Cards Rising in the Post-Nadu Modern

Nadu, Winged Wisdom’s day of reckoning in Modern has finally come (along with Grief). Interestingly, however, the dust has actually settled quite quickly, as a meta without Nadu was all but officially solidified in the meantime as players counted down the days until Nadu finally met the banned list… Obviously, Grief also had to go, lest Atraxa, Grand Unifier decks become the best in the meta by a mile. Without any further hesitation, here are three cards trending onward and upward as the Modern meta reshapes itself!

$7.25$8.99

Through the Breach

Eldrazi has pivoted into some really interesting directions with the addition of the new typal cards from Modern Horizons 3 ("MH3"). In fact, the surge in new Eldrazi playables in Modern has brought back an old favorite of mine: Through the Breach. Once upon a time when Simian Spirit Guide was legal Breach Titan or Breach Emrakul decks were an explosive deck that was almost format-defining if not for some issues in consistency. 

With a slough of new Eldrazi, like Ulamog, the Defiler, Emrakul, the World Anew, and lands like Ugin's Labyrinth, Through the Breach has been given some new life with many decks running a playset of Talisman of Impulse on top of other powerhouses like The One Ring (more on this gem later), Trinisphere, and Sowing Mycospawn. The plan is still the same: find Breach, ramp, play Breach, swing with a big creature, but “Sol” lands like Ugin’s Labyrinth add a degree more consistency than perhaps what Simian on its own could provide, while The One Ring adds much needed card draw that old school Breach was thoroughly lacking in order to find Breach itself. 

So where does that leave us? With a $20 Through the Breach in today’s market. Bear in mind, for well over the past few years, this card was relegated to bulk rare status. With MH3, this card can finally see some new light outside of Nadu’s shadow. In my mind, this is fun, and exactly what sets like MH3 should make possible. Bring out new, exciting cards that also breathe new life into some of the older format staples. Reinvigorating Breach decks is refreshing and feels like a callback to an older era of Modern, but with contemporary relevance. 

Would I recommend buying Breaches given its steep rise in price? It’s tough. On the one hand, there’s no sign of Breach leveling off, but it’s not obvious that it’s the best deck in format. I’d say the spike we’re seeing is more transitory than permanent. Realistically, this card feels like it’s between $10 to $15 for what it does. Having said that, it does have a supply-side issue in that Champions of Kamigawa and Ultimate Masters are its most accessible printings. As such it doesn’t take much of a rise in popularity given the relatively low supply for the price to jump as erratically as it has (relative to print runs by today’s standards). Overall, if you’re absolutely adamant about playing Breach, it’s probably not so out the realm of reason to pick up a playset before the price peaks. But if you aren’t in a rush, and are sort of letting the meta play out, it’s probably easier to wait for whatever spike we’re observing now to pass over, especially if Breach-style decks aren’t for you. 

Through the Breach	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $22.49
Through the Breach	CardKingdom $9.99	TCGPlayer $14.99

Goryo's Vengeance

This other gem from the original Kamigawa block is a classic Modern-viable reanimation spell. Back in the day, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy was a dedicated discard outlet used to dig for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and in response to shuffle trigger when discarded it to the yard, you would then cast Goryo’s Vengeance to cheat a 15/15 with Annihilator 6 into play… Effectively ending the game. 

Now, of course, as this deck became popular, so too did a swathe of graveyard hate. The fragility of the deck alongside its general inconsistency made for its time in the meta to be relatively short-lived. But, in its new shell, it has a myriad of new toys that make it considerably more consistent, ranging from the Surveil lands of Murders at Karlov Manor to Psychic Frog from MH3, and everything in between. 

With Nadu gone, this deck really has a nice opportunity to find its niche and give graveyard and reanimator-style decks a chance at second life. Right now the market is in a little bit of a funk, however. The average asking price has spiked along with the market price, but there’s a pretty large disparity between the two. Sellers are clearly valuing the single higher than what most participants are actually paying for it. This could be because sellers are betting on the prominence of this deck to be higher in a post-Nadu world, while the uptick in player adoption is high, but not as high perhaps as sellers perhaps speculated. It could also be that the market for this single is not necessarily well-defined as of now. Sellers might be afraid of pricing this single too low, and are listing high and slowly lowering to find a better equilibrium market price at which point buyers pull trigger. 

In reality, the market price of around $20 is appropriate for the power level and efficiency of this spell. No doubt this deck will have a home in the upper tiers of the new meta that Modern faces, as it was already competing relatively well in a Nadu-dense field. Similar to Through the Breach, Goryo’s printings are relatively limited once more to a low-print run Kamigawa block set (in this case, Betrayers of Kamigawa), as well as Ultimate Masters… Strange coincidence, indeed. 

Goryo's Vengeance	CardKingdom $32.99	TCGPlayer $33.75
Goryo's Vengeance	CardKingdom $24.99	TCGPlayer $24.18

The One Ring

This card has been discussed ad nauseum. In fact, many believed that there was a higher probability of The One Ring biting the banned list, as opposed to Grief. In fact, even sellers were lowering their buylist prices in the days leading up to the banned list announcement in anticipation of a high-probability The One Ring banning.

Of course, this didn’t happen, leading to a post-list demand surge. Falling to around $80 in market price prior to the announcement, the certainty that The One Ring to rule them all would rule at least for another cycle has reignited demand for the card across the meta.

Now with the market price sitting at over $100, we find ourselves in a rather precarious position, as The One Ring is now the most expensive single card in the top-end of the Modern meta. The question is: should I pay $100 for The One Ring? I personally wouldn’t. There are better decks to run in the format that don’t require paying $400+ for a playset of a card that is still on the banned list radar. It’s powerful, and that’s to be respected, no doubt. But the financial risk of this with the current banned list window makes me hesitant to recommend investing or speculating on this particular card if one could avoid it. Obviously, if you are die-hard Amulet Titan gamer or on Tron or Through the Breach, this card is unavoidable. 

I guess I would recommend folks looking for a deck to compete with in the Modern meta now that it’s fairly open to consider a deck with a less risky upfront investment in The One Ring. Just food for thought. Obviously, exercise your best judgment and consider the financial decisions you make that both balance your budget and maximize play experience!

The One Ring	CardKingdom $139.99	TCGPlayer $124.99
The One Ring (Extended Art)	CardKingdom $139.99	TCGPlayer $130.00
The One Ring (Borderless)	CardKingdom $129.99	TCGPlayer $100.70

The Rising Tides of Modern

The tides are changing as Modern can perhaps get to the point the MH3 design team and WotC wanted it to get to in the absence of Nadu. It’s exciting to see a lot of decks, old and new, make a resurgence and find their representation in a relatively wide-open meta with plenty of discovery and experimentation ripe for brewers and pilots to explore. For the first time in a while, I look forward to what the future of this format brings. And despite some of the volatility and price surges stemming from the above cards, there’s a clear signal in the market that pieces of the game are moving; people are crafting new decks, and revitalizing the old with new pieces. Hopefully these price movements are the first of many in this exciting new meta. 

Further Reading:

Banned and Restricted Announcement - Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage Affected