I think the meta will shift to a bit more open. Brewing is looking like there are 10 decks viable. Fevered Visions, Seasons Past and some other fringe cards will see an uptick. You may even see a mono blue counter control deck with the goodies in Revolt.
It's a good move but if you ask me the damage is done. From the perspective of someone who's in sales this is a loss in consumer confidence. It took 3 years for magic to crawl out of the last banning format with the attendance numbers drop like this. I have a friend who has a shop and he can't get Standard to fire. He has 40-50 per Modern events and the first Frontier event grabbed 22 people. That's a troubling sign.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
What deck benefits the most from the bans? UW flash.
Yes they lost reflector mage. It's not an insignificant card to lose. But GB Delirium lost its only true endgame threat, RW CARZ lost its primary tool to push damage through a clogged board, and while Marvel can play ulamog instead, the difference in what it dies to is incredibly significant. UW flash took a minor hit and watched its two worst matchups straight-up VANISH.
Wizards somehow managed to ban 3 oppressive cards and turn a 4-deck format into a 1-deck format. WTG wizards. WTG.
Flash played Copters too.
Well for UW flash both heart of kiran and eathersphere harvester were "stronger" than smuggler's copter, or at least on par.
Heart of Kiran might be close in power level though I would argue it goes in vastly different decks assuming both were legal, but Aethersphere costs 1 more mana and doesn't loot so its a step down despite its 2 extra toughness.
What deck benefits the most from the bans? UW flash.
Yes they lost reflector mage. It's not an insignificant card to lose. But GB Delirium lost its only true endgame threat, RW CARZ lost its primary tool to push damage through a clogged board, and while Marvel can play ulamog instead, the difference in what it dies to is incredibly significant. UW flash took a minor hit and watched its two worst matchups straight-up VANISH.
Wizards somehow managed to ban 3 oppressive cards and turn a 4-deck format into a 1-deck format. WTG wizards. WTG.
Flash played Copters too.
Well for UW flash both heart of kiran and eathersphere harvester were "stronger" than smuggler's copter, or at least on par.
Heart of Kiran does not let you filter. UW Flash is a deck that desperately needed the filtering that Copter provided. I think the deck is stone dead now.
There is already a RG Aggro deck in the form of RG Energy, which is unaffected by the ban. Whether it will continue to see play in AER remains TBD.
Also I personally love Emerge decks but they are very much outclassed by Aetherworks Marvel. Emerge is designed to bring out big guys quickly, but Marvel does that much faster. Although Emrakul is banned, there's still a lot of big things for Marvel to bring out.
Without copter a lot of decks get slowed down, but decks like Dwarf vehicles already have a ton of filtering if they play the tribe right and that deck runs Gideon for control matches, so it already has a good way to run Heart of Kiran. The Aethersphere harvester is not really for the dwarf vehicles deck as much as it is for control. It's a three mana flying vehicle that generates energy and can block for days while gaining a player life. It feels designed to be piloted by Contraband Kingpin.
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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!
Without copter a lot of decks get slowed down, but decks like Dwarf vehicles already have a ton of filtering if they play the tribe right and that deck runs Gideon for control matches, so it already has a good way to run Heart of Kiran. The Aethersphere harvester is not really for the dwarf vehicles deck as much as it is for control. It's a three mana flying vehicle that generates energy and can block for days while gaining a player life. It feels designed to be piloted by Contraband Kingpin.
eh... My U/W tried to go to Panharmonicon, Eldrazi Displacer, Drowner of Hope, Cloudblazer, Thought-Knot Seer. I pretty much went for infinite mana into infinite my opponent draws their entire deck by turn 5... Thopter Copter actually took away from a deck that never attacked anyway
It looks WoTC's efforts have backfired: in trying to make Standard more fun and diverse, they've somehow achieved the opposite. Even before the recent bannings, no PT top 8 was this homogenous, even back in the days of Abzan and Bant Company. Seriously, 6 out of the top 8 decks from 1 archetype (Mardu Vehicles)?
Not to mention the entire PT breakdown: 3 archetype(Mardu Vehicles, Jeskai Saheeli, BG Counters) accounting for ~70% of all decks present.
Not to mention the entire PT breakdown: 3 archetype(Mardu Vehicles, Jeskai Saheeli, BG Counters) accounting for ~70% of all decks present.
I don't know what kind of barrel you've been living in, but that sounds fairly normal for a standard metagame breakdown. ~3 tier 1 decks at any given time has been the norm for quite a long time. this isn't modern or legacy, you know.
did you not play during Theros/Khans? There were new decks taking the top seat on a weekly basis. G/R monsters, Abzan, Mardu, U/B Control, Sultai Control, Jeskai Midrange, Mardu Aggro, I mean...Khans/origins was amazing.
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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
did you not play during Theros/Khans? There were new decks taking the top seat on a weekly basis. G/R monsters, Abzan, Mardu, U/B Control, Sultai Control, Jeskai Midrange, Mardu Aggro, I mean...Khans/origins was amazing.
THS/KTK was basically abzan control and no other deck could compete with it. I did enjoy the format - really, I like all standard formats. I was having fun with Sidisi Whip myself back then.
there were decks that could compete with it, Abzan control became really dominant once Den Protector was printed. I played U/B control and did just fine early on. As the format progressed Abzan become very good, it still got destroyed by G/R Dragons/ Monsters. The format had many viable decks, they all saw success. It wasn't anything like we are seeing atm. Mono red burn from origins? WOO that was a deck.
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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
there were decks that could compete with it, Abzan control became really dominant once Den Protector was printed. I played U/B control and did just fine early on. As the format progressed Abzan become very good, it still got destroyed by G/R Dragons/ Monsters. The format had many viable decks, they all saw success. It wasn't anything like we are seeing atm. Mono red burn from origins? WOO that was a deck.
You're comparing an entire year's worth of decks against three weeks of the new standard. that is absolutely ludicrous. different decks have seen success in this format!
look, to be honest, KTK was my favourite set since I've started playing magic, but you're wearing the nostalgia goggles pretty hard. THS/KTK standard was just as divisive as any other standard format and people were flipping their ***** over Siege Rhino since day 1.
If we wanted to sum up the actual best decks of THS/KTK it would be Abzan control, Abzan aggro and GR ramp. all the other decks were just flashes in the pan.
what!! dude Esper Dragons! Rally! MOno Red burn, Atarka red, no way. I remember that format and I had every single deck. Sure Abzan was excellent but all of the decks I mentioned went toe to toe with those. Since coming back to play this format I see a complete lack of diversity. People aren't excited, and many former standard players have moved towards modern in my area. No way, I remember Rally, do you remember rally? I remember my top PPTQ Top 8's Vs rally and it was one of the most skill testing games for me, I was on Esper Dragons and it was excellent.
Control had finishers, great board wipes, an actual 2cmc counterspell and Jace. Agree to disagree, this current standard isn't anywhere near as good as what we had at one point. Rally for all it's brokenness was really hard to pilot well.
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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
what!! dude Esper Dragons! Rally! MOno Red burn, Atarka red, no way. I remember that format and I had every single deck. Sure Abzan was excellent but all of the decks I mentioned went toe to toe with those. Since coming back to play this format I see a complete lack of diversity. People aren't excited, and many former standard players have moved towards modern in my area. No way, I remember Rally, do you remember rally? I remember my top PPTQ Top 8's Vs rally and it was one of the most skill testing games for me, I was on Esper Dragons and it was excellent.
Control had finishers, great board wipes, an actual 2cmc counterspell and Jace. Agree to disagree, this current standard isn't anywhere near as good as what we had at one point. Rally for all it's brokenness was really hard to pilot well.
I don't care about your subjective opinion of the format. from what I understand you're mostly just looking to play the few select archetypes you like and whether those decks are competitive or not is what makes or breaks the format for you. that is not a very useful metric for anyone else. saying that a 2-mana hard counter makes a format great is a laughable argument. jace didn't come around until ORI and people started hating on the card as well. can you actually not remember this?
If you are implying that this current format doesn't have skill intensive games, then you just haven't played enough.
You are correct that DTK changed the format - I had forgotten about Esper Dragons. I can't remember any rally decks from that time period though. of course you conveniently overlooked my most important argument - that you are comparing a year's worth of decks to the three weeks of the current standard. If standard doesn't change at all when Amonkhet rolls around then WOTC be damned, but not until then.
you know what, I don't give two *****s about people quitting standard. they can do whatever they like. people have never ever been excited for standard apart from EVERY GOD DAMN SINGLE spoiler season, and somehow everyone gets ******* disappointed once the tournaments roll in every single time! for a strategic and supposedly intellectual game, the magic community sure is ******* dense. you are just being blinded by your love for that era of magic and fail to remember all the gripes people had with Khans back then.
Woo, look at you getting all your feathers ruffled.
I said those decks were viable, not that they were the very best deck in the entire format. Yes, Rhino.dec was literally the best deck for a long time, and even I came to dislike it, but there were decks that you could fight it with.
You're wrong BTW, people were very excited about Dragons of Tarkir, Origins, and BFZ (Bfz is where the decline started) and from there from I believe there was a lot of hype for Shadows and Kaladesh. I grind a lot and have played decks I hate:
G/W Toknes
Atarka Red
Bant CoCo
B/W control (boring)
are some that come to mind, so I don't mind having to play a "good" deck to win. I've played the format, I've already 4-2 a PPTQ this season and if I have to pivot to play a better deck suited to beat the current that's fine. I don't have to like it, and since grinding a hobby (I'm lucky to be a professional musician, YAY! ) I still like being competitive enough to top 8 and keep up with my local teammates.
Do I like that U gets shafted? No, did I like the disappearance of RDW? No. did I play BS decks and win? Yes. Was it fun? No it's why I took a break.
My metric for judging a format is on deck diversity, this PT showed little of that. If all the bands in the world use the Pentatonic scale as the basis of composition I'd get bored really fast.
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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
when talking about current formats, people always bring up how it's this and that deck that's the best deck. when talking about old standard formats, people say "oh sure, x was the best deck, but you could also play these other sweet decks!". that's what's happening even now.
Of course the Pro Tour didn't have a diverse top 8. However, as a whole the format is very diverse! after three weeks of standard aggro, rock and control decks each have won the big tournament. the good teams realized that Mardu was underappreciated, and the other teams slept on the fact. that's what went down on this PT.
I'm sure every people have their own favourite standard formats. in general, however, every ******* single standard format sucks ass and I doubt that will ever change. I have enjoyed playing standard after every single set's release so I really fail to see the issues that other people seem to be experiencing.
EDIT: ok, Bant Company is the single exception to this rule - that format was just baaaad.
I do think Khans/Origins and Khans/Theros was great for standard. I bought every deck (I went a little crazy) and had a blast playing that standard format. Things went south when Rally started to dominate. Rhino was really infuriating but I found many ways to beat it with Esper Dragons (Toothless!!).
Soon...soon we saw CoCo start to dominate and you're right. IT was TeRriBaD! I played it like everyone else, and I really disliked the wins I got with it. My opponents were never happy and somehow CoCo'ing into Mage + Advocate with Manland back up always felt stupid.
Is the format that diverse man? The first few weeks are always a wild west, it's what I like about the format, but the PT is the moment we see a meta game truly come unto it's own. As a player I'm worried that the best decks have already been found. That sucks, really really sucks.
B/G, Mardu Vehicles and Maybe Saheeli? That;s it. The last 2 PPTQ's in Austin were G/B mirrors , with Mardu Vechiles and a few Saheeli sprinkled in the top 8. The Sunday PPTQ was again, G/B, and Saheeli with some Vehicles.I mean, this is at the PPTQ level (sure not that high) but there were some real grinders there from the local area. I went 4-2 with U/B (tuned to beat G/B) but if I had to tune to beat both G/B and Mardu? That's a tall order man, very tall order. It's not like the Saheeli deck will be going away either...it's not easy to find a control deck that can pivot to beat all 3.
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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 problem with this format is that your deck has to answer: "Can it beat the Copy Cat Combo?" If the answer is no, you are not competitive. Only GB Snake and Mardu Vehicles (and a couple of fringe aggro decks) can say yes to that question. You want to play ramp, you're out. Midrange, without enough answers, you're out. The cat hasn't seen the success people were expecting at the Pro Tour, but the deck isn't going anywhere: I can't imagine Wizards banning a deck that hasn't made the top 8 and had such a bad conversion rate. That said, the damage is already done, just like Splinter Twin in Modern: it didn't see a ton of victories, but it was played enough that it put a lid on the decks and the cards could be played in the format.
At this point, I believe Wizards is very scared and unsure about what to do next. Another ban, so soon after the last, will impact consumer confidence in the product. But what will be the impact of 1.5 years of Copy Cat shenanigans?
Not to mention the entire PT breakdown: 3 archetype(Mardu Vehicles, Jeskai Saheeli, BG Counters) accounting for ~70% of all decks present.
I don't know what kind of barrel you've been living in, but that sounds fairly normal for a standard metagame breakdown. ~3 tier 1 decks at any given time has been the norm for quite a long time. this isn't modern or legacy, you know.
Yes that is the case but 70% though? And when was the last time you saw 6 out of top 8 PT placers being comprised of the same shell?
At the end of the day, I am worried about what precedence this sets for WoTC and the whole Standard community. WoTC already surprised us all by implementing bans that came out of nowhere, so there's no telling what they'll do next. Building a strong deck in any format is hard enough, but doing only to find out the deck is no longer viable because of a sudden ban is just adding salt to the wound. As for the community, many players were looking forward to brewing their own ideas after the ban, which is also what WoTC was trying to encourage with the ban. But now upon seeing that 70% of PT comprised of 3 archetypes, that encouragement likely won't stick around. We're left with the same old Standard of people netdecking and building off a few select shells.
We're left with the same old Standard of people netdecking and building off a few select shells.
that's what standard is. anyone who expects anything else is bound to get disappointed. every netdeck started as someone's brew.
It is [relatively speaking] a big deal this time around because of the recent bannings and other additional efforts WoTC has tried to save Standard. Keeping Standard as the same homogenous format it's always been is whatever, but when WoTC actually puts more effort than usual to make Standard more fun and diverse, the disappointment becomes exponentially greater when you have PT results like we saw this past weekend.
We're left with the same old Standard of people netdecking and building off a few select shells.
that's what standard is. anyone who expects anything else is bound to get disappointed. every netdeck started as someone's brew.
It is [relatively speaking] a big deal this time around because of the recent bannings and other additional efforts WoTC has tried to save Standard. Keeping Standard as the same homogenous format it's always been is whatever, but when WoTC actually puts more effort than usual to make Standard more fun and diverse, the disappointment becomes exponentially greater when you have PT results like we saw this past weekend.
people who have such expectations deserve to get disappointed.
I will not spend more than $3 on a paper magic card again..
It's a good move but if you ask me the damage is done. From the perspective of someone who's in sales this is a loss in consumer confidence. It took 3 years for magic to crawl out of the last banning format with the attendance numbers drop like this. I have a friend who has a shop and he can't get Standard to fire. He has 40-50 per Modern events and the first Frontier event grabbed 22 people. That's a troubling sign.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
Heart of Kiran might be close in power level though I would argue it goes in vastly different decks assuming both were legal, but Aethersphere costs 1 more mana and doesn't loot so its a step down despite its 2 extra toughness.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
Heart of Kiran does not let you filter. UW Flash is a deck that desperately needed the filtering that Copter provided. I think the deck is stone dead now.
UR Blue-Red Control
Modern:
UBR Grixis Control
UWR Jeskai Control
The Combo is balls with out Reflector Mage " bye buddy I will miss you."
There is already a RG Aggro deck in the form of RG Energy, which is unaffected by the ban. Whether it will continue to see play in AER remains TBD.
Also I personally love Emerge decks but they are very much outclassed by Aetherworks Marvel. Emerge is designed to bring out big guys quickly, but Marvel does that much faster. Although Emrakul is banned, there's still a lot of big things for Marvel to bring out.
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!
eh... My U/W tried to go to Panharmonicon, Eldrazi Displacer, Drowner of Hope, Cloudblazer, Thought-Knot Seer. I pretty much went for infinite mana into infinite my opponent draws their entire deck by turn 5... Thopter Copter actually took away from a deck that never attacked anyway
Not to mention the entire PT breakdown: 3 archetype(Mardu Vehicles, Jeskai Saheeli, BG Counters) accounting for ~70% of all decks present.
I don't know what kind of barrel you've been living in, but that sounds fairly normal for a standard metagame breakdown. ~3 tier 1 decks at any given time has been the norm for quite a long time. this isn't modern or legacy, you know.
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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
THS/KTK was basically abzan control and no other deck could compete with it. I did enjoy the format - really, I like all standard formats. I was having fun with Sidisi Whip myself back then.
Youtube Channel
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
You're comparing an entire year's worth of decks against three weeks of the new standard. that is absolutely ludicrous. different decks have seen success in this format!
look, to be honest, KTK was my favourite set since I've started playing magic, but you're wearing the nostalgia goggles pretty hard. THS/KTK standard was just as divisive as any other standard format and people were flipping their ***** over Siege Rhino since day 1.
If we wanted to sum up the actual best decks of THS/KTK it would be Abzan control, Abzan aggro and GR ramp. all the other decks were just flashes in the pan.
Youtube Channel
Control had finishers, great board wipes, an actual 2cmc counterspell and Jace. Agree to disagree, this current standard isn't anywhere near as good as what we had at one point. Rally for all it's brokenness was really hard to pilot well.
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
I don't care about your subjective opinion of the format. from what I understand you're mostly just looking to play the few select archetypes you like and whether those decks are competitive or not is what makes or breaks the format for you. that is not a very useful metric for anyone else. saying that a 2-mana hard counter makes a format great is a laughable argument. jace didn't come around until ORI and people started hating on the card as well. can you actually not remember this?
If you are implying that this current format doesn't have skill intensive games, then you just haven't played enough.
You are correct that DTK changed the format - I had forgotten about Esper Dragons. I can't remember any rally decks from that time period though. of course you conveniently overlooked my most important argument - that you are comparing a year's worth of decks to the three weeks of the current standard. If standard doesn't change at all when Amonkhet rolls around then WOTC be damned, but not until then.
you know what, I don't give two *****s about people quitting standard. they can do whatever they like. people have never ever been excited for standard apart from EVERY GOD DAMN SINGLE spoiler season, and somehow everyone gets ******* disappointed once the tournaments roll in every single time! for a strategic and supposedly intellectual game, the magic community sure is ******* dense. you are just being blinded by your love for that era of magic and fail to remember all the gripes people had with Khans back then.
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I said those decks were viable, not that they were the very best deck in the entire format. Yes, Rhino.dec was literally the best deck for a long time, and even I came to dislike it, but there were decks that you could fight it with.
You're wrong BTW, people were very excited about Dragons of Tarkir, Origins, and BFZ (Bfz is where the decline started) and from there from I believe there was a lot of hype for Shadows and Kaladesh. I grind a lot and have played decks I hate:
G/W Toknes
Atarka Red
Bant CoCo
B/W control (boring)
are some that come to mind, so I don't mind having to play a "good" deck to win. I've played the format, I've already 4-2 a PPTQ this season and if I have to pivot to play a better deck suited to beat the current that's fine. I don't have to like it, and since grinding a hobby (I'm lucky to be a professional musician, YAY! ) I still like being competitive enough to top 8 and keep up with my local teammates.
Do I like that U gets shafted? No, did I like the disappearance of RDW? No. did I play BS decks and win? Yes. Was it fun? No it's why I took a break.
My metric for judging a format is on deck diversity, this PT showed little of that. If all the bands in the world use the Pentatonic scale as the basis of composition I'd get bored really fast.
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
when talking about current formats, people always bring up how it's this and that deck that's the best deck. when talking about old standard formats, people say "oh sure, x was the best deck, but you could also play these other sweet decks!". that's what's happening even now.
Of course the Pro Tour didn't have a diverse top 8. However, as a whole the format is very diverse! after three weeks of standard aggro, rock and control decks each have won the big tournament. the good teams realized that Mardu was underappreciated, and the other teams slept on the fact. that's what went down on this PT.
I'm sure every people have their own favourite standard formats. in general, however, every ******* single standard format sucks ass and I doubt that will ever change. I have enjoyed playing standard after every single set's release so I really fail to see the issues that other people seem to be experiencing.
EDIT: ok, Bant Company is the single exception to this rule - that format was just baaaad.
Youtube Channel
I do think Khans/Origins and Khans/Theros was great for standard. I bought every deck (I went a little crazy) and had a blast playing that standard format. Things went south when Rally started to dominate. Rhino was really infuriating but I found many ways to beat it with Esper Dragons (Toothless!!).
Soon...soon we saw CoCo start to dominate and you're right. IT was TeRriBaD! I played it like everyone else, and I really disliked the wins I got with it. My opponents were never happy and somehow CoCo'ing into Mage + Advocate with Manland back up always felt stupid.
Is the format that diverse man? The first few weeks are always a wild west, it's what I like about the format, but the PT is the moment we see a meta game truly come unto it's own. As a player I'm worried that the best decks have already been found. That sucks, really really sucks.
B/G, Mardu Vehicles and Maybe Saheeli? That;s it. The last 2 PPTQ's in Austin were G/B mirrors , with Mardu Vechiles and a few Saheeli sprinkled in the top 8. The Sunday PPTQ was again, G/B, and Saheeli with some Vehicles.I mean, this is at the PPTQ level (sure not that high) but there were some real grinders there from the local area. I went 4-2 with U/B (tuned to beat G/B) but if I had to tune to beat both G/B and Mardu? That's a tall order man, very tall order. It's not like the Saheeli deck will be going away either...it's not easy to find a control deck that can pivot to beat all 3.
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
At this point, I believe Wizards is very scared and unsure about what to do next. Another ban, so soon after the last, will impact consumer confidence in the product. But what will be the impact of 1.5 years of Copy Cat shenanigans?
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
Yes that is the case but 70% though? And when was the last time you saw 6 out of top 8 PT placers being comprised of the same shell?
At the end of the day, I am worried about what precedence this sets for WoTC and the whole Standard community. WoTC already surprised us all by implementing bans that came out of nowhere, so there's no telling what they'll do next. Building a strong deck in any format is hard enough, but doing only to find out the deck is no longer viable because of a sudden ban is just adding salt to the wound. As for the community, many players were looking forward to brewing their own ideas after the ban, which is also what WoTC was trying to encourage with the ban. But now upon seeing that 70% of PT comprised of 3 archetypes, that encouragement likely won't stick around. We're left with the same old Standard of people netdecking and building off a few select shells.
that's what standard is. anyone who expects anything else is bound to get disappointed. every netdeck started as someone's brew.
Youtube Channel
It is [relatively speaking] a big deal this time around because of the recent bannings and other additional efforts WoTC has tried to save Standard. Keeping Standard as the same homogenous format it's always been is whatever, but when WoTC actually puts more effort than usual to make Standard more fun and diverse, the disappointment becomes exponentially greater when you have PT results like we saw this past weekend.
people who have such expectations deserve to get disappointed.
Youtube Channel