Overpower | Modern Musings: Part 1

Written by Robert Wilson, originally written on June 29, 2025

What Did You Learn?

It’s a question I ask myself frequently; after almost every match, win or lose. Taking lessons from my matches has helped me improve as a Magic: the Gathering (MTG) player. It’s a skill I apply to learn and improve at Overpower during prep for the Season Zero Overpower Nationals in early 2026.

One of my goals going into the Discord Summer Webcam Modern League (DSWML) was to get a feel for as many cards as possible and try as many ideas as I could to learn. I’ve learned from competitive MTG that knowing what doesn’t work is as important as what does. To that end, I played 6-7 different decks and will report about each.

Some may be “correct," some may not, but that’s how we learn: trial and error. After each month, I’ll post full decks and lessons learned, so you don’t have to. I started with this brute force
deck:

1. Defense is a Premium in Modern.

Premium defense is harder to come by in Modern than Legacy. Stopping that key special, whether a big attack or Grim Reaper can mean the difference in a match. That's why I wanted to try the defensive combination of John Carter of Mars and The Mummy.

Outside of a character like King Arthur, The Mummy and John Carter of Mars are two of the better defensive characters at a low threat point cost.

What Did You Learn?

While the team has good defensive specials, it telegraphs how opponents should attack you, power card attacks at Mummy and big special card attacks at John Carter of Mars. While Hercules’ Protector of Mankind is flexible and is a good defensive special, attacking John Carter of Mars first was
commonly the path chosen, since you’re soft to non-numerical attacks.

2. Save Power Cards for Defense

While team defensive specials are fewer in Modern, there are plenty of offensive specials. Generating venture through special cards is the best way to apply pressure while saving
power cards for defense.

When evaluating characters, think “how much venture can I expect to generate?” Saving power cards offers flexibility for defensive, follow up Teamwork, or to sneak in that late-round spectrum K.O. when defensive becomes exhausted.

I likely have too many defensive specials and not enough offensive ones. If I played this deck again, I’d cut to two copies of John Carter of Mars’s Dotar Sojat and The Mummy’s Ancient Wisdom.

3. Anticipating Opponents' Perceived Value

I expected Hercules to be the primary target as the tentpole, 8-stat character with an aggressive nature,. However, opponents' respected The Mummy and John
Carter of Mars so Hercules became the secondary or tertiary target.

Hercules performed as expected. When I had his big specials to be aggressive, the deck felt great. Paired with a big attack from John Carter of Mars, the deck usually had enough to
overwhelm opponents’ defenses.

Evaluating cards is hard. Sometimes you need to play a card to see its real worth or lack thereof. I tried Barsoom and John Carter of Mars’s Lower Gravity to backup Hercules’ 8 brute force grid value. With only one copy of Lower Gravity and how John Carter of Mars was usually most people’s primary
target, it’s not worth playing Barsoom for so little value and a ceiling of only one Barsoom
trigger.

I learned the importance of anticipating my opponents' perceived main threat. This is important because if that character is K.O.’ed, you’ll have that many unusable cards remaining in your deck. While many players tend to lower their special cards across the board, this potential strategy maximizes the number of specials on one character while minimizing specials on another, thereby min-
maxing the risk of unusable versus important special cards late game.

4. Bonus Lesson — Play an Assist!

Eagle-eyed viewers may have realized I didn’t have an Assist! Any Character special in
the deck. That’s okay. We learn these lessons now so we don’t learn them
during a big event like a Regional or Nationals. Include an Assist! Any Character in your decks.

One question I had in Modern was how good is Intelligence in this set? I tried something closer to the “two 8s and a negate” style of build to see how it works in Modern. In Legacy, Dracula is a fantastic character due to his Masters of Evil set cards which carried over to the ERB set. Dracula’s To The Last Man hits particularly hard by invalidating team defensive special cards and Teamwork cards, thereby generating pseudo-card advantage via unusable cards for your opponent.

While Dracula was good, I’d cut To the Last Man to one copy. Modern isn’t as reliant on Teamwork and team defensive special cards, so it's more situational. When I needed the card, it was good,
when I didn’t, To the Last Man sat placed or in hand. I'd rather a card that generated venture.

1. Smaller Chain Attacks Instead of Big Attacks That Don't Generate Venture?

There are two things Doug Simms’ Western Shootout Legacy deck does well: generating card advantage using The Crossing K.O. event and using multiple chain attacks to continuously apply spectrum K.O. pressure.

Looking at Doug’s deck, there were few large attacks but multiple specials for follow up attacks, including a multipower attack and JW coded attack. The follow up power card cannot be defended by
a special card.

Between Magneto’s Magnetic Devastation, White Queen’s Mental Override,
and White Queen’s Corporate Cutthroat, this allowed Doug to constantly apply spectrum
K.O. pressure using mostly offsuit smaller attacks.

While Van Helsing is the only character with a JW style attack in Modern, Sherlock Holmes’ Unpredictable Mind and Dracula’s Lord of the Vampires allow follow-up plays. Overall, this strategy worked well, especially when paired with Ally universe cards; it positioned me to trade up
favorably on defense while controlling the pace of a battle by constantly threatening a K.O.

These series of chain attacks turned many attacks into “must defend” ones and Dracula’s
Lord of the Vampires gave me an opportunity to play utility specials like Veil of Deceit or
soften opposing defenses to land a devastating Irene Adler from Sherlock Holmes.

As negates are fewer in Modern, there's an opportunity to land chain specials as
players are incentivized to hold premium defensive specials longer than in
Legacy. You get a freebie Assist, which I remembered this time around.

2. Ally Cards Are Underplayed in Modern

We looked at how chain attacks can consistently pressure the opponent while saving power cards for defense. When saving power cards for defense, offense needs to come from somewhere. The more I’ve used Ally cards, the more I like them in Modern.

As special card defense decreases, which necessitates power cards to defend, it lessens the effectiveness of Teamwork cards; Ally cards get a chance to shine.

For this deck, I went up from the usual one or two Ally cards to three and was happy with the change. Three Ally cards helped apply spectrum K.O. pressure as the first attack in a chain and offer
opportunities to trade up a 3-value attack for something higher.

It’s common for most deck’s power card builds to use one or two copies of level 2, 3, 4 power cards. At times, I flushed out a level 4, 5, or 6 power card from my opponent against my offsuit Ally attacks making my subsequent attacks more likely to be successful. This was great for Irene Adler.

If you’re looking for a way to play fewer special cards but still want to generate offensive pressure, consider more Ally cards and offensive specials.

3. 16-Threat Level Characters Viability

One of the great things about the ERB set is how balanced characters feel. The
threat level considers the character’s grid stats and special cards.

However, to play one or more of the tentpole 8-stat characters, it may require playing a 16-threat level character to balance your team’s threat points. Mr. Hyde stood out as the intelligence and brute force 16 threat level character since Dracula is the deck’s tentpole anchor character.

How is Mr. Hyde?

Overall, Mr. Hyde was great at bullying opposing 16 and 17 threat level characters, which most decks have at least one of. Mr. Hyde’s Sadistic Tendencies can put cumulative K.O. pressure on a
character that cannot easily defend a level 8 attack with power cards.

Additionally, Mr. Hyde’s ability to attack a reserve with Trample can generate easy venture in a “must be successful” scenario. Mr. Hyde can defend himself with The Serum and Victorian
Sophisticant.

Placing Victorian Sophisticant is a good deterrent to an opponent's similar stance, throwing level 7 and 8 attacks at your Mr. Hyde. Overall, Mr. Hyde was surprisingly effective at generating venture and a great character to attack opposing low-level threat characters. If you need a 16-threat level
character and Intelligence or Brute Force are your primary suit, I recommend Mr. Hyde.

Wrapping Up

June was a great first month for the MDWL. Thanks to everyone who participated and LRG for supporting us. If you’re curious to learn, feel free to reach out in the Facebook group, Discord, or by email at buffalochickendiplegacy@gmail.com.

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