Pro Tour Edge of Eternities is just around the corner. When the first draft begins on September 26, several hundred of the world's most talented Magic players will compete for their share of a $500,000 prize pool, invitations to the Magic World Championship, and a trophy worthy of the eleventh Modern Pro Tour champion.

Modern is the Constructed format in Atlanta, and it will be the eleventh Modern Pro Tour since the format's inception almost fifteen years ago. Since the format began, we've seen it all, including the towering presence of Tron, the surgical precision of Splinter Twin, the scalpel of Storm in the hands of Jon Finkel, and so many other legendary decks and players. I'll never forget being there for the very first event where Matt Nass broke Krark-Clan Ironworks (and the basic rules of Magic) wide open, or when I first spotted Zac Elsik's Ghoulcaller's Bell at Grand Prix Charlotte a decade ago. That quirky deck led to the rise of a Pro Tour winner.

Originally a spicy deck designed largely by Zac Elsik, Lantern Control went from experimental to exceptional, eventually winning the Pro Tour in the hands of Luis Salvatto.

More recently, Modern has been defined by some big shifts, thanks largely to Modern Horizons 3. But after outliers like Nadu, Winged Wisdom and The One Ring were banned, subsequent developments have helped return Modern to its former status quo: a format where you can play anything—if you know it well and your familiarity and skill with a deck are a big influence on matches. The expectation with Modern events—from casual Grand Prix tournaments to the Pro Tour—was that you would play against ten or more unique archetypes over the course of the event, something players have always appreciated about the format even as it has undergone shakeup after shakeup over the last decade.

In short: players are being rewarded for falling in love with their Modern decks. For many of the competitors who will be at Pro Tour Edge of Eternities, that love began with their first Modern deck.

"I wasn't qualified for the very first Modern Pro Tour at Pro Tour Philadelphia in 2011, but I was able to make an impact," revealed nine-time Pro Tour qualifier John Cuvelier, who just so happens to be a major Death Cloud enthusiast in his spare time. "I convinced some Florida friends Billy Postlethwait, Antonino de Rosa, and David Sharfman, among others, to give Death Cloud Rock a proper representation at the event. They all made it to Day Two!"

Rock is as classic as its namesake—Sol Malka, the winner of Grand Prix Tampa 2002—and as the days ticked down to that first Modern Pro Tour in 2011, Cuvelier frantically tweaked and updated his list for friends heading to an event that would end up going down in competitive Magic history. The brand-new Modern format was wide open, and he was determined that his pet deck could compete with the best of them.

"Modern really inspired the deck builder in me," Cuvelier said. "I had only played in a couple of Pro Tours leading up to the introduction of Modern, but I was immediately drawn to Death Cloud, which was one of my pet cards from the dead Extended format."

Death Cloud
Maelstrom Pulse

"This deck would try to ramp out an early Death Cloud with Sakura-Tribe Elder, Search for Tomorrow, and Garruk Wildspeaker," he explained. "The goal was to make Death Cloud as punishing as possible for your opponent while minimizing the effects on your end. Cards like Kitchen Finks, Golgari Rot Farm, and Garruk Wildspeaker allow you to mitigate the painful effect and turn it into a benefit.

"This certainly doesn't appear to have the chops to keep up these days, but it was a favorite of mine for a long time."

The entire experience ended up being a career-defining moment for Cuvelier, whose best Pro Tour finish came when he went 10-6 at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica (one of the Modern Pro Tours I covered here). He went on to help engineer other Modern decks, including the format's Aggro Loam. But it all began with an affinity for Death Cloud.

Speaking of Affinity, that was the deck that drew Pieter Tubergen—and our own Frank Karsten—to the format.

"Modern has always been my favorite format, and all my best tournament finishes were in Modern. When I first played it, I immediately fell in love with Arcbound Ravager," explained Tubergen, who is heading to Atlanta and hoping for a strong finish at the Pro Tour. "I loved how awkward it made the game for my opponents, especially with damage-based removal. If they ever put the shields down, it could deal lethal damage out of nowhere. It gives the games a lot of variety, as sometimes it sits in play threatening a big attack whenever I want it to, other times it lets you make a 5/5 Inkmoth Nexus and set up a kill over a couple turns, and everything in between. There's a ton of play to it, and since it uses game objects in play instead of cards in hand, all the information is face up, and I really liked being able to outplay my opponents even though they had more hidden information than I did.

"I had a few good finishes with the deck. I went 12-3 at Grand Prix Pittsburgh in 2015, won a Star City Open in 2017, and had two other SCG Open Top 8 appearances in the 2017–18 season."

Arcbound Ravager

The run cemented Tubergen's rise as a high-level Magic player. For a time, he was synonymous with the deck you never had enough Shatterstorms to handle. But like all things, the run had to come to an end. Eventually, the classic Affinity shell fell out of favor in Modern. And, for a time, with it went Tubergen's desire to pursue the format, especially after Mox Opal was banned.

That's the other part of the tradeoff that has historically come with Modern. It's a feature of the format that the deck you build, play, and win with can be used for a long time. But, eventually, the ride has to stop. In this case, players like Tubergen drift away for a variety of reasons. Playing non-rotating formats is a different beast than specializing in Standard. For Tubergen, it wasn't easy knowing that his favorite deck was simply falling too far behind (as a Merfolk player, I understand the pain).

But then came Urza's Saga.

Urza's Saga

Known today as a staple of nearly every deck that can support it, Urza's Saga debuted in a very different version of Modern. It was seen as a niche card that only worked in hyper-focused decks. Tubergen didn't care. He was back.

"It was the closest I'd felt to the first time I cast Arcbound Ravager. What a delight! I dabbled with Hammer, Hardened Scales, and Simulacrum Synthesizer decks for a while. They were pretty fun, but they weren't quite the same. I was already qualified for both US RCs when Mox Opal was unbanned, so I spent a lot of time trying to make Affinity work with all the new tools. The format was pretty hostile to artifact decks while Underworld Breach was crushing the format, and while I never minded playing the deck into a sea of hate cards, the Breach deck handled those hate cards much better, so I made the switch to that about two weeks before the Regional Championship in Portland. That worked out about as well as I could hope, and I made Top 8 of the RC and qualified for my first Pro Tour."

Now, Tubergen is preparing to play Modern at the Pro Tour in front of the coverage broadcasts he grew up watching and needing a 10-6 finish to keep the PT train rolling.

Master of Mox Opal, Pieter finds a way to win with it since it's been printed, whether it's attacking or comboing. He masterfully Top8d RC Portland with the broken breach deck. Pieter is an incredible chef, taking on the role for our team house in Vegas. We're lucky to have him! pic.twitter.com/YiwTf1TpP9

— Team Rampant Growth Heavy Play (@TeamRmpntGrowth) September 13, 2025

For Tubergen, it was the natural appeal of a few cards that drew him into the format. For Sébastien Lachance, who will be playing at his first Pro Tour, the appeal of his first Modern deck came instead from a math equation. Because as we all know, one plus one plus one equals seven.

Urza's Tower
Urza's Power Plant
Urza's Mine

"Since 2015, Modern has been my favorite format. I've played it at my local game store, TopDeck Hero, almost every Friday for the last seven years, " the Quebec local explained. "Once I was hooked by Magic and started exploring the game, I was amazed by the Tron lands, and I decided to build it. I will always remember when I ultimated Karn Liberated for the first time; I was so excited!"

A victory with a Karn Liberated ultimate looks very different than a victory from Death Cloud, and certainly very different than an explosive Arcbound Ravager finish. One of the common throughlines in Modern is that even as the cards inside of archetypes change, in many ways, the decks themselves still play out in the way they traditionally have. In other words, the better your understanding of Modern history is, the better equipped you are to prepare for your next event.

Lachance knows Modern history. He looks at Magic Online results daily and believes that the format heading into the Pro Tour is as open as it's ever been. Plus, he's seen some encouraging results for the 2025 version of the big-mana deck he's piloting.

"Modern Horizons 3 brought amazing cards for Eldrazi strategies: Devourer of Destinies, Ugin's Labyrinth, and Kozilek's Command. I have tested all the Eldrazi variants since Modern Horizons 3 released! But I read the results daily and there is no definitive best deck; Modern is super fun right now."

That it is. Now, the stage is set for another classic Pro Tour in Atlanta. Pro Tour Edge of Eternities kicks off on September 26. Tune in to the stream or follow along right here on Magic.gg, where we'll be covering all the action as it unfolds.