Modern is one of the most popular formats in Magic, but it has changed a lot over the years.

Thanks to new, more powerful cards coming out and straight-to-Modern printings of sets changing the format entirely every few years, the game has evolved and shifted into something that someone from the mid-2010s would never recognize.

While there are a few extremely powerful decks in Modern, there's always a fight for the top of the table. Let's look at some of the top decks running the Modern metagame currently.

Boros Energy (9%)

Since its appearance in Modern Horizons 3, Boros Energy has found a stable home in many formats including Modern, overshadowing other decks because of its ability to gum up the board quickly and take the fight to the enemy.

Early one-drops like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Ocelot Pride, and Guide of Souls grind out incremental advantage, whether that's in stealing cards from the opponent, +1/+1 counters, lifegain, or extra bodies on the field.

The deck has a lot of resilience too, being able to rebuild using Seasoned Pyromancer or use Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to refill its hand. Let's not pretend it's a midrange deck, though, since it executes a very strong aggro, early-game assault on the opponent. And it's brutally efficient at doing so.

It's impressive how fast and consistent it can be, even when keeping sketchy hands. It is a bit pricey, as far as Modern decks go, but if you want to go fast, there are few other decks that can keep up with it.

• Average Deck Cost: $1146
• Top 8 Win Rate: 60% (based on an analysis of 118 decks)

Izzet Metalcraft (9%)

Izzet () has two decks in the top ranking, yet the name can be pretty misleading. There's really only one Metalcraft card (an ability that activates when you control three or more Artifacts) in the whole maindeck, but there aren't a lot of other ways to call Artifacts-matter decks.

The decklist looks like a mishmash of things, but when you play it, you realize how artfully designed this entire thing is. It's a deck that wants to be a lot of things, and based on your opening hand, you know which the best line to follow is.

You could go aggro with Pinnacle Emissary or control using your mana to cast a strategic Thoughtcast and close out with a massive Kappa Cannoneer.

The ability of the deck to adapt makes it worth playing. Toolbox-type plays like getting a Tormod's Crypt to stop your opponent's Living End plan is genius and built into the deck's resilience.

Overall, if you want a deck that makes you feel like you're one step ahead of the opponent every single match, this is the deck for you.

• Average Deck Cost: $1631
• Top 8 Win Rate: 76% (based on an analysis of 110 decks)

Izzet Prowess (7%)

If you're looking for a comparatively inexpensive deck that can still put up a significant showing in the Modern meta, this is where it's at. Since this is based on Standard Izzet Prowess, a lot of the cards here are still in Standard rotation, making it easy to pick them up.

The core of the deck centers around Cori-Steel Cutter and a lot of other spells that can be cast cheaply (or for free, for the Plot cards), allowing a player to generate value off the Steel-Cutter and its tokens (which all have Prowess, an ability that grows a Creature with each noncreature spell you cast).

Additionally, evasive attackers like Slickshot Show-Off that grow with each noncreature spell cast become hard to deal with.

The game plan of overwhelming the enemy makes this a tough deck to deal with. Even board wipes don't stop the deck completely with its ability to churn out more of those Prowess tokens once they have cheap spells to cast. And they almost always have cheap spells to cast.

If you're aggressive and want to close out games quickly, this is definitely one that you want to be playing in a Modern tournament.

• Average Deck Cost: $476
• Top 8 Win Rate: 62% (based on an analysis of 91 decks)

Esper Reanimator (5%)

Esper Reanimator is an archetype that has been kicking around in Modern in one form or another for a while. Graveyard decks like these tend to keep regular aggro and control players on their toes. This one is one of the best executions of the game plan that has been seen in a long time.

While older lists used to use Griselbrand as the reanimator target, this version still keeps a few copies around, but aims to reanimate Atraxa, Grand Unifier for massive card advantage.

Since a lot of the cards in the deck are dual-colored, this means that Atraxa can potentially net a ton of cards when she enters.

Combine that with resilient threats like Psychic Frog and ways to keep your reanimated Creatures around like Ephemerate, and it's not surprising that most people can't deal with a turn two Atraxa with backup.

This deck can push for aggro wins, but it also plays a very comfortable midrange game, using control and card advantage to bury the opponent in incremental value. Worth trying out if you like decks that have multiple lines of play and grind out advantage turn by turn.

• Average Deck Cost: $1141
• Top 8 Win Rate: 78% (based on an analysis of 74 decks)

Eldrazi Tron (5%)

A Modern metagame isn't complete without some version of Tron in it. While 1+1+1 = 7 no longer automatically means a Karn Liberated, it could mean an Ugin, Eye of the Storms, a Sire of Seven Deaths, or a World Breaker coming down on turn three, potentially.

Land destruction is a lot more present in the metagame these days, so Tron no longer has easy wins. However, with cards like Kozilek's Command in the deck, there's a decent amount of ramp, resilience, and bodies to take the game to the opponent.

Eldrazi Tron is one of the best examples of a powerful midrange deck that takes a few turns to set up, but once it does, it starts churning out threat after threat each successive round.

Control decks eventually run out of control and aggro decks eventually start staring down multiple game-enders with no way through them.

If you like the idea of a deck that needs you to sequence your building, and overwhelms the enemy with inevitability, this is the deck you should be looking at.

• Average Deck Cost: $591
• Top 8 Win Rate: 58% (based on an analysis of 70 decks)

Eldrazi Bloodchief Combo (5%)

Bloodchief Combo is something you might expect to run into at a Commander table, but it surprisingly has a place here in Modern next to some cards that show up as Pauper staples, no less. This deck is about big mana and turning it into big Creatures.

The core of the deck is the combo, which centers around Basking Broodscale and Blade of the Bloodchief. Have the blade attached to Broodscale, and add a counter to it somehow, typically by sacrificing an Eldrazi Spawn token.

Once that happens, you can remove the counter and create a Spawn, which, when it dies, will add a counter to the Broodscale.

This sets up an infinite mana loop allowing you to cast things like an Emrakul, the Promised End or a lethal Walking Ballista.

As far as combo decks go, it's got a lot going for it. If it never finds its combo pieces, it's still in a pretty competent shell. It gets resilience through Malevolent Rumble and Ancient Stirrings making it one of the more consistent combo decks being played. If you're into combo wins, don't sleep on this one.

• Average Deck Cost: $747
• Top 8 Win Rate: 78% (based on an analysis of 72 decks)

Living End (3.5%)

Living End decks are another longstanding archetype in Modern and they've had some support from straight-to-Modern sets more recently.

Cards like Oliphaunt and Generous Ent offer great early-game discard for Land fixing which eventually will allow players to Living End them back into play.

The current iteration of Living End is mostly early-game control elements to put Creatures back into their owner's hand, while setting up for a massive Living End to reanimate Creatures that already have built-in discard capability.

Cyclers, Landcyclers, and discard activated abilities play well alongside Evoke Elementals, which can be cast for a cheaper cost and sacrificed, going to the graveyard where they can return from later.

If you like decks that have an answer for everything (or can find an answer for everything) this would be worth giving a shot. It's got a few pretty good matchups, although at times it can be too slow to deal with the more rapid-fire aggro decks.

• Average Deck Cost: $824
• Top 8 Win Rate: 41% (based on an analysis of 72 decks)

Ruby Storm (3%)

Storm is still one of the most powerful archetypes ever built, and while it's not nearly as popular in Modern as it used to be in the days of Pyromancer Ascension, it's still pretty powerful.

This version of the deck aims to use Ruby Medallion or Ral, Monsoon Mage as a cost reducer to net mana as it draws through its deck and looks for the single copy of Grapeshot in there.

The deck is pretty resilient but has its moments where it'll just draw into nothing and end a turn failing to execute the kill.

The resilience in the deck comes from two elements, the Past in Flames which gives all cards in the graveyard Flashback, essentially making it nearly impossible to fizzle, and Ral's flip side, which allows a player to cast any Instants and Sorceries off the top eight cards of the deck for free.

This deck is just as explosive as it was during the OG Storm days, but with so many more answers (like Vexing Bauble) in opponent mainboards, it's a risk running this deck in a Modern tournament.

• Average Deck Cost: $678
• Top 8 Win Rate: 77% (based on an analysis of 80 decks)

Playing Modern Today

I won't tell you that Modern is a format for everyone (even though there are technically decks for everyone in the meta).

What I will say is that Modern of today isn't the Modern of the past. If you were glad to eke out advantage through fancy tricks, and trade cards one for one with an opponent, that era of Modern is long gone.

Today's Modern format is blisteringly fast, with room for tempo and midrange alongside combo decks built to deal with those early threats.

The current Modern format feels like you took the ailing 2015 version of it, and got a Gas Guzzler to mainline adrenaline into its veins. It's an experience, and if you haven't tried it yet, you should give it a shot at least once.