Yes, as a bolt player it's tough to justify R when that's the only reason to be in the colour. I'd certainly play Junk over Jund if those were the cards I wanted to play. Without Snaps to increase the threat value of Bolt it's just not great in the meta if facing down fatties.
Another thing I forgot to add is the ban of Gitaxian Probe and infect falling off the map hurt Jund. Jund had a good matchup against infect, and infect preyed upon decks like Tron which is Jund's worst matchup.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Maybe these reasons are outdated, but here's what I think:
Why play Jund over Junk? Dark Confidant. Card advantage in a deck that is more streamlined and less clunky can win games on its own. Junk can get more clunky at times, although admittedly some of that clunkiness has been lessened by Blooming Marsh and Fatal Push. Kologhan's Command. Enough said on this one.
That being said, I have been very vocal in my area in saying that Junk Midrange is much better and has been for a while now. I wouldn't date it back to Khans of Tarkir, but it has been for a bit now. Junk Midrange can go toe to toe with decks like Eldrazi Tron and Grixis variations whereas Jund has a much tougher time. But against creature decks like Merfolk and Elves, along with Burn and Affinity (preboard), I'd have to go with Jund. Sorry.
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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)
So this is a broad question, but how does everyone enjoy modern. I want to start playing as much as I used to but I'm tired of being disappointed.
I'm enjoying it a lot. Although I have stopped playing my janky brews and my beloved faeries and focused on tier 1 & 2 decks.
I find that games are more interactive than a year ago and there is a little less I'm going to do my own thing and ignore you nonsense going on.
Edit - I'm playing much more now than I have since eldrazi winter
So this is a broad question, but how does everyone enjoy modern. I want to start playing as much as I used to but I'm tired of being disappointed.
Still playing, enjoying my Kiki-Resto to the point I play it more than Turns, and I'm foiling it out as its got some great ones like Helix and Electrolyze.
Playing a few copies of Supreme Will, and it's effective for digging up a combo piece if/when the counter side is dead or not needed.
Another thing I forgot to add is the ban of Gitaxian Probe and infect falling off the map hurt Jund. Jund had a good matchup against infect, and infect preyed upon decks like Tron which is Jund's worst matchup.
The banning of Probe was only a slight nerf to infect. The deck would have been fine in that meta. The thing that really killed Infect was the printing of Push. You can ask pretty much any other infect player (I was one as well) and they will respond similarly.
Though it is interesting to think how the format would shape up if Push were not printed. I do think that the printing of Push was for the better though, as I already said more general answers is always better.
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Modern URBSome variant of Death's Shadow URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version) JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / Infect
Artifact lands are never coming off the banned list. Ever. Apart from the fact each of them is a pseudo Ancient Tomb with affinity mechanic cards, they give an unhealthy power boost to current Affinity decks.
Think of what those cards do for ravager, plating, etched champion, galvanic blast and mox opal. Then think about master of etherium, myr enforcer and disciple of the vault. If you think all of those would be kept in check by a few more hate cards out of the board you are badly mistaken...
If you notice I discussed each color. For instance do you think affinity would use the green one? If they did they would swap out dark steel citadel. It's off color for what the deck wants. So it ends being the same. The white one also does not really help affinity. Where things start to get dicey is the black land. The red and blue land affinity would want and are probably are too risky.
Another thing I forgot to add is the ban of Gitaxian Probe and infect falling off the map hurt Jund. Jund had a good matchup against infect, and infect preyed upon decks like Tron which is Jund's worst matchup.
The banning of Probe was only a slight nerf to infect. The deck would have been fine in that meta. The thing that really killed Infect was the printing of Push. You can ask pretty much any other infect player (I was one as well) and they will respond similarly.
Though it is interesting to think how the format would shape up if Push were not printed. I do think that the printing of Push was for the better though, as I already said more general answers is always better.
Yes probe ban didn't crush infect but it mixed with push did. I'm glad we have push I just think some people don't realize how much push has changed the format.
Artifact lands are never coming off the banned list. Ever. Apart from the fact each of them is a pseudo Ancient Tomb with affinity mechanic cards, they give an unhealthy power boost to current Affinity decks.
Think of what those cards do for ravager, plating, etched champion, galvanic blast and mox opal. Then think about master of etherium, myr enforcer and disciple of the vault. If you think all of those would be kept in check by a few more hate cards out of the board you are badly mistaken...
If you notice I discussed each color. For instance do you think affinity would use the green one? If they did they would swap out dark steel citadel. It's off color for what the deck wants. So it ends being the same. The white one also does not really help affinity. Where things start to get dicey is the black land. The red and blue land affinity would want and are probably are too risky.
They all help affinity just by being artifacts. It doesn't matter if they tapped for purple mana, affinity would still run them and they'd break the deck.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Are we really talking about unbanning artifact lands? Even if they don't break affinity which is arguably the best deck, how do they improve the format. Do we want a krak clan ironworks deck with artifact lands. Realistically the only unbans are Blood braid elf and stoneforge mystic
So this is a broad question, but how does everyone enjoy modern. I want to start playing as much as I used to but I'm tired of being disappointed.
It's okay. Not great, but okay. I don't really actively dislike the format but it still feels rather dull. Honestly, I'm having a lot more fun playing the Pokemon TCG.
I'm enjoying the format. I play MartyrProc, and my local area has heavily shifted to Burn to try and race out the Death Shadow decks, so I've been able to steal a couple tournaments. It isn't perfect, but I'm having fun.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
So this is a broad question, but how does everyone enjoy modern. I want to start playing as much as I used to but I'm tired of being disappointed.
I think it depends what you enjoy. There are quite a few none games in modern and if you want to just sit down and play some fun games then it might not be for you. My casual modern event was 4 rounds and I had a total of 3 games in that entire set of matches that went longer than t4 win by a player. I went 3-1 and got my entry free for this week again but does that make it fun? I had about 30min between rounds, and I also go with 3 close friends that are learning other decks of mine. So I enjoy watching them and giving them feedback but if I went alone and sat 30 min each round to play 4 rounds it may seem lame.
So this is a broad question, but how does everyone enjoy modern. I want to start playing as much as I used to but I'm tired of being disappointed.
I think it depends what you enjoy. There are quite a few none games in modern and if you want to just sit down and play some fun games then it might not be for you. My casual modern event was 4 rounds and I had a total of 3 games in that entire set of matches that went longer than t4 win by a player. I went 3-1 and got my entry free for this week again but does that make it fun? I had about 30min between rounds, and I also go with 3 close friends that are learning other decks of mine. So I enjoy watching them and giving them feedback but if I went alone and sat 30 min each round to play 4 rounds it may seem lame.
Hey, what is your meta like? I've had a really different experience. Played E-Tron last night and had a 40 minute game 1 v a Mono-White puresteel combo deck was really back and forth! A great nearly 10 turn game each against a sweet B/R madness deck. And my favourite was a going to turns in game 3 match v 5-colour gifts.
Other decks around are grixis shadow, elves, other E-Tron, storm, merfolk, goblins, U/W control endless brews and even occasional affinity and burn too.
Totally agreed if I spent half my time at FNM not playing I'd be pissed.
Modern needs more cards like the Tarkir command cycle. Choices make very interesting game play.
I agree but I doubt they will be effective enough to solve some of the tougher issues modern is facing because you can't make modal cards too cheap.
Dromoka's Command and Atarka's Command are both 2 mana. Kolaghan's Command is 3 mana. It's entirely possible to make good modal cards at reasonable prices, even if one or more of the modes is almost never used. I would love to see this in enemy cycles and salivate over a possible 2cmc UR Command that upgrades the fairly mediocre Izzet Charm.
The words non-creature and discard 2 on that card upset me greatly. If it just said counter spell unless 2 mana is paid or draw 2 discard 1 it would be so much closer to playable.
I'm still confused to why there is no 2 mana instant or sorcery draw 2 cards in blue. Black has Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood why doesn't the colour of card draw have an equivalent? :/
At least there's esper charm, which has the blue ability to draw 2. The reason Izzit charm's final ability is draw 2 discard 2 is because the last ability is supposed to be an ability that both colors have, so it's filtering, because it's blue and red.
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Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Oh yeah I get the flavour. Just compared with a lot of the charms there are a few that are much lower power than the others and I'd quite like to see updated versions.
Also I'd suggest that while esper charm has the 'draw 2' it's many times more restrictive than Night's Whisper and Sign in blood. There are a good number of examples of this now (across the colours). I guess it just means there are plenty of obvious cards for WotC to print.
So this is a broad question, but how does everyone enjoy modern. I want to start playing as much as I used to but I'm tired of being disappointed.
I think it depends what you enjoy. There are quite a few none games in modern and if you want to just sit down and play some fun games then it might not be for you. My casual modern event was 4 rounds and I had a total of 3 games in that entire set of matches that went longer than t4 win by a player. I went 3-1 and got my entry free for this week again but does that make it fun? I had about 30min between rounds, and I also go with 3 close friends that are learning other decks of mine. So I enjoy watching them and giving them feedback but if I went alone and sat 30 min each round to play 4 rounds it may seem lame.
Hey, what is your meta like? I've had a really different experience. Played E-Tron last night and had a 40 minute game 1 v a Mono-White puresteel combo deck was really back and forth! A great nearly 10 turn game each against a sweet B/R madness deck. And my favourite was a going to turns in game 3 match v 5-colour gifts.
Other decks around are grixis shadow, elves, other E-Tron, storm, merfolk, goblins, U/W control endless brews and even occasional affinity and burn too.
Totally agreed if I spent half my time at FNM not playing I'd be pissed.
Yeah mines much less random. I was on "counters company" play typically against t1 decks and fast combo decks like amulet titan.
I understand what a "Sol land" implies I was simply pointing out that the only other to my knowledge in the format is a land that literally see's no play and just find it odd that you bring up that it plays more than any other deck as though non-Eldrazi decks are running any similar type of land.
I disagree that it Temple is what enables the deck to be so successful in the Meta. I think it is that it essentially just plays alot of really good cards that even at "full cost" are great play's. Sure TKS on T2/3 is ideal but a T4 TKS is not bad by any measure, Reality Smasher is still fine on T5 etc.... This is not as True for Classic Tron decks Karn is strong at seven but the deck does little to nothing between the beginning of the game and Karn so if you are hard casting it with out Tron assembled you are very likely in a very bad spot, this isn't true for E-Tron every thing they play is reasonable even if you have to cast it for full cost.
While you might run more top end cards like Ulamog that is not the norm for E-Tron, most lists top out at Karn/all is dust split in the main. I think its the quality threat heavy aspect of the deck that really makes it so good, it just runs playsets of awesome Mid-Range creatures and can accelerate them out 1/2 turns ahead depending on their draw, but is not contingent on that to be a solid deck, T2 chalice, T3 Matter Reshaper, T4 TSK etc.... are all still very powerful plays which are only made better with Temple or a Mind Stone or assembling Tron.
I think the difference between a Ramp deck and a Big Mana deck are what are your intentions with the ramping. Pretty much every "big mana" deck is a Ramp deck but not every Ramp deck is looking to play 7,8,9,10 drops etc.... Valukut is a Ramp deck but its most expensive card is 6c.c. its not really looking to Spend big mana its looking to enable its combo kill. Classic Tron is a big mana deck, it is looking to play very expensive things early always it is the classic mid-range Ramp/Control deck essentially looking to do the kinds of things that a traditional draw-go control deck would do but ramping them out 2-3 turns earlier than a traditional control deck can. I think the major difference is that Ramp is a design guideline while "big mana" is the strategy for exploiting the early mana, E-Tron Titainshift are both perfectly fine only netting -1 turn on the c.c. of their business spells TKS on 3, Reality of 4 Titan on 5 etc... Tron on the other hand is having a terrible match up if all they gained was Karn on 6.
Cool
It's worth mentioning simply because I was asking what defines the difference between midrange and big mana and it's an area where there is a difference. No other reason.
Agreed that the cards in E-Tron are great even without temple (I enjoyed playing Bant Eldrazi which is definitely midrange), all I was suggesting is that without temple the deck would have to make a choice (Karn and Ulamog, both of which have become pretty standard in the last month, check the E-Tron thread for the discussions) or (play noble hierarch, birds etc to get to big beaters) and couldn't do both plans equally well. (Which is why it's interesting to try to categorise E-Tron, because it does both plans well).
I also agree with you on the reasons for difference between ramp and big mana is in the philosophy.
I'm not sure I agree there is sufficiently large philosophy difference between E-Tron and Gx Tron to call one big mana and the other midrange.
Both Ramp and Big Mana are Mid-range strategies, Mid-range is a phase of the game not a particular strategy. It encompasses multiple strategies, Jund Mid-range is a aggro/control ( by means of attrition) deck the cards it looks to pivot the game into a winning position are LotV, whatever 3-4 drop creatures the build might be running and man lands. Ramp decks are mid-range decks that look to accelerate their mana in one way or another RG Titain/x decks do this with various green ramp spells Tron decks do it by assembling 3 specific lands in play both are looking to put their mana base in a position that has them with +2-4 position on Mana by as early as T3 to exploit some ahead of curve plays.
I think this has been lost in recent years because WotC has in Standard made it a point to almost always have some type of Mid-range Aggro/Control deck be viable in the format and has drawn back on Mid-range Ramp strategies ( like not printing 1c.c. mana dorks because they are to good at what they do for standard apparently). So when someone says "mid-range" they automatically associate that with Aggro/control decks that are looking to play sweet things in the mid-range phase of the game like 3-5 cc creatures and planeswalkers. Kind of similar to how when someone says "control" most players will auto assume you mean some Blue based counterspell and drawspell driven late-game deck. It also doesn't help that other non-ramp mid-range decks that are not in the BGx spectrum have not really performed well in Modern, decks like Big Zoo are solidly looking to play their pivotal spells in the mid-range phase of the game with strong 3 drops and 4 drops but they just don't have the tools that BGx has to make a flexible enough deck to ever compete with the BGx decks segment of the meta-game.
I would say that E-Tron is a even more hybrid strategy within that the spectrum, it is a Aggro/Attrition/Ramp deck IMO which means it covers even more ground and is more resilient because of it. The deck obviously likes to be in a position where it can play as many of its creatures a turn as possible but the built in 2 for 1 nature of the creatures it runs make it so that if the Ramp aspect of the deck doesn't line up it isn't nearly as impacting as when it doesn't line up for other Ramp strategies but I also think that the ramp aspect is secondary to the Aggro/Attrition aspect. I find it a bit odd that you would say that Bant Eldrazi is "definitely" mid-range while questioning that E-Tron is, other than the reality that both are mid-range strategies by the nature of the decks, I see the biggest difference being the method in which the decks intend to accelerate mana production, Bant obviously looks to do it Bird, Hierarch's etc.. and gains access to better removal spells for the color splash while E-Tron simply looks to do it with tron lands and Mind Stone (obviously both are running temple just looking at the differences) but also has less access to powerful non-creature spells sure they get to run Chalice but it always has the problem of "you play it for one, opponent has a bunch of 2-3 drops" other than that they get what Dismember? which while strong is always painful.
I didn't go look at the threads for what E-Tron is doing I looked at the decks that have put up results as often the case in the deck threads a lot of the "tech" people are running is much more local meta calls.
Since someone brought up Esper Charm I want the community's opinion on something (75% of you probably know where I am going with this).
Let's say you are playing against someone and they cast Esper Charm. You ask the question, "Are you targeting me, or targeting yourself?"
Your opponent replies, "I am targeting myself"
At FNM or another non-Comp REL event, do you just let it slide and let them draw 2 cards?
What about at a Comp REL event?
What about at a Pro REL event?
I'm asking because the last Comp REL even I went to this came up, and the guy called a Judge on his opponent for drawing instead of discarding. For the rest of the tournament, I noticed almost everyone who got paired against him had this, "Why did I have to get paired against the scumbag" attitude to them.
I feel Modern is, and always has been, a format where if you don't understand interactions like this you deserve to be punished for it. But what are everyone else's takes?
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Modern Decks: UBG Lantern Control GBU BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Since someone brought up Esper Charm I want the community's opinion on something (75% of you probably know where I am going with this).
Let's say you are playing against someone and they cast Esper Charm. You ask the question, "Are you targeting me, or targeting yourself?"
Your opponent replies, "I am targeting myself"
At FNM or another non-Comp REL event, do you just let it slide and let them draw 2 cards?
What about at a Comp REL event?
What about at a Pro REL event?
I'm asking because the last Comp REL even I went to this came up, and the guy called a Judge on his opponent for drawing instead of discarding. For the rest of the tournament, I noticed almost everyone who got paired against him had this, "Why did I have to get paired against the scumbag" attitude to them.
I feel Modern is, and always has been, a format where if you don't understand interactions like this you deserve to be punished for it. But what are everyone else's takes?
I would let it slide (I know I am probably in the minority) at any REL. Yes, there is a miscommunication here and realistically, we should be advocating stronger communication, but this is a fairly clear case of a player misspeaking.
I also want to comment on the above bolded statement: I disagree pretty strongly. I don't think you "deserve" to be punished for a misunderstanding. Modern's card pool is large enough that players will not always know that a Chalice on 2 counters a Chalice on 1 or a Flashbacked spell is still exiled with Remand or you can Suspend 4 Ancestral Visions on an opponent's turn (assuming you have the mana) after casting a single Quicken. Yes, players should know what their cards do and communicate effectively as to what they want to do, but suggesting they deserve to be punished for not knowing is going a little far.
Also, I want to note that I don't think the player who called a judge did anything wrong. While I personally would allow it to slide, I have nothing against others (at a Comp REL) being a little more strict on communication.
Since someone brought up Esper Charm I want the community's opinion on something (75% of you probably know where I am going with this).
Let's say you are playing against someone and they cast Esper Charm. You ask the question, "Are you targeting me, or targeting yourself?"
Your opponent replies, "I am targeting myself"
At FNM or another non-Comp REL event, do you just let it slide and let them draw 2 cards?
What about at a Comp REL event?
What about at a Pro REL event?
I'm asking because the last Comp REL even I went to this came up, and the guy called a Judge on his opponent for drawing instead of discarding. For the rest of the tournament, I noticed almost everyone who got paired against him had this, "Why did I have to get paired against the scumbag" attitude to them.
I feel Modern is, and always has been, a format where if you don't understand interactions like this you deserve to be punished for it. But what are everyone else's takes?
In order for this to work the player casting it has to cast it without choosing modes so I have no pity. If Player A casts it and says draw then there's no real trickery that can happen. If someone just taps three mana and sets a card down silently then it's on them. Even then if they say, 'target me to draw cards' the situation can still be fixed since it's clear what they are trying to do.
I also want to comment on the above bolded statement: I disagree pretty strongly. I don't think you "deserve" to be punished for a misunderstanding. Modern's card pool is large enough that players will not always know that a Chalice on 2 counters a Chalice on 1 or a Flashbacked spell is still exiled with Remand or you can Suspend 4 Ancestral Visions on an opponent's turn (assuming you have the mana) after casting a single Quicken. Yes, players should know what their cards do and communicate effectively as to what they want to do, but suggesting they deserve to be punished for not knowing is going a little far.
Perhaps the word 'deserve' was a little too strong. I think a better way to describe how I feel is that if you don't properly understand card interactions in Modern, that you shouldn't be able to get away with it forever.
If you don't know how your Arcbound Ravager works against your opponent's Spellskite then that's something you'll learn, but probably not until it's bitten you in your rear.
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Modern Decks: UBG Lantern Control GBU BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
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Spirits
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Maybe these reasons are outdated, but here's what I think:
Why play Jund over Junk? Dark Confidant. Card advantage in a deck that is more streamlined and less clunky can win games on its own. Junk can get more clunky at times, although admittedly some of that clunkiness has been lessened by Blooming Marsh and Fatal Push. Kologhan's Command. Enough said on this one.
That being said, I have been very vocal in my area in saying that Junk Midrange is much better and has been for a while now. I wouldn't date it back to Khans of Tarkir, but it has been for a bit now. Junk Midrange can go toe to toe with decks like Eldrazi Tron and Grixis variations whereas Jund has a much tougher time. But against creature decks like Merfolk and Elves, along with Burn and Affinity (preboard), I'd have to go with Jund. Sorry.
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)I'm enjoying it a lot. Although I have stopped playing my janky brews and my beloved faeries and focused on tier 1 & 2 decks.
I find that games are more interactive than a year ago and there is a little less I'm going to do my own thing and ignore you nonsense going on.
Edit - I'm playing much more now than I have since eldrazi winter
Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
Still playing, enjoying my Kiki-Resto to the point I play it more than Turns, and I'm foiling it out as its got some great ones like Helix and Electrolyze.
Playing a few copies of Supreme Will, and it's effective for digging up a combo piece if/when the counter side is dead or not needed.
Modern continues to be fun.
Spirits
The banning of Probe was only a slight nerf to infect. The deck would have been fine in that meta. The thing that really killed Infect was the printing of Push. You can ask pretty much any other infect player (I was one as well) and they will respond similarly.
Though it is interesting to think how the format would shape up if Push were not printed. I do think that the printing of Push was for the better though, as I already said more general answers is always better.
URB Some variant of Death's Shadow
URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version)
JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / InfectCommander/EDH
This pile of cards when I feel like it
Death's Shadow discord link
If you notice I discussed each color. For instance do you think affinity would use the green one? If they did they would swap out dark steel citadel. It's off color for what the deck wants. So it ends being the same. The white one also does not really help affinity. Where things start to get dicey is the black land. The red and blue land affinity would want and are probably are too risky.
I loathe creatures! Praise Prison and Land Destruction!
My Peasant Cube (looking for feedback)
Yes probe ban didn't crush infect but it mixed with push did. I'm glad we have push I just think some people don't realize how much push has changed the format.
They all help affinity just by being artifacts. It doesn't matter if they tapped for purple mana, affinity would still run them and they'd break the deck.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
I think it depends what you enjoy. There are quite a few none games in modern and if you want to just sit down and play some fun games then it might not be for you. My casual modern event was 4 rounds and I had a total of 3 games in that entire set of matches that went longer than t4 win by a player. I went 3-1 and got my entry free for this week again but does that make it fun? I had about 30min between rounds, and I also go with 3 close friends that are learning other decks of mine. So I enjoy watching them and giving them feedback but if I went alone and sat 30 min each round to play 4 rounds it may seem lame.
Hey, what is your meta like? I've had a really different experience. Played E-Tron last night and had a 40 minute game 1 v a Mono-White puresteel combo deck was really back and forth! A great nearly 10 turn game each against a sweet B/R madness deck. And my favourite was a going to turns in game 3 match v 5-colour gifts.
Other decks around are grixis shadow, elves, other E-Tron, storm, merfolk, goblins, U/W control endless brews and even occasional affinity and burn too.
Totally agreed if I spent half my time at FNM not playing I'd be pissed.
Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
At least there's esper charm, which has the blue ability to draw 2. The reason Izzit charm's final ability is draw 2 discard 2 is because the last ability is supposed to be an ability that both colors have, so it's filtering, because it's blue and red.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
Also I'd suggest that while esper charm has the 'draw 2' it's many times more restrictive than Night's Whisper and Sign in blood. There are a good number of examples of this now (across the colours). I guess it just means there are plenty of obvious cards for WotC to print.
Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
Yeah mines much less random. I was on "counters company" play typically against t1 decks and fast combo decks like amulet titan.
Both Ramp and Big Mana are Mid-range strategies, Mid-range is a phase of the game not a particular strategy. It encompasses multiple strategies, Jund Mid-range is a aggro/control ( by means of attrition) deck the cards it looks to pivot the game into a winning position are LotV, whatever 3-4 drop creatures the build might be running and man lands. Ramp decks are mid-range decks that look to accelerate their mana in one way or another RG Titain/x decks do this with various green ramp spells Tron decks do it by assembling 3 specific lands in play both are looking to put their mana base in a position that has them with +2-4 position on Mana by as early as T3 to exploit some ahead of curve plays.
I think this has been lost in recent years because WotC has in Standard made it a point to almost always have some type of Mid-range Aggro/Control deck be viable in the format and has drawn back on Mid-range Ramp strategies ( like not printing 1c.c. mana dorks because they are to good at what they do for standard apparently). So when someone says "mid-range" they automatically associate that with Aggro/control decks that are looking to play sweet things in the mid-range phase of the game like 3-5 cc creatures and planeswalkers. Kind of similar to how when someone says "control" most players will auto assume you mean some Blue based counterspell and drawspell driven late-game deck. It also doesn't help that other non-ramp mid-range decks that are not in the BGx spectrum have not really performed well in Modern, decks like Big Zoo are solidly looking to play their pivotal spells in the mid-range phase of the game with strong 3 drops and 4 drops but they just don't have the tools that BGx has to make a flexible enough deck to ever compete with the BGx decks segment of the meta-game.
I would say that E-Tron is a even more hybrid strategy within that the spectrum, it is a Aggro/Attrition/Ramp deck IMO which means it covers even more ground and is more resilient because of it. The deck obviously likes to be in a position where it can play as many of its creatures a turn as possible but the built in 2 for 1 nature of the creatures it runs make it so that if the Ramp aspect of the deck doesn't line up it isn't nearly as impacting as when it doesn't line up for other Ramp strategies but I also think that the ramp aspect is secondary to the Aggro/Attrition aspect. I find it a bit odd that you would say that Bant Eldrazi is "definitely" mid-range while questioning that E-Tron is, other than the reality that both are mid-range strategies by the nature of the decks, I see the biggest difference being the method in which the decks intend to accelerate mana production, Bant obviously looks to do it Bird, Hierarch's etc.. and gains access to better removal spells for the color splash while E-Tron simply looks to do it with tron lands and Mind Stone (obviously both are running temple just looking at the differences) but also has less access to powerful non-creature spells sure they get to run Chalice but it always has the problem of "you play it for one, opponent has a bunch of 2-3 drops" other than that they get what Dismember? which while strong is always painful.
I didn't go look at the threads for what E-Tron is doing I looked at the decks that have put up results as often the case in the deck threads a lot of the "tech" people are running is much more local meta calls.
Let's say you are playing against someone and they cast Esper Charm. You ask the question, "Are you targeting me, or targeting yourself?"
Your opponent replies, "I am targeting myself"
At FNM or another non-Comp REL event, do you just let it slide and let them draw 2 cards?
What about at a Comp REL event?
What about at a Pro REL event?
I'm asking because the last Comp REL even I went to this came up, and the guy called a Judge on his opponent for drawing instead of discarding. For the rest of the tournament, I noticed almost everyone who got paired against him had this, "Why did I have to get paired against the scumbag" attitude to them.
I feel Modern is, and always has been, a format where if you don't understand interactions like this you deserve to be punished for it. But what are everyone else's takes?
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
I also want to comment on the above bolded statement: I disagree pretty strongly. I don't think you "deserve" to be punished for a misunderstanding. Modern's card pool is large enough that players will not always know that a Chalice on 2 counters a Chalice on 1 or a Flashbacked spell is still exiled with Remand or you can Suspend 4 Ancestral Visions on an opponent's turn (assuming you have the mana) after casting a single Quicken. Yes, players should know what their cards do and communicate effectively as to what they want to do, but suggesting they deserve to be punished for not knowing is going a little far.
Also, I want to note that I don't think the player who called a judge did anything wrong. While I personally would allow it to slide, I have nothing against others (at a Comp REL) being a little more strict on communication.
In order for this to work the player casting it has to cast it without choosing modes so I have no pity. If Player A casts it and says draw then there's no real trickery that can happen. If someone just taps three mana and sets a card down silently then it's on them. Even then if they say, 'target me to draw cards' the situation can still be fixed since it's clear what they are trying to do.
Perhaps the word 'deserve' was a little too strong. I think a better way to describe how I feel is that if you don't properly understand card interactions in Modern, that you shouldn't be able to get away with it forever.
If you don't know how your Arcbound Ravager works against your opponent's Spellskite then that's something you'll learn, but probably not until it's bitten you in your rear.
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros