If you're looking to participate in some Double Masters 2022 drafts or buy a handful of product, it helps to know which cards are useful for constructed formats. Modern is one of Magic: The Gathering's most popular formats, with a wide variety of decks playable at the top levels of its metagame.
Ever since the printing of Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2, the Modern format has accelerated in speed quite a bit. Consequently, most Modern playables cost anywhere from one to three mana value, though there are some notable exceptions (looking at you, Primeval Titan). That being said, let's take a closer look at some of the cards you'll be happy to unpack if you plan on building a Modern deck.
10 Lightning Bolt
While it has arguably been outclassed by Unholy Heat in the realm of strict removal, Lightning Bolt remains to be a premium removal spell that's also capable of hitting opponents in the dome (their direct life total) when necessary.
Due to the speed of the Modern format, the vast majority of creatures you encounter will have three toughness or less. Consequently, Lightning Bolt is effective at removing just about any creature. For those that happen to have higher toughness, the combination of Lightning Bolt with a creature dealing combat damage should do the trick.
Most aggressive Modern decks will want to start with four copies of this iconic card, and you'll likely wish you could put in more.
9 Seasoned Pyromancer
This is a key card for a number of midrange Modern strategies including Monored Midrange, Rakdos (red/black) Midrange, and some iterations of Jund (green/red/black). Not only does the Pyromancer provide card draw while developing your own board, it can also be exiled from your graveyard later in the game in order to establish pressure on opponents once the game devolves to top decking.
If you're interested in playing any deck featuring red that's based around a midrange strategy, you're going to want some Seasoned Pyromancers.
8 Inquisition of Kozilek
Speaking of midrange strategies, Inquisition of Kozilek is yet another great card for decks of this nature.
As previously mentioned, Modern is such a fast format that the large majority of cards cost three mana or less. As a result, Inquisition of Kozilek essentially functions as a Thoughtseize (a staple in virtually every format) that doesn't cost you two life in most situations. Plus, it's always nice to know most of the cards in your opponent's hand.
7 Kolaghan's Command
Used in both Rakdos Midrange and Death's Shadow decks, Kolaghan's Command provides a built-in two for one trade that's good at just about any stage of the game. Furthermore, its artifact desturction mode is exceptionally useful against a number of decks in the meta, including Hammer Time, Amulet Titan, and Affinity.
Even when the artifact mode isn't live, dealing two damage to a creature will remove a ton of threats, and forcing an opponent to discard a card is usually quite helpful. As it turns out, following the commands of the Dragonlord Kolaghan isn't so bad after all.
6 Supreme Verdict
This is the best wrath (board wipe) in the Modern format due to its immunity to counterspells. There is an argument to be made that Anger of the Gods is better in certain cases, but Supreme Verdict is reliable no matter what kind of board state you face.
If you're interested in playing control in Modern, you're going to need four copies of this. For better or for worse, Azorius (blue/white) control is the only truly viable control deck currently in Modern.
5 Monastery Swiftspear
Monastery Swiftspear may not be the most exciting card on this list, but it's well worth mentioning due to being featured in multiple Modern meta decks including Izzet (red/blue) Prowess, Burn, and Monored Aggro. If you're building a Modern deck on a budget, Monastery Swiftspear will soon become one of your best friends.
Prowess is an incredible keyword that is incredibly easy to exploit, whether your triggering it with burn spells or cheap cantrips (cards that draw a single card). It's also quite enjoyable that you're able to trigger prowess at instant speed after blocks have been declared, thanks to instant speed spells.
4 Aether Vial
Aether Vial used to be a key card for enabling all kinds of creature-based strategies, most of them tribal. While it's still an important card for these types of decks, the printing of cards like Fury and Solitude in Modern Horizons 2 provided powerful answers to creature decks that have laid these strategies to rest as far as being the best in Modern.
Nonetheless, tribal decks are beloved by the entire Magic community, and you can still enjoy tribal decks in Modern using this artifact. Just be aware that you will get absolutely hosed by the Elementals from Modern Horizons 2.
3 Force of Negation
This is a key card to many Modern combo decks including Blue Living End and Crashing Footfalls. This card provides combo decks with the ability to go for their combo win, despite their opponent holding up a counterspell. If you are interested in playing combo in Modern, you'll have to hope that you're lucky enough to unpack at least a couple of these.
2 Liliana, The Last Hope
Liliana, The Last Hope only sees play in Modern Jund at the moment as far as the meta is concerned. However, this is a great card to pick up for anyone interested in brewing your own deck rather than netdecking.
One toughness creatures are more abundant in Modern right now than ever before, so having a planeswalker that can kill them while increasing her loyalty seems like a pretty good place to start for deck building.
Furthermore, Liliana's -2 loyalty ability allows you to return a creature from your graveyard to your hand. As a result, Liliana is likely best suited in a deck full of low mana-cost creatures with powerful stats and abilities. Grim Flayer would be one such example.
1 Wrenn and Six
However, there's no reason to go with a planeswalker better fit for an untested brew, when you can go with one who has a proven track record in more Modern meta decks than we can list. Of course, this is assuming that you can afford the ridiculous $90 per copy price tag this planeswalker comes with. Thanks to Double Masters 2022 though, you might be lucky enough to get your hands on some of these for much less!
Wrenn and Six is undoubtedly the best card you could hope to open from a Double Masters 2022 pack if you want to put your goodies to use for Modern. This planeswalker is good for the same reasons as Liliana, but costs a whole mana less.
Furthermore, Wrenn's +1 loyalty ability to return a land to your hand lets you confidently keep hands that would be mulligans in most other cases. Needless to say, there's a reason this powerful planeswalker is prized so highly. Cross your fingers really hard and say your nightly prayers to the gods of RNG, and you might just get lucky enough to play this monster.