mtg], three [mtg name=”Path to Exile”]Paths to Exile[/mtg] and a full four [mtg name=”Windbrisk Heights”]Windbrisk Heights[/mtg]. Interesting cards to say the least and combined with a huge number of token generators and boosters it’s really very easy to get this deck churning out a powerful army. It can take a little getting used to, I kept forgetting how hideaway works, but once you get the hang of it and let go of the worry that you might take a beating for a few rounds, the tokens start coming thick and fast. If Elspeth or the Sword decide to grace you with their presence then the win will come that much quicker but they certainly aren’t a keystone in the plan.

Just make sure you use your disruption where you can early on and when the tokens arrive have the boosters already out and waiting. It gives a nice impression that you’ve had a bad start if you keep dropping +1/+1 global enchantments on your board with nothing for them to boost, but get three out before resolving and then flash back a [mtg]Lingering Souls[/mtg] and you’ve got four 4/4 flyers on the board. Swing with those and a [mtg]Zealous Persecution[/mtg] and you’re attacking for 20. After combat pull that [mtg]Spectral Procession[/mtg] from hideaway and it’s probably game over next turn.

However, there are issues here, namely the manabase. While a playset of both painlands and match lands are provided in the relevant colours I can’t help but have hoped for at least some shock or fetch lands, granted this might have been cost prohibitive but they are such a staple of the modern format that not including even a couple seems odd. Even if they were put in place of some the more high value cards mentioned about. This might well have caused the problem of attracting buyers to this deck that are looking to farm it for the chase card so perhaps it’s for the best. There is also the questionable inclusion of two [mtg name=”City of Brass”]Cities of Brass[/mtg], they just seem excessive in a two colour deck such as this, I’ll be looking to swap these out for an alternative, most likely a nice pair of B/W Scry lands.

Aside from the manabase I hit a few minor, but recurring issues, several cards that never seem to pull their weight, [mtg]Tidehollow Sculler[/mtg] seems a little out of place and [mtg]Shrine of Loyal Legions[/mtg] never gets up to speed and for the cost could easily be replaced by something like [mtg]Captain’s Call[/mtg], [mtg]Gather the Townsfolk[/mtg] or even [mtg]Alliance of Arms[/mtg] (Whoops, not Modern Legal!). That said there is nothing stopping me from adding any or all of those cards myself or using the extensive 15 card sideboard to swap out what isn’t working for me, I’m almost certain I’m going to add a [mtg]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/mtg] to the mix as well, just because he looks cool.

Issues aside this is an extremely fun deck to play and a fantastic way of getting new players into the modern format. The presentation is quite excellent too, the package includes a full set of exclusive shiny card sleeves, double sided token cards and a very nice looking spindown dice which I hope is sign of things to come as it’s far more readable than recent pack-in dice. All this comes in a hard deck box to keep everything safe. A great entry package to the format with room to grow with your confidence.