Perhaps it's a bit premature but it seems like going forward for the next three months we're going to be playing against nothing but White decks of some type.
Whether it's Aggro, Midrange or Control it really seems like White has the best everything at the moment save for Card Advantage.
Why is this the case? What's wrong with Wizards current design philosophy? I've seen so much discussion recently about how Standard's Power Level is going to be brought to heel but it seems like White gets a Get Out of Jail free card for this. Their creatures are very efficient, their removal is the best, their planeswalkers are wincons in their own right, not to mention the one Eldrazi printed in white is arguably the best one. They're the color that uses enchantments to remove things and also get some of the best enchantment removal.
Jeez people are really overplaying this white is unbeatable narrative. It's a knee jerk reaction. The first well tuned board control deck that comes around will be the end of mono white, then you all can quit complaining about it.
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Modern xWBreakfast at Urza'sxW UWGBantUWG GWRNaya ZooRWG
Jeez people are really overplaying this white is unbeatable narrative. It's a knee jerk reaction. The first well tuned board control deck that comes around will be the end of mono white, then you all can quit complaining about it.
That control deck will be White/Something.
I should have specified I'm not talking strictly about the mono White aggro, I'm saying that you can play anything you want this Standard, as long as one of the colors is White.
One of the white decks is bant company which is a 3 color deck. The main reason white is doing so well is it has the best unconditional removal, which is good in a new meta, and it has avacyn which is arguably the best creature in standard. Once the meta settle other colors will show up, but it is likely that white will still be heavily played.
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I'm really hoping the pro tour will shake things up. As it stands right now, my local meta is heavily dominated by white humans and bant, making almost any other deck have to fight that much harder to be competitive.
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I am worried we will be living in a Wx dominated meta for a while. I'm not saying that I KNOW we are; I'm still looking for reasons to not play white and it may be there. However, it's tough to find right now.
1) White has solid (maybe the best) creatures in standard right now outside of Big Ramp critters.
2) White has the BEST removal in standard
3) White (and Wx) has a good number of solid Planewalkers.
4) White has solid enchantments with a suite of enchantment (exile) removal WITH the best ways to deal with enchantments.
My worry is that Wx aggro will morph into Wx midrange (as players go bigger to find advantage in the mirror) and finally develop a Wx control archetype. You can make all sorts of valid arguments as to what the "X" color or colors should be. But I haven't found an argument for no white. It feels very much like Black did back in RTR/Theros standard around Pack Rat, Desecration demon, and Heroes Downfall. All the best threats and answers in one color. Splash for flavor if you like.
Right now, things appear way to insular inside white. You have strong threats coming out of white aggro but all the best answers are also in white.
Black seems to be matched up pretty well against white..
Black has better card advantage.
Black has more lifegain
Black has direct lifeloss (though not the best, white has none).
Black has 2 decent sweepers to take care of white weenies
Black has cheap discard to take away those amazing removal spells.
Then again...
Blue has better card advantage.
Blue has counters to stop any of those pesky white spells
Blue has cheap bounce, and board bounce to get rid of pesky critters
Blue has better planeswalkers (debatable, but i really like shadow jace)
Blues mana looks way cooler.
Then again....
Red has... um vampires!
Red has artifact removal for all those Clues!!!
Oh yeah..
Green has better card advantage
Green has tougher creatures in a vacuum
Green has mana acceleration
Green has better mana fixing.
Green has better enchantment removal
and finally...
Colorless has WAY better creatures.
Colorless has better hand hate.
Colorless has better counters.
Colorless has better ramp.
Colorless has better threats.
I'm not saying that white isnt great this standard, it is. But seriously, its 2 weeks in, white is just the obvious choice. Give it like a month and there will be tons of decks. If not, just hate the **** out of white and win.
What bothers me is that there is no effective aggro deck.
Control and midrange are pidgeonholed into one color.
I feel like I should sell my white cards now and brew B/R and R/G as hard as possible.
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The red mage lives by the variance and dies by the variance. May the variance be with you, always.
Perhaps you forget what happened last standard? 4cmc mana bases enabled decks to jam the best cards in the format into multiple decks that became "junk"/Jeskai Black/Abzan Blue, Abzan Red, Abzan...whatever and 4c CoCo,/ 4c rally. The last 2 deck saw such a dominance that MTG Pulse showed some really crazy win % for those decks. CoCo in particular invalidates what a sweeper effect is supposed to do, and not just that, sweeping the board 1x against a deck that runs 27 to 28 creatures is never enough. Let's also add to the mix that those cards also generate multiple sources and outlets for CA and you have created a very powerful/resilient deck the out values:
Midrange
Control
and for now Combo (Rally is GONE, thank god).
W is pretty much primary color if you want to go aggro/midrange/ control. Is this a problem? Yes. I refuse to believe that highly educated and learned people cannot decipher cards on their and see that as of right now, the dominant decks will have w and that's the end of it. If other color combinations are worth exploring, it'll simply be to try and suppress this but it's hard to argue that the power level in W is currently eclipsing others.
CoCo is a very powerful card that is similar to DTT which is banned in modern. In standard DTT was still powerful but limited to the number of spells it could pull due to the lower power and smaller card pool. IN a format that is often dominated by what creatures a deck wins with, CoCo gives those decks an almost unfair advantage. I've heard many players say, "Oh I brick and Oh Variance". I've seen it simply tempo players out and win by itself. CoCo + reflector mage has been warping the format.
We are now sheep looking towards a group of players that are "better" (I hate this kind of thought process but whatever) than the average players, in hopes that they offer some insight/solutions to a format that early on has been almost solved. The one take away was that a Ramp deck was brewed with a game plan solely focused on beating out these 2 decks. It's construction was a direct reaction to the meta, is this a good thing? I don't know, but it is the definition of format warping, but...AT least someone tried right? Credit is given where it's due.
I dont think that white is the strongest color as much as red is the weakest color.
Black shuts white down easily, if you want to beat white, play black. Only problem is black seems under par against green and blue. And those seem under par against white.... wait a second, a cycle!
Magic is supposed to be like this, all this fuss is just because one color/deck is shining early on. Give it time. All these threads of "X is OP", "Y is to prevalent", "Play Z or lose" are WAY WAY to immature (not as in childish, but as in too soon). These threads shouldnt be considered until like 2 months in at least, not 2 weeks.
As Maro likes to say, "Pendulum." White is the strongest now, but Eldritch Moon should address the other colors.
Thematically, it makes sense because we left Innistrad on a happy note that Avacyn returned and boosted white immensely. Now we return to Innistrad where yes, white is still strong, but it will/should decline due to Avacyn's madness and whatever other forces are revealed in EM. It seems like a reverse structure of Torment and Judgement. Black was def the strongest in Torment, but severely lacked in Judgement.
Mono White Humans didn't make it top 8 at the Pro Tour.
Of the Top 4, only one deck has White in it at all, and that's Esper Dragons... and the only white cost card in the mainboard is Dragonlord Ojutai. The rest of the white is in the sideboard. I think White had it's flash in the pan at SCG. There's some power in it but it doesn't have the versatility to dominate on it's own, especially considering control is making a run for the top. Control decks are 3 out of the top 5.
Typical exagerated threads. The new format barelly started and people are raving about Collected Company been tier 0 or mono white dominating the format.
I don't see it, the pros actively tried to hate the deck out and it is in the finals. It being in the finals and putting up huge numbers in general are a testament to how powerful the deck is.
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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
Knee jerk reaction? No. Indeed white is the favored color in every format.
Not even close. Legacy is a Blue format were outside of Swords to Plowshares and Stoneforge Mystic white is largely unplayed. Similarly in Modern, Path to Exile and Lingering Spirits are the main reasons to be running white. White in eternal formats is mostly a support color that lacks powerful quality, outside of hate cards.
In Standard recently, white has been a very average color, maybe even underused color. Outside of Crackling Doom, Siege Rhino, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and a few other fringe cards, it hasn't been played a ton. Heck it was pretty much non-played in RTR Theros block because of Life Bane Zombie.
All colors in standard fluxuate and swing. Red happens to be on the low end right now, while White has proven to be very strong due to Declaration in Stone.
Mono White Humans didn't make it top 8 at the Pro Tour.
Of the Top 4, only one deck has White in it at all, and that's Esper Dragons... and the only white cost card in the mainboard is Dragonlord Ojutai. The rest of the white is in the sideboard. I think White had it's flash in the pan at SCG. There's some power in it but it doesn't have the versatility to dominate on it's own, especially considering control is making a run for the top. Control decks are 3 out of the top 5.
Whether it's Aggro, Midrange or Control it really seems like White has the best everything at the moment save for Card Advantage.
Why is this the case? What's wrong with Wizards current design philosophy? I've seen so much discussion recently about how Standard's Power Level is going to be brought to heel but it seems like White gets a Get Out of Jail free card for this. Their creatures are very efficient, their removal is the best, their planeswalkers are wincons in their own right, not to mention the one Eldrazi printed in white is arguably the best one. They're the color that uses enchantments to remove things and also get some of the best enchantment removal.
Where's the love for the other colors?
Modern
xWBreakfast at Urza'sxW
UWGBantUWG
GWRNaya ZooRWG
That control deck will be White/Something.
I should have specified I'm not talking strictly about the mono White aggro, I'm saying that you can play anything you want this Standard, as long as one of the colors is White.
Podcast
1) White has solid (maybe the best) creatures in standard right now outside of Big Ramp critters.
2) White has the BEST removal in standard
3) White (and Wx) has a good number of solid Planewalkers.
4) White has solid enchantments with a suite of enchantment (exile) removal WITH the best ways to deal with enchantments.
My worry is that Wx aggro will morph into Wx midrange (as players go bigger to find advantage in the mirror) and finally develop a Wx control archetype. You can make all sorts of valid arguments as to what the "X" color or colors should be. But I haven't found an argument for no white. It feels very much like Black did back in RTR/Theros standard around Pack Rat, Desecration demon, and Heroes Downfall. All the best threats and answers in one color. Splash for flavor if you like.
Right now, things appear way to insular inside white. You have strong threats coming out of white aggro but all the best answers are also in white.
White being on top doesn't happen often. I love that it occasionally gets to shine like the sun mana that fuels it.
Also, it's only two weeks in, which is FAR too soon to complain or declare it overpowered. The other colors have strong tools, too.
Black has better card advantage.
Black has more lifegain
Black has direct lifeloss (though not the best, white has none).
Black has 2 decent sweepers to take care of white weenies
Black has cheap discard to take away those amazing removal spells.
Then again...
Blue has better card advantage.
Blue has counters to stop any of those pesky white spells
Blue has cheap bounce, and board bounce to get rid of pesky critters
Blue has better planeswalkers (debatable, but i really like shadow jace)
Blues mana looks way cooler.
Then again....
Red has... um vampires!
Red has artifact removal for all those Clues!!!
Oh yeah..
Green has better card advantage
Green has tougher creatures in a vacuum
Green has mana acceleration
Green has better mana fixing.
Green has better enchantment removal
and finally...
Colorless has WAY better creatures.
Colorless has better hand hate.
Colorless has better counters.
Colorless has better ramp.
Colorless has better threats.
I'm not saying that white isnt great this standard, it is. But seriously, its 2 weeks in, white is just the obvious choice. Give it like a month and there will be tons of decks. If not, just hate the **** out of white and win.
Control and midrange are pidgeonholed into one color.
I feel like I should sell my white cards now and brew B/R and R/G as hard as possible.
Midrange
Control
and for now Combo (Rally is GONE, thank god).
W is pretty much primary color if you want to go aggro/midrange/ control. Is this a problem? Yes. I refuse to believe that highly educated and learned people cannot decipher cards on their and see that as of right now, the dominant decks will have w and that's the end of it. If other color combinations are worth exploring, it'll simply be to try and suppress this but it's hard to argue that the power level in W is currently eclipsing others.
CoCo is a very powerful card that is similar to DTT which is banned in modern. In standard DTT was still powerful but limited to the number of spells it could pull due to the lower power and smaller card pool. IN a format that is often dominated by what creatures a deck wins with, CoCo gives those decks an almost unfair advantage. I've heard many players say, "Oh I brick and Oh Variance". I've seen it simply tempo players out and win by itself. CoCo + reflector mage has been warping the format.
We are now sheep looking towards a group of players that are "better" (I hate this kind of thought process but whatever) than the average players, in hopes that they offer some insight/solutions to a format that early on has been almost solved. The one take away was that a Ramp deck was brewed with a game plan solely focused on beating out these 2 decks. It's construction was a direct reaction to the meta, is this a good thing? I don't know, but it is the definition of format warping, but...AT least someone tried right? Credit is given where it's due.
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
Black shuts white down easily, if you want to beat white, play black. Only problem is black seems under par against green and blue. And those seem under par against white.... wait a second, a cycle!
Magic is supposed to be like this, all this fuss is just because one color/deck is shining early on. Give it time. All these threads of "X is OP", "Y is to prevalent", "Play Z or lose" are WAY WAY to immature (not as in childish, but as in too soon). These threads shouldnt be considered until like 2 months in at least, not 2 weeks.
Btw, Always Watching contributes way more to the powerlevel than Declaration in Stone
Thematically, it makes sense because we left Innistrad on a happy note that Avacyn returned and boosted white immensely. Now we return to Innistrad where yes, white is still strong, but it will/should decline due to Avacyn's madness and whatever other forces are revealed in EM. It seems like a reverse structure of Torment and Judgement. Black was def the strongest in Torment, but severely lacked in Judgement.
Of the Top 4, only one deck has White in it at all, and that's Esper Dragons... and the only white cost card in the mainboard is Dragonlord Ojutai. The rest of the white is in the sideboard. I think White had it's flash in the pan at SCG. There's some power in it but it doesn't have the versatility to dominate on it's own, especially considering control is making a run for the top. Control decks are 3 out of the top 5.
WUBEsper ControlWUB
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
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Caw blade. Gw tokens. Uw control (almost every standard format since 2000) esper control. Solar flare (v2 w/sun titan) .
Knee jerk reaction? No. Indeed white is the favored color in every format.
GBW Control
UWB Esper Thing Control
Not even close. Legacy is a Blue format were outside of Swords to Plowshares and Stoneforge Mystic white is largely unplayed. Similarly in Modern, Path to Exile and Lingering Spirits are the main reasons to be running white. White in eternal formats is mostly a support color that lacks powerful quality, outside of hate cards.
In Standard recently, white has been a very average color, maybe even underused color. Outside of Crackling Doom, Siege Rhino, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and a few other fringe cards, it hasn't been played a ton. Heck it was pretty much non-played in RTR Theros block because of Life Bane Zombie.
All colors in standard fluxuate and swing. Red happens to be on the low end right now, while White has proven to be very strong due to Declaration in Stone.
Standard
WUW/U HumansUW
Modern
WBW/B TokensBW
huh? finals was bant vs gw tokens
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WUBEsper ControlWUB