Modern Tierlist

Modern is finally starting to settle down and it feels like it's time to go back in and explore the format from the lens of a tier list. What I try to take away from the tier list and what I hope you're able to take away is more of an outline for what to be exploring and doing and less of a strict guideline that you have to follow. Just because your deck isn't tier 1 or 2 doesnt mean its not a thing you can bring, you might just be at a perceived disadvantage on average. This last part is huge and I can't undersell it enough. There are weekends and metagames that are better then others for certain strategies and decks, however I am looking at what happens if you played a tournament 100 times. What would give you the best outcome? With that out of the way let's dive into things

All tiers are ranked from best to worst IMO for each tier

S Tier: Breach, Hammer, Rakdos Scam
A Tier: Yawg, Creativity, Prowess, Murktide,
B tier: Merfolk, UW Control, 4C control, Amulet titan, Burn, Living End
C tier: Harden Scales Domain zoo, Rhinos, BTL Scapeshift, Dredge
D tier : Assume here if not listed.

Starting off with the S tier I think everyone will agree these are three of the best decks in Modern. While some players might differ on the rankings among them they are all great choices.

Breach has established itself as a real deck even when its best matchup is banned from the format. The deck presents a good combo and a fair plan very well and forces your opponent to not only have a lot of hate for the combo but also just the fair creatures. If you let any part of this deck go unchecked it will run you over.

Hammer is next on the list. A deck we all know and has been around for a while, a lot of its worst match up have left the format outside of creativity and players have just been disrespecting it more and more as time has gone on. A deck that def can fold to hate, but your opponents really need to mean it when they are trying to hate you out. This deck really rewards tight technical play and has some free wins just like Breach. A common trend in decks in the S tier is they all offer free wins.

Speaking of free wins, Rakdos Scam tries to do that all the time. Turn one double grief, or fury. Maybe you try to go Ragavan into Bloodmoon, which is an incredibly well positioned card right now. I think this deck gets an unfair reputation from some players, as they think its only a deck that can win by scamming, which is far from the truth. The deck is able to play a totally real and normal game similar to any midrange deck of old, however unlike those it just offers some free wins. As mentioned in the Parmesan article a few weeks back, that's a good thing not a bad thing!

All these decks are easy picks for picking them up and mastering will be rewarded with success.

A tier is where we start making enemies. Yawg and Creativity are both combo decks, however the style of decks are very different. Yawg plays to the board and has a good fair creature plan while creativity plays more of a controlling role. Both are valid and good strategies however both decks don't play their fair games as well as the S tier decks and as such are just outside the top tiers IMO. They are both great decks and I could easily see either getting into the S tier if the meta shifts and the decks have some good innovations to improve them.

Prowess is an old deck back in vogue in Modern. Mengu and Spike have been working on this deck and I think it's very good. Your deck is fast and punishing to decks like Scam and Hammer and you're proactive but able to go long still. This deck is still in the early phases and while I think the surgery in the sideboard is actually just nonsense, the core of this deck is very good. I think in modern being proactive has for a long time been very good and players have just forgotten how strong prowess creatures with lava spike is, after this long year of control being the best thing in the format, by a wide margin.

FWIW the changes I would make is
-2 Invasive Surgery
+2 spell pierce
I am also unsure on the 1 gutshot but think it's fine. I lean towards two then 1 with one growth gone but growth does a great job of making Fury a card we can actually beat.



Lets get this out of the way to start. Murktide is a totally fine deck however I have it closing in on the B tier for a few reasons. One being a midrange deck versus the current top decks is a tricky and challenging position. The deck just has new forces in the metagame it has to content with and players are still catching up to that. If you like jund decks this is the deck for you. It presents a good fair plan that breaks up what the opponent is doing, thats highly customizable. If you master Murktide and have the right sideboard for the weekend you will be rewarded with success, however if your sideboard is off your in for a very challenging weekend.

B tier decks are still very solid but they have bigger flaws.

Merfolk is not a deck I expected to be this high on the tier list, but the new flash lord has done a lot for this deck along with combining it to be more of a stompy deck then an all in agro deck. You still present the fast clock draws, but now with things like Magus of the moon your locking your opponents out while you beat down.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/merfolk#paper

UW control is just better four color right now. Four color has the tools to succeed in the format in theory but I think things are very hostile to it right now and we are still hunting for the optimal build. For now UW does a lot of the stuff we want to be doing but with better mana and better answers. The format is still punishing to UW, however if you master your craft you can succeed as we have seen Raja Sullaman do on the NRG circuit these past few weeks.

The rest of B tier is all combo decks. They are all fine but they all have exploitable weaknesses, and in lots of ways are worse breach, but if the opponent doesn't have the cards that lineup well vs you, you will win.

I really dont have any great insights into the C tier decks. I could talk about their flaws but I feel they are well documented, if you want to talk about them feel free to bring it up in DM or in the discord!