The Eldrazi menace has made its presence felt in Modern, and now players are scrambling to find ways to beat it. Many players are looking for ways to fight the fast mana aspect with the likes of Blood Moon and Spreading Seas. Others are trying to use Snapcaster Mage and Batterskull to value the Eldrazi deck out of the game. Still others are trying to utilize Ensnaring Bridge and Ghostly Prison to lock the Eldrazi out of combat. Sweepers have generally not been good in Modern, but sweepers plus pressure may be exactly what we need to keep the Eldrazi in check.

Living End ? Modern | PigNorton, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Jungle Weaver
• 1 Pale Recluse
• 2 Ingot Chewer
• 3 Simian Spirit Guide
• 4 Deadshot Minotaur
• 4 Fulminator Mage
• 4 Monstrous Carabid
• 4 Street Wraith
• 4 Architects of Will

• Spells (14)
• 3 Beast Within
• 4 Violent Outburst
• 3 Living End
• 4 Demonic Dread

• Lands (19)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Copperline Gorge

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ingot Chewer
• 3 Gnaw to the Bone
• 4 Leyline of the Void
• 2 Ricochet Trap
• 4 Shriekmaw

Buy This Deck

Living End is nothing new, but it’s positioning in the format has never been better. Fulminator Mage is absurd against all of the various Eldrazi builds, especially when you can rebuy Fulminator repeatedly with Living Ends. The real power of the deck, however, is its ability to sweep away Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher as early as turn two while putting a fast clock into play. This means you don’t give the Eldrazi decks time to chip in with creature lands.

The biggest problem this deck faces is in fighting against hateful artifacts like Chalice of the Void and Relic of Progenitus, though, main deck copies of Beast Within and Ingot Chewer do help. These cards let you fight through the hate efficiently and on-curve. It’s not difficult to kill a Chalice on your opponent’s end step or with an Ingot Chewer and follow-up with a cascade spell to put your opponent far enough behind to effectively end the game. Similarly, you can force your opponent to pull the trigger on their hate with a Living End or artifact removal spell, and then cycle more creatures in response to get them into play.

Living End has typically been a deck which interacts along too narrow an axis to truly become a dominant presence in the metagame. In the new Modern format, the ability to pressure opposing lands, sweep the board, and put a bunch of pressure into play at the same time is enormously powerful, and may be the perfect counter to the Eldrazi monstrosity.