Ever since Phyrexia: All Will Be One came out, one question has been on many Magic players’ minds; what is the best way to utilize Atraxa, Grand Unifier? In Standard, she has seen play in some Grixis midrange decks, using Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to put her in the graveyard and Gix’s Cruelty to reanimate her.
In Pioneer, Rakdos Sacrifice decks have been reanimating her with the new Vat of Rebirth. In Legacy, many Show and Tell and Reanimator builds have adopted her into their pantheon of broken creatures. But what about Modern?
While there is still lots of testing to do in Modern with Atraxa, two decks have arisen that both utilize Atraxa as well as another powerful card, Goryo’s Vengeance. The game plan for both decks is very simple; discard Atraxa and reanimate it with Goryo’s Vengeance. Other than that, the two decks are very different.
One of them is a Jund build that is trying to be very explosive with its combo, while the other is an Esper build that relies on gaining enough card advantage to overwhelm the opponent. Today we’re going to take a look at both!
“Jund” Atraxa's Vengeance
Now, when I say this is a Jund build, really what I mean is that it is a mono-black deck that runs two red cards in the sideboard, four green cards in the sideboard, and Jegantha, the Wellspring as your companion. It also runs four copies of Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, which I guess is technically also red.
So yes, technically, this is a “Jund” deck, but the bulk of the deck is black, excluding Atraxa. As mentioned, this is an Asmo build, so this deck relies on The Underworld Cookbook and Ovalchase Daredevil to accrue value.
What is the combo?
However, this deck differs from many Asmo decks because it was built to have explosive, game-winning starts. The Atraxa combo actually relies on The Underworld Cookbook, as you can cast Cookbook on turn one and discard Atraxa in order to reanimate her on turn two.
If you cannot locate your combo for the early win, this deck has other lines that can keep you alive until you do. Obviously you can make a bunch of food tokens with the Cookbook and Ovalchase Daredevil and then use Asmo to clear the board of your opponent’s creatures. But there are other fun things you can do as well.
Because the deck is primarily mono-black, it is the perfect opportunity to run four Urza’s Saga to find your Underworld Cookbooks and create construct tokens to keep you alive, or as an additional wincon. Speaking of additional wincons, the deck does not rely solely on Atraxa to finish the game.
While reanimating Atraxa does not mean your opponent is dead, Emrakul ensures your opponent won’t win. You can discard Emrakul with Cookbook and then, with Emrakul’s trigger on the stack, reanimate it with Goryo’s Vengeance to attack your opponent and make them sacrifice six permanents.
I should also add that the deck has a super-secret-side combo that is not always intuitive. Let’s say that you go to game two, and your opponent starts the game with a Leyline of the Void in play, and you have an Atraxa in your hand with no way to make blue or white mana in your deck. Sounds like a problem!
However, you have something very powerful outside your deck that can help you out; Jegantha! Most of the time, Jegantha is just run as a companion because it can easily get around the deck restriction, and it’s a free 5/5 creature in the late game. However, for the first time ever, Jegantha is not just a big dumb creature. A lot of people forget that you can tap Jegantha for WUBRG, which allows you to cast your Atraxa!
How do we protect the combo?
After all, combo decks are well known for falling prey to discard spells or counterspells. In the mainboard, we can run up to eight discard spells, usually consisting of four Thoughtseizes and a mixture of Inquision of Kozileks and Collective Brutality. Thoughtseize actually serves double duty, as you can target yourself with it to discard Atraxa or Emrakul if you have no other options.
The Spice
There are a number of very spicy cards in this build, which makes me want to try out the deck just so I can play with them. The first spicy card in the deck is Brainstone. No, not The Stone Brain from The Brothers’ War; we’re talking about the one-drop artifact from Modern Horizons 2 that mimics Brainstorm.
This artifact can be found with Urza’s Saga, and it allows you to dig through your deck to find your combo pieces. Even though this deck is primarily mono-black, it runs several fetch lands, meaning that you can do the powerful combo of activating Brainstone, putting back two unwanted cards, and then shuffling them away.
The second spicy card is also an underplayed card from Modern Horizons 2, Profane Tutor. Just like Brainstone, this card emulates another broken card from the early days of Magic, Demonic Tutor. The only drawback is that you have to wait a couple of turns before you can actually use it.
However, in a deck like this, waiting a couple of turns is fine, as you can durdle on the board with Asmo and food tokens until you have an explosive turn where you find your last combo piece with Profane Tutor and go off. While this card hasn’t seen much play yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if people began figuring out that a slightly powered-down Demonic Tutor is still a very powerful card in Modern.
Esper Atraxa's Vengeance
While the Jund version relies on your deck killing your opponent quickly with Emrakul and Atraxa, the Esper build utilizes card advantage and two-for-ones to win the game. This deck heavily relies on an engine that many people have come to love; Modern Horizons 2 pitch elementals and Ephemerate.
This deck may be slower, but that does not mean that the power level is decreased. It runs the whole suite of four Solitude and four Grief, which, coupled with Ephemerate, can usually dominate a game.
A lot of players look at Atraxa’s mana value and are repulsed; four different colors of mana? However, as players have begun to realize, she can be pitched to many different cards, such as Solitude and Grief. If you are stuck with an extra Atraxa in your hand, no worries; just save it so that you can pitch it to one of your elementals for value.
What is the combo?
Okay, we know that the pitch elementals are powerful, but how does this deck actually combo off and win the game? While this deck doesn’t have a way of getting Atraxa into the graveyard on turn one, it runs four Faithful Mending, four Shadow Prophecy, and two Tainted Indulgence, which can put Atraxa in your graveyard and Goryo’s Vengeance in your hand.
Just like how Emrakul backs up the Jund version, the Esper version is backed up by another well-known legendary creature; Griselbrand. Reanimating Griselbrand is usually as powerful as reanimating Atraxa, as it allows you to draw a crazy amount of cards to stack your hand full of Elementals and additional reanimate spells for the next turn.
However, I still haven’t mentioned the additional tech that this deck has that the Jund deck lacks. Usually, Goryo’s Vengeance has limited power, as it makes you exile the creature at your end step. However, Ephemeral not only allows you to get value out of your pitch Elementals, but it also allows you to flicker your reanimated creature. This means the exile trigger goes away!
Imagine this, you cast Goryo’s Vengeance and reanimate Atraxa, allowing you to look at the top ten cards of your library and put a number of them into your hand. Then you swing for seven lifelink damage in the air.
Then you cast Ephemerate, blinking your Atraxa and allowing you to look at ten new cards. Then on your upkeep, you cast Ephemerate again off its rebound, flickering Atraxa yet again and looking at ten more cards! I honestly don’t know how you lose a game after doing that.
How do we protect the combo?
The best way to protect the combo is with a turn-one Grief backed up with Ephemerate. Taking three cards out of your opponent’s hand is usually a surefire way to ensure that your combo will go off without a problem. This also leaves you with a 3/2 menace, forcing your opponent to deal with your aggressive start.
Of course, as with most combo decks, Teferi, Time Raveler is also a nice addition. Not only does it clear the way of your opponent's interaction, but it also allows you to bounce your opponent's artifacts or enchantments back to their hand which may be disrupting your combo.
The lands in this deck are a little funky, as the mana base includes an Indatha and Raugrin Triome. However, this allows the deck to run four Leyline Binding, which has proven to be a very powerful card in some Modern decks. This can end up being a one-drop unconditional removal spell as early as turn two!
And of course, the sideboard is stocked with plenty of cards to deal with your opponent's attempts to halt your combo. This includes four copies of Force of Negation and another Teferi, Time Raveler. It even runs an Emrakul in the side, which is a strong card against Mill decks, which have recently risen in popularity, as well as being another target for Goryo’s Vengeance.
The Spice
Just like with the Jund Version, the Esper version has two spicy cards that make me want to play the deck even more. The first of these two cards may seem underpowered, but I promise you that it’s more than meets the eye. Footsteps of the Goryo may seem like just an underpowered Goryo’s Vengeance, but there are slight differences that allow this card to have additional functionality.
The first difference is that Footsteps of the Goryo only forces you to sacrifice the creature instead of exiling it. This may seem trivial, but this means that if you don’t find an Ephemerate, you only have to sacrifice your Atraxa or Griselbrand, allowing you to reanimate it on your next turn as well.
The second difference is the removal of one very important word; legendary. While Goryo's Vengeance can only target legendary creatures, Footsteps of the Goryo can target any creature, meaning that you can reanimate your Solitudes and Griefs for additional usage.
If you love overkill, this third, hidden difference will knock your socks off. While this is usually overlooked on most cards, Footsteps of the Goryo isn’t just a Sorcery, it also has the subtype of Arcane. This doesn’t come up that often, as Splice onto Arcane is a very unused ability. However, there is a card in this deck that does contain that text; Goryo’s Vengeance.
Now, as I said, this is absolutely overkill and probably won’t be a deciding factor in most games, but this means that you can cast Footsteps of the Goryo and then Splice onto Arcane Goryo’s Vengeance, adding its ability to Footsteps! That’s two for the price of one! What a deal!
The second spicy card in this deck is Not of This World, a card that is usually only seen in Legacy Depths. This super-specific counterspell may not seem very good, but once you have an Atraxa or Griselbrand in play, this card turns into a free protection spell for your creature. While it is only a one-of in the deck, the card is very cool and feels great when you actually pull it off.
Final thoughts
The reason why I wrote about two different decks today is simply that I could not choose which of these two decks I liked more. I used to play Goryo’s Vengeance a long time ago in Modern, but it never was any good. It makes me so happy to see the card return to the spotlight, especially since I also love the new Atraxa.
The other reason I love both of these decks is that they are both Atraxa combo decks masquerading as other powerful Modern decks. You could easily play an entire game without your opponent seeing your combo, making them think you are simply an Asmo or Esper value deck, and then surprise them in game two with the combo.
If you are a player that loves aggressive combo decks, then the Jund build is the one for you. Being able to combo off on turn two is a pretty big draw for the deck, especially if you can do it with Emrakul and wipe your opponent’s board in the process.
Asmo has proven to be a very powerful Magic card, and it’s no wonder that this deck is able to put up results. I’m sure a number of its wins are because of Atraxa hitting the battlefield, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this deck also got some wins just by using Underworld Cookbook and Asmo to wipe the opponent’s board and then killing them with Urza’s Saga Constructs.
If you like playing it a little slower and gaining value against your opponent before finally finishing them off, then the Esper build is the deck for you. This deck does so many powerful things, whether it’s triple Thoughtseizing your opponent with Grief and Ephemerate, reanimating Griselbrand or Atraxa and drawing a million cards, or even splicing Goryo’s Vengeance onto Footsteps of the Goryo (which, if you haven’t picked up on it, I really want to do).
While Asmo is a really cool card, if I had to pick one of these decks, it would be the Esper one. I have enough experience with the pitch Elementals to know how powerful they are, and I love the thought of overwhelming my opponent with card advantage before finally finishing them off.
But that’s just me, what do you think? Is one of these two decks strictly better than the other? Or is there another deck out there for Atraxa that we have yet to discover?
Jund Atraxa's Vengeance: Decklist
You can also find this decklist here.
Esper Atraxa's Vengeance: Decklist
You can also find this decklist here.
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