Plus let's be honest, it is entirely possible that the next set leads to half of those standard decks dying out, and the format becoming jund midrange vs esper or jeskai teferi. Access to a full suite of shock and checklands will power up standard, which means the odds of a couple optimal builds appearing goes up.
So has anyone been keeping up with RNA spoilers? Some interesting stuff popping up this week. I'm actually kind of excited about making a Sultai deck for the first time in forever.
So has anyone been keeping up with RNA spoilers? Some interesting stuff popping up this week. I'm actually kind of excited about making a Sultai deck for the first time in forever.
card in particular?
sultai working in modern is the unicorn or white whale. always searched for at the slightest hint, but never found.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Prime Speaker Vanifar. Birthing Pod on a 2/4 body, costs 2GU. The obvious combo is with Intruder Alarm, but even just for value it has a lot of possibilities. There are a few others, but that one would be the lynchpin of the deck I think.
Also, Electrodominance is absolutely insane, not Sultai related but holy cow is that a pushed card.
Prime Speaker Vanifar. Birthing Pod on a 2/4 body, costs 2GU. The obvious combo is with Intruder Alarm, but even just for value it has a lot of possibilities. There are a few others, but that one would be the lynchpin of the deck I think.
Also, Electrodominance is absolutely insane, not Sultai related but holy cow is that a pushed card.
yeah im really gullible to spoilers cause i suck at card eval/deck building, but electrodominance is a wide open enabler. i had to read the card multiple times because i couldnt believe what i was seeing.
here's to hoping it doesnt break anything or push some (more) degeneracy into the top ranks.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
I just look at Electrodominance and think "this casts ancestral visions in my hand...." It might genuinely be good in a URx control build. Not only does it synergize with AV, but you can use it as a means of removing a threat while simultaneously playing a card draw spell or counter. Thus you help with the whole "oh boy do I counter this new thing or kill the old thing."
casting regular spells is more suspect imo. its a tempo boost and has merits like you say, but the front half needs to be relevant.
you could use the soft combo with AV to get the 'good early and flexible later', especially since the draw from AV offsets any card disadvantage you might incur. however its a lot of deck space, so im not seeing how you could have all your regular reactive good-stuff plays AND some payoff/win-con.
it is 2 spells, maybe that counts for something. also ignoring timing restrictions is hard to gauge. plenty of dream scenarios though, so it gets the mind churning if nothing else.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
BTW.... it says cast a CARD?! You can Flash in a creature, right? It's a Flash on steroids...
Whoooooaaaaa no no no no no
no
no
...
...
no
**What broke flash was being able to put the creature into play without paying its cost, since you could abuse cheap ETB and LTV triggers of absurd stuff. This card still requires you pay an amount equal to that creature's CMC. I'm not sure how many relatively cheap creatures you care about playing in modern at instant speed. However...this could let you play PWs at instant speed, and the idea of Grixis control playing JTMS at the opponet's end step to better protect it is interesting.
**this assumes that the card ruling goes the way as quoted.
i think the optimistic view is that it is play designs influence and these are calculated risks. power up standard but make the power more evenly distributed across colors/archetypes/rarities based on the premise that if balanced, nothing will break.
i give them the benefit of the doubt because its new, and you can see a concerted effort to move away from what was obviously not working. not get everything right, but most.
mind you i include both standard and modern (or beyond). they said play design would pay more attention to how cards influenced non-rotating formats, which isnt the same as making sure NO cards do (meaningfully anyways).
like creeping chill. previous to play design, where they lost the benefit of the doubt many times over - id call it a flat out mistake. with play design there is some plausibility they knew it would be a boon to dredge, but considered it still within reason - which turned out to be true.
similarly in GRN: assassin's trophy. 2 mana instant speed vindicate sounds absurd, but the reality was more tame.
wizards has a vested interest in keeping modern in a state where it is constantly evolving through standard releases, and things are still aligning that way.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Electrodominance is a net positive for Modern's diversity. I bet it will make A TON of garbage decks into tier 3, maybe tier 2 as well, archetypes.
Personally, I can't wait to test it out in UR tempo builds. But, Living End is the real deck now.
Ponza, UR control builds,cascade decks, Grixis stuff(at your draw step, stop, instant speed thoughtseize you), Grixis Goryo's Kiki, and God knows what else.
Scapeshift maybe?
Can't wait for it! Johnny players, rejoice!
This is terrible in LE. Why would you want to cascade into this if you don’t have LE in hand. And ideally you don’t have LE in hand.
Assasin's Trophy didn't do much cause all it really Rock was made the deck slightly more efficient at stuff it already did.
But does nothing to stop being overrun my aggro decks.
Electrodominance is a net positive for Modern's diversity. I bet it will make A TON of garbage decks into tier 3, maybe tier 2 as well, archetypes.
Personally, I can't wait to test it out in UR tempo builds. But, Living End is the real deck now.
Ponza, UR control builds,cascade decks, Grixis stuff(at your draw step, stop, instant speed thoughtseize you), Grixis Goryo's Kiki, and God knows what else.
Scapeshift maybe?
Can't wait for it! Johnny players, rejoice!
This is terrible in LE. Why would you want to cascade into this if you don’t have LE in hand. And ideally you don’t have LE in hand.
Exactly this. I've tested Living End and Restore Balance decks, and cascading into anything that isn't the titular card is a huge non-bo.
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Level 1 Judge
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
It can't really be played in any of the Stirrings decks, and I'm not sure if the Looting decks could make much use of it either (certainly not dredge or phoenix at least). For Spirits and Humans, I'm pretty sure Aether Vial is just better but I could be wrong. Grixis Death's Shadow would also never touch this card.
The only decks I would worry about abusing it are Storm and Devoted Druid combo, because of the ability to play turn 1 Baral/Electromancer/Druid and go off on turn 2. Granted, these plays are still promptly dealt with by one mana removal spells. But if it would end up increasing the consistency of turn 2 or turn 3 kills from these decks, it's a big no-no.
The way I see it why would anyone want fast mana?
The only reason to want that is to do broken plays and you can't really argue that's a desperate need in Modern.
The way I see it why would anyone want fast mana?
The only reason to want that is to do broken plays and you can't really argue that's a desperate need in Modern.
Are you presupposing that only combo decks benefit from fast mana? Turn 1 Thalia, Chalice of the Void, Leonin Arbiter, Rest in Peace, Stony Silence would also be possible with Chrome Mox.
Come on, you want fast mana to be faster 1 turn. Did we nothing learned about modern? Yeah please give it to me, so I can make 80% turn 1 blood moon / magus of the moon together with rituals and simian spirit... Or I empty my hand for ensnaring bridge or I put Chandra turn 1 and this is only 1 tier 3 deck in modern as example. What do you think will happen? Fair will rise? Answer my bridge or you will die... Or answer my moon or its over... This is not the way
It can't really be played in any of the Stirrings decks, and I'm not sure if the Looting decks could make much use of it either (certainly not dredge or phoenix at least). For Spirits and Humans, I'm pretty sure Aether Vial is just better but I could be wrong. Grixis Death's Shadow would also never touch this card.
The only decks I would worry about abusing it are Storm and Devoted Druid combo, because of the ability to play turn 1 Baral/Electromancer/Druid and go off on turn 2. Granted, these plays are still promptly dealt with by one mana removal spells. But if it would end up increasing the consistency of turn 2 or turn 3 kills from these decks, it's a big no-no.
These bans and unban suggestions suggested---have not been on point. At all.
Fast mana helps broken decks more. Period. End of Story. This would make the entire meta more degenerate. Tax decks already have bad topdecks, this will help combos more than a turn 1 Thalia.
And the decks you did suggest it would help---enables games were someone is denied from playing by turn 1?
Turn 1 Stony Silence---go.
Turn 1 RIP. Go.
Turn 1 Chalice. Go.
Turn 1 Leon. Go.
Like, this sounds awful, and these are the scenarios YOU picked out.
Just. No.
We need new cards. SFM needs to be unbanned as it's a joke.
Preordain would be nice, but between Grixis, Phoenix and Storm it looks rough.
Maybe GSZ. Maybe Twin.
Don't think there's many other options outside of hoping for new cards to help modern.
It can't really be played in any of the Stirrings decks, and I'm not sure if the Looting decks could make much use of it either (certainly not dredge or phoenix at least). For Spirits and Humans, I'm pretty sure Aether Vial is just better but I could be wrong. Grixis Death's Shadow would also never touch this card.
The only decks I would worry about abusing it are Storm and Devoted Druid combo, because of the ability to play turn 1 Baral/Electromancer/Druid and go off on turn 2. Granted, these plays are still promptly dealt with by one mana removal spells. But if it would end up increasing the consistency of turn 2 or turn 3 kills from these decks, it's a big no-no.
These bans and unban suggestions suggested---have not been on point. At all.
Fast mana helps broken decks more. Period. End of Story. This would make the entire meta more degenerate. Tax decks already have bad topdecks, this will help combos more than a turn 1 Thalia.
And the decks you did suggest it would help---enables games were someone is denied from playing by turn 1?
Turn 1 Stony Silence---go.
Turn 1 RIP. Go.
Turn 1 Chalice. Go.
Turn 1 Leon. Go.
Like, this sounds awful, and these are the scenarios YOU picked out.
Just. No.
We need new cards. SFM needs to be unbanned as it's a joke.
Preordain would be nice, but between Grixis, Phoenix and Storm it looks rough.
Maybe GSZ. Maybe Twin.
Don't think there's many other options outside of hoping for new cards to help modern.
Which decks do you consider to be "broken"? Decks that violate the turn 4 rule or are you using some other qualification?
chrome mox is a definite no, like as in up there with the worst unbans possible.
trying to understand where you are coming from and i think you are mistaking it as some force of will-esque equalizer. sure most any decks have access to it if they want to, but the scale of its effectiveness in the fair and unfair decks isnt proportional.
for instance with the example of a turn 1 stony silence. that is cobbling together 2 cards that probably have little to do with what the rest of your deck is doing. all for an outcome that isnt necessarily winning, just less likely to lose. the combo or other unfair decks are full of cards focused on accomplishing a small set or a single goal as soon as possible, and their outcome is that they win.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
GP Oakland is today, the last relevant event before the historically major banlist decision of a new year. It's unclear how the new PT timing will affect this, but all things being equal, I still think we are most likely to see B&R action this upcoming update more than any other time this year. That makes GP Oakland a critical data point. Based on recent GP results, the format appears to be split more or less evenly at 25% between Looting decks, Hierarch decks, Stirrings decks, and decks running none of those cards, with no clearly dominant deck or even macro-group. This suggests an environment where either nothing is bannable (more likely; Wizards is ban-averse in this diverse format), or multiple cards are bannable (less likely; there's no clear criteria for multiple bans right now). It also suggests an environment ripe for unbans, especially based on last year's example of 2 unbans in a stable and diverse format. Even if there are bans under some unknown criteria, or the Dredge criterion, unbans would still be likely under past precedents, which have seen numerous dual bans/unbans in the past. This all means GP Oakland will help us determine the likeliest scenario.
Personally, an SFM unban still looks very likely as it does not directly enter a top tier deck and directly combats some of Modern's linear strategies which some players vocally denounce. I don't see any other expected changes that Wizards would be likely to pursue based on current data.
card in particular?
sultai working in modern is the unicorn or white whale. always searched for at the slightest hint, but never found.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Also, Electrodominance is absolutely insane, not Sultai related but holy cow is that a pushed card.
yeah im really gullible to spoilers cause i suck at card eval/deck building, but electrodominance is a wide open enabler. i had to read the card multiple times because i couldnt believe what i was seeing.
here's to hoping it doesnt break anything or push some (more) degeneracy into the top ranks.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)you could use the soft combo with AV to get the 'good early and flexible later', especially since the draw from AV offsets any card disadvantage you might incur. however its a lot of deck space, so im not seeing how you could have all your regular reactive good-stuff plays AND some payoff/win-con.
it is 2 spells, maybe that counts for something. also ignoring timing restrictions is hard to gauge. plenty of dream scenarios though, so it gets the mind churning if nothing else.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Spirits
Whoooooaaaaa no no no no no
no
no
...
...
no
**What broke flash was being able to put the creature into play without paying its cost, since you could abuse cheap ETB and LTV triggers of absurd stuff. This card still requires you pay an amount equal to that creature's CMC. I'm not sure how many relatively cheap creatures you care about playing in modern at instant speed. However...this could let you play PWs at instant speed, and the idea of Grixis control playing JTMS at the opponet's end step to better protect it is interesting.
**this assumes that the card ruling goes the way as quoted.
i think the optimistic view is that it is play designs influence and these are calculated risks. power up standard but make the power more evenly distributed across colors/archetypes/rarities based on the premise that if balanced, nothing will break.
i give them the benefit of the doubt because its new, and you can see a concerted effort to move away from what was obviously not working. not get everything right, but most.
mind you i include both standard and modern (or beyond). they said play design would pay more attention to how cards influenced non-rotating formats, which isnt the same as making sure NO cards do (meaningfully anyways).
like creeping chill. previous to play design, where they lost the benefit of the doubt many times over - id call it a flat out mistake. with play design there is some plausibility they knew it would be a boon to dredge, but considered it still within reason - which turned out to be true.
similarly in GRN: assassin's trophy. 2 mana instant speed vindicate sounds absurd, but the reality was more tame.
wizards has a vested interest in keeping modern in a state where it is constantly evolving through standard releases, and things are still aligning that way.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)You can flash in basically anything with this. Besides lands of course.
This is terrible in LE. Why would you want to cascade into this if you don’t have LE in hand. And ideally you don’t have LE in hand.
But does nothing to stop being overrun my aggro decks.
Exactly this. I've tested Living End and Restore Balance decks, and cascading into anything that isn't the titular card is a huge non-bo.
"I hope to have such a death... lying in triumph atop the broken bodies of those who slew me..."
It can't really be played in any of the Stirrings decks, and I'm not sure if the Looting decks could make much use of it either (certainly not dredge or phoenix at least). For Spirits and Humans, I'm pretty sure Aether Vial is just better but I could be wrong. Grixis Death's Shadow would also never touch this card.
The only decks I would worry about abusing it are Storm and Devoted Druid combo, because of the ability to play turn 1 Baral/Electromancer/Druid and go off on turn 2. Granted, these plays are still promptly dealt with by one mana removal spells. But if it would end up increasing the consistency of turn 2 or turn 3 kills from these decks, it's a big no-no.
The only reason to want that is to do broken plays and you can't really argue that's a desperate need in Modern.
Are you presupposing that only combo decks benefit from fast mana? Turn 1 Thalia, Chalice of the Void, Leonin Arbiter, Rest in Peace, Stony Silence would also be possible with Chrome Mox.
Which cards in modern do you consider to be "broken fast cheating mana" currently?
These bans and unban suggestions suggested---have not been on point. At all.
Fast mana helps broken decks more. Period. End of Story. This would make the entire meta more degenerate. Tax decks already have bad topdecks, this will help combos more than a turn 1 Thalia.
And the decks you did suggest it would help---enables games were someone is denied from playing by turn 1?
Turn 1 Stony Silence---go.
Turn 1 RIP. Go.
Turn 1 Chalice. Go.
Turn 1 Leon. Go.
Like, this sounds awful, and these are the scenarios YOU picked out.
Just. No.
We need new cards. SFM needs to be unbanned as it's a joke.
Preordain would be nice, but between Grixis, Phoenix and Storm it looks rough.
Maybe GSZ. Maybe Twin.
Don't think there's many other options outside of hoping for new cards to help modern.
Which decks do you consider to be "broken"? Decks that violate the turn 4 rule or are you using some other qualification?
trying to understand where you are coming from and i think you are mistaking it as some force of will-esque equalizer. sure most any decks have access to it if they want to, but the scale of its effectiveness in the fair and unfair decks isnt proportional.
for instance with the example of a turn 1 stony silence. that is cobbling together 2 cards that probably have little to do with what the rest of your deck is doing. all for an outcome that isnt necessarily winning, just less likely to lose. the combo or other unfair decks are full of cards focused on accomplishing a small set or a single goal as soon as possible, and their outcome is that they win.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Personally, an SFM unban still looks very likely as it does not directly enter a top tier deck and directly combats some of Modern's linear strategies which some players vocally denounce. I don't see any other expected changes that Wizards would be likely to pursue based on current data.
Game 1, Mono G Tron Mirror.
*stay positive, stay positive...*
Spirits