The main thing that Cloud of Faeries lets you do is play a faerie on turn two while still holding up a Spellstutter Sprite. With no 1-drop, you can still counter a 2-drop and with a one drop, you can counter a 3-drop after your second turn. So, yes, ideally give me a good 1-drop faerie (e.g. a 1/1 flying faerie with deathtouch or kitesail-esque hand disruption) andCloud of Faeries.
Cloud of Fairies doesn't make any difference in decks that are abusing lands like Amulet Titan. In fact you need a lot of setup to gain anything from it. Untapping two lands before turn 3 is very unlikely if one of them has to be a Karoo land. If you are using them to gain mana with Utopia Sprawl you are effectively having Desperate Ritual on a 1/1. To use this setup you need at least one more card to be played to let it go infinite (with Eldrazi Displacer for example) and one another card to actually reap rewards from having either infinite mana or ETBs.
If you don't use it for a combo Cloud of Fairies is "just" a 0 cost 1/1 flier that can only be played with 2 or more mana open, which is worse than Ornithopter when it comes to playability in the early turns.
I want a 0 mana 1/1 flying fairy without cycling or a 1/1 flying fairy with one upside like all the other 1 mana flying blue creatures since M13 which have accumulated into cards like Mausoleum Wanderer, Siren Stormtamer and Pteramander which are slowly getting lower and lower rarity for really good effects that I envy as fairy player.
I am open to critique if there are ways to break Cloud of Fairies in a way that is relevant to the current modern metagame.
RUG Ponza might like the effect with Utopia Sprawl but I am not sure how good that is, having 4 mana on turn 2 more consistently and sometimes even 5 or 6 mana (very good openers) would make cards like Plow Under and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss more appealing for the Ponza player but we would need to see how powerful and consistent that would be to evaluate it
So there was a pretty interesting article on CFB about reprinting Force of will into horizons. For the record i dont think wotc is going to put fow into horizons (i could be wrong). That be being said i think force would be fine in modern. Modern is a format dominated by fast linear decks. The kind of decks force has the tendency to be good against. If force can help slow those decks down i think it would be a better alternative to just banning cards like faithless looting.
The biggest thing with force though is it forces you to play a certain density of blue spells. Without ponder,preordain and brainstorm theirs not a ton of super playable blue spells to pitch to it. Cards like opt and serum visions are good but the combo decks(outside of storm)in modern generally dont play alot of blue spells. Phoenix is a great blue deck obv but i dont think theyd play it in the mainboard. The other thing with force is that generally its pretty bad against fair decks, like jund for example. So it might give the midrange decks a boost in that matchup because youd have to side it out. Idk i think force tends o get overrated. Not to say its not a powerful card or that its not format defining. But its only because of legacys power level that force is even playable. I honestly dont even see force as a free card because its card disadvantage. Which either, doesn't matter because you're playing against a combo deck where individual cards matter more. Or its bad because youre playing against a value deck where card advantage is king.
I play disrupting shoal in RUG Delver, which functions much like Force of Will - Modern is a format of threatening 1 and 2 cmc spells - and Shoal is still underwhelming the majority of the time. FoW would be good against CoCo decks, Storm, Emeria Titan, and... I don’t know if there’s much else. People board out FoW in Legacy against fair decks, we’d do the same in modern. Maybe it could shut down a turn 2 Phoenix god-hand, but Shoal can already do the same.
I don't understand so many people's utter disdain for Daze. At best it's a "free" Force Spike that sets you back on lands. And Force Spike is laughably irrelevant past about turn 3 or 4. Stubborn Denial isn't good because it 'Force Spikes' people, it's good because it Negates for 1 mana most of the time. Daze would be a fantastic addition to the toolbox for decks fighting degenerate nonsense in the first few turns.
But again, there are delusional people out there that still believe Stoneforge is too good for Modern... I honestly wonder if I'm playing the same format as these people.
One payoff for running Daze in legacy is that it could also be pitched to FoW. Without FoW, it would be mostly a dead card mid-late game.
Although there is a bit of mind games to the card.. a few legacy games if people seen I have it game 1, they would still play around it game 2 even if I board out all copies. Weird card.
I think Daze would be fine if it wasn't for Deaths shadow. I doubt the hardcore control decks would even play it. There really isnt a bunch of tempo decks in modern to utilize it. Maybe delver or something might be better with it. But w/o wasteland to play mana denial I dont think it would be as effective as it is in legacy. Death's shadow would be see a significant upgrade with daze though. Countering a piece of removal plus bouncing a shockland to replay it would be pretty strong.
I see now the effect of Daze in GDS. I personally, don't own a GDS deck but have seen and played against it several times already.
Just wondering what they would replace in their deck to fit four Daze in? The deck looks like it does not have many parts that can be switched for other things.
I don't understand so many people's utter disdain for Daze. At best it's a "free" Force Spike that sets you back on lands. And Force Spike is laughably irrelevant past about turn 3 or 4. Stubborn Denial isn't good because it 'Force Spikes' people, it's good because it Negates for 1 mana most of the time. Daze would be a fantastic addition to the toolbox for decks fighting degenerate nonsense in the first few turns.
But again, there are delusional people out there that still believe Stoneforge is too good for Modern... I honestly wonder if I'm playing the same format as these people.
legacy fame; all that plays too heavily in legacy raises eyebrows when considered for reprint.
but yeah, daze, without legacy's context, would be largely confined to some archetypes and not dangerous. even gush is, probably, fairly safe. most of the alt cost spells are, truth be told. i wish they expanded this design space - legacy made it scary, but it branches out lines of play and rewards tight builds.
Daze is much stronger in Legacy because decks playing Daze are also playing Wasteland and sometimes Stifle to have a solid mana denial plan while aplying pressure with a Delver of Secrets or some other efficient threat. Without Wasteland, Daze is not as powerful and is quite easy to play around (you still get blown out if you don't play around it so that sounds good as people would have to play around it instead of vomiting their hands)
I see now the effect of Daze in GDS. I personally, don't own a GDS deck but have seen and played against it several times already.
Just wondering what they would replace in their deck to fit four Daze in? The deck looks like it does not have many parts that can be switched for other things.
A Bauble, a Looting, an Inquisition, a Stub.. plenty of cards that can come out at 1 copy each without undermining the core of the deck.
I don't understand so many people's utter disdain for Daze. At best it's a "free" Force Spike that sets you back on lands. And Force Spike is laughably irrelevant past about turn 3 or 4. Stubborn Denial isn't good because it 'Force Spikes' people, it's good because it Negates for 1 mana most of the time. Daze would be a fantastic addition to the toolbox for decks fighting degenerate nonsense in the first few turns.
For once I generally agree here. The main differences that make Daze good in Legacy but not in Modern is: 1) relevance of turns 1-2 and 2) strong mana denial in the form of Wasteland (and less so Stifle).
Decks that play Daze tend to play Wasteland and also be able to function with 1-2 lands for multiple turns (mostly Delver strategies). For these decks, being able to disrupt the opponent's T1 play is fundamental to their existence both because of the power of T1 plays in Legacy, as well as because they serve their own gameplan.
At the same time, you don't see bigger blue based control or combo decks like Miracles or Sneak and Show, because they can't afford the loss of tempo of losing a land-drop.
That is of course not to say that Daze won't be a powerful card, I just don't think it is going to be as powerful as it is in Legacy. My only concern would be UR Phoenix decks that might be able to abuse it to protect their TiTi's or their wide board, but I am not sure if they would even want it main board.
That being said, I also don't think it's going to happen
I don't see any way Force of Will isn't the BaB promo. They said it is powerful, exciting, a reprint, and blue. How many others of those really are there? And it would do wonders for slowing the format down. I think it would be a really good card to be able to threaten against a fast deck, and combo isn't likely to want it. I know people say that they side it out against fair decks, I would love a Modern slowed down so much that it's not even a mainboard card. I think it will be in the set, and I think you will get one with every box just to kill the price spike.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why people think Baleful Strix is too strong... It's a 1/1 for 2 that draws a card and profitably blocks a creature. How is a completely fair 2-for-1 creature "too powerful" in a world where the nonsense capable that is considerably more powerful than that is accepted as common place?
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why people think Baleful Strix is too strong... It's a 1/1 for 2 that draws a card and profitably blocks a creature. How is a completely fair 2-for-1 creature "too powerful" in a world where the nonsense capable that is considerably more powerful than that is accepted as common place?
It's not too strong, and there a plenty of decks that are at the top of the meta that just ignore it straight up (tron, Phoenix can gut shot it/bounce/trade and recur Phoenix again, etc.). I agree with you, it's fine and I'm hoping it is printed. UB is pretty weak outside of deaths shadow, and has been for awhile imho.
Esper is a color combination that should excel in the current meta and is so woefully weak and has been for far too long it's frustrating.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why people think Baleful Strix is too strong... It's a 1/1 for 2 that draws a card and profitably blocks a creature.
You kind of answered yourself here I think. It's so strong that Grixis control in legacy plays more of it rather than the strongest blue creature, even if Legacy is literally filled with blistering fast nonsense!
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why people think Baleful Strix is too strong... It's a 1/1 for 2 that draws a card and profitably blocks a creature. How is a completely fair 2-for-1 creature "too powerful" in a world where the nonsense capable that is considerably more powerful than that is accepted as common place?
The reason Baleful Strix is too strong for modern is kind of complex, but basically there is no way to attack profitably into a Baleful Strix and even using removal on it isn't that effective because of the card draw part. It is extremely strong against fair decks. But at the same time it is not very good against unfair decks. The problem is that modern is dominated by unfair decks.
Baleful Strix has a good chance of creating the following play cycle in modern:
1. There is some mix of unfair decks and fair decks
2. Some unfair decks start playing Baleful Strix
3. People stop playing fair decks because Baleful Strix is too punishing
4. Unfair decks stop playing Baleful Strix because everyone is playing unfair decks
5. People start playing some fair decks again because nobody is playing Baleful Strix
6. Start over at one
The biggest problem in Modern right now is that most decks are extremely linear and unfair. This is without Baleful Strix. Introducing Baleful Strix into this environment would probably be the death of fair decks.
My personal opinion is that having some unfair decks in a format are fine, but you don't ever want most or all of the best decks to be unfair decks.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why people think Baleful Strix is too strong... It's a 1/1 for 2 that draws a card and profitably blocks a creature.
You kind of answered yourself here I think. It's so strong that Grixis control in legacy plays more of it rather than the strongest blue creature, even if Legacy is literally filled with blistering fast nonsense!
Is that really too strong for Modern, a format full of cheating mana, free spells and creatures, and an absolute multitude of 2-for-1 spells and creatures. It's incredibly sad to think ANYONE would consider Baleful Strix "too powerful", and it's honestly embarrassing, given the power level of the format.
3. People stop playing fair decks because Baleful Strix is too punishing
What incentive is there to play fair decks now?
Honestly, these are the kinds of arguments that would say Kolaghan's Command or Collective Brutality are too strong because they're good cards with relevant text that 2-for-1 the opponent. Seriously, I am baffled.
But then again, there were a large portion of people who said that both AV and Jace were going to push blue decks over the top to a dominating and obnoxious force, and look how that turned out? Perhaps players are utterly terrible at evaluating fundamentally fair cards?
3. People stop playing fair decks because Baleful Strix is too punishing
What incentive is there to play fair decks now?
Honestly, these are the kinds of arguments that would say Kolaghan's Command or Collective Brutality are too strong because they're good cards with relevant text that 2-for-1 the opponent. Seriously, I am baffled.
But then again, there were a large portion of people who said that both AV and Jace were going to push blue decks over the top to a dominating and obnoxious force, and look how that turned out? Perhaps players are utterly terrible at evaluating fundamentally fair cards?
My point is that there isn't much incentive to play fair decks now and Baleful Strix will make that problem worse, not better. Also the difference between Collective Brutality and Kolaghan's Command is they good against both fair and unfair decks, while Baleful Strix is very good against fair decks and bad against unfair decks.
Baleful Strix would just make the main problem in modern (unfair decks pushing out fair decks) much worse and that is why it shouldn't be in modern.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around why people think Baleful Strix is too strong... It's a 1/1 for 2 that draws a card and profitably blocks a creature.
You kind of answered yourself here I think. It's so strong that Grixis control in legacy plays more of it rather than the strongest blue creature, even if Legacy is literally filled with blistering fast nonsense!
Is that really too strong for Modern, a format full of cheating mana, free spells and creatures, and an absolute multitude of 2-for-1 spells and creatures. It's incredibly sad to think ANYONE would consider Baleful Strix "too powerful", and it's honestly embarrassing, given the power level of the format.
I don't know if it is TOO strong, it would require some playtesting, but the card is definitely VERY powerful. For once, the comparison with legacy stands, because it remains good in a format where aggro strategies (which it is supposed to be at its best against) are almost non-existent. In that, where 2-for-1s are even bigger, and card draw to get the right answers is much more stronger, it still remains one of the most powerful cards (although not meta warping obviously).
Granted that modern is 1-2 turns slower than Legacy, and that creature based decks are more prevalent, I think Strix will be MORE powerful in Modern than it is in Legacy. That might push it over the top, and actually make it format warping, as you would have to go over it with either very hard control decks that don't care about it or combo decks that don't care about blockers. If the first becomes viable because of it, great. If the latter become more prevalent, not great. So yeah, I think it's a very powerful card that cuts both ways and I am not sure if they are willing to take the risk. Whether this is an embarrassing and really sad opinion, idk.
Strix is a 2for1 at 2cmc. Not any kind of 2for1, a cantrip+removal at 2cmc. Would the format explode and be unplayable with it? No, but I think it would probably be a worse format. Maybe not, who knows, I have not played legacy with strix legal so someone who plays both modern and legacy will have a much better understanding than me. At wizards they have some people who do.
most argument against adding strix seem to center around it being too good of a card against fair decks but underwhelming against unfair ones. i say who cares? nearly half of modern is creature based with some aggro/combo tilt to it; and strix punishes these decks if they dont run any removal. sounds good to me.
the 'its so good against other fair decks it pushes people to play under or over it' argument is nonsense because that paradigm already exists and has for a while now. fair decks have always included tools good against other fair decks, some being better or worse than others; strix does nothing to change that. giving color combos and their associated decks tools to grind is fine; especially of you assume that wizards will be printing stuff that will move the format in that direction. is it somehow inherently wrong if grixis midrange/control or any UBx deck has something that makes the color combo attractive?
printing strix into the format is little different than giving UWx teferi, or printing azcanta, or unbanning jace/bbe, etc. yet no one is blaming snapcaster mage or dark confidant or any other value card for modern being 'linear' or whatever, so applying that logic to strix or even stoneforge mystic (yes ive seen people say sfm would push people to play linear combo) makes no sense.
i guess we should start banning grindy card advantage type cards, then maybe people would start playing fair decks right? /rollseyes
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
UB: destroy target attacking creature. Draw a card. If your enemy doesn't play creatures, you can still cantrip.
Fair.
Sure, it's a removal spell that's not that good in a creatureless control deck cos it makes your opponent's removal spells live, but if you play it along other creatures, it's so OP. SCM has been played in creatureless control decks, and it's been good anyways.
I mean its good against Death Shadow Decks I guess. But does it really stop Phoenix or Dredge? Against Phoenix Decks, thing flips and put its back in hand and phoenix recurs after trading. Dredge decks are also about a mass of creatures that can recur. As for Deathshadow assuming they dont use Strix themselves just bolt it or trample over with Battle Rage. Basically I don't see Strix doing much to the Top Decks. It boosts UB Faeries.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
RUG Ponza might like the effect with Utopia Sprawl but I am not sure how good that is, having 4 mana on turn 2 more consistently and sometimes even 5 or 6 mana (very good openers) would make cards like Plow Under and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss more appealing for the Ponza player but we would need to see how powerful and consistent that would be to evaluate it
The biggest thing with force though is it forces you to play a certain density of blue spells. Without ponder,preordain and brainstorm theirs not a ton of super playable blue spells to pitch to it. Cards like opt and serum visions are good but the combo decks(outside of storm)in modern generally dont play alot of blue spells. Phoenix is a great blue deck obv but i dont think theyd play it in the mainboard. The other thing with force is that generally its pretty bad against fair decks, like jund for example. So it might give the midrange decks a boost in that matchup because youd have to side it out. Idk i think force tends o get overrated. Not to say its not a powerful card or that its not format defining. But its only because of legacys power level that force is even playable. I honestly dont even see force as a free card because its card disadvantage. Which either, doesn't matter because you're playing against a combo deck where individual cards matter more. Or its bad because youre playing against a value deck where card advantage is king.
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
But again, there are delusional people out there that still believe Stoneforge is too good for Modern... I honestly wonder if I'm playing the same format as these people.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Although there is a bit of mind games to the card.. a few legacy games if people seen I have it game 1, they would still play around it game 2 even if I board out all copies. Weird card.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Just wondering what they would replace in their deck to fit four Daze in? The deck looks like it does not have many parts that can be switched for other things.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
legacy fame; all that plays too heavily in legacy raises eyebrows when considered for reprint.
but yeah, daze, without legacy's context, would be largely confined to some archetypes and not dangerous. even gush is, probably, fairly safe. most of the alt cost spells are, truth be told. i wish they expanded this design space - legacy made it scary, but it branches out lines of play and rewards tight builds.
A Bauble, a Looting, an Inquisition, a Stub.. plenty of cards that can come out at 1 copy each without undermining the core of the deck.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Decks that play Daze tend to play Wasteland and also be able to function with 1-2 lands for multiple turns (mostly Delver strategies). For these decks, being able to disrupt the opponent's T1 play is fundamental to their existence both because of the power of T1 plays in Legacy, as well as because they serve their own gameplan.
At the same time, you don't see bigger blue based control or combo decks like Miracles or Sneak and Show, because they can't afford the loss of tempo of losing a land-drop.
That is of course not to say that Daze won't be a powerful card, I just don't think it is going to be as powerful as it is in Legacy. My only concern would be UR Phoenix decks that might be able to abuse it to protect their TiTi's or their wide board, but I am not sure if they would even want it main board.
That being said, I also don't think it's going to happen
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
fire // ice love this card
counterspell shouldve been the fow of modern since long ago
fact or fiction, this card is pretty fun
vindicate, but I dont think it will make much of an impact, too slow
pernicious deed, same as vindicate
diabolic edict and innocent blood never a bad thing to have removal diversity
What is NOT GOOD for the format:
fow
better cantrips than visions or opt
strix
easy land destruction
And if they could make better maindeck cards against tron like trophy itd be great.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
It's not too strong, and there a plenty of decks that are at the top of the meta that just ignore it straight up (tron, Phoenix can gut shot it/bounce/trade and recur Phoenix again, etc.). I agree with you, it's fine and I'm hoping it is printed. UB is pretty weak outside of deaths shadow, and has been for awhile imho.
Esper is a color combination that should excel in the current meta and is so woefully weak and has been for far too long it's frustrating.
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
The reason Baleful Strix is too strong for modern is kind of complex, but basically there is no way to attack profitably into a Baleful Strix and even using removal on it isn't that effective because of the card draw part. It is extremely strong against fair decks. But at the same time it is not very good against unfair decks. The problem is that modern is dominated by unfair decks.
Baleful Strix has a good chance of creating the following play cycle in modern:
1. There is some mix of unfair decks and fair decks
2. Some unfair decks start playing Baleful Strix
3. People stop playing fair decks because Baleful Strix is too punishing
4. Unfair decks stop playing Baleful Strix because everyone is playing unfair decks
5. People start playing some fair decks again because nobody is playing Baleful Strix
6. Start over at one
The biggest problem in Modern right now is that most decks are extremely linear and unfair. This is without Baleful Strix. Introducing Baleful Strix into this environment would probably be the death of fair decks.
My personal opinion is that having some unfair decks in a format are fine, but you don't ever want most or all of the best decks to be unfair decks.
Is that really too strong for Modern, a format full of cheating mana, free spells and creatures, and an absolute multitude of 2-for-1 spells and creatures. It's incredibly sad to think ANYONE would consider Baleful Strix "too powerful", and it's honestly embarrassing, given the power level of the format.
What incentive is there to play fair decks now?
Honestly, these are the kinds of arguments that would say Kolaghan's Command or Collective Brutality are too strong because they're good cards with relevant text that 2-for-1 the opponent. Seriously, I am baffled.
But then again, there were a large portion of people who said that both AV and Jace were going to push blue decks over the top to a dominating and obnoxious force, and look how that turned out? Perhaps players are utterly terrible at evaluating fundamentally fair cards?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
My point is that there isn't much incentive to play fair decks now and Baleful Strix will make that problem worse, not better. Also the difference between Collective Brutality and Kolaghan's Command is they good against both fair and unfair decks, while Baleful Strix is very good against fair decks and bad against unfair decks.
Baleful Strix would just make the main problem in modern (unfair decks pushing out fair decks) much worse and that is why it shouldn't be in modern.
I don't know if it is TOO strong, it would require some playtesting, but the card is definitely VERY powerful. For once, the comparison with legacy stands, because it remains good in a format where aggro strategies (which it is supposed to be at its best against) are almost non-existent. In that, where 2-for-1s are even bigger, and card draw to get the right answers is much more stronger, it still remains one of the most powerful cards (although not meta warping obviously).
Granted that modern is 1-2 turns slower than Legacy, and that creature based decks are more prevalent, I think Strix will be MORE powerful in Modern than it is in Legacy. That might push it over the top, and actually make it format warping, as you would have to go over it with either very hard control decks that don't care about it or combo decks that don't care about blockers. If the first becomes viable because of it, great. If the latter become more prevalent, not great. So yeah, I think it's a very powerful card that cuts both ways and I am not sure if they are willing to take the risk. Whether this is an embarrassing and really sad opinion, idk.
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
the 'its so good against other fair decks it pushes people to play under or over it' argument is nonsense because that paradigm already exists and has for a while now. fair decks have always included tools good against other fair decks, some being better or worse than others; strix does nothing to change that. giving color combos and their associated decks tools to grind is fine; especially of you assume that wizards will be printing stuff that will move the format in that direction. is it somehow inherently wrong if grixis midrange/control or any UBx deck has something that makes the color combo attractive?
printing strix into the format is little different than giving UWx teferi, or printing azcanta, or unbanning jace/bbe, etc. yet no one is blaming snapcaster mage or dark confidant or any other value card for modern being 'linear' or whatever, so applying that logic to strix or even stoneforge mystic (yes ive seen people say sfm would push people to play linear combo) makes no sense.
i guess we should start banning grindy card advantage type cards, then maybe people would start playing fair decks right? /rollseyes
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Fair.
Sure, it's a removal spell that's not that good in a creatureless control deck cos it makes your opponent's removal spells live, but if you play it along other creatures, it's so OP. SCM has been played in creatureless control decks, and it's been good anyways.