Modern Event Decklist

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

For those of you who enjoy Magic: the Gathering Modern format, some good news from the mothersite today - we were provided the decklist to the latest Modern format product - the Modern Event Deck.  Announced way back on January 9th, 2014, this will be hitting a local gaming store near you in just over two weeks from now on May 30th, 2014. 

On March 7th, Forum user 'A friend', posted this product packaging image while at a unspecified 'event' which essentially let the cat out of the bag revealing that the four cards mentioned on the product packaging that we were looking at a possible black / white tokens decklist.  

On the very same day Aaron Forsythe, Director of R&D at Wizards, had tweeted (@mtgaaron) the following - "Heads up... The picture of the Modern Event Deck floating around is a pre-production mockup and is not completely accurate to what's final."  At this time, a lot of players were clamouring for the inclusion of Bitterblossom which had becomed unbanned in the February 3rd DCI Banned & Restricted List update.  With today's Modern Event Decklist reveal, we now see that the leaked packaging image holds true but no Bitterblossom in the list.  This of course is easily remedied by picking up this card from an online retailer like MTG Mint Card and modifying the decklist with this upgrade.

Anywhoos, let's get into the details -

Deck Design and Deck Development: Ben Hayes
Languages Available: English
Release Date: May 30, 2014
MSRP: $74.99

Introducing a new Event Deck tuned to compete in the
high-powered Modern format!
Filled with rare cards from past Magic™ sets, this preconstructed deck, and sideboard, is designed to give players a launching point for participating in Modern events such as Friday Night Magic and Grand Prix Trials.

Contents:
• 60-card deck
• 15-card sideboard
• Strategy Guide
• Spindown™ life counter
• 80 exclusive premium card sleeves
• 5 double-sided tokens
• Deck box
Available worldwide in English only.

Here it is - the decklist !
24 land -
2 City of Brass
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Windbrisk Heights
5 Plains
4 Swamp

30 other spells -
2 Soul Warden
3 Tidehollow Sculler
5 creatures
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Honor of the Pure
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
3 Path to Exile
4 Raise the Alarm
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 Spectral Procession
3 Zealous Persecution

1 planeswalkers -
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

15 sideboard -
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Duress
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Dismember

The list looks great.  We're happy with the mana base - Caves of Koilos, City of Brass, Isolated Chapel and definitely Vault of the Archangel.  Windbrisk Heights is a card we would not think of including but we're certainly open to this idea.

Anthem effects via Honor of the Pure and Intangible Virtue is great and we would even consider going a step further with the inclusion of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad for the second ability giving us a permanent emblem.  Lingering Souls, Spectral Procession,  Raise the Alarm and Shrine of Loyal Legions all feed the token generating engine. Good choices for disruption / control / spot removal with Tidehollow Sculler, Inquisition of Kozilek, Zelous Persecution and Path to Exile. 

We're not certain about the inclusion of Sword of Feast and Famine here and although we admit it is a powerful card, our play style would want something else (another token generator or anthem).  Kataki, War's Wage is an interesting inclusion in the sideboard and we think this may be a good choice depending upon your local metagame but we would likely replace it with with Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light or perhaps even a board-wiper.

All-in-all, we're impressed. 
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