What If Fallout Were Legal in Modern?
Modern is a little hungover after the most recent banning of
Inventory Management
Two words: Split Second. There are two words no more compelling in Magic than these two… Aside from
The potential with this is sky-high in Commander. So how would it fit into Modern? Well, if Bogles were still a thing, this card could have a place in some version of the build. More realistically, however, this card feels super good in Hammer Time archetypes, wherein one can use Inventory Management at instant speed to cheat
| Inventory Management | ||
| Inventory Management (Showcase) |
MacCready, Lamplight Mayor
Not to be confused with MacReady from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), although perhaps we’ll get a Universes Beyond: John Carpenter’s Filmography in the future with the iconography of Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, Sam Neill as John Trent, and James Hong as the evil sorcerer Lo Pan in card form… I definitely let loose there, and I apologize sincerely for using this article as an excuse to recite my love of John Carpenter’s films (and music). Back to Magic! MacCready is a fascinating “little guy” who makes your small creatures less-blockable by bigger creatures via the Skulk mechanic. Beyond this, he punishes your opponents for attacking with big creatures, and compensates you with lifegain, too.
Or… Hear me out… Or… You build Abzan Infect (not a deck as far as I know) so that you can swing with your measly low-powered
| MacCready, Lamplight Mayor | ||
| MacCready, Lamplight Mayor (Extended Art) |
Synth Infiltrator
If I’m being honest, I have no clue how to “break this” in Modern (hypothetically, of course). Having said that, artifact synergies in Modern like Urza Thopter-Sword are at an all-time low in representation with decks like
Now this is all great, but there are better two-mana clones legal in Modern already, in that they cost two mana without any drawbacks… Specifically, I’m referring to
So what makes Synth Infiltrator more interesting? The fact that its card type includes the word “artifact” in it, which means you can target it in your grave with
Beyond Modern, Synth Infiltrator can also be
| Synth Infiltrator | ||
| Synth Infiltrator (Showcase) |
Lumbering Megasloth
Okay, this pick might be a little more silly and less impactful (not that my other picks aren’t either). After all, big, bulky creatures not called
The traditional problem with “this spell costs X less to cast if Y conditions are met” is that it becomes very rare to meet the “optimum” condition, wherein you pay only the minimum casting cost possible. Because, and only because The Ozolith exists, and because Lumbering Megasloth’s cost reduction counts any counter, broadly speaking, it’s easy to not only reduce its casting cost to , but ensure it always stays there, making it appealing to run multiple in theory.
Again, this is all silly and hypothetical. And even in this meta, an 8/8 for two mana and with trample seems less impactful than it should be. After all, you can simply trade two 4/4 Rhino tokens with it (thanks for nothing, Violent Outburst ban, other than the collateral damage to Living End). If you aren’t convinced that this card is busted, then check out this Legacy Deck that enables a potential turn zero Megasloth by using
Financially speaking, this card is a relatively expensive uncommon card with recent TCGPlayer asking prices sitting at around $8. Don’t get me started on the surge foil, though, which has on-and-off asking prices of $100 each. Is it worth that much? No. But the relative scarcity of surge foil commons and uncommons versus rares and mythic rares creates some interesting short-run price disparities.
| Lumbering Megasloth |
Nuka-Cola Vending Machine
Who does
There’s a lot of ongoing debates about what the long-run financial potential of UB: Fallout is. The market has mostly stabilized in the sense that price volatility seems to be minimal with the exception of a few cards (surge foil showcase
| Nuka-Cola Vending Machine | ||
| Nuka-Cola Vending Machine (Borderless) |
In Summary
If we’re being honest, the heart of this article isn’t so much centered around Modern per se, although it’s a nice fantasy to imagine some of these Universes Beyond products making their way into Modern. Having said that, Fallout is a contemporary Magic product, which makes it modern definitionally speaking, right? In all seriousness, I felt compelled to offer my two cents on the product and some choice cards from it that really strike a chord with the part of me that loves Fallout as a property, and the part of me that looks at cards not only in terms of their value to Commander, but also their potential in Modern, even if only hypothetically. Where do these cards end up in the long run? The trends as I see it point towards the surge foil variants of the borderless Vault Boy cards and surge foil showcase precon cards being the real money makers in the set, and likely the only non-serialized cards to hold real long-term value out.
Notwithstanding this, there’s a striking amount of value nested in the surge foil Bobbleheads, which seem to rotate in “Sold Out” status on TCGPlayer daily, as well as some surprising value in surge foil commons and uncommons, which are really difficult to pull or accumulate relative to surge foil lands, rares, and mythic rares. Of course, the Nuka-Cola Vending Machine will hold value for the reasons described. In a similar vein, I would expect
Further Reading:
The Best Cards From Fallout and the Secret Lair Winter Superdrop
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.
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