The Modern decklists from Pro Tour Fate Reforged are pretty boring to look through. There are scores of Abzan, Burn, Splinter Twin, Infect and a couple other decks that we've seen before peppered in-between. The big difference is that these decks now play more delve cards. Tasigur, the Golden Fang is everywhere, and Become Immense is making waves in infect. Ray Tautic decided to sleeve up a different delve creature.

Despite being a totally serviceable draft common, I don't think anybody was expecting to play against a Gurmag Angler in the Modern portion of the PT. I had heard buzz about Lotleth Troll, but Tautic had to dig pretty deep to find this zombie to enable his Gravecrawlers.

A lot of the Abzan lists present at the PT were trying very hard to break the Abzan mirror. That's likely Tautic's intention with this build. Lingering Souls is strong, but 12 creatures that easily come back from the graveyard presents better longevity. The deck's general resilience to Abrupt Decay is also not for nothing.

I'd be surprised if Amulet Bloom wasn't at least one of Tautic's losses, but Abrupt Decay, Murderous Cut and Thoughtseize give this deck a lot of game against the more reasonable combo decks in the format. Meanwhile, Gnaw to the Bone provides a card that burn will usually need two Skullcracks to beat.

I'd be curious to know how this build fares against Tron, but barring Tron and Amulet Bloom I can see this deck being very well-positioned in Modern. And come on, you know you're excited to sleeve up Grumag Angler.