In my area, (Austin) Standard hasn't fired in some of the major LGS's in over 2 months. One of the main reasons? Copy Cat and Mardu. Mardu is attackable, you can have decent answers, but answering 4c Saheeli is a different monster. They have multiple ways to generate card advanatge via blinking (Oaths, PW's, lands, dudes with ETB effects) and now they get a curve topper in Glorybringer (Which can exert, and then be blinked again next turn with the cat). We want to believe (I say we, I mean grinders and deck builders) that there are adequate answers to the deck but there aren't. They can Side out the combo, and pivot to "fair" game plan, via PW's and creature beat down. Meanwhile you are siding cards against the combo and find yourself with dead cards against their Plan C, or B, or D?
While standard may die at the LGS level, and may take a huge dip in attendance, PPTQ's will be littered with 4c Saheeli and Mardu. As for people wanting to grind and not spend tons of cash, rent the deck, stop spending money on a format that is broken. Or play on line, cockatrice, x mage, and test things for yourselves. Most of us have felt out Amonkhet, and that set is no answer for the top 2 decks.
I want to be wrong, I hope I'm wrong, somehow I don't think I'll be wrong. If things turn out differently, that's good, but overall the standard player base is fleeing/ or have already fled to other formats.
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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
Wow, top going away is more surprising than no standard changes.
I wonder how this will shake up the format. Shame that one of my decks favorable match-ups is hosed
And so Copycat's and Gideon's reign of oppression and terror will continue for another six weeks at a minimum.
Additionally, i now have to find a different modern deck AND legacy deck. I'm glad my LGS is drafting for the next two weeks, as I'm currently up a creek as far as constructed goes.
All the new cards do is slot into copycat and mardu.
I know people are interested in making drakes or filling their hand to force control through but jumping through hoops to make your deck work while the pure power does what it does seldom works out. Sales and attendance are the only thing that will show them the error of their ways.
They say they've learned their lessons but then Maro tweets about 'making cards people want to buy'.
Check out the MTG website there's a new questionnaire riddled with 'I like to dominate or trick my opponents' scaled answer questions which would justify making OP broken sets (their new direction). If the data comes in against that, they can say they've learned and are changing.
The whole wait and see thing is just clueless. Mistakes as big as this deserve firings and replacements. They need to rotate design teams and have some overlord whose sole responsibility is to ensure balance (aggro-control-midrange) is king.
"gather more data" - meaning we are completely scared of touching anything in Standard out of fear of putting away the last couple of guys still interested in the format.
It's maybe time to "gather more data" about the efficiency of the development team?
Well hell, I was looking forward to the pro tour, but I guess there's no point in watching it. I guess we'll have to wait for Hour of Destruction before we can see a compelling pro tour.
Almost everyone on this site called Jace, Vryn's Prodigy completely unplayable when it was spoiled.
I refuse to believe that Amonkhet won't affect the meta game whatsoever.
Oh, it will. There's enough main-deckable artifact hate in Amonkhet to put Mardu Vehicles in its place. Still doesn't really change the Copycat combo's oppressiveness. The deck can straight up win out of nowhere unless you have an active answer on the board or in hand to stop it.
It's official: Standard is dead. They HAD to ban the Cat at the very least: it was a mistake in design and no amount of hate was going to correct it. It is literately Splinter Twin in Standard.
Splinter Twin was in Standard, it was just kicked around by Valakut and CAW Blade.
Thinking about it, if Valakut hadn't existed, CAW Blade Standard and current Standard were pretty much the same thing. Except they can't ban Gatewatch members now apparently.
Almost everyone on this site called Jace, Vryn's Prodigy completely unplayable when it was spoiled.
I refuse to believe that Amonkhet won't affect the meta game whatsoever.
Oh, it will. There's enough main-deckable artifact hate in Amonkhet to put Mardu Vehicles in its place. Still doesn't really change the Copycat combo's oppressiveness. The deck can straight up win out of nowhere unless you have an active answer on the board or in hand to stop it.
I think the real question is whether a green deck can come into existence. Maybe there's enough extra Delirium enablers that Manglehorn can be the safety valve the format needs. I don't see any other cards that can do enough to hurt Copy Cat.
Its not likely, but at this point I hope the entire top-8 for the pro tour is nothing but minor variations of Copycat. That might be enough of a debacle to tell wotc that as much as we need to be careful about bans, when it is clearly, obviously needed to the point where the community actually wants it, you need to pull the trigger.
Pretty grateful Top is not banned in commander. Hope it never will either.
You wouldn't know it was banned *anywhere* going by eBay prices-
looks like a single set went for $40 earlier today,
and auctions for them ended in that range *before* the ban!
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
No Standard bannings seems bad. I guess waiting until the Pro-tour isn't completely unreasonable.
Glad they didn't ban anything in modern. Death's Shadow decks might reach bannable levels at some point, but we are no where near there yet. Honestly, I think another dredge banning would be more reasonable than a DS ban at this point.
Neutral on no unbannings in Modern. The main problem with the format right now is that blue and white are significantly weaker than the other 3 colors. A Jace unban would likely be an OVER correction, and a SFM unban probably isn't worth the risk.
Re: Legacy, RIP top. You will not be missed. I think a T1.5 pr T2 control deck will emerge. The problem is, why would anyone play Uxx control without counter-top? Now you have to, and Imagine the deck will still be powerful. It won't be T0.8 like Miracles was, but thems the breaks boys. You enjoyed your fun for long enough.
Don't play Vintage. Gush almost seemed like one of the big draws to play vintage and what made it unique, but Vintage is probably the only format that they actually have definitive data on, since it has to be almost exclusively played online.
Anyway, I don't actually PLAY standard, but the health of Standard is actually really important for the health of magic as a whole. So I'm a little concerned but other than that good list.
Anyway, I don't actually PLAY standard, but the health of Standard is actually really important for the health of magic as a whole. So I'm a little concerned but other than that good list.
I do, and didn't expect any bannings because why on earth would they ban something right when a new set came out and before the pro tour? Hell, because of their last-minute change they don't even have their normal data from playtesting, since all their testing with AKH/HOU was done with BFZ/OGW rotated out. With a new set just entering the fray and no real data to pull from to consider how much of an impact it would have, waiting a little while is just the smart thing to do.
Not to mention people keep complaining about CopyCat when I'm just sitting here waiting for Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to get banned. As a control player, he's the only thing that scares me from Mardu. Yeah, they can just aggro me out sometimes but that's what's supposed to happen in that match-up. Aggro beating me in a longer game because they have an amazing, aggressive planeswalker on top of their aggro is not supposed to happen. Not to mention he's been a top card in the format ever since he was released. Copycat may have been a mistake on RnD's part, but there are a lot of answers to it in the format. Gideon is a lot harder to deal with since he's A: a planeswalker and B: spits out dudes every turn.
Although we might just see Walking Ballista get banned since it's in all 3 of the top decks right now. Who knows. I hope the pros can shake things up a bit, but I feel like at least something is going to need banned.
While standard may die at the LGS level, and may take a huge dip in attendance, PPTQ's will be littered with 4c Saheeli and Mardu. As for people wanting to grind and not spend tons of cash, rent the deck, stop spending money on a format that is broken. Or play on line, cockatrice, x mage, and test things for yourselves. Most of us have felt out Amonkhet, and that set is no answer for the top 2 decks.
I want to be wrong, I hope I'm wrong, somehow I don't think I'll be wrong. If things turn out differently, that's good, but overall the standard player base is fleeing/ or have already fled to other formats.
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 wonder how this will shake up the format. Shame that one of my decks favorable match-ups is hosed
Additionally, i now have to find a different modern deck AND legacy deck. I'm glad my LGS is drafting for the next two weeks, as I'm currently up a creek as far as constructed goes.
I play Standard, EDH, and a very tiny bit of Modern.
My youtube channel, I upload gaming related videos and other videos.
All the new cards do is slot into copycat and mardu.
I know people are interested in making drakes or filling their hand to force control through but jumping through hoops to make your deck work while the pure power does what it does seldom works out. Sales and attendance are the only thing that will show them the error of their ways.
They say they've learned their lessons but then Maro tweets about 'making cards people want to buy'.
Check out the MTG website there's a new questionnaire riddled with 'I like to dominate or trick my opponents' scaled answer questions which would justify making OP broken sets (their new direction). If the data comes in against that, they can say they've learned and are changing.
The whole wait and see thing is just clueless. Mistakes as big as this deserve firings and replacements. They need to rotate design teams and have some overlord whose sole responsibility is to ensure balance (aggro-control-midrange) is king.
It's maybe time to "gather more data" about the efficiency of the development team?
Not 100% true.
Fling might just be the last piece needed to awaken the Metalwork Colossus decks.
I refuse to believe that Amonkhet won't affect the meta game whatsoever.
https://mobile.twitter.com/sheldonmenery/status/856601158198198273
I'm not complaining at all at this it makes me so happy.
Leovold, Emissary of Trest is banned
I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW THEY WOULD BAN THE HITLER OF EDH EVENTUALLY!
Protean hulk unbanned
Wow really that's like a easy win con card.
Oh, it will. There's enough main-deckable artifact hate in Amonkhet to put Mardu Vehicles in its place. Still doesn't really change the Copycat combo's oppressiveness. The deck can straight up win out of nowhere unless you have an active answer on the board or in hand to stop it.
And in a space of 15 minutes he went from $3.50 to $8 on TCGP and foils are near-impossible to find.
EDIT: and 15 minutes after it reached $8 it is now up to $13.
Splinter Twin was in Standard, it was just kicked around by Valakut and CAW Blade.
Thinking about it, if Valakut hadn't existed, CAW Blade Standard and current Standard were pretty much the same thing. Except they can't ban Gatewatch members now apparently.
EDH DECKS
Currently under construction
MAGECRAFT STORM
-Veyran, Voice of Duality-
Protection from Degeneracy
Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.
I think the real question is whether a green deck can come into existence. Maybe there's enough extra Delirium enablers that Manglehorn can be the safety valve the format needs. I don't see any other cards that can do enough to hurt Copy Cat.
Check out http://www.mtgbrodeals.com/author/john-murphy/ for my EDH articles!
You wouldn't know it was banned *anywhere* going by eBay prices-
looks like a single set went for $40 earlier today,
and auctions for them ended in that range *before* the ban!
Stupid Price Memory.
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
k thanks. They should really bring back the 2 ban lists
Glad they didn't ban anything in modern. Death's Shadow decks might reach bannable levels at some point, but we are no where near there yet. Honestly, I think another dredge banning would be more reasonable than a DS ban at this point.
Neutral on no unbannings in Modern. The main problem with the format right now is that blue and white are significantly weaker than the other 3 colors. A Jace unban would likely be an OVER correction, and a SFM unban probably isn't worth the risk.
Re: Legacy, RIP top. You will not be missed. I think a T1.5 pr T2 control deck will emerge. The problem is, why would anyone play Uxx control without counter-top? Now you have to, and Imagine the deck will still be powerful. It won't be T0.8 like Miracles was, but thems the breaks boys. You enjoyed your fun for long enough.
Don't play Vintage. Gush almost seemed like one of the big draws to play vintage and what made it unique, but Vintage is probably the only format that they actually have definitive data on, since it has to be almost exclusively played online.
Anyway, I don't actually PLAY standard, but the health of Standard is actually really important for the health of magic as a whole. So I'm a little concerned but other than that good list.
I do, and didn't expect any bannings because why on earth would they ban something right when a new set came out and before the pro tour? Hell, because of their last-minute change they don't even have their normal data from playtesting, since all their testing with AKH/HOU was done with BFZ/OGW rotated out. With a new set just entering the fray and no real data to pull from to consider how much of an impact it would have, waiting a little while is just the smart thing to do.
Not to mention people keep complaining about CopyCat when I'm just sitting here waiting for Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to get banned. As a control player, he's the only thing that scares me from Mardu. Yeah, they can just aggro me out sometimes but that's what's supposed to happen in that match-up. Aggro beating me in a longer game because they have an amazing, aggressive planeswalker on top of their aggro is not supposed to happen. Not to mention he's been a top card in the format ever since he was released. Copycat may have been a mistake on RnD's part, but there are a lot of answers to it in the format. Gideon is a lot harder to deal with since he's A: a planeswalker and B: spits out dudes every turn.
Although we might just see Walking Ballista get banned since it's in all 3 of the top decks right now. Who knows. I hope the pros can shake things up a bit, but I feel like at least something is going to need banned.