The numerous Eldrazi variants may have stolen the spotlight at Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch, but there was plenty of exciting Modern technology. Many players looked for ways to shoehorn the Kiki-Jiki combo with Deceiver Exarch or Restoration Angel into existing Modern archetypes. The problem with these strategies is they are frequently too slow to keep up with decks like Affinity or Eldrazi. Enter Matthew Rogers’s interesting take on creature-based combos, featuring another combo from the Birthing Pod era of Modern:

Abzan Chord ? Modern | Matthew Rogers, Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Courser of Kruphix
• 2 Spellskite
• 3 Spike Feeder
• 4 Archangel of Thune
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Wall of Roots

• Spells (11)
• 3 Path to Exile
• 4 Chord of Calling
• 4 Lingering Souls

• Lands (23)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Forest
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Temple Garden
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Gavony Township
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 3 Painful Truths
• 3 Stony Silence
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 2 Worship

Buy This Deck

This is an interesting deck for a number of reasons, but primarily because it was incredibly well-positioned for the Pro Tour. The decks people expected to see in large numbers were aggressive Goblin Guide and Wild Nacatl Decks, Affinity, Infect, and Eldrazi. This deck manages to play Wall of Roots against aggressive decks, Lingering Souls against the decks with X/1s, and a creature-based combo that rendering the Eldrazi deck effectively dead.

In addition to playing a number of powerful, well-positioned cards, the deck allows you to utilize those cards in a synergistic fashion with Chord of Calling. Between all of the mana creatures, Wall of Roots, and Lingering Souls tokens, it’s not especially difficult to start casting Chords for large amounts early on in the game. This helps you find your matchup-breaking singletons more easily, or assemble your game-ending combo early in the game.

Even in games not involving Chord of Calling, this deck has a number of powerful interactions capable of easily taking a game. You can curve out mana creatures into Gavony Township activations, which can easily steal a game against opposing midrange or control decks. You also have the potential to just cast the combo pieces of Archangel of Thune and Spike Weaver to gain infinite life and pump your team to infinite proportions. Chord of Calling certainly makes it easier to put the pieces together, but the cards in the deck are powerful enough to get the job done on their own.

It’s important to remember this color combination has some of the most efficient interactive cards in the format. This deck plays Path to Exile, but you could just as easily elect to play cards like Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut, Thoughtseize, or Inquisition of Kozilek. These cards become particularly powerful with the inclusion of a card like Eternal Witness to rebuy key interactive elements. All told, the deck is well-positioned against the metagame, has a powerful and proactive game plan, and is capable of playing a robust and customizable suite of interactive cards depending on what decks you expect to see. Eldrazi may be the deck to beat, but this might be the deck with the best tools to do it.