Modern Monday: Mondrak, Glory Dominus Deck Tech

Phyrexia: All Will Be One spoilers are officially upon us and I must say, the set is looking pretty great so far. There are quite a few cards that I think will turn out to be very good for several formats. That said, I’ll be brewing with some of the brand-new cards from the newest set for our Modern Monday article. So, without further delay, let’s jump into a Mondrak, Glory Dominus Modern deck tech.

I love tokens and when I saw this card, I knew I would be building around it. There are a lot of great token producers in Modern and doubling the number that they create is very a powerful effect. Furthermore, you get a hefty 4/4 body that you can make indestructible for as little as a single mana, some life, and a few creatures. There’s a lot to like here.

For today’s deck, I intend to make an upside out of having to sacrifice creatures. Each creature besides Mondrak, Glory Dominus creates tokens when it dies. So, whenever they’re sacrificed to grant that indestructibility we’ll not only get tokens but we’ll get double tokens. Pair this with Divine Visitation and you’ll be generating some pretty big threats. Let’s jump right into the deck tech for my Mondrak glory dominus Modern deck.

Mondrak, Glory Dominus Tokens

Mondrak, Glory Dominus Deck Tech (Modern)

This is a token deck at heart. However, considering making tokens before Mondrak, Glory Dominus is on the board won’t be as valuable as the majority of the token producers trigger when they die. The overall strategy is to keep our creatures on board until Mondrak or one of our other payoffs is in play.

However, with or without the payoffs, having each creature replace itself when it dies means the deck has many favorable blocks so don’t get overly sentimental with your creatures – If you need to block, don’t be afraid to do so. There is a lot of redundancy within the deck, as well as some recursion so the deck has some serious resiliency and great late game. Let’s break down the cards.

Token Makers

There are a total of 23 cards in the deck that can make some number of tokens. As mentioned above, most of them are death triggers. Not only does this allow the deck to commit to the board prior to having token payoffs in play but it also synergizes with sacrificing creatures to make Mondrak Indestructible. Here’s a closer look at the cards in this category.

Hunted Witness & Doomed Traveler

Both Hunted Witness and Doomed Traveler are great turn-one plays that set the deck down the right path early. They’re both great blockers when they need to be. Doomed Traveler is the slighly stronger T1 play considering the token has flying. However, in certain matchups, Lifelink can be what takes priority. Having either of these on board to trade with an early Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is great as they essentially traded a whole card for half of yours.

Hangarback Walker, Orzhov Enforcer, & Tithe Taker

Moving on to the two mana creatures we have four Hangarback Walker, three of both Orzhov Enforcer, and Tithe Taker. I want to start by talking about the enforcer – Being a 1/2 with Deathtouch that replaces himself makes him a very potent blocker – Anything that doesn’t have flying he can take out with a block and leave a token behind.

Next up is Tithe Taker, which also creates a 1/1 flyer whenever he dies. He also makes spells and abilities that opponents cast or activate on your turn cost one extra mana to cast. While one mana isn’t a ton, but its quite useful against many decks in the format right now. Taxing Spell Pierce is perhaps the most important interaction I encountered.

Moving on Hangarback Walker is perhaps the most powerful of the creatures here since its power/toughness and the number of tokens that it produces scale with the game. For two mana you get a 1/1 that creates a single token – Which is what you get from the other two as well. Therefore, the floor for Hangarback Walker is on par and the ceiling is much better.

Don’t be afraid to cast this early in the game. Even if you cast it for x=1, you can tap to grow it with any spare mana you have throughout the game.

Lingering Souls

Last, but certainly not least, we have Lingering Souls. If you’re playing tokens and you’re in B/W, don’t leave home without all four copies of this. It creates a total of four 1/1 spirits with flying and being able to cast it from the graveyard makes it very good against control decks as they are essentially using a whole card to counter or wrath away half of yours. As soon as I started brewing a Mondrak glory dominus deck, this was the first card I added.

Return to the Ranks

With the token makers out of the way, there’s one more card I want to mention in this section and that is Return to the Ranks. Every token-producing creature in the deck has a converted mana cost of two or less. So, in the later game, this can easily return multiple creatures to the board and is a game-winning card.

Also, with this card in the deck, it makes it much easier to play hard in the early game even if the token payoffs aren’t in play yet. It gives you the liberty to pressure opponents with attacks or block with your creatures when you need to – Because you can always buy them back later.

Token Payoffs

Divine Visitation

Let me be clear here – Just the grindy token production is enough to close out games against some decks. However, sometimes you’ll need to go bigger than 1/1’s to get the job done. Divine Visitation gets the job done. With it in play, every token the deck makes is a 4/4 flyer with Vigilance. This combination of keywords makes it easy to attack opponents while maintaining a defense as well.

In testing, this card alongside Lingering Souls closed out more games than anything else. Flashback a Souls on turn six creates eight power with Visitation out. That said, if Mondrak, Glory Dominus is also in play, you’ll be adding 16 power worth of Angels to the board.

Lingering Souls on turn three, Mondrak, Glory Dominus on turn four, and Divine Visitation on turn five is a very good curve-out for the deck and is very hand to deal with come turn six.

Interaction

Cheap interaction is an absolute must in the current Modern meta. Here’s how you’ll answer opposing threats.

Thoughtseize

Three copies of mainboard Thoughtseize to disrupt opposing game plans before they’ve even got their feet under them. This card does work in almost every matchup in the format. That said, it’s better in some matchups than others. If you come across burn or low-to-the-ground aggro you’ll want to side these out.

Also worth mentioning is that given there are quite a few decks using their graveyard at the moment, be careful which cards you select with your hand disruption spells.

Kaya’s Guile

As mentioned above, decks are using their graveyards as a resource. So, I love having Kaya’s Guile as a mainboard answer to Living End and Murktide Reagent decks is nice. While that’s perhaps the main reason I included it, every mode on the card is great at times. That said, there is a second copy in the sideboard.

Damn

My main removal spell of choice for the deck is Damn. It may seem a little weird as compared to Path to Exile, Fatal Push, and Bloodcheif’s Thirst. That said, I do have a reason. Allow me to elaborate. I played a token-based deck with Divine Visitation and several creatures that made tokens when they die in Guilds of Ravnica Standard.

Related: MTG – Best Black Board Wipes

In that deck, I ran a few copies of Kaya’s Wrath and loved it. Wiping the board in a deck like this has a few benefits. First, the creatures in the deck replace themselves when they die. So, you’ll always come out ahead should you decide to wipe the board. Having these main board is great against Living End decks too.

Another niche reason this is good (and I’ve won games like this) is when the board is tied up and you have a Divine Visitation players will do everything they can not to let your creatures die. In these cases, nuking the board to make a bunch of 4/4s is a game-winning play.

Bone Shards

Lastly, there is a single copy of Bone Shards. This is included as a final way to deal with opposing creatures and have at least one way to answer Teferi, Time Raveler, and Wrenn and Six. Also, in the same vein as Damn mentioned above, sometimes it’s nice to have a way to sacrifice a creature. This last card is definitely a flew spot so feel free to tweak it to your meta.

The Mana Base

In total, we have 23 lands. There are 19 untapped White and 19 untapped Black sources. So, hitting turn one Thoughtseize or Doomed Traveler isn’t a problem at all for the deck. The only real tech land I want to touch on is Vault of the Archangel.

Related: MTG Dual Lands – All Your Questions Answered

Later in the game when there are tokens on board and attacks are a bit locked up, Vault is a lifesaver. I love the combination of Deathtouch and Lifelink together because it is great for both offense and defense. Other than that, and the card draw ability on Silent Clearing the mana base is pretty simple. We have:

• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Silent Clearing
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 3 Swamp
• 3 Plains

The Sideboard

The sideboard should obviously be adapted to your meta but I’ll briefly go over my choices.

Budget Cuts Section

The actual price for Mondrak, Glory Dominus won’t be set in stone until Phyrexia: All Will Be One comes out. However, aside from that this deck comes to around $180 in market value. That said, if you’re looking for a more budget version of the list here are some suggestions.

Related: Best Budget Commander Decks

If you’re on a budget you can take the Godless Shrine, Marsh Flats, and Thoughseize out and save $111. If you do remove my suggested cards I’d replace them with Isolated Chapel and Caves of Koilos or Tainted Field for the lands. For the Thoughtseize you can simply play three Inquisition of Kozelik. This budget would be around $70.

Conclusion

As I looked through the ONE spoilers, I was stoked to see this card. Modern is my favorite format and B/W tokens is one of my favorite archetypes. I’ve been playing this deck online and winning quite a lot of games. Plus, it’s a blast to play. I’ll be releasing Modern deck techs for Phyrexia: All Will Be One cards for at least the next three Mondays. So, be sure to stop back by to see them. Until then, thanks for checking out my Mondrak, Glory Dominus Modern deck.