Cards Flying Under the Radar in a Breach Dominated Modern
RC Charlotte proved to us one thing:
On day one of the RC, Grinding Breach was 23% of the field, while on day two, it was 30.9% of the field. On top of this, six out of the top eight spots, including the winning deck overall, were all on Grinding Breach. Modern sort of has this rotating boogeyman problem that has been hard to overcome: last banned cycle it was
So with Breach getting all the attention in the format, are there any cards slipping under the radar? The answer is yes, but very subtly.
Orim's Chant
Energy as an archetype also had a strong, but not outsized, presence at RC Charlotte. Some interesting cards finding a home in Energy can be found in its sideboard. One such interesting piece of sideboard tech is Orim’s Chant.
Originally a chase rare from
Orim’s Chant also has the utility of being able to be kicked to prevent its controller from being attacked as well, which is situationally useful against Domain Zoo, Energy Titan, and a couple other choice decks that care a little bit more about combat than Breach.
Right now, Chant is sitting comfortably at $3.30 with a small upward trend. The big question is: “will this trend continue?” The answer to that question depends on whether players believe its value to only be derived as a sideboard tech against Breach, or if it can derive value as a nice utility sideboard piece regardless of Breach’s presence in the format. I tend to fall into the latter camp. Orim’s Chant is just a good card that’s seeing more utilization because of Breach, but can still serve as a potent and useful sideboard card regardless of Breach’s existence or banning. To me, this card feels around $4-$5 potentially. Having said that, it is just a sideboard card fundamentally, but a potent one at that.
| Orim's Chant | ||
| Orim's Chant (Borderless) | ||
| Orim's Chant |
Hanweir Battlements
While Grinding Breach was the talk of RC Charlotte, Amulet Titan was somewhat the standout or talk of the town at RC Portland. While its numbers weren’t as impressive at Charlotte, it’s still a formidable deck that’s poised to be incredibly well-positioned in a post-Breach world.
A key component of Amulet Titan that’s seen a steady upward trend in demand is Hanweir Battlements from
Being able to search out Hanweir with a Primeval Titan ETB and then give Prime Time haste allows Prime Time to potentially search out a minimum of four lands the turn it enters, which can find cards like
Right now Battlements is around $3.75, and trending downward, albeit with a lot of volatility. I expect this card to swing back to an upward trend, as presumably Amulet Titan will be one of the decks to beat in a world without Underworld Breach.
| Hanweir Battlements | ||
| Hanweir Battlements |
Consign to Memory
Following in our partial theme of sideboard cards making a big splash in the recent RC’s, one could argue that Consign to Memory has been the most impactful sideboard piece in Modern since the most recent banned list.
In all fairness to the card, out of the gate, it always looked like it had high potential as an interaction piece in the format, and, in fact, found its way into Legacy as a staple in the
What does this card hit? All cast-trigger abilities in Eldrazi Ramp, Primeval Titan’s triggered ability,
Similar to Orim’s Chant, I find the flattening out of this card’s price in recent weeks not expressive entirely of the price ceiling it could achieve as Modern likely sorts itself out once more when April’s banned list rolls around.
| Consign to Memory |
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student
Most of the desparked planeswalkers that flip into their planeswalking counterparts from MH3 are some of the most overshadowed pieces of impact from the set. Realistically, I could talk about Ral and Ajani in the same breath as Tamiyo.
Tamiyo, however, seems to be picking up seed in its representation since the December banned list. The question is why. Well, consider the pre-ban meta where
Tamiyo is a one-mana legend that makes Clue tokens when it attacks. That's the floor, and it’s a powerful floor at that. The Clues turn on Metalcraft, and Tamiyo herself turns on Mox Amber. Now, her downward trend does seem indicative of the reality or expectation that Breach may not be long for this world, but I will argue that makes Tamiyo a better single to capitalize on financially, as she has utility outside of Breach even beyond the aforementioned synergies with the Moxen, including in Grixis Murktide, Azorius Control, Energy, and so on – all of which are primed to have a little more efficacy in a post-Breach meta.
| Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student | ||
| Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student (Borderless) |
Wrapping Things Up
There’s a lovely literature within the field of Urban Economics that looks at the impact of highway widening on commute times. In theory, increasing the amount of lanes on a highway functionally increases the supply of commuter lanes, which should in-turn reduce times that the average car is stuck in traffic… Interestingly, however, the impact of highway widening usually results in the opposite outcome: slower commute times. What causes this paradoxical outcome? Simple, individuals who aren’t necessarily highway utilizers see that more lanes are being added and decide to become highway commuters as they believe it may shorten their commute times, resulting in demand for highways increasing as lanes increase leaving commute times unchanged or worse off.
What I just described above is a metaphor for the Modern format over the past year or so. One banning to make the format healthy or a few unbannings and a couple bannings to fix the format often leads it to a worse-off state than it was before. The One Ring meta was more stale than the
Admittedly, this is a frustrating cycle to find ourselves in. In an ideal world, bannings and unbannings are measured and few and far between, and power creep is minimal. However, in our reality, Modern Horizons sets have really pushed the boundaries of what Modern and its otherwise limited card pool can tolerate relative to other eternal formats, which makes the impacts of bannings and unbannings somewhat more difficult to predict. Fingers crossed that as April rolls around we can find some format stability for the long-term!
Further Reading
Corey Williams
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.