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It's more a matter of I don't want someone misquoting or misrepresenting, to me, what my beliefs or views are or should be. Especially when I have explained them thoroughly multiple times. Honestly, I don't care as much as it probably seems like online, but online discussions usually trend toward extremes fairly quickly (I'm also only teaching part time this year to spend time with my newborn, and have WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME to sit in front of a computer). For me personally, my tie is mostly because I spent thousands of dollars and years of my life playing Snap Bolt decks and loving every minute of it. All I want in Magic is to play a competitive Snap Bolt deck, which is what I'd spent the last 3 and a half years searching for (and found a few before Probe and Push took away Delver, Geist became irrelevant, and Moon ain't what it used to be, no matter what wincon you shove in, etc). All the while, having people tell me to play these other things that are nothing like it, and to shut up and enjoy it because it plays islands. Whatevs. I play bad decks and no longer care about winning.
Really this is not a valid general argument. A personal desire or grudge, sure. But we all have one. I would love to have a competitive UB Faeries deck or a competitive Cruel Ultimatum/Grixis deck, but I don't have it. And no, I don't want to play GDS, hence I am not playing it. I do jam my Faeries or Grixis control almost every FNM, unless I want to practice UW for a bigger tournament. I get frustrated that UB colors get stupid mill cards. But it is what it is, there is still a playable Faeries deck, and I pilot it to the best of my abilities (admittedly not that great). That's how ANY format works.
I guess you mean URx control decks, because UR phoenix is doing just find. As a matter of fact, right now there are 2 mainly U and 1 party U decks at tier 1: UW control, UR Phoenix, and Grixis DS. That's not only 3 blue decks, but three distinctly different blue decks.
Yep, you have an aggro/combo deck, which is basically just replacing Storm, you have black-based "Jund with Negate", and then you have the only reasonable U-based reactive deck, as well as a variant of the same deck that plays Bolt and is considerably worse. Sure, I guess UW isn't "reducing diversity by supplanting similar decks"?
Phoenix supplanted Storm, GDS supplanted Jund, and UW supplanted every other reactive blue deck.
I honestly don't understand what is that you want (besides Twin unban). You are jumping from logical loop to logical loop to create a narrative that Twin was unjustly banned, a point which, at several points, people have agreed. Yes, it is possible that Twin would be safe now. Yes, the argument about deck diversity doesn't necessarily stand, although at THAT point when it was made, it stood (even though it didn't work, I hope I won't have to restate it).
HOWEVER, at this point, the format DOES have a variety of U decks. Whether you choose to describe them in weird ways to fit your narrative is a different matter.
Phoenix did not supplant Storm, Storm is still a relevant Tier 1 strategy.
GDS description of Jund with negate I think is rather unfair. It's like describing 8-rack Jund with 1 color. Just because both decks are midrange it doesn't mean that they are the same. The deck plays 12-14 U cards maindeck, and 4-6 on the SB.
Regarding UW control, yes it is the best control deck you can play atm, although Esper and Jeskai have a lot to show, whether you choose to see it or not.
So what is it EXACTLY that you expect, besides a Twin unban?
Blue on its own is definitely fine. It just got Narset, little Teferi, Ashiok, and Veto in WAR alone. It's about to get FoN and Charm assuming there are no other hits in the set. There's a popular, or at least vocal, opinion that blue is struggling and needs some support in Modern. UW Control is consistently a top 5 deck at most events with significant recent performance in both paper and MTGO venues. Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
I guess you mean URx control decks, because UR phoenix is doing just find. As a matter of fact, right now there are 2 mainly U and 1 party U decks at tier 1: UW control, UR Phoenix, and Grixis DS. That's not only 3 blue decks, but three distinctly different blue decks. Meanwhile, Jeskai is solidly at Tier 2 if not 1,5 when people figure out how to play the new cards, and the same goes for Esper which has several strong showings and sits easily at Tier 1,5. So yeah, I think U is both at an ok spot, and reasonably diverse, definitely much more diverse than when you would either play URx Twin or basically bust, since even Jeskai had developed into a twin variant.
People have been saying this but I honestly don't get it. What is funny about it? It is possible that they had decided on this inclusion before the design of Liliana's Triumph. Why is it a net negative or a ridiculous fact that they included Diabolic Edict? It still is an iconic card, it still was not legal for modern, maybe they didn't even know. So what?
I honestly can't see why people are bitter. This set really is great from several points of view.
We not even half way through the spoilers and we already have some definitely playable or even very powerful cards for modern.
The set is SUPER flavorful, and it definitely creates a feeling of continuity for older players who might have felt left our recently.
The set has powerful cards for other formats as well (i.e. commander and cube)
We are getting art cards as a nice extra, which is an awesome change from stupid ad. cards.
It feels like unless there is THE specific card that some people want, there is no way that they will be satisfied. I also would love to see Coutnerspell, but it's not in there. What can you do? Does that make the entire set suck? How is this even a valid argument?
People are complaining about Diabolic Edict because we now have a different one, but still that doesn't make it a wasted reprint. It still is an awesome card. Heck, we are even getting a new Mox and people just dismiss it for no reason. As Kt said already, just give it some time. If WAR should us anything is that cards can completely surprise us.
Good think KCI is banned, because it would have yet another way of getting its creatures in or out of the bin.
Maybe Jeskai Thopter Sword becomes a thing?
I would argue that they are equally powerful, there are just less decks to host JtMS in modern. When Jace lands in UWx modern and survives, the game is over quite quickly, which is also the case in Legacy. Miracles, the equivalent UW deck of Legacy plays JtmS in a similar way as modern UW control.
In legacy we also have Sultai decks that feature him, and also UWx stoneblade that has the potential to run him, strategies which are under-represented in modern for reasons unrelated to JtMS.
Nah it's not about the static ability, although brainstorm into fetch into brainstorm with a JTMS is pure sweetness.
His +1 provides card/board advantage as you not only draw a card, but remove something from your opponent's hand or board. It is not selection, sure, but depends on what you want.
His minus 3 is unconditional removal for creatures AND planeswalkers, which we struggle a bit to deal with otherwise. Ral's is conditional, it is entirely likely that by T5 you don't have, for example 5 instant/sorceries in the GY and you can't kill a big goyf or a tasigur or a big DS. The argument that "anything can kill him after" is a bit moot, because the same holds true for Ral as you also pointed out as well. Having the ability to unconditionally kill 2 different types of permanents is much more useful I think.
It's a bit irrelevant to compare ultimates, because it rarely happens and opponents usually scoop before that, but Bolas literally wins you the game the moment you ulti him, so there is that.
You would have to tweaks to your mana base I think to not have problems with Bolas' mana, namely change one of the Sulfur Falls to a Drowned Catacomb, and you could cut the Mountain for another Blood Crypt.
If you are trying any 5-mana PW, I would say the new Bolas is probably where you want to be, he is miles better than Ral, and since you already have a mana base for Cruel Ultimatum, casting him should not be a problem.
angrath's rampage that card has me curious. Seems like a good 4 of main deck despite being a sorcery. Hits 80% in the format.
"Hits" is a bit of an overstatement. Can't hit anything as long as there is another permanent of that type on the board. It might be great with PWs, where there is usually 1, but creatures/artifacts that are problematic are usually in decks that go wide with them. It really is not that great, if not just plain bad, against e.g. Humans, Hardened Scales, Whir decks.
Yes it has some applications especially against Tron, midrange decks, GDS, and some other stuff, but as a 4 of would definitely stretch it. I am using 1 copy and I am satisfied with it.
I thought Confidant wasn't affected because you don't "draw" the card explicitly, but rather just reveal it, then put it into your hand?
Other note, here's the thing I love about the tron hate: it is well known that several decks are good against tron. Valakut, burn, infect, storm, ad nausea, all great choices. What tron is good against is known, yet the folks who hate tron also hate everything that beats tron.
Well, isn't that logical? Why on earth would you love (or not hate for that matter) Tron as a midrange or control player? Playing against it is mostly a miserable uphill experience that can blow you up at any random point. It is very easy to have played the perfect game as a control deck, have set up an advantage, have them on 0 cards in hand, and they just draw their random Ulamog and win any way.
Or have them draw T3 tron into Karn which you counter, into T4 Ulamog which you also counter, but then lose anyway. You are punished for having the answers to their threats basically. I don't see why you wouldn't hate it.
Except that wasn't the point I made. The point was that Tron's weaknesses are well-known. You go underneath. If you want to beat tron, play something that is better against tron. It feels to me that oftentimes the people who only like midrange and control want to ban everything that beats them. I have, however, addressed your post's general point before: everyone in modern has to sometimes sit across from an opponent where they will be a three to one underdog. ***** happens.
I don't disagree. I hate Tron. I hate playing against it, and every time I win against it I feel like I FLIPPING DESERVED IT. But do I want Tron banned? No. And I don't think your generalization holds. I don't see any bandwagon of midrange/control players wanting to ban anything from Tron.
There was (and still is I think) a case for Ancient Stirring but that was related to KCI and similar colorless decks and not Tron so much.
I thought Confidant wasn't affected because you don't "draw" the card explicitly, but rather just reveal it, then put it into your hand?
Other note, here's the thing I love about the tron hate: it is well known that several decks are good against tron. Valakut, burn, infect, storm, ad nausea, all great choices. What tron is good against is known, yet the folks who hate tron also hate everything that beats tron.
Well, isn't that logical? Why on earth would you love (or not hate for that matter) Tron as a midrange or control player? Playing against it is mostly a miserable uphill experience that can blow you up at any random point. It is very easy to have played the perfect game as a control deck, have set up an advantage, have them on 0 cards in hand, and they just draw their random Ulamog and win any way.
Or have them draw T3 tron into Karn which you counter, into T4 Ulamog which you also counter, but then lose anyway. You are punished for having the answers to their threats basically. I don't see why you wouldn't hate it.
HOWEVER, at this point, the format DOES have a variety of U decks. Whether you choose to describe them in weird ways to fit your narrative is a different matter.
Phoenix did not supplant Storm, Storm is still a relevant Tier 1 strategy.
GDS description of Jund with negate I think is rather unfair. It's like describing 8-rack Jund with 1 color. Just because both decks are midrange it doesn't mean that they are the same. The deck plays 12-14 U cards maindeck, and 4-6 on the SB.
Regarding UW control, yes it is the best control deck you can play atm, although Esper and Jeskai have a lot to show, whether you choose to see it or not.
So what is it EXACTLY that you expect, besides a Twin unban?
We not even half way through the spoilers and we already have some definitely playable or even very powerful cards for modern.
The set is SUPER flavorful, and it definitely creates a feeling of continuity for older players who might have felt left our recently.
The set has powerful cards for other formats as well (i.e. commander and cube)
We are getting art cards as a nice extra, which is an awesome change from stupid ad. cards.
It feels like unless there is THE specific card that some people want, there is no way that they will be satisfied. I also would love to see Coutnerspell, but it's not in there. What can you do? Does that make the entire set suck? How is this even a valid argument?
People are complaining about Diabolic Edict because we now have a different one, but still that doesn't make it a wasted reprint. It still is an awesome card. Heck, we are even getting a new Mox and people just dismiss it for no reason. As Kt said already, just give it some time. If WAR should us anything is that cards can completely surprise us.
http://mythicspoiler.com/mh1/cards/goblinengineer.html
Good think KCI is banned, because it would have yet another way of getting its creatures in or out of the bin.
Maybe Jeskai Thopter Sword becomes a thing?
Also, this announcement looks promising: https://www.cardmarket.com/en/Magic/Insight/Articles/Whats-More-Effective-Than-10000-Blades?fbclid=IwAR1j7UQySbRi8H2sTBDobLxIr9_Gq2LMc7aTlnexgboVB_MlDqPXhNuLRG8
http://mythicspoiler.com/mh1/cards/scourallpossibilities.html?fbclid=IwAR0Z5Ud8-97hVeFmpovNp2je9Zb39pzHtCekm3AvzCXSGufk9ZK04je4M-8
In legacy we also have Sultai decks that feature him, and also UWx stoneblade that has the potential to run him, strategies which are under-represented in modern for reasons unrelated to JtMS.
His +1 provides card/board advantage as you not only draw a card, but remove something from your opponent's hand or board. It is not selection, sure, but depends on what you want.
His minus 3 is unconditional removal for creatures AND planeswalkers, which we struggle a bit to deal with otherwise. Ral's is conditional, it is entirely likely that by T5 you don't have, for example 5 instant/sorceries in the GY and you can't kill a big goyf or a tasigur or a big DS. The argument that "anything can kill him after" is a bit moot, because the same holds true for Ral as you also pointed out as well. Having the ability to unconditionally kill 2 different types of permanents is much more useful I think.
It's a bit irrelevant to compare ultimates, because it rarely happens and opponents usually scoop before that, but Bolas literally wins you the game the moment you ulti him, so there is that.
You would have to tweaks to your mana base I think to not have problems with Bolas' mana, namely change one of the Sulfur Falls to a Drowned Catacomb, and you could cut the Mountain for another Blood Crypt.
Yes it has some applications especially against Tron, midrange decks, GDS, and some other stuff, but as a 4 of would definitely stretch it. I am using 1 copy and I am satisfied with it.
There was (and still is I think) a case for Ancient Stirring but that was related to KCI and similar colorless decks and not Tron so much.
Or have them draw T3 tron into Karn which you counter, into T4 Ulamog which you also counter, but then lose anyway. You are punished for having the answers to their threats basically. I don't see why you wouldn't hate it.