Except they'll feel more obligated to ban more for the sake of shakeup, and now you have 20 thousand on the line for teams to spend weeks or months breaking decks
Wizards created a death lock between three major archetypes, and if you don't play one of them you are basically screwed. Ballista counters both Mardu and Saheeli and is likely the most oppressive card in Standard next to Felidar Guardian. Mardu vehicles is dead against it because of all the x/1 pikers and I doubt even with Smugglers in the format mardu would have survived this. What is nuts is that people think Ballista is going to hit 20 usd, but right now I'm thinking it's going to spike and wizards will ban it along with Felidar guardian.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Except they'll feel more obligated to ban more for the sake of shakeup, and now you have 20 thousand on the line for teams to spend weeks or months breaking decks
It seems people would just rather watch Modern than Standard. So why would Wizards leave money on the table?
Can we please stop the derail to standard meta/banlist?
Yeah, I'll agree on this one, as much as I'd like to continue that conversation its only got a tangential impact on the modern meta outside of figuring out if Walking Ballista is modern playable.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Except they'll feel more obligated to ban more for the sake of shakeup, and now you have 20 thousand on the line for teams to spend weeks or months breaking decks
It seems people would just rather watch Modern than Standard. So why would Wizards leave money on the table?
I've seen your posts here, you're too smart to not know the answer to that
Can we please stop the derail to standard meta/banlist?
Yeah, I'll agree on this one, as much as I'd like to continue that conversation its only got a tangential impact on the modern meta outside of figuring out if Walking Ballista is modern playable.
Outside of some busted unknown combo or played for value in Tron decks, I don't see Ballista having a home in Modern. Too slow, too low impact.
Yes, the should reinstate the Modern Pro Tour if they actually want to push MAGIC. Modern was never stale in the first place. More sets = more decks, and yes, sets do add to Modern, I had made a list to bring to the next discussion on this, but SEVERAL decks would not even exist, even at Tier 1, without sets since Theros!
Bring back the Modern Pro Tour, and let us play the game. Dont manage it with 'shake up bans' actually trust in your product and show what Magic can be.
I don't play "Afiinity" myself so I don't know if it would even be good enough there, but if I were to include it I'd add no more than 2x over one of the 3-drops (Etched Champion/Master of Etherium) and one of the non-creature spells (Galvanic Blast/Thoughtcast)
Yes, the should reinstate the Modern Pro Tour if they actually want to push MAGIC. Modern was never stale in the first place. More sets = more decks, and yes, sets do add to Modern, I had made a list to bring to the next discussion on this, but SEVERAL decks would not even exist, even at Tier 1, without sets since Theros!
Bring back the Modern Pro Tour, and let us play the game. Dont manage it with 'shake up bans' actually trust in your product and show what Magic can be.
They could, but I got a feeling they wont bring it back without scorching the earth in some way with certain groups of people. The format is too inaccessible for most players to buy into so it turns into this entire argument of what the heck they are promoting with the promotional tour, thus the only way they could bring it back is if they are doing draft runs of Modern Masters or have seriously altered the reprint policy. We're talking massive reprinting peppered throughout the standard and casual products along with pushing far more modern specific products and doing so over the course of at least a two year period.
Without doing something like the above there's no reason to make a modern pro-tour because people will see these great cards, go try to buy them, and get walled by 60+ usd Noble Hierarch, Verdant Catacombs, etc. There's basically very few budget friendly decks that make the list and even those typically cost 500-600 usd like merfolk. Most standard players pay probably 60-80 usd to upgrade some existing deck each season until the big rotation hits. If they are more competitive it may be 100-180 usd. They just aren't used to dumping 500+ usd all at once just to play one deck when they hardly get that kind of return already on a standard deck costing a fraction of the cost.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Can we please stop the derail to standard meta/banlist?
Yeah, I'll agree on this one, as much as I'd like to continue that conversation its only got a tangential impact on the modern meta outside of figuring out if Walking Ballista is modern playable.
Outside of some busted unknown combo or played for value in Tron decks, I don't see Ballista having a home in Modern. Too slow, too low impact.
It's probably okay in scapeshift as well.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
Yes, the should reinstate the Modern Pro Tour if they actually want to push MAGIC. Modern was never stale in the first place. More sets = more decks, and yes, sets do add to Modern, I had made a list to bring to the next discussion on this, but SEVERAL decks would not even exist, even at Tier 1, without sets since Theros!
Bring back the Modern Pro Tour, and let us play the game. Dont manage it with 'shake up bans' actually trust in your product and show what Magic can be.
They could, but I got a feeling they wont bring it back without scorching the earth in some way with certain groups of people. The format is too inaccessible for most players to buy into so it turns into this entire argument of what the heck they are promoting with the promotional tour, thus the only way they could bring it back is if they are doing draft runs of Modern Masters or have seriously altered the reprint policy. We're talking massive reprinting peppered throughout the standard and casual products along with pushing far more modern specific products and doing so over the course of at least a two year period.
Without doing something like the above there's no reason to make a modern pro-tour because people will see these great cards, go try to buy them, and get walled by 60+ usd Noble Hierarch, Verdant Catacombs, etc. There's basically very few budget friendly decks that make the list and even those typically cost 500-600 usd like merfolk. Most standard players pay probably 60-80 usd to upgrade some existing deck each season until the big rotation hits. If they are more competitive it may be 100-180 usd. They just aren't used to dumping 500+ usd all at once just to play one deck when they hardly get that kind of return already on a standard deck costing a fraction of the cost.
Certain groups being...what? Budget players? "Inaccessible for most", this is categorically false. Unless 'most' players are poor, and living beyond their means already? What they would be promoting is Magic, the game itself. Again, we do not need everyone playing Jund. We do not need, everyone running a full playset of Tarn, or Liliana of the Veil, or Tarmogoyf, or Mox Opal. This is false.
I mean look at what you are saying. "Most Standard players pay $60-$80 each season."
I didnt when I had Twin. I didnt have to. Your views on cost are misguided. Top end standard decks from what I see, are in the $300-$400 dollar range, and they GO AWAY. Standard is far more expensive in the long run, than Modern ever will be for an individual.
So I believe this post would belong in this thread, because I think the topic relates to the formats health; Should we bring back the Modern Pro Tour?
I hear complaints about this Standard as well, and the Twitch numbers are in. Generally peak numbers for the Pro Tour have happened already at this point, and the last Modern Pro Tour had just over 28,000 viewers, they can barely stay afloat of 15,000 viewers for this event. It seems as "stale" as Modern was, it's better than crap Standard, and the viewers look like they agree. It's not like they are gonna change their mentality on our banned list anyway, might as well have extra exposure?
I wish they would bring it back, or at least create a Modern league. Some of the best matches I have ever seen in a pro tour is from modern events.
Yes, the should reinstate the Modern Pro Tour if they actually want to push MAGIC. Modern was never stale in the first place. More sets = more decks, and yes, sets do add to Modern, I had made a list to bring to the next discussion on this, but SEVERAL decks would not even exist, even at Tier 1, without sets since Theros!
Bring back the Modern Pro Tour, and let us play the game. Dont manage it with 'shake up bans' actually trust in your product and show what Magic can be.
They could, but I got a feeling they wont bring it back without scorching the earth in some way with certain groups of people. The format is too inaccessible for most players to buy into so it turns into this entire argument of what the heck they are promoting with the promotional tour, thus the only way they could bring it back is if they are doing draft runs of Modern Masters or have seriously altered the reprint policy. We're talking massive reprinting peppered throughout the standard and casual products along with pushing far more modern specific products and doing so over the course of at least a two year period.
Without doing something like the above there's no reason to make a modern pro-tour because people will see these great cards, go try to buy them, and get walled by 60+ usd Noble Hierarch, Verdant Catacombs, etc. There's basically very few budget friendly decks that make the list and even those typically cost 500-600 usd like merfolk. Most standard players pay probably 60-80 usd to upgrade some existing deck each season until the big rotation hits. If they are more competitive it may be 100-180 usd. They just aren't used to dumping 500+ usd all at once just to play one deck when they hardly get that kind of return already on a standard deck costing a fraction of the cost.
Ohh come on now, people who are watching the pro tour know that a tier one modern deck is going to be expensive. They should also know that there are other cheaper decks they can buy in order to get started in Modern.
So I believe this post would belong in this thread, because I think the topic relates to the formats health; Should we bring back the Modern Pro Tour?
I hear complaints about this Standard as well, and the Twitch numbers are in. Generally peak numbers for the Pro Tour have happened already at this point, and the last Modern Pro Tour had just over 28,000 viewers, they can barely stay afloat of 15,000 viewers for this event. It seems as "stale" as Modern was, it's better than crap Standard, and the viewers look like they agree. It's not like they are gonna change their mentality on our banned list anyway, might as well have extra exposure?
I wish they would bring it back, or at least create a Modern league. Some of the best matches I have ever seen in a pro tour is from modern events.
Yes, the should reinstate the Modern Pro Tour if they actually want to push MAGIC. Modern was never stale in the first place. More sets = more decks, and yes, sets do add to Modern, I had made a list to bring to the next discussion on this, but SEVERAL decks would not even exist, even at Tier 1, without sets since Theros!
Bring back the Modern Pro Tour, and let us play the game. Dont manage it with 'shake up bans' actually trust in your product and show what Magic can be.
They could, but I got a feeling they wont bring it back without scorching the earth in some way with certain groups of people. The format is too inaccessible for most players to buy into so it turns into this entire argument of what the heck they are promoting with the promotional tour, thus the only way they could bring it back is if they are doing draft runs of Modern Masters or have seriously altered the reprint policy. We're talking massive reprinting peppered throughout the standard and casual products along with pushing far more modern specific products and doing so over the course of at least a two year period.
Without doing something like the above there's no reason to make a modern pro-tour because people will see these great cards, go try to buy them, and get walled by 60+ usd Noble Hierarch, Verdant Catacombs, etc. There's basically very few budget friendly decks that make the list and even those typically cost 500-600 usd like merfolk. Most standard players pay probably 60-80 usd to upgrade some existing deck each season until the big rotation hits. If they are more competitive it may be 100-180 usd. They just aren't used to dumping 500+ usd all at once just to play one deck when they hardly get that kind of return already on a standard deck costing a fraction of the cost.
Ohh come on now, people who are watching the pro tour know that a tier one modern deck is going to be expensive. They should also know that there are other cheaper decks they can buy in order to get started in Modern.
Most players that keep up with standard either do constructed, which means they got a rotation built up, or they are playing limited and don't care at all about the card rotation since they just pick up a new box set. It's a different pay model and you can't compare the two like they are apples and apples. It's more like apples and bananas. Some people like bananas, others like apples. The point is that while someone playing modern looks over the fence and sees the decks can be 400 usd and are like "it's only 100 more or so for modern!" it's not really like that. It's more like the standard player has about 200-250 usd of that deck already bought up if they were going to play it or are actively going to trade in for store credit and make that cost more like three hundred, and that is a very unique edge case. Decks in standard are rarely 300-400 usd and even when they are they aren't that much for the people that play standard.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Why do people in the modern forum think that honestly matters? It's about the now, not the total.
Well, people here can live in that world while I live in the real world where people keep going for payment plans, subscriptions, and down payments over lump sums. Unless you are suggesting that game stores will start offering payment plans for buying an entire modern jund deck? I'm totally for that idea because people could pay like 20 bucks a month for about 6+ years with interest and finish paying it off when they feel the cost gets low enough. If it's a cheaper deck they could probably pull it off in about 3-4 years.
As far as the pro tour goes, I'm just saying people who want a pro tour for modern should be careful what they wish for. The format already has wizards giving it a thumbs up and has been for a while and the last time they did it was basically the start of everyones woes with the game right now. Best to leave sleeping dogs lay.
These are cases off the top of my head where a Pro Tour for modern would make sense:
1) WoTC releases MTG digital next and wants to promote modern for the online version.
2) WoTC wants to push some new modern specific product, think commander style decks of famous archetypes that are VPN store products or something similar.
3) WoTC has started up a lower cost modern style draft format that has a 99 msrp box set and wants to push that format.
4) WoTC is trying to kick start modern again after doing major reprintings peppered across a two year time span across all of their product line since it will coincidently also boost sales of the next standard set.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I suppose I don't believe all the players are sniveling children in need of immediate satisfaction.
But mommy I want to play foiled out jund NOW!
Save, get parts that can be used in cheaper decks, it's not rocket science.
Well, we can get into middle class vs lower class vs upper middle class in some other thread or place. People don't want parts, they want complete and playable decks they can go to their friends house or the LGS with to play. That's the mind set most people have who play this game. Older players tend to not have all the time in the world to play the game so they end up buying pieces more often than not to fulfill those childhood dreams of building the top decks, or go the route of commander or limited if they don't like the idea of stacking up a big collection. At least that is my own observation.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
the idea that stores should start a payment plan is only reasonable through the lens of a spike. You need to keep in mind that a large portion of the player demographic would rather build "Jund?" with inferior cards and have an opportunity to upgrade one piece at a time.
For instance putting in Scavenging ooze over tarmogoyf and whatnot. If you are a spike that sounds like you are just signing up to lose. The reality is that in some matchups scooze is better than tarmo. Certainly Tarmo is the better card overall (reference the price-tag difference) it only gains you some additional % points there are many players who are just fine with giving up those % points since they are just playing for fun anyhow.
For a great many players magic is as much about the journey as it is about the arrival. For many players taking their time getting one piece at a time gives them a great sense of accomplishment once they have finally finished building their $1600 deck.
Again, losing the whole point. All you said do not matter at all. They may matter a little. Two cards turn 4 infinite combo in Standard is something WOTC would never print intentionally. It is an accident they wanted to avoid, that's why it's getting banned. Because as I said, it creates unfun games and they tend to go: "Do you have the Splinter Twin"? On top of that, it's the most played archetype overall in PT, be it 1 more deck than BG. It's like Modern. Such Combos are redflaggy in WOTC's eyes.
Considering it's the most played archetype, it seems to indicate it's not that great if it couldn't get a single deck into the Top 8.
In addition to that, the CopyCat deck has a huge bull's eye on its head. Everybody is trying to go under it. They way they came up were Mardu Vehicles. The Copycat deck presenting such big numbers while being such a huge target, is still impressive!
How is it impressive? The data you pointed to was, again, what people showed up to the tournament with. That doesn't mean it's the deck that will do the best... which was Mardu Vehicles, at a whopping 75% of the Top 8, which contained zero Saheeli decks.
This is why results are more important than what people showed up to the tournament with. I mean, if we just went by the popularity of archetypes, then one would be hard-pressed to understand why the Eldrazi were considered a big deal at Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch, as the most-played archetypes were Affinity and Burn.
That's cute. just saw that the top 8 were just Saheeli decks and BG Delirium
????????
There are zero Saheeli decks in the Top 8 and only 1 BG Delirium. There are 6 Mardu Vehicles decks, though!
Yet another example of how bans (Smug Copter to tone down vehicle decks) don't work to shape and diversify formats! Hopefully it's used as more incentive for better reactive strategies and answers. Not to mention fewer bans. Trickledown from Standard would, at minimum, benefit Modern indirectly. If the lesson got translated to Modern directly, then all the better.
the idea that stores should start a payment plan is only reasonable through the lens of a spike. You need to keep in mind that a large portion of the player demographic would rather build "Jund?" with inferior cards and have an opportunity to upgrade one piece at a time.
For instance putting in Scavenging ooze over tarmogoyf and whatnot. If you are a spike that sounds like you are just signing up to lose. The reality is that in some matchups scooze is better than tarmo. Certainly Tarmo is the better card overall (reference the price-tag difference) it only gains you some additional % points there are many players who are just fine with giving up those % points since they are just playing for fun anyhow.
For a great many players magic is as much about the journey as it is about the arrival. For many players taking their time getting one piece at a time gives them a great sense of accomplishment once they have finally finished building their $1600 deck.
This might sound like a reasonable plan, but due to the rising costs of older cards more players seem to be turning to foreign proxies instead of buying budget alternatives. I've been seeing a lot of players running 4th generation proxies and if it wasn't for the fact they marked them as proxies they'd be indistinguishable from the real mcCoy. The trouble is more so a spillage from Legacy issues thanks to reserve list cards. They end up getting them bundled as part of the legacy cards like the dual lands. The damage those can cause is far from apparent long term because if any realistic ones sneak into circulation someone out there could get disqualified at a pro tour event or GP for something they had nothing to do with. Not that wizards is helping any with their last few printings. Way too many official misprints like the colors being too dark or the boarders being off lately.
To be frank, what I'm most worried for is when it gets to the point wizards basically has to say that cards printed before they got security measure X in place can no longer be tournament legal due to the arms race with counterfitters. They don't have to do it for legacy because it's easy to spot a fake Mox Sapphire due to the card condition and feel, but modern cards are a different story and not all LGS are going to be equipped with magnifying glasses and inspection booths. Also, good luck letting someone conduct a rip test on a Scalding Tarn. If someone did that to my own tarn there is a high probability of WWF RAW happening.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
It seems people would just rather watch Modern than Standard. So why would Wizards leave money on the table?
Yeah, I'll agree on this one, as much as I'd like to continue that conversation its only got a tangential impact on the modern meta outside of figuring out if Walking Ballista is modern playable.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I've seen your posts here, you're too smart to not know the answer to that
Outside of some busted unknown combo or played for value in Tron decks, I don't see Ballista having a home in Modern. Too slow, too low impact.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Bring back the Modern Pro Tour, and let us play the game. Dont manage it with 'shake up bans' actually trust in your product and show what Magic can be.
Spirits
I don't play "Afiinity" myself so I don't know if it would even be good enough there, but if I were to include it I'd add no more than 2x over one of the 3-drops (Etched Champion/Master of Etherium) and one of the non-creature spells (Galvanic Blast/Thoughtcast)
They could, but I got a feeling they wont bring it back without scorching the earth in some way with certain groups of people. The format is too inaccessible for most players to buy into so it turns into this entire argument of what the heck they are promoting with the promotional tour, thus the only way they could bring it back is if they are doing draft runs of Modern Masters or have seriously altered the reprint policy. We're talking massive reprinting peppered throughout the standard and casual products along with pushing far more modern specific products and doing so over the course of at least a two year period.
Without doing something like the above there's no reason to make a modern pro-tour because people will see these great cards, go try to buy them, and get walled by 60+ usd Noble Hierarch, Verdant Catacombs, etc. There's basically very few budget friendly decks that make the list and even those typically cost 500-600 usd like merfolk. Most standard players pay probably 60-80 usd to upgrade some existing deck each season until the big rotation hits. If they are more competitive it may be 100-180 usd. They just aren't used to dumping 500+ usd all at once just to play one deck when they hardly get that kind of return already on a standard deck costing a fraction of the cost.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
It's probably okay in scapeshift as well.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Certain groups being...what? Budget players? "Inaccessible for most", this is categorically false. Unless 'most' players are poor, and living beyond their means already? What they would be promoting is Magic, the game itself. Again, we do not need everyone playing Jund. We do not need, everyone running a full playset of Tarn, or Liliana of the Veil, or Tarmogoyf, or Mox Opal. This is false.
I mean look at what you are saying. "Most Standard players pay $60-$80 each season."
I didnt when I had Twin. I didnt have to. Your views on cost are misguided. Top end standard decks from what I see, are in the $300-$400 dollar range, and they GO AWAY. Standard is far more expensive in the long run, than Modern ever will be for an individual.
Simply fact.
Spirits
I wish they would bring it back, or at least create a Modern league. Some of the best matches I have ever seen in a pro tour is from modern events.
Ohh come on now, people who are watching the pro tour know that a tier one modern deck is going to be expensive. They should also know that there are other cheaper decks they can buy in order to get started in Modern.
Most players that keep up with standard either do constructed, which means they got a rotation built up, or they are playing limited and don't care at all about the card rotation since they just pick up a new box set. It's a different pay model and you can't compare the two like they are apples and apples. It's more like apples and bananas. Some people like bananas, others like apples. The point is that while someone playing modern looks over the fence and sees the decks can be 400 usd and are like "it's only 100 more or so for modern!" it's not really like that. It's more like the standard player has about 200-250 usd of that deck already bought up if they were going to play it or are actively going to trade in for store credit and make that cost more like three hundred, and that is a very unique edge case. Decks in standard are rarely 300-400 usd and even when they are they aren't that much for the people that play standard.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Over time, which costs more?
Spirits
Why do people in the modern forum think that honestly matters? It's about the now, not the total.
Well, people here can live in that world while I live in the real world where people keep going for payment plans, subscriptions, and down payments over lump sums. Unless you are suggesting that game stores will start offering payment plans for buying an entire modern jund deck? I'm totally for that idea because people could pay like 20 bucks a month for about 6+ years with interest and finish paying it off when they feel the cost gets low enough. If it's a cheaper deck they could probably pull it off in about 3-4 years.
As far as the pro tour goes, I'm just saying people who want a pro tour for modern should be careful what they wish for. The format already has wizards giving it a thumbs up and has been for a while and the last time they did it was basically the start of everyones woes with the game right now. Best to leave sleeping dogs lay.
These are cases off the top of my head where a Pro Tour for modern would make sense:
1) WoTC releases MTG digital next and wants to promote modern for the online version.
2) WoTC wants to push some new modern specific product, think commander style decks of famous archetypes that are VPN store products or something similar.
3) WoTC has started up a lower cost modern style draft format that has a 99 msrp box set and wants to push that format.
4) WoTC is trying to kick start modern again after doing major reprintings peppered across a two year time span across all of their product line since it will coincidently also boost sales of the next standard set.
I just don't see it happening otherwise.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
But mommy I want to play foiled out jund NOW!
Save, get parts that can be used in cheaper decks, it's not rocket science.
Spirits
Well, we can get into middle class vs lower class vs upper middle class in some other thread or place. People don't want parts, they want complete and playable decks they can go to their friends house or the LGS with to play. That's the mind set most people have who play this game. Older players tend to not have all the time in the world to play the game so they end up buying pieces more often than not to fulfill those childhood dreams of building the top decks, or go the route of commander or limited if they don't like the idea of stacking up a big collection. At least that is my own observation.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
For instance putting in Scavenging ooze over tarmogoyf and whatnot. If you are a spike that sounds like you are just signing up to lose. The reality is that in some matchups scooze is better than tarmo. Certainly Tarmo is the better card overall (reference the price-tag difference) it only gains you some additional % points there are many players who are just fine with giving up those % points since they are just playing for fun anyhow.
For a great many players magic is as much about the journey as it is about the arrival. For many players taking their time getting one piece at a time gives them a great sense of accomplishment once they have finally finished building their $1600 deck.
Considering it's the most played archetype, it seems to indicate it's not that great if it couldn't get a single deck into the Top 8.
How is it impressive? The data you pointed to was, again, what people showed up to the tournament with. That doesn't mean it's the deck that will do the best... which was Mardu Vehicles, at a whopping 75% of the Top 8, which contained zero Saheeli decks.
This is why results are more important than what people showed up to the tournament with. I mean, if we just went by the popularity of archetypes, then one would be hard-pressed to understand why the Eldrazi were considered a big deal at Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch, as the most-played archetypes were Affinity and Burn.
EDIT: Top 8 link if anyone wants to look at them.
????????
There are zero Saheeli decks in the Top 8 and only 1 BG Delirium. There are 6 Mardu Vehicles decks, though!
Yet another example of how bans (Smug Copter to tone down vehicle decks) don't work to shape and diversify formats! Hopefully it's used as more incentive for better reactive strategies and answers. Not to mention fewer bans. Trickledown from Standard would, at minimum, benefit Modern indirectly. If the lesson got translated to Modern directly, then all the better.
This might sound like a reasonable plan, but due to the rising costs of older cards more players seem to be turning to foreign proxies instead of buying budget alternatives. I've been seeing a lot of players running 4th generation proxies and if it wasn't for the fact they marked them as proxies they'd be indistinguishable from the real mcCoy. The trouble is more so a spillage from Legacy issues thanks to reserve list cards. They end up getting them bundled as part of the legacy cards like the dual lands. The damage those can cause is far from apparent long term because if any realistic ones sneak into circulation someone out there could get disqualified at a pro tour event or GP for something they had nothing to do with. Not that wizards is helping any with their last few printings. Way too many official misprints like the colors being too dark or the boarders being off lately.
To be frank, what I'm most worried for is when it gets to the point wizards basically has to say that cards printed before they got security measure X in place can no longer be tournament legal due to the arms race with counterfitters. They don't have to do it for legacy because it's easy to spot a fake Mox Sapphire due to the card condition and feel, but modern cards are a different story and not all LGS are going to be equipped with magnifying glasses and inspection booths. Also, good luck letting someone conduct a rip test on a Scalding Tarn. If someone did that to my own tarn there is a high probability of WWF RAW happening.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!