Over the course of the last few months, we’ve seen the rise and fall of Nahiri, the Harbinger decks in Modern. The combination of Nahiri, the Harbinger and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is a powerful and abrupt way to shift from a more controlling stance to ending the game outright. When the format is dominating by midrange decks, Nahiri, the Harbinger is an incredible way to generate value and threaten to win in the midgame. As the format becomes more aggressive, Nahiri, the Harbinger loses a lot of her luster. At least, until you start building a deck that is capable of defending Nahiri, the Harbinger more proactively. Take a look at this build that Yu Yin took to a Top 16 finish at Grand Prix Guangzhou.

Mardu Walkers ? Modern | Yu Yin, 13th Grand Prix Guangzhou

• Creatures (5)
• 4 Wall of Omens
• 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

• Planeswalkers (10)
• 4 Liliana of the Veil
• 4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Gideon Jura

• Spells (22)
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Path to Exile
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 2 Lightning Helix
• 1 Crackling Doom
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Terminate

• Lands (24)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 3 Shambling Vent
• 2 Blood Crypt
• 2 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Lightning Helix
• 2 Slaughter Games
• 2 Kolaghan's Command
• 2 Damnation
• 1 Curse of Death's Hold
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Duress
• 1 Painful Truths
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb

Buy This Deck

The key to this deck is that it combines efficient interaction with efficient ways to stall out the board. This allows this to be a more aggressive iteration of the Nahiri deck. You don’t have to worry about leaving up countermagic to protect Nahiri, the Harbinger, because you don’t have any. Instead, this deck is trying to lead off with discard spells, utilizing cards like Wall of Omens and Lingering Souls to stall out the board before you even cast Nahiri, the Harbinger. Once Nahiri, the Harbinger has hit the battlefield, Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Gideon Jura will do a fantastic job of making sure that Nahiri, the Harbinger gets up to ultimate and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn will clean up the rest.

The power of this deck is two-fold. Firstly, Lingering Souls is an absurd card in a format where Infect and Affinity are two of the more popular decks. Secondly, access to removal spells like Path to Exile, Liliana of the Veil, and Nahiri, the Harbinger that don’t care about the size of creatures gives you more game against the likes of Death's Shadow and Tarmogoyf. Furthermore, this deck is more capable of stalling out the board in midrange mirrors than any other deck I’ve seen in Modern. This means that your Planeswalkers are more likely to be able to take over protracted games.

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a real Planeswalker deck in Modern, and I’m excited to see one put up a great performance at a Grand Prix. If you’re looking to play something packed with powerful Planeswalkers and efficient interaction, this is a fantastic take on the Modern format.