Fury and Beans are DEAD! Decklist effective 12/5/2023

Hello hello hello everyone, and welcome back to a NEW (and less angry) Modern! Beans and Scam are dead thanks to WotC banning Up the Beanstalk and Fury, so the entire meta is likely to shift! While there have been varying takes on it, Dom Harvey put it like this:

First of all Dom, ouch.

While I disagree with where a lot of his B and C tier, I think his S and A tiers are potentially correct. My guess is that the big winners of the ban will be Living End, Amulet, Yawgmoth, and UR Murktide, while the losers are Rhinos and 4C. While the meta is still brand new and needs to shake out a bit, those are my guesses, and thus how I constructed my deck.

***Even more than usual, make sure to adjust your mid-match decisions based on the specifics of any list you face and use this as a guideline, rather than a hard and fast rule! Sometimes vibes > guide.***

Post-Ban Configuration

SB Guide

Current Deck Configuration Notes:

-3 Thopter - While I would like to play a 4th thopter, I couldn’t really find anything else to cut. I tried cutting the 2nd Forge Anew and didn’t like that. I also considered playing a 4 Thopter/2 Giver split. I think that is completely reasonable, but I prefer the 3/3 split at the moment.

-Giver of Runes - Giver is a very solid card, but can be a bit clunky when you are trying to streamline as much as possible. I am more likely to play a 3rd copy before moving to 1, but overall nothing big to note on this one. Card is solid.

-Esper Sentinel - Card is still great in the format, and performs its job as a 1/1 artifact creature that pitches to solitude admirably. It is also a lot better with the decrease in bowmasters running around.

-Mana Tithe - While the card did a great job pushing back on beans and scam, I am less inclined to believe that it will be as back-breaking in this new meta. That being said, Tithe may come back if the format becomes more mana-intensive.

-Nettlecyst - I may look to revisit this card in the future, but for now I like being very focused and devoting my flex slots to solitude to help out the Titan, Yawg, and Amulet matchups.

-Strict Proctor - Proctor is, not close, our best piece of hate for Amulet Titan. That paired with how disruptive it is likely to be against 4C now that they are back on The One Ring means that I’m very happy to pack the full set in the sideboard. *Additionally, I anticipate quite a few more people playing what I lovingly refer to as “cope” decks that they thought were banned by Fury. Humans, Merfolk, and their ilk are definitely also hurt by the proctor quite a bit.

-Cursed Totem - Not much has changed here since November. As we continue to see Yawgmoth and Scales rise in popularity, Totem’s stock continues to rise. While I ordinarily like hate bears and/or saga targets as my high-impact SB cards, nothing does quite what Cursed Totem does. The card shutting down Yawg, mana dorks, Haywire Mite, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, Ravager, Hangarback, Ballista, as well as many others means that these decks have ~2-4 outs to the card in their 75s. **Note that when you board in Totem: Giver, Gingerbrute, SFM activation, Paradise Mantle, and double Inkmoth activations are largely shut off (which is why you will see some more wonky sb’ing than usual). Additionally, if you are not expecting much Yawg/Scales, I would certainly play 1-2 of Totem max.

-Pithing Needle(s) - While Needle definitely has its utility, I’ve like trimming it down more. Against Tron the best plan it to mulliganing aggressively to a fast hand, and with the loss of Fury, I expect a lot less 4C to be running around. That means we should see fewer One Rings to contend with. Plus, with access to Totem, the redundant needles are less important than before.

-4 Drannith - Living End is unfortunately likely to see a large uptick. As such, Drannith becomes one of our best friends. I would either pack 4 and try to fight Living End, or accept the loss and move on.

-2/2 Solitude//Surge split - With the format opening up (at least temporarily), I like having access to a couple of solitudes in the main. With less 4C and UW to punish us having solitude game 1, I like moving the extra surges to the SB for games 2 and 3, which is typically where we need them anyway.

-Sanctifier - Card sucks. Card has always sucked, and I am ecstatic to not feel pressured into registering her. RIP.