True. I used to always prefer Lightning Bolt to Path to Exile, but there were times when Path to Exile has been better to have access to in Titanshift (although I believe that Lightning Bolt has been better more often).
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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)
What? An article with and actually good evalutation of the current format which also burst people's bubble by saying the "full of expensive rares" deck of the moment isn't actually any good?
This guy's days as a SCG writer are counted, now he'll be blamed for every canceled ordered of Tarmogoys and Dark Confidants.
Quite good points, basically what people needs to hear even if in denial mode, although the "controllingly proud Spike" side gets the best of him when recommending GDS. Honestly Hollow One still feels inferior in that picture when put next to Humans and Affinity. Right now H1's role is to prey into decks that plan on preying on Humans and Affinity, but shouldn't be considered a Premier aggro deck along those two.
Jeskai, Mardu pyromancer... FoodChainGoblins what do you think about Elves matchup against those three? Hollow one is favored, Affinity may be even (not sure how Karn changes that) but right now I feel that Humans can exploit Elves' overreliance on Ezuri to steal enough wins so the match is not really favorable.
been hearing this probably too much for me to ignore at this point, a bunch of people are saying that modern right nwo rewards you for playing a linear, less interactive deck more so than playing control decks, which leads me to a question.
I've pretty much been playing URx control/tempoish decks since I've been playing modern (mostly Grixis variants,I had a bit of local success with GDS and control early last year and won a GPT late 2016 with Jeskai Nahiri), so I'd like to think I'm okay at those types of decks. Currently on blue moon and finding it's reasonable. I really love casting JTMS and LOTV
But I also have a rough dredge list together but I have no clue really how to play the deck. On the one hand, modern can really reward getting the reps in and playing what you know. but on the oter hand, people are saying linear decks are the place to be right now
what's the best call?
Both are true. If you put in the reps and tune your deck you can do moderately well with just about anything, because of this the format is so diverse and it's because the format is so diverse that you should play a linear deck. The format is to open to have game against everything, rather than try to meta against everything the safest option is to just do your own thing and try to have just enough generic disruption to stall your opponent long enough to win. Storm decks have Remand, Humans have Kitesail Freebooter, Affinity has Galvanic Blast. All of these cards disrupt your opponent just a little and can still be used to advance your game plan. I play Jeskai control because it's the deck I love. I put in the reps and I pilot my deck well. Counterspells give me broad answers so I never get caught with my pants completely down. Now even with all that said I know it's impossible for me to have game against everything. Decks like Dredge, Lantern, KCI, Tron, and Amulet Titan can all be rough matchups. I'm not completely dead against any of them but I also can't sideboard against all of them and still have slots to sure up my other match-ups post board. So every time I go to a big event there is always a match-up or two that I am just hoping doesn't come up.
Unfortunately every try hard from Sacramento to Shanghai preaches from the top of their 27 lands + Mana Reflection that Tooth and Nail and Time Stretch are fine to play in the same turn but Armageddon is unfair.
Jeskai, Mardu pyromancer... FoodChainGoblins what do you think about Elves matchup against those three? Hollow one is favored, Affinity may be even (not sure how Karn changes that) but right now I feel that Humans can exploit Elves' overreliance on Ezuri to steal enough wins so the match is not really favorable.
I feel that Elves is close to 50/50 vs. Affinity, close to 50/50 vs. Hollow One, and possibly 60/40 vs. Humans. I tend to put 1-2 extra cards for artifacts when I run Elves because I run into Affinity and Lantern a lot, so that makes it over 50/50. Now, vs. Humans, I honestly haven't played in a tournament yet. I have tested at home a bit and between Company and 1 singleton Chord of Calling, I found it favorable. It wasn't as favorable as Abzan Company vs. Humans because that ran 4 Chord of Calling, but it still wasn't bad.
I feel like this one is good too. I actually don't think that the "Value Town" part of this deck is very strong, but the Combo part IS very strong in my opinion. Also, Knight of the Reliquary can be a seriously busted card sometimes. What do you think of this list?
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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)
Right now the only way to get new cards into Modern is through Standard, which limits how good the cards can be. I think it was Maro who stated that they were looking into other ways of getting cards into Modern; my question is what do y'all think the best (and most reasonable) way to go about that would be? Something like Modern Masters but new cards instead? Precon decks? Some variation of fat packs? It's difficult to imagine Wizards coming up with a whole set's worth of cards just for Modern, but I won't say it's completely impossible.
Right now the only way to get new cards into Modern is through Standard, which limits how good the cards can be. I think it was Maro who stated that they were looking into other ways of getting cards into Modern; my question is what do y'all think the best (and most reasonable) way to go about that would be? Something like Modern Masters but new cards instead? Precon decks? Some variation of fat packs? It's difficult to imagine Wizards coming up with a whole set's worth of cards just for Modern, but I won't say it's completely impossible.
The fairest way would probably to add reprints from non-modern sets to Modern Masters. Then they could add stuff like Flusterstorm, Swords to Plowshares, and Crop Rotation to the modern card pool without stepping on standard's toes.
I'm going to be frank here: Blue and White are the two sections of the color pie that have basically turned into narrow supporting colors in Modern Magic. The main reason for this is that blue got nerfed in the counter spells so hard that it's effects have to have "draw a card" stapled to them or be forced into a niche role, and White is like the color that can interact with everything, but doesn't have a lot of good win conditions on it's own. Lifegain was an option at one point with white, but those days are long gone.
I mean, if someone can splash black for true removal, why use bounce without some kind of good reason or counter magic?
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah Mass Bounce is fine. But a single target bounce to hand is not really good enough in my book compared to destroying and sending to grave or straight exile.
the issue with adding ancillary products to the modern card pool is that it would be completely arbitrary and therefore counter intuitive for modern players.
its not impossible, and its not that huge of a hurdle to overcome; but it would still require them to create a product line that is entirely separate from commander precons, special draft sets like conspiracy, and the masters sets. then make it abundantly clear that only that one product applies, and none of the others do.
the other route would be to eschew a new product all together and just announce that X,Y,and Z cards are now legal in modern for no other reason than they said so; which is also very messy.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
you would have to allow the needs of modern to impact standard, but with the new planeswalkers in the standard format I dont see too much of a problem with that. "too strong for standard" shouldnt exist anyway
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Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
the issue with adding ancillary products to the modern card pool is that it would be completely arbitrary and therefore counter intuitive for modern players.
its not impossible, and its not that huge of a hurdle to overcome; but it would still require them to create a product line that is entirely separate from commander precons, special draft sets like conspiracy, and the masters sets. then make it abundantly clear that only that one product applies, and none of the others do.
the other route would be to eschew a new product all together and just announce that X,Y,and Z cards are now legal in modern for no other reason than they said so; which is also very messy.
It already exists - its called modern masters. There is logistically no reason WOTC couldn't say "hey we are making modern masters 2019, it will contain a cycle of cards that have not been printed in a standard-legal set. These cards will not only be legal for modern masters 2019 limited formats, but the modern constructed format, as well."
Colors being support colors arent the worst thing to happen. Just because a deck doesnt have a win condition for a certain color doesnt mean the color is weak. Its hard to really define anything other than win con or supporting card by that logic. Is Dark Confidant a supporting card? What about Thalia, who is in white too!
Blue's most powerful attribute is card filtering and selection, its always been. Saying blue is weak i dont think is correct tbh. Search for Azcanta has proven to be an amazing card. Serum visions makes decks much better and side boards much better despite being a bad ponder/preordain. Taking Turns is a deck that is only blue and one of the better combo decks. Blue is just as important than red in Storm. Jeskai control is a good deck, Ben Nikolitch has proven this. Blue is not bad. The meta ebbs and flows, sometimes its harder to play control than other times
the issue with adding ancillary products to the modern card pool is that it would be completely arbitrary and therefore counter intuitive for modern players.
its not impossible, and its not that huge of a hurdle to overcome; but it would still require them to create a product line that is entirely separate from commander precons, special draft sets like conspiracy, and the masters sets. then make it abundantly clear that only that one product applies, and none of the others do.
the other route would be to eschew a new product all together and just announce that X,Y,and Z cards are now legal in modern for no other reason than they said so; which is also very messy.
It already exists - its called modern masters. There is logistically no reason WOTC couldn't say "hey we are making modern masters 2019, it will contain a cycle of cards that have not been printed in a standard-legal set. These cards will not only be legal for modern masters 2019 limited formats, but the modern constructed format, as well."
Tada.
This gets also messy and counter-intuitive. Why MM1,2,3 are not Modern legal but MM4 will be?
yeah as i said its not a huge hurdle, but they would have to be very in-your-face about the announcement. for example modern masters sets arent technically modern legal in their own right, but is a product based around modern legal cards. then you have to be clear on whether or not random cards being jammed into MM will be a regular thing, or if it was a one-and-done type deal.
there is just no clean or elegant way to go about it, which begs the question of why they would even bother if they dont think the format is in that bad of a place. if this werent the case, they would have done it already.
also the design of standard sets should be solely about making standard (and limited) a good format. its the flagship format for the game. i wouldnt be surprised to see more card designs focused on non-rotating formats like damping sphere, and they can afford a few high powered reprints; especially as chase cards for the set. however bombing the format to get a few cards such as counterspell into a fraction of the modern playerbases hands is foolish.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
the issue with adding ancillary products to the modern card pool is that it would be completely arbitrary and therefore counter intuitive for modern players.
its not impossible, and its not that huge of a hurdle to overcome; but it would still require them to create a product line that is entirely separate from commander precons, special draft sets like conspiracy, and the masters sets. then make it abundantly clear that only that one product applies, and none of the others do.
the other route would be to eschew a new product all together and just announce that X,Y,and Z cards are now legal in modern for no other reason than they said so; which is also very messy.
It already exists - its called modern masters. There is logistically no reason WOTC couldn't say "hey we are making modern masters 2019, it will contain a cycle of cards that have not been printed in a standard-legal set. These cards will not only be legal for modern masters 2019 limited formats, but the modern constructed format, as well."
Tada.
This gets also messy and counter-intuitive. Why MM1,2,3 are not Modern legal but MM4 will be?
Everything in MM1,2,3 are legal in modern.
Lol yup. So you can make the ruling as such:
All cards printed in a standard-legal set since 8th edition or printed in a modern masters set are legal in modern. Sure, the sentence just officially became longer, but it didn't become a paragraph. We're smart enough to sort that out.
That's the MTG equivalent of "Won't someone please think of the CHILDREN?!". It's a change that would be easily explained with a clear, succinct definition. As long as that change is properly publicized with the release of this hypothetical MM4, I don't think modern players will suddenly start ante-ing their children and playing sorceries as lands & creatures as instants.
A direct-to-modern product is unlikely to usher in the end of times, or even moderate confusion.
Honestly, I agree just put some ads behind it and slap Modern Legal on the package. People are not dumb and anyone invested in modern won't have much trouble figuring it out.
There is also gatherer that anyone with a phone can just look up under sets and legality. However I am not for supplemental products based on history. Cards taht go through Standard are tested way more rigorously. I dont want cards like Leovold, Emissary of Trest and True-Name Nemesis to enter the format. Leovold was a card designed for multiplayer and STILL was banned in Commander
Yes who would have thought a cheap commander in arguably the strongest color combo in commander that basically prevents all your opponents from getting any card advantage while you get plenty would be broken. And that is assuming you don't do some lock to your opponent that stops them from getting any cards at all.
TNN I think is more they just forgot about Eternal Formats existing. If they did it again it probably get the line must have two or more opponents to select a player. Still it did finally give blue a good creature besides snapcaster.
As to things like dodging Standard, I see no need. Yeah I would love Counterspell, but literally anything else coming out of a side product is simply going to be busted for the sake of being busted.
Yes who would have thought a cheap commander in arguably the strongest color combo in commander that basically prevents all your opponents from getting any card advantage while you get plenty would be broken. And that is assuming you don't do some lock to your opponent that stops them from getting any cards at all.
Wizards didn't, which is the point. Not only this, but Modern is much harder to test new products for than standard.
Yes who would have thought a cheap commander in arguably the strongest color combo in commander that basically prevents all your opponents from getting any card advantage while you get plenty would be broken. And that is assuming you don't do some lock to your opponent that stops them from getting any cards at all.
Wizards didn't, which is the point. Not only this, but Modern is much harder to test new products for than standard.
Well I was being sarcastic my point was TNN and Leovold aren't the same.
As to things like dodging Standard, I see no need. Yeah I would love Counterspell, but literally anything else coming out of a side product is simply going to be busted for the sake of being busted.
I tend to agree. If something isn't fun for standard (which has plenty of strong cards) why would it be fun in modern. Heck standard had saheeli combo roaming for well over 6 months...and oath of nissa is quite a bit of hefty text for just G. Granted neither are making waves in modern, but the power level is there even if the shell hasn't been refined yet.
I'd be hard pressed to think of a card design id be excited to see in a supplemental product for only modern that would A) would be so intregral to moderns health and so bad for standard while they couldn't find a happy medium to balance it and B) wouldn't just bust something wide open in modern.
The format is in a pretty good place right now. Why print a chase card in a supplemental product as the ONLY outlet for a card that is now required to compete within that color. Even if it's a strong answer, you force people to attain copies solely to compete at the highest levels on a limited distribution.
Yeah seems like a terrible idea honestly for new cards. I again look at Counterspell as a 'known' variable, and say sure, but actually new cards? I dont think so.
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UW Spirits
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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)What? An article with and actually good evalutation of the current format which also burst people's bubble by saying the "full of expensive rares" deck of the moment isn't actually any good?
This guy's days as a SCG writer are counted, now he'll be blamed for every canceled ordered of Tarmogoys and Dark Confidants.
Quite good points, basically what people needs to hear even if in denial mode, although the "controllingly proud Spike" side gets the best of him when recommending GDS. Honestly Hollow One still feels inferior in that picture when put next to Humans and Affinity. Right now H1's role is to prey into decks that plan on preying on Humans and Affinity, but shouldn't be considered a Premier aggro deck along those two.
Jeskai, Mardu pyromancer... FoodChainGoblins what do you think about Elves matchup against those three? Hollow one is favored, Affinity may be even (not sure how Karn changes that) but right now I feel that Humans can exploit Elves' overreliance on Ezuri to steal enough wins so the match is not really favorable.
Spirits
Both are true. If you put in the reps and tune your deck you can do moderately well with just about anything, because of this the format is so diverse and it's because the format is so diverse that you should play a linear deck. The format is to open to have game against everything, rather than try to meta against everything the safest option is to just do your own thing and try to have just enough generic disruption to stall your opponent long enough to win. Storm decks have Remand, Humans have Kitesail Freebooter, Affinity has Galvanic Blast. All of these cards disrupt your opponent just a little and can still be used to advance your game plan. I play Jeskai control because it's the deck I love. I put in the reps and I pilot my deck well. Counterspells give me broad answers so I never get caught with my pants completely down. Now even with all that said I know it's impossible for me to have game against everything. Decks like Dredge, Lantern, KCI, Tron, and Amulet Titan can all be rough matchups. I'm not completely dead against any of them but I also can't sideboard against all of them and still have slots to sure up my other match-ups post board. So every time I go to a big event there is always a match-up or two that I am just hoping doesn't come up.
I feel that Elves is close to 50/50 vs. Affinity, close to 50/50 vs. Hollow One, and possibly 60/40 vs. Humans. I tend to put 1-2 extra cards for artifacts when I run Elves because I run into Affinity and Lantern a lot, so that makes it over 50/50. Now, vs. Humans, I honestly haven't played in a tournament yet. I have tested at home a bit and between Company and 1 singleton Chord of Calling, I found it favorable. It wasn't as favorable as Abzan Company vs. Humans because that ran 4 Chord of Calling, but it still wasn't bad.
I have loved playing Company quite a bit and have been trying this one out (at least testing so far) recently.
https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/counters-company-decklist-by-kendall-burdette-741819
I feel like this one is good too. I actually don't think that the "Value Town" part of this deck is very strong, but the Combo part IS very strong in my opinion. Also, Knight of the Reliquary can be a seriously busted card sometimes. What do you think of this list?
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 fairest way would probably to add reprints from non-modern sets to Modern Masters. Then they could add stuff like Flusterstorm, Swords to Plowshares, and Crop Rotation to the modern card pool without stepping on standard's toes.
I mean, if someone can splash black for true removal, why use bounce without some kind of good reason or counter magic?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
its not impossible, and its not that huge of a hurdle to overcome; but it would still require them to create a product line that is entirely separate from commander precons, special draft sets like conspiracy, and the masters sets. then make it abundantly clear that only that one product applies, and none of the others do.
the other route would be to eschew a new product all together and just announce that X,Y,and Z cards are now legal in modern for no other reason than they said so; which is also very messy.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
It already exists - its called modern masters. There is logistically no reason WOTC couldn't say "hey we are making modern masters 2019, it will contain a cycle of cards that have not been printed in a standard-legal set. These cards will not only be legal for modern masters 2019 limited formats, but the modern constructed format, as well."
Tada.
Blue's most powerful attribute is card filtering and selection, its always been. Saying blue is weak i dont think is correct tbh. Search for Azcanta has proven to be an amazing card. Serum visions makes decks much better and side boards much better despite being a bad ponder/preordain. Taking Turns is a deck that is only blue and one of the better combo decks. Blue is just as important than red in Storm. Jeskai control is a good deck, Ben Nikolitch has proven this. Blue is not bad. The meta ebbs and flows, sometimes its harder to play control than other times
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
Everything in MM1,2,3 are legal in modern.
there is just no clean or elegant way to go about it, which begs the question of why they would even bother if they dont think the format is in that bad of a place. if this werent the case, they would have done it already.
also the design of standard sets should be solely about making standard (and limited) a good format. its the flagship format for the game. i wouldnt be surprised to see more card designs focused on non-rotating formats like damping sphere, and they can afford a few high powered reprints; especially as chase cards for the set. however bombing the format to get a few cards such as counterspell into a fraction of the modern playerbases hands is foolish.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Lol yup. So you can make the ruling as such:
All cards printed in a standard-legal set since 8th edition or printed in a modern masters set are legal in modern. Sure, the sentence just officially became longer, but it didn't become a paragraph. We're smart enough to sort that out.
A direct-to-modern product is unlikely to usher in the end of times, or even moderate confusion.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
TNN I think is more they just forgot about Eternal Formats existing. If they did it again it probably get the line must have two or more opponents to select a player. Still it did finally give blue a good creature besides snapcaster.
As to things like dodging Standard, I see no need. Yeah I would love Counterspell, but literally anything else coming out of a side product is simply going to be busted for the sake of being busted.
Spirits
Wizards didn't, which is the point. Not only this, but Modern is much harder to test new products for than standard.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
Well I was being sarcastic my point was TNN and Leovold aren't the same.
I tend to agree. If something isn't fun for standard (which has plenty of strong cards) why would it be fun in modern. Heck standard had saheeli combo roaming for well over 6 months...and oath of nissa is quite a bit of hefty text for just G. Granted neither are making waves in modern, but the power level is there even if the shell hasn't been refined yet.
I'd be hard pressed to think of a card design id be excited to see in a supplemental product for only modern that would A) would be so intregral to moderns health and so bad for standard while they couldn't find a happy medium to balance it and B) wouldn't just bust something wide open in modern.
The format is in a pretty good place right now. Why print a chase card in a supplemental product as the ONLY outlet for a card that is now required to compete within that color. Even if it's a strong answer, you force people to attain copies solely to compete at the highest levels on a limited distribution.
Spirits