I've actually been playing a very very similar list to TA's Thing in the Ice control, but I have the Titis in the sideboard and Sphinx's Tutelage in the main. I did well with it, but Anderson's deck is clearly stronger; I wonder if he ever thought about Tutelage before coming to his list.
This is great news to me as my decks biggest weakness is ramp and it was hardly anywhere. W/g humans was second worst, but with a lot easier matchup. My deck would've done work here haha.
I think Ramp isn't showing up because it's largely a known quantity. It gaining nothing of note from Shadows means that you know how to play against it and know what your plan against it needs to be. It has no surprises, which isn't a good thing when there are a ton of cards coming in the format that can blow you out and hard. There's a ramp list right now against Anderson, and I feel he was better served taking out the The Thing in the Ices rather than hitting Jace/Pyromancer's goggles for the simple reason that it's reasonable to assume that Anderson had nothing in his deck to answer an Ulamog outside of Thing in the Ice. Jace+Goggles means he could draw a ton of cards, but without any way to deal with Ulamog, there's not much reason to care about this (And U/R doesn't really provide the tools to beat it). Todd could have all the cards he wanted, but he honestly need all of those Things in the Ice to flip exactly when they did to win (And that was really his only path to winning). I also feel that sacrificing Sanctum to get a worldbreaker was a tad bit aggressive considering that Anderson had a Thing in the Ice close to flipping on board, and him with only an Evolving Wilds in hand. The way the board was set up, I just don't think that Worldbreaker was nearly good enough to meaningfully impact the board.
You also have W/G showing up which conveniently can make it so your Returns are just bad, Collected Company which can be rough if they get to company out (And reflector mage is a beating), and plenty of other decks.
Perhaps when the format starts to settle, Ramp will be played a bit more. As of right now, there's too much coming out of left field for the deck to fair well. Ramping into the right creatures at the right time, and having the correct number of interaction spells, is key for Ramp right now.
Couple all of this with everybody and their mother thinking that Ramp will be one of the decks to beat in the new format, as well people wanting to try out new decks to beat out their opponent, and you have a recipe for disaster for the deck.
It's also interesting, however not surprising in the least, to have a complete absence of Red-based aggro in the first week (Which typically has a very strong showing early on). Granted, it pretty much has a non-existent burn suite hurting it (Which is it's biggest strength over other aggro variants).
I will also say I haven't been impressed nearly as much with Declaration in Stone in *every* white list. Particularly it seems quite a bit less impactful if used in Control lists than in Aggro/Midrange decks. Which makes sense, to be honest. The downside, both from experience playing against it and from watching the stream, is real if you are playing a Control deck. The decks that can leverage the immediate board disparity right away (Such as G/W Aggro and the Naya Midrange decks) seem best served by the card. It's a little less impressive, however, in other decks. But that's my personal thoughts on it.
I think it's astounding how many innistrad cards are being played the first week when how few zendikar cards were played the first week. And by astounding I mean expected.
Think my elves deck might be over though, format just got a lot more powerful.
Also astounding that people are already complaining about the new format. And by astounding I mean expected.
1 week in and people already hate Bant colors.
Honestly though I have no idea what the W/U human player was doing against jim Davis not having turn one or turn two plays. Bant is not a slow deck. I wish we could have seen the mono white humans vs w/u humans
K smart ass, ramp didn't put anyone into the top 8 and with all the w based removal which exiles it makes way more difficult to stick 1 threat. Return isn't a board wipe that's reliable ( not that it ever was ) with avacyn around to save the team.
Quality over quantity, coco is powerful because it is and reflector Mage is a huge mistake imo. It was the same last season it's the same now.
You pick an argument here and elaborate.
On coco power level I built bant coco last season it's stupidly powerful, and no it's not hard to play if you understand tempo a la " oh I'll bounce your dude and time walk you " routine. We tried hating it out last season, I hope we can this season.
The possibility that Ramp is no longer good is there, but the facts don't back it up right now. We've only had one tournament that it did pretty well at. Extrapolating "ramp is no longer good" from that is a pretty astounding leap.
Ramp isn't in a good spot, not placing in a field where return should be great is more important data to soak in. That's a problem, because if Chandra and return can't stabilize you well then why are we sleeving this up ?
Then you don't care, sweet. I don't like everyone in the world, that's fine too.
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Standard Arena: Eh? Gruul or Die
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now: G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record) C Eldrazi Tron (9-5) UG Infect RW Burn
The possibility that Ramp is no longer good is there, but the facts don't back it up right now. We've only had one tournament that it did pretty well at. Extrapolating "ramp is no longer good" from that is a pretty astounding leap.
No, I think it's right. If every deck is playing exile effects main-deck and when they cost so little mana to cast, how is that not good against ramp? The pay-off isn't worth the investment any more to use so many cards just to cast an early World Breaker on turn 4. Even when it was cast, the card had so little effect on the game. Even rites decks couldn't get through all of the wonderful catch-alls we have in the format now. And the creatures in Shadows are just super powerful. World Breaker seems a lot less interesting now, and it's time to shine is over.
Now, if Ramp had a trample, indestructible, hexproof creature that was worth playing, then it would be a different story. But until that exists, I don't see it with a 2-mana exile removal spell at the ready in just about every deck.
That's a problem, because if Chandra and return can't stabilize you well then why are we sleeving this up ?
Because we're in a brand new meta. It's going to take some time to settle and unless the Humans deck is so legitimately more powerful than anything else, the meta will also slow down as midrange and control decks tech themselves out against the aggro decks. This gives Ramp a time to shine. This will likely start happening as soon as the pro tour, now that the Humans deck has a big ol' target on its back.
Edit: Ramp put 2 copies in the top 32 and 3 more in the top 64 for a grand total of 5 in the top 64. Not stellar, but certainly respectable getting 2 in the top 32.
1) Archangel Avacyn was at least as good as advertised, and should pass $50 in the next week or two given white's ubiquity.
2) For once, red wasn't a major factor in the first week. B/R Vampires is a total washout, which isn't surprising from what I saw last week. There's just not enough juice there.
3) Thraben Inspector and Tireless Tracker showed out--good early, good late. In general, Investigate is a fun, well-designed mechanic.
4) I'll need to see that U/R deck piloted by someone other than Todd Anderson before I can safely say it's the cards and not just the player, but it looked good for him.
If you are playing 12-16 peices of ramp in your deck that is the wrong build. I think 8 is the max you can play and still have enough threats. Deck will be more midrange that a traditional ramp deck. I'm on G/B ramp and doing fine. Red didn't give me anything that impressed me.
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According to this: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/3734_day_2_metagame_breakdown_.html
G/R ramp was the 4th most played archetype. People always forget that feature matches only cover a VERY small part of the actual decks present.
Think my elves deck might be over though, format just got a lot more powerful.
Also astounding that people are already complaining about the new format. And by astounding I mean expected.
1 week in and people already hate Bant colors.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
>ramp is dead
>4th most played archetype
Pick one.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Quality over quantity, coco is powerful because it is and reflector Mage is a huge mistake imo. It was the same last season it's the same now.
You pick an argument here and elaborate.
On coco power level I built bant coco last season it's stupidly powerful, and no it's not hard to play if you understand tempo a la " oh I'll bounce your dude and time walk you " routine. We tried hating it out last season, I hope we can this season.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
Top 8 doesn't really mean all that much. Top 32 is much more important and being the 4th most played deck ON DAY 2 is no small feat.
I don't really care about your Company argument. I'm just saying that doomsaying and calling Ramp bad despite its performance is pretty damn silly.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Just one mana issue for Jim and he would have had a lot more trouble than he did
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Then you don't care, sweet. I don't like everyone in the world, that's fine too.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
No, I think it's right. If every deck is playing exile effects main-deck and when they cost so little mana to cast, how is that not good against ramp? The pay-off isn't worth the investment any more to use so many cards just to cast an early World Breaker on turn 4. Even when it was cast, the card had so little effect on the game. Even rites decks couldn't get through all of the wonderful catch-alls we have in the format now. And the creatures in Shadows are just super powerful. World Breaker seems a lot less interesting now, and it's time to shine is over.
Now, if Ramp had a trample, indestructible, hexproof creature that was worth playing, then it would be a different story. But until that exists, I don't see it with a 2-mana exile removal spell at the ready in just about every deck.
Because we're in a brand new meta. It's going to take some time to settle and unless the Humans deck is so legitimately more powerful than anything else, the meta will also slow down as midrange and control decks tech themselves out against the aggro decks. This gives Ramp a time to shine. This will likely start happening as soon as the pro tour, now that the Humans deck has a big ol' target on its back.
Edit: Ramp put 2 copies in the top 32 and 3 more in the top 64 for a grand total of 5 in the top 64. Not stellar, but certainly respectable getting 2 in the top 32.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
1) Archangel Avacyn was at least as good as advertised, and should pass $50 in the next week or two given white's ubiquity.
2) For once, red wasn't a major factor in the first week. B/R Vampires is a total washout, which isn't surprising from what I saw last week. There's just not enough juice there.
3) Thraben Inspector and Tireless Tracker showed out--good early, good late. In general, Investigate is a fun, well-designed mechanic.
4) I'll need to see that U/R deck piloted by someone other than Todd Anderson before I can safely say it's the cards and not just the player, but it looked good for him.