The greater diversity and the strategic diversity is a lot better, based on GP's.
- No triple top 8's
- At least 6 or most of the times 7, even 8 different decks in the top 8(I remember times with 2 or 3 redacted decks, or mirror pod finals)
- More midrange decks than 2015
- More control decks than 2015
- Less combo decks than 2015
- Less aggro decks than 2015
- More ramp decks(this would be bad, but given the fact that there were 3 of them and now there are ~10, that's great news!)
- More disruptive aggro decks
- More prison decks(this would also be bad, but the numbers has gone from 1 to 3, which is still good)
Hail Modern's all time greatest diversity!
This all depends highly about your opinions of the decks IN those categories. For example, "Midrange" has increased, but is almost exclusively dominated by two decks, one of which (Eldrazi) could arguably be in Ramp instead, due to the use of Temple and Tron lands. The "Control" has increased only in miserable prison and lockdown decks, while the "UWR"-labeled decks are usually more aggressive, tap-out burn/Geist strategies. The dedicated "Combo" decks today are about the same, and just as narrow and difficult to interact with as previously. What was reduced were Combo/Tempo decks that promoted high levels of interaction because of how easily they are disrupted and interacted with using basic maindeck cards (in addition to targeted SB hate).
So, the overall representations are.... about the same. But the makeup of decks mostly attack on extremely narrow axes, and are (in my opinion) mostly miserable to play against, due to the nature of the decks' gameplans and factors mentioned dozens of times before about matchup and sideboard lotteries.
Lastly, you have repeated this "Triple Top 8" comment twice now. I'm sure you're not referring to GP Pittsburgh 2015, which was actually heralded as a sign of a healthy and vibrant format by many people at the time, and are actually talking about GP Vegas 2017, in which we saw triple Affinity in the top 8 and all three of them made it to the top 4 (with one winning in spectacularly variance-heavy fashion), right?
18 points(although it probably does not matter):
Grixis Shadow: 2
EldraTron: 1
Abzan Company: 1
Esper Control: 1
Skred Red: 1
BG Rock: 1
4c Saheeli Felidar Control: 1
Overall 21 points or better(leaving all 18p out, meaning 20p, 24p and 27p decks):
EldraTron: 3
Titanshift: 2
Burn: 2
UR Gifts Storm: 2
Ur Through The breach: 1
Grixis Shadow: 1
Junk: 1
Dredge: 1
Amulet Titan: 1
Merfolk: 1
Lantern Prison: 1
UB Control: 1
Kiki Chord: 1
Mardu Midrange: 1
Skred Red: 1
BG Tron: 1
Affinity: 1
Eldrazi and Taxes: 1
Ad Nauseam: 1
Ha! Called it on Dredge. That's going to be a great deck to play for the next week or two. Maybe, GDS as well. People are putting more artifact hate in their SB's for Eldrazi Tron and Affinity. It's going to have to tip back toward GY eventually, but for now, I'd be grinding Dreadge and GDS.
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WoTC, thank you for finally announcing the Modern format, an eternal format where everyone can participate.
The only thing that stands out to me is that eldrazi tron is at the top really often. Not saying it's an issue but it's noticeably often one of the top decks.
If diversity is a "good" thing, I can't find anything positive about the format because diversity is the reason I hate the format. If Magic is supposed to be just a "game", it certainly isn't priced appropriately to be sold in such a fashion. You literally have to spend an amount of money that the large majority of people really cannot afford and wealth redistribution is a complete joke and why MTG cannot be considered an e-sport. That's why if you have to make profit, the only path to doing that is winning all your matches. Any result that isn't first place in a lot of tournaments means you are losing money and time, especially when the format you are forced to play in PPTQs for 3 months of the year is a format you hate. I think if I was going to start liking Modern again, you'd would need to begin with needing better answers to everything. Anything that would reduce the amount of non-games you have to play. As it stands, any deck I choose to register, I am at the mercy of a poor pairing which is completely out of my control. I want to play games of Magic in Modern, but I cannot when the tools are not available to help with that purpose. I have no problem losing to someone who is head and shoulders better than me at playing Magic, I do however have a problem when I am losing to someone who just happened to have the perfect counter deck to my deck of choice and plays like garbage and I chose not to prepare for it because I didn't have room in my 75 to try and beat it. That's what diversity does, you have to gamble and coinflip your matchups that you have no control over.
Magic is a game. It is a high cost hobby, similar to other hobbies like Warhammer, or collecting guitars, of any number of hobbies that cost a decent amount of money.
You can't really "make a profit" off of Magic, unless you're a member of a team so you can borrow the cards instead of buying them. You don't "make back" any money you've spent on Magic; once you've spent it, it's locked up in the cards until you want to cash out.
Your perspective on this game is antithetical to what the game actually is; your complaints show that you don't understand what playing Magic involves. Go and play another game like Poker where you can edge out a profit, or Chess, and save your money on Magic cards, because you are never going to get what you want out of it because you don't understand what Magic actually is.
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
You can definitely make your money back/profit in magic. I was talking to a local player who made 2k on mtgo last year.
MTGO is a little different, since the card prices don't change as much as they do in paper, and they also are very easy to cash out of, unlike in paper.
Your comment is still important, though, since it does indicate that there are people who can make money off of Magic (I know there are people who grind MTGOfor their living, for example) without the formats being "solved" or having to win all their matches. sisicat's objections are still undermined by reality.
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
The only thing that stands out to me is that eldrazi tron is at the top really often. Not saying it's an issue but it's noticeably often one of the top decks.
Two separate people at Sunday's PPTQ told me that Titanshift is #1 on MTGO. That kind of perturbs me because I am trying to win a PPTQ with it. I may have to go to Grishoalbrand. That deck has an amazing Titanshift matchup.
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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)
The only thing that stands out to me is that eldrazi tron is at the top really often. Not saying it's an issue but it's noticeably often one of the top decks.
Two separate people at Sunday's PPTQ told me that Titanshift is #1 on MTGO. That kind of perturbs me because I am trying to win a PPTQ with it. I may have to go to Grishoalbrand. That deck has an amazing Titanshift matchup.
Idk I feel ok against both with my current deck. 4 blood moon main and 3 fulminator sb has been fine along with lifegain and a decent clock. Local guy here just won a pptq with infect too so there are plenty of options.
The only thing that stands out to me is that eldrazi tron is at the top really often. Not saying it's an issue but it's noticeably often one of the top decks.
Two separate people at Sunday's PPTQ told me that Titanshift is #1 on MTGO. That kind of perturbs me because I am trying to win a PPTQ with it. I may have to go to Grishoalbrand. That deck has an amazing Titanshift matchup.
Idk I feel ok against both with my current deck. 4 blood moon main and 3 fulminator sb has been fine along with lifegain and a decent clock. Local guy here just won a pptq with infect too so there are plenty of options.
which is basically what you need to do to win consistent enough vs big mana with a fair grindy deck.
If diversity is a "good" thing, I can't find anything positive about the format because diversity is the reason I hate the format. If Magic is supposed to be just a "game", it certainly isn't priced appropriately to be sold in such a fashion. You literally have to spend an amount of money that the large majority of people really cannot afford and wealth redistribution is a complete joke and why MTG cannot be considered an e-sport. That's why if you have to make profit, the only path to doing that is winning all your matches. Any result that isn't first place in a lot of tournaments means you are losing money and time, especially when the format you are forced to play in PPTQs for 3 months of the year is a format you hate. I think if I was going to start liking Modern again, you'd would need to begin with needing better answers to everything. Anything that would reduce the amount of non-games you have to play. As it stands, any deck I choose to register, I am at the mercy of a poor pairing which is completely out of my control. I want to play games of Magic in Modern, but I cannot when the tools are not available to help with that purpose. I have no problem losing to someone who is head and shoulders better than me at playing Magic, I do however have a problem when I am losing to someone who just happened to have the perfect counter deck to my deck of choice and plays like garbage and I chose not to prepare for it because I didn't have room in my 75 to try and beat it. That's what diversity does, you have to gamble and coinflip your matchups that you have no control over.
Magic is a game. It is a high cost hobby, similar to other hobbies like Warhammer, or collecting guitars, of any number of hobbies that cost a decent amount of money.
You can't really "make a profit" off of Magic, unless you're a member of a team so you can borrow the cards instead of buying them. You don't "make back" any money you've spent on Magic; once you've spent it, it's locked up in the cards until you want to cash out.
Your perspective on this game is antithetical to what the game actually is; your complaints show that you don't understand what playing Magic involves. Go and play another game like Poker where you can edge out a profit, or Chess, and save your money on Magic cards, because you are never going to get what you want out of it because you don't understand what Magic actually is.
What we are all forgetting when we tell sisi to play a game with less variance is that he wants to pay to win. You can't spend a few hundred on an awesome chess set and bring it out and beat the other "plebs and casuals" who have just started or are pathetic enough to simply play the game for fun. He wants to prey on those who are less competitive and/or have less money to throw at the game. It's a hideous, unsupportable stance to take.
EDIT: It's actually pretty ironic that he is so bothered by being disadvantaged by bad matchups when the ultimate goal in his ideal meta (eldrazi winter) is to punish players in a 1 deck meta for not playing that 1 deck
If diversity is a "good" thing, I can't find anything positive about the format because diversity is the reason I hate the format. If Magic is supposed to be just a "game", it certainly isn't priced appropriately to be sold in such a fashion. You literally have to spend an amount of money that the large majority of people really cannot afford and wealth redistribution is a complete joke and why MTG cannot be considered an e-sport. That's why if you have to make profit, the only path to doing that is winning all your matches. Any result that isn't first place in a lot of tournaments means you are losing money and time, especially when the format you are forced to play in PPTQs for 3 months of the year is a format you hate. I think if I was going to start liking Modern again, you'd would need to begin with needing better answers to everything. Anything that would reduce the amount of non-games you have to play. As it stands, any deck I choose to register, I am at the mercy of a poor pairing which is completely out of my control. I want to play games of Magic in Modern, but I cannot when the tools are not available to help with that purpose. I have no problem losing to someone who is head and shoulders better than me at playing Magic, I do however have a problem when I am losing to someone who just happened to have the perfect counter deck to my deck of choice and plays like garbage and I chose not to prepare for it because I didn't have room in my 75 to try and beat it. That's what diversity does, you have to gamble and coinflip your matchups that you have no control over.
Magic is a game. It is a high cost hobby, similar to other hobbies like Warhammer, or collecting guitars, of any number of hobbies that cost a decent amount of money.
This is the best answer to sis's issues. Magic really isn't an e-sport, nor has it ever really been so. WotC would like that to change, but, honestly, anything where the playing field isn't equal has a hard time being called a sport of any type.
Now, as a hobby, it shines. Diversity is a boon for those who enjoy trying different strategies and it often makes playing the game as a whole more fun, even if it makes occasional match-ups really crappy. This is why modern can be a great format for some (most?); it lets you play interesting and powerful cards and not necessarily the same ones as your opponent.
Pro magic is a marketing ploy, nothing more. Modern is a good format for what it is. But magic is the proto-gatcha game; their need to vary power levels to sell cards means that gameplay will always have a backseat to what sells. Real e-sports sell cosmetics, not randomized gameplay pieces.
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So it sounds like diversity is the same as it has always been or at least generally there. My own anecdotal evidence is otherwise, but that's why we don't use anecdotal evidence. What I don't understand is what this is supposed to mean good or bad for anyone. The format is just as diverse as it always has been which means that it should be just as difficult or easy to sideboard or metagame. Which means, at least in my opinion, the format used to be good and still is.
So it sounds like diversity is the same as it has always been or at least generally there. My own anecdotal evidence is otherwise, but that's why we don't use anecdotal evidence. What I don't understand is what this is supposed to mean good or bad for anyone. The format is just as diverse as it always has been which means that it should be just as difficult or easy to sideboard or metagame. Which means, at least in my opinion, the format used to be good and still is.
and this is why tires are spinning. Because whether modern is good or not is in a big way : a matter of opinion.
Some have Thier qualms while others think it's amazing.
And either side will argue why the other is wrong, Both with good points.
So it sounds like diversity is the same as it has always been or at least generally there. My own anecdotal evidence is otherwise, but that's why we don't use anecdotal evidence. What I don't understand is what this is supposed to mean good or bad for anyone. The format is just as diverse as it always has been which means that it should be just as difficult or easy to sideboard or metagame. Which means, at least in my opinion, the format used to be good and still is.
The issue is that most of the previous "best decks" all attacked on a traditional axis, and were all relatively easy to interact with using basic, maindeckable interaction and answers. With almost all of those now gone, the current collection of "best decks" all attack on narrow, specific axes, that are mostly difficult to interact with. This means that, while the quantity of "diversity" is about the same, the quality is much more toxic in terms of how the decks play and matchup/sideboard lotteries are more and more exaggerated as a result. At least that's my view. Games have been less and less fun, win or lose, because of the nature of how most decks match up against each other nowadays.
Diversity is a 2 edged Sword. I'm sure everyone has their own "tipping point" on how diverse they wish the field was. For some people, it's 40 viable decks. For others, it's 5 Tier 1 decks.
Personally for me, I both enjoy diversity and I hate it. It's fun at FNMs and common REL tournaments where I can play against a different deck each round. But for Comp REL, it makes it super tough to have results consistently. I don't think that someone can argue that too much. While the better players know what to do in certain matchups and what's important and what's not, the matchup often comes down to a die roll or a few varying draws from both players.
When I won 2 PPTQs with Bogles, I'll be honest. There's no way I win those if Twin was 30% of the meta. I faced 1 Twin in the first one and got lucky. There's really no other way to put it. I can lie and say I outplayed him, but it's certainly wrong. Would anyone have won in that match? Probably not. Would many other people have won? Certainly. The diversity of the field helped out greatly. Not to mention, I also dodged matchups like Living End, Bloom Titan, and Ad Nauseam in those as well. Basically what I'm saying is diversity helped me.
In this PPTQ season, it's been tough because there's really only been 1 constant in the metas - Burn has been present. It's been tough to find the right metagame to do well. But, this is also a good sign of a healthy Modern. It doesn't mean it's perfect, but it's very diverse.
*So, it's SUPER easy for someone not playing at the Competitive level to say that Modern is lovely because it's diverse. Unless you play it at another level, you won't understand sisicat in the slightest. Now I know what you're thinking. Modern is not meant to be a Competitive format. Then why did Wizards recant on not having it a Pro Tour format? For anyone that doesn't feel the need to have results at every level consistently, this format is terrific. For others that put pressure on themselves or feel the need to get some sort of compensation out of the game for their countless hours, it's always going to be pretty tough. Nobody really gets their money's worth in Magic (and this is coming from someone who made nearly $6,000 on selling thousands of Sword of the Meek). In the end, you really have to enjoy the game for what it is and not let your own expectations have you down.
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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)
The problem is pretty simple - some people just refuse to accept Modern for what it is and want to make it something else. You can't model the format after periods of time where broken (now banned) decks existed and dominated. Those decks were banned for a reason, and we see announcement after announcement of "no changes" for Modern now because this is what the format is supposed to be. If it's not your thing fine, go do something else.
So I lost a game on turn 3 online today, but the game was really over turn 2. I was on the draw, and I had a single land in play when my opponent plays a 2nd land, then plays 2x Hollow Ones and 2x Vengevine, swings for 8 turn 2, then swings for 16 turn 3. The other game in the match was pretty bad too - 2x Death's Shadow, 2x Vengevine for lethal was also nasty.
These Jund "DeathVine" versions of the deck are getting more consistent it seams, and they have lots of nice tools available like Thoughtseize, Push and Lili.
It's an interesting deck worth keeping an eye on going forward to see if it's going to start making waves in the format.
The problem is pretty simple - some people just refuse to accept Modern for what it is and want to make it something else. You can't model the format after periods of time where broken (now banned) decks existed and dominated. Those decks were banned for a reason, and we see announcement after announcement of "no changes" for Modern now because this is what the format is supposed to be. If it's not your thing fine, go do something else.
Aside from the fact that there are a number of cards on the banned list that have no business being there, Wizards' inaction in our format is likely the result of dealing with nearly two years straight of Garbage Fire Standard formats. But with the return of the PT, I'm sure they'll find some way to meddle again for the sake of shaking things up.
The problem is pretty simple - some people just refuse to accept Modern for what it is and want to make it something else. You can't model the format after periods of time where broken (now banned) decks existed and dominated. Those decks were banned for a reason, and we see announcement after announcement of "no changes" for Modern now because this is what the format is supposed to be. If it's not your thing fine, go do something else.
Aside from the fact that there are a number of cards on the banned list that have no business being there, Wizards' inaction in our format is likely the result of dealing with nearly two years straight of Garbage Fire Standard formats. But with the return of the PT, I'm sure they'll find some way to meddle again for the sake of shaking things up.
Yeah Standard being unprecedented levels of bad did more to save Modern from the glare of Wizards than anything. Its not even that the format is 'what it should be' they didnt even mention Modern last time, they are not paying attention other than 'oh yeah when Modern is on, people tune in to Twitch...better leave it before we screw it up'.
The problem is pretty simple - some people just refuse to accept Modern for what it is and want to make it something else. You can't model the format after periods of time where broken (now banned) decks existed and dominated. Those decks were banned for a reason, and we see announcement after announcement of "no changes" for Modern now because this is what the format is supposed to be. If it's not your thing fine, go do something else.
Aside from the fact that there are a number of cards on the banned list that have no business being there, Wizards' inaction in our format is likely the result of dealing with nearly two years straight of Garbage Fire Standard formats. But with the return of the PT, I'm sure they'll find some way to meddle again for the sake of shaking things up.
In regards to the cards on the banlist that shouldn't be there, Bloodbraid Elf seems to be the big one I think. You are right that Wizards has been focusing on Standard for a while and they have it in a decent spot now. And, their focus on Standard could have led them to just leaving Modern alone while they "fixed" Standard.
The problem with this assessment is that Modern is an exceptionally popular format (second only to Standard if I understand everything correctly). Yet, they announced two changes to Vintage in the past year and 1 to Legacy. I would think that if their focus was pulled that much towards Standard, they wouldn't be looking at any formats (let alone Vintage). Instead we see 2 changes to that format.
I find it hard to believe that someone at Wizards is not looking at Modern as well. So, that means that since January, Wizards has felt that Modern does not need any bans or unbans and it is likely because this is where they want the format to be (or close to it). Obviously not everyone will agree with this but I doubt we have seen no changes in Modern just because Wizards isn't looking at it.
The problem is pretty simple - some people just refuse to accept Modern for what it is and want to make it something else. You can't model the format after periods of time where broken (now banned) decks existed and dominated. Those decks were banned for a reason, and we see announcement after announcement of "no changes" for Modern now because this is what the format is supposed to be. If it's not your thing fine, go do something else.
Aside from the fact that there are a number of cards on the banned list that have no business being there, Wizards' inaction in our format is likely the result of dealing with nearly two years straight of Garbage Fire Standard formats. But with the return of the PT, I'm sure they'll find some way to meddle again for the sake of shaking things up.
In regards to the cards on the banlist that shouldn't be there, Bloodbraid Elf seems to be the big one I think. You are right that Wizards has been focusing on Standard for a while and they have it in a decent spot now. And, their focus on Standard could have led them to just leaving Modern alone while they "fixed" Standard.
The problem with this assessment is that Modern is an exceptionally popular format (second only to Standard if I understand everything correctly). Yet, they announced two changes to Vintage in the past year and 1 to Legacy. I would think that if their focus was pulled that much towards Standard, they wouldn't be looking at any formats (let alone Vintage). Instead we see 2 changes to that format.
I find it hard to believe that someone at Wizards is not looking at Modern as well. So, that means that since January, Wizards has felt that Modern does not need any bans or unbans and it is likely because this is where they want the format to be (or close to it). Obviously not everyone will agree with this but I doubt we have seen no changes in Modern just because Wizards isn't looking at it.
From a logistics point of view the legacy ban was an easy one that people brought up a lot prior to and was generally popular. It was also one that could never be 'wrong' because part of the reason was tournament time issues.
For Vintage they restricted two cards on the last one for clearly the most broken decks, but to a larger degree Vintage is safe to do whatever they want to because not enough people are affected. Even on MTGO where it is actually cheap enough to possibly play you have like a 100 person community.
With Modern bans/unbans all carried some level of risk. Even though most here are confident about several unbans WotC needed to be certain nothing would go wrong in order to justify it. Risking what was their most popular format after a history of terrible decisions needed a benefit to justify the risk and there was no huge benefit to unbanning Mystic or BBE.
That being said the R&D is still garbage considering we have day 1 errata for Hostage Taker in Ixalan.
I wouldn't say R&D are garbage because of hostage taker. Obviously the FFL combined with the corporate crap that led to the standard changes caused issues for standard lately. But by and large, R&D have given us a fantastic game to play. And with the sheer number of cards that get created, I can understand and be ok with something like that slipping through the cracks because everyone knew how it was supposed to work and made a slight templating error.
So, this is all about 3 people in here who don't like Modern at all. Couldn't care less though.
Modern is more diverse than ever. There is strategic diversity and there is also diversity within every archetype, a thing that never existed in Modern(as I describe earlier you can choose one of many ramp decks, one of many control decks, you can choose one of many midrange, aggro, combo, tempo, etc)
I remember ktkenshinx making an excellent comment about Modern firing on 6 out of 7 cylinders; leaving Control archetype outside. I think we can somewhat say Modern is firing an all cylinders now. And this is courtesy of Death's Shadow mainly.
You can't complain about people posting the same things over and over and then do that exact same thing. We get it, you think modern is diverse, move on man. The discussion is flowing.
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This all depends highly about your opinions of the decks IN those categories. For example, "Midrange" has increased, but is almost exclusively dominated by two decks, one of which (Eldrazi) could arguably be in Ramp instead, due to the use of Temple and Tron lands. The "Control" has increased only in miserable prison and lockdown decks, while the "UWR"-labeled decks are usually more aggressive, tap-out burn/Geist strategies. The dedicated "Combo" decks today are about the same, and just as narrow and difficult to interact with as previously. What was reduced were Combo/Tempo decks that promoted high levels of interaction because of how easily they are disrupted and interacted with using basic maindeck cards (in addition to targeted SB hate).
So, the overall representations are.... about the same. But the makeup of decks mostly attack on extremely narrow axes, and are (in my opinion) mostly miserable to play against, due to the nature of the decks' gameplans and factors mentioned dozens of times before about matchup and sideboard lotteries.
Lastly, you have repeated this "Triple Top 8" comment twice now. I'm sure you're not referring to GP Pittsburgh 2015, which was actually heralded as a sign of a healthy and vibrant format by many people at the time, and are actually talking about GP Vegas 2017, in which we saw triple Affinity in the top 8 and all three of them made it to the top 4 (with one winning in spectacularly variance-heavy fashion), right?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Ha! Called it on Dredge. That's going to be a great deck to play for the next week or two. Maybe, GDS as well. People are putting more artifact hate in their SB's for Eldrazi Tron and Affinity. It's going to have to tip back toward GY eventually, but for now, I'd be grinding Dreadge and GDS.
Magic is a game. It is a high cost hobby, similar to other hobbies like Warhammer, or collecting guitars, of any number of hobbies that cost a decent amount of money.
You can't really "make a profit" off of Magic, unless you're a member of a team so you can borrow the cards instead of buying them. You don't "make back" any money you've spent on Magic; once you've spent it, it's locked up in the cards until you want to cash out.
Your perspective on this game is antithetical to what the game actually is; your complaints show that you don't understand what playing Magic involves. Go and play another game like Poker where you can edge out a profit, or Chess, and save your money on Magic cards, because you are never going to get what you want out of it because you don't understand what Magic actually is.
MTGO is a little different, since the card prices don't change as much as they do in paper, and they also are very easy to cash out of, unlike in paper.
Your comment is still important, though, since it does indicate that there are people who can make money off of Magic (I know there are people who grind MTGOfor their living, for example) without the formats being "solved" or having to win all their matches. sisicat's objections are still undermined by reality.
Wow. I'm glad you're not posting here anymore. I'd say 'no offense', but it wouldn't necessarily be true.
Two separate people at Sunday's PPTQ told me that Titanshift is #1 on MTGO. That kind of perturbs me because I am trying to win a PPTQ with it. I may have to go to Grishoalbrand. That deck has an amazing Titanshift matchup.
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)Idk I feel ok against both with my current deck. 4 blood moon main and 3 fulminator sb has been fine along with lifegain and a decent clock. Local guy here just won a pptq with infect too so there are plenty of options.
decks playing:
none
What we are all forgetting when we tell sisi to play a game with less variance is that he wants to pay to win. You can't spend a few hundred on an awesome chess set and bring it out and beat the other "plebs and casuals" who have just started or are pathetic enough to simply play the game for fun. He wants to prey on those who are less competitive and/or have less money to throw at the game. It's a hideous, unsupportable stance to take.
EDIT: It's actually pretty ironic that he is so bothered by being disadvantaged by bad matchups when the ultimate goal in his ideal meta (eldrazi winter) is to punish players in a 1 deck meta for not playing that 1 deck
U Merfolk
UB Tezzerator
UB Mill
This is the best answer to sis's issues. Magic really isn't an e-sport, nor has it ever really been so. WotC would like that to change, but, honestly, anything where the playing field isn't equal has a hard time being called a sport of any type.
Now, as a hobby, it shines. Diversity is a boon for those who enjoy trying different strategies and it often makes playing the game as a whole more fun, even if it makes occasional match-ups really crappy. This is why modern can be a great format for some (most?); it lets you play interesting and powerful cards and not necessarily the same ones as your opponent.
Pro magic is a marketing ploy, nothing more. Modern is a good format for what it is. But magic is the proto-gatcha game; their need to vary power levels to sell cards means that gameplay will always have a backseat to what sells. Real e-sports sell cosmetics, not randomized gameplay pieces.
Some have Thier qualms while others think it's amazing.
And either side will argue why the other is wrong, Both with good points.
decks playing:
none
Only if your ignore button is broken.
The issue is that most of the previous "best decks" all attacked on a traditional axis, and were all relatively easy to interact with using basic, maindeckable interaction and answers. With almost all of those now gone, the current collection of "best decks" all attack on narrow, specific axes, that are mostly difficult to interact with. This means that, while the quantity of "diversity" is about the same, the quality is much more toxic in terms of how the decks play and matchup/sideboard lotteries are more and more exaggerated as a result. At least that's my view. Games have been less and less fun, win or lose, because of the nature of how most decks match up against each other nowadays.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Personally for me, I both enjoy diversity and I hate it. It's fun at FNMs and common REL tournaments where I can play against a different deck each round. But for Comp REL, it makes it super tough to have results consistently. I don't think that someone can argue that too much. While the better players know what to do in certain matchups and what's important and what's not, the matchup often comes down to a die roll or a few varying draws from both players.
When I won 2 PPTQs with Bogles, I'll be honest. There's no way I win those if Twin was 30% of the meta. I faced 1 Twin in the first one and got lucky. There's really no other way to put it. I can lie and say I outplayed him, but it's certainly wrong. Would anyone have won in that match? Probably not. Would many other people have won? Certainly. The diversity of the field helped out greatly. Not to mention, I also dodged matchups like Living End, Bloom Titan, and Ad Nauseam in those as well. Basically what I'm saying is diversity helped me.
In this PPTQ season, it's been tough because there's really only been 1 constant in the metas - Burn has been present. It's been tough to find the right metagame to do well. But, this is also a good sign of a healthy Modern. It doesn't mean it's perfect, but it's very diverse.
*So, it's SUPER easy for someone not playing at the Competitive level to say that Modern is lovely because it's diverse. Unless you play it at another level, you won't understand sisicat in the slightest. Now I know what you're thinking. Modern is not meant to be a Competitive format. Then why did Wizards recant on not having it a Pro Tour format? For anyone that doesn't feel the need to have results at every level consistently, this format is terrific. For others that put pressure on themselves or feel the need to get some sort of compensation out of the game for their countless hours, it's always going to be pretty tough. Nobody really gets their money's worth in Magic (and this is coming from someone who made nearly $6,000 on selling thousands of Sword of the Meek). In the end, you really have to enjoy the game for what it is and not let your own expectations have you down.
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)These Jund "DeathVine" versions of the deck are getting more consistent it seams, and they have lots of nice tools available like Thoughtseize, Push and Lili.
It's an interesting deck worth keeping an eye on going forward to see if it's going to start making waves in the format.
Aside from the fact that there are a number of cards on the banned list that have no business being there, Wizards' inaction in our format is likely the result of dealing with nearly two years straight of Garbage Fire Standard formats. But with the return of the PT, I'm sure they'll find some way to meddle again for the sake of shaking things up.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Yeah Standard being unprecedented levels of bad did more to save Modern from the glare of Wizards than anything. Its not even that the format is 'what it should be' they didnt even mention Modern last time, they are not paying attention other than 'oh yeah when Modern is on, people tune in to Twitch...better leave it before we screw it up'.
Spirits
The problem with this assessment is that Modern is an exceptionally popular format (second only to Standard if I understand everything correctly). Yet, they announced two changes to Vintage in the past year and 1 to Legacy. I would think that if their focus was pulled that much towards Standard, they wouldn't be looking at any formats (let alone Vintage). Instead we see 2 changes to that format.
I find it hard to believe that someone at Wizards is not looking at Modern as well. So, that means that since January, Wizards has felt that Modern does not need any bans or unbans and it is likely because this is where they want the format to be (or close to it). Obviously not everyone will agree with this but I doubt we have seen no changes in Modern just because Wizards isn't looking at it.
From a logistics point of view the legacy ban was an easy one that people brought up a lot prior to and was generally popular. It was also one that could never be 'wrong' because part of the reason was tournament time issues.
For Vintage they restricted two cards on the last one for clearly the most broken decks, but to a larger degree Vintage is safe to do whatever they want to because not enough people are affected. Even on MTGO where it is actually cheap enough to possibly play you have like a 100 person community.
With Modern bans/unbans all carried some level of risk. Even though most here are confident about several unbans WotC needed to be certain nothing would go wrong in order to justify it. Risking what was their most popular format after a history of terrible decisions needed a benefit to justify the risk and there was no huge benefit to unbanning Mystic or BBE.
That being said the R&D is still garbage considering we have day 1 errata for Hostage Taker in Ixalan.
Marath, Will of the Wild Tokens!! / Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund Dragons! / Muzzio, Visionary Architect / Brago, King Eternal / Daretti, Scrap Savant / Narset, Enlightened Master / Alesha, Who Smiles at Death / Bruna, Light of Alabaster / Marchesa, the Black Rose / Iroas, God of Victory / Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury / Omnath, Locus of rage / Titania, Protector of Argoth / Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Modern
Elves / Titanshift / Merfolk