Hey there.
GP Prague was the first Grand Prix this year and because of that I took a serious look at the Modern format.

The Preparation:
First of all I want to point out that I really love Modern as a format, since it is very balanced right now. But that also means that nearly any deck has a chance of winning as long as you have a gameplan against the top decks, such as Birthing Pod, Jund (Junk) and Twin. Obviously there are a lot more Top Tier Decks, but I think that these three are the most popular right now.
I knew I wanted to play something fun and unexpected so I tried to build a rogue-deck.
Wenzel Krautmann showed me what I consider a very funny deck:

Weird Life by Dario Bezzi:

Creatures

4 Soul’s Attendant
4 Norin the Wary
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Soul Warden
3 Ajani’s Pridemate
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Legion Loyalist

Spells

3 Lightning Bolt
2 Dismember
2 Path to Exile
4 Genesis Chamber

Lands

4 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Marsh Flats
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Arid Mesa
2 Clifftop Retreat
1 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard

1 Dismember
2 Path to Exile
2 Blood Moon
2 Rest in Peace
2 Suppression Field
4 Wear
Tear
2 Stony Silence

 

 

To be honest, I thought this could never work but I was proven wrong.
Norin the Wary has finally found a home in a deck that can abuse him by activating the triggers of Soul Warden, Champion of the Parish and Genesis Chamber
If you have Soul Warden or Soul’s Attendant in play, the Madness continues by also growing your Ajani’s Pridemate
Ranger of Eos can find you combo pieces and Legion Loyalist helps you get through your opponent’s Myr Tokens (Genesis Chamber).
It takes practice to remember all the triggers and not to forget any of them is a real challenge with this deck but once you are familiar with it the fun can begin.
And yes, I had a lot of fun playing this deck at local tournaments and on Magic Online. It is not super unfair or anything like that, but it is consistent and has a good early-game and lategame.
The biggest problem is unfair decks. Decks like Birthing Pod don’t mind if you go the grindy way to the lategame, because once they have Birthing Pod they can just find Orzhov Pontiff or go infinite with Murderous Redcap
I tried to tune the deck, added a third color but still wasn’t satisfied. I did however like the way Genesis Chamber can be really broken sometimes.
I thought there might be something that nobody has found yet and proceeded to build some crazy stuff:

Well you could say I had fun cooking up some stuff during the winter break but none of those decks were solid enough to play.
GP Prague was drawing closer and I still didn’t have a deck that I felt 100% comfortable with.
I considered just copying my buddy’s Jund list and play it at the GP, but then I heard Pierre Dagen wanted to play Kiki-Pod.
I’ve always liked the deck and immediately asked Pierre for his list. I checked some other lists as well and finally came up with what I thought would suit me most:

Creatures

1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Rugged Prairie
2 Voice of Resurgence
3 Restoration Angel
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Fauna Shaman
2 Deceiver Exarch
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Phantasmal Image
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Spellskite

Spells

4 Birthing Pod
2 Domri Rade

Lands

1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
4 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Gavony Township
4 Grove of the Burnwillows

Sideboard

2 Path to Exile
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Cockatrice
1 Tajuru Preserver
2 Negate
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Voice of Resurgence
1 Kataki, War’s Wage
2 Tarmogoyf

 

 

Building the sideboard was hard, since I had no clue about the deck at all and if you look closer you will find a card that is not playable in constructed at all.
The story behind this is that the German name of the card is a little entertaining and a few years ago I said something like “If I ever qualify for a Pro Tour, I will play it in my sideboard”. So it has become a running gag in my local community and I will always do my best to sneak it into the Top 8 of any event.

The Grand Prix:
For this Grand Prix I had zero expectations. I played about 20 games with my deck and just wanted to have a good time with all the friends I had met at Magic Tournaments over the past few years.
At one point I was sitting at 5-2 and nearly gave up after being down a game against Melira Pod, but I somehow managed to win game 2 and 3, which put me on the bubble for the last round.
I was playing against Robots and topdecked Izzet Staticaster twice to make day two.

Day two was pretty sweet since I only lost one round to GW Auras, but won my five other matches, which put me in 20th place. After nearly a year, I finally managed to finish in the money ranks again at a GP AND had all the fun I was looking for going into the Grand Prix.

To summarize, these were the matchups I faced:
GR Tron – Win
GW Hatebears – Draw (Thanks to Gabor Kocsis for scooping after time out)
Tempo Twin – Loss Loss
Kikipod – Win
Melira Pod – Win
Robots – Win
Jund – Win Win
GW Auras – Win
Merfolk – Win
UWR – Win Win

I was told that Twin is not a bad matchup but I always felt so helpless against Grim Lavamancer, which is just very hard to deal with.
All in all, I was very happy with my choice but I still think that there are some hidden strategies that wait for one or two cards to be released, then suddenly make their Modern appearance.

Modern:
Looking forward to PT Born of the Gods I can say that Modern is a very healthy format and no cards need be banned in it. However, it could use some new cards or unbans so people can face new challenges.
I think Wild Nacatl can come back without a doubt and even cards like Sword of the Meek, Bitterblossom and Ancestral Vision should at least be discussed.
I am thrilled to see how the format for the next Pro Tour looks like and I guess so are you.

See you soon!
Holzi