Much Abrew: Mono-White Hideaway Humans (Modern)
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! This week, we're heading to Modern to play some Outlaws of Thunder Junction with Mono-White Hideaway! One of the most interesting cards from Outlaws of Thunder Junction is Collector's Cage. The new hideaway artifact theoretically can give us an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as early as Turn 3 in the right deck. The question is how best to support the plan. It turns out that thanks to having cards like Champion of the Parish that scale themselves, Humans are the perfect way to get three different powers worth of creatures on the battlefield early in the game, while also giving us a solid backup plan of beating down with random dorks if our Hideaway plan doesn't work! How good is Collector's Cage in Modern? Is Emrakul actually a Human? Let's get to the video and find out!
Much Abrew: Mono-White Hideaway Humans
Discussion
- Record-wise, the deck worked surprising well! We ended up going 4-1 in a Modern league and got some Turn 3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn along the way!
- Hideaway Humans is built around two hideaway cards in Collector's Cage and Windbrisk Heights. It turns out that both cards want the same thing: three creatures on the battlefield. While Collector's Cage has the extra requirement of those creatures having different powers, its ability to add counters to things help us achieve this goal. Our plan is to use these cards to hide away a big finisher in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Emeria's Call and then use the hideaway cards to cast them as early as Turn 3 to take over the game!
- The idea was to build around the two hideaway cards. The question was how best to support them. What's the best way to get three creatures of different power on the battlefield early in the game? It turns out that Humans are the perfect tribe to support the plan, in large part because of Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant, which grow themselves as we add additional Humans to the battlefield. In practice, this means we can play Champion of the Parish on Turn 1, Collector's Cage on Turn 2, and any two additional one-drops on Turn 3 (like Esper Sentinel, Novice Inspector, or Warden of the Inner Sky) and be able to activate Collector's Cage on Turn 3! This same line works with Windbrisk Heights, although it's one turn slower.
- As I mentioned before, we'll ideally hide away something like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Emeria's Call, although part of the power of the hideaway cards is that it's just fine even if we whiff and end up hiding away a Solitude or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar.
- The other upside of the deck is that we don't technically even need the hideaway cards to win. While our most explosive games involve using the hideaway cards to cast something massive, we can just win like a weird Human aggro deck by beating down.
- Other than having a surprisingly strong record, my biggest takeaway for the deck is that Collector's Cage is really good. Obviously, the Turn 3 Emrakul games get all the headlines, but even when this doesn't happen, Collector's Cage is a solid mana sink. It turns out that our deck tends to dump its hand and end up with extra unused mana. Collector's Cage gives us something to do in these situations by growing our creatures, which is solid in general and even better with cards like Esper Sentinel. It might be that Emrakul, the Aeons Torn isn't even necessary in the deck and that Collector's Cage is strong enough when played fairly that it should still have a home in the deck!
- So, should you play Hideaway Humans in Modern? I think the answer is yes! It looks a bit janky in paper but plays surprisingly well. Plus, who doesn't love dropping an Emrakul by surprise out of a deck that nobody expects to have an Emrakul?
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
