It's been about a month since the epic banning of Parallax Tide in Premodern. I don't mention it to discuss the ban itself, but to say that what's worse than it actually happening are some of the hot takes it triggered.

The ban was clearly not catalyzed by Premodern's explosive popularity on Magic Online. If you take the time to look at the performing decks on that platform, you'll quickly see that one had nothing to do with the other.

Yes, I actually play the format. One denizen of the Internet claimed I only had the opinion I did because I must not actually play very much. I had won the Season Three Premodern League Championship here in New York City something like 48 hours earlier (over a Parallax deck in the Finals), and co-host the most popular Premodern podcast. But sure.

Speaking of actually playing, I've attended four League nights since the ban. If anything, my performance so far this season is slightly above (my) average, across four different decks.

Here's a look at how it's going.

Week One

Aggro Parfait | Premodern | Mike Flores

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Exalted Angel
• 4 Terravore
• 4 Weathered Wayfarer

• Instants (5)
• 1 Naturalize
• 4 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (8)
• 2 Call of the Herd
• 2 Gaea's Blessing
• 4 Armageddon

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Abundance
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 4 Sylvan Library

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Zuran Orb
• 4 Mox Diamond

• Lands (27)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 City of Brazz
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Rishadan Port
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Treetop Village
• 2 City of Traitors
• 2 Secluded Steppe
• 3 Gemstone Mine
• 3 Rith's Grove
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Cataclysm
• 1 Pyroblast
• 1 Red Elemental Blast
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 2 Abeyance
• 2 Aura of Silence
• 3 Hidden Gibbons
• 4 Pyroclasm

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How does this deck work?

Last season, I deliberately didn't play as hard as I had in Seasons One and Two, because I wanted an "excuse" to be on the draw in the Top 8. I really wanted to play this deck, innovated by the great Rich Shay and later SWB, in the elimination bracket.

I got a scout that I'd be playing "the TerraGeddon mirror" in my quarterfinals match, so I metagamed with Elves instead, to great result.

Aggro Parfait looks like a similar deck to TerraGeddon but has different origins and DNA. Rich was one of the most noted Parfait players prior to the Land Tax ban and wanted to make an update to his beloved deck. So, he kind of subbed in Weathered Wayfarer in the Land Tax spot and built his deck around that card as the engine.

Notably, you can use Wayfarer to blow up several consecutive opposing land drops with Wastelands here or shuffle every turn for Sylvan Library.

The end game is like regular TerraGeddon, with Terravore + Armageddon or Cataclysm being "the combo" that defeats most opponents.

Aggro Parfait has a much worse Dreadnought matchup than regular TerraGeddon because it has no Meddling Mages. It does have more toolbox elements, like Kor Haven for either Sutured Ghoul or the first Phyrexian Dreadnought; or even City of Traitors for an explosive burst of mana.

The deck has many cool pocket combos like City of Traitors + Rith's Grove to get around the former's inherent weakness, or Rith's Grove + Weathered Wayfarer to keep the party going.

My favorite, though, is Sylvan Library + Abundance... Which is really what drew me to the deck in the first place. Now that is a powerful combination, and a true midrange breaker.

How did I do?

3-0.

I earned 2-0 wins over regular TerraGeddon and Domain; and eked out the 2-1 over Season One Champion Lan D. Ho on Tinker Fling.

Sylvan Library + Abundance helped me to take my first two matchups, which are both midrange with mass mana control. It was lost on no one that night that Parallax Tide had just been banned and I got the first week by blowing up everyone's lands.

Outlook

This deck is outstanding. If LobsterCon were tomorrow, Aggro Parfait would be my first choice.

Week Two

U/W The Rock | Premodern | Mike Flores

• Instants (22)
• 1 Absorb
• 1 Annul
• 2 Disenchant
• 2 Renewed Faith
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Fact or Fiction
• 4 Miscalculation
• 4 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (5)
• 2 Wrath of God
• 3 Decree of Justice

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Standstill

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Powder Keg
• 3 Phyrexian Furnace

• Lands (26)
• 3 Plains
• 5 Islands
• 1 Coastal Tower
• 2 Faerie Conclave
• 3 Dust Bowl
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Mishra's Factory

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Annul
• 1 Arcane Laboratory
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Circle of Protection: Red
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Humility
• 1 Powder Keg
• 1 Sacred Ground
• 1 Warmth
• 2 Thawing Glaciers
• 4 Meddling Mage

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How does this deck work?

The name "U/W The Rock" is a joke; this is mostly just a teched-out version of LandStill.

LandStill is the classic Premodern Control deck; allegedly unlocked by the banning of Parallax Tide. You start by having Standstill in your deck, and pair it with threats like Mishra's Factory, Faerie Conclave, and Decree of Justice... Which can all beat up your opponent without triggering Standstill.

I generally dislike Impulse so replaced it with Miscalculation; which is a bad alternative to Impulse that you can use under Standstill, or a bad Mana Leak that gets extra value at two because people are worried about Leak at three.

How did I do?

1-1-1, good for 11th place.

I beat an artifact Prison deck in the first round, then drew with the man himself - Dave Kaplan - on Dreadnought at time (though I'm likely to have won Game 3) and then lost to Tinker Fling in the last round.

Outlook

I would not play LandStill in a long, serious, tournament; a tournament with prizes that I cared about; or certainly LobsterCon.

I played it at LobsterCon a few years ago and had multiple unintended draws. On this League night I had an unintended draw in a matchup where I had a good advantage even against one of the most decorated players on his signature deck.

Most importantly, I think every game I lost my opponent had resolved at least one Tsabo's Web. That is a disaster for LandStill, and has become very widely played.

It's perfect fodder for Tinker, and even a cantrip for Dreadnought. In the post-Tide universe, where Dreadnought has little or no reason to play Mishra's Factory, Web is "free."

Dave told me I should just concede Game 2 on turn two (he had drawn both his Webs in his opening hand). I played it out to an eventual loss, which turned into the match draw. Ew.

Week Three

Enchantress | Premodern | Mike Packer

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Argothian Enchantress

• Instants (2)
• 2 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Replenish

• Enchantments (30)
• 1 Solitary Confinement
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 3 Opalescence
• 3 Parallax Wave
• 3 Seal of Cleansing
• 3 Sterling Grove
• 4 Enchantress's Presence
• 4 Exploration
• 4 Mirri's Guile
• 4 Wild Growth

• Lands (23)
• 2 Plains
• 7 Forest
• 1 Rith's Grove
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Serra Sanctum
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Aura of Silence
• 1 Enlightened Tutor
• 1 Orim's Chant
• 1 Replenish
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 2 Abeyance
• 2 Gaea's Blessing
• 2 Sacred Ground
• 2 Swords to Plowshares
• 2 Tsabo's Web

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How does this deck work?

This is largely just the now-classic Enchantress, that Rich Shay and Mike Packer did so well with at LobsterCon last year, and Chris Tolar used to great effect recently in Portland.

Enchantress has eight Enchantress effects - Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence - that combined with including a ton of enchantments in your deck list makes for the most powerful draw engine in Premodern.

Eventually, you end the game with Opalescence or at least lock the game out with Opalescence + Parallax Wave, similar to a Replenish deck.

Obviously, it makes tons of sense to ban Parallax Tide for not functioning like it's supposed to but leave Parallax Wave, a card that commits the exact same crime in the exact same way. Whatever.

How did I do?

3-0

I got a 2-0 win over my podcast co-host Lanny Huang on Miracle Grow, a 2-1 over Boros Goblins, and a 2-1 over Lan D. Ho with StOmPy. It's been a pretty good season for me over my boogeyman opponents, on their signature decks.

Outlook

My own 3-0 aside, Enchantress is just an outstanding deck, full stop.

It was arguably the best deck in the format prior to the Parallax Tide ban due to its overwhelming matchup percentage against Dreadnought, and it's simply gotten better by the other best decks becoming so much worse.

The help I got here from Mike Packer primarily involved removing cards like Xantid Swarm and Carpet of Flowers. Because the poor Blue decks are so much more pathetic at putting up a fight than they were a month ago, you simply don't need them to win.

Week Four

City of Burn | Premodern | Dmitry Medvedev

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Grim Lavamancer
• 4 Jackal Pup
• 4 Mogg Fanatic

• Instants (14)
• 2 Price of Progress
• 4 Fireblast
• 4 Incinerate
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Flame Rift

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Pyrostatic Pillar
• 4 Seal of Fire

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Black Vise

• Lands (20)
• 20 Mountain

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Flaring Pain
• 1 Pyroblast
• 2 City of Traitors
• 3 Overload
• 4 Blood Oath
• 4 Mogg Salvage

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How does this deck work?

This deck, innovated by Dmitry Medvedev for Magic Online, is like a Burn deck, I guess... But one that is essentially just Gear One. It doesn't trade and grind. If it sets up a long game inevitability, it is a very different one than what we've seen in the past.

City of Burn has tons of big damage in Pyrostatic Pillar and Flame Rift that we don't generally see in conventional Premodern Burn decks. I think you kind of have to be a specialist with this deck. It's not intuitive, and you are watching your own life total as much as your opponent's.

Pillar pressures the opponent in a different way than, say, Sulfuric Vortex and Lava Dart.

For conventional Burn, you might just blow up all your opponent's creatures and let the Vortex kill them; but with this deck, you get extra damage from Pyrostatic Pillar (which might prevent them from playing those guys at all).

Pillar is pretty good at punishing heavy cantrip use, so can help flip the Dreadnought matchup... But it's obvious that Medvedev was gunning for the Top Gun with his aggressive anti-Blue / anti-Artifact sideboard.

I found the lack of Wooded Foothills and Bloodstained Mire functionally troublesome. It ends up that my Grim Lavamancer often has nothing to do. But this deck deals so much damage to itself, I can see Dmitry wanting to mitigate self-destruction where he can.

The deck itself is philosophically different from the kind of Burn I've always liked to play thanks to the Three Gears... But gets a major innovation from City of Traitors + Blood Oath in the sideboard. Imagine it's turn three. Imagine your opponent is playing Enchantress. See the picture yet?

I did nine damage to Luis Neiman on consecutive turns with the City + Oath combo. He was playing a Survival of the Fittest deck, and I said the word "creature."

How did I do?

2-1 with wins over Cradle Control and Hermit FEB, and a loss to G/W TerraOath.

I feel like I would have beaten both Cradle Control and Hermit FEB even more badly with conventional Burn.

TerraOath beat me with Warmth in play Game 3, which is problematic for whichever Burn deck.

Outlook

I am definitely trying this deck again, maybe even this week. It's challenging in a way that my old favorite can never be, given my muscle memory there; and a fun puzzle that makes Premodern feel fresh.

Unlike most Burn decks, you actually feel oppressive and powerful with some of these cards in front of you. It is beyond dismal in the mirror, though; so, I think City of Burn is benefitting right now just by a historically unusual lapse in Burn popularity.

I played (regular) Burn at my last LobsterCon, with a near-miss for Top 8 in the final round (and I was up a game!)... So, I'm not above running Burn in a tournament I care about winning; but I'm not enamored enough of this particular build to go there with this... At least not yet.

So, Tide or no, I'm still playing (and loving) Premodern. But, I will point out that my 3-0 wins this season so far have both included either mass mana control or a card with the word "Parallax" up front. Take that for what you will.

LOVE

MIKE