Not sure why people are ao optimistic about Defeat. Dark Betrayal sees zero play and Defeat only hits the two Lilianas in addition to the targets Betrayal already hits. Betrayal is even an instant! Defeat is overall way too narrow, and there are times where the life loss is actually to the DS pilot's advantage. I expect Claim improves DS more than Defeat hinders it, and then I expect Wizards to do what they do best and ban something instead of unbanning or taking no action.
They weren't bad matches. E-Tron beating up on Jessup's shadow deck
Todd Stevens spanking an Abzan player pretty hard and just outplaying him (there was a clear skill gap despite Stevens game 2 loss)
And a Valakut player who punted the game against an Affinity deck that limped its way to victory
Twitch chat is so toxic, a bunch of viewers judging better players in a high stakes tournament who are mentally fatigued and/or nervous on camera.
I'm seriously hoping for zero shadow decks in the top 8 but I feel like there's going to be 2.
People are clearly not interested in standard, the viewership plummets whenever its the second portion
In this particular event, T8 means nothing. Half your record is based on Standard. Will be more interesting to see breakdown of 8-0 or 7-1 decks in Modern alone. There is also apparently a Modern Open happening at the same time, though likely featuring much fewer big names (who are all playing in the Invitational).
And yet some self-regulating formats see far fewer overall bans, on top of fewer bans as a percentage of the card pool. Some bans are fine. If we get another Eldrazi Winter or T4 violator then sure, ban away. But this practice of constantly trimming away a best deck results in needless, endless bans of fair and unfair decks alike. That cycle needs to be disrupted.
I mean, I guess this is what we get when we ban out one of the most prominent regulatory decks of the format, then drop any meaningful support for other regulating cards or decks while simultaneously printing oodles of new broken degeneracy over and over. It's no wonder we have to ban so many things so often...
What would that be? Modern was a format defined by Combo decks for years. Jund and on occasion Junk were the only fair decks that could exist for the longest time.
In other news, Hour of Devastation looks extremely lackluster for Modern playability. The best card is probably Claim//Fame, but I'm not sure it even has a home because I think K Command is just better and the two are fighting for the same spot.
Really? I think claim//fame is going to be bananas in modern and very good in shadow. Seems better than k command in a lot of spots and hasted ds's seem like no joke.
K Command is card advantage, Claim//Fame is not. It also does absolutely nothing if you don't have a Shadow or Snap in the Graveyard. To me, it feels the same as Temur Battle Rage. It'll have its spots where it looks good, but there will be a bunch of times where you'll draw it and it's a blank and you'll wish it was literally any other card in your deck. Plus, graveyard hate is already one of the biggest ways people fight Grixis Shadow. Claim//Fame is a dead card if your opponent has a RiP or black Leyline. I'm going to try the card out, but my initial feeling is it won't make the cut.
Same is true for k command, you draw it with nothing good to do and it's meh. Claim//Fame is still card advantage it's literally 2 cards in 1. If you're in a position where you never have a ds/snap/fame in your gy sure it's a dead card. K command can't get you a snap and ds in play for 2 mana this can. You're still only looking at it in gds (where it will be good, and btw tbr is good in gds) but there will be plenty of other spots where this card will be great. Gds has an advantage of going to delve creatures to mitigate fp's power now this has the advantage of mitigating fp's power too. In a format with goyf, flayer, bob, snapcaster, Druid, vizier, recruiter, sculler, young peezy, sfm (maybe it'll see the light soon), elves, goblins, puresteel/sram (I play esper Cheerios for fun but it also got leave//chance this set) blah blah blah there are just a ton of opportunities for the card to do things that decks haven't been able to do.
1. K command almost always has something it can do. 2 damage to the opponent is an option if they don't have any creatures 2 damage can kill or a planeswalker. You can make them discard a card as long as they have cards in hand. It can return any creature from your GY to your hand. It can destroy any artifact.
Claim on the other hand only works with DS or Snapcaster in the yard, and I doubt it will see play in the side because opponents side in GY hate against GDS.
2. There are better options for most of the decks you named, mainly eternal witness for the green decks. The card may see some play, but it won't affect the meta much.
Nice job once again only looking at gds when looking at a card!
Really? I think claim//fame is going to be bananas in modern and very good in shadow. Seems better than k command in a lot of spots and hasted ds's seem like no joke.
K Command is card advantage, Claim//Fame is not. It also does absolutely nothing if you don't have a Shadow or Snap in the Graveyard. To me, it feels the same as Temur Battle Rage. It'll have its spots where it looks good, but there will be a bunch of times where you'll draw it and it's a blank and you'll wish it was literally any other card in your deck. Plus, graveyard hate is already one of the biggest ways people fight Grixis Shadow. Claim//Fame is a dead card if your opponent has a RiP or black Leyline. I'm going to try the card out, but my initial feeling is it won't make the cut.
Same is true for k command, you draw it with nothing good to do and it's meh. Claim//Fame is still card advantage it's literally 2 cards in 1. If you're in a position where you never have a ds/snap/fame in your gy sure it's a dead card. K command can't get you a snap and ds in play for 2 mana this can. You're still only looking at it in gds (where it will be good, and btw tbr is good in gds) but there will be plenty of other spots where this card will be great. Gds has an advantage of going to delve creatures to mitigate fp's power now this has the advantage of mitigating fp's power too. In a format with goyf, flayer, bob, snapcaster, Druid, vizier, recruiter, sculler, young peezy, sfm (maybe it'll see the light soon), elves, goblins, puresteel/sram (I play esper Cheerios for fun but it also got leave//chance this set) blah blah blah there are just a ton of opportunities for the card to do things that decks haven't been able to do.
1. K command almost always has something it can do. 2 damage to the opponent is an option if they don't have any creatures 2 damage can kill or a planeswalker. You can make them discard a card as long as they have cards in hand. It can return any creature from your GY to your hand. It can destroy any artifact.
Claim on the other hand only works with DS or Snapcaster in the yard, and I doubt it will see play in the side because opponents side in GY hate against GDS.
2. There are better options for most of the decks you named, mainly eternal witness for the green decks. The card may see some play, but it won't affect the meta much.
Nice job once again only looking at gds when looking at a card!
It's the only deck though, right? (maybe some believe it's a conspiracy by Wizards to justify a future Death's Shadow ban?)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
They weren't bad matches. E-Tron beating up on Jessup's shadow deck
Todd Stevens spanking an Abzan player pretty hard and just outplaying him (there was a clear skill gap despite Stevens game 2 loss)
And a Valakut player who punted the game against an Affinity deck that limped its way to victory
Twitch chat is so toxic, a bunch of viewers judging better players in a high stakes tournament who are mentally fatigued and/or nervous on camera.
I'm seriously hoping for zero shadow decks in the top 8 but I feel like there's going to be 2.
People are clearly not interested in standard, the viewership plummets whenever its the second portion
In this particular event, T8 means nothing. Half your record is based on Standard. Will be more interesting to see breakdown of 8-0 or 7-1 decks in Modern alone. There is also apparently a Modern Open happening at the same time, though likely featuring much fewer big names (who are all playing in the Invitational).
And yet some self-regulating formats see far fewer overall bans, on top of fewer bans as a percentage of the card pool. Some bans are fine. If we get another Eldrazi Winter or T4 violator then sure, ban away. But this practice of constantly trimming away a best deck results in needless, endless bans of fair and unfair decks alike. That cycle needs to be disrupted.
I mean, I guess this is what we get when we ban out one of the most prominent regulatory decks of the format, then drop any meaningful support for other regulating cards or decks while simultaneously printing oodles of new broken degeneracy over and over. It's no wonder we have to ban so many things so often...
What would that be? Modern was a format defined by Combo decks for years. Jund and on occasion Junk were the only fair decks that could exist for the longest time.
I'll once again let someone else's words explain it better than myself:
Quote from Modern Nexus, Nov 2015 »
No matter how you feel about the BGx grindfest or living in fear in the URx Twin contest, it’s hard to deny the importance of these decks in Modern. We’ve seen this all year, notably at Charlotte in June, and Pittsburgh was an important next chapter in the buddy cop narrative.
... Due to its massive card pool and relative lack of generic answers, Modern is always going to have a lot of random linear decks floating around. These lists take many forms. There are the “pure” combo builds like Ad Nauseam, Hulk Combo, and Storm. There are the old-school aggro decks such as Burn, Merfolk, and more Zoos than we can name. We see ramp (Tron, Amulet Bloom), we see aggro with combo-esque elements (Affinity, Bogles, Infect, Suicide Zoo, Elves), and we see decks that are just plain weird (Time Warp). All of these strategies share an almost single-minded devotion to goldfish games. If I wanted to operationalize a definition for a “linear deck”, it would be by counting the number of maindeck cards that are at their best when used non-interactively. I’m not doing that now, but we can all see the common goldfishing thread between these kinds of decks. Also, just to be clear, these decks are not low-skill despite their linear nature. “Linear” isn’t an insult. It’s a gameplay description.
Given all these linear options, why are most Modern events like Pittsburgh or Charlotte [full of diversity and interaction] and not like Porto Alegre or Dallas[linear nightmares]? Thank URx Twin and BGx Midrange. That’s not “URx Twin or BGx Midrange”. It’s “and” because healthy metagames need both decks.
It’s almost impossible for the assorted linear decks to punch through a metagame with both Twin and BGx. If you’re too deep on synergy, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek will rip you apart. If you’re too light on interaction, an early Remand is guaranteed to keep the Twin player alive until the turn 4-5 combo. And if you’re too reliant on cheap creatures, there’s nothing like a Lightning Bolt to set you back, and there’s nothing like Twin and Jund when it comes to wielding Bolt efficiently. Linear decks can’t deal with these different policing angles and typically crumble over long tournaments. Pittsburgh showcased this effect throughout the weekend, especially in the finals where Jeskai Twin made textbook work of Affinity.
Modern breaks down in two scenarios. The first is where tournaments are too small for the metagame to arc towards Twin and BGx justice. Linear decks can dodge these policemen in smaller events, and then hope to get lucky in the single game where they get jammed up. This doesn’t work at a Grand Prix, which is exactly what Chapin talked about in his Monday article with respect to Bloom’s finishes. If you just look at small-event data, you tend to see more of the goldfish decks bullying their way to the finals. That’s not going to happen at a tournament where both Twin and Jund show up in force (or Abzan, depending on the BGx police flavor of the month). Of course, the second breakdown scenario is where one (or both) of the decks are absent. No Twin? Get ready for Affinity and Amulet to run over everything in sight. No BGx? Honesty, i can’t think of a time when there was no BGx at all, but I know that an absence of Jund sees big increases in Infect and other small-critter-based aggro.
At Pittsburgh, we saw both decks which is why the event was so healthy and such a return to old-school Modern. This is a critical observation because it shows us situations where the metagame can be broken (relatively speaking) and then self-correct just a month later. That’s important if you are playing (prepare for the correction or jump on board a policing deck), speculating (don’t play the long-game on spending on linear decks that might be here today and gone tomorrow), investing (Twin and BGx only go up because they are always here), or just trying to understand the format (we’ll always come back to these two decks no matter where the format is at any given moment). Pittsburgh should have been a faith-restoring event for all Modern players, and I am optimistic that we can keep seeing these forces in more events to come.
As of right now, we have Shadow playing the Jundish Twinish role, but not nearly as effectively, as removal of the deck from top tables simply opens the door for MORE fast linear/aggro/combo decks to fill the void. There really is *NOT* an abundance of other fair decks or other highly interactive decks, because none of the fair decks can compete with Shadow and none of the non-Shadow interactive/reactive decks can beat the linear/big mana decks.
I get it. You have an ax to grind against Twin. You can't seem to let go that Twin, despite being a "broken combo deck" as you claim (which it was not) also managed to do quite a lot of good for the format (along with old Jund) in helping regulate most of the stuff that everyone seems to complain about: fast linear decks, big mana annoyances, too many bans, etc. And it did this without ever actually pushing ANY of these decks out of competition (Affinity and Burn had excellent results most of 2015, Affinity was at a higher meta share than Twin when it was banned). It kept decks like that in check without oppressing them or letting them get out of control to the point of needing multiple additional bans. And this is because Modern has absolutely no other way to regulate itself other than a drag race to the bottom to see who can do the fastest, most busted, broken thing before getting banned. This isn't helped by the fact that set after set prints new broken things to enable more busted shenanigans, while at the same time a meaningful 1 mana cantrip is unquestionably too powerful and reasonable counterspells are absolutely off the table. Answers are not coming and decks will continue to get faster and more broken until banned, and then the next deck will be banned, and the next, and the next. This is the precedent that they have set and this is hole they have dug themselves in with their R&D, Design, and B&R choices. It will take years to recover otherwise.
It does feel as though shadow and Abzan are the only viable fair decks
Grixis control is very dead
Jund shadow is too all in, it only did well because the meta was combo centric. It's honestly s tier 2 deck.
Jund isn't viable thanks to e tron and other big mana and GY decks.
The meta is interactive but I do find it interesting that grixis shadow and Abzan have become The only fair midrange decks now, control isn't really viable outside of an fnm either
We really need 3 huge unbans to happen at the same time, I think
And yet some self-regulating formats see far fewer overall bans, on top of fewer bans as a percentage of the card pool. Some bans are fine. If we get another Eldrazi Winter or T4 violator then sure, ban away. But this practice of constantly trimming away a best deck results in needless, endless bans of fair and unfair decks alike. That cycle needs to be disrupted.
I mean, I guess this is what we get when we ban out one of the most prominent regulatory decks of the format, then drop any meaningful support for other regulating cards or decks while simultaneously printing oodles of new broken degeneracy over and over. It's no wonder we have to ban so many things so often...
What would that be? Modern was a format defined by Combo decks for years. Jund and on occasion Junk were the only fair decks that could exist for the longest time.
That's the view I don't think is healthy right there. A format should be defined by archtype diversity not combo and linearity.
And yet some self-regulating formats see far fewer overall bans, on top of fewer bans as a percentage of the card pool. Some bans are fine. If we get another Eldrazi Winter or T4 violator then sure, ban away. But this practice of constantly trimming away a best deck results in needless, endless bans of fair and unfair decks alike. That cycle needs to be disrupted.
I mean, I guess this is what we get when we ban out one of the most prominent regulatory decks of the format, then drop any meaningful support for other regulating cards or decks while simultaneously printing oodles of new broken degeneracy over and over. It's no wonder we have to ban so many things so often...
What would that be? Modern was a format defined by Combo decks for years. Jund and on occasion Junk were the only fair decks that could exist for the longest time.
That's the view I don't think is healthy right there. A format should be defined by archtype diversity not combo and linearity.
Modern was a format defined by combo decks for years, it has only really now moved away from combo decks being the best thing around. People pining for the good old days of the first years of the format are essentially asking for a format in which Combo is king.
And yet some self-regulating formats see far fewer overall bans, on top of fewer bans as a percentage of the card pool. Some bans are fine. If we get another Eldrazi Winter or T4 violator then sure, ban away. But this practice of constantly trimming away a best deck results in needless, endless bans of fair and unfair decks alike. That cycle needs to be disrupted.
I mean, I guess this is what we get when we ban out one of the most prominent regulatory decks of the format, then drop any meaningful support for other regulating cards or decks while simultaneously printing oodles of new broken degeneracy over and over. It's no wonder we have to ban so many things so often...
What would that be? Modern was a format defined by Combo decks for years. Jund and on occasion Junk were the only fair decks that could exist for the longest time.
That's the view I don't think is healthy right there. A format should be defined by archtype diversity not combo and linearity.
Modern was a format defined by combo decks for years, it has only really now moved away from combo decks being the best thing around. People pining for the good old days of the first years of the format are essentially asking for a format in which Combo is king.
That's a gross misrepresentation and total oversimplification.
People are pining (well, a minority, in this thread) for Jund and Twin to be kings again, thats really all.
Not entirely wrong! LOL. But the good things both of those decks did for the format is often overlooked or ignored entirely. First without Twin, we see linear nightmares, then after those bans we still have linear degeneracy, but it's backed up by stupidly powerful big mana. Linear can't be kept in check by reactive decks, big mana can't be kept in check by reactive decks. Death's Shadow is about the only "police" deck left which, if it keeps growing, will get banned anyway and linear/big mana will take over again, until those receive yet more bans.
There really is *NOT* an abundance of other fair decks or other highly interactive decks, because none of the fair decks can compete with Shadow and none of the non-Shadow interactive/reactive decks can beat the linear/big mana decks.
I (and many others I'm sure) disagree with the part in bold above. Many fair decks can compete with Shadow decks in isolation. The problem is that a metagame is not about 1v1 matchups. It's about the competitiveness of decks in an environment. Fair decks can beat up on shadow all day long, but can't survive against the various combo and big mana decks that exist.
I'm still of the opinion that Goryo's Vengeance completely deserves the ban hammer for its T2 combo. It's just an unhealthy card, and it's on borrowed time.
If it ever becomes popular, it'll undoubtedly get hit, and given WotC established the precedent that they ban cards solely for being poorly designed when they banned Marvel, I think it is a more than deserved ban.
Marvel was banned because its a Standard card, and they have to treat that format and its players by extension with kid gloves. Interact, and Goryo's is not a powerhouse.
If you want a neutered, weak, format, Standard is a few forums up.
There really is *NOT* an abundance of other fair decks or other highly interactive decks, because none of the fair decks can compete with Shadow and none of the non-Shadow interactive/reactive decks can beat the linear/big mana decks.
I (and many others I'm sure) disagree with the part in bold above. Many fair decks can compete with Shadow decks in isolation. The problem is that a metagame is not about 1v1 matchups. It's about the competitiveness of decks in an environment. Fair decks can beat up on shadow all day long, but can't survive against the various combo and big mana decks that exist.
You're not wrong with that statement. What I was trying to say was that Shadow is supplanting other fair decks. It's better against the rest of the field than any other fair deck (which is questionable to call it "fair" to begin with...), meaning other fair decks overall are less competitively viable.
It does feel as though shadow and Abzan are the only viable fair decks
Grixis control is very dead
Jund shadow is too all in, it only did well because the meta was combo centric. It's honestly s tier 2 deck.
Jund isn't viable thanks to e tron and other big mana and GY decks.
.
The meta is interactive but I do find it interesting that grixis shadow and Abzan have become The only fair midrange decks now, control isn't really viable outside of an fnm either
We really need 3 huge unbans to happen at the same time, I think
Agree with pretty much everything
I think the format is healthy right now but in a Modern way. The format still has tremendous flaws like Unfair and Aggro decks ruling the format and Lands being so overpowered in contrast with the answers.
The problem is that WOTC doesn't want Modern to be Legacy like, they want it to be different from Standard and Legacy. I actually think the healthier states of Modern History came from Legacy-type of environments where Tempo and some form of Midrange style where very good, so everybody could still do their thing but know that decks wanting to interact where the sheriffs in the town. Still, the format was trashed by people and pro's. The more the format loses overall power in interactive shells the more it becomes 'Who drops the biggest thing before'.
In conclusion, i'm a firm supporter of the idea that 'Aggro and Linear Dominating is a Feature not a Flaw' is straight misunderstaing of the goals of the game,and are just too conformists. People like to play more than 4 Turns, get over it. Even if every know and then you get to play an absurdly fast game, it's should be the lesser type and THAT should be a Feature, all kinds of games represented for everyone in fairly distributed amounts.
I hope the new team and changes in WOTC reflects on August and they do the right thing.
They showed concrete statistics demonstrating that it wasn't winning an unreasonable amount of the time, nor did it have an unreasonable amount of representation in the meta.
It was banned solely because it was an unhealthy card design that relied on variance. Cards that unilaterally decide variance should play a far more significant role in the match are bad for the game. Not to mention, Goryo's Vengeance cuts the T4 rule in half.
It does feel as though shadow and Abzan are the only viable fair decks
Grixis control is very dead
Jund shadow is too all in, it only did well because the meta was combo centric. It's honestly s tier 2 deck.
Jund isn't viable thanks to e tron and other big mana and GY decks.
.
The meta is interactive but I do find it interesting that grixis shadow and Abzan have become The only fair midrange decks now, control isn't really viable outside of an fnm either
We really need 3 huge unbans to happen at the same time, I think
Agree with pretty much everything
I think the format is healthy right now but in a Modern way. The format still has tremendous flaws like Unfair and Aggro decks ruling the format and Lands being so overpowered in contrast with the answers.
The problem is that WOTC doesn't want Modern to be Legacy like, they want it to be different from Standard and Legacy. I actually think the healthier states of Modern History came from Legacy-type of environments where Tempo and some form of Midrange style where very good, so everybody could still do their thing but know that decks wanting to interact where the sheriffs in the town. Still, the format was trashed by people and pro's. The more the format loses overall power in interactive shells the more it becomes 'Who drops the biggest thing before'.
In conclusion, i'm a firm supporter of the idea that 'Aggro and Linear Dominating is a Feature not a Flaw' is straight misunderstaing of the goals of the game,and are just too conformists. People like to play more than 4 Turns, get over it. Even if every know and then you get to play an absurdly fast game, it's should be the lesser type and THAT should be a Feature, all kinds of games represented for everyone in fairly distributed amounts.
I hope the new team and changes in WOTC reflects on August and they do the right thing.
What would the three huge unbans be though? I'm partial to SFM, BBE and Preordain. What else could reasonably come off?
I've had this argument many times, and it virtually always comes down to whether or not we agree on this premise: Unhealthy designs alone are worth banning.
If you agree, you're probably inclined to agree with the banning. If you disagree, you probably agree it's degenerate, but don't think that alone warrants a ban. There exists, I'm sure, a minority that would defend a T2 combo win as perfectly fine, but that would lead to an entirely different philosophical discussion, one which I'm perfectly happy having, but it's not typically the case.
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Timezones...why you do this?
Spirits
decks playing:
none
Why couldn't they have done it the other way around and finished each day with Modern?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Todd Stevens spanking an Abzan player pretty hard and just outplaying him (there was a clear skill gap despite Stevens game 2 loss)
And a Valakut player who punted the game against an Affinity deck that limped its way to victory
Twitch chat is so toxic, a bunch of viewers judging better players in a high stakes tournament who are mentally fatigued and/or nervous on camera.
I'm seriously hoping for zero shadow decks in the top 8 but I feel like there's going to be 2.
People are clearly not interested in standard, the viewership plummets whenever its the second portion
In this particular event, T8 means nothing. Half your record is based on Standard. Will be more interesting to see breakdown of 8-0 or 7-1 decks in Modern alone. There is also apparently a Modern Open happening at the same time, though likely featuring much fewer big names (who are all playing in the Invitational).
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
What would that be? Modern was a format defined by Combo decks for years. Jund and on occasion Junk were the only fair decks that could exist for the longest time.
Nice job once again only looking at gds when looking at a card!
It's the only deck though, right? (maybe some believe it's a conspiracy by Wizards to justify a future Death's Shadow ban?)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Well we know lantern went 8-0 at least
I'll once again let someone else's words explain it better than myself:
As of right now, we have Shadow playing the Jundish Twinish role, but not nearly as effectively, as removal of the deck from top tables simply opens the door for MORE fast linear/aggro/combo decks to fill the void. There really is *NOT* an abundance of other fair decks or other highly interactive decks, because none of the fair decks can compete with Shadow and none of the non-Shadow interactive/reactive decks can beat the linear/big mana decks.
I get it. You have an ax to grind against Twin. You can't seem to let go that Twin, despite being a "broken combo deck" as you claim (which it was not) also managed to do quite a lot of good for the format (along with old Jund) in helping regulate most of the stuff that everyone seems to complain about: fast linear decks, big mana annoyances, too many bans, etc. And it did this without ever actually pushing ANY of these decks out of competition (Affinity and Burn had excellent results most of 2015, Affinity was at a higher meta share than Twin when it was banned). It kept decks like that in check without oppressing them or letting them get out of control to the point of needing multiple additional bans. And this is because Modern has absolutely no other way to regulate itself other than a drag race to the bottom to see who can do the fastest, most busted, broken thing before getting banned. This isn't helped by the fact that set after set prints new broken things to enable more busted shenanigans, while at the same time a meaningful 1 mana cantrip is unquestionably too powerful and reasonable counterspells are absolutely off the table. Answers are not coming and decks will continue to get faster and more broken until banned, and then the next deck will be banned, and the next, and the next. This is the precedent that they have set and this is hole they have dug themselves in with their R&D, Design, and B&R choices. It will take years to recover otherwise.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Grixis control is very dead
Jund shadow is too all in, it only did well because the meta was combo centric. It's honestly s tier 2 deck.
Jund isn't viable thanks to e tron and other big mana and GY decks.
The meta is interactive but I do find it interesting that grixis shadow and Abzan have become The only fair midrange decks now, control isn't really viable outside of an fnm either
We really need 3 huge unbans to happen at the same time, I think
That's the view I don't think is healthy right there. A format should be defined by archtype diversity not combo and linearity.
decks playing:
none
Modern was a format defined by combo decks for years, it has only really now moved away from combo decks being the best thing around. People pining for the good old days of the first years of the format are essentially asking for a format in which Combo is king.
Spirits
That's a gross misrepresentation and total oversimplification.
Not entirely wrong! LOL. But the good things both of those decks did for the format is often overlooked or ignored entirely. First without Twin, we see linear nightmares, then after those bans we still have linear degeneracy, but it's backed up by stupidly powerful big mana. Linear can't be kept in check by reactive decks, big mana can't be kept in check by reactive decks. Death's Shadow is about the only "police" deck left which, if it keeps growing, will get banned anyway and linear/big mana will take over again, until those receive yet more bans.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I (and many others I'm sure) disagree with the part in bold above. Many fair decks can compete with Shadow decks in isolation. The problem is that a metagame is not about 1v1 matchups. It's about the competitiveness of decks in an environment. Fair decks can beat up on shadow all day long, but can't survive against the various combo and big mana decks that exist.
Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
If it ever becomes popular, it'll undoubtedly get hit, and given WotC established the precedent that they ban cards solely for being poorly designed when they banned Marvel, I think it is a more than deserved ban.
Marvel was banned because its a Standard card, and they have to treat that format and its players by extension with kid gloves. Interact, and Goryo's is not a powerhouse.
If you want a neutered, weak, format, Standard is a few forums up.
Spirits
You're not wrong with that statement. What I was trying to say was that Shadow is supplanting other fair decks. It's better against the rest of the field than any other fair deck (which is questionable to call it "fair" to begin with...), meaning other fair decks overall are less competitively viable.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Agree with pretty much everything
I think the format is healthy right now but in a Modern way. The format still has tremendous flaws like Unfair and Aggro decks ruling the format and Lands being so overpowered in contrast with the answers.
The problem is that WOTC doesn't want Modern to be Legacy like, they want it to be different from Standard and Legacy. I actually think the healthier states of Modern History came from Legacy-type of environments where Tempo and some form of Midrange style where very good, so everybody could still do their thing but know that decks wanting to interact where the sheriffs in the town. Still, the format was trashed by people and pro's. The more the format loses overall power in interactive shells the more it becomes 'Who drops the biggest thing before'.
In conclusion, i'm a firm supporter of the idea that 'Aggro and Linear Dominating is a Feature not a Flaw' is straight misunderstaing of the goals of the game,and are just too conformists. People like to play more than 4 Turns, get over it. Even if every know and then you get to play an absurdly fast game, it's should be the lesser type and THAT should be a Feature, all kinds of games represented for everyone in fairly distributed amounts.
I hope the new team and changes in WOTC reflects on August and they do the right thing.
It was banned solely because it was an unhealthy card design that relied on variance. Cards that unilaterally decide variance should play a far more significant role in the match are bad for the game. Not to mention, Goryo's Vengeance cuts the T4 rule in half.
Spirits
What would the three huge unbans be though? I'm partial to SFM, BBE and Preordain. What else could reasonably come off?
Those would be the big three I could think of.
Spirits
If you agree, you're probably inclined to agree with the banning. If you disagree, you probably agree it's degenerate, but don't think that alone warrants a ban. There exists, I'm sure, a minority that would defend a T2 combo win as perfectly fine, but that would lead to an entirely different philosophical discussion, one which I'm perfectly happy having, but it's not typically the case.