The deck that took first at ours (went 14-0 in games) played Boros/Rakdos. It ran few (under 5) DGM cards, everything simply came from the guildpacks.
I got a better story:
Someone in my LGS went Boros, got paired with Azorious. Opened guildpacks, built a deck only using guild boosters, asked people around the store to look at his awesome deck, and kept the 4 boosters for himself. He went 3-1.
That's extreme, but no coincidence. Majority of people asked for Boros, it quickly ran out. I thought it was crowd mentality. Turns out Boros had the highest win PERCENTAGE anyway, so the majority was right.
0) What you need: Ral Zarek, Stasis and 1 Island Sanctuary in your deck.
1) Use +1 ability of Ral Zarek every turn, tapping a land your opponent controls and untapping an island you control. This sustains stasis forever.
2) Other cards also sustain stasis forever, but the key is tapping your opponent's land also. The difference is you quickly shut down your opponent completely because they can only play 1 land a turn and will eventually run out of lands to drop. There are 0/1 mana cards that can break this, but not many, hence I call it a soft lock.
3) Meanwhile, you will play lands, so you will have more and more untapped lands.
4) Once you draw island sanctuary, skip your draw steps.
5) In the old days, your opponent will keep drawing cards until their library runs out. These days, they can put one copy of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or something similar from the sideboard and force a draw. We don't want that.
6) Instead, tick up Ral Zarak until he has +200 loyalty.
7) Now, use his ultimate as many times as you need. This is not infinite, you are limited by mana and number of stasis in your deck. And you can fizzle. But chances are low.
8) Use Ral Zarak's -2 ability and lightning bolt your enemy until she/he's dead.
The best thing is, these cards do something even if you don't draw stasis. Kismet, Frozen AEther, Blind Obedience don't do anything in isolation. Garruk Wildspeaker and Seedborn Muse are green and you really want a blue/red deck with all the protection. I'm think a painted stone shell with an extra combo kill.
So... If they hadn't changed that, Emmarra would be a 5/7 rare with that crazy ability? It's good that they fixed that then. A card like that would be super overpowered and would not fit flavorwise.
Why would Emmara ever be a 5/7? I mean, how about this instead?
1) Emmara (mythic): GW for 2/2, your tokens do not take damage.
2) VoR (rare): 5GW for 5/7, leave an elemental token behind when it dies or when the enemy casts a spell during your turn.
Chances are that they needed a Chase Mythic or more Chase Mythics and Emmara could not have been a Mythic. As far as I see the ability is pretty good, nothing to write home about but it is good nonetheless and the fact that people want this card shows that wizards did the right thing from a business standpoint making it a card that people want.
But... what makes a chase mythic that is not tournament-competitive? I'm asking because they specifically said it won't be.
Or more to the point, what kind of cards are going to become mythic rares? We want the flavor of mythic rare to be something that feels very special and unique. Generally speaking we expect that to mean cards like Planeswalkers, most legends, and epic-feeling creatures and spells. They will not just be a list of each set's most powerful tournament-level cards.
danvogelsong asked: Wait, why were Emmara's and Voice of Resurgence's abilities swapped again?
Because their rarities needed to be swapped.
Huh? What determines if an ability belongs at the "rare" or "mythic rare" slot?
1) Uniqueness? VoR "leaves baby behind" ability is everywhere, Emmara's ability is very unique. Not it.
2) Power? VoR trigger creates 0/0 when the board gets sweeped, tokens survive if Emmara was in play when sweeper resolves. Not it.
3) Flavour? VoR looks like a elemental deity and it's only little 2/2. Emmara ... I fail to imagine how she can kill 2 grizzly bears with her bear hands and live to tell the tale.
I thought about it for a long time myself. I really want it to work. But it won't work.
On average, each deck has 18 threats, 18 answers, 24 lands. My spells kill your threats, your spells... do nothing except mill. I just focus on killing all your threats and then your spells are dead cards. It'll only work if your threats have over-the-top abilities immediately. If that's what you want, might as well play 12 massive creatures, 12 enablers and 12 reanimation spells.
@Strono3103 Thanks for your feedback. Actually I just slapped together a decklist as a thought exercise because I don't even like the idea of UB delver. I'm actually slowly trading my way to a BUG tempo deck.
Delver of secrets does not fit modern really. It requires so many instants and sorceries to support the card that there's no way I can apply enough pressure. In standard there are token generating instants and sorceries but they are too inefficient for Modern. In legacy they have much more powerful instants and sorceries.
The Legacy community is so large that it is outstripping the available cards. We still intend to honor the reserve list, but in the interest of keeping people able to play, we're introducing a new format "Heritage". The initial banned list will be the Legacy banned list, plus all the cards on the reserve list. We will still support Legacy, we just believe Legacy itself will be a healthier format if we spread out the playerbase a bit.
Perfectly describes what I want down to the "t". But it won't happen.
The reserve list did not exist as a result of a lawsuit settlement. They could have handled it different. The true purpose of the reserve list was to pave the way for the modern format. If everyone plays with older cards, nobody will buy new ones and WoTC will be out of business. In 10 years, I expect card-frames to change again and a new "modern-modern" format will be pushed.
2 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
6 Mountains
7 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Godless shrine
1 Sacred Foundary
1 Blood Crypt
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Shadow of Doubt
4 Boom // Bust
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Rain of Tears
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Ghostly Prison
3 Blood Moon
4 Cryoclasm
3 Shatterstorm
3 Pyroclasm
2 Liliana of the Veil
Cyroclasm reads: "I don't care about winning, I just want to ruin your day".
I got a better story:
Someone in my LGS went Boros, got paired with Azorious. Opened guildpacks, built a deck only using guild boosters, asked people around the store to look at his awesome deck, and kept the 4 boosters for himself. He went 3-1.
That's extreme, but no coincidence. Majority of people asked for Boros, it quickly ran out. I thought it was crowd mentality. Turns out Boros had the highest win PERCENTAGE anyway, so the majority was right.
Me? Gettting paired with Dimir blows. I went 3-5.
A few notes:
The 2 blue cards can only do it for a single turn. Staff of Domination needs a mana source itself to fuel and Metalworker doesn't give blue mana.
It's banned in legacy.
It taps, but it doesn't untap. I also need mana to fuel the artifact.
Turbostasis doesn't tap your opponent's lands. I can wait until I have 5 untapped lands to play something to break your lock.
Both plans work, but I'm looking for more cards so I have redundency and more outs.
My question: what other cards have a similar function? I need more similar cards to make a deck out of it. Any help is appreciated.
I'm asking, because both combos with Stasis to win the game.
Let me explain with Ral Zarek. Hidden Strings is similar.
0) What you need: Ral Zarek, Stasis and 1 Island Sanctuary in your deck.
1) Use +1 ability of Ral Zarek every turn, tapping a land your opponent controls and untapping an island you control. This sustains stasis forever.
2) Other cards also sustain stasis forever, but the key is tapping your opponent's land also. The difference is you quickly shut down your opponent completely because they can only play 1 land a turn and will eventually run out of lands to drop. There are 0/1 mana cards that can break this, but not many, hence I call it a soft lock.
3) Meanwhile, you will play lands, so you will have more and more untapped lands.
4) Once you draw island sanctuary, skip your draw steps.
5) In the old days, your opponent will keep drawing cards until their library runs out. These days, they can put one copy of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or something similar from the sideboard and force a draw. We don't want that.
6) Instead, tick up Ral Zarak until he has +200 loyalty.
7) Now, use his ultimate as many times as you need. This is not infinite, you are limited by mana and number of stasis in your deck. And you can fizzle. But chances are low.
8) Use Ral Zarak's -2 ability and lightning bolt your enemy until she/he's dead.
The best thing is, these cards do something even if you don't draw stasis. Kismet, Frozen AEther, Blind Obedience don't do anything in isolation. Garruk Wildspeaker and Seedborn Muse are green and you really want a blue/red deck with all the protection. I'm think a painted stone shell with an extra combo kill.
Thanks a lot!
Why would Emmara ever be a 5/7? I mean, how about this instead?
1) Emmara (mythic): GW for 2/2, your tokens do not take damage.
2) VoR (rare): 5GW for 5/7, leave an elemental token behind when it dies or when the enemy casts a spell during your turn.
But... what makes a chase mythic that is not tournament-competitive? I'm asking because they specifically said it won't be.
http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/48665795054/wait-why-were-emmaras-and-voice-of-resurgences
Huh? What determines if an ability belongs at the "rare" or "mythic rare" slot?
1) Uniqueness? VoR "leaves baby behind" ability is everywhere, Emmara's ability is very unique. Not it.
2) Power? VoR trigger creates 0/0 when the board gets sweeped, tokens survive if Emmara was in play when sweeper resolves. Not it.
3) Flavour? VoR looks like a elemental deity and it's only little 2/2. Emmara ... I fail to imagine how she can kill 2 grizzly bears with her bear hands and live to tell the tale.
Please, I'm confused!
If I only cast one part of a fused card with casting cost 2, can it be countered by spell snare?
Arbor Elf
Avacyn's Pilgram
Farseek
Snapcaster Mage
Auger of Bolas
Crypt Ghast
Urban Evolution
Devastation Tide
Cyclonic Rift
Reap Intellect
Once their hand is loaded, then rip it apart.
I don't play legacy but, how does counterbalance counter krosan's grip?
On average, each deck has 18 threats, 18 answers, 24 lands. My spells kill your threats, your spells... do nothing except mill. I just focus on killing all your threats and then your spells are dead cards. It'll only work if your threats have over-the-top abilities immediately. If that's what you want, might as well play 12 massive creatures, 12 enablers and 12 reanimation spells.
What playable threats or answers are you trying to enable?
Jace's phantasm
Wight of Precinct Six
Tarmogoyf
Visions of Beyond
Death's Approach
Your friend left out stuffy doll and blasphemous acts. Use artifact creatures and whipflare to help you survive.
Delver of secrets does not fit modern really. It requires so many instants and sorceries to support the card that there's no way I can apply enough pressure. In standard there are token generating instants and sorceries but they are too inefficient for Modern. In legacy they have much more powerful instants and sorceries.
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Dark Confidant
Spells
2 Smother
2 Geth's Verdict
3 Disfigure
2 Doom Blade
2 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
4 Dissipate
1 Breeding Pool
2 Swamp
2 Island
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Watery Grave
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Damping Matrix
1 Back to Nature
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Death's Shadow
1 Damnation
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Deathrite Shaman
Perfectly describes what I want down to the "t". But it won't happen.
The reserve list did not exist as a result of a lawsuit settlement. They could have handled it different. The true purpose of the reserve list was to pave the way for the modern format. If everyone plays with older cards, nobody will buy new ones and WoTC will be out of business. In 10 years, I expect card-frames to change again and a new "modern-modern" format will be pushed.