Happy Valentine's Day, Nexus readers! While I know this holiday can be a controversial one, today I'll invite you to set aside your differences (or crippling loneliness, or whatever) and join me in celebrating the strong bonds between some of the most eligible decks of the year. As Modern again finds its footing, the format is playing home to a myriad of novel strategies and neat twists on old favorites. Behold, the betrothed!

Does Every Rose Have Its Thorn?

Bant Stoneblade is one of the unlikely winners after Modern's recent shakeups, its niche opened up now that Simic Urza no longer executes its overarching midrange gameplan more effectively and reliably.

This build seems to be where most players are settling, with namesake Stoneforge Mystic the proverbial "thorn" in an otherwise unremarkable Bant midrange deck. Ice-Fang Coatl is a flexible role-player enabled by Arcum's Astrolabe, able to trade with menacing threats while cantripping or just carry a Sword to victory itself. And since Astrolabe makes the mana so good, palpitation-inducing packages like Blood Moon are available from the sideboard.

And here's the same deck, minus the Stoneforge! SOULSTRONG told himself the Ice-Fangs and Astrolabes were great, but was less impressed by the deck's corest component. So in come extra copies of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. 6/6 is no joke in Modern, and plenty of decks this month have discovered that the slightly overpriced front-side of this Titan is well worth the Big Late-Game Energy it furnishes down the road. We haven't seen the last of this primordial cupid....

Confection Collection

Collected Company has long been paired with another instant or sorcery in a deck otherwise stocked full of creatures—Chord of Calling, Eldritch Evolution, and others have all seen their day. As players' love for the four-drop seems to know no bounds, today we'll welcome a couple of its newer mistresses into the fold.

Once Collected, Forever Protected, as the saying goes. XAKX47X took this just-invented expression to heart, complimenting his trusty set of Companies with the cantrip that's got every faithful Modern die-hard gazing after it longingly as the dallying dude from that meme, including yours truly. Once ensures early-game curves loaded up with the right mix of mana dorks and payoffs, a balance now supremely tweak-able depending on the opponent—in postboard games against Jund, for instance, pilots can dig for extra dorks to replace the first one, which is almost certainly dead on arrival, or just Giver of Runes, a one-mana handful for any spot-removal deck.

Modern Challenge winner ANTOINE57437 skipped over Once in favor of Ephemerate in Collected Blink. Well, not entirely; the card may well be too good not to include, as evinced by the single copy that did make the cut! More of a Blink deck that splashes Company, Collected Blink features the usual Blink suspects, including the Wasteland Strangler and Tidehollow Sculler package and a staple, recurring Black Lotus effect in Aether Vial. Even when it's scooping up the deck's one- and two-drops, Collected Company finds plenty of high-value targets in this build, including hosers like Kambal, Consul of Allocation and Gaddock Teeg after siding.

Flirting With Death

It wouldn't be a Modern Brew Report without a couple of graveyard decks, and February is certainly delivering on that front.

Faithless Looting may be gone, but Hollow Ox has a plan regarding how to revitalize the neutered Hollow Phoenix decks of old. First up is Ox of Agonas, replacing Bedlam Reveler as a restocking top-end threat; Ox cares not for the type of card in the graveyard, rewarding "bad" Burning Inquiry loots and turning the card into a velocity granter extraordinaire. It's also exactly the card pilots want in the graveyard, since that's where it can be cast from for escape.

Fueling Ox best is Underworld Breach, a Yawgmoth's Will of sorts for the deck's draw power. Topdecking Breach in the mid-game lets pilots recast their Inquiries and Reunions at will, helping locate and bin Ox only to drop it in play for even more card advantage. Rampaging Ferocidon from the sideboard joins Flameblade Adept and Runaway Steam-Kin as plans that persevere in sickness, health, and through Rest in Peace.

Then there's this unique take on Assault Loam, which seems cognizant of the deck's positioning as a tad too slow to play the game it wants to in Modern. The solution? A playset of Ensnaring Bridge to slow down those faster aggro-combo strategies if not beat them outright. Sped into via Simian Spirit Guide, Bridge can stop assaults in their tracks as early as turn two. Wrenn and Six and Elvish Reclaimer are on-theme Plan B's should opponents find ways of quelling the Assault-Loam strategy, such as with Surgical Extraction; Tireless Tracker and Chandra, Awakened Inferno also make appearances as totally new angles of attack.

The Fairly Odd Couple

The next two decks share only their quirkiness, which us high school graduates know can be more than enough to excuse a courtship.

It may cost twice as much as Phantasmal Image, but Spark Double has the benefit of being able to copy planeswalkers and get around the legend rule. Although this nuance has never led to its play before, Spark Double Skred makes great use of the four-drop by flexing just how impactful it can be to have two of the same planeswalker on board ticking up or down with shared goals. Once the mana's online, it can't even be so bad to copy the lowly Ice-Fang Coatl, which nonetheless cantrips and leaves behind a deathly blocker for our trouble, or just fat-ass Tarmogoyf, who appears to be experiencing a resurgence this month with all the wonky card types running around.

Similarly, Tireless Tracker appears ever-popular as a boarded Plan B these days, with Veil of Summer also claiming hella spots across the board as an all-purpose answer to "your stuff" in the majority of interactive matchups.

I told you we hadn't seen the last of Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath! Both these decks run it, but neither as deliberately as Lazav Titans, whose creature suite paints a plain picture of its devious aspirations: front-end or otherwise put a Titan into the graveyard (such as with Scour, Liliana, or Lazav's random mill), then copy it for its "cheating" price with Lazav, the Multifarious. Once Lazav is big and strong, Stubborn Denial can protect it from removal as it lays the smack down, Project Pat voice.

There's no way to start any fairytale romance like Once Upon a Time, which naturally slots in here as a way to find Lazav or one of its Titan role models and set up the gameplan quickly. In the meantime, though, Jund's classic discard suite of 3 Inquisition, 3 Thoughtseize, coupled with a full 4 Fatal Push, should keep enemies at bay.

Valentine's is often a snowy holiday here in Montreal; Lazav Titan is ready for summer, though, running not a single snow synergy to go along with Arcum's Astrolabe. Rather, the egg earns its place purely based on its color-converting capabilities, which speaks to how incredibly strong it is even as a mana filter. And in the sideboard, again with the Tracker-Veil-Moon package! Blood Moon seems mostly employed right now as a way to mess with Amulet Titan, even by color-intensive decks, although as David noted earlier this week, Ashiok, Dream Render (which too makes an appearance in the sideboard) is starting to catch on as a more deliberate Primeval Titan answer.

My Heart Still Beats On

Modern's future has been uncertain as of late, with many potential threats to its continued existence causing players to question the format's long-term viability. But if these lists are any indication, its pulse remains Kimye-strong. Tune in soon to find out what else won my affection this month!