Sorry, not nitpicking, just wanting to give someone their due. Caleb was playing Storm in legacy. The modern Storm player was Paul Mueller, another excellent Storm pilot.
My bad, they were on the same team both on storm and the lines are right beside eachother.
Sorry, not nitpicking, just wanting to give someone their due. Caleb was playing Storm in legacy. The modern Storm player was Paul Mueller, another excellent Storm pilot.
Paul Muller. He is a very avid Storm player. There are groups of people, on FB I think, and they talk together about strategy all the time. My friend talked to Caleb and Paul a lot when he was running Storm. I probably don't have to say this, but they both are amazing at the deck! Great players overall.
(I forgot where my friend told me about them. But it's also great to know that guys like this are always down to help aspiring Storm players. That is a big positive in my book. I always keep track of those who I contacted on FB about decks, but either didn't (Todd Stevens) or did (Zac Elsik) reply to me. Nothing against them. I realize everybody is busy. Just gives an impression to me.)
*I think Modern is good if you really like diversity, obviously depending on how you define that. Today I played at a 1K. I ran Bogles. Why? I wanted to beat Humans, Hollow One, Burn, and Affinity. I faced only 1 of those decks, an easy 2-0 win to a guy I'd never beaten before in 4 tries, including 2 PPTQs and 2 other Comp REL tournaments, against Humans. Everything else was NOT Hollow One, Burn, or Affinity. I was considering doing Abzan Counters Company, but literally got scared to face those "Tier 2 decks, Jeskai or Grixis." I did not play against those, unfortunately, but a friend on Elves sat near me and played them twice in a row at 2-0, to be 2-2 after 4. I told him to pass those matchups to me, lol.
P.S. - @Seth, there is no chance that Humans would run Stoneforge Mystic. It is not a Human, but perhaps most people understood this already. There is a real cost to changing the manabase. Having a manabase where you can literally only lose life to Horizon Canopy occasionally makes it tough for other decks to race. When it doesn't matter, the mana helps you fix and not get stuff countered. It helps you stay on curve and tempo out quickly. You would have to give up all of this to run Stoneforge Mystic and is a 4/4 lifelink Germ even better than a 5/5 Champion of the Parish?
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)
Other than UWR Control AKA Removal.dec, who has a favourable match up with them? I mean we dont KNOW because Wizards likes to hide information, but I cannot see them being a pure dog to much.
im not sure tbh. my perspective is pretty limited, but if we assume that groupthink or whatever you wanna call it is at play then its worth considering why people evaluate the deck so highly.
it made quite a splash at the pro-tour, but that momentum cant last forever. not to mention that 2 major unbans happened, which should have reset how people were evaluating a bunch of decks.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Its the default. It doesn't have any especially bad matchups right now. Its the deck that all other decks get measured against right now.
Even better its extremely unlikely to suffer a ban as none of its cards are all that great and it be tribal aggro makes it everything WOTC loves.
So if you are going to prep for a 3 man tournament, its simply the best deck to take as known quantity. Since Standard with DOM means you are going to be testing some new options. Thus Humans is the old reliable anchor and its not likely to change much in the next year.
So other than that one Humans game, what did you face and how did you end up?
Got destroyed, 3-3. Lost to KCI, which I could have won had I not wasted time when he had game in the first game, waiting to see the actual Myr Retriever. Ran out of time, so I went with a risky line to avoid a tie for me and my friend. Lost to double Nature's Claim into Pyroclasm. Beat Titanshift and Humans 2-0 each. Lost to Jund 1-2. Beat UR Moon (didn't see Breach), and lost to GB Tron 1-2.
im not sure tbh. my perspective is pretty limited, but if we assume that groupthink or whatever you wanna call it is at play then its worth considering why people evaluate the deck so highly.
it made quite a splash at the pro-tour, but that momentum cant last forever. not to mention that 2 major unbans happened, which should have reset how people were evaluating a bunch of decks.
I overestimated Humans slightly. I believed it to be the best deck, albeit by a small margin. I thought Hollow One was the 2nd best deck, also by a small margin. Then I thought Affinity and Lantern were also up there. Now I am not so sure. I honestly feel that the "best deck" is whatever gets the best matchups that day by a pilot that knows how to play it well. That could be any deck on any given day.
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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)
Why do people when complaining about aggro in modern always add (and combo)?
Combo is as under represented as control.
(and related always say storm, when ad nauseum and goryo's reanimator have more gp top 8's)
Idsurge quote -
Aggro - 69
Big Mana - 25
Midrange - 25
Combo - 12
Control - 11 (Including 3 Lantern...)
Preordain is always brought up and peoples immediate response is but oh storm is too good. Both need a little more consistency if only to redress the creature decks currently gaining consistency from rainbow lands or not caring about cards they discard because they're so redundant and simultaneously wrecking their opponents hands.
Why do people when complaining about aggro in modern always add (and combo)?
Combo is as under represented as control.
(and related always say storm, when ad nauseum and goryo's reanimator have more gp top 8's)
Idsurge quote -
Aggro - 69
Big Mana - 25
Midrange - 25
Combo - 12
Control - 11 (Including 3 Lantern...)
Preordain is always brought up and peoples immediate response is but oh storm is too good. Both need a little more consistency if only to redress the creature decks currently gaining consistency from rainbow lands or not caring about cards they discard because they're so redundant and simultaneously wrecking their opponents hands.
Because Bogles is Combo, putting pants on a dude, Burn is Combo, putting 7 spells together, Affinity is Combo, putting a Cranial Plating on a dude or Ravager sacrifice, Humans is Combo, putting a number of Humans together to win, anything can be classified as Combo. /sarcasm
Because if someone loses to an Aggro deck on turn 3, but loses to a Combo deck on turn 4, they will go on and on about the "broken" Combo that they faced. Nobody seems to see a problem. Combo is supposed to beat Aggro, but Aggro is Combo's scariest matchup in Modern right now. I say that as a Combo player; yes, I play anything though.
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)
well if the deck ever does end up eating a ban it wont be for anything it is doing right now.
though its a tribal deck that is basically guaranteed the most support. other tribal players really got the shaft on that front lol
Not just the most support, the most versatile. Every other tribe by nature of their main color and DnD roots is pigeonholed. Humans, they they get to do anything and be anything. Elves get to make mana, pump themselves and occasionally you get a neat effect like deal damage for every elf you got. Merfolk are similiar less mana gen, more lords, and cause their blue maybe you get to counter some stuff. Goblins weak hasty threats, lords, and some damage to the face. Humans get to do everything.
Plus the tribe in question has to be low cost enough to be effective. So that cuts down the list a lot in itself. Dragons, Angels and Demons all have answers but you cannot build a modern deck around them at their cost.
I am looking at the modern challenge hmm Karn especially and Teferi seem to be making some inroads. I wonder what the future holds for them.
I actually do like Humans, as I think it really punishes linear decks that rely on one or two cards.
Modern feels diverse, in that theres a ton of aggro and combo decks right now.
I'm honestly willing to see GSZ, SFM and Preordain unbanned all in one go at this point, nothing has proven to be broken, except for Golgari-Troll, which wasn't a problem at the time of the unban, that was WOTC printing a broken enabler and broken payoff all within a set.
It's interesting that shadow decks were very much affecting how good or bad lightning bolts were. I'm still very confused why Shadow decks have almost all but gone away---It was originally shrinking due to the fear of Jace bouncing Gurmags, and more UW decks, right? Does anyone have insight on this?
It looks like Mardu has become the new Jund, one or two bad top-decks just seems devastating now. Faithless Looting is a powerful card in modern.
I don't really even know what the meta is outside of Humans and Hollow One, it seems like those two decks and then a mishmash of everything else.
Affinity and Humans are great decks for the meta. Humans being #1 deck is a good deck to be number 1. I'm stealing this from Jeff Hooglan: humans is a deck that tells you to be interactive. Same can be said about Affinity. That's why Mardu is a good deck, it beats up on combo decks while being interactive to beat Humans.
Not sure about Hallow One, tbh. I always feel Im at the mercy of how close to the nut draw they have. If they don't 2+ Hallowed One on turn 1, or they discard my crucial cards from Burning Inquiry, then it actually a pretty fun MU and feel like anyone can win.
well if the deck ever does end up eating a ban it wont be for anything it is doing right now.
though its a tribal deck that is basically guaranteed the most support. other tribal players really got the shaft on that front lol
Not just the most support, the most versatile. Every other tribe by nature of their main color and DnD roots is pigeonholed. Humans, they they get to do anything and be anything. Elves get to make mana, pump themselves and occasionally you get a neat effect like deal damage for every elf you got. Merfolk are similiar less mana gen, more lords, and cause their blue maybe you get to counter some stuff. Goblins weak hasty threats, lords, and some damage to the face. Humans get to do everything.
Plus the tribe in question has to be low cost enough to be effective. So that cuts down the list a lot in itself. Dragons, Angels and Demons all have answers but you cannot build a modern deck around them at their cost.
I am looking at the modern challenge hmm Karn especially and Teferi seem to be making some inroads. I wonder what the future holds for them.
Historically, Modern hasn't seen a lot of powerful tribal decks at the top-tiers. The primary exceptions were always Merfolk, which was a legitimate tiered contender at Tier 1 (rarely) and Tier 2 (frequently), and Elves, a strong Tier 2 option in most metagames. Nowadays, we have Humans as a legitimate Tier 1 strategy, Elves as a legitimate Tier 2 strategy, and a bunch of tribal decks hovering in the Tier 2/Tier 3 viability spectrum: Merfolk, Elves, Bant Spirits, and Faeries. Eldrazi is also a solid Tier 1/Tier 2 deck, but few people would consider it tribal. Of course, we also have the Tier 3 and under tribal strategies that have seen occasional spotlights such as Slivers, Goblins, Zombies (which may be better than this), Shamans, and others. All of this is to say that Humans being a top tribal deck doesn't really change the Modern landscape much. As long as it has bad matchups, such as Mardu and URx, it seems like a perfectly healthy addition to the top-tier. This is especially true insofar as it is regulating linear combo.
Affinity and Humans are great decks for the meta. Humans being #1 deck is a good deck to be number 1. I'm stealing this from Jeff Hooglan: humans is a deck that tells you to be interactive. Same can be said about Affinity. That's why Mardu is a good deck, it beats up on combo decks while being interactive to beat Humans.
Not sure about Hallow One, tbh. I always feel Im at the mercy of how close to the nut draw they have. If they don't 2+ Hallowed One on turn 1, or they discard my crucial cards from Burning Inquiry, then it actually a pretty fun MU and feel like anyone can win.
I feel the same on this. Especially the Hollow One point. I dont know if I've just been supremely lucky, but it feels like such a bad deck when it stumbles or you can disrupt the enablers a tiny bit.
Next weekend is another Team Event for SCG, and then you have a Modern Open and the next GP in June.
If the SCG Open is all Human/Affinity/Bogles (I doubt it will be) then the GP in Vegas could be interesting if people try to metagame it?
Affinity and Humans are great decks for the meta. Humans being #1 deck is a good deck to be number 1. I'm stealing this from Jeff Hooglan: humans is a deck that tells you to be interactive. Same can be said about Affinity. That's why Mardu is a good deck, it beats up on combo decks while being interactive to beat Humans.
Not sure about Hallow One, tbh. I always feel Im at the mercy of how close to the nut draw they have. If they don't 2+ Hallowed One on turn 1, or they discard my crucial cards from Burning Inquiry, then it actually a pretty fun MU and feel like anyone can win.
playing affinity to show others be interaktive must be a joke? Affinity race like Combo for turn 3-4 kills and part of a modernproblem
Well with Humans its a little different because it is so disruptive that combo decks have a hard time against it.
With Affinity, however, it loses to removal.dec aka Control decks. Affinity does not work like a combo deck at all, and it is disingenuous to categorize it as such. It plays a bunch of permanents to bash your face in... thats aggro. If "synergy" equates to "combo" as you seem to want to, then every deck is a combo deck.
Speed is only one aspect to combo. If it was the most important, then Cherrios or Infect would be tier 1. Affinity attacks on multiple angles, but isn't always the fastest deck to win through combat damage. It is like 90% permanent based, though, and totally a fair deck
I actually do like Humans, as I think it really punishes linear decks that rely on one or two cards.
Modern feels diverse, in that theres a ton of aggro and combo decks right now.
I'm honestly willing to see GSZ, SFM and Preordain unbanned all in one go at this point, nothing has proven to be broken, except for Golgari-Troll, which wasn't a problem at the time of the unban, that was WOTC printing a broken enabler and broken payoff all within a set.
It's interesting that shadow decks were very much affecting how good or bad lightning bolts were. I'm still very confused why Shadow decks have almost all but gone away---It was originally shrinking due to the fear of Jace bouncing Gurmags, and more UW decks, right? Does anyone have insight on this?
It looks like Mardu has become the new Jund, one or two bad top-decks just seems devastating now. Faithless Looting is a powerful card in modern.
I don't really even know what the meta is outside of Humans and Hollow One, it seems like those two decks and then a mishmash of everything else.
I'm assuming you meant just recently because Eye of Ugin definitely proved to be too broken. I would argue the same for Treasure Cruise too.
I feel like Shadow has gone away because it has a tough time with the "top decks." Humans is pretty rough. Hollow One is a nightmare. Affinity is rough. If you can figure out how to beat any 2 of these decks, you're a miracle worker because I literally can't figure it out (yes, I gave up pretty early too).
Mardu is the new Jund. You can also try 4 Color Traverse, which is "greedy" Mardu.
I think that Humans, Hollow One, Affinity, and Lantern are all up there. Lantern probably won't see as much play because there are time considerations, especially considering your opponent, even if YOU play fast. Affinity may see a bit less play because it's tough to play. A similar thing goes for Hollow One, but even suboptimal plays can often get you there with the deck. I don't think there's much holding people back from playing Humans, outside of the spike that happened on many cards and players' insistence not to pay new prices. Then after that, it is a mishmash of players trying to beat these decks, trying to beat the decks that beat these decks, or playing the deck they love or are comfortable with.
Affinity and Humans are great decks for the meta. Humans being #1 deck is a good deck to be number 1. I'm stealing this from Jeff Hooglan: humans is a deck that tells you to be interactive. Same can be said about Affinity. That's why Mardu is a good deck, it beats up on combo decks while being interactive to beat Humans.
Not sure about Hallow One, tbh. I always feel Im at the mercy of how close to the nut draw they have. If they don't 2+ Hallowed One on turn 1, or they discard my crucial cards from Burning Inquiry, then it actually a pretty fun MU and feel like anyone can win.
I feel the same on this. Especially the Hollow One point. I dont know if I've just been supremely lucky, but it feels like such a bad deck when it stumbles or you can disrupt the enablers a tiny bit.
Next weekend is another Team Event for SCG, and then you have a Modern Open and the next GP in June.
If the SCG Open is all Human/Affinity/Bogles (I doubt it will be) then the GP in Vegas could be interesting if people try to metagame it?
I've played against Hollow One now 8 times. I feel the same way as you. They have never been able to put together 2 games of Magic strong enough to win. It was close a few times when I played Abzan Counters Company, with me comboing off at less than 5 life a couple of times, but still. I know it's a strong deck from my own testing, but (luckily for me) I haven't seen it yet.
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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)
Personally I like Humans as a meta force. I kept trying to brew similar disrupt-the-degenerates decks for the last two years, but the mana base and aggressive elements of Humans was what I kept missing. (So long, Tidehollow Sculler. We tried.) It's (usually) not a blisteringly quick all-out aggro deck, and it punishes decks that overly rely on a few key cards and don't pack disruption. Those are both pluses in my book.
The one thing I find worrying about it is that it's actually pretty resilient to removal between its threat density, Thalia, MedMage, and Freebooter. To such an extent that I seem to remember seeing data indicating it had even-to-positive matchups against the removal decks that should be policing it. But it's nothing Stoneforge Mystic wouldn't swing back around, I'm sure.
I'm biased since I never liked Fish but kept trying to make disruptive aggro work, so I'm happy to have found a deck that hits that spot for me. I'm hoping we'll see some healthier numbers in the coming months as the meta adapts to Humans and H1.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
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My bad, they were on the same team both on storm and the lines are right beside eachother.
Spirits
Paul Muller. He is a very avid Storm player. There are groups of people, on FB I think, and they talk together about strategy all the time. My friend talked to Caleb and Paul a lot when he was running Storm. I probably don't have to say this, but they both are amazing at the deck! Great players overall.
(I forgot where my friend told me about them. But it's also great to know that guys like this are always down to help aspiring Storm players. That is a big positive in my book. I always keep track of those who I contacted on FB about decks, but either didn't (Todd Stevens) or did (Zac Elsik) reply to me. Nothing against them. I realize everybody is busy. Just gives an impression to me.)
*I think Modern is good if you really like diversity, obviously depending on how you define that. Today I played at a 1K. I ran Bogles. Why? I wanted to beat Humans, Hollow One, Burn, and Affinity. I faced only 1 of those decks, an easy 2-0 win to a guy I'd never beaten before in 4 tries, including 2 PPTQs and 2 other Comp REL tournaments, against Humans. Everything else was NOT Hollow One, Burn, or Affinity. I was considering doing Abzan Counters Company, but literally got scared to face those "Tier 2 decks, Jeskai or Grixis." I did not play against those, unfortunately, but a friend on Elves sat near me and played them twice in a row at 2-0, to be 2-2 after 4.
P.S. - @Seth, there is no chance that Humans would run Stoneforge Mystic. It is not a Human, but perhaps most people understood this already. There is a real cost to changing the manabase. Having a manabase where you can literally only lose life to Horizon Canopy occasionally makes it tough for other decks to race. When it doesn't matter, the mana helps you fix and not get stuff countered. It helps you stay on curve and tempo out quickly. You would have to give up all of this to run Stoneforge Mystic and is a 4/4 lifelink Germ even better than a 5/5 Champion of the Parish?
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)Spirits
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Other than UWR Control AKA Removal.dec, who has a favourable match up with them? I mean we dont KNOW because Wizards likes to hide information, but I cannot see them being a pure dog to much.
Spirits
it made quite a splash at the pro-tour, but that momentum cant last forever. not to mention that 2 major unbans happened, which should have reset how people were evaluating a bunch of decks.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Its the default. It doesn't have any especially bad matchups right now. Its the deck that all other decks get measured against right now.
Even better its extremely unlikely to suffer a ban as none of its cards are all that great and it be tribal aggro makes it everything WOTC loves.
So if you are going to prep for a 3 man tournament, its simply the best deck to take as known quantity. Since Standard with DOM means you are going to be testing some new options. Thus Humans is the old reliable anchor and its not likely to change much in the next year.
Got destroyed, 3-3. Lost to KCI, which I could have won had I not wasted time when he had game in the first game, waiting to see the actual Myr Retriever. Ran out of time, so I went with a risky line to avoid a tie for me and my friend. Lost to double Nature's Claim into Pyroclasm. Beat Titanshift and Humans 2-0 each. Lost to Jund 1-2. Beat UR Moon (didn't see Breach), and lost to GB Tron 1-2.
I overestimated Humans slightly. I believed it to be the best deck, albeit by a small margin. I thought Hollow One was the 2nd best deck, also by a small margin. Then I thought Affinity and Lantern were also up there. Now I am not so sure. I honestly feel that the "best deck" is whatever gets the best matchups that day by a pilot that knows how to play it well. That could be any deck on any given day.
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)Combo is as under represented as control.
(and related always say storm, when ad nauseum and goryo's reanimator have more gp top 8's)
Idsurge quote -
Aggro - 69
Big Mana - 25
Midrange - 25
Combo - 12
Control - 11 (Including 3 Lantern...)
Preordain is always brought up and peoples immediate response is but oh storm is too good. Both need a little more consistency if only to redress the creature decks currently gaining consistency from rainbow lands or not caring about cards they discard because they're so redundant and simultaneously wrecking their opponents hands.
Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
though its a tribal deck that is basically guaranteed the most support. other tribal players really got the shaft on that front lol
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Because Bogles is Combo, putting pants on a dude, Burn is Combo, putting 7 spells together, Affinity is Combo, putting a Cranial Plating on a dude or Ravager sacrifice, Humans is Combo, putting a number of Humans together to win, anything can be classified as Combo. /sarcasm
Because if someone loses to an Aggro deck on turn 3, but loses to a Combo deck on turn 4, they will go on and on about the "broken" Combo that they faced. Nobody seems to see a problem. Combo is supposed to beat Aggro, but Aggro is Combo's scariest matchup in Modern right now. I say that as a Combo player; yes, I play anything though.
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)Not just the most support, the most versatile. Every other tribe by nature of their main color and DnD roots is pigeonholed. Humans, they they get to do anything and be anything. Elves get to make mana, pump themselves and occasionally you get a neat effect like deal damage for every elf you got. Merfolk are similiar less mana gen, more lords, and cause their blue maybe you get to counter some stuff. Goblins weak hasty threats, lords, and some damage to the face. Humans get to do everything.
Plus the tribe in question has to be low cost enough to be effective. So that cuts down the list a lot in itself. Dragons, Angels and Demons all have answers but you cannot build a modern deck around them at their cost.
I am looking at the modern challenge hmm Karn especially and Teferi seem to be making some inroads. I wonder what the future holds for them.
Modern feels diverse, in that theres a ton of aggro and combo decks right now.
I'm honestly willing to see GSZ, SFM and Preordain unbanned all in one go at this point, nothing has proven to be broken, except for Golgari-Troll, which wasn't a problem at the time of the unban, that was WOTC printing a broken enabler and broken payoff all within a set.
It's interesting that shadow decks were very much affecting how good or bad lightning bolts were. I'm still very confused why Shadow decks have almost all but gone away---It was originally shrinking due to the fear of Jace bouncing Gurmags, and more UW decks, right? Does anyone have insight on this?
It looks like Mardu has become the new Jund, one or two bad top-decks just seems devastating now. Faithless Looting is a powerful card in modern.
I don't really even know what the meta is outside of Humans and Hollow One, it seems like those two decks and then a mishmash of everything else.
Not sure about Hallow One, tbh. I always feel Im at the mercy of how close to the nut draw they have. If they don't 2+ Hallowed One on turn 1, or they discard my crucial cards from Burning Inquiry, then it actually a pretty fun MU and feel like anyone can win.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
Historically, Modern hasn't seen a lot of powerful tribal decks at the top-tiers. The primary exceptions were always Merfolk, which was a legitimate tiered contender at Tier 1 (rarely) and Tier 2 (frequently), and Elves, a strong Tier 2 option in most metagames. Nowadays, we have Humans as a legitimate Tier 1 strategy, Elves as a legitimate Tier 2 strategy, and a bunch of tribal decks hovering in the Tier 2/Tier 3 viability spectrum: Merfolk, Elves, Bant Spirits, and Faeries. Eldrazi is also a solid Tier 1/Tier 2 deck, but few people would consider it tribal. Of course, we also have the Tier 3 and under tribal strategies that have seen occasional spotlights such as Slivers, Goblins, Zombies (which may be better than this), Shamans, and others. All of this is to say that Humans being a top tribal deck doesn't really change the Modern landscape much. As long as it has bad matchups, such as Mardu and URx, it seems like a perfectly healthy addition to the top-tier. This is especially true insofar as it is regulating linear combo.
I feel the same on this. Especially the Hollow One point. I dont know if I've just been supremely lucky, but it feels like such a bad deck when it stumbles or you can disrupt the enablers a tiny bit.
Next weekend is another Team Event for SCG, and then you have a Modern Open and the next GP in June.
If the SCG Open is all Human/Affinity/Bogles (I doubt it will be) then the GP in Vegas could be interesting if people try to metagame it?
Spirits
Indeed.
Since I text with friends about Bayern all the time, my phone refuses to believe he's not German as well.
Modern: Storm
Legacy: ANT
Especially, if your 'threats' can dodge interaction, have evasion, and can spike you out of nowhere with Plating.
I'm not a huge fan of the logic, but someone has to be fastest, and therefore hold that 'no YOU must interact with ME' title among the aggro decks.
Spirits
With Affinity, however, it loses to removal.dec aka Control decks. Affinity does not work like a combo deck at all, and it is disingenuous to categorize it as such. It plays a bunch of permanents to bash your face in... thats aggro. If "synergy" equates to "combo" as you seem to want to, then every deck is a combo deck.
Speed is only one aspect to combo. If it was the most important, then Cherrios or Infect would be tier 1. Affinity attacks on multiple angles, but isn't always the fastest deck to win through combat damage. It is like 90% permanent based, though, and totally a fair deck
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
I'm assuming you meant just recently because Eye of Ugin definitely proved to be too broken. I would argue the same for Treasure Cruise too.
I feel like Shadow has gone away because it has a tough time with the "top decks." Humans is pretty rough. Hollow One is a nightmare. Affinity is rough. If you can figure out how to beat any 2 of these decks, you're a miracle worker because I literally can't figure it out (yes, I gave up pretty early too).
Mardu is the new Jund. You can also try 4 Color Traverse, which is "greedy" Mardu.
I think that Humans, Hollow One, Affinity, and Lantern are all up there. Lantern probably won't see as much play because there are time considerations, especially considering your opponent, even if YOU play fast. Affinity may see a bit less play because it's tough to play. A similar thing goes for Hollow One, but even suboptimal plays can often get you there with the deck. I don't think there's much holding people back from playing Humans, outside of the spike that happened on many cards and players' insistence not to pay new prices. Then after that, it is a mishmash of players trying to beat these decks, trying to beat the decks that beat these decks, or playing the deck they love or are comfortable with.
I've played against Hollow One now 8 times. I feel the same way as you. They have never been able to put together 2 games of Magic strong enough to win. It was close a few times when I played Abzan Counters Company, with me comboing off at less than 5 life a couple of times, but still. I know it's a strong deck from my own testing, but (luckily for me) I haven't seen it yet.
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)The one thing I find worrying about it is that it's actually pretty resilient to removal between its threat density, Thalia, MedMage, and Freebooter. To such an extent that I seem to remember seeing data indicating it had even-to-positive matchups against the removal decks that should be policing it. But it's nothing Stoneforge Mystic wouldn't swing back around, I'm sure.
I'm biased since I never liked Fish but kept trying to make disruptive aggro work, so I'm happy to have found a deck that hits that spot for me. I'm hoping we'll see some healthier numbers in the coming months as the meta adapts to Humans and H1.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon