Read the article and wholeheartedly disagree with the Jace unban.
1. UW control and Jeskai are already posting respectable finishes and he easily replaces 2-3 of the weaker draws in the deck.
2. MTGgoldfish had a good point, I agree the unban can push boxes of masters 25 with no protour repurcussions and then he'll eat a ban again in 6 months when they're like "we told you so but you asked for it anyway." They get to financially profit as opposed to the secondary market, because they're releasing a huge chunk of supply. LGS's get to move product (or big box stores). People get 6 months to play with their shinnies.
3. A riff off of point 2 kind of, but the fact that they felt he was safer than SFM is just baffling to me. Stoneforge mystic is at worst a 2 mana tutor (if it resolves) and at best a 2 cmc threat that's imo comparable to goyf, pyromancer, snapcaster, bob...Just a universally good 2 drop in a color with slight deckbuilding restrictions (card types, spells, spells, low avg cmc for the above list).
4. I think hollow one's performance probably impacted the choice to some degree. Jace looks silly when he's staring down 4-8 power on turn one.
5. Decks like zoo, elves, and midrange (abzan, death's shadow, etc.) kind of suffer from Jace being around.
5. He dodges inquisition of kozilek, which imo is a big deal. you have to thoughtsieze him, collective brutality him, or counter him. Killing him with combat damage is going to be rough alongside cards like cryptic command/supreme verdict/etc.
So the question becomes what's good against Jace? Sorcerous spyglass/pithing needle/meddling mage/nevermore require other answers for cryptic command...I'm also not thrilled about what's going to happen with the market prices on nearly everything else now. just ugh.
Depending on how this Jace experiment pans out, we might see other potential candidates for an unbaning besides Stoneforge (though to be fair it's chances are greatly diminished now).
EDIT: Blightning use to be a beating vs. Jace in the old Standard. Curious to see if it rears it's scorched head again...
In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark. I laughed and blew it out.
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Don't hold your breath. It was already next in line (behind BBE) and just got skipped. I highly doubt they want stoneblade in the format when it was one of the most oppressive decks of all time. In my opinion the Jace unban just seals SFM's fate to rot on the banned list.
Sad but true. On the other side, unbanning Jace is another nail on the Twin coffin as well.
Whether or not a player concedes to the lock doesn't matter. The match has a timer of 50 minutes (or whatever the standard is for big tournaments). If a player wants to force a ridiculously long game 1 or 2 by not scooping that's their perogative - the game will still go to turns at 50m at which point it will likely be over in the usual 5-10m. Eggs was banned because it wasn't 5-10m for those last 5 turns - each egg player turn could be 20m long so extra turns could add upwards of 30-40 minutes to the round timer beyond the allocated amount. That is simply not how lantern works.
The only way this is a problem is if rounds rarely actually go to time which I find hard to believe. As mentioned, every 30+ player prerelease I've gone to has pretty much every single round go to time. I assume tournaments with hundreds of players in the room, someone somewhere will usually go to time.
Actually the biggest culprit of unintentional draws at the PT was UWx decks, not lantern control.
Lantern control is "fine" atm... but it will be interesting to see how JTMS changes that dynamic.
Don't hold your breath. It was already next in line (behind BBE) and just got skipped. I highly doubt they want stoneblade in the format when it was one of the most oppressive decks of all time. In my opinion the Jace unban just seals SFM's fate to rot on the banned list.
Sad but true. On the other side, unbanning Jace is another nail on the Twin coffin as well.
I actually would have preferred Twin, but oh well. Jace goes right into my Turns and UWR decks, and thats it.
I'll miss the days when jund 4 drops were personal choices or pet cards. Oh well. Jace might be fine, might not be, but blue decks will have to ask why they aren't running him if they haven't, which makes me worried about diversity.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
I'll miss the days when jund 4 drops were personal choices or pet cards. Oh well. Jace might be fine, might not be, but blue decks will have to ask why they aren't running him if they haven't, which makes me worried about diversity.
I think thats only an issue if you are playing some kind of Control/Combo.
Considering Blue is not doing a whole lot more than that (Bloo being the exception?) it is what it is.
Burn should make a pretty nice comeback on this news. Burn gives 0 *****s about Jace. I expect to see more swiftspears and young pyromancers around - going wide against Jace is pretty nice.
Does this kill Grixis Death Shadow now? I can't see it doing well vs any Jace/Ux Control deck ever now.
It will make GDS weaker but will it kill it? We have to wait and see. I assume though that Traverse Shadow will be better option of the two from now on because it's faster and this is what you need against control if you play a Death's Shadow deck. You need to kill them fast (actually this was already the case now and it will be so much more important with Jace being part of Modern) because you can't win long game against them. Traverse Shadow does it better than GDS.
Maybe this will be claim/fame's time to shine seeing as it can give a goyf or deaths shadow haste out of nowhere.
All I know is I am looking forward to playing a Jace behind a protective Ensnaring Bridge and then making sure I can empty my hand by Brainstorming away anything I can't cast for the turn. Maybe I'll draw a Mishra's Bauble or Mox Opal to get my hand size to 0
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UBG Lantern Control GBU BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Does this kill Grixis Death Shadow now? I can't see it doing well vs any Jace/Ux Control deck ever now.
It will make GDS weaker but will it kill it? We have to wait and see. I assume though that Traverse Shadow will be better option of the two from now on because it's faster and this is what you need against control if you play a Death's Shadow deck. You need to kill them fast (actually this was already the case now and it will be so much more important with Jace being part of Modern) because you can't win long game against them. Traverse Shadow does it better than GDS.
Well that sucks, GDS is my best deck and I don't own any Jace to try in either shadow or control... Guess I'll have to run some Dreadbores or something.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
Queue all of the "does jace fit in this deck?" comments on every prime for any blue deck, and "is blue the better splash now" for any decks on the fence about U.
Anyways, heres to Control having a more consistent late game and finally being what it should be. I'm not even a control player and I welcome this change.
Holy ***** they actually unbanned Jace. That basically narrows down the wincon of choice for blue decks to 1 option.
BBE is probably fine with the current power level of the format. The obvious use is in Jund, but I'm also interested to see if it'll see play with Ancestral Vision. Those were never in the format together and people were always arguing about whether the combo sucked because you couldn't play counterspells, or was good because Shardless Agent is a thing in Legacy. Also should point out it's an Elf and can cascade into Lead the Stampede, if anyone wants to give RG aggro Elves a try (probably not, RG's sideboard is worse than GW's and you lose Horizon Canopy).
So we were never going to see all 3 come off at once, I thought it was gonna be BBE this time, SFM next time, and Jace the time after that.
Is there any reason this would have an impact on SFM coming off in the next announcement or two? I would think if these go well then we will see more agressive unbans, but is there any reason it would be LESS likely?
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1. UW control and Jeskai are already posting respectable finishes and he easily replaces 2-3 of the weaker draws in the deck.
2. MTGgoldfish had a good point, I agree the unban can push boxes of masters 25 with no protour repurcussions and then he'll eat a ban again in 6 months when they're like "we told you so but you asked for it anyway." They get to financially profit as opposed to the secondary market, because they're releasing a huge chunk of supply. LGS's get to move product (or big box stores). People get 6 months to play with their shinnies.
3. A riff off of point 2 kind of, but the fact that they felt he was safer than SFM is just baffling to me. Stoneforge mystic is at worst a 2 mana tutor (if it resolves) and at best a 2 cmc threat that's imo comparable to goyf, pyromancer, snapcaster, bob...Just a universally good 2 drop in a color with slight deckbuilding restrictions (card types, spells, spells, low avg cmc for the above list).
4. I think hollow one's performance probably impacted the choice to some degree. Jace looks silly when he's staring down 4-8 power on turn one.
5. Decks like zoo, elves, and midrange (abzan, death's shadow, etc.) kind of suffer from Jace being around.
5. He dodges inquisition of kozilek, which imo is a big deal. you have to thoughtsieze him, collective brutality him, or counter him. Killing him with combat damage is going to be rough alongside cards like cryptic command/supreme verdict/etc.
So the question becomes what's good against Jace? Sorcerous spyglass/pithing needle/meddling mage/nevermore require other answers for cryptic command...I'm also not thrilled about what's going to happen with the market prices on nearly everything else now. just ugh.
just ugh, wtf can't they just leave it alone.
EDIT: Blightning use to be a beating vs. Jace in the old Standard. Curious to see if it rears it's scorched head again...
Many thanks to HotP Studios. Special thanks to DNC for this great sig.
Sad but true. On the other side, unbanning Jace is another nail on the Twin coffin as well.
Actually the biggest culprit of unintentional draws at the PT was UWx decks, not lantern control.
Lantern control is "fine" atm... but it will be interesting to see how JTMS changes that dynamic.
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I actually would have preferred Twin, but oh well. Jace goes right into my Turns and UWR decks, and thats it.
Spirits
RG BBE Ponza
UX Eldrazi Tron
UR Jace Breach
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
Guess I should pony up the 800 dollars until jace is banned
I think thats only an issue if you are playing some kind of Control/Combo.
Considering Blue is not doing a whole lot more than that (Bloo being the exception?) it is what it is.
He's not going into Storm.
Spirits
Maybe this will be claim/fame's time to shine seeing as it can give a goyf or deaths shadow haste out of nowhere.
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Well that sucks, GDS is my best deck and I don't own any Jace to try in either shadow or control... Guess I'll have to run some Dreadbores or something.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
I for example think xTron is too good, but I loathe Tron.
Spirits
Anyways, heres to Control having a more consistent late game and finally being what it should be. I'm not even a control player and I welcome this change.
BBE is probably fine with the current power level of the format. The obvious use is in Jund, but I'm also interested to see if it'll see play with Ancestral Vision. Those were never in the format together and people were always arguing about whether the combo sucked because you couldn't play counterspells, or was good because Shardless Agent is a thing in Legacy. Also should point out it's an Elf and can cascade into Lead the Stampede, if anyone wants to give RG aggro Elves a try (probably not, RG's sideboard is worse than GW's and you lose Horizon Canopy).
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Spirits
Yup.
You can put Jace anf BBE together in a RUG deck
Anything, but nothing at the moment...
Modern:
WUBRGAmulet Titan, WUBRGHuman
WUBRAd Nauseam, WBRGDeath Shadow, UBRGScapeshift, UBRGDredge
WURJeskai Nahiri, WURCheeri0s, WBGCounter Company, WRGBurn, UBRMadcap Moon, BRGJund Midrange
UBTurn,BRGriselbrand Reanimator, WGKnight Company, RGRG Tron, RGRG Ponza, XAffinity, XEldrazi Tron
Is there any reason this would have an impact on SFM coming off in the next announcement or two? I would think if these go well then we will see more agressive unbans, but is there any reason it would be LESS likely?
Spirits
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/improving-our-approach-magic-online-data-2018-02-12
Basically new definition of 'distinct decklists' now 20 cards different instead of 10
All 5-0 distinct decklists lists get published
Seems good twice a week for modern and standard, once a week for the other formats.
Legacy - LED Dredge, ANT & WDnT
Well, the next weeks would be exciting. they just need to unban SFM for the return of Caw-blade.
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Does anyone think my deck will suffer from these unbannings? Will g/w company be a poor choice in the possible meta to come?
I’m pondering if I should switch up my deck now, or if G/w value town will retain the power it currently has.
Any and all thoughts are welcome!