Just a reminder that unbanning cards that don't make your pet midrange/control deck better against Tron (SFM, BBE, whatever) will not make your deck better against Tron and is not a case for unbanning them.
THIS 100X!!! If you don't agree with this then there is no amount of logic that will ever convince you that good, non-oppressive, combos should be allowed. If you don't agree with it then just don't play this game, and you certainly shouldn't feel entitled to make any comment on ban lists ever.
People on this forum are always hysterical about anything and everything. The likely narrative is that we saw Tron and UWR variants at the top tables because the decks that prey on big mana got trounced on by disruptive aggro decks, which really suck against big mana and boltsnapbolt decks.
THIS 100X!!! If you don't agree with this then there is no amount of logic that will ever convince you that good, non-oppressive, combos should be allowed. If you don't agree with it then just don't play this game, and you certainly shouldn't feel entitled to make any comment on ban lists ever.
It's one tournament, I can't believe people are hysterical about trons results today.
I don't see a lot of hysteria. The results are just bad and that's all most people are saying. I am also saying that if the results looked like this after the PT, that would be cause for serious alarm and Wizards acting.
People on this forum are always hysterical about anything and everything. The likely narrative is that we saw Tron and UWR variants at the top tables because the decks that prey on big mana got trounced on by disruptive aggro decks, which really suck against big mana and boltsnapbolt decks.
I don't disagree, but let's not pretend this is an MTGS-only phenomenon. Reddit and Twitch are notable examples that show this sentiment is widespread across those Modern players who post online. Wizards is certainly responsible for this to some extent but it's very much driven by the community.
It's one tournament, I can't believe people are hysterical about trons results today.
I don't see a lot of hysteria. The results are just bad and that's all most people are saying. I am also saying that if the results looked like this after the PT, that would be cause for serious alarm and Wizards acting.
People on this forum are always hysterical about anything and everything. The likely narrative is that we saw Tron and UWR variants at the top tables because the decks that prey on big mana got trounced on by disruptive aggro decks, which really suck against big mana and boltsnapbolt decks.
I don't disagree, but let's not pretend this is an MTGS-only phenomenon. Reddit and Twitch are notable examples that show this sentiment is widespread across those Modern players who post online. Wizards is certainly responsible for this to some extent but it's very much driven by the community.
There's a part of me that hopes this happens in the tour so that WOTC finally does something about ramp in modern.
What does unbanning midrange cards do to alleviate this issue?
This might sound crazy but I honestly think Force of Will will be a strong step in the right direction for this format.
- Turn 3 Karn with higher consistency than the current 'playable' counters available to stop it
- Turn 2 Thoughtknot double Temple
- Turn 1 SSG > Moon, Chalice, game over lock out piece
- Turn 1 Gemstone, land + 4 SSG > Elspeth
- Turn 1 Cheerio's kill
- Turn 1 Narset Vengeance kill
- Turn 1 Prowess/shotgun kill
Some extremely unlikely examples above and some semi-common ones involving SSG, the fact is, there is absolutely no way to interact with some of these plays which is unacceptable in my books. Disrupting Shoal is the only thing I can think of but is just way too unreliable/playable.
Add to this those top 8 linear style combo decks mentioned above - tron x 3, Scapeshift x 2, Dredge, Living End, Jeskai breach(not control) and the ever increasing diversity of the Modern format, I think FoW has to be legal to enable consistent interactive decks.
This might sound crazy but I honestly think Force of Will will be a strong step in the right direction for this format.
- Turn 3 Karn with higher consistency than the current 'playable' counters available to stop it
- Turn 2 Thoughtknot double Temple
- Turn 1 SSG > Moon, Chalice, game over lock out piece
- Turn 1 Gemstone, land + 4 SSG > Elspeth
- Turn 1 Cheerio's kill
- Turn 1 Narset Vengeance kill
- Turn 1 Prowess/shotgun kill
Some extremely unlikely examples above and some semi-common ones involving SSG, the fact is, there is absolutely no way to interact with some of these plays which is unacceptable in my books. Disrupting Shoal is the only thing I can think of but is just way too unreliable/playable.
Add to this those top 8 linear style combo decks mentioned above - tron x 3, Scapeshift x 2, Dredge, Living End, Jeskai breach(not control) and the ever increasing diversity of the Modern format, I think FoW has to be legal to enable consistent interactive decks.
Of course Force of Will would be great for modern, but it has to make it past standard first and it is a card I do not believe they will ever print in standard.
@Spsiegel1987: FOW isn't even that good against Jund/Junk attrition based decks so I don't know what you are talking about. FOW is best against all-in combo decks.
Since we will not get Force of Will or Wasteland in standard, I think wizards will eventually have to resort to banning a few of the worst offenders instead to help bring more interactivity into the format. Tron is probably the biggest suppressor of interaction right now which is why I am advocating for its ban
Re: FoW and Wasteland
Even slightly modified versions of these cards would rock. But I just don't see any way for those nervous nellies in D&D to allow them in Standard. Did anyone see worse Mana Leak in Ixalan? Or their new stab at a Wasteland variant? They don't want these effects in Standard. Maybe they're changing their tune with the asburd nightmare that was 2017 Standard, but who knows. Play Design was supposed to help but I'm not inspired by their track record. For example, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure they were responsible for the failures of Ixalan limited, which many regard as swingy and shallow.
EDIT: Looks like Play Design didn't really do much for Ix and Rivals, so we won't see their work until Dominaria. Maybe Wasteland or FoW throwback?
I really think mental Misstep needs to be unleashed into modern to balance some meta game out.
Mental Misstep I don't expect all experiences in modern to be the same, but I'm approaching this from the position that burn/sligh themed decks/strategies over saturate and dominate modern. games with unanswered turn 1 monastery swiftspear, goblin guide, delver of secrets and maybe a few other types of 1 drops whens supported with the right strategy really dominate a game. answers to such starts are expensive and slow depending on the match up. Because of efficiency I see a lot of people choosing to play such strategies. Simplicity may also be a factor as well. Answers are expensive is my point, most decks that counter such strategies well, play Kitchen finks, obstinate baloth, tarmogoyf, walls, etc. things costsing at minimum 2 mana. better luck goes to decks that run red or black, maybe white for cheap answers like lightning bolt, fatal push, and path to exile. which in a sense forces people into white black or red for cheap answers to very cheap strategies. (cheap as in casting cost) 1. For a meta that goes back and forth between, decks gambling for 1ccs to go unanswered and decks splashing for a 1cc to answer a 1cc that is devastating if unchecked! why not unleash Mental Misstep! this is a format that is said to be a turn 4 format. Unleashing mental misstep would aid wizards goal of it being a turn 4 and longer format. another card lightning bolt and other 1cc 3 damage. a lot of decks run this, regardless of being purely burn strategy or not. it would be kind of nice to have something that can counter this or atleast reduce its effectiveness with a card that is 1cc. any deck with blue benefits the most of course. all the same though, to counter or repair a life total harmed by lightning bolt is expensive. most strategies seems to be playing cards that are 3cc or more to undo the early losses to a lightning bolt/lava spike and reach the tenative state of "stablize". particularly if it is either multiple 1cc bolt spells or 1cc bolt spells being reused by snapcaster mage 2. my next point, lets look at the reverse. I bashed efficient 1cc creatures and lighting bolt type spells. but for the strategies that run those, unleashing Mental Misstep may help them as much as it stops them. If mental misstep doesn't push them into 2cc creatures that do just as good. It helps in that it shuts off path to exile, fatal push and lightning bolt which is right now the most common answers to the burn/sligh strategies. As I said earlier, I think cheap 1cc burn/sligh makes up a large porportion of the meta game, so unleashing Mental Misstep would make the shoot outs of their mirror matches interesting in the immediate unbanning. 3. take a look at tron for instance, this one is neither burn nor sligh which i've ripped on, but a top performer in recent meta game, mental misstep hitting an expedition map can delay those turn 3 karns that are so devastating, or even a turn 3 worldbreaker. even if the game is pushed into later turns, they still play big stuff that swings games which when it happens in later turns seems fair. A couple other decks would be drastically devastated by mental misstep's availability. if its anything like bogles, it falls under my same criticism of burn/sligh. a strategy thats runs a person down and probably wins turn 4/5 thanks to something that is 1cc doing a lot of work. As I rip on 1cc's that do a lot of work in this modern meta game, I believe we see a lot of people pushed into JunD and JunK decks as these strategies by design has strong resilience to 1cc strategies that gamble for a strong turn 1, 1cc that will do a lot of of the work. I think with Mental Misstep being available, people couple play more jank without the fear of being over run by turn 1, 1cc as mental misstepp can be the 1 card that answers that over saturating strategy. 3. tell me why i'm wrong............... or support my argument for unleashing mental misstep!
This is one of the biggest tournaments that GDS performed very poorly in. I wonder what the problem was---Are GDS decks messing around too much with Opt and cutting the 1x K-Command to blame?
This is one of the biggest tournaments that GDS performed very poorly in. I wonder what the problem was---Are GDS decks messing around too much with Opt and cutting the 1x K-Command to blame?
The problem is tron.
Which is basically the reason to Storm. Look at that beautiful top 8. Baral would have crushed all of it, and then interactive decks could have pushed, bolted, snapped, leaked, surgicalled and discarded Storm into oblivion and you'd see an interactive top 8.
I'm glad to see Tron dominate this hard, it just demonstrates what a Storm-less meta looks like. This is exactly what I looked at in my LGS up till I put aside my elves/delver/tokens decks and just Baraled them.
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Its a bit of push and pull. Lately the surge in humans decks coupled with the playerbase generally figuring out how to hit storm with their maindeck cards (like not bolting Baral when the storm player has 2 untapped reds, and instead hitting with PiF on the stack for eg), has made Storm less of a contender. I mean, still strong, sure. But definitely less attractive competitively.
And what crushes these decks better than big mana? I think thats why UR Kiki moon was so well positioned recently - I'm surprised it wasn't in this top 8 - it has the main deck hate for land decks, and an oops i win for dredge and other combat-based decks.
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I would love to see Wasteland, I would put it in Tron right next to my Ghost Quarters and add Excavator and Crucible. T3 Karn would become very nearly impossible, but the deck would just be gross with that flexibility.
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Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
This is one of the biggest tournaments that GDS performed very poorly in. I wonder what the problem was---Are GDS decks messing around too much with Opt and cutting the 1x K-Command to blame?
The problem is tron.
I don't think Tron is particularly favored against Death's Shadow.
This is one of the biggest tournaments that GDS performed very poorly in. I wonder what the problem was---Are GDS decks messing around too much with Opt and cutting the 1x K-Command to blame?
The problem is tron.
I don't think Tron is particularly favored against Death's Shadow.
While it is the most favored against Tron of the grixis snapcaster decks, it by no means has a favorable match up. Ultimately, the deck still plays a delver-ish game plan, albeit with a bigger delver and less interaction. The deck doesn't always clock fast enough.
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- Tron dominated this tournament. If you lump the big Tron and the Eldra tron decks together, they ve got 8 copies in the top 32.
- Top 32 was super linear and uninteractive.
- There was a good amount of tempo queller builds
It's worth noting that although there are 8 Tron variants in the T32, there are also 8 Ux control variants: 3 Queller, 2 Jeskai Control, 1 Jeskai Breach, 1 UW Control, and 1 Grixis. It's up to 10 if you count the 2 GDS showings. The issue is that most of those decks did worse than most of the Tron decks by about 1 match/3 points and missed T8.
That is also to say, the T32 as a collective actually looks great. The problem is the order those decks finished in. The other problem is the high-profile T8. I guarantee you we wouldn't be having this conversation if we had any 1-2 of those other Ux decks finish in the T8 instead of a Tron/Shift. Doubly so if they had won.
@holy, if that's true, PT is going to be awful and I am certain we need an unban before we get to see Modern's ugly face. We are getting up to a point that even the Grixis Shadow deck seems "too fair and a mediocre choice in Modern". That seriously sucks, if true.
Does anybody believe that there is a chance those two GP's may convince Wizards to unban a fair card to make the upcoming PT more interactive?
Couldn't help but read your sig and think that could be relevant.
Because I don't see any "fair" card on there that helps the abzan/jund/grixis midrangers beat tron. Its heartening to see queller perform, really.
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This is one of the biggest tournaments that GDS performed very poorly in. I wonder what the problem was---Are GDS decks messing around too much with Opt and cutting the 1x K-Command to blame?
The problem is tron.
I don't think Tron is particularly favored against Death's Shadow.
When I play GDS I'm fine with E-Tron but I've never been happy to face classic Tron. I think it's a rough mu for GDS and I truly believe that large presence of Tron was (one of the) reason(s) to poor GDS performance.
^The idea that GDS has a good Tron matchup comes from the fact that DSJ had a good Tron matchup. GDS is far less proactive than DSJ though, and therefore worse vs Tron.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Top 8 looks horrendous. 5x Big mana decks, 2 graveyard combo decks and 1 combo deck.
HOWEVER, if one looks at the top 32, the image looks much healthier and the top 8 can be explained. There are a lot of control decks (3 Jeskai Queller, 2 Jeskai Control, 1 Grixis control, 1 UW control), some aggro/creature based combo (1 Affinity, 1 Burn, 1 Elves, 1 Humans, 1 Infect), some pure combo, some graveyard based combo and the only very lackluster archetype is midrange with only 2x GDS.
In such a top 32 it makes sense that Tron and other big mana decks would do well. Control decks have started gearing towards beating E. Tron and creature based decks like humans (meaning they include more mass removal), thus making their plan (even more) susceptible to big Tron and Scapeshift. With 15 decks of top 32 being some version of control or some version of Tron, you bet Tron would have the upper hand.
In all, I believe, GP showed the following things:
1) E. Tron can be targeted and kept in check. Only 2 in top 32 with 0 converting.
2) Storm had a staggering performance on camera and seemed like it was dominating the field, but in the end there were only 2 in top 32.
3) Control seemed to be struggling contrary to recent results but in the end had several appearances in Top 32
4) Tron is just too good in this metagame. However, years of modern have shown that Tron can be defeated.
5) Titanshift is better than recent results were suggesting, but not heavily dominating, it had only 2 copies in top 32, both of which reached the finals, mainly because of an extremely favorable meta game.
In relation to format health, the PT and future bans/unbans:
1) This GP was an alarming bell, but its top 32 showed that we still have room to wiggle.
2) PT is close, if we have the same trend (control decks "almost" getting there, Tron dominating, midrange really low) then big mana will be a candidate to take a hit
3) BBE and SFM both seem almost laughable at this point. We saw SO many T3 powerful things this weekend that a Batterskull T3 sounds underwhelming, if that can actually be a thing.
I don't see a lot of hysteria. The results are just bad and that's all most people are saying. I am also saying that if the results looked like this after the PT, that would be cause for serious alarm and Wizards acting.
I don't disagree, but let's not pretend this is an MTGS-only phenomenon. Reddit and Twitch are notable examples that show this sentiment is widespread across those Modern players who post online. Wizards is certainly responsible for this to some extent but it's very much driven by the community.
There's a part of me that hopes this happens in the tour so that WOTC finally does something about ramp in modern.
What does unbanning midrange cards do to alleviate this issue?
- Turn 3 Karn with higher consistency than the current 'playable' counters available to stop it
- Turn 2 Thoughtknot double Temple
- Turn 1 SSG > Moon, Chalice, game over lock out piece
- Turn 1 Gemstone, land + 4 SSG > Elspeth
- Turn 1 Cheerio's kill
- Turn 1 Narset Vengeance kill
- Turn 1 Prowess/shotgun kill
Some extremely unlikely examples above and some semi-common ones involving SSG, the fact is, there is absolutely no way to interact with some of these plays which is unacceptable in my books. Disrupting Shoal is the only thing I can think of but is just way too unreliable/playable.
Add to this those top 8 linear style combo decks mentioned above - tron x 3, Scapeshift x 2, Dredge, Living End, Jeskai breach(not control) and the ever increasing diversity of the Modern format, I think FoW has to be legal to enable consistent interactive decks.
I do think Jund and Junk absolutely die on the spot and become tier 4 decks though
Of course Force of Will would be great for modern, but it has to make it past standard first and it is a card I do not believe they will ever print in standard.
@Spsiegel1987: FOW isn't even that good against Jund/Junk attrition based decks so I don't know what you are talking about. FOW is best against all-in combo decks.
Since we will not get Force of Will or Wasteland in standard, I think wizards will eventually have to resort to banning a few of the worst offenders instead to help bring more interactivity into the format. Tron is probably the biggest suppressor of interaction right now which is why I am advocating for its ban
Well...thats disgusting.
Whens the next ban/unban announcement, I'm not missing this at all.
Spirits
Even slightly modified versions of these cards would rock. But I just don't see any way for those nervous nellies in D&D to allow them in Standard. Did anyone see worse Mana Leak in Ixalan? Or their new stab at a Wasteland variant? They don't want these effects in Standard. Maybe they're changing their tune with the asburd nightmare that was 2017 Standard, but who knows. Play Design was supposed to help but I'm not inspired by their track record. For example, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure they were responsible for the failures of Ixalan limited, which many regard as swingy and shallow.
EDIT: Looks like Play Design didn't really do much for Ix and Rivals, so we won't see their work until Dominaria. Maybe Wasteland or FoW throwback?
Mental Misstep I don't expect all experiences in modern to be the same, but I'm approaching this from the position that burn/sligh themed decks/strategies over saturate and dominate modern. games with unanswered turn 1 monastery swiftspear, goblin guide, delver of secrets and maybe a few other types of 1 drops whens supported with the right strategy really dominate a game. answers to such starts are expensive and slow depending on the match up. Because of efficiency I see a lot of people choosing to play such strategies. Simplicity may also be a factor as well. Answers are expensive is my point, most decks that counter such strategies well, play Kitchen finks, obstinate baloth, tarmogoyf, walls, etc. things costsing at minimum 2 mana. better luck goes to decks that run red or black, maybe white for cheap answers like lightning bolt, fatal push, and path to exile. which in a sense forces people into white black or red for cheap answers to very cheap strategies. (cheap as in casting cost) 1. For a meta that goes back and forth between, decks gambling for 1ccs to go unanswered and decks splashing for a 1cc to answer a 1cc that is devastating if unchecked! why not unleash Mental Misstep! this is a format that is said to be a turn 4 format. Unleashing mental misstep would aid wizards goal of it being a turn 4 and longer format. another card lightning bolt and other 1cc 3 damage. a lot of decks run this, regardless of being purely burn strategy or not. it would be kind of nice to have something that can counter this or atleast reduce its effectiveness with a card that is 1cc. any deck with blue benefits the most of course. all the same though, to counter or repair a life total harmed by lightning bolt is expensive. most strategies seems to be playing cards that are 3cc or more to undo the early losses to a lightning bolt/lava spike and reach the tenative state of "stablize". particularly if it is either multiple 1cc bolt spells or 1cc bolt spells being reused by snapcaster mage 2. my next point, lets look at the reverse. I bashed efficient 1cc creatures and lighting bolt type spells. but for the strategies that run those, unleashing Mental Misstep may help them as much as it stops them. If mental misstep doesn't push them into 2cc creatures that do just as good. It helps in that it shuts off path to exile, fatal push and lightning bolt which is right now the most common answers to the burn/sligh strategies. As I said earlier, I think cheap 1cc burn/sligh makes up a large porportion of the meta game, so unleashing Mental Misstep would make the shoot outs of their mirror matches interesting in the immediate unbanning. 3. take a look at tron for instance, this one is neither burn nor sligh which i've ripped on, but a top performer in recent meta game, mental misstep hitting an expedition map can delay those turn 3 karns that are so devastating, or even a turn 3 worldbreaker. even if the game is pushed into later turns, they still play big stuff that swings games which when it happens in later turns seems fair. A couple other decks would be drastically devastated by mental misstep's availability. if its anything like bogles, it falls under my same criticism of burn/sligh. a strategy thats runs a person down and probably wins turn 4/5 thanks to something that is 1cc doing a lot of work. As I rip on 1cc's that do a lot of work in this modern meta game, I believe we see a lot of people pushed into JunD and JunK decks as these strategies by design has strong resilience to 1cc strategies that gamble for a strong turn 1, 1cc that will do a lot of of the work. I think with Mental Misstep being available, people couple play more jank without the fear of being over run by turn 1, 1cc as mental misstepp can be the 1 card that answers that over saturating strategy. 3. tell me why i'm wrong............... or support my argument for unleashing mental misstep!
The problem is tron.
Which is basically the reason to Storm. Look at that beautiful top 8. Baral would have crushed all of it, and then interactive decks could have pushed, bolted, snapped, leaked, surgicalled and discarded Storm into oblivion and you'd see an interactive top 8.
I'm glad to see Tron dominate this hard, it just demonstrates what a Storm-less meta looks like. This is exactly what I looked at in my LGS up till I put aside my elves/delver/tokens decks and just Baraled them.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I'm not sure how so many land decks hit top 8
Could be a response to jeskai upticking so much
Its a bit of push and pull. Lately the surge in humans decks coupled with the playerbase generally figuring out how to hit storm with their maindeck cards (like not bolting Baral when the storm player has 2 untapped reds, and instead hitting with PiF on the stack for eg), has made Storm less of a contender. I mean, still strong, sure. But definitely less attractive competitively.
And what crushes these decks better than big mana? I think thats why UR Kiki moon was so well positioned recently - I'm surprised it wasn't in this top 8 - it has the main deck hate for land decks, and an oops i win for dredge and other combat-based decks.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Very awful GP.
I'm more frustrated that when it comes to the upper level of tournaments that linear decks are the better choice.
Hopefully we continue to see the meta remain healthy and diverse. If the protour looks like this, this is the direction modern will go
While it is the most favored against Tron of the grixis snapcaster decks, it by no means has a favorable match up. Ultimately, the deck still plays a delver-ish game plan, albeit with a bigger delver and less interaction. The deck doesn't always clock fast enough.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
It's worth noting that although there are 8 Tron variants in the T32, there are also 8 Ux control variants: 3 Queller, 2 Jeskai Control, 1 Jeskai Breach, 1 UW Control, and 1 Grixis. It's up to 10 if you count the 2 GDS showings. The issue is that most of those decks did worse than most of the Tron decks by about 1 match/3 points and missed T8.
That is also to say, the T32 as a collective actually looks great. The problem is the order those decks finished in. The other problem is the high-profile T8. I guarantee you we wouldn't be having this conversation if we had any 1-2 of those other Ux decks finish in the T8 instead of a Tron/Shift. Doubly so if they had won.
Also, rofl BGx. BBE can't come soon enough.
Couldn't help but read your sig and think that could be relevant.
Because I don't see any "fair" card on there that helps the abzan/jund/grixis midrangers beat tron. Its heartening to see queller perform, really.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
heh well my bar for "perform" for midrangey decks is really low these days.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Top 8 looks horrendous. 5x Big mana decks, 2 graveyard combo decks and 1 combo deck.
HOWEVER, if one looks at the top 32, the image looks much healthier and the top 8 can be explained. There are a lot of control decks (3 Jeskai Queller, 2 Jeskai Control, 1 Grixis control, 1 UW control), some aggro/creature based combo (1 Affinity, 1 Burn, 1 Elves, 1 Humans, 1 Infect), some pure combo, some graveyard based combo and the only very lackluster archetype is midrange with only 2x GDS.
In such a top 32 it makes sense that Tron and other big mana decks would do well. Control decks have started gearing towards beating E. Tron and creature based decks like humans (meaning they include more mass removal), thus making their plan (even more) susceptible to big Tron and Scapeshift. With 15 decks of top 32 being some version of control or some version of Tron, you bet Tron would have the upper hand.
In all, I believe, GP showed the following things:
1) E. Tron can be targeted and kept in check. Only 2 in top 32 with 0 converting.
2) Storm had a staggering performance on camera and seemed like it was dominating the field, but in the end there were only 2 in top 32.
3) Control seemed to be struggling contrary to recent results but in the end had several appearances in Top 32
4) Tron is just too good in this metagame. However, years of modern have shown that Tron can be defeated.
5) Titanshift is better than recent results were suggesting, but not heavily dominating, it had only 2 copies in top 32, both of which reached the finals, mainly because of an extremely favorable meta game.
In relation to format health, the PT and future bans/unbans:
1) This GP was an alarming bell, but its top 32 showed that we still have room to wiggle.
2) PT is close, if we have the same trend (control decks "almost" getting there, Tron dominating, midrange really low) then big mana will be a candidate to take a hit
3) BBE and SFM both seem almost laughable at this point. We saw SO many T3 powerful things this weekend that a Batterskull T3 sounds underwhelming, if that can actually be a thing.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past