It hasn’t been long since Theros was in Standard, but for those who are waxing nostalgic and feeling brave, FMarti has an exciting Modern take on the heroic archetype featuring all the most efficient creatures and pump spells he could find. Let’s take a look at how the archetype ports to Modern.

Naya Heroic ? Modern | FMarti, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Favored Hoplite
• 4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
• 4 Satyr Hoplite

• Spells (28)
• 1 Defiant Strike
• 1 Dromoka's Command
• 2 Emerge Unscathed
• 2 Solidarity of Heroes
• 4 Mutagenic Growth
• 4 Temur Battle Rage
• 4 Vines of Vastwood
• 4 Viridescent Wisps
• 2 Hardened Scales
• 4 Rancor

• Lands (20)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 2 Copperline Gorge
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Dromoka's Command
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Destructive Revelry
• 1 Hyena Umbra
• 1 Kor Firewalker
• 1 Lifelink
• 2 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Natural State
• 1 Path to Exile
• 4 Stony Silence

Buy This Deck

Fundamentally, this is a deck built on the powerful combination of heroic creatures, Rancor, and Temur Battle Rage. These cards alone can threaten enormous, potentially game-ending hits as early as turn three. This is especially true because of the powerful mana bases in Modern, which enable you to easily play all twelve of the 1-drop heroic creatures, rather than relying on cards like Battlewise Hoplite.

Viridescent Wisps and Defiant Strike allow the deck to get aggressive early without throwing away cards, while Mutagenic Growth represents the opportunity to steal games before they’ve really started, especially in conjunction with Temur Battle Rage. Also critically important is the ability to use Vines of Vastwood both as a protection spell and a way to just end the game.

In addition to the explosive aggro plan, this deck has the ability to grind out longer games if you can find Hardened Scales. This card gives you the ability to represent big chunks of damage without having to commit a lot of creatures or pump spells to the board. This allows you to force out kill spells and sweepers at favorable times rather than having to play into them and hope for the best.

All in all, it seems unlikely this deck will overtake either Infect or Bogles as the hyper-aggressive Voltron deck of choice in the format, but this seems like a powerful budget option more than capable of taking games off of the top tier decks in the format.