Every few weeks after a Modern Nexus metagame update, I start to get a little restless. I spend nights prowling sites like mtgtop8 trying to form my own metagame picture. Even if local metagames are slow to change, and those are the ones I play in the most thanks to their ubiquity, I always like tuning and updating my decks to beat the overall Modern metagame as reflected by high-profile events. Seven days ago, the Star City Games Atlanta Invitational tournament (and the SCG Classic two days later) gave us some much-needed datapoints. Trevor dropped in yesterday to tell us how sweet Anger of the Gods is right now. For my part, I'll focus on the successful decks I found the most interesting.

A lot of these results had me alternately raising my eyebrows and nodding in approval. Dredge might have taken the Classic, but Modern still looks fantastic. This article looks at a couple brews as well as some key updates to classic strategies.

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A Path to Victory

Anger of the Gods had a great showing this past week, no doubt. But Path to Exile is the standout major player here for me.

Path in Tron

GW Tron, the only listed UrzaTron deck in either tournament, got 2nd in the Classic. Going forward, the Tron with Path to Exile definitely seems like the best one to me. The tempo loss of giving opponents an extra land is laughable when assembling all three Tron lands gives players a functional four extra lands.

White also gives Tron access to Rest in Peace, a card that walks all over Dredge when it sticks. Another big draw to the splash is Blessed Alliance, which Max Olszac ran three of in his 2nd-place list's sideboard. Alliance helps survive against aggressive decks by gaining life, and punishes pump decks for going all-in on one creature with its non-targeting sacrifice mode. The card's third mode doesn't seem very useful in this deck, although untapping fatties to block a racing deck while forcing opponents to sacrifice another attacker is probably devastating when it comes up. Either way, the other two modes are so powerful in Modern specifically that Alliance is likely to be a staple in slower decks for years to come. That it's on-color with Path to Exile only helps its case.

Hope From the Heavens

One of my eyebrow-raising moments came when I realized there were a bunch of Restoration Angels in the Classic's Top 16. Restoration Angel is a card that's always had the makings of a Modern playable---it resists Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay with its four CMC and toughness, doubles as a removal spell against aggro decks with flash, clocks respectably in the air, and offers value with 187 abilities like Snapcaster Mages.

But four mana is still a heck of a lot, and Modern's been fast enough lately that we haven't seen much of Restoration Angel. Atlanta's duelists made sure we hadn't heard the last of her.

A Slimmer, Grimmer Jund

Temur Battle Rage, Cathartic Reunion, Become Immense, Blossoming Defense. All relative Modern newcomers that have created or greatly benefited linear aggro decks. Death's Shadow Aggro and UR Kiln Fiend were not strategies last year, and Infect was practically nowhere. It's no wonder a one-mana, catch-all removal spell is gaining steam in Modern. Or that Spell Pierce is finally getting the play it deserves.

The format changes made to accommodate this shift can be seen outside of just cards. Jund in particular has undergone a serious, if subtle, transformation over the last couple of months. Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf have always headlined the deck's threat suite, flanked by some number of Scavenging Ooze. But the rest of the creatures have been up in the air since the Bloodbraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman bans. Kitchen Finks, Kalitas, Fulminator Mage, Tasigur, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Olivia Voldaren have all been commonly featured in the deck at some point.

All of those creatures cost more than two mana, making them sub-optimal for a faster metagame. As of Eldritch Moon, Jund has access to a fourth efficient two-drop. Grim Flayer offers Jund more than just an attractive option for curving---when it connects, Jund gets to "gravescry" 3, ensuring a never-ending stream of gas. When you need to continually dig for answers while aggressing your linear opponent, getting a free Serum Visions every turn is just what the doctor ordered. BGx has never had access to card selection, instead getting by on the sheer power of its cards. With Flayer in the mix, the deck gets much better.

Two of the three Top 16 Jund decks ran three Grim Flayer in the mainboard, as did Todd Anderson in his 7-1 list from the Invitational. I think Flayer will join Confidant, Goyf, and Scooze as a staple Jund creature and further fill out the deck's core.

The Brews That Grew From Concrete

With Jund out of the way, we can focus on some of the less conventional decks from Atlanta.

Strength in Numbers

Ever since its inception, Modern has been especially hostile to certain strategies. Tribal creature strategies are among them, with Merfolk providing a crucial exception to the rule. Amazingly, both UB Faeries and Slivers cracked the Classic's Top 16.

Justin Parente relies on Collective Brutality to handle early aggression and otherwise ports the terrifying Extended Faeries deck of yore to Modern. All I can say is I hate to imagine what a set of Wild Nacatls does to this deck.

Spreading Seas seems like a great plan from the board to beat up on big mana strategies like Tron, and it's nice to see Ravenous Trap get some love in Modern. Trap strikes me as a great option for decks that don't present a lot of pressure, aren't in white, and are willing to dedicate two sideboard slots to beating Dredge. It competes with Grafdigger's Cage and Tormod's Crypt for slots, but is notably the hardest of the three for Dredge to actually interact with.

The most impressive deck of the week has to be Bradley George's. There's a lot going on here that I don't really understand (when does Sliver Hivelord come in? Against Terminate decks?), but also a lot to love that I can wrap my head around.

George's manabase is the first big draw to this deck; he's constructed it in a way that he takes hardly any damage from his lands, but can still cast his Slivers consistently. Aether Vial and Collected Company also help on this front. All the colorless-producing lands even enable Warping Wail from the sideboard, which no doubt helps against Wrath of God, Damnation, and, of course, Anger of the Gods.

Understanding the importance of interaction in this metagame, George also opted for a pair of Dismember. I lauded Dismember last week as a powerful, splashable card in colors that don't generally have access to efficient removal. Rather than cripple his manabase with a white splash, George called on the classic Phyrexian creature-killer, which can even be hardcast in this deck.

Close inspection of the creature suite, especially when considering the sideboard, reveals that George truly has answers for everything in his deck. It's just a matter of finding the right ones. He's only included a single copy of Homing Sliver in the 75, though, so tracking them down can't be that difficult.

Remember the Titans?

Yeah, so do I. Valakut decks put zero pilots into the Classic's Top 16, but the Invitational saw one player go 7-1 with Modern's original Primeval Titan deck: Amulet Bloom. Er, Amulet... Titan.

Incredibly, the deck looks almost identical to its original, now-banned form. Azusa takes the place of the extra Blooms, and some of the midrange fatties make their way from sideboard to mainboard. This build notably abandons the Hive Mind package entirely. There have been a few iterations of Bloomless Titan running around since the Summer Bloom ban, and Magalhaes continues their tradition of packing Sakura-Tribe Scout as a recurring Explore effect alongside Azusa.

I have a feeling Magalhaes was on to something with this deck, and we'll see more Bloomless Titan lists start to crop up in the future.

Moden Will Be Modern

Watching Modern coverage and hanging out on forums can be headache-inducing. Doomsaying is alive and well. But all the decks explored today---except for Bloomless Titan---are of the interactive variety. That isn't to say there aren't plenty of linear decks in Modern. But there are many avenues yet to be explored when it comes to interacting. As the format shifts, more avenues open up and others close. In any case, the format remains a smashing success according to Wizards' parameters, with a now enormous roster of playable decks to its name. Restoration Angel today, Mayor of Avabruck tomorrow... a guy can dream!