Hello and welcome back to Metagame Mentor, your weekly guide to the top decks and latest Constructed developments on the path to the Pro Tour. In the coming weeks and months, numerous Pro Tour invitations will be awarded at Modern tournaments around the globe. First, Modern will take center stage at Magic Spotlight: The Hobbit™ in Brisbane, Australia, on August 28–30, 2026, and Dallas, Texas, on September 4–6, 2026. Then, later in September and October, a new round of Modern Regional Championships will take place.

To set the stage for these events, today's article will examine the current Modern metagame and spotlight new cards from Magic: The Gathering® | The Hobbit™ that are already making their mark on the format.

The Modern Metagame in August 2026

Modern is a nonrotating 60-card format based on expansion sets, core sets, and straight-to-Modern sets from Eighth Edition forward, save for cards on the banned list. With its deep card pool spanning over 22 years of card history, Modern boasts intricate card interactions and a remarkably diverse array of viable strategies.

To capture a snapshot of the current metagame, I analyzed more than 800 successful tournament decks from events held after the online release of Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit. My dataset drew from every published Magic Online list from scheduled events between August 11 and August 23, as well as published decklists from destination RCQs at the NRG Series and at LFG Con's Modern events on August 15 and August 16.

To show which decks are dominating the top tables, I assigned points to each deck based on its rectified number of net wins, calculated as the number of match wins minus losses, with negative values adjusted to zero. By combining these points across all events, each archetype's share of the total rectified net wins blends popularity and performance into a single, comprehensive metric: the winner's metagame share.

In this table, each archetype name hyperlinks to a top-performing decklist that closely reflects its aggregate build. The "Other" category collects decks with less than one percent winner's metagame share, including Izzet Legends, Esper Control, Amulet Titan, Mono-Black Eldrazi, Jund Cosmogoyf, Golgari Yawgmoth, Hammer Time, Azorius Loki, Lantern Control, and more.

One month ago, Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes put the format on a premier stage. According to the metagame breakdown, Boros Energy and Izzet Affinity were the most played decks at the Pro Tour. However, based on an evaluation of their win rates, both decks performed poorly, winning merely around 45% of their matches against the rest of the field. Boros Energy and Izzet Affinity have since collapsed in popularity, creating a vacuum that the format's more flexible strategies have been quick to fill.

Esper Goryo's is now the most prominent deck, and Esper Blink and Devoted Druid Combo have surged ahead in popularity. The metagame is no longer dominated by aggro decks and instead features a broader mix of midrange and combo strategies. As a result, competitive Modern currently looks markedly different from what we saw at the Pro Tour. The decline of the two leading aggro decks has opened the field for new contenders, giving slower or narrower strategies room to breathe and emerge.

Another remarkable story is the sheer diversity of the field. No fewer than 25 archetypes claimed at least 1% of the winner's metagame, while the catch-all "Other" category was itself larger than any individual deck. Heck, even Lantern Control won a Magic Online Challenge!

This is a format where you can specialize in an off-meta deck and still find success. Right now, it seems like almost anything is possible in Modern. Let's take a closer look at the three most prominent decks.

4 Flooded Strand 4 Marsh Flats 4 Polluted Delta 4 Atraxa, Grand Unifier 4 Psychic Frog 4 Solitude 4 Ephemerate 4 Goryo's Vengeance 4 Quantum Riddler 3 Faithful Mending 3 Thoughtseize 2 Force of Negation 2 Prismatic Ending 2 Griselbrand 1 Godless Shrine 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Meticulous Archive 1 Shadowy Backstreet 1 Undercity Sewers 1 Watery Grave 1 Island 1 Plains 1 Swamp 1 March of Otherworldly Light 1 Breeding Pool 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 3 Consign to Memory 3 Wrath of the Skies 3 Mystical Dispute 2 Clarion Conqueror 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Spell Snare

Esper Goryo's aims to discard Atraxa, Grand Unifier to Psychic Frog or Faithful Mending and return her to the battlefield with Goryo's Vengeance. However, it isn't merely a graveyard combo deck. Between Solitude, Thoughtseize, and Force of Negation, the deck can readily pivot into a controlling role. If the opponent isn't particularly vulnerable to Goryo's Vengeance, Esper Goryo's can simply trade resources until Psychic Frog and Quantum Riddler take over with their powerful card-draw abilities.

Thanks to this all-rounder strategy, Esper Goryo's is currently leading the pack at 11% of the winner's metagame. Nevertheless, that's a relatively modest number for the format's most prominent deck. You could easily play an all-day tournament and never face it. While it's good to know what's on top, you shouldn't overprepare for it.

4 Flooded Strand 4 Marsh Flats 4 Quantum Riddler 4 Solitude 4 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd 4 Fatal Push 4 Thoughtseize 4 Overlord of the Balemurk 4 Witch Enchanter 3 Ephemerate 3 Emperor of Bones 3 Flickerwisp 2 Godless Shrine 2 Plains 2 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Meticulous Archive 1 Polluted Delta 1 Shadowy Backstreet 1 Swamp 1 Undercity Sewers 1 Watery Grave 1 Prismatic Ending 1 Boggart Trawler 3 Consign to Memory 3 Wrath of the Skies 3 High Noon 2 Clarion Conqueror 2 Mystical Dispute 2 Damping Sphere

Esper Blink, the second most prominent deck archetype at 8.2% of the winner's metagame, has soared ahead in metagame share over the past month. It shares many cards with Esper Goryo's, especially that midrange core of Thoughtseize, Solitude, Quantum Riddler, and Ephemerate. The difference is that instead of the reanimation package of Faithful Mending; Atraxa, Grand Unifier; Force of Negation; and Goryo's Vengeance, the deck employs a blink package of Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd; Flickerwisp; Overlord of the Balemurk; Emperor of Bones; and removal in the form of Fatal Push and Witch Enchanter.

Which one you prefer is largely a matter of taste. Esper Goryo's has more inherent power in its combo finishes, but Esper Blink has more anti-creature interaction in the form of Fatal Push and additional ways to reuse Solitude. This can give Esper Blink an edge against creature-based combo decks. That distinction matters, because one of the biggest climbers has been exactly such a deck: Devoted Druid Combo.

4 Badgermole Cub 4 Delighted Halfling 4 Devoted Druid 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Nature's Rhythm 4 Leyline of Abundance 4 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler 3 Forest 3 Verdant Catacombs 2 Dryad Arbor 2 Overgrown Tomb 2 Windswept Heath 2 Birds of Paradise 2 Misty Rainforest 2 Wooded Foothills 2 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 1 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Temple Garden 1 Vizier of Remedies 1 Fiend Artisan 1 Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu 1 Underground Mortuary 1 Nurturing Peatland 1 Duskwatch Recruiter 1 Craterhoof Behemoth 1 Walking Ballista 1 Tyvar, the Pummeler 1 Formidable Speaker 2 Vexing Bauble 2 Thoughtseize 2 Fatal Push 1 Crystal Barricade 1 Keen-Eyed Curator 1 Collector Ouphe 1 Grist, the Hunger Tide 1 Kraul Harpooner 1 Force of Vigor 1 Endurance 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Guerrilla Gorilla

Devoted Druid Combo is built around a powerful two-card combo. Vizier of Remedies allows you to untap Devoted Druid without placing -1/-1 counters on it, resulting in infinite green mana. From there, you can win by activating Walking Ballista, Duskwatch Recruiter, or Leyline of Abundance an infinite number of times.

Devoted Druid
Vizier of Remedies
Leyline of Abundance

Leyline of Abundance is a recent innovation, and it's part of the reason why the deck is experiencing a resurgence. At Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes, only one player registered Devoted Druid, but Thomas Feller lacked Leyline of Abundance and did not post an impressive result in the Modern rounds. Yet soon after, Selesneal made the finals of Modern Challenge with his take on the archetype, reducing Vizier of Remedies to a one-of tutor target while adding Leyline of Abundance. With its mana generation supercharged, the deck took off from there.

Leyline of Abundance is effectively another Badgermole Cub effect. In a deck with 14 mana-producing creatures, plus the fetchable Dryad Arbor, this can get out of hand quickly. When you have Leyline of Abundance or Badgermole Cub in play, you can even go infinite by combining Tyvar, the Pummeler with Devoted Druid. In other words, Leyline of Abundance doesn't merely improve your opening hands. It adds redundancy, speed, and resilience to the deck's core engine.

The combination of an eye-catching result in a Modern Challenge, the clever addition of Leyline of Abundance, and the decline of Goblin Bombardment—a key piece of the previously dominant Boros Energy deck and an effective answer to the Devoted Druid Combo—inspired many other players to pick up the deck. As a result, it quickly climbed to an impressive 7.9% of the winner's metagame. "The deck is the perfect combination of fast and resilient," Selesneal wrote, praising the deck's ability to kill quickly through interaction.

Made the finals of the afternoon Modern Challenge with an old favorite, Devoted Druid Combo feat. Leyline of Abundance! The deck is the perfect combination of fast and resilient — had plenty of T3 kills through multiple pieces of interaction! pic.twitter.com/vxsy93cB1W

— Richard Nealston (@selesneal) July 29, 2026

Whether it will be just the flavor of the month or a genuine mainstay remains to be seen, but if you're playing a Modern tournament right now, you have to be prepared for Devoted Druid Combo.

The Most-Played Cards from Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit

Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit introduced several potent new tools to Modern. Below is an overview of the ten new-to-Modern cards that have seen the most play across the decklists I reviewed.

While the impact of Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit has been relatively modest so far, several intriguing cards are already making their mark. To better understand how these new cards are affecting the Modern metagame, let's explore the archetypes that have incorporated them most successfully.

1 Aether Spellbomb 4 Bilbo, Thief in the Night 1 Breeding Pool 4 Cori-Steel Cutter 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch 1 Island 1 Key to the Side-Door 4 Loki, God of Mischief 2 Metallic Rebuke 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 4 Mishra's Bauble 1 Mountain 3 Mox Amber 4 Mox Opal 1 Otawara, Soaring City 1 Pyrite Spellbomb 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Sink into Stupor 1 Skateboard 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 3 Steam Vents 4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student 4 Unholy Heat 4 Urza's Saga 2 Consign to Memory 2 Flame of Anor 2 Force of Negation 2 Harbinger of the Seas 2 Haywire Mite 2 Metallic Rebuke 1 Pithing Needle 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Vexing Bauble

Bilbo, Thief in the Night
Key to the Side-Door

By the raw numbers, Key to the Side-Door and Bilbo, Thief in the Night were the most-played new cards in Modern. Each appeared in only around 1% of the decks in my dataset, but they showed up together surprisingly often. A good example is this Izzet Legends deck, which Mechrataal used to win a 69-player Modern Challenge on Magic Online.

Bilbo, Thief in the Night lets you recast artifacts, instants, or sorceries from your graveyard. You can reuse Unholy Heat to devastate your opponent's board, much like Dreadhorde Arcanist. You can also recast Mishra's Bauble to draw an extra card each turn. Along with the ability to unlock Mox Amber, Bilbo adds valuable utility to the deck.

Key to the Side-Door is just a one-of in this list, often being tutorted up by Urza's Saga, but it plays an important role. Its first ability makes it impossible for opponents to block Bilbo while letting you draw a card with Loki, God of Mischief. The second ability is where it really shines. With six different legendary cards in the deck as three-ofs or four-ofs, including Mox Amber and Mox Opal, you can readily turn excess copies of a legend into card advantage. It's a unique effect, but one that can generate steady card draw.

1 Aether Spellbomb 3 Basim Ibn Ishaq 3 Bilbo, Thief in the Night 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch 3 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant 4 Fatal Push 2 Island 3 Key to the Side-Door 3 Metallic Rebuke 4 Mishra's Bauble 4 Mox Amber 4 Mox Opal 1 Nihil Spellbomb 2 Otawara, Soaring City 3 Polluted Delta 1 Sink into Stupor 1 Skateboard 4 Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student 1 Thoughtseize 1 Undercity Sewers 4 Urza's Saga 4 Watery Grave 3 Consign to Memory 2 Force of Negation 2 Harbinger of the Seas 2 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares 1 Pithing Needle 2 Thoughtseize 2 Toxic Deluge 1 Vexing Bauble

Another promising home for Bilbo, Thief in the Night and Key to the Side-Door is this Dimir Legends build, which WaffleWiz took to a Top 8 finish at a recent Modern Challenge. Here, Fatal Push replaces Unholy Heat, and you gain access to Basim Ibn Ishaq as a reliable card-draw engine in a deck filled with legendary permanents and artifacts. Meanwhile, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant can lock out an unsuspecting opponent.

Looking over this deck, which runs three copies of Key to the Side-Door, I find myself wondering about the ideal mix of legendary permanents to exploit the new artifact. On the one hand, you want to maximize four-ofs so that you reliably have one copy in play and another in hand. Aspiringspike, for instance, ran a mono-blue variation with six complete playsets of legends, including four copies of Otawara, Soaring City. On the other hand, stuffing the deck with four-of legends becomes somewhat risky if you never draw Key to the Side-Door. Personally, weighing those competing incentives, I'd aim for at least five playsets of legends if you run a single Key to the Side-Door, and at least six playsets if you run three or four Keys. Either way, this is a fascinating deck-building optimization puzzle for a brand-new archetype.

4 Arid Mesa 4 Colossus Hammer 1 Cryptic Coat 2 Hallowed Fountain 2 Inkmoth Nexus 4 Kíli the Resourceful 1 Lavaspur Boots 4 Leyline Axe 3 Memnite 4 Metallic Rebuke 2 Meticulous Archive 4 Mox Opal 4 Ornithopter 2 Plains 4 Puresteel Paladin 1 Shadowspear 4 Stoneforge Mystic 2 Super-Soldier Serum 4 Urza's Saga 4 Windswept Heath 3 Consign to Memory 3 Erode 3 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Pithing Needle 2 Surge of Salvation 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Vexing Bauble

Kíli the Resourceful

Hammer Time is back on the menu! With the addition of Kíli the Resourceful, longtime Hammer afficionado Disgruntled_Elk made a solid run to 17th place in a 64-player Challenge, and other top players, such as Gabriel Nassif, subsequently posted decent finishes with the archetype as well.

Kíli the Resourceful is essentially four extra copies of Puresteel Paladin. It's smaller, legendary, and limited to once per turn, but storied is even easier to enable than metalcraft. You can curve Urza's Saga into Kíli the Resourceful and guarantee you'll have an enduring story when you resolve the third chapter, as the fetched artifact and the Saga will briefly coexist on the battlefield. In a build with Leyline Axe, Kíli the Resourceful is arguably an upgrade over Sigarda's Aid, as you aim to start the game with a Leyline Axe on the battlefield. Hammer Time may remain a fringe option, but perhaps it's time to start treating the metagame like a nail once again.

4 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah 1 Arena of Glory 4 Arid Mesa 1 Belladonna Took 1 Blood Moon 1 Dalkovan Encampment 1 Elegant Parlor 4 Galvanic Discharge 3 Goblin Bombardment 4 Guide of Souls 1 Lightning Bolt 1 March of Otherworldly Light 3 Marsh Flats 1 Mountain 4 Ocelot Pride 3 Plains 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer 3 Ranger-Captain of Eos 3 Sacred Foundry 3 Seasoned Pyromancer 1 Sunbaked Canyon 2 Thraben Charm 3 Voice of Victory 4 Windswept Heath 1 Blood Moon 1 Celestial Purge 2 High Noon 2 Obsidian Charmaw 1 Rest in Peace 1 Sanctifier en-Vec 1 Surgical Extraction 2 Vexing Bauble 2 Wear // Tear 2 Wrath of the Skies

Belladonna Took

Belladonna Took is typically just a one-of in Boros Energy, but she does a surprising amount of work. Seasoned Pyromancer and Voice of Victory can easily produce two tokens, unlocking her card-draw ability. And with Ocelot Pride in the mix, it's not difficult to trigger Belladonna Took three times in a turn, letting you put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.

That makes her a compelling candidate for one or two slots in Boros Energy. With the list shown above, Rashek finished second in a Modern Challenge, providing an excellent showcase for what this new card can accomplish.

4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Basking Broodscale 3 Blade of the Bloodchief 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 1 Cavern of Souls 4 Delighted Halfling 4 Eldrazi Temple 2 Emrakul, the Promised End 2 Forest 4 Glaring Fleshraker 1 Haywire Mite 4 Kozilek's Command 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Malevolent Rumble 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Pithing Needle 2 Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Springleaf Drum 1 Swamp 2 The Sackville-Bagginses 4 Urza's Saga 3 Verdant Catacombs 1 Vexing Bauble 2 Damping Sphere 1 Dismember 3 Fatal Push 1 Grafdigger's Cage 2 Nature's Claim 3 Thoughtseize 2 Vexing Bauble 1 Warping Wail

The Sackville-Bagginses

The final new card I'd like to highlight is The Sackville-Bagginses, which YoungDingo used to finish in 13th place in an 88-player Challenge. The two copies of The Sackville-Bagginses in this list can win the game on the spot when you assemble the classic Basking Broodscale and Blade of the Bloodchief combo. What's more, Kozilek's Command effectively gains a new mode: "Target opponent loses X life." Wwith the pings from Glaring Fleshraker, that can add up to lethal damage remarkably quickly.

Finally, when The Sackville-Bagginses enter, you can sacrifice another creature or artifact, reducing the cost of Emrakul, the Promised End in the process. There's a lot of synergy packed into a single card, and this powerful legend might just have what it takes to earn a spot in Broodscale Combo.

What's Next for Modern?

As the metagame overview in this article shows, Modern boasts remarkable competitive diversity and constant month-to-month evolution. The format continues to reward dedicated preparation, deep format knowledge, and archetype mastery. Even the most unconventional strategies can find success in the hands of a skilled pilot, and there always seems to be another hidden gem waiting to be discovered.

I'm looking forward to seeing which decks and new cards rise to the top at Magic Spotlight: The Hobbit, a massive open-field Modern tournament taking place in Brisbane, Australia, and Dallas, Texas. Each event awards an exciting prize package, including promo cards, invitations to the next Pro Tour, and a stunning Black Lotus-themed trophy with the set symbol for Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit.

You can watch live coverage throughout each event:

• August 28–30 (Brisbane): The Let's Play Games Events YouTube channel will host live coverage on Saturday and Sunday.
• September 4–6 (Dallas): The SCGCoverage YouTube channel will host live coverage.

This coming weekend, the Spotlight will shine on Brisbane for Magic Spotlight: The Hobbit. Join Andrea Mengucci, Riley Knight, and the rest of the coverage team as competitors battle for $50,000 in prizes and eight Pro Tour slots!