Nostalgic card. Was strong years ago. However, the power level of mtg has gone up through the years... Absorb is not really that strong anymore. Could be useful for Standard, but a little weak for Modern.
Yes that might be, but from my experience, that will not always happen in Jeskai, as you will not have the chance to curve out in every game - either the mana don't work or your spells. And most UW Decks will for sure like to play some colorless utility lands I think, and then Sabatoge clearly becomes much better. It's not just all about the optimal settings. You can clearly have double blue on turn 3 and double white on turn 2. But you will not always be in that place and if you can't cast your Counterspell and your wrath, that's really bad.
With Hallowed fountain and the buddy lands, 1 white on turn 3 is not as difficult as you think is. In Jeskai you will have 16 "dual" lands that have white in them along with any basic white you might be playing. There is less of a concern about hitting 1 white than before. Just from a UW perspective 1 white even with todays mana base isn't difficult as most of your higher cmc spells have double white to cast so you have to tailor your mana base to be able to cast those on curve. Jeskai already is playing Clairon which has white in in and is casting it on turn 3.
Nostalgic card. Was strong years ago. However, the power level of mtg has gone up through the years... Absorb is not really that strong anymore. Could be useful for Standard, but a little weak for Modern.
The power level of creatures has gone up ... but the power level of non creature spells? Not so much. As someone mentioned earlier, this was actually played by the playset in a time when Counterspell and Thwart were legal. For the most part, countermagic was stronger in the standard of the time of this’ first printing, than it is in modern today.
I think the issue for this is modern isn’t so much strength but speed. Modern is so fast now that a conditional 2 or 1 cost counter is much better than an unconditional 3 (no matter what the upside) and Teferi just made that more pronounced (being able to tap out to cast it then untap just enough lands for a 2-counter but not a 3).
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
With Hallowed fountain and the buddy lands, 1 white on turn 3 is not as difficult as you think is. In Jeskai you will have 16 "dual" lands that have white in them along with any basic white you might be playing. There is less of a concern about hitting 1 white than before. Just from a UW perspective 1 white even with todays mana base isn't difficult as most of your higher cmc spells have double white to cast so you have to tailor your mana base to be able to cast those on curve. Jeskai already is playing Clairon which has white in in and is casting it on turn 3.
The power level of creatures has gone up ... but the power level of non creature spells? Not so much. As someone mentioned earlier, this was actually played by the playset in a time when Counterspell and Thwart were legal. For the most part, countermagic was stronger in the standard of the time of this’ first printing, than it is in modern today.
I think the issue for this is modern isn’t so much strength but speed. Modern is so fast now that a conditional 2 or 1 cost counter is much better than an unconditional 3 (no matter what the upside) and Teferi just made that more pronounced (being able to tap out to cast it then untap just enough lands for a 2-counter but not a 3).