How in the world do you, when facing a Primeval Titan, +4 Karn? It reminded me of when the Tron player in the finals of GP Antwerp in 2013, who when facing an Exarch (or maybe it was Pestermite, doesn't matter), he decided to +4 Karn instead of taking that out, then got Splinter Twin'd. But at least in GP Antwerp it was somewhat understandable. If the opponent didn't have Splinter Twin in hand, then +4 would be acceptable because it would protect Karn from dying to a Lightning Bolt. Far too risky in my opinion (as shown by the loss), but it makes some kind of sense. But not taking out an active Primeval Titan? Or at least using it on the Ghost Quarter? Blargh.
I don't know how people have not been aware of Death Shadow Jund, it's been buzzed about on reddit and mtgo for a while.
Seriously, MTGO's client isn't unbearable, if you want to get better, play on mtgo, it gives you significant experience, even in the tournament practice rooms. You see all these decks so that at fnma or tournaments you aren't caught off guard against players hoping to win early rounds by surprise.
Tron player drew like a god and punted the game. Glad to see these sloppy Tron players losing despite godly draws that would crush green decks
As a Grixis player, it always causes PTSD when the Tron player just "always has it." I mean, I play a fair deck. There's literally nothing I can do to keep up with garbage like that.
It's what Tron is meant to do though. Tron bothers me as well, but when you break it down, it's just a deck of search and 4 ofs.
EDIT> Join me and play Grishoalbrand or Titan Shift with 3 Crumble to Dust in the SB. They do pretty well vs. Tron. There's just certain decks that have no game vs. Tron - like the Little Kid that I'm playing right now (Little Kid Abzan).
*As a Grixis player, I think you live for that day when you get Fulminator Mage and Surgical Extraction on the play against Tron - presumably fter losing game 1. Not very likely, but entirely possible.
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 was at GP Brisbane and went 9 and 5 before dropping due to a broken wrist; I was on RG Titan Scapeshift. 3 of my losses were to Tron decks of some form or other either because of the nut draw of their ability to search for lands. The matchup is not that great in my experience, but I could just be lacking in experience against the deck.
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
So, what where exactly is wrong? I thought burn would be a fantastic deck, and looking at both GP's, it looks like it should have performed well. I wonder if CB and Alliance basically destroyed the entire archetype, based on my experience as a GBx player, I feel like the matchup is 60/40 in my favor, my losses against burn in the past two years in paper and mtgo is extremely low, I almost want to say 70/30 but other GBx players have expressed otherwise to me.
I have so much of death shadow's pieces from Jund and Junk that I may just buy the pieces I'm missing, even if it eats a ban. I think the only money pieces I'm missing is 3x Shadows and Traverse.
So, what where exactly is wrong? I thought burn would be a fantastic deck, and looking at both GP's, it looks like it should have performed well. I wonder if CB and Alliance basically destroyed the entire archetype, based on my experience as a GBx player, I feel like the matchup is 60/40 in my favor, my losses against burn in the past two years in paper and mtgo is extremely low, I almost want to say 70/30 but other GBx players have expressed otherwise to me.
I have so much of death shadow's pieces from Jund and Junk that I may just buy the pieces I'm missing, even if it eats a ban. I think the only money pieces I'm missing is 3x Shadows and Traverse.
Burn is just one of those classic Modern aggro decks. Sometimes you get 'em, sometimes you don't. Just because Burn doesn't make it at the GP, doesn't mean Burn is a bad deck choice. It's still strong at all levels, including in both MTGO and paper. It's okay to put emphasis on big event results like this, but we shouldn't overemphasize them. Especially when they are contrary to a larger narrative. For instance, in Burn's case, the deck has been Tier 1 basically all year and continues to be a great deck at all levels. By contrast, reactive blue decks stunk at Brisbane, maybe stunk at Vancouver, and have stunk since late summer of 2016. The latter of those represents the continuation of a longstanding problem. The former is just an anomaly or business as usual for Modern variance, however you want to look at it.
8-Rack could have finally top-8ed a GP if Michael Penner had remembered his Shrieking Affliction triggers.
Yep, so sad. I've played against 8 Rack with various decks and been 5-5 so far. If my opponents missed any one trigger in each of these matches, I would easily be 7-3 or 8-2. It's literally the difference between winning and losing.
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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'm still baffled about why Wizards can't get this downtime coverage together. CNN spent almost an entire year filling almost 24 hours with content about the same story, even when there were no developments for hours. Almost any kind of constructive Modern filler commentary would be better than the endless downtime.
The Brisbane Modern scene sounds kinda rough! Jeez...
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Modern GB Rock U Flooding Merfolk RUG Delver Midrange WU Monks UW Tempo Geist GW Bogle GW Liege UR Tron B Vampires
Affinity Legacy
Fish
Goblins
Burn
Reanimator
Dredge
Affinity EDH W Akroma GBW Ghave BRU Thrax GR Ruric I advocate for the elimination of the combo archetype in Modern. I believe it is degenerate and unfun by its very nature and will always limit design space and cause unnecessary bans.
I'm still baffled about why Wizards can't get this downtime coverage together. CNN spent almost an entire year filling almost 24 hours with content about the same story, even when there were no developments for hours. Almost any kind of constructive Modern filler commentary would be better than the endless downtime.
Quote of the chat: Octavian1919 :this is how you lose half of the 14k viewers you had
The Brisbane Modern scene sounds kinda rough! Jeez...
Haha, I broke (or badly sprained) my wrist the morning of day two when I slipped over in the shower; I decided that making day 2 on my first ever GP and still being in top 8 contention was reason enough to put off going to a doctor. Probably a dumb decision. As soon as I knew I couldn't get into the top 8 I dropped.
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
I'm still baffled about why Wizards can't get this downtime coverage together. CNN spent almost an entire year filling almost 24 hours with content about the same story, even when there were no developments for hours. Almost any kind of constructive Modern filler commentary would be better than the endless downtime.
Quote of the chat: Octavian1919 :this is how you lose half of the 14k viewers you had
Well, to be fair, even SCG gets large breaks before the Top8 and, at the same time there was a modern match at the SCG channel.
I'm still baffled about why Wizards can't get this downtime coverage together. CNN spent almost an entire year filling almost 24 hours with content about the same story, even when there were no developments for hours. Almost any kind of constructive Modern filler commentary would be better than the endless downtime.
Quote of the chat: Octavian1919 :this is how you lose half of the 14k viewers you had
Well, to be fair, even SCG gets large breaks before the Top8 and, at the same time there was a modern match at the SCG channel.
But as was pointed out, they could easily fill the air time with something, ANYTHING. Commentary, recaps, replays, "pro analysis" from players knocked out, predictions, whatever. They don't even provide a countdown timer so people know when to return. Then, unless I missed something, they blindly return into the start of match 1 of the semis with NO introduction and no talking about the other T8 decks. It's sloppy and unprofessional.
I was at GP Brisbane and went 9 and 5 before dropping due to a broken wrist; I was on RG Titan Scapeshift. 3 of my losses were to Tron decks of some form or other either because of the nut draw of their ability to search for lands. The matchup is not that great in my experience, but I could just be lacking in experience against the deck.
From my experience, RG Scapeshift is quite favored. They're faster and there's not much Tron can really do to try to mess them up. And their stuff is much more damaging than what Tron can do to them. Karn/World Breaker can remove lands but they're awfully slow, and once they get a Primeval Titan it's basically over. Doesn't matter if you Oblivion Stone or Karn them afterwards, they've got their Valauts and will be shooting you for serious damage with every land drop. Ulamog can help a lot, but unless you're lucky enough to cast him on turn 4, it's usually too late... and even a turn 4 Ulamog isn't necessarily enough.
RUG Scapeshift is a better matchup for Tron because it's slower and more vulnerable to Ghost Quarter.
I'm still baffled about why Wizards can't get this downtime coverage together. CNN spent almost an entire year filling almost 24 hours with content about the same story, even when there were no developments for hours. Almost any kind of constructive Modern filler commentary would be better than the endless downtime.
I don't think that's a great comparison, though, because no one is particularly interested in watching CNN (or any other 24-hour news network) for as long as a Grand Prix is; sure, they can fill 24 hours, but who actually watches it for the 8+ hours a Grand Prix takes? Also, remember that it's not a full 24 hours they need, as about 1/3 of that time is just commercial breaks, plus a lot of it is just "regular programming" that they'd show regardless that happens to include some commentary about whatever the current event is.
That said, it is true there's often a frustrating amount of "downtime." One of the things I really liked about Channel Fireball's coverage is the fact they tried to always put something on. They recorded their backup match so that if they never got to actually seeing it, they could play it back in real time and do commentary for it after the primary one ended. And while I thought stuff like "Fact or Fiction" was kind of dull, it was still something that was on air.
So what do we have in the T8? I think we have 3 (?) Death's Shadow Jund in there? Plus Abzan Company and Merfolk losing in the quarterfinals. What else made it through?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Seriously, MTGO's client isn't unbearable, if you want to get better, play on mtgo, it gives you significant experience, even in the tournament practice rooms. You see all these decks so that at fnma or tournaments you aren't caught off guard against players hoping to win early rounds by surprise.
I'll be phone only soon, gonna miss the end :/
Spirits
As a Grixis player, it always causes PTSD when the Tron player just "always has it." I mean, I play a fair deck. There's literally nothing I can do to keep up with garbage like that.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
EDIT> Join me and play Grishoalbrand or Titan Shift with 3 Crumble to Dust in the SB. They do pretty well vs. Tron. There's just certain decks that have no game vs. Tron - like the Little Kid that I'm playing right now (Little Kid Abzan).
*As a Grixis player, I think you live for that day when you get Fulminator Mage and Surgical Extraction on the play against Tron - presumably fter losing game 1. Not very likely, but entirely possible.
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 have so much of death shadow's pieces from Jund and Junk that I may just buy the pieces I'm missing, even if it eats a ban. I think the only money pieces I'm missing is 3x Shadows and Traverse.
Burn is just one of those classic Modern aggro decks. Sometimes you get 'em, sometimes you don't. Just because Burn doesn't make it at the GP, doesn't mean Burn is a bad deck choice. It's still strong at all levels, including in both MTGO and paper. It's okay to put emphasis on big event results like this, but we shouldn't overemphasize them. Especially when they are contrary to a larger narrative. For instance, in Burn's case, the deck has been Tier 1 basically all year and continues to be a great deck at all levels. By contrast, reactive blue decks stunk at Brisbane, maybe stunk at Vancouver, and have stunk since late summer of 2016. The latter of those represents the continuation of a longstanding problem. The former is just an anomaly or business as usual for Modern variance, however you want to look at it.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Yep, so sad. I've played against 8 Rack with various decks and been 5-5 so far. If my opponents missed any one trigger in each of these matches, I would easily be 7-3 or 8-2. It's literally the difference between winning and losing.
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'm still baffled about why Wizards can't get this downtime coverage together. CNN spent almost an entire year filling almost 24 hours with content about the same story, even when there were no developments for hours. Almost any kind of constructive Modern filler commentary would be better than the endless downtime.
GB Rock
U Flooding Merfolk
RUG Delver Midrange
WU Monks
UW Tempo Geist
GW Bogle
GW Liege
UR Tron
B Vampires
Affinity
Legacy
Fish
Goblins
Burn
Reanimator
Dredge
Affinity
EDH
W Akroma
GBW Ghave
BRU Thrax
GR Ruric
I advocate for the elimination of the combo archetype in Modern. I believe it is degenerate and unfun by its very nature and will always limit design space and cause unnecessary bans.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Quote of the chat: Octavian1919 : this is how you lose half of the 14k viewers you had
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
But as was pointed out, they could easily fill the air time with something, ANYTHING. Commentary, recaps, replays, "pro analysis" from players knocked out, predictions, whatever. They don't even provide a countdown timer so people know when to return. Then, unless I missed something, they blindly return into the start of match 1 of the semis with NO introduction and no talking about the other T8 decks. It's sloppy and unprofessional.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
From my experience, RG Scapeshift is quite favored. They're faster and there's not much Tron can really do to try to mess them up. And their stuff is much more damaging than what Tron can do to them. Karn/World Breaker can remove lands but they're awfully slow, and once they get a Primeval Titan it's basically over. Doesn't matter if you Oblivion Stone or Karn them afterwards, they've got their Valauts and will be shooting you for serious damage with every land drop. Ulamog can help a lot, but unless you're lucky enough to cast him on turn 4, it's usually too late... and even a turn 4 Ulamog isn't necessarily enough.
RUG Scapeshift is a better matchup for Tron because it's slower and more vulnerable to Ghost Quarter.
I don't think that's a great comparison, though, because no one is particularly interested in watching CNN (or any other 24-hour news network) for as long as a Grand Prix is; sure, they can fill 24 hours, but who actually watches it for the 8+ hours a Grand Prix takes? Also, remember that it's not a full 24 hours they need, as about 1/3 of that time is just commercial breaks, plus a lot of it is just "regular programming" that they'd show regardless that happens to include some commentary about whatever the current event is.
That said, it is true there's often a frustrating amount of "downtime." One of the things I really liked about Channel Fireball's coverage is the fact they tried to always put something on. They recorded their backup match so that if they never got to actually seeing it, they could play it back in real time and do commentary for it after the primary one ended. And while I thought stuff like "Fact or Fiction" was kind of dull, it was still something that was on air.
Holy *****.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon