Card certainly has the big issue of being really dead past the first few turns in alot of matchups. T1 it can be pretty great, or you can die before you can cast the cards you get off it. Its also bad against remand which isn't helpful.
Great card, but just not one of the best cards in the current meta. Would have been super back in the POD meta.
Bob and Mentor are the two insane creatures cards in this deck. I think its defensible to play like 4 Mentor, 0-2 lavamancer, 0-4 bob and all spells otherwise. Mentor takes the game over easily with any spells in hand in the later game, and you can return it with k command.
It seems like lands tend to be problematic in Modern, and sometimes opressive because the format has no efficient strategy to fight them.
Nexus, Urza Tron, Valakut, these lands push their respective decks up to Tier 1 and 2 by taking advantage of one weakness of the format.
Eye of Ugin got banned and Tron players complained about their inevitability tool being ripped off their deck. While Nahiri Jeskai is pushed to Tier 1 status and Tron lost its Control MU killer, the deck is still Tier 1 !
So saying Infect would die because the same tool gets removed doesn't ring true. The deck would simply run Sultai colors with Plague Stinger, and Phyrexian Crusader to fight red decks. I bet the deck would still be Tier 1, or at worst solid Tier 2. Because the deck wins with pump spells on evasive creatures. The deck wins by Turn 3-4. This is accurately how the deck performs in competition, by stealing so many games with a suspicious regularity.
Nexus being the late game bullet just pushes the deck even higher, but its role remains to kill the opponent in the early turns.
About Affinity, getting rid of Nexus wouldn't hurt the deck very much. The archetype is impossible to break with only one card banned. And Nexus wouldn't be the hardest slap in the face.
Overall, the argument of a deck being key to prevent another deck to pressure the format might be a fallacy. If you need an over-powered deck to prevent a format from being crushed by another deck, it means you have 2 problems.
So, I've got to say, I'd be rather excited to play in a format without Nexus, since it wouldn't shake things that much. After all, Pod decks slowly came back under the form of Coco, Chord and now possibly Eldritch Evolution. Even though Affi and Infect would be shocked for a while, they'd come back eventually.
This is a good reason why blood moon is great for the format. It helps police alot of the broken stuff. Honestly i think wasteland would be fine in modern and would help the single color decks and punish the super greedy ones. I wish they would print it but it aint gonna happen.
Maybe a 1C Tap to destroy nonbasic. So halfway between wasteland and Tec Edge. Strictly worse than wasteland so it shouldnt mess with legacy or reserved list.
Do people seriously want cards from Infect banned now? Oh mtgsalvation never change. As soon as a deck becomes the best it suddenly needs to be banned. Either though infect is REALLY soft to alot of cards played by everyone.
Why aren't more people playing Hedron crab? Does the job of shriekhorn but much better. Does require you to play fetches but worth it for the explosive starts it can offer.
Again you arent taking into account that the top 8 players werent necessarily the top 8 modern records. Maybe it would be 4 eldrazi, 2 affinity, 1 infect, 1 chord or something. Limited matters.
If you check 9-1 decklists you can see that they were diverse.. there were a lot of decks that could get to top 8, which werent eldrazi, but failed in the draft section.. so much for utter eldrazi dominance, check the lists first then cry
The CFB team is the best team, which is alot of the reason they were near the top. Great drafting AND the eldrazi deck, rather than just a great burn/infect/affinity deck and average drafting. Remember 2 wins is the difference between top 8 and not even mentioned. Like you said the actual meta here is probably more even. id guess 30-35% Eldrazi at 2 losses or better.
My assumption is that it turns off eye of ugin ramping? Regardless i dont think any deck could play it maindeck and its a 1/3 for 2... Land destruction like Boom/bust and Smallpox is the way to hit this deck early game.
I think the next step is taking either JACE!!(which Wotc would love to do) and or Visions off the banlist. Also a fair card like Deathrite Shaman could return(plz).
You know whats a sweet card that wrecks this deck? Smallpox Smallpox is the answer to this format. It is quite good against affinity and infect, and even burn. Combine that with discard and something like ensnaring bridge, and you cant lose to eldrazi.
Certainly a metadeck exists that could crush eldrazi... just would have trouble against combo.
8Rack?
Ehh its probably a good matchup to be honest, but i think that deck is too weak against the other meta decks. I think just a deck similar to Raph Levys Loam Pox or Assault Loam seems pretty well set if the field is 25-30% Eldrazi. Especially since relic seems to be out of favor in the maindeck.
You know whats a sweet card that wrecks this deck? Smallpox Smallpox is the answer to this format. It is quite good against affinity and infect, and even burn. Combine that with discard and something like ensnaring bridge, and you cant lose to eldrazi.
Certainly a metadeck exists that could crush eldrazi... just would have trouble against combo.
Great card, but just not one of the best cards in the current meta. Would have been super back in the POD meta.
Not seeing enough mentor
This is a good reason why blood moon is great for the format. It helps police alot of the broken stuff. Honestly i think wasteland would be fine in modern and would help the single color decks and punish the super greedy ones. I wish they would print it but it aint gonna happen.
Maybe a 1C Tap to destroy nonbasic. So halfway between wasteland and Tec Edge. Strictly worse than wasteland so it shouldnt mess with legacy or reserved list.
Again you arent taking into account that the top 8 players werent necessarily the top 8 modern records. Maybe it would be 4 eldrazi, 2 affinity, 1 infect, 1 chord or something. Limited matters.
The CFB team is the best team, which is alot of the reason they were near the top. Great drafting AND the eldrazi deck, rather than just a great burn/infect/affinity deck and average drafting. Remember 2 wins is the difference between top 8 and not even mentioned. Like you said the actual meta here is probably more even. id guess 30-35% Eldrazi at 2 losses or better.
Smallpox is the best card in modern right now. Calling it
My assumption is that it turns off eye of ugin ramping? Regardless i dont think any deck could play it maindeck and its a 1/3 for 2... Land destruction like Boom/bust and Smallpox is the way to hit this deck early game.
Ehh its probably a good matchup to be honest, but i think that deck is too weak against the other meta decks. I think just a deck similar to Raph Levys Loam Pox or Assault Loam seems pretty well set if the field is 25-30% Eldrazi. Especially since relic seems to be out of favor in the maindeck.
Certainly a metadeck exists that could crush eldrazi... just would have trouble against combo.
Quitting at least im gonna make a few hundred off this pt