Sure thing, but give us Splinter Twin back. It's ban was clearly made to upset the entire player base in order to pull of this thing again without the outcry it had last time.
If modern is given a more representative showcase at the GP level, filtering down through the many sub-tournaments as well, then I think this is a good change. Basically they should give modern a boost at the non-protour events.
While I loved watching the pros rock my favourite decks and favourite format at the protour, I'll still appreciate watching modern at the GP level.
Less bans = good enough reason to drop modern from the protour.
I just hope that the format remains as popular. It's super fun, diverse and always has been (despite a couple of notable times such as eldrazi winter). And it rewards learning your pet deck properly.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
no more modern PT, does not mean "we don't care, play whatever you want" --> unban splinter twin
their statements about what they want modern to be it's pretty clear: no uninteractive decks that win consistently in turn 4 or before. So hoping for twin and pod unbannings is time and energy wasting.
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Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
--Be a fun way to play Magic (first, and easy to forget, but very important!)
--Let you tap into your collection to expand upon established decks and familiar strategies from Magic's recent past
--Offer different types of decks and gameplay than what you typically see in Standard
--Not rotate, allowing you to keep a deck for a long period of time
--Consist of cards that we are willing and able to reprint
Those are the easy ones.
Points two and four are the only ones that are currently met. The first point is debateable, and the third and fifth are almost patently false. Wizards is unwilling to print a LOT of the heavily desired cards from modern, not only back into standard but also in supplemental sets because of bull***** reasons like "they constrain design space" or "It's not fun for players". In case they forgot, we had a standard format with Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, and Liliana of the Veil plus all the ravnica shocklands. And it was ostensibly one of the best standard formats since RAV/TSP. It was incredibly wide-open, where the same deck rarely won back-to-back weeks, and all five flavors of deckbuilding archetypes (Aggro, Tempo, Combo, Midrange, Control) were incredibly viable.
Wizards is afraid to print cards like that now, for reasons I can't fathom. I still cringe every time I see Grasp of Darkness in an Oath pack, because it's supposed to have been Inquisition of Kozilek, and it's now too expensive to reprint safely at uncommon if they reprint it at all. And it needs to stop unless they want the game to stop.
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Top 16 - 2012 Indiana State Championships Currently Playing: GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
So, no more modern PTs. The fact that Forscythe even said that they want PTs to highlight the new sets shows that this was just a,business decision.
Selling packs is more important than supporting modern at the pro level. This is just frustrating.
Keep in mind, the sales of those packs are what fund the pro tour to happen. Wizards doesn't make money from entry fees/side events/singles sales/etc from those playing at a PT, so their only impetus to run these events is as a way to excite people about their product
Is there a reason that all of our same arguments we made last time it was removed should have changed?
Is it just because twin was banned for no reason and then most recent pro tour was awful.
That we just give up on our objections to removing it?
What stops the format just disappearing now? The best players in the world choosing to just not turning up to modern events and a slow winding down of the format. How do you convince new players to pick up the format? And what is the draw of the format over something like legacy?
The modern pro tours, with the exception of the most recent one, uncovered new magic talent, while in standard super teams could brute force a standard format, modern was too wide to break... normally. Allowing for lone wolfs to spike these tournaments then once they have made a name for themselves given the resources to meet their potential in other formats.
There is talk about what the story is for a pro tour and that is how you can create something to cheer for that is very clear for esports. In a format like modern people are attached to their decks, they cheer for their deck to do well. Or they did then every deck that has made the final got banned a year later and people started hoping their deck wouldn't do well.
Modern should:
--Consist of cards that we are willing and able to reprint
If Wizards are so willing and able to reprint, they certainly can do more about it, either through Standard sets or supplemental products. I am still not sure why they can't run a "print to demand" print run for Modern Masters with 30% good reprints. It doesn't affect the reserve list, and the initial price drops over increased card supply will eventually be bought out anyway. There is definitely an opportunity here not being taken. Maybe the new CEO can change that policy.
People complain about Konami's high frequency of reprints in their YuGiOh! products, but their cards are still selling. Wizards could at least experiment with one "good" Modern Masters set with a "print to demand" print run and see what the market does. All hypothetical market analyses eventually need to be tested, so they should at least try this once.
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same viewpoint as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but no one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance, allow control to be a deck type, and change their view of the game we will continue to have a crap format.
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same point as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but now one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance and change their view of the game, we will continue to have a crap format.
you obviously dont know much about modern if you think UWR is bad against birthing pod/splinter twin OR affinity
Consist of cards that we are willing and able to reprint
Well then just do it and stop telling us you can and want to do it.
I was thinking this exact same thing. That and I wondered what they meant by "cards that we are willing" when it comes to reprint. Are there cards that they are not willing to reprint?
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same viewpoint as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but no one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance, allow control to be a deck type, and change their view of the game we will continue to have a crap format.
I couldn't disagree with you more.
Modern is the most accessible and most brewing-friendly way I can play the cards in my collection, bar none. It has a stable, friendly metagame (barring a couple of extenuating exceptions which prove the rule) and it has a huge variety of ways you can approach the format, encompassing all the traditional deck-types (and that's true, contrary to what you asserted).
It's also an excellent FNM format, which (let's face it) is what matters to 99% of Magic players today. It's diverse, fosters unique creations and people can come to know and perfect their playstyle through a pet deck, tweaking and creating around a theme with more freedom than in standard or Legacy.
your comment about 8-rack is also a little disingenuous - because what do you mean by "good"? If a player only ever goes to FNM and they find great success with their 8-rack deck week after week, then it does exactly what it needs to, and can be considered "good" (or even excellent) in that context.
Remember, most players don't go to big tournaments, so the wider competitive metagame is a vague suggestion at best (very helpful for a rough snapshot of the format overall, but mostly useless for your local meta).
for instance, in my local meta right now, Soul Sisters would be tier 0. we are currently overrun with burn and zoo decks (which makes for an interesting change), and any other strategies are usually represented by one die-hard fan (such as "the merfolk guy"). those GP statistics and SCG Tourneys be damned, because where I live, they don't mean a thing.
Modern has proven itself to be a real folk-hero of Magic, and I'll stand behind it all day long because of the variety and fun that it offers. I rebuke your comment about garbage, sir!
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
--Be a fun way to play Magic (first, and easy to forget, but very important!)
--Let you tap into your collection to expand upon established decks and familiar strategies from Magic's recent past
--Offer different types of decks and gameplay than what you typically see in Standard
--Not rotate, allowing you to keep a deck for a long period of time
--Consist of cards that we are willing and able to reprint
Those are the easy ones.
Points two and four are the only ones that are currently met. The first point is debateable, and the third and fifth are almost patently false. Wizards is unwilling to print a LOT of the heavily desired cards from modern, not only back into standard but also in supplemental sets because of bull***** reasons like "they constrain design space" or "It's not fun for players". In case they forgot, we had a standard format with Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, and Liliana of the Veil plus all the ravnica shocklands. And it was ostensibly one of the best standard formats since RAV/TSP. It was incredibly wide-open, where the same deck rarely won back-to-back weeks, and all five flavors of deckbuilding archetypes (Aggro, Tempo, Combo, Midrange, Control) were incredibly viable.
Wizards is afraid to print cards like that now, for reasons I can't fathom. I still cringe every time I see Grasp of Darkness in an Oath pack, because it's supposed to have been Inquisition of Kozilek, and it's now too expensive to reprint safely at uncommon if they reprint it at all. And it needs to stop unless they want the game to stop.
I have a feeling number five strictly refers to the reserved list, they just can't explicitly say so.
Good move. Modern pt were annoying to watch as they were so disjointed from the current sets (except the ogw one). Also, that maybe opens the field to more ambitious reprints, but I wouldn't count on that too much. I just hope now they'll announce they remove modern from the wmcq as it makes no sense at all to me.
The PT is first and foremost a promotional tool for WotC. Keeping the PT as a way to showcase all the new cards in the set released in the set two weeks prior makes far and away the most sense for the company. I am sure they will still have modern GPs so the format wont just vanish for the fans.
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same viewpoint as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but no one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance, allow control to be a deck type, and change their view of the game we will continue to have a crap format.
I couldn't disagree with you more.
brewing-friendly way I can play the cards in my collection, bar none. It has a stable, friendly metagame (barring a couple of extenuating exceptions which prove the rule) and it has a huge variety of ways you can approach the format, encompassing all the traditional deck-types (and that's true, contrary to what you asserted).
for instance, in my local meta right now, Soul Sisters would be tier 0. we are currently overrun with burn and zoo decks (which makes for an interesting change), and any other strategies are usually represented by one die-hard fan (such as "the merfolk guy"). those GP statistics and SCG Tourneys be damned, because where I live, they don't mean a thing.
Did you even think before you wrote that, you completely just validated everything I said. 'Burn and Zoo overrun our meta"..... You mean Agro and Agro... surprise surprise. If soul sisters would be tier 0... then why isn't it? People not wanting to invest in it? Oddly enough it's about the same cost as the other decks, so not much of a reason. You completely ignored the fact that I stated the format is a crap format because only certain types of decks win (agro & combo) and then go on to state agro is destroying your store. Not only tht, you throw in merfolk like it's a control deck, when its much closer to agro then control.
Legacy oddly enough, lets you play with even more of your old cards, so that statement is horrible. Stable does not equate to good. Strategies being represented by... one person... does not mean a strategy is fairly represented, especially when youre talking about a huge realm on 'control' decks. Yes, anyone can go to a 8 or 16 person FNM, that doesnt mean that the particular 8-16 person fnm is a good indicator of the format, especially in larger cities where you can easily get 30-60 people.
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same viewpoint as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but no one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance, allow control to be a deck type, and change their view of the game we will continue to have a crap format.
I couldn't disagree with you more.
brewing-friendly way I can play the cards in my collection, bar none. It has a stable, friendly metagame (barring a couple of extenuating exceptions which prove the rule) and it has a huge variety of ways you can approach the format, encompassing all the traditional deck-types (and that's true, contrary to what you asserted).
for instance, in my local meta right now, Soul Sisters would be tier 0. we are currently overrun with burn and zoo decks (which makes for an interesting change), and any other strategies are usually represented by one die-hard fan (such as "the merfolk guy"). those GP statistics and SCG Tourneys be damned, because where I live, they don't mean a thing.
Did you even think before you wrote that, you completely just validated everything I said. 'Burn and Zoo overrun our meta"..... You mean Agro and Agro... surprise surprise. If soul sisters would be tier 0... then why isn't it? People not wanting to invest in it? Oddly enough it's about the same cost as the other decks, so not much of a reason. You completely ignored the fact that I stated the format is a crap format because only certain types of decks win (agro & control) and then go on to state agro is destroying your store.
Legacy oddly enough, lets you play with even more of your old cards, so that statement is horrible. Stable does not equate to good. Strategies being represented by... one person... does not mean a strategy is fairly represented, especially when youre talking about a huge realm on 'control' decks, and even then merfolk is much closer to agro than it is to control. Yes, anyone can go to a 8 or 16 person FNM, that doesnt mean that the particular 8-16 person fnm is a good indicator of the format, especially in larger cities where you can easily get 30-60 people.
Once again, you clearly dont know much about modern. Your actually now stating that control is viable after saying control loses to affinity
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same point as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but now one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance and change their view of the game, we will continue to have a crap format.
you obviously dont know much about modern if you think UWR is bad against birthing pod/splinter twin OR affinity
I've pulled out some numbers of top 8's for each year. If you think uwr is good against around 30%+ of the field without looking at any other matchup... you would think it would place better right?
2012 stats
Jund 278 15 %
Affinity 199 11 %
Pod 164 9 %
Tron 136 7 %
Twin Exarch 102 6 %
UWx Midrange 91 5 %
Gift Control 29 2 %
UW Control 5 0 %
Splinter deck was too powerful of a deck for modern, if you don't understand that, then there's no point in reading anything anyone other then people with the same point as you has to say.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but now one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance and change their view of the game, we will continue to have a crap format.
you obviously dont know much about modern if you think UWR is bad against birthing pod/splinter twin OR affinity
I've pulled out some numbers of top 8's for each year. If you think uwr is good against around 30%+ of the field without looking at any other matchup... you would think it would place better right?
2012 stats
Jund 278 15 %
Affinity 199 11 %
Pod 164 9 %
Tron 136 7 %
Twin Exarch 102 6 %
UWx Midrange 91 5 %
Gift Control 29 2 %
UW Control 5 0 %
2014
Birthing Pod 470 11 %
Twin Exarch 430 10 %
Affinity 392 9 %
Tron 232 6 %
Red Deck Wins 228 6 %
UWx Midrange 193 5 %
UW Control 98 2 %
Looks like it was at a combined 7% whrn pod, twin and affinity were top dogs, the three decks you said it had bad matchups against
Beyond that, i see midrange, combo, aggro and control all as viable options, and every color heavily represented.
Compared to legacy, where you run blue or go home, and compared to standard aka midrange the gathering, i see an extremely diverse meta, just what are you comparing modern to that makes it "crappy"
Wizards is unwilling to print a LOT of the heavily desired cards from modern, not only back into standard but also in supplemental sets because of bull***** reasons like "they constrain design space" or "It's not fun for players". In case they forgot, we had a standard format with Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, and Liliana of the Veil plus all the ravnica shocklands. And it was ostensibly one of the best standard formats since RAV/TSP. It was incredibly wide-open, where the same deck rarely won back-to-back weeks, and all five flavors of deckbuilding archetypes (Aggro, Tempo, Combo, Midrange, Control) were incredibly viable.
Lightning Bolt was never legal in Standard with Snapcaster or Liliana, and Mana Leak was never legal in standard with the shocklands. M11, the last set with Lightning Bolt, rotated out when Innistrad was released. M12, the last set with Mana Leak, rotated out when RTR was released. So, depending on which overlap you are actually referring to, you are potentially talking about three different standard formats: ZEN-Scars, Scars-INN, or INN-RTR.
Now, the only one of those that could be called wide-open was INN-RTR standard, which means that yes, Standard improved considerably when Mana Leak and Ponder left the format.
This forum is totally falling apart. Bull***** threads are left open for days at a time, irrelevant discussions like this run rampant in potentially interesting threads... wtf happened?
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EDH:
Niv-Mizzet
Legacy:
The Rack
Modern
Venser, the Sojourner Control
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No more Modern Pro Tours
Also unban Birthing Pod and Stoneforge Mystic while you're at it.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Great decision! And why not, bring back twin! It was fun playing against it.
While I loved watching the pros rock my favourite decks and favourite format at the protour, I'll still appreciate watching modern at the GP level.
Less bans = good enough reason to drop modern from the protour.
I just hope that the format remains as popular. It's super fun, diverse and always has been (despite a couple of notable times such as eldrazi winter). And it rewards learning your pet deck properly.
their statements about what they want modern to be it's pretty clear: no uninteractive decks that win consistently in turn 4 or before. So hoping for twin and pod unbannings is time and energy wasting.
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Points two and four are the only ones that are currently met. The first point is debateable, and the third and fifth are almost patently false. Wizards is unwilling to print a LOT of the heavily desired cards from modern, not only back into standard but also in supplemental sets because of bull***** reasons like "they constrain design space" or "It's not fun for players". In case they forgot, we had a standard format with Snapcaster Mage, Lightning Bolt, Mana Leak, and Liliana of the Veil plus all the ravnica shocklands. And it was ostensibly one of the best standard formats since RAV/TSP. It was incredibly wide-open, where the same deck rarely won back-to-back weeks, and all five flavors of deckbuilding archetypes (Aggro, Tempo, Combo, Midrange, Control) were incredibly viable.
Wizards is afraid to print cards like that now, for reasons I can't fathom. I still cringe every time I see Grasp of Darkness in an Oath pack, because it's supposed to have been Inquisition of Kozilek, and it's now too expensive to reprint safely at uncommon if they reprint it at all. And it needs to stop unless they want the game to stop.
Currently Playing:
GBStandard - Golgari Safari MidrangeBG
RBWModern - Mardu PyromancerWBR
RLegacy - Good Old Fashioned BurnR
Clan Contest 3 Mafia - Mafia Co-MVP
Selling packs is more important than supporting modern at the pro level. This is just frustrating.
Keep in mind, the sales of those packs are what fund the pro tour to happen. Wizards doesn't make money from entry fees/side events/singles sales/etc from those playing at a PT, so their only impetus to run these events is as a way to excite people about their product
Is it just because twin was banned for no reason and then most recent pro tour was awful.
That we just give up on our objections to removing it?
What stops the format just disappearing now? The best players in the world choosing to just not turning up to modern events and a slow winding down of the format. How do you convince new players to pick up the format? And what is the draw of the format over something like legacy?
The modern pro tours, with the exception of the most recent one, uncovered new magic talent, while in standard super teams could brute force a standard format, modern was too wide to break... normally. Allowing for lone wolfs to spike these tournaments then once they have made a name for themselves given the resources to meet their potential in other formats.
There is talk about what the story is for a pro tour and that is how you can create something to cheer for that is very clear for esports. In a format like modern people are attached to their decks, they cheer for their deck to do well. Or they did then every deck that has made the final got banned a year later and people started hoping their deck wouldn't do well.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
If Wizards are so willing and able to reprint, they certainly can do more about it, either through Standard sets or supplemental products. I am still not sure why they can't run a "print to demand" print run for Modern Masters with 30% good reprints. It doesn't affect the reserve list, and the initial price drops over increased card supply will eventually be bought out anyway. There is definitely an opportunity here not being taken. Maybe the new CEO can change that policy.
People complain about Konami's high frequency of reprints in their YuGiOh! products, but their cards are still selling. Wizards could at least experiment with one "good" Modern Masters set with a "print to demand" print run and see what the market does. All hypothetical market analyses eventually need to be tested, so they should at least try this once.
Lets real talk here. Modern is an absolutely garbage format. The format consists entirely of agro and combo decks, and always has. People try to bring up the old WUR (jeskai) control deck from multiple years ago, but that deck was garbage and lost to birthing pod/splinter twin/affinity on such a regular basis that the deck might be able to make top 8... but never gained any headway in top 8's. It's like trying to say 8 rack is a good deck, yeah it could make top 8, and it played okay at times, but no one is going to honestly say it's a good deck. That kiki-resto jeskai control deck was just a loser to pod/splinter twin/affinity as well.
The lands in modern are too good, the creatures are too undercosted, the removal costs are only increasing, counterspells continue to be a non-factor, and land destruction continues to have such high stipulations their useless before opponent can cast ridiculous stuff like... Karn Liberated. Until Wizards decides to fix the color balance, allow control to be a deck type, and change their view of the game we will continue to have a crap format.
you obviously dont know much about modern if you think UWR is bad against birthing pod/splinter twin OR affinity
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
I was thinking this exact same thing. That and I wondered what they meant by "cards that we are willing" when it comes to reprint. Are there cards that they are not willing to reprint?
I couldn't disagree with you more.
Modern is the most accessible and most brewing-friendly way I can play the cards in my collection, bar none. It has a stable, friendly metagame (barring a couple of extenuating exceptions which prove the rule) and it has a huge variety of ways you can approach the format, encompassing all the traditional deck-types (and that's true, contrary to what you asserted).
It's also an excellent FNM format, which (let's face it) is what matters to 99% of Magic players today. It's diverse, fosters unique creations and people can come to know and perfect their playstyle through a pet deck, tweaking and creating around a theme with more freedom than in standard or Legacy.
your comment about 8-rack is also a little disingenuous - because what do you mean by "good"? If a player only ever goes to FNM and they find great success with their 8-rack deck week after week, then it does exactly what it needs to, and can be considered "good" (or even excellent) in that context.
Remember, most players don't go to big tournaments, so the wider competitive metagame is a vague suggestion at best (very helpful for a rough snapshot of the format overall, but mostly useless for your local meta).
for instance, in my local meta right now, Soul Sisters would be tier 0. we are currently overrun with burn and zoo decks (which makes for an interesting change), and any other strategies are usually represented by one die-hard fan (such as "the merfolk guy"). those GP statistics and SCG Tourneys be damned, because where I live, they don't mean a thing.
Modern has proven itself to be a real folk-hero of Magic, and I'll stand behind it all day long because of the variety and fun that it offers. I rebuke your comment about garbage, sir!
I have a feeling number five strictly refers to the reserved list, they just can't explicitly say so.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
Did you even think before you wrote that, you completely just validated everything I said. 'Burn and Zoo overrun our meta"..... You mean Agro and Agro... surprise surprise. If soul sisters would be tier 0... then why isn't it? People not wanting to invest in it? Oddly enough it's about the same cost as the other decks, so not much of a reason. You completely ignored the fact that I stated the format is a crap format because only certain types of decks win (agro & combo) and then go on to state agro is destroying your store. Not only tht, you throw in merfolk like it's a control deck, when its much closer to agro then control.
Legacy oddly enough, lets you play with even more of your old cards, so that statement is horrible. Stable does not equate to good. Strategies being represented by... one person... does not mean a strategy is fairly represented, especially when youre talking about a huge realm on 'control' decks. Yes, anyone can go to a 8 or 16 person FNM, that doesnt mean that the particular 8-16 person fnm is a good indicator of the format, especially in larger cities where you can easily get 30-60 people.
Once again, you clearly dont know much about modern. Your actually now stating that control is viable after saying control loses to affinity
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
I've pulled out some numbers of top 8's for each year. If you think uwr is good against around 30%+ of the field without looking at any other matchup... you would think it would place better right?
2012 stats
Jund 278 15 %
Affinity 199 11 %
Pod 164 9 %
Tron 136 7 %
Twin Exarch 102 6 %
UWx Midrange 91 5 %
Gift Control 29 2 %
UW Control 5 0 %
2013 stats
Jund 371 13 %
Birthing Pod 295 11 %
UrzaTron 265 10 %
Twin Exarch 216 8 %
Affinity 202 7 %
UWR Kiki Combo 192 7 %
UW Control 118 4 %
2014
Birthing Pod 470 11 %
Twin Exarch 430 10 %
Affinity 392 9 %
Tron 232 6 %
Red Deck Wins 228 6 %
UWx Midrange 193 5 %
UW Control 98 2 %
EDH:
Niv-Mizzet
Legacy:
The Rack
Modern
Venser, the Sojourner Control
Looks like it was at a combined 7% whrn pod, twin and affinity were top dogs, the three decks you said it had bad matchups against
Beyond that, i see midrange, combo, aggro and control all as viable options, and every color heavily represented.
Compared to legacy, where you run blue or go home, and compared to standard aka midrange the gathering, i see an extremely diverse meta, just what are you comparing modern to that makes it "crappy"
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
Lightning Bolt was never legal in Standard with Snapcaster or Liliana, and Mana Leak was never legal in standard with the shocklands. M11, the last set with Lightning Bolt, rotated out when Innistrad was released. M12, the last set with Mana Leak, rotated out when RTR was released. So, depending on which overlap you are actually referring to, you are potentially talking about three different standard formats: ZEN-Scars, Scars-INN, or INN-RTR.
Now, the only one of those that could be called wide-open was INN-RTR standard, which means that yes, Standard improved considerably when Mana Leak and Ponder left the format.
EDH:
Niv-Mizzet
Legacy:
The Rack
Modern
Venser, the Sojourner Control