MTG Modern format explained: What is it & more
Magic: The Gathering has a few formats, and none is more competitive than Modern. Here’s the breakdown of Magic’s Modern format.
Magic has an extensive history and an even bigger assortment of cards to choose from. While formats like Commander, Legacy, and Vintage will cover the full spectrum of Magic, surely there’s a more curated format?
That’s where Modern comes in. Introduced in 2011, Modern uses nearly every card from the 8th Edition set onwards. This is where the term ‘modern’ stems from, as the 8th Edition is considered where MTG began to standardize itself with the current card frame.
Modern is considered very competitive, but it’s a very freeing format to work in. The constraints of the card pool aren’t really a thing anymore, as since its introduction there’s been 53 other sets added.
Magic: The Gathering’s Modern format deck rules
Modern works like any other main constructed format, in that you build a 60-card deck with a 15-card sideboard. The sideboard is like a small backup of cards that you can swap out between games to answer problems the other player has presented.
Is MTG Modern expensive?
As it’s competitive, and fairly popular amongst the player base, it means that it can get quite expensive. While not as expensive as something like Legacy, popular decks can still be in the thousands.
This is because the incredibly smart players will mostly crack the metagame, and their findings will be published on popular deck aggregators. This is how things like Snapcaster Mage end up at ludicrous prices during its reign of terror.
This also means that while you can be as creative as you want with some of the most powerful cards printed in Magic’s modern era, there are some definite archetypes to consider.
Although, some have fallen to the wayside. Affinity, for example, has almost vanished from the game due to Mox Opal – a key piece of the deck – being banned.
Budget decks
A fairly cheap way to get into Modern is through a couple of budget archetypes. These aren’t guaranteed to win with the current meta, but should serve you well in learning the Modern format’s eccentricities.
An excellent place to start is “Mono-Green Stompy”, which comes in a few flavors. One on MTGGoldfish focuses on cheap creatures that build each other up or avoid blockers. Another way to go would be to consider a “Burn” deck, which uses mostly all red cards, to zap players.
Banned cards in MTG Modern
As Modern doesn’t rotate, it has an extensive ban list. You should, however, be able to play a majority of these cards in Oathbreaker and Commander.
| Card | Price (Subject to change) |
|---|---|
| Ancient Den | $0.75 |
| Arcum’s Astrolabe | $0.12 |
| Birthing Pod | $7.65 |
| Blazing Shoal | $1.10 |
| Bridge from Below | $1.15 |
| Chrome Mox | $67.75 |
| Cloudpost | $0.52 |
| Dark Depths | $5.14 |
| Deathrite Shaman | $5.27 |
| Dig Through Time | $0.39 |
| Dread Return | $0.32 |
| Eye of Ugin | $34.54 |
| Faithless Looting | $0.44 |
| Field of the Dead | $21.24 |
| Gitaxian Probe | $2.30 |
| Glimpse of Nature | $17.38 |
| Golgari Grave-Troll | $2.67 |
| Great Furnace | $2.43 |
| Green Sun’s Zenith | $7.94 |
| Hidden Ancients | $0.24 |
| Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis | $0.77 |
| Hypergenesis | $0.93 |
| Krark-Clan Ironworks | $23.07 |
| Lurrus of the Dream-Den | $0.45 |
| Mental Misstep | $5.40 |
| Mox Opal | $72.29 |
| Mycosynth Lattice | $13.14 |
| Mystic Sanctuary | $1.24 |
| Oko, Thief of Crowns | $12.89 |
| Once Upon a Time | $0.75 |
| Ponder | $2.69 |
| Punishing Fire | $0.28 |
| Rite of Flame | $2.37 |
| Seat of the Synod | $1.38 |
| Second Sunrise | $2.75 |
| Seething Song | $1.29 |
| Sensei’s Divining Top | $20.77 |
| Simian Spirit Guide | $0.59 |
| Skullclamp | $3.49 |
| Splinter Twin | $5.65 |
| Summer Bloom | $0.41 |
| Tibalt’s Trickery | $4.10 |
| Treasure Cruise | $0.21 |
| Tree of Tales | $2.20 |
| Umezawa’s Jitte | $10.49 |
| Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath | $9.09 |
| Vault of Whispers | $2.17 |
| Yorion, Sky Nomad | $0.49 |