It would be great for the prices to nose dive but right now it's the power cards that are appearing with high frequency in decks.
FNM showed me a dude with 4 Karn, at least 2 Lyra and 4 Benalia in a mono white deck. Have to say dealing with Karn repeatedly is devastating.
The price of standard has been high and it gets worse now that standard numbers are low. Barely fired and that was only because some employees 'joined in' so we could have standard that night. Modern still strong with 30+.
Something beyond the consumer's control needs to be done to reign things in a bit. People still shrug and say 'Karn will play in Modern' and just accept the price tag. Not great for inducting new people or getting players to return. That's my concern.
Control IS doing well again and look at the UW lists. Karn, Teferi, History of Benalia, Lyra are all there together or some variation of them. Hell the mono white tokens had them all except Teferi. You can't recruit people to play standard when the cost to play is this high and the options to play without these monsters is lackluster. Even Red Deck wins, which traditionally hasn't been the highest priced deck out there is pretty pricey if you max it out with Phoenix and Hazoret. Instead we get a 2H giant set.
Another
Product
yay
Standard looks a lot worse than it really is right now due to the dominaria supply issue. We're looking at the end of May for the second run of booster boxes and prices are going to really take a hit once we roll that close to Commander Anthology and Battlebond. This is the highest prices are ever going to be for dominaria cards, so use caution when buying into anything and if you do play someone with 4 karns in a deck, realize that guy just bought hyper inflated Karns at 40 dollars that likely are going to stabilize at around 28-30 dollars, Benalias that are going to probably be around 10-15 dollars once the second wave hits, and you really don't want to know what the prospects are for Lyra. Gods help anyone who bought Lyra after her price spikes. Teferi is probably going to settle at 20-25 in the long run as well.
Again, people have short memories. They don't remember what happened when RTR got released because that was so many years ago they have no concept of it.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Walking Ballista just went over $20 on TCG. WTF?! Okay, I was tempted to look at standard since there was deck diversity, but I just can't justify it. I can't spend $300 on a deck for four months of play.
Walking Ballista just went over $20 on TCG. WTF?! Okay, I was tempted to look at standard since there was deck diversity, but I just can't justify it. I can't spend $300 on a deck for four months of play.
I think looking at spending <$300 on a deck and simultaneously considering the most expensive cards in the format is a self-defeating behavior. If you want to build a deck of cards that will be good long-term in other formats, then saying you won't spend the money for four months is disingenuous.
I believe that those who want to play standard competitively and affordably can find solutions. Likewise, there are solutions to acquire useful modern cards while they are in standard, but there will likely be a cost at rotation. Unfortunately, wanting to play magic does not exempt us from tradeoffs.
I apologize if I have misrepresented or misunderstood your position.
Standard has enough problems as it stands. I believe that it can be played affordably and successfully at the FNM/local level. People wanting to make the pro tour or win a GP should expect to pay more. Ancillary goals such as playing particular decks or picking up useful modern cards before rotation will also likely raise the cost.
I hope I'm in the right place for this post. If not, please move it to the right place.
Am I reading this right? Seven of of the top eight decks of PTD are R/b? Isn't this a strong indicator that Standard is not diverse and that WotC's bannings are irrelevant? I mean, what's the difference if a mechanic (energy) dominates a format or a single color dominates a format? It's still being dominated by a singular aspect! As much as I like Dominaria, neither it nor WotC's cringy bannings have fixed the format. It's very frustrating. Am I alone on this?
I hope I'm in the right place for this post. If not, please move it to the right place.
Am I reading this right? Seven of of the top eight decks of PTD are R/b? Isn't this a strong indicator that Standard is not diverse and that WotC's bannings are irrelevant? I mean, what's the difference if a mechanic (energy) dominates a format or a single color dominates a format? It's still being dominated by a singular aspect! As much as I like Dominaria, neither it nor WotC's cringy bannings have fixed the format. It's very frustrating. Am I alone on this?
I would agree that the range of aggressive and midrange decks playing Chainwhirler would be larger than I would want if I were responsible for the meta at WOTC's development team.
But looking at the Pro Tour top 8 is not the whole picture. This shows how the decks did in the Standard swiss portion. Looking at the 8-9 win decks, we see 10 of 15 Chainwhirler decks ranging from aggressive to midrange along with 4 other archetypes representing a third of the best performing decks. Not good, but better.
So what? I am not responsible for the meta. At Monday Night Magic last week, we had 11 people with one person playing Chainwhirlers. The Chainwhirler person did not do well. So for hobbyists and casual players, I would say that Chainwhirler may not be a problem, depending on the meta. Further, for me, losing to Chainwhirler is much preferable to losing to Teferi ultimates, so there's that.
For grinders and professionals playing PPTQs and GPs, there will be a lot of Chainwhirler decks. But, for them, there will always be a best deck anyway, and they will have to deal with it. Boredom may set in quickly, and that will be a very real problem.
For me, as a hobbyist who grinds a little sometimes, I am excited at the meta. If I can put half the grinders on Chainwhirler, that could be an exploitable meta.
There's just a lot of things going on that are sort of working against the game itself at the moment, and they aren't really directly related to standard. There is a need to get the game back to it's roots of deck building as the culture around the game has been too heavily influenced by the tournament play. Nobody feels like they are getting a good deal from a constructed product when they realize they need 4x Rekindling Phoenix or some other mythic to optimize a deck list. And then if they are spending 15-30 dollars a card they also want to be assured the card is going to help net results they are after. That last part is what pushes so many people who play standard into looking at GP and PT results to build their deck.
The entire reason duel decks died is because they were a product built on the idea of cobbled together draft decks when most players are really wanting decks to go run at tournaments. Hence why they replaced them with the Challenger decks. Now the problem is that they are dancing this fine line of how to build new challenger decks and when to release new challenger decks.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I have a question about some reprints. do you think it would be ok to reprint counterspell in standard?
I asking this because people always say that counterspell and similar cards deemed to powerful for standard, but then wizards prints reflector mage, chainwhirler, hazoret, chupacabba and other similar cards and they seem fine (reflector mage was fine up to some point).llanowar elf and lightning strike were also deemed to powerful in the past but they are fine, powerful but fine.
I started to play standard since dominaria, but I'm still curious about the general opinion
When Disallow is a 4-of in most of the control lists, I don't think counterspell needs to be printed in standard.
I wish nothing was banned in standard except for Aetherworks Marvel. I think then we would have a very interesting format where you can play Temur energy, 4 color energy, Saheeli Jeskai, 4 color Saheeli, BG constrictor, Sultai constrictor, mono red, red-black, mardu vehicles, UW control, UB control, BW Benalia and so forth
When Disallow is a 4-of in most of the control lists, I don't think counterspell needs to be printed in standard.
I wish nothing was banned in standard except for Aetherworks Marvel. I think then we would have a very interesting format where you can play Temur energy, 4 color energy, Saheeli Jeskai, 4 color Saheeli, BG constrictor, Sultai constrictor, mono red, red-black, mardu vehicles, UW control, UB control, BW Benalia and so forth
standard doesn't need counterspell, the question is more "is it too powerful?"
Saheeli and energy are too broken for the format, and probably copter too, it won't be that diverse just because people will start to play saheeli or energy.
There is a need to get the game back to it's roots of deck building as the culture around the game has been too heavily influenced by the tournament play.
This is actually the main complaint people have about netdeckers, it's just that they never can actually verbalize it.
Frankly, your sentence should be some sort of input field as we see "darn netdeckers and darn meta hindering my brewing" rather often.
They can't, in turn, verbalize that the issue isn't with the cards printed -- it's with the culture.
I have a question about some reprints. do you think it would be ok to reprint counterspell in standard?
I asking this because people always say that counterspell and similar cards deemed to powerful for standard, but then wizards prints reflector mage, chainwhirler, hazoret, chupacabba and other similar cards and they seem fine (reflector mage was fine up to some point).llanowar elf and lightning strike were also deemed to powerful in the past but they are fine, powerful but fine.
I started to play standard since dominaria, but I'm still curious about the general opinion
Just one opinion, but Reflector Mage was never okay in Standard. When first printed, it coexisted with Collected Company and made Rally the Ancestors too strong. Then came the period when there was the collective misery (misery is the consensus, I actually enjoyed playing Bant Humans) of Bant Company mirrors, which Wizards has publicly said (I think) that something should have been banned.
There are some principles that make sense to me in favor of printing new, powerful, and possibly mistaken cards in Standard over oldies, but goodies.
Standard needs to change and never repeat. For me and some people who have played for longer, the ever-varying nature of Standard is part of why I prefer it to Modern. So Wizards needs to print different cards. But there is a fine line between playable and busted in certain decks. They do need to sell cards to stay in business. Mistakes are inevitable, but hopefully they are minor and infrequent.
Printing answers at the same time as problems. Llanowar Elves may have been perceived as a problem. Allowing an answer in at the same time ('whirler) makes sense to me. The problem could be seen as the rest of the deck being too strong, making the limitation (RRR casting cost) not problematic enough.
I believe that a heavy control meta would kill new players and eventually the game. If control is viable for a small proportion of highly skilled players, that would be ideal for me. Being able to get on board on turn 2 or three (on the play) can be vital against control in order to have pressure. Control needing to have the right answer in the form of Essence Scatter, Negate, a 1 mana Wizard in play, makes it harder for them, which might be needed. Counterspell is old, boring and possibly too powerful in some metas.
There is a need to get the game back to it's roots of deck building as the culture around the game has been too heavily influenced by the tournament play.
This is actually the main complaint people have about netdeckers, it's just that they never can actually verbalize it.
Frankly, your sentence should be some sort of input field as we see "darn netdeckers and darn meta hindering my brewing" rather often.
They can't, in turn, verbalize that the issue isn't with the cards printed -- it's with the culture.
Culture is a very difficult thing to change.
Best of luck.
There's no stopping netdecking you fool! We shall reign supreme mwahahahaha!
Jokes aside, netdecking is not a cause but rather a symptom. The game is now far more oriented at competitive play around expected value of events than it was fifteen years ago. Now, that has always been the case at the top tier of play, but the change is that middle and lower-level play has caught up. If I am paying $30 to enter a PPTQ, I want to minimize the risk of going home 0-3. That is done by looking at what is successful and copying it far moreso than experimenting with brews. The former is way faster and benefits from the aggregate knowledge and experience of all competitive players. And honestly...playing competitively is expensive if you are playing 3-4 times a week between paper and MTGO leagues. Trying to win helps to reduce those costs.
And by the way, I don't even think that what I am talking about is a bad thing. It is basically capitalist mentality - everyone looking out for his or her own best interests. I haven't played a standard FNM in a while, but I would be curious to see if the split from FNM to standard showdown has helped matters in terms of keeping FNM casual-friendly. To be quite frank, if you are more about creativity and deckbuilding, there are tiers of events that simply are not for you. I'm not against people trying to win with brews (I've done it, on occasion), but often with a limited card pool the best combinations will rise to the top.
It also may help if WOTC stopped making it so easy to run three or even four colors in a deck. Part of the deckbuilding issue is that it is far easier to get around the weaknesses of each color.
I hope i'm in the right subforum here Let's talk removal for a second.
Top decks in pro level competitive play have gone down in copies of Vraska's Contempt as the threats have moved away from Gods and all that.
Though on FNM level play with no knowledge of what to expect in terms of meta, would people still prefer Vraska's Contempt over any other destroy target creature/planeswalker effect? If so, why?
At the moment, i'm trying to descide if an extra copy of Vraska's Contempt main is worth it over damage based removal spell. 3/3 in favour of 4/2.
Edit: FWIW, i'm a brewer and i have a fairly competitive brew, though i dont play standard on FNM level at all.
I hope i'm in the right subforum here Let's talk removal for a second.
Top decks in pro level competitive play have gone down in copies of Vraska's Contempt as the threats have moved away from Gods and all that.
Though on FNM level play with no knowledge of what to expect in terms of meta, would people still prefer Vraska's Contempt over any other destroy target creature/planeswalker effect? If so, why?
At the moment, i'm trying to descide if an extra copy of Vraska's Contempt main is worth it over damage based removal spell. 3/3 in favour of 4/2.
Edit: FWIW, i'm a brewer and i have a fairly competitive brew, though i dont play standard on FNM level at all.
I run 4 copies of Vrasksa's contempt in the main board at all times for my local meta. It is expensive, but it has saved my bacon a lot. I play mono black so I run 4x VC, 4x Fatal Push, and then 4x Cast Down. Plus, Ifnir Deadlands.
Damage wins games, but good removal prevents losses.
There are a lot of PW's, Hazoret, Rekindling Phoenix, and other good targets for VC in my local meta.
I've just started dipping my toes into standard again, and I'm not really feeling this "metagame diversity" that others in this thread seem to be seeing.
Suggests that there are a total of 3 viable decks, 2 of which are almost copies of each other :/. Did the other decks just get unlucky? Where did BG constrictor go?
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Modern UWUW ControlUW UGWSpiritsUGW GHardened ScalesG WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
I've just started dipping my toes into standard again, and I'm not really feeling this "metagame diversity" that others in this thread seem to be seeing.
Suggests that there are a total of 3 viable decks, 2 of which are almost copies of each other :/. Did the other decks just get unlucky? Where did BG constrictor go?
The problem is the two years of bad standard still have to rotate out. The whole format was just completely screwed up by Kaladesh block having really bad game balance. The new core set is a sorely needed panacea given it has all the bas4line tools needed for standard, albeit some cards being printed in it have stronger counterparts in some older sets such as Ixalan.
They went super heavy with the anti-aggro tech in Dom and C19, though. I doubt any token or low cost aggressive strategy will be competitive once rotation hits and takes away reds indestructible god and planeswalker advantage. Really, I'd just avoid standard until the fall comes and flushes out all the garbage from old standard.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
It's lolworthy how some store site writers are still shilling for the format. "Standard isn't as narrow as it looks", "Standard isn't a 1-deck format". Maybe if they say it enough times we might have a top 8 with less than 16 Chainwhirlers (not that I think the card is busted, merely that it is the marker of MonoR and RB).
Admittedly, some have advocated for a ban although it's unclear whether WotC is open to do another banning or is just waiting for the rotation along everyone else. Personally, Ixalan becoming a bigger portion of the format sounds awful, luckily Dominaria, C19 and Ravnica feature enough good cards to not having to touch it with a 10 foot pole save maybe for Sorcerous Spyglass.
It's lolworthy how some store site writers are still shilling for the format. "Standard isn't as narrow as it looks", "Standard isn't a 1-deck format". Maybe if they say it enough times we might have a top 8 with less than 16 Chainwhirlers (not that I think the card is busted, merely that it is the marker of MonoR and RB).
Admittedly, some have advocated for a ban although it's unclear whether WotC is open to do another banning or is just waiting for the rotation along everyone else. Personally, Ixalan becoming a bigger portion of the format sounds awful, luckily Dominaria, C19 and Ravnica feature enough good cards to not having to touch it with a 10 foot pole save maybe for Sorcerous Spyglass.
I don't think banning Goblin Chainwhirler is the right move to make. Rather, it's the shell that he is being slotted into that is the problem. We are still in a format with Vehicles and just really effective red dominance. That and the control decks being dominant are making the mid-range decks worse, which are the decks that pray on the kind of aggressive strategies being pushed by the red aggressive decks.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The Red Menace continues. Granted they can probably just wait for rotation. But really Green needs help. No one is playing it and that is pretty massive failing. White is not doing much hotter as Teferi chips in almost all the White. But White is usually limping around like a cripple.
The Red Menace continues. Granted they can probably just wait for rotation. But really Green needs help. No one is playing it and that is pretty massive failing. White is not doing much hotter as Teferi chips in almost all the White. But White is usually limping around like a cripple.
Green looks really good come c19. It's the sleeping dragon of standard that has all the right tools, just the aggro and control meta is suppressing the decks on the professional scene. The six drop mammoth looks really good given the big creatures floating around. The only creature big enough to wall green is green itself at 3 cmc in the early and mid game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'd say the meta was more alive around BFZ -> SOI era. Once Kaladesh hit things went downhill really fast and never recovered. It looked good at first with Pummeller decks, budget mono-blue energy, and other weirdness, but it didn't take long for Aetherworks marvel to break things and Smuggler's Copter was all over the place. Then they banned Emrakul instead of marvel, which just lead to the marvel players using Ulamog.
Really, the problem was the sets in standard being some of the worst sets made by Wizards of the Coast. Not to say Kaladesh wasn't powerful or that it's limited environment wasn't fun, but the set was just too much of the wild west with having both vehicles getting introduced along with energy.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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Standard looks a lot worse than it really is right now due to the dominaria supply issue. We're looking at the end of May for the second run of booster boxes and prices are going to really take a hit once we roll that close to Commander Anthology and Battlebond. This is the highest prices are ever going to be for dominaria cards, so use caution when buying into anything and if you do play someone with 4 karns in a deck, realize that guy just bought hyper inflated Karns at 40 dollars that likely are going to stabilize at around 28-30 dollars, Benalias that are going to probably be around 10-15 dollars once the second wave hits, and you really don't want to know what the prospects are for Lyra. Gods help anyone who bought Lyra after her price spikes. Teferi is probably going to settle at 20-25 in the long run as well.
Again, people have short memories. They don't remember what happened when RTR got released because that was so many years ago they have no concept of it.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Looking at the next to last dump of MTGO 5-0s, I count 16 decks that cost less than $300.
I believe that those who want to play standard competitively and affordably can find solutions. Likewise, there are solutions to acquire useful modern cards while they are in standard, but there will likely be a cost at rotation. Unfortunately, wanting to play magic does not exempt us from tradeoffs.
I apologize if I have misrepresented or misunderstood your position.
Standard has enough problems as it stands. I believe that it can be played affordably and successfully at the FNM/local level. People wanting to make the pro tour or win a GP should expect to pay more. Ancillary goals such as playing particular decks or picking up useful modern cards before rotation will also likely raise the cost.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Am I reading this right? Seven of of the top eight decks of PTD are R/b? Isn't this a strong indicator that Standard is not diverse and that WotC's bannings are irrelevant? I mean, what's the difference if a mechanic (energy) dominates a format or a single color dominates a format? It's still being dominated by a singular aspect! As much as I like Dominaria, neither it nor WotC's cringy bannings have fixed the format. It's very frustrating. Am I alone on this?
But looking at the Pro Tour top 8 is not the whole picture. This shows how the decks did in the Standard swiss portion. Looking at the 8-9 win decks, we see 10 of 15 Chainwhirler decks ranging from aggressive to midrange along with 4 other archetypes representing a third of the best performing decks. Not good, but better.
So what? I am not responsible for the meta. At Monday Night Magic last week, we had 11 people with one person playing Chainwhirlers. The Chainwhirler person did not do well. So for hobbyists and casual players, I would say that Chainwhirler may not be a problem, depending on the meta. Further, for me, losing to Chainwhirler is much preferable to losing to Teferi ultimates, so there's that.
For grinders and professionals playing PPTQs and GPs, there will be a lot of Chainwhirler decks. But, for them, there will always be a best deck anyway, and they will have to deal with it. Boredom may set in quickly, and that will be a very real problem.
For me, as a hobbyist who grinds a little sometimes, I am excited at the meta. If I can put half the grinders on Chainwhirler, that could be an exploitable meta.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
The entire reason duel decks died is because they were a product built on the idea of cobbled together draft decks when most players are really wanting decks to go run at tournaments. Hence why they replaced them with the Challenger decks. Now the problem is that they are dancing this fine line of how to build new challenger decks and when to release new challenger decks.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I asking this because people always say that counterspell and similar cards deemed to powerful for standard, but then wizards prints reflector mage, chainwhirler, hazoret, chupacabba and other similar cards and they seem fine (reflector mage was fine up to some point).llanowar elf and lightning strike were also deemed to powerful in the past but they are fine, powerful but fine.
I started to play standard since dominaria, but I'm still curious about the general opinion
I wish nothing was banned in standard except for Aetherworks Marvel. I think then we would have a very interesting format where you can play Temur energy, 4 color energy, Saheeli Jeskai, 4 color Saheeli, BG constrictor, Sultai constrictor, mono red, red-black, mardu vehicles, UW control, UB control, BW Benalia and so forth
standard doesn't need counterspell, the question is more "is it too powerful?"
Saheeli and energy are too broken for the format, and probably copter too, it won't be that diverse just because people will start to play saheeli or energy.
This is actually the main complaint people have about netdeckers, it's just that they never can actually verbalize it.
Frankly, your sentence should be some sort of input field as we see "darn netdeckers and darn meta hindering my brewing" rather often.
They can't, in turn, verbalize that the issue isn't with the cards printed -- it's with the culture.
Culture is a very difficult thing to change.
Best of luck.
There are some principles that make sense to me in favor of printing new, powerful, and possibly mistaken cards in Standard over oldies, but goodies.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
There's no stopping netdecking you fool! We shall reign supreme mwahahahaha!
Jokes aside, netdecking is not a cause but rather a symptom. The game is now far more oriented at competitive play around expected value of events than it was fifteen years ago. Now, that has always been the case at the top tier of play, but the change is that middle and lower-level play has caught up. If I am paying $30 to enter a PPTQ, I want to minimize the risk of going home 0-3. That is done by looking at what is successful and copying it far moreso than experimenting with brews. The former is way faster and benefits from the aggregate knowledge and experience of all competitive players. And honestly...playing competitively is expensive if you are playing 3-4 times a week between paper and MTGO leagues. Trying to win helps to reduce those costs.
And by the way, I don't even think that what I am talking about is a bad thing. It is basically capitalist mentality - everyone looking out for his or her own best interests. I haven't played a standard FNM in a while, but I would be curious to see if the split from FNM to standard showdown has helped matters in terms of keeping FNM casual-friendly. To be quite frank, if you are more about creativity and deckbuilding, there are tiers of events that simply are not for you. I'm not against people trying to win with brews (I've done it, on occasion), but often with a limited card pool the best combinations will rise to the top.
It also may help if WOTC stopped making it so easy to run three or even four colors in a deck. Part of the deckbuilding issue is that it is far easier to get around the weaknesses of each color.
Hooooooh. Lee. Crap.
Top decks in pro level competitive play have gone down in copies of Vraska's Contempt as the threats have moved away from Gods and all that.
Though on FNM level play with no knowledge of what to expect in terms of meta, would people still prefer Vraska's Contempt over any other destroy target creature/planeswalker effect? If so, why?
At the moment, i'm trying to descide if an extra copy of Vraska's Contempt main is worth it over damage based removal spell. 3/3 in favour of 4/2.
Edit: FWIW, i'm a brewer and i have a fairly competitive brew, though i dont play standard on FNM level at all.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
I run 4 copies of Vrasksa's contempt in the main board at all times for my local meta. It is expensive, but it has saved my bacon a lot. I play mono black so I run 4x VC, 4x Fatal Push, and then 4x Cast Down. Plus, Ifnir Deadlands.
Damage wins games, but good removal prevents losses.
There are a lot of PW's, Hazoret, Rekindling Phoenix, and other good targets for VC in my local meta.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=19426&f=ST
Suggests that there are a total of 3 viable decks, 2 of which are almost copies of each other :/. Did the other decks just get unlucky? Where did BG constrictor go?
UWUW ControlUW
UGWSpiritsUGW
GHardened ScalesG
WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
The problem is the two years of bad standard still have to rotate out. The whole format was just completely screwed up by Kaladesh block having really bad game balance. The new core set is a sorely needed panacea given it has all the bas4line tools needed for standard, albeit some cards being printed in it have stronger counterparts in some older sets such as Ixalan.
They went super heavy with the anti-aggro tech in Dom and C19, though. I doubt any token or low cost aggressive strategy will be competitive once rotation hits and takes away reds indestructible god and planeswalker advantage. Really, I'd just avoid standard until the fall comes and flushes out all the garbage from old standard.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Admittedly, some have advocated for a ban although it's unclear whether WotC is open to do another banning or is just waiting for the rotation along everyone else. Personally, Ixalan becoming a bigger portion of the format sounds awful, luckily Dominaria, C19 and Ravnica feature enough good cards to not having to touch it with a 10 foot pole save maybe for Sorcerous Spyglass.
I don't think banning Goblin Chainwhirler is the right move to make. Rather, it's the shell that he is being slotted into that is the problem. We are still in a format with Vehicles and just really effective red dominance. That and the control decks being dominant are making the mid-range decks worse, which are the decks that pray on the kind of aggressive strategies being pushed by the red aggressive decks.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Green looks really good come c19. It's the sleeping dragon of standard that has all the right tools, just the aggro and control meta is suppressing the decks on the professional scene. The six drop mammoth looks really good given the big creatures floating around. The only creature big enough to wall green is green itself at 3 cmc in the early and mid game.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Spirits
I'd say the meta was more alive around BFZ -> SOI era. Once Kaladesh hit things went downhill really fast and never recovered. It looked good at first with Pummeller decks, budget mono-blue energy, and other weirdness, but it didn't take long for Aetherworks marvel to break things and Smuggler's Copter was all over the place. Then they banned Emrakul instead of marvel, which just lead to the marvel players using Ulamog.
Really, the problem was the sets in standard being some of the worst sets made by Wizards of the Coast. Not to say Kaladesh wasn't powerful or that it's limited environment wasn't fun, but the set was just too much of the wild west with having both vehicles getting introduced along with energy.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!