I would say yes it will probably see play in Temur Valakut. It plays well with Snappy and the general permission game they have going on. The issue is going to be what it will replace. Search for Tomorrow is definitely still better and Sakura-Tribe Elders ability to block/attack for 2 points is pretty important. If lists are playing Farseek/Explore/Kodamas reach it could replace those, but I'm not sure what the current Blue Valakut lists look like really.
It's an instant speed Explore. Will definitely see play in Temur Valakut decks, no?
Temur Valakut isn't really in a good position and they're already tight on the lists, it might help. Bring To Light Shift might make better use of it.
I don't know the last time I saw someone playing RUG Scapeshift and I play quite a bit! I used to play the deck years ago, but I agree that it's not in the best position.
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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)
Honestly, I was wanting to make Esper Deathblade FOREVER. But between GDS, and now Arclight Phoenix... I have lost all interest in jamming bad, fair decks.
So my gut may be wrong but I feel like those decks struggle against lingering souls and batterskull. I hope so anyway
Yeah most decks that attack with few but big threats and want to 1-for-1 stuff have trouble against Lingering Souls. Your stuff gets blocked for days while the opponent can freely chip at your life total. It's why the card is basically the mirror breaker in pretty much every Midrange battle.
And in case somebody wants to say "just Temur Battle Rage lol" well that aforementioned potential Esper deck would have access to excellent removal, counterspells, discard and Snapcaster Mage to go along with those too. It's an excellent card against all decks that don't pack interaction against your stuff of which there are a ton of obviously. Against decks that do though you have to rely on your opponent being a bit stupid for that to really do anything otherwise you are getting potentially blown out. There is a reason why combat tricks generally don't see much play.
As someone who loves grindy, durdley, do-nothing, blue decks, I would love nothing more than to see Esper be a meaningful and viable deck. Stoneforge is most definitely not enough to actually make that happen.
Man, based on the decks I like to play I think Esper would destroy me with such efficient removal.
There's certainly quite a few fair decks out there still locally. In Philly I'd like to think I play at a fairly competitive store. I went to an IQ yesterday up in Jersey and went a quick 1-2 before dropping. I made the mistake of thinking the meta was like MTGO and leaned heavily into preparing for combo and tribal decks (I was not familiar with the store). My first pairing was GB Rock and it felt hopeless with me being on 4C Shadow.
We definitely all do get wrapped up on MTGO's results and the GP/SCG results sometimes. Nearly everywhere I go it looks super diverse. Between modern being expensive, and people just loving their decks, it's not as if most people always chase the meta deck.
I did buy into Izzet Phoenix recently though. Excited to test it. Realized since I bought those pieces I was only like a 100ish dollars away from owning Storm so I bought a Storm deck, too. I don't think I've ever owned a true combo deck in modern before.
It feels like every deck I own gets swallowed by grave hate except for my Tron and Jund decks, though
Yeah it is indeed kinda funny how good grave hate is against so many decks. I mean I played against a UW Control player with Grixis Death Shadow and after I lost game 1 he opened game 2 with a turn 2 Rest in Peace. Welp, I soundly lost that game too.
When many cards of your deck rely on the graveyard to function you are certainly living a dangerous life right now and you better hope you don't face the people who come prepared.
I played a 26 person 1k yesterday. My first 3 rounds consisted of some pretty random decks. Round 1 I lost to Grixis Whir, Rounds 2 and 3 respectively I beat Tezzerator and Cheerios, which is kind of random. When I told my buddy that I beat Cheerios, his response was simply "not all heroes wear capes". I also had to thank my buddy for taking one for the team and getting paired against all 3 spirits players so I didn't have to
Modern has somehow turned into the graveyard format..
Scavenging ooze is a good friend these days.
I have actually noticed that the Ooze alone is often not enough even when played on turn 2 since you can't active it until turn 3 and the damage might have already been done by then.
Since you are playing Ponza I guess a turn 1 Arbor Elf or Utopia Sprawl changes things though.
Yeah, Ooze is sometimes not enough... my friend who plays GDS has somehow got used playing around it or killing it. However, Ooze is still a safety valve against yard decks. Keeping one in the main + a deathgorge scavenger, and 2 more ooze in the side has become a habit. And I don't rely on it completely.. for example against Dredge, the ooze come in along with some Aotg. Well, and sometimes even if all preparations seem OK.. I still get run over by fast amalgams and bloodghast --- just try to do my best in the next one.
Since you are playing Ponza I guess a turn 1 Arbor Elf or Utopia Sprawl changes things though.
The ramp does make is easier to get ooze online. However, there are still things to consider like " do I use ooze now" or "do something else first like cast a tireless tracker / cast moon?". With full blown yard decks like Dredge, it's often "use ooze now" or things start getting ugly. Against other decks, I might try to moon first if it looks like the better way to gain advantage.
There's certainly quite a few fair decks out there still locally. In Philly I'd like to think I play at a fairly competitive store. I went to an IQ yesterday up in Jersey and went a quick 1-2 before dropping. I made the mistake of thinking the meta was like MTGO and leaned heavily into preparing for combo and tribal decks (I was not familiar with the store). My first pairing was GB Rock and it felt hopeless with me being on 4C Shadow.
We definitely all do get wrapped up on MTGO's results and the GP/SCG results sometimes. Nearly everywhere I go it looks super diverse. Between modern being expensive, and people just loving their decks, it's not as if most people always chase the meta deck.
.....
Truth right there.
We all get consumed by online stats and flavor of the month decks on (free) online platforms. IRL the paper magic scene is just way more diverse and fun.
Yep, people definitely get caught up with national results. A team of 8 people had 5 players on KCI, 4 of which did well at SCG? Yep, KCI needs to be banned. Ten of the top 20 players run Dredge at a GP? Three make the top 8? BAAAAAAAN!!! The local level is much more diverse, usually, and I say usually because local metas also often tend to lean a certain way. But even teams locally don't tend to try their own thing and don't play smaller, less EV events.
Regarding Scavenging Ooze, yeah the little guy has been seeing more and more play. It's almost to the point where it may just be "right" to jam 4 in any deck playing Green right now. I'm curious about how many I should run in Abzan Coco or Elves, but then I haven't played those for a while now. If it wasn't for so many printings, this card would definitely see a moderate price increase.
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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)
Paper trends, especially on the local level, are rarely going to line up with 'everyones' experience. You need busted Eldrazi Winter type scenarios to hit that.
Paper trends, especially on the local level, are rarely going to line up with 'everyones' experience. You need busted Eldrazi Winter type scenarios to hit that.
And even then, there were a number of people claiming their local meta was fine during Eldrazi Winter, and the rest of us just needed to get good and adapt. Lol
Lol I remember that guy, did he move on or get banned?
Either way, I spent a few days grinding out Esper, a day back on UWR, and then a night in Arena back on Phoenix, and unless there's a meta shift (online) I'm not sure being on the grind plan is where I want to be.
At least I can climb up the arena ranks quickly with Phoenix
Lol I remember that guy, did he move on or get banned?
Either way, I spent a few days grinding out Esper, a day back on UWR, and then a night in Arena back on Phoenix, and unless there's a meta shift (online) I'm not sure being on the grind plan is where I want to be.
At least I can climb up the arena ranks quickly with Phoenix
That guy is my (online; never met) buddy. Even though he was a bit shortsighted when talking about the Eldrazi Winter meta, I think he had some really good points. Instead of just screaming for a ban every time something doesn't work your way, try to adapt and find a way to win. If Recurring Nightmare/Survival of the Fittest was legal or Delver was still Standard Uw Delver, I'd probably win over 80% of my matches. But they're not...and I still have to find a way to win...or have fun if that's the goal.
I actually believe in my mind that every meta that Modern has had was FUN, outside of Eldrazi Winter. But at the same time, I can understand a large group of people not liking Cloudpost, or Treasure Cruise, or "not to be named", or Gitaxian Probe, etc. I can get with it, but some of those metas were the most fun I've ever had. I miss playing against Pod. I miss running Summer Bloom.
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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)
Thing is, unless I have you very wrong, you are about as Spike as it gets. If I remember correctly you enjoyed just being on Eldrazi, because it was the clear best deck and you simply are there to win.
Which is fine, but thats the vast minority of Modern players, and I'm quite comfortable making that statement.
When people are saying things that fly in the exact opposite direction of the majority, over and over and over? I'm not going to get behind that.
Thing is, unless I have you very wrong, you are about as Spike as it gets. If I remember correctly you enjoyed just being on Eldrazi, because it was the clear best deck and you simply are there to win.
Which is fine, but thats the vast minority of Modern players, and I'm quite comfortable making that statement.
When people are saying things that fly in the exact opposite direction of the majority, over and over and over? I'm not going to get behind that.
You have me pretty much spot on. I am a Spike, but also like having fun a lot too. As much as I've played Cragganwick Cremator and started getting into Premodern as well in the past month, I see myself slipping toward the Timmy side. In a format like Modern, there really is not clear "best" deck. So I can play something like KCI and hope to not face hate or tough matchups (like Midrange type decks, not super tough, but tough). I can play Spirits and hope to get those nut hands that can't be stopped, but there are some serious limitations on what Spirits can do. Dredge is in a similar boat to KCI, but slower. So, there is no deck that in my opinion is clearly the BEST.
I played Eldrazi during that time because there was no point in playing anything else. I started on BW Processors. Looooved the deck! Loved smashing GBx and Grixis, which were 2 of the most played decks locally at the time. Scrabbling Claws, beating people with terrible cards since...just those 2 months I guess? There's no point in trying to beat Eldrazi, outside of being Eldrazi. That was the best chance and UR did well in that respect. Have you seen someone bang their head against a wall until blood came out? Many people literally did that during E Winter. To some people it's fine to play what they like to play, get wrecked by Eldrazi, complain, and barely win. After Eye of Ugin was banned, I immediately quit and was much happier. I HATED playing that deck. I had to mull to 3 sometimes. I never do that. One of those 3 card hands won. I won on 4 many times. That's not Magic. If there is a Tier 0 or Tier negative 1 deck in the format, why play Tier 1?
But I think the gist of what he was saying (I'm avoiding his name for his protection because he was also bullied by people on here) is that players don't want to adapt. In Modern, we have learned that bannings will happen quite often. The meta will constantly change due to bannings. I think only in the last year or so has Wizard's policy changed more to NEW PRINTINGS to change Modern. That is a welcome change, although I personally would love to see UNbannings. We Modern players have been conditioned to just complain about something. Look at all the ban discussion about KCI, Dredge, Tron, and previous discussion on GDS and Humans. There is no other format in Magic where people actively want bannings as much as Modern and it's not close. We Modern players have been conditioned like this. (As much as I hate bannings myself, I even feel it myself, having played Modern for way too long now.) There's always a silver lining to what someone says; I guess unless someone says unban Mental Misstep I guess, lol.
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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)
Phoenix is the real deal. I think I need to start going to the thread so I at least know how to play against it. (well, I guess there's always playing around it or through it, lol)
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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)
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It's an instant speed Explore. Will definitely see play in Temur Valakut decks, no?
Temur Valakut isn't really in a good position and they're already tight on the lists, it might help. Bring To Light Shift might make better use of it.
I don't know the last time I saw someone playing RUG Scapeshift and I play quite a bit! I used to play the deck years ago, but I agree that it's not in the best position.
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)But I think the format is just too fast and too efficient.
They should just unban SFM to give some the illusion of "shaking things up".
I don't think it would be close either.
Spirits
Yeah most decks that attack with few but big threats and want to 1-for-1 stuff have trouble against Lingering Souls. Your stuff gets blocked for days while the opponent can freely chip at your life total. It's why the card is basically the mirror breaker in pretty much every Midrange battle.
And in case somebody wants to say "just Temur Battle Rage lol" well that aforementioned potential Esper deck would have access to excellent removal, counterspells, discard and Snapcaster Mage to go along with those too. It's an excellent card against all decks that don't pack interaction against your stuff of which there are a ton of obviously. Against decks that do though you have to rely on your opponent being a bit stupid for that to really do anything otherwise you are getting potentially blown out. There is a reason why combat tricks generally don't see much play.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
There's certainly quite a few fair decks out there still locally. In Philly I'd like to think I play at a fairly competitive store. I went to an IQ yesterday up in Jersey and went a quick 1-2 before dropping. I made the mistake of thinking the meta was like MTGO and leaned heavily into preparing for combo and tribal decks (I was not familiar with the store). My first pairing was GB Rock and it felt hopeless with me being on 4C Shadow.
We definitely all do get wrapped up on MTGO's results and the GP/SCG results sometimes. Nearly everywhere I go it looks super diverse. Between modern being expensive, and people just loving their decks, it's not as if most people always chase the meta deck.
I did buy into Izzet Phoenix recently though. Excited to test it. Realized since I bought those pieces I was only like a 100ish dollars away from owning Storm so I bought a Storm deck, too. I don't think I've ever owned a true combo deck in modern before.
It feels like every deck I own gets swallowed by grave hate except for my Tron and Jund decks, though
When many cards of your deck rely on the graveyard to function you are certainly living a dangerous life right now and you better hope you don't face the people who come prepared.
Scavenging ooze is a good friend these days.
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I have actually noticed that the Ooze alone is often not enough even when played on turn 2 since you can't active it until turn 3 and the damage might have already been done by then.
Since you are playing Ponza I guess a turn 1 Arbor Elf or Utopia Sprawl changes things though.
The ramp does make is easier to get ooze online. However, there are still things to consider like " do I use ooze now" or "do something else first like cast a tireless tracker / cast moon?". With full blown yard decks like Dredge, it's often "use ooze now" or things start getting ugly. Against other decks, I might try to moon first if it looks like the better way to gain advantage.
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Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Truth right there.
We all get consumed by online stats and flavor of the month decks on (free) online platforms. IRL the paper magic scene is just way more diverse and fun.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
Regarding Scavenging Ooze, yeah the little guy has been seeing more and more play. It's almost to the point where it may just be "right" to jam 4 in any deck playing Green right now. I'm curious about how many I should run in Abzan Coco or Elves, but then I haven't played those for a while now. If it wasn't for so many printings, this card would definitely see a moderate price increase.
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
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Either way, I spent a few days grinding out Esper, a day back on UWR, and then a night in Arena back on Phoenix, and unless there's a meta shift (online) I'm not sure being on the grind plan is where I want to be.
At least I can climb up the arena ranks quickly with Phoenix
Spirits
That guy is my (online; never met) buddy. Even though he was a bit shortsighted when talking about the Eldrazi Winter meta, I think he had some really good points. Instead of just screaming for a ban every time something doesn't work your way, try to adapt and find a way to win. If Recurring Nightmare/Survival of the Fittest was legal or Delver was still Standard Uw Delver, I'd probably win over 80% of my matches. But they're not...and I still have to find a way to win...or have fun if that's the goal.
I actually believe in my mind that every meta that Modern has had was FUN, outside of Eldrazi Winter. But at the same time, I can understand a large group of people not liking Cloudpost, or Treasure Cruise, or "not to be named", or Gitaxian Probe, etc. I can get with it, but some of those metas were the most fun I've ever had. I miss playing against Pod. I miss running Summer Bloom.
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)Which is fine, but thats the vast minority of Modern players, and I'm quite comfortable making that statement.
When people are saying things that fly in the exact opposite direction of the majority, over and over and over? I'm not going to get behind that.
Spirits
You have me pretty much spot on. I am a Spike, but also like having fun a lot too. As much as I've played Cragganwick Cremator and started getting into Premodern as well in the past month, I see myself slipping toward the Timmy side. In a format like Modern, there really is not clear "best" deck. So I can play something like KCI and hope to not face hate or tough matchups (like Midrange type decks, not super tough, but tough). I can play Spirits and hope to get those nut hands that can't be stopped, but there are some serious limitations on what Spirits can do. Dredge is in a similar boat to KCI, but slower. So, there is no deck that in my opinion is clearly the BEST.
I played Eldrazi during that time because there was no point in playing anything else. I started on BW Processors. Looooved the deck! Loved smashing GBx and Grixis, which were 2 of the most played decks locally at the time. Scrabbling Claws, beating people with terrible cards since...just those 2 months I guess? There's no point in trying to beat Eldrazi, outside of being Eldrazi. That was the best chance and UR did well in that respect. Have you seen someone bang their head against a wall until blood came out? Many people literally did that during E Winter. To some people it's fine to play what they like to play, get wrecked by Eldrazi, complain, and barely win. After Eye of Ugin was banned, I immediately quit and was much happier. I HATED playing that deck. I had to mull to 3 sometimes. I never do that. One of those 3 card hands won. I won on 4 many times. That's not Magic. If there is a Tier 0 or Tier negative 1 deck in the format, why play Tier 1?
But I think the gist of what he was saying (I'm avoiding his name for his protection because he was also bullied by people on here) is that players don't want to adapt. In Modern, we have learned that bannings will happen quite often. The meta will constantly change due to bannings. I think only in the last year or so has Wizard's policy changed more to NEW PRINTINGS to change Modern. That is a welcome change, although I personally would love to see UNbannings. We Modern players have been conditioned to just complain about something. Look at all the ban discussion about KCI, Dredge, Tron, and previous discussion on GDS and Humans. There is no other format in Magic where people actively want bannings as much as Modern and it's not close. We Modern players have been conditioned like this. (As much as I hate bannings myself, I even feel it myself, having played Modern for way too long now.) There's always a silver lining to what someone says; I guess unless someone says unban Mental Misstep I guess, lol.
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 see a few GDS in there too.
Spirits
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
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)