... did first place just combine Jeskai Harbinger + Knightfall for the lulz?
Yeah, I noticed that too. Very odd combination!
yeah that does seem pretty weird. Interesting though
Its ironic how delver decks start doing well right after I go back to Grixis Control but I guess control is doing well too
I stopped caring what was doing well a while ago and just play a deck I like. No matter the deck, I seem to be able to 4-0 or 0-4 any given week, even with the same 75. The format is such a roulette wheel of matchups and sideboard cards that worrying about consistently winning isn't worth it. Maybe that's why I liked Twin so much; I never felt like any matchup was hopelessly unwinnable. If I was going to lose, it would be because of my skill, my plays, or my draws, not the parings board or the dice roll.
That said, Grixis is still my favorite color combination and I've been switching between Grixis Delver and Nahiri Jeskai over the past months. Nahiri feels more powerful and seems to win more, but Grixis anything is way more fun and interesting to play.
Two full blocks and four full sets from back to back "Returns" without any noteworthy reprints from two of the most powerful and popular planes in the modern era of Magic, right after it's announced that core sets are no longer being made and reprints will be done through "Return" sets.
Cfusion, I don't get it, man, Nahari Jeskai is the closest thing to Twin as you can get, it's more tempo than control, a toolbox deck, a combo finisher with a beat down/burn backup plan
The deck in it's current popular iteration is in no way a tempo or toolbox deck. It's strictly a draw-go control combo deck that has an extremely difficult and slow time closing out games it doesn't win with Nahiri. I've been personally playing a different build that is less all-in on Nahiri, but regardless I wasn't even talking about that in any recent comments.
The Amulet Twin has also been a huge help to the format, between that and RG Tron in tier 1, it really became impossible to play fair decks on both the local meta and on higher level events.
I think Amulet had the bigger impact on fair decks. But even still, outside of Jund, doing fair things is still not a great strategy.
The Eldrazi meta should really be forgotten, or seen as a huge, inconvenient speed bump. As long as we can get through EM or the next set that's artifact heavy, we are looking at a format that looks safe to play and invest in without any needed bans.
Agreed. Let's hope there isn't something that easily breaks the Emerge mechanic. We really don't want a repeat Eldrazi Summer.
Delver won Dallas, and Ingram won 1st place not long ago in Charlotte, the blue is bad argument is no longer allowed
Wasn't saying that. Was saying it was a meaningless lateral shift and agreeing with FZA's opinion on the relatively small impact it had specifically vs the dozen or so other changes that impacted the format in the past 6 months.
I would definitely not recommend buying into MTGO unless you really want to use that program specifically. If you want to practice for free online use XMage or Cockatrice (XMage is probably better because it automates rules like MTGO).
To me it's not worth it to spend thousands to rent digital cards from Wizards. That's what MTGO makes you do.
if you want to test the only good way is to play leagues/tournaments on MTGO.
Casual rooms on mtgo and other program is full a bad deck and thrash that lead you to incorrect testing.
Yeah, I can't tell you how many times you run into stuff like Taking Turns and Restore Balance. Good grief.
Right now is better than pre-Twin ban without ever having to give a thought to Eldrazi Winter.
I disagree with that. It's different, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily better or worse. Just shifted around a bit. I think having gone through Eldrazi makes us forget how fun, diverse, healthy, and enjoyable the majority of 2015 was.
What I will say is that I think the Amulet ban really opened up more space in the format for fair decks. I think people underestimate how good that ban was for the modern format as a whole.
Probably, although Tron is roughly in the same position that it was in, so I'm not sure how much the eye ban really changed 2016 modern compared with 2015 modern.
Basically I think that having to deal with both Amulet and Tron in the format was just too much for fair decks and that's why they were in such a bad spot in late 2015.
It didn't. But the thing is, people look at the way things are now and say they're so much better, when we only hold that view BECAUSE of the nightmare of Eldrazi Winter. Had Eldrazi never happened, it would have been a relatively uneventful transition, other than blue decks still being relatively poor until Nahiri is printed. It's almost as if people want to ignore that Eldrazi ever happened, but simultaneously use the horror as a basis to compare how good things are now. Of course, everyone jumps on me as soon as I tell them how great (and relatively unchanged) the grand scheme of things are compared to last year, but that's the internet for ya.
Edit: I'm pretty sure we agree, I'm just making a side point.
What I will say is that I think the Amulet ban really opened up more space in the format for fair decks. I think people underestimate how good that ban was for the modern format as a whole.
What do people here think about the faster alternative wincons in the side? Geist in Ingram and Megucci's lists for example
I feel that the matchups nahiri jeskai struggles with the most are where you can't take a turn off to play nahiri or get blown out instantly by their combo, like tron, scapeshift or ad nauseam. Geist does indeed fix this somewhat, but all of those decks play wraths and although you might get them now with the surprise factor, it can't really be a permanent solution to those matchups as the strat becomes worse the more popular it gets
How is taking a turn off to cast Geist different from taking a turn off to cast Nahiri, except a turn earlier?
I stopped caring what was doing well a while ago and just play a deck I like. No matter the deck, I seem to be able to 4-0 or 0-4 any given week, even with the same 75. The format is such a roulette wheel of matchups and sideboard cards that worrying about consistently winning isn't worth it. Maybe that's why I liked Twin so much; I never felt like any matchup was hopelessly unwinnable. If I was going to lose, it would be because of my skill, my plays, or my draws, not the parings board or the dice roll.
That said, Grixis is still my favorite color combination and I've been switching between Grixis Delver and Nahiri Jeskai over the past months. Nahiri feels more powerful and seems to win more, but Grixis anything is way more fun and interesting to play.
1. Four-Color Retreat
2. U/W Control
3. U/B Faeries
4. Death's Shadow Aggro
5. Affinity
6. Affinity
7. Burn
8. Death and Taxes
9. Jund
10. U/R Thopter Prison
11. R/G Valakut
12. Grixis Delver
13. G/W Hate Bears
14. Grixis Control
15. U/R Breach
16. Merfolk
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/deckshow.php?&t[C1]=28&start_date=07/08/2016&end_date=07/10/2016&city=Worcester&state=MA
Nah, it was still bad as an instant too. Standard playable I guess, but only because literally no better options are available.
The deck in it's current popular iteration is in no way a tempo or toolbox deck. It's strictly a draw-go control combo deck that has an extremely difficult and slow time closing out games it doesn't win with Nahiri. I've been personally playing a different build that is less all-in on Nahiri, but regardless I wasn't even talking about that in any recent comments.
I think Amulet had the bigger impact on fair decks. But even still, outside of Jund, doing fair things is still not a great strategy.
Agreed. Let's hope there isn't something that easily breaks the Emerge mechanic. We really don't want a repeat Eldrazi Summer.
Wasn't saying that. Was saying it was a meaningless lateral shift and agreeing with FZA's opinion on the relatively small impact it had specifically vs the dozen or so other changes that impacted the format in the past 6 months.
Yeah, I can't tell you how many times you run into stuff like Taking Turns and Restore Balance. Good grief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXeh2SYAHuA
I disagree with that. It's different, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily better or worse. Just shifted around a bit. I think having gone through Eldrazi makes us forget how fun, diverse, healthy, and enjoyable the majority of 2015 was.
It didn't. But the thing is, people look at the way things are now and say they're so much better, when we only hold that view BECAUSE of the nightmare of Eldrazi Winter. Had Eldrazi never happened, it would have been a relatively uneventful transition, other than blue decks still being relatively poor until Nahiri is printed. It's almost as if people want to ignore that Eldrazi ever happened, but simultaneously use the horror as a basis to compare how good things are now. Of course, everyone jumps on me as soon as I tell them how great (and relatively unchanged) the grand scheme of things are compared to last year, but that's the internet for ya.
Edit: I'm pretty sure we agree, I'm just making a side point.
I think the Eye of Ugin ban helped a bit too.
How is taking a turn off to cast Geist different from taking a turn off to cast Nahiri, except a turn earlier?