GR was the favored deck of choice back in the day because it meant 4 Pyroclasm in the main and Combust in the sideboard. When the 4 most popular decks of the time were Pod/Jund (already favorable) and Affinity/Splinter Twin the red splash was for the latter two.
This isn't quite accurate. Combust (later Rending Volley) was completely irrelevant to you why you ran the Red splash; you ran Combust because you were already in Red. The reason you were in Red (outside of the fact Grove of the Burnwillows had no drawback to you) was more or less entirely Pyroclasm, because it was aces against 3 of the 4 decks you just mentioned (Jund, Pod, Affinity).
Humans still on top followed by Jeskai, UW, Jund, and Affinity. Surprisingly, there are only 3 pilots on Mardu. Less surprisingly, big mana remains largely absent, with only 3 Tron decks of any kind and 1 Titan Shift. It's also notable that the linear decks are also underrepresented heading into Day 2. As usual, all disclaimers and (mostly reasonable) skepticism about Day 2 #s apply.
A minute of silence for Brennan DiCandio not making it to day 2.
On other topic, it sucked big time for the Human player to face Worship coming from Affinity. However, he let the equipped Vault Skirge hit way too many times.
A minute of silence for Brennan DiCandio not making it to day 2.
On other topic, it sucked big time for the Human player to face Worship coming from Affinity. However, he let the equipped Vault Skirge hit way too many times.
He also left a lot of damage on the table by not attacking with Meddling Mage when there were multiple opportunities to do so with little to no risk. But like most Opens, it's not exactly the tightest play like you'd expect to see in a GP.
Humans still on top followed by Jeskai, UW, Jund, and Affinity. Surprisingly, there are only 3 pilots on Mardu. Less surprisingly, big mana remains largely absent, with only 3 Tron decks of any kind and 1 Titan Shift. It's also notable that the linear decks are also underrepresented heading into Day 2. As usual, all disclaimers and (mostly reasonable) skepticism about Day 2 #s apply.
This seems like a breakdown that would make just about everyone happy*, pretty cool stuff.
A minute of silence for Brennan DiCandio not making it to day 2.
On other topic, it sucked big time for the Human player to face Worship coming from Affinity. However, he let the equipped Vault Skirge hit way too many times.
Oh, yay. More salty articles about how bad Modern is in 3...2....1....
That's a brilliant sideboard card from Affinty. I admittedly laughed a great deal at that one.
A minute of silence for Brennan DiCandio not making it to day 2.
On other topic, it sucked big time for the Human player to face Worship coming from Affinity. However, he let the equipped Vault Skirge hit way too many times.
Oh, yay. More salty articles about how bad Modern is in 3...2....1....
That's a brilliant sideboard card from Affinty. I admittedly laughed a great deal at that one.
He was playing a deck that is clearly not in a great position right now, so I'm sure he'll say "Seeeee! told you so, Modern is all about the match up lottery. No skill blah blah blah"
A minute of silence for Brennan DiCandio not making it to day 2.
On other topic, it sucked big time for the Human player to face Worship coming from Affinity. However, he let the equipped Vault Skirge hit way too many times.
He also left a lot of damage on the table by not attacking with Meddling Mage when there were multiple opportunities to do so with little to no risk. But like most Opens, it's not exactly the tightest play like you'd expect to see in a GP.
I feel like many (not all, but a notable number) of your posts regarding Opens are subtle jabs at them being non-representative, lower skill, and/or somehow less significant than GP. For one, we see punts all the time at the GP level. This happens even at the PT level too; remember Yam's Hazoret misplay in the T8 last year? Punts happen due to pressure, fatigue, and simple human error. Let's not pretend Opens are somehow more punt-prone than any other 15 round event, unless you have an actual evidence-based case to make.
Second, I just continue to be baffled by the fixation on GP results. How often do you play in GP vs. every other event type? As someone who plays almost exclusively on MTGO, the GP T8 doesn't really influence my day to day Modern experience. For basically everyone in this thread, I imagine it's a similar story, whether you are focused on MTGO, FNMs, PPTQs, mid-size regional events, big non-SCG/Wizards events like those at F2F, MKM, Hareruya, etc. GP are infrequent, often larger, and many of us don't play them at all, let alone regularly. So why the GP focus? We have recent data points that show GP don't even necessarily have major metagame significance, as seen in the big mana infested GP OKC of late 2017 that led to a major decline in big mana decks that continues to this day.
Don't get me wrong; GP are important metagame definers and indicators. But they are as, or less, important than the dozens of other data points out there, particularly MTGO and the more regular tourneys people play more consistently.
Let's not pretend Opens are somehow more punt-prone than any other 15 round event, unless you have an actual evidence-based case to make.
Seeing punts in early rounds of a GP are about as common as punts throughout an entire Open. The level of occurrence is definitely much higher in an Open, even in Top 8s. Of course, this is just a subjective feeling from watching them basically every weekend they're on.
Second, I just continue to be baffled by the fixation on GP results.
Long story short, because that's what WOTC cares about. Unless you have any record of them ever acknowledging SCG Opens in any of their articles or decisions. I can't remember any.
But they are as, or less, important than the dozens of other data points out there, particularly MTGO and the more regular tourneys people play more consistently.
GPs represent the best of the best more often than not. Most people don't bring their goofy FNM brews to a GP like they do to an Open. If you want to represent the best, and most likely to win decks, you look at a GP. If you want to look at what people prefer to play, in a specific region, that actively ostracizes itself from more than half the country it's in, then look at an SCG Open. If you want to see what wins fastest and most consistently in the smallest amount of time, to maximize EV, look at MTGO (and all its limited/flawed data). If we had full access to MTGO data and if SCG was better representative of "the meta" as a whole, we'd be having a totally different conversation.
Looks like a lot of people are on the same wavelength as me: 5 Tron in top 32 and all Mono G. Other surprises are 0 Hollow One and 3 Burn.
Yeah, might have to find room for some Life From the Loams for the PTQ tomorrow...
I thought the PTQs were Standard right now and Modern didn't start until July?
It's different on MTGO. I don't know the exact scheduling but there seems to be Limited, Standard and Modern PTQs every month. There's a Modern one tomorrow.
The three dices system to resolve Burning Inquiry is great. Keeps it fast while still being real random, since card picking is awful.
*No it's not sarcasm. It's that kind of deck that can't make me mad even when playing against it, and it's way overrated (in the sense some people think it's borderline broken but most of the time it only pulls mediocre offenses).
Man, when GDS is playing the games becomes MTD or Magic:The Durdling.
At least game 1 it did a thing but most of the time is cycle Street Wraith, Though Scour myself, fetch for 3 damage, Serum Visions, cycle Street Wraith shake hands.
For those watching the Open, we just witnessed a spectacular example of a play skill loss disguised as a variance/luck loss. In G2, GDS pilot is up a game against ETron and on 7 cards. Tron mulled to 5. Tron drops a land and passes. GDS has the black land and TS in hand to virtually secure a win against ETron's one out (Chalice x=1) and instead plays... SV?? Opponent then slams Chalice at 1 next turn, shuts down 5+ cards, and STILL barely stabilizes with Wurmcoil before lethal after a prolonged game. GDS then loses G3 to a natural Tron after itself mulling to 5. Naturally, most of chat goes wild about Tron and variance.
This was not a variance loss. GDS pilot made a bad play and got harshly punished for it. Sure, maybe Tron pilot could have won that G2 anyway through a topdeck, but it was significantly less likely after the T1 TS that never was. Either the GDS player got sloppy or didn't know/think of the Chalice out. Either way, this was largely a player loss, not a variance one, and yet many will just remember the T3 Tron assembly. In my experience, many Modern games play out this way. Moral: play tight, know your matchups.
He had two Chalice in hand, did he not? I don't remember exactly. While thoughtseize on turn one would be the right process, the results would be the same because of variance. I get your point though
For those watching the Open, we just witnessed a spectacular example of a play skill loss disguised as a variance/luck loss. In G2, GDS pilot is up a game against ETron and on 7 cards. Tron mulled to 5. Tron drops a land and passes. GDS has the black land and TS in hand to virtually secure a win against ETron's one out (Chalice x=1) and instead plays... SV?? Opponent then slams Chalice at 1 next turn, shuts down 5+ cards, and STILL barely stabilizes with Wurmcoil before lethal after a prolonged game. GDS then loses G3 to a natural Tron after itself mulling to 5. Naturally, most of chat goes wild about Tron and variance.
This was not a variance loss. GDS pilot made a bad play and got harshly punished for it. Sure, maybe Tron pilot could have won that G2 anyway through a topdeck, but it was significantly less likely after the T1 TS that never was. Either the GDS player got sloppy or didn't know/think of the Chalice out. Either way, this was largely a player loss, not a variance one, and yet many will just remember the T3 Tron assembly. In my experience, many Modern games play out this way. Moral: play tight, know your matchups.
With 2x Chalice in hand, a T1 Thoughtseize still results in the same outcome. Hence variance.
But it's also another example of sloppy play at a win-and-in Open Top8 match... :/
Whether or not the opponent had two chalice in hand or drew one of the top does not change the correct course of action. If the opponent had zero chalice of the void in hand the correct play was still to TS on turn 1. Correct and incorrect plays are never decided based on outcome.
Whether or not the opponent had two chalice in hand or drew one of the top does not change the correct course of action. If the opponent had zero chalice of the void in hand the correct play was still to TS on turn 1. Correct and incorrect plays are never decided based on outcome.
Hence the "sloppy play at Open top tables" comment.
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/4352_day_2_metagame_breakdown.html
Humans still on top followed by Jeskai, UW, Jund, and Affinity. Surprisingly, there are only 3 pilots on Mardu. Less surprisingly, big mana remains largely absent, with only 3 Tron decks of any kind and 1 Titan Shift. It's also notable that the linear decks are also underrepresented heading into Day 2. As usual, all disclaimers and (mostly reasonable) skepticism about Day 2 #s apply.
On other topic, it sucked big time for the Human player to face Worship coming from Affinity. However, he let the equipped Vault Skirge hit way too many times.
He also left a lot of damage on the table by not attacking with Meddling Mage when there were multiple opportunities to do so with little to no risk. But like most Opens, it's not exactly the tightest play like you'd expect to see in a GP.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
This seems like a breakdown that would make just about everyone happy*, pretty cool stuff.
*unless you play combo
Oh, yay. More salty articles about how bad Modern is in 3...2....1....
That's a brilliant sideboard card from Affinty. I admittedly laughed a great deal at that one.
Modern: Storm
Legacy: ANT
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-05-27
Looks like a lot of people are on the same wavelength as me: 5 Tron in top 32 and all Mono G. Other surprises are 0 Hollow One and 3 Burn.
Yeah, might have to find room for some Life From the Loams for the PTQ tomorrow...
He was playing a deck that is clearly not in a great position right now, so I'm sure he'll say "Seeeee! told you so, Modern is all about the match up lottery. No skill blah blah blah"
I feel like many (not all, but a notable number) of your posts regarding Opens are subtle jabs at them being non-representative, lower skill, and/or somehow less significant than GP. For one, we see punts all the time at the GP level. This happens even at the PT level too; remember Yam's Hazoret misplay in the T8 last year? Punts happen due to pressure, fatigue, and simple human error. Let's not pretend Opens are somehow more punt-prone than any other 15 round event, unless you have an actual evidence-based case to make.
Second, I just continue to be baffled by the fixation on GP results. How often do you play in GP vs. every other event type? As someone who plays almost exclusively on MTGO, the GP T8 doesn't really influence my day to day Modern experience. For basically everyone in this thread, I imagine it's a similar story, whether you are focused on MTGO, FNMs, PPTQs, mid-size regional events, big non-SCG/Wizards events like those at F2F, MKM, Hareruya, etc. GP are infrequent, often larger, and many of us don't play them at all, let alone regularly. So why the GP focus? We have recent data points that show GP don't even necessarily have major metagame significance, as seen in the big mana infested GP OKC of late 2017 that led to a major decline in big mana decks that continues to this day.
Don't get me wrong; GP are important metagame definers and indicators. But they are as, or less, important than the dozens of other data points out there, particularly MTGO and the more regular tourneys people play more consistently.
Seeing punts in early rounds of a GP are about as common as punts throughout an entire Open. The level of occurrence is definitely much higher in an Open, even in Top 8s. Of course, this is just a subjective feeling from watching them basically every weekend they're on.
Long story short, because that's what WOTC cares about. Unless you have any record of them ever acknowledging SCG Opens in any of their articles or decisions. I can't remember any.
GPs represent the best of the best more often than not. Most people don't bring their goofy FNM brews to a GP like they do to an Open. If you want to represent the best, and most likely to win decks, you look at a GP. If you want to look at what people prefer to play, in a specific region, that actively ostracizes itself from more than half the country it's in, then look at an SCG Open. If you want to see what wins fastest and most consistently in the smallest amount of time, to maximize EV, look at MTGO (and all its limited/flawed data). If we had full access to MTGO data and if SCG was better representative of "the meta" as a whole, we'd be having a totally different conversation.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Spirits
The three dices system to resolve Burning Inquiry is great. Keeps it fast while still being real random, since card picking is awful.
*No it's not sarcasm. It's that kind of deck that can't make me mad even when playing against it, and it's way overrated (in the sense some people think it's borderline broken but most of the time it only pulls mediocre offenses).
Yes Patrick, you are correct.
Spirits
At least game 1 it did a thing but most of the time is cycle Street Wraith, Though Scour myself, fetch for 3 damage, Serum Visions, cycle Street Wraith shake hands.
Burn
Affinity
ETron
2 x UWR
Jund
and ???
Is our Top 8.
Spirits
This was not a variance loss. GDS pilot made a bad play and got harshly punished for it. Sure, maybe Tron pilot could have won that G2 anyway through a topdeck, but it was significantly less likely after the T1 TS that never was. Either the GDS player got sloppy or didn't know/think of the Chalice out. Either way, this was largely a player loss, not a variance one, and yet many will just remember the T3 Tron assembly. In my experience, many Modern games play out this way. Moral: play tight, know your matchups.
Spirits
Spirits
With 2x Chalice in hand, a T1 Thoughtseize still results in the same outcome. Hence variance.
But it's also another example of sloppy play at a win-and-in Open Top8 match... :/
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Burn vs Humans
Humans vs Jund
UWR vs Affinity
Predictions!
Etron
Humans
Jund
UWR
Spirits
Hence the "sloppy play at Open top tables" comment.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate