With three major releases scheduled over the next six months (Modern Masters 2015, Magic: Origins, and Battle for Zendikar) is now quite possibly the best time ever to be involved with the game? As a returning player, I feel extremely happy to have entered during a time when shocklands and fetchlands have recently been reprinted (with more on the horizon) and so many players make entering tournaments challenging and fun!
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"To make peace with the forest, make peace with me." -Multani, to Urza
depend, to me the best era of magic was extended when duals rotates out, but that is personal.
but you are right, WOTC realize that lands are a bottleneck for players, so printing shocklands in RTR block and then fetch in the KTK block is amazing.
The best era in magic kinda depends on perspective. The modern era GP circuit is pretty sweet -- events are larger and better organized than ever before, and it's fairly simple for a traveling competitor to maintain 2 byes independent of pro-level (in other words, it's not hinging on keeping silver/gold). Legacy right now is also in a good place.
That being said, I think the game itself was in a better place in the past. Standard was a much better format back in Rav-TSP, Odyssey-Onslaught, or even CoK-Rav or Invasion-Odyssey. That's without me having sufficient experience to comment on other eras that are commonly acclaimed, like Mirage-Tempest. Also, while Legacy has ended up in a good place, Extended has gone from a beloved format to being gutted and then killed. Vintage is on life support, and in the last 5 years, the reserved list has had its implementation changed to be more severe than ever before. While the current draft format is not bad, it's by no means that best that we've seen.
All in all, while I'm definitely still enjoying the game and am looking forward to continued engagement in the game, I don't think I can honestly call this the best that magic ever has been.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
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ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
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ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
It's the worst time to be on Magic Online. The economy is broken - booster packs of Standard legal expansions are worth less than $2, which means prizes are about half as bad as they normally are.
It's the worst time to be on Magic Online. The economy is broken - booster packs of Standard legal expansions are worth less than $2, which means prizes are about half as bad as they normally are.
I certainly agree with you there (I wouldn't waste a dime on that piece of garbage) but I meant the overall position in MTG history that we're in now.
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"To make peace with the forest, make peace with me." -Multani, to Urza
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
A lot of people have been saying that this Standard is one of the best we've had for awhile, and I'm in a mind to agree.
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
A lot of people have been saying that this Standard is one of the best we've had for awhile, and I'm in a mind to agree.
Ravnica-Time spiral have a lot of followers, i love Masques/Invasion.
today standard is good...because RTR/Theros was pretty lame.
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
From everything I've heard and read, legacy is more popular than ever right now.
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
A lot of people have been saying that this Standard is one of the best we've had for awhile, and I'm in a mind to agree.
Ravnica-Time spiral have a lot of followers, i love Masques/Invasion.
today standard is good...because RTR/Theros was pretty lame.
I never understood this. Rav-Tsp was one of my least favorite standards of all time. I think currently is INFINITELY better than that.
Difficult to say, IMO. It's hard to believe that for so many years wizards didn't have dedicated casual product lines like commander, planechase, archenemy, conspiracy, etc. It took them 15 years, but now they really seem to have their ear to the ground with exciting interstitial, casual, and de jour products. With the unique and interesting cards that are regularly released via these, it feels hard to skip the summer and winter products for fear of missing some really great stuff!
On the other hand, I think it'll be a matter of time before wizards stumbles and kill the goose with the golden egg:
Trying to capture lightning in a bottle with ravnica 2 was a mixed bag.
Commander 2013 definitely introduced some controversial cards to the commander meta, that had the potential to damage the brand.
Wizards routinely stumbles into 3rd-set syndrome.
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
A lot of people have been saying that this Standard is one of the best we've had for awhile, and I'm in a mind to agree.
Is it good because the meta changes from week to week and the best deck also changes like that? This forces everyone to keep buying cards that are going to be worth next to nothing when Standard rotates. I mean, honestly Modern is a horrible investment, but Standard is not even close to that level. Most of the Legacy cards that I've bought in the past 3-4 years have more than doubled in price, for reference.
I guess every Standard player can buy each deck and switch from week to week. As for me, I spent $100 for the extra parts that I needed for Abzan Aggro (I already had 70% of the deck). It was pretty much only to play in my Store Invitational and at the local Regional PTQ. Other than those competitions, I have absolutely NO interest in Standard. (I have to admit that a lot of this is my propensity to lose the die roll. Losing the die roll as often as I do makes it tough to win more than 60% of my matches in Standard and 60% puts me at slightly above average, which is where nobody really wants to be.)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
From everything I've heard and read, legacy is more popular than ever right now.
Honestly, I think that Legacy is as popular as ever, but Starcitygames not doing Legacy Opens and turning the Saturday Opens into a Grand Prix really sucks to me. Having to watch Standard on both days really sucks, although I have to admit that I rarely watch the streams anymore.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
For Modern, I think it's one of the worst. Prices are just utterly ridiculous and I doubt MM2015 is going to help bring them down. It'll never be as cheap to buy in as it was two years ago.
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
From everything I've heard and read, legacy is more popular than ever right now.
Honestly, I think that Legacy is as popular as ever, but Starcitygames not doing Legacy Opens and turning the Saturday Opens into a Grand Prix really sucks to me. Having to watch Standard on both days really sucks, although I have to admit that I rarely watch the streams anymore.
I hear you on that. Legacy is the only reason I ever even used to watch streams.
I don't love the Standard format as much as I loved Odyssey-Onslaught or Onslaught-Mirrodin. The new world order definitely seemed to nerf the sheer ridiculousness of deckbuilding, thinking Upheaval into Psychatog or goblins into Patriarch's Bidding. I enjoy that playstyle much more than midrange grind fests. I really hate how those sets are kinda lost in between the power level of Legacy and being outside of modern.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
Even with Standard sucking, Modern going in a direction toward Standard, and Legacy starting to die down, Magic is still in a pretty decent state. I can play Modern FNMs that have 30+ players and not have to play a format that I HATE, Standard.
A lot of people have been saying that this Standard is one of the best we've had for awhile, and I'm in a mind to agree.
Is it good because the meta changes from week to week and the best deck also changes like that? This forces everyone to keep buying cards that are going to be worth next to nothing when Standard rotates. I mean, honestly Modern is a horrible investment, but Standard is not even close to that level. Most of the Legacy cards that I've bought in the past 3-4 years have more than doubled in price, for reference.
I guess every Standard player can buy each deck and switch from week to week. As for me, I spent $100 for the extra parts that I needed for Abzan Aggro (I already had 70% of the deck). It was pretty much only to play in my Store Invitational and at the local Regional PTQ. Other than those competitions, I have absolutely NO interest in Standard. (I have to admit that a lot of this is my propensity to lose the die roll. Losing the die roll as often as I do makes it tough to win more than 60% of my matches in Standard and 60% puts me at slightly above average, which is where nobody really wants to be.)
I honestly think that Standard is at its best in a while now (probably since Ravnica 1.0). There is archetype diversity (while combo isn't really there, Control, Aggro, Midrange, and Tempo are all strong and combo is stronger than it usually is nowadays). There is no one best deck. The meta isn't stagnant. While it certainly could be better, it is a lot better than the Standards of years past with single best decks (Monoblack Devotion, Faeries, Jund, Delver, Caw-Blade) that seem to be all that we have had for years. There are many different viable decks. The format seems great. I don't see why you hate it. I like it more than Modern right now.
It's honestly pretty tied to me. Modern is always fun to play and I KNOW that it'll be fun to play as the meta is very stable. Standard fluctuates a bit and has a ton of diversity among what's best. I've played UB Control, Sultai Control and Sidisi Whip over the past month and a half and had a blast with all three of them. All three are still viable decks and very powerful.
I love playing Combo. Even though Control is my 2nd favorite archetype, I really don't feel like Control is Tier 1 in Standard. I think UB Control is Tier 2. Meanwhile, there are at least 4 different flavors of Midrange that comprise the Tier 1 decks. If I played Standard, I would play Ascendancy Tokens or GW Devotion, but I think that they both have glaring weaknesses. I don't want to be trying to win a game in which my opponent doesn't draw a Drown in Sorrow or has a super quick deck that gets me before I can get Manifest tokens online.
I played Standard a week ago to practice for my Store Invitational and I faced 6 Green based decks out of 6 rounds. This included 3 Abzan decks. The whole reason why I wanted to test Abzan Aggro myself was because I felt it beat Mono Red and Control. I also felt like it played the "best" cards. In those 6 rounds, I went 4-1-1, but some of the rounds that I won or tied, my opponents made play mistakes. Mind you, I probably made a bunch too, so for me to notice this says something. When I played in the 3 rounds of my Store Invitational, sure enough I played against 2 more Abzan decks. The first match had all 3 games determined by mana screw. The next match was determined by mana flood in the first 2 games, then outdrawing me late in the game in the other. In the final round, I actually faced a Jeskai Tokens deck, which normally would have elated me, but I realized that 4-2 puts me at 9th-11th place at best. Sure enough, I outdrew him in the final 2 games and won the match. There's not much to say about outdrawing him since he played 4 Treasure Cruise in those last 2 games and still lost. I know that this is limited experience, but I already had a poor view of Standard and this just solidified it.
Also I didn't mind those other metas, of which probably Mono Black Devotion was the worst to me. I knew what was the deck to beat and I thrived in those metas, usually making my DCI rating soar into the maximum Bye area.
I would say that for a Midrange player, it IS in fact a wonderful meta. They have the 4 top Tier 1 decks to choose from and can play a different flavor every week. Lastly, Siege Rhino is just a boring card. Cards like Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, and every single Faerie are way more interesting to me. Heck, Rakshasa Deathdealer is more interesting because you have several options.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I really don't feel like Control is Tier 1 in Standard
Abzan Control is shaping up to be the best deck in Standard, UB is still good, Sultai is great and Esper has just been created. There's a lot of control and a lot of it is powerful (and Abzan Control is "tier 1").
I know that this is limited experience, but I already had a poor view of Standard and this just solidified it.
This is extremely limited. For a counterpoint limited experience, my meta is completely full of Jeskai. I'm the only one that plays a Green deck in Sidisi Whip/Sultai Control, and for awhile we didn't have any Green decks while I played UB.
Granted that Green is pretty good (Courser is a good card), but so is Jeskai. You need to go to some bigger events.
I did play when before Khans came out and then switched completely over to Modern for good. Also I played at States because the first States tournament only had Standard. The upcoming one has Standard on Sat. and Modern on Sun., so I won't play Standard.
When I played, it just felt like creatures and removal. Who has the removal? Who has the bigger creature? There was absolutely NO synergy in these decks, other than a GB graveyard deck where he had synergy until I had enough Anafenza, the Foremost to make it irrelevant. Even playing Planeswalkers is pretty much the same as creatures and removal since Hero's Downfall and Stoke the Flames kill them pretty easily. Also when you lose the die roll, you barely have a chance. If you miss a land drop, you probably lose. If you miss two land drops, you definitely lose. I have won twice in Modern keeping a 1 land hand against Control with Bogles. The games took much longer than I wanted, but drawing 0 lands in a game didn't force me to lose. I've also missed land drops in Bloom Titan and drawn a Karoo, dropped Summer Bloom, Hive Mind, and a Pact and won out of nowhere.
Bogles is a very linear deck. There is not much play to it. Still, it has miles more play than most decks in Standard. I love playing around Spell Snare, Remand, Lightning Bolt (Kor Spiritdancer and Dryad Arbor), Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives, Spellskite, Fracturing Gust, Pyroclasm, Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charm, etc. This makes the game a game of cat and mouse and a player has to know when to take a chance because they can't safely play their hand around what answer an opponent has. Then they have to know when they can play around certain cards. Standard is play creature and remove theirs. There's no playing Rakshasa Deathdealer on turn 4 with mana up to regenerate because you just put yourself behind too much.
I honestly don't see the difference between Standard and the last time I played Limited.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I honestly don't see the difference between Standard and the last time I played Limited.
This is hilariously exaggerated.
When I played, it just felt like creatures and removal. Who has the removal? Who has the bigger creature? There was absolutely NO synergy in these decks, other than a GB graveyard deck where he had synergy until I had enough Anafenza, the Foremost to make it irrelevant.
So Jeskai Tokens, Sidisi Whip and Heroic have no synergy? What?
However.
If you don't like Standard, you don't like Standard. There's nothing wrong with that. Calling it objectively bad or worse than other formats when the a large majority say that it's fun and much better than previous Standard formats is extremely disingenuous.
I think the best time was around the period of INN/M13/RAV standard. I felt that formats across the board were in a good place at the time, and games generally felt like decisions mattered more than draws in deciding a winner.
From my perspective, ever since Theros came out, MtG as a whole has been heading towards an "RPS" type format where threats are hyper-aggressive and answers are hyper efficient but situational. A lot of games are decided by how the draws line up. It's like a milder version of the "Pack Rat" games in the previous season. One player presents an absurd threat like Rabblemaster or TNN, and the other player either has an efficient answer to it or he doesn't.
I love playing Combo. Even though Control is my 2nd favorite archetype, I really don't feel like Control is Tier 1 in Standard. I think UB Control is Tier 2. Meanwhile, there are at least 4 different flavors of Midrange that comprise the Tier 1 decks. If I played Standard, I would play Ascendancy Tokens or GW Devotion, but I think that they both have glaring weaknesses. I don't want to be trying to win a game in which my opponent doesn't draw a Drown in Sorrow or has a super quick deck that gets me before I can get Manifest tokens online.
I played Standard a week ago to practice for my Store Invitational and I faced 6 Green based decks out of 6 rounds. This included 3 Abzan decks. The whole reason why I wanted to test Abzan Aggro myself was because I felt it beat Mono Red and Control. I also felt like it played the "best" cards. In those 6 rounds, I went 4-1-1, but some of the rounds that I won or tied, my opponents made play mistakes. Mind you, I probably made a bunch too, so for me to notice this says something. When I played in the 3 rounds of my Store Invitational, sure enough I played against 2 more Abzan decks. The first match had all 3 games determined by mana screw. The next match was determined by mana flood in the first 2 games, then outdrawing me late in the game in the other. In the final round, I actually faced a Jeskai Tokens deck, which normally would have elated me, but I realized that 4-2 puts me at 9th-11th place at best. Sure enough, I outdrew him in the final 2 games and won the match. There's not much to say about outdrawing him since he played 4 Treasure Cruise in those last 2 games and still lost. I know that this is limited experience, but I already had a poor view of Standard and this just solidified it.
Also I didn't mind those other metas, of which probably Mono Black Devotion was the worst to me. I knew what was the deck to beat and I thrived in those metas, usually making my DCI rating soar into the maximum Bye area.
I would say that for a Midrange player, it IS in fact a wonderful meta. They have the 4 top Tier 1 decks to choose from and can play a different flavor every week. Lastly, Siege Rhino is just a boring card. Cards like Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, and every single Faerie are way more interesting to me. Heck, Rakshasa Deathdealer is more interesting because you have several options.
That's really unfair to say about Standard when nearly half the people at the Invite in Modern were playing Abzan. All your Modern matches that day were GWB but you're not ranting about that. Heck, I play Modern on Tuesday and I haven't gone one event where I haven't played against Abzan in the last two months. I see as much Rhinos in Modern as I do in Standard. As someone that primarily plays Stanadard at our store I tend to see much more R/x decks than Abzan.
Don't turn into the Modern Elitist the Standard players at our store are starting to hate.
The current standard is pretty forgettable IMO. There's not /that/ many decks as people seem to think. Taking a junk midrange deck and switching 4 cards and calling it 'control' isn't really all that exciting. I'm not even sure the current standard is that better than ravnica/theros, which was a pretty bad standard.
Current limited is quite bad as well. Better than Theros, but again, that's not saying much. Don't take that the wrong way - I've done dozens of drafts of the various formats, since I find drafting itself to be fun. It's just that the WotC methodology behind their choices for the format aren't nearly as exciting as they were trying to sell. Drafting FRF first with Khans didn't really lead to a syngerist deck (I kept ending up in bant or jund, rather than one of the supported wedges), and now drafting it last means you're pretty much never going to have a three color deck with enough fixing to actually make it work.
Modern is pretty bad at the moment. I think it's funny that pod gets banned yet twin gets to keep doing its thing. Also, I like how barely is playing R/U delver right now - people apparently are forgetting that it was a very good deck before treasure cruise was printed. I've still got a lot of modern decks built - scapeshift, soul sisters, restore balance, R/U delver, and I've got most of the cards (minus tarmogoyf) to make whatever junk deck is popular this week.
Legacy is in a pretty good place at the moment I feel like. The format is so much about deck choices, and more about familiarity with a deck. Having a bunch of matchups that are 55/45 means that with the right pairings and draws, any deck can do quite well. I currently have esper deathblade and food chain built, and I don't feel like any common matchup is completely one sided (though I haven't gone up against something like Painter or Belcher)
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but you are right, WOTC realize that lands are a bottleneck for players, so printing shocklands in RTR block and then fetch in the KTK block is amazing.
That being said, I think the game itself was in a better place in the past. Standard was a much better format back in Rav-TSP, Odyssey-Onslaught, or even CoK-Rav or Invasion-Odyssey. That's without me having sufficient experience to comment on other eras that are commonly acclaimed, like Mirage-Tempest. Also, while Legacy has ended up in a good place, Extended has gone from a beloved format to being gutted and then killed. Vintage is on life support, and in the last 5 years, the reserved list has had its implementation changed to be more severe than ever before. While the current draft format is not bad, it's by no means that best that we've seen.
All in all, while I'm definitely still enjoying the game and am looking forward to continued engagement in the game, I don't think I can honestly call this the best that magic ever has been.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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I certainly agree with you there (I wouldn't waste a dime on that piece of garbage) but I meant the overall position in MTG history that we're in now.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)A lot of people have been saying that this Standard is one of the best we've had for awhile, and I'm in a mind to agree.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Ravnica-Time spiral have a lot of followers, i love Masques/Invasion.
today standard is good...because RTR/Theros was pretty lame.
From everything I've heard and read, legacy is more popular than ever right now.
Legacy Burn
NO Combo Elves
Reanimator
Trades
Burn Primer
:symg:Free Gaea's Cradle:symg:
I never understood this. Rav-Tsp was one of my least favorite standards of all time. I think currently is INFINITELY better than that.
On the other hand, I think it'll be a matter of time before wizards stumbles and kill the goose with the golden egg:
Trying to capture lightning in a bottle with ravnica 2 was a mixed bag.
Commander 2013 definitely introduced some controversial cards to the commander meta, that had the potential to damage the brand.
Wizards routinely stumbles into 3rd-set syndrome.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Is it good because the meta changes from week to week and the best deck also changes like that? This forces everyone to keep buying cards that are going to be worth next to nothing when Standard rotates. I mean, honestly Modern is a horrible investment, but Standard is not even close to that level. Most of the Legacy cards that I've bought in the past 3-4 years have more than doubled in price, for reference.
I guess every Standard player can buy each deck and switch from week to week. As for me, I spent $100 for the extra parts that I needed for Abzan Aggro (I already had 70% of the deck). It was pretty much only to play in my Store Invitational and at the local Regional PTQ. Other than those competitions, I have absolutely NO interest in Standard. (I have to admit that a lot of this is my propensity to lose the die roll. Losing the die roll as often as I do makes it tough to win more than 60% of my matches in Standard and 60% puts me at slightly above average, which is where nobody really wants to be.)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Honestly, I think that Legacy is as popular as ever, but Starcitygames not doing Legacy Opens and turning the Saturday Opens into a Grand Prix really sucks to me. Having to watch Standard on both days really sucks, although I have to admit that I rarely watch the streams anymore.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I hear you on that. Legacy is the only reason I ever even used to watch streams.
Legacy Burn
NO Combo Elves
Reanimator
Trades
Burn Primer
:symg:Free Gaea's Cradle:symg:
I honestly think that Standard is at its best in a while now (probably since Ravnica 1.0). There is archetype diversity (while combo isn't really there, Control, Aggro, Midrange, and Tempo are all strong and combo is stronger than it usually is nowadays). There is no one best deck. The meta isn't stagnant. While it certainly could be better, it is a lot better than the Standards of years past with single best decks (Monoblack Devotion, Faeries, Jund, Delver, Caw-Blade) that seem to be all that we have had for years. There are many different viable decks. The format seems great. I don't see why you hate it. I like it more than Modern right now.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
It's honestly pretty tied to me. Modern is always fun to play and I KNOW that it'll be fun to play as the meta is very stable. Standard fluctuates a bit and has a ton of diversity among what's best. I've played UB Control, Sultai Control and Sidisi Whip over the past month and a half and had a blast with all three of them. All three are still viable decks and very powerful.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
I played Standard a week ago to practice for my Store Invitational and I faced 6 Green based decks out of 6 rounds. This included 3 Abzan decks. The whole reason why I wanted to test Abzan Aggro myself was because I felt it beat Mono Red and Control. I also felt like it played the "best" cards. In those 6 rounds, I went 4-1-1, but some of the rounds that I won or tied, my opponents made play mistakes. Mind you, I probably made a bunch too, so for me to notice this says something. When I played in the 3 rounds of my Store Invitational, sure enough I played against 2 more Abzan decks. The first match had all 3 games determined by mana screw. The next match was determined by mana flood in the first 2 games, then outdrawing me late in the game in the other. In the final round, I actually faced a Jeskai Tokens deck, which normally would have elated me, but I realized that 4-2 puts me at 9th-11th place at best. Sure enough, I outdrew him in the final 2 games and won the match. There's not much to say about outdrawing him since he played 4 Treasure Cruise in those last 2 games and still lost. I know that this is limited experience, but I already had a poor view of Standard and this just solidified it.
Also I didn't mind those other metas, of which probably Mono Black Devotion was the worst to me. I knew what was the deck to beat and I thrived in those metas, usually making my DCI rating soar into the maximum Bye area.
I would say that for a Midrange player, it IS in fact a wonderful meta. They have the 4 top Tier 1 decks to choose from and can play a different flavor every week. Lastly, Siege Rhino is just a boring card. Cards like Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, and every single Faerie are way more interesting to me. Heck, Rakshasa Deathdealer is more interesting because you have several options.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Abzan Control is shaping up to be the best deck in Standard, UB is still good, Sultai is great and Esper has just been created. There's a lot of control and a lot of it is powerful (and Abzan Control is "tier 1").
This is extremely limited. For a counterpoint limited experience, my meta is completely full of Jeskai. I'm the only one that plays a Green deck in Sidisi Whip/Sultai Control, and for awhile we didn't have any Green decks while I played UB.
Granted that Green is pretty good (Courser is a good card), but so is Jeskai. You need to go to some bigger events.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
When I played, it just felt like creatures and removal. Who has the removal? Who has the bigger creature? There was absolutely NO synergy in these decks, other than a GB graveyard deck where he had synergy until I had enough Anafenza, the Foremost to make it irrelevant. Even playing Planeswalkers is pretty much the same as creatures and removal since Hero's Downfall and Stoke the Flames kill them pretty easily. Also when you lose the die roll, you barely have a chance. If you miss a land drop, you probably lose. If you miss two land drops, you definitely lose. I have won twice in Modern keeping a 1 land hand against Control with Bogles. The games took much longer than I wanted, but drawing 0 lands in a game didn't force me to lose. I've also missed land drops in Bloom Titan and drawn a Karoo, dropped Summer Bloom, Hive Mind, and a Pact and won out of nowhere.
Bogles is a very linear deck. There is not much play to it. Still, it has miles more play than most decks in Standard. I love playing around Spell Snare, Remand, Lightning Bolt (Kor Spiritdancer and Dryad Arbor), Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives, Spellskite, Fracturing Gust, Pyroclasm, Abrupt Decay, Golgari Charm, etc. This makes the game a game of cat and mouse and a player has to know when to take a chance because they can't safely play their hand around what answer an opponent has. Then they have to know when they can play around certain cards. Standard is play creature and remove theirs. There's no playing Rakshasa Deathdealer on turn 4 with mana up to regenerate because you just put yourself behind too much.
I honestly don't see the difference between Standard and the last time I played Limited.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)This is hilariously exaggerated.
So Jeskai Tokens, Sidisi Whip and Heroic have no synergy? What?
However.
If you don't like Standard, you don't like Standard. There's nothing wrong with that. Calling it objectively bad or worse than other formats when the a large majority say that it's fun and much better than previous Standard formats is extremely disingenuous.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
From my perspective, ever since Theros came out, MtG as a whole has been heading towards an "RPS" type format where threats are hyper-aggressive and answers are hyper efficient but situational. A lot of games are decided by how the draws line up. It's like a milder version of the "Pack Rat" games in the previous season. One player presents an absurd threat like Rabblemaster or TNN, and the other player either has an efficient answer to it or he doesn't.
That's really unfair to say about Standard when nearly half the people at the Invite in Modern were playing Abzan. All your Modern matches that day were GWB but you're not ranting about that. Heck, I play Modern on Tuesday and I haven't gone one event where I haven't played against Abzan in the last two months. I see as much Rhinos in Modern as I do in Standard. As someone that primarily plays Stanadard at our store I tend to see much more R/x decks than Abzan.
Don't turn into the Modern Elitist the Standard players at our store are starting to hate.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Current limited is quite bad as well. Better than Theros, but again, that's not saying much. Don't take that the wrong way - I've done dozens of drafts of the various formats, since I find drafting itself to be fun. It's just that the WotC methodology behind their choices for the format aren't nearly as exciting as they were trying to sell. Drafting FRF first with Khans didn't really lead to a syngerist deck (I kept ending up in bant or jund, rather than one of the supported wedges), and now drafting it last means you're pretty much never going to have a three color deck with enough fixing to actually make it work.
Modern is pretty bad at the moment. I think it's funny that pod gets banned yet twin gets to keep doing its thing. Also, I like how barely is playing R/U delver right now - people apparently are forgetting that it was a very good deck before treasure cruise was printed. I've still got a lot of modern decks built - scapeshift, soul sisters, restore balance, R/U delver, and I've got most of the cards (minus tarmogoyf) to make whatever junk deck is popular this week.
Legacy is in a pretty good place at the moment I feel like. The format is so much about deck choices, and more about familiarity with a deck. Having a bunch of matchups that are 55/45 means that with the right pairings and draws, any deck can do quite well. I currently have esper deathblade and food chain built, and I don't feel like any common matchup is completely one sided (though I haven't gone up against something like Painter or Belcher)