Just a friendly reminder, I will NOT BE TOLERATING ANY REMARKS ABOUT ME PERSONALLY. Any name calling will be reported to the moderators and will be dealt with accordingly. There is no room for any insults on these forums.
So today I am going to talk about my FNM and how I dominated the competition with Saffron Olives UB Demonic Tentacles deck. Saffron Olive is my favorite Magic player ever since he is funny, cool, handsome, and amazing. I watch all of his videos while I am working at my IT job. I should probably stop watching them since I was supposed to be doing some work the other day and some bad stuff happened with these computers and it was my fault, but who cares! I am here to talk about Magic and that is what I will be doing!
Here is the deck that I ran. Since Saffron Olive is so good at Magic I thought it would be disrespectful to cut any cards from the deck.
I figure I just send you the link in case you want to watch his videos. Note, I am not him nor do I know him. Sometimes I like to pretend we are friends even though we aren't, but maybe some day I will be privileged enough to meet this future Magic hall of famer.
So I got to my FNM at 6 o clock. I get there early to chat with the store owner and hang out in his store. He kind of hates me since I never buy anything and I just take up space in my store, but I guess he can't hate me that much if he takes my money. I thought I would be nice and buy some Doritos and a mountain dew before the tournament started. Some people at the store were pissed when I tried to play them after. One guy was yelling at me since I was touching his Tarmogoyf with my Doritos flavored hands. I didnt know why he was playing me since I said I would play him in Modern with my Standard deck, but he was a cool guy. I think he was yelling at me since he actually likes me but whatever, not important!
At 7 o clock the tournament started. The pairings were announced and the store owner had to keep yelling over me since I would not stop talking about the new Pokemon game coming out. It was fine he likes Pokemon too and appreciates it. Anyway, round 1 I faced a guy named Justin. Justin was a cool guy. For some reason, Justin kept trying to get me into buying one of his cars since he works at a car dealer ship. At first I thought he was a little sketchy since he doesn't have another job and did not go to college, but he seems like a hard worker. He told me about one time how he sold a guy a warranted on a used car and the guy tried to claim it and wasn't able to and Justin made a bunch of money, so he sounds like a smart guy. Oh yeah, thats right, I was talking about Magic. Justin played me with his Bant Company deck. I was wondering where Justin got the money to buy the deck but he told me a friend loaned him the cards. His friend just went to jail so I was confused but had to play on. I was able to beat him game 1 since he flooded out and I got my Demonic Pact on board. He was unable to answer it and I drew all my bounce spells to keep the chains moving. Game 2 he crushed me with an early army of creatures and I flooded out a bit. Game 3 was close since he did not have a strong opening and kept countering my stuff with Negates, but I won the counter war and was on to round 2.
Round 2 I had to face a girl named Melinda. Melinda is a cool chick, even though she does not seem to like me very much. She calls me rude names and tells me that she knows where I live and like that I should watch my back or something weird like that. I think it's just her way of communicating even though there was one time where she followed me home, but I think she just got lost or something. Melinda was playing Golgari Seasons. When she plays her kill spells, she says she thinks of me. That sounds super nice. Anyway, luck for me, I had not too many creatures to kill except my Octopuses. I took game 1 easily. Game 2 she had a bunch of hand disruption, but no answer to my Demonic Pact. After the match she told me that she was coming for me. I told the owner about the cool things she was saying and for some reason she got DQ'ed from the tournament. Oh well.
Round 3 I faced off against my buddy Mike. Me and mike aren't actually friends, but I like to think we are. Mike was running Esper Dragons, which I thought was cool since I like Dragons. Mike says that he recently lost his job and had to sell his car to play the deck, which was cool that he is still able to play Magic. Mike crushed me since his outcountered me and his Dragons went off quickly. He beat me 2-0. Mike was really happy and even hugged me, which was cool. Mike said he was just happy that he could win at something since he has been down in life. He told me that I saved his life and I didnt know what that meant, but I was happy for him.
Round 4 I got a bye and was happy to find out that I made the TOP 8!!! That was one of the first top 8's of an FNM that I made in a while. I am usually pretty bad at Magic but ever since I started watching Saffron Olive I have gotten so much better. I'm going to watch him more often if it means winning more games!
Top 8 was kind of a bummer but it was a bad match up for me. My opponent John was on Mono Red Aggro. John had the dream draw and crushed me 2-0. I felt sad since I worked hard in learning how to play Saffys deck. John said that I was a bad player and my deck was bad and that I should quit Magic. Maybe he is right. Maybe I am not cut out for this game or should keep playing. John knocked my deck over and told me to "pick up your deck noob". I thought John sent a powerful, yet meaningful message. I hope that the next time we face that I can earn John's respect.
Overall I went 2-2. I think having a 50% winning percentage was pretty awesome. I got to meet some cool people and learn some new things. I think I will go back next weekend and hope to do better. I liked this deck alot and really need to work on fine tuning my Mono Red Match up. I think I will send Saffy a message on twitter and hope he can help me out. Maybe if I can save enough money up I can fly out to his place and meet up and watch some Pro Tour footage to immprove my game. Anyway, sorry for the long response. I had a fun tournament and hope I can do better next time. Thanks for reading. If you got any tips on how I can improve saffys deck, hit me up.
I dunno why you care about table talk as if makes some drastic impact on your draft games. It doesnt really change very much in the long run since your going to just build your deck regardless of whatever everyone else is doing. FNMs arent GPs to where you have to be dead silent due to the high level rules presented to you.
If you want quiet, then just stay home and draft on MTGO. Most TO's arent going to care if people are talking at an FNM. A LGS isnt a library and people dont show up usually for GP/PT practice. Even when pros are playtesting they talk to each other. Also, people are already breaking high level rules at FNM drafts when they look at their decks while drafting or take way more time than your ever allowed a real event to make a pick, so any real practice you will ever get an FNM is inheritedly non-existent.
I think the ultimate problem is that WoTC tries to cater to way too many people and has made too many formats in the game. Modern and Legacy should merge into 1 format and that should just be the default competitive format along with Standard and Limited. If you want casual play then play EDH. If you want rotation, play Standard. Modern feels like a combination of Standard and EDH in that it tries to mix things up all the time and is more casual than competitive. Issue is that when your talking about playing a game competitively with some decent stakes, its not good to make a format like that.
This doesn't make any sense. How in the world can Modern and Legacy merge into one format? The closest you could come is just starting up a new nonrotating format with a starting point between the two, but that's not really merging, it's just moving Modern's starting point back more (which I wouldn't be opposed to, personally, but that's a separate point).
And MTGO, LOL, dont even get me started. MTGO was ALRIGHT back before it used Play Points. I could at least afford to play Magic back then. Now its just a total joke. Not only is the client garbage, but its extremely expensive. Id rather spend my time and money on way more things.
From everything I've heard, the Pokemon TCG Online platform is actually quite nice.
Simple. Just have Legacy without having the cards on the reserved list legal. Its not going to be perfect, nor is it ideal, but its better than what Modern is now. The Modern Card pool sucks and WoTC doesnt want to make an effort to change it, nor are they ever going to deal with the reserved list in their lifetime. Unbanning everything in Modern wouldnt make for a good format since Modern is just lacking any real cards that create checks and balances in general. The format needs brand new cards, which the only way to really do that is to merge Legacy and Modern into one so that way this one format is getting all the commander, conspiracy, and whatever other reprints. Unless WoTC stops being lazy and decides to change their arbitrary rules, that would be the only way to make a non-rotating format on WoTC's rules.
And the Pokemon TCG just sucks. I would rather have a draft Kamigawa (any version)/THS/Homelands than ever play any constructed Pokemon format. Oh and that's all Pokemon has is constructed and some ghetto version of Modern. Yeah, the PTCGO platform is nice, but really, almost any game's platform is better than MTGO. There is probably very few games out there that have a worse platform than MTGO. The MTGO platform is probably one of the most outdated ones in gaming, its just that bad. The fact that its so expensive just makes it extremely unattractive to anyone who is not an MTG fanatic.
Id really wish some people on here would speak for their own interest and not WoTC. We shouldnt really care how WoTC is doing. As a business, its WoTC RESPONSIBILITY (not the players) to stay in business. As a previous business owner, I did not expect my customers to keep me afloat and you should all be thinking the same way. Its not your job nor is it your morale responsibility to support WoTC like their your child or house pet.
With that said, Modern is basically like Yugioh now. Modern is a format playing solitare against each other. The format is terrible for competitive purposes. I see zero reason to enter any sort of high scale modern tournament since its basically more of a lotto than a real competition. Its not worth spending the money needed to even have a remote chance in the format, nor is it worth putting in all the effort and time to learn anything about it when there is just way too much variance involved. Ive played and watched Modern enough to realize that the stereotype of "draw your sideboard cards/win or dont draw them and lose" is a very real one. That being the reality of Modern, I see zero reason to really care about it. If people enjoy it, good for them, but honestly people enjoy alot of nonsense on this planet. Justin Beiber is one of the most popular artist on the market today, that doesnt mean he is good or that I should be buying his music or that I should be paying attention to him and that is how I feel about Modern too.
And the sad reality about Modern is that WoTC doesnt care about it's competitive scene whatsoever. Everything about it is just all about exploiting the customer and not really caring about the competitive experience. WoTC bans stuff thinking it will get more people to watch the PT, but honestly I dont even see that really working. Banning cards isnt going to do anything unless whatever they are banning is salvaging a really bad format or if the problem card was seriously hindering good strategies, Modern is still going to be a goldfish format. Until WoTC can fix that issue, your just going to have a format that is terrible to play competitively.
I think the ultimate problem is that WoTC tries to cater to way too many people and has made too many formats in the game. Modern and Legacy should merge into 1 format and that should just be the default competitive format along with Standard and Limited. If you want casual play then play EDH. If you want rotation, play Standard. Modern feels like a combination of Standard and EDH in that it tries to mix things up all the time and is more casual than competitive. Issue is that when your talking about playing a game competitively with some decent stakes, its not good to make a format like that.
And MTGO, LOL, dont even get me started. MTGO was ALRIGHT back before it used Play Points. I could at least afford to play Magic back then. Now its just a total joke. Not only is the client garbage, but its extremely expensive. Id rather spend my time and money on way more things.
Ugin is more than fine for the format. He is a turn four card that puts you in the winners seat. Your also playing Tron, if your playing Ugin, and Tron has been shown to be strong, but is able to be hated out if need be. While Tron makes it hard for a control deck to exist, Tron is in no way dominating the format, and is not Controls biggest issue. Plus you could always play UTron, who gets to play control and play Ugin. Best of both worlds.
@Everyone arguing that Lantern Control isn't a control deck because it uses to cards to form a soft lock. Isn't this EXACTLY what Legacy Miracles does? You know Top+Counter Balance, and that deck is closer to a hard lock than it is a soft lock. Yet it isn't called a prison deck, or a combo deck, even though you can drop the lock on turn two. Are you all saying that one of the most successful legacy decks ever has been mislabeled by everyone at every level of the game? I think not. Lantern Control is control, just as Grixis Control is, just because you can't sit behind a wall of counter magic like you did in '99 doesn't mean a deck isn't a control deck.
Did you not read the text of counterbalance where it says it COUNTERS cards? Im pretty sure counterbalance is not a prison deck since it actively counters the cards your playing unlike a prison deck that still lets cards resolve. Control decks are specifically about preventing spells from resolving since if not then we could say any deck is a control deck. Burn must be a control deck since it counters creatures with burn spells! So must be Tron since Karn makes you discard and Ugin blows up the board!
Next tournament I hope the top 8 is not full of all control decks. I would hate it if the top 8 was 3 tron control decks, 2 burn control decks, jund control, abzan control and boggles control!!! Wow you guys are so right, there is tons of control in Modern!!! I SO SMARTTZZZ
All right, lets do this by your logic;
Control the hand, Control the game? Nope, some one needs to tell all the 8rack guys they aren't playing control, don't know what they are playing but it's totally not control. Are Damnation and Wrath of God good control spells? Nope, but Supreme Verdict is, 'cause it's blue and does say counter. We also need to tell the Legacy Mods that they need to remove Death and Taxes from their Control sub forum. Don't mind the massive amount of mana denial, they can't counter cards! They also need to move High Tide and Solidarity to Control because they both pack Force of Will and Flusterstorm!
Your totally right, Lantern Control just nullifies all future top decks, while digging for their win con, and gaining perfect information with hand disruption. Who cares that you can't attack, your hand is full of dead spells, and your are being crushed in VCA (Virtual Card Advantage by the way). They are in no way controlling the game. They just put you in a prison, and you know prisons aren't very controlling places I hear.
You got it all wrong. 8rack is AGGRO since it plays Dark Confidant and that beats down very hard so your wrong about that but that is expected since I am a Modern Master. Also Death and Taxes is more like combo since you play Mother of Runes with Thalia and that creates a lock. Nevermind, DT is prison mixed with some slight midrange but since they have Aether Vial they are more like control with all that free mana advantage.
But yeah, I forgot that the MTGSalvation mods are gods and that everything they write is absolute law. I must bow to them now and ask for forgiveness since they are perfect and everything they post cannot be question. I forgot that this site worships them and that what they say is a blessing and that I am terrible for ever thinking that their word is incorrect.
If this is a joke I applaud you. If its not I don't even know where to begin.
Well according to your logic you think that Miracles is a prison deck, even though it has cards that clearly counter cards. Everyone else's logic so far has been "well control doesnt involve counterspells, it can also involve removal and discard".
So then we can conclude that Tron is a control deck with this logic. Tron has the Karn lock, it has removal with Ugin, its control! Burn also has Eidolon locks and has removal, so its also control! Zoo is also a control deck since it hardlocks your life total with creatures and it has removal/burn spells so that is also control. Hey look at me everyone, I will call all the decks whatever I want since on this site you can make no sense at all and its perfectly acceptable!
Chill before you cut someone with all that edge.
I consider GR Tron a control deck. Durdle, threat, repeat if threat was dealt with. If you're pointing your burn spells at a creature somethings going very wrong and the Eidolon Lock isn't a control tool at all, it's literally only used by experienced burn players to lock a game up. Finally, what does hardlocking a life total even mean? Killing them?
I consider control decks ones that actively control a game. I consider prison decks a form of control deck because of that.
Well I consider Tron a combo deck since you play 3 lands and boom combo. Also Scapeshift is an aggro land deck it aggressively searches up lands. Soul Sisters is also another underrated combo deck it controls its own life total. I also dont know why people call Jeskai Midrange a midrange deck since we all know that midrange is really code for control in a world with anyone with common sense, duh! Ad Nauseium is a ramp deck since it plays lots of ramp and Goblins is seriously one great control deck, I have no idea how it doesnt see more modern play since those goblins are very good at countering opponents moves!
The definition of a combo is, and I quote: A combo deck is a term for a deck of (usually sixty) Magic: The Gathering cards that aims to win the game using a relatively small number of cards that instantly or very quickly win the game when combined (hence the name "combo"). Because of this win strategy, a common motif among combo decks is an emphasis put on the ability to find specific cards quickly and win as fast as possible.
Scapeshift and Ad Nauseam win on the spot if they resolve their key spell. Scapeshift literally can not win turn 4 so they have to use control elements to durdle and dig until they can find Scapeshift, and saying Ad Nauseam is anything but combo is just stupid. They literally have no way to win outside of resolving their combination of cards.
A control deck on the other hand is: A term for a deck of (usually sixty) cards that aims to control the opponent's cards and progression with, ideally, the end result where one has full control of everything that is done during the game. Control decks typically get their edge through card advantage. They are very powerful and present in virtually every format in the game.
Jeskai Midrange is a Midrange deck for a reason, it turns on a dime much like its counterparts Jund, Junk, and Grixis. Saying Goblins is a control deck doesn't even make sense. The closest thing they have to controlling the early game is Lightning Bolt. As a side note you know what else tries to have full control of the game? Lantern Control
And Finally Aggro: A term for an agressive deck which attempts to win the game through persistent, quick damage dealing. Usually these decks will use small, hard-hitting creatures to win the game.
Goblins falls entirely in this section having no real threats instead relying on their mass of men to get around whatever the opponent is doing.
Well my Goblin deck is a combo deck since i combo my goblins together and they arent alot of guys and they kill my opponent. My Ad Nauseum deck is a burn deck since I burn them with the combo and sometimes I will side in a creature or two so I can hit them hard! Lets not forget my awesome Scapeshift burn deck since liek I got dat Snapcaster Bolt combo, which I guess means my Scapeshift deck is a combo/aggro/burn/control/midrange deck? Also scapeshift can win turn 4, you must not play modern very often to know that! Turn 1 I play bolt, Turn 2 I play two bolts (opponent is at 11). Turn 3 I play Snapcaster Bolt so my opponent is at 8. Turn 4 I attack with Snapcaster, put them to 6, then I play my final bolt and my snapcaster for lethal, so you are totally wrong that Scapeshift cant turn 4 kill, you just dont play modern every single waking moment like me so there is no possible way that you can know this awesome l33t logic that is so haxzors!
If this is a joke I applaud you. If its not I don't even know where to begin.
Well according to your logic you think that Miracles is a prison deck, even though it has cards that clearly counter cards. Everyone else's logic so far has been "well control doesnt involve counterspells, it can also involve removal and discard".
So then we can conclude that Tron is a control deck with this logic. Tron has the Karn lock, it has removal with Ugin, its control! Burn also has Eidolon locks and has removal, so its also control! Zoo is also a control deck since it hardlocks your life total with creatures and it has removal/burn spells so that is also control. Hey look at me everyone, I will call all the decks whatever I want since on this site you can make no sense at all and its perfectly acceptable!
Chill before you cut someone with all that edge.
I consider GR Tron a control deck. Durdle, threat, repeat if threat was dealt with. If you're pointing your burn spells at a creature somethings going very wrong and the Eidolon Lock isn't a control tool at all, it's literally only used by experienced burn players to lock a game up. Finally, what does hardlocking a life total even mean? Killing them?
I consider control decks ones that actively control a game. I consider prison decks a form of control deck because of that.
Well I consider Tron a combo deck since you play 3 lands and boom combo. Also Scapeshift is an aggro land deck it aggressively searches up lands. Soul Sisters is also another underrated combo deck it controls its own life total. I also dont know why people call Jeskai Midrange a midrange deck since we all know that midrange is really code for control in a world with anyone with common sense, duh! Ad Nauseium is a ramp deck since it plays lots of ramp and Goblins is seriously one great control deck, I have no idea how it doesnt see more modern play since those goblins are very good at countering opponents moves!
If this is a joke I applaud you. If its not I don't even know where to begin.
Well according to your logic you think that Miracles is a prison deck, even though it has cards that clearly counter cards. Everyone else's logic so far has been "well control doesnt involve counterspells, it can also involve removal and discard".
So then we can conclude that Tron is a control deck with this logic. Tron has the Karn lock, it has removal with Ugin, its control! Burn also has Eidolon locks and has removal, so its also control! Zoo is also a control deck since it hardlocks your life total with creatures and it has removal/burn spells so that is also control. Hey look at me everyone, I will call all the decks whatever I want since on this site you can make no sense at all and its perfectly acceptable!
Ugin is more than fine for the format. He is a turn four card that puts you in the winners seat. Your also playing Tron, if your playing Ugin, and Tron has been shown to be strong, but is able to be hated out if need be. While Tron makes it hard for a control deck to exist, Tron is in no way dominating the format, and is not Controls biggest issue. Plus you could always play UTron, who gets to play control and play Ugin. Best of both worlds.
@Everyone arguing that Lantern Control isn't a control deck because it uses to cards to form a soft lock. Isn't this EXACTLY what Legacy Miracles does? You know Top+Counter Balance, and that deck is closer to a hard lock than it is a soft lock. Yet it isn't called a prison deck, or a combo deck, even though you can drop the lock on turn two. Are you all saying that one of the most successful legacy decks ever has been mislabeled by everyone at every level of the game? I think not. Lantern Control is control, just as Grixis Control is, just because you can't sit behind a wall of counter magic like you did in '99 doesn't mean a deck isn't a control deck.
Did you not read the text of counterbalance where it says it COUNTERS cards? Im pretty sure counterbalance is not a prison deck since it actively counters the cards your playing unlike a prison deck that still lets cards resolve. Control decks are specifically about preventing spells from resolving since if not then we could say any deck is a control deck. Burn must be a control deck since it counters creatures with burn spells! So must be Tron since Karn makes you discard and Ugin blows up the board!
Next tournament I hope the top 8 is not full of all control decks. I would hate it if the top 8 was 3 tron control decks, 2 burn control decks, jund control, abzan control and boggles control!!! Wow you guys are so right, there is tons of control in Modern!!! I SO SMARTTZZZ
Shocklands are out of the question to use in Legacy at this point.
I play watery grave in ad nauseam storm (in place of underground sea). The lifeloss means drawing fewer cards for ad nauseam and you die faster to aggro decks; it's definitely a problem. As new players we're taught to not overvalue life totals but I feel vets frequently underrate the importance of life too.
I always thought the rising price of force of will or something else would threaten the health of the format but it's probably just gonna be the lands that "kill" it. I put kill in parenthesis because I would not be surprised if the size of the format plateaus for many years to come.
Legacy is going to plateau because Wizards and the DCI don't care to regulate it properly. Lots of people like the blue mirror and lots of people don't. The people who don't are likely viewed as candidates for conversion to Modern by the powers that be. This is the only thing that adequately explains the complete lack of supervision of the Legacy metagame in the face of 75%+ lists with Brainstorm.
Brainstorm isnt an issue though. The card doesnt do anything degenerate outside of showing up in a lot of decklists. There will always be some group of cards that see play in a series of decks regardless of the format. If Brainstormed was banned then Preorder and Ponder would take up the same slots in all of these decks. If Preordain and Ponder banned, then Serum Visions would take their place. If Serum Visions got banned, well then you should probably be quitting Magic at this point since then the game would become sheer stupidity at that point.
Really, it doesnt take a rocket science to understand why Legacy is struggling. The format cost much money to play in and the format has no good support for organized play. If any other competitive Magic format was treated this way, it would end up in the same exact position, which Vintage is deal with the same way but even worse.
75% of the lists wouldn't contain Preordain and Ponder in a Legacy without Brainstorm. The problem with Brainstorm is that it is the most powerful linchpin card in a card-finding strategy that has become completely dominant over the other potential options. This strategy will eventually be 85%+ of the meta and its prevalence will continue to erode the quality of Legacy play. It's beyond boring to watch two people cantrip until the last play wins the game. That's not Magic, that's high impact mini-maxing gone wild.
How would Brainstorm erode the quality of Legacy play? Brainstorm is one of the reasons why Legacy has high quality of play. Brainstorm leads to decision making that leads to a lot of strategizing and moves that make or break games. That is what Magic should ideally be trying to get players to do, make players use their brain to win games instead of slamming things without thinking.
Im not really seeing your reasoning behind why Brainstorm needs to go other than "well its played alot and I think its boring". That isnt really a compelling reason to ban a card. Should we ban basic lands since they show up in every deck and they are boring to play with too?
Shocklands are out of the question to use in Legacy at this point.
I play watery grave in ad nauseam storm (in place of underground sea). The lifeloss means drawing fewer cards for ad nauseam and you die faster to aggro decks; it's definitely a problem. As new players we're taught to not overvalue life totals but I feel vets frequently underrate the importance of life too.
I always thought the rising price of force of will or something else would threaten the health of the format but it's probably just gonna be the lands that "kill" it. I put kill in parenthesis because I would not be surprised if the size of the format plateaus for many years to come.
Legacy is going to plateau because Wizards and the DCI don't care to regulate it properly. Lots of people like the blue mirror and lots of people don't. The people who don't are likely viewed as candidates for conversion to Modern by the powers that be. This is the only thing that adequately explains the complete lack of supervision of the Legacy metagame in the face of 75%+ lists with Brainstorm.
Brainstorm isnt an issue though. The card doesnt do anything degenerate outside of showing up in a lot of decklists. There will always be some group of cards that see play in a series of decks regardless of the format. If Brainstormed was banned then Preorder and Ponder would take up the same slots in all of these decks. If Preordain and Ponder banned, then Serum Visions would take their place. If Serum Visions got banned, well then you should probably be quitting Magic at this point since then the game would become sheer stupidity at that point.
Really, it doesnt take a rocket science to understand why Legacy is struggling. The format cost much money to play in and the format has no good support for organized play. If any other competitive Magic format was treated this way, it would end up in the same exact position, which Vintage is deal with the same way but even worse.
I just wanted to chime in and state for the record that there are players out there that actually prefer Modern to Legacy. I keep reading, both in this thread and other places, implications that Modern is an inferior format and that Modern players settle on the next best thing because of budget restrictions. I'm sure more people would play Legacy if it wasn't as expensive, but personally I prefer Modern over Legacy. Not everyone enjoys trying to play around zero cost counterspells, consistent turn 1-3 combo kills and countertop locks. If anything, a lower entry cost would lead Modern players to play Legacy in addition to Modern.
I also think that the duals are the big barrier. Other staples are mostly somewhat manageable, but the cost of a decent Legacy manabase is just overwhelming.
I dont mean to be that guy but your a small majority who thinks that way. I do not like Modern just due to the principle of why it exist. Modern exists because Wizards is scared of dealing with the reserved list and had to find a way to make a format that supports older cards. Its all political and financial. Any magic format that's basis is around how to sell packs is not going to be balanced since its strictly sales driven and not driven by balancing/the integrity of the game.
You say that you dont like to play around "cards that cost 0 mana", but what about things like Twin that warp an entire format? You cant build a modern deck with no removal since you just die to twin, unless your deck is killing first with some other combo. Any TCG is going to have cards that warp a format, to say that you dont like to play a format because some cards dictate how they play is a bit hypocritical since all formats are all warped by some set of cards.
Thanks for the life lesson. It seems you want everyone to think as you do about everything from Wotc and Hasbro to what control is.
I disagree you need to counter anything for a deck to be a control deck. But as I mentioned earlier, we are not going to agree about this subject so I am done.
No, I want everyone to not think what I think. I want everyone to think what my dog thinks or what my sisters neighbor's 1st born son thinks. Its ok, I know you will be back once you have taken a few english courses and gotten a bit smarter. Its fine to be jealous, I dont judge.
User banned for past record and for trolling/flaming spree
-ktkenshinx-
Here is the deck that I ran. Since Saffron Olive is so good at Magic I thought it would be disrespectful to cut any cards from the deck.
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/much-abrew-about-nothing-demonic-tentacles
I figure I just send you the link in case you want to watch his videos. Note, I am not him nor do I know him. Sometimes I like to pretend we are friends even though we aren't, but maybe some day I will be privileged enough to meet this future Magic hall of famer.
So I got to my FNM at 6 o clock. I get there early to chat with the store owner and hang out in his store. He kind of hates me since I never buy anything and I just take up space in my store, but I guess he can't hate me that much if he takes my money. I thought I would be nice and buy some Doritos and a mountain dew before the tournament started. Some people at the store were pissed when I tried to play them after. One guy was yelling at me since I was touching his Tarmogoyf with my Doritos flavored hands. I didnt know why he was playing me since I said I would play him in Modern with my Standard deck, but he was a cool guy. I think he was yelling at me since he actually likes me but whatever, not important!
At 7 o clock the tournament started. The pairings were announced and the store owner had to keep yelling over me since I would not stop talking about the new Pokemon game coming out. It was fine he likes Pokemon too and appreciates it. Anyway, round 1 I faced a guy named Justin. Justin was a cool guy. For some reason, Justin kept trying to get me into buying one of his cars since he works at a car dealer ship. At first I thought he was a little sketchy since he doesn't have another job and did not go to college, but he seems like a hard worker. He told me about one time how he sold a guy a warranted on a used car and the guy tried to claim it and wasn't able to and Justin made a bunch of money, so he sounds like a smart guy. Oh yeah, thats right, I was talking about Magic. Justin played me with his Bant Company deck. I was wondering where Justin got the money to buy the deck but he told me a friend loaned him the cards. His friend just went to jail so I was confused but had to play on. I was able to beat him game 1 since he flooded out and I got my Demonic Pact on board. He was unable to answer it and I drew all my bounce spells to keep the chains moving. Game 2 he crushed me with an early army of creatures and I flooded out a bit. Game 3 was close since he did not have a strong opening and kept countering my stuff with Negates, but I won the counter war and was on to round 2.
Round 2 I had to face a girl named Melinda. Melinda is a cool chick, even though she does not seem to like me very much. She calls me rude names and tells me that she knows where I live and like that I should watch my back or something weird like that. I think it's just her way of communicating even though there was one time where she followed me home, but I think she just got lost or something. Melinda was playing Golgari Seasons. When she plays her kill spells, she says she thinks of me. That sounds super nice. Anyway, luck for me, I had not too many creatures to kill except my Octopuses. I took game 1 easily. Game 2 she had a bunch of hand disruption, but no answer to my Demonic Pact. After the match she told me that she was coming for me. I told the owner about the cool things she was saying and for some reason she got DQ'ed from the tournament. Oh well.
Round 3 I faced off against my buddy Mike. Me and mike aren't actually friends, but I like to think we are. Mike was running Esper Dragons, which I thought was cool since I like Dragons. Mike says that he recently lost his job and had to sell his car to play the deck, which was cool that he is still able to play Magic. Mike crushed me since his outcountered me and his Dragons went off quickly. He beat me 2-0. Mike was really happy and even hugged me, which was cool. Mike said he was just happy that he could win at something since he has been down in life. He told me that I saved his life and I didnt know what that meant, but I was happy for him.
Round 4 I got a bye and was happy to find out that I made the TOP 8!!! That was one of the first top 8's of an FNM that I made in a while. I am usually pretty bad at Magic but ever since I started watching Saffron Olive I have gotten so much better. I'm going to watch him more often if it means winning more games!
Top 8 was kind of a bummer but it was a bad match up for me. My opponent John was on Mono Red Aggro. John had the dream draw and crushed me 2-0. I felt sad since I worked hard in learning how to play Saffys deck. John said that I was a bad player and my deck was bad and that I should quit Magic. Maybe he is right. Maybe I am not cut out for this game or should keep playing. John knocked my deck over and told me to "pick up your deck noob". I thought John sent a powerful, yet meaningful message. I hope that the next time we face that I can earn John's respect.
Overall I went 2-2. I think having a 50% winning percentage was pretty awesome. I got to meet some cool people and learn some new things. I think I will go back next weekend and hope to do better. I liked this deck alot and really need to work on fine tuning my Mono Red Match up. I think I will send Saffy a message on twitter and hope he can help me out. Maybe if I can save enough money up I can fly out to his place and meet up and watch some Pro Tour footage to immprove my game. Anyway, sorry for the long response. I had a fun tournament and hope I can do better next time. Thanks for reading. If you got any tips on how I can improve saffys deck, hit me up.
Please don't troll. Thanks! -- Lugger
If you want quiet, then just stay home and draft on MTGO. Most TO's arent going to care if people are talking at an FNM. A LGS isnt a library and people dont show up usually for GP/PT practice. Even when pros are playtesting they talk to each other. Also, people are already breaking high level rules at FNM drafts when they look at their decks while drafting or take way more time than your ever allowed a real event to make a pick, so any real practice you will ever get an FNM is inheritedly non-existent.
Simple. Just have Legacy without having the cards on the reserved list legal. Its not going to be perfect, nor is it ideal, but its better than what Modern is now. The Modern Card pool sucks and WoTC doesnt want to make an effort to change it, nor are they ever going to deal with the reserved list in their lifetime. Unbanning everything in Modern wouldnt make for a good format since Modern is just lacking any real cards that create checks and balances in general. The format needs brand new cards, which the only way to really do that is to merge Legacy and Modern into one so that way this one format is getting all the commander, conspiracy, and whatever other reprints. Unless WoTC stops being lazy and decides to change their arbitrary rules, that would be the only way to make a non-rotating format on WoTC's rules.
And the Pokemon TCG just sucks. I would rather have a draft Kamigawa (any version)/THS/Homelands than ever play any constructed Pokemon format. Oh and that's all Pokemon has is constructed and some ghetto version of Modern. Yeah, the PTCGO platform is nice, but really, almost any game's platform is better than MTGO. There is probably very few games out there that have a worse platform than MTGO. The MTGO platform is probably one of the most outdated ones in gaming, its just that bad. The fact that its so expensive just makes it extremely unattractive to anyone who is not an MTG fanatic.
With that said, Modern is basically like Yugioh now. Modern is a format playing solitare against each other. The format is terrible for competitive purposes. I see zero reason to enter any sort of high scale modern tournament since its basically more of a lotto than a real competition. Its not worth spending the money needed to even have a remote chance in the format, nor is it worth putting in all the effort and time to learn anything about it when there is just way too much variance involved. Ive played and watched Modern enough to realize that the stereotype of "draw your sideboard cards/win or dont draw them and lose" is a very real one. That being the reality of Modern, I see zero reason to really care about it. If people enjoy it, good for them, but honestly people enjoy alot of nonsense on this planet. Justin Beiber is one of the most popular artist on the market today, that doesnt mean he is good or that I should be buying his music or that I should be paying attention to him and that is how I feel about Modern too.
And the sad reality about Modern is that WoTC doesnt care about it's competitive scene whatsoever. Everything about it is just all about exploiting the customer and not really caring about the competitive experience. WoTC bans stuff thinking it will get more people to watch the PT, but honestly I dont even see that really working. Banning cards isnt going to do anything unless whatever they are banning is salvaging a really bad format or if the problem card was seriously hindering good strategies, Modern is still going to be a goldfish format. Until WoTC can fix that issue, your just going to have a format that is terrible to play competitively.
I think the ultimate problem is that WoTC tries to cater to way too many people and has made too many formats in the game. Modern and Legacy should merge into 1 format and that should just be the default competitive format along with Standard and Limited. If you want casual play then play EDH. If you want rotation, play Standard. Modern feels like a combination of Standard and EDH in that it tries to mix things up all the time and is more casual than competitive. Issue is that when your talking about playing a game competitively with some decent stakes, its not good to make a format like that.
And MTGO, LOL, dont even get me started. MTGO was ALRIGHT back before it used Play Points. I could at least afford to play Magic back then. Now its just a total joke. Not only is the client garbage, but its extremely expensive. Id rather spend my time and money on way more things.
You got it all wrong. 8rack is AGGRO since it plays Dark Confidant and that beats down very hard so your wrong about that but that is expected since I am a Modern Master. Also Death and Taxes is more like combo since you play Mother of Runes with Thalia and that creates a lock. Nevermind, DT is prison mixed with some slight midrange but since they have Aether Vial they are more like control with all that free mana advantage.
But yeah, I forgot that the MTGSalvation mods are gods and that everything they write is absolute law. I must bow to them now and ask for forgiveness since they are perfect and everything they post cannot be question. I forgot that this site worships them and that what they say is a blessing and that I am terrible for ever thinking that their word is incorrect.
Well my Goblin deck is a combo deck since i combo my goblins together and they arent alot of guys and they kill my opponent. My Ad Nauseum deck is a burn deck since I burn them with the combo and sometimes I will side in a creature or two so I can hit them hard! Lets not forget my awesome Scapeshift burn deck since liek I got dat Snapcaster Bolt combo, which I guess means my Scapeshift deck is a combo/aggro/burn/control/midrange deck? Also scapeshift can win turn 4, you must not play modern very often to know that! Turn 1 I play bolt, Turn 2 I play two bolts (opponent is at 11). Turn 3 I play Snapcaster Bolt so my opponent is at 8. Turn 4 I attack with Snapcaster, put them to 6, then I play my final bolt and my snapcaster for lethal, so you are totally wrong that Scapeshift cant turn 4 kill, you just dont play modern every single waking moment like me so there is no possible way that you can know this awesome l33t logic that is so haxzors!
Well I consider Tron a combo deck since you play 3 lands and boom combo. Also Scapeshift is an aggro land deck it aggressively searches up lands. Soul Sisters is also another underrated combo deck it controls its own life total. I also dont know why people call Jeskai Midrange a midrange deck since we all know that midrange is really code for control in a world with anyone with common sense, duh! Ad Nauseium is a ramp deck since it plays lots of ramp and Goblins is seriously one great control deck, I have no idea how it doesnt see more modern play since those goblins are very good at countering opponents moves!
Well according to your logic you think that Miracles is a prison deck, even though it has cards that clearly counter cards. Everyone else's logic so far has been "well control doesnt involve counterspells, it can also involve removal and discard".
So then we can conclude that Tron is a control deck with this logic. Tron has the Karn lock, it has removal with Ugin, its control! Burn also has Eidolon locks and has removal, so its also control! Zoo is also a control deck since it hardlocks your life total with creatures and it has removal/burn spells so that is also control. Hey look at me everyone, I will call all the decks whatever I want since on this site you can make no sense at all and its perfectly acceptable!
Did you not read the text of counterbalance where it says it COUNTERS cards? Im pretty sure counterbalance is not a prison deck since it actively counters the cards your playing unlike a prison deck that still lets cards resolve. Control decks are specifically about preventing spells from resolving since if not then we could say any deck is a control deck. Burn must be a control deck since it counters creatures with burn spells! So must be Tron since Karn makes you discard and Ugin blows up the board!
Next tournament I hope the top 8 is not full of all control decks. I would hate it if the top 8 was 3 tron control decks, 2 burn control decks, jund control, abzan control and boggles control!!! Wow you guys are so right, there is tons of control in Modern!!! I SO SMARTTZZZ
How would Brainstorm erode the quality of Legacy play? Brainstorm is one of the reasons why Legacy has high quality of play. Brainstorm leads to decision making that leads to a lot of strategizing and moves that make or break games. That is what Magic should ideally be trying to get players to do, make players use their brain to win games instead of slamming things without thinking.
Im not really seeing your reasoning behind why Brainstorm needs to go other than "well its played alot and I think its boring". That isnt really a compelling reason to ban a card. Should we ban basic lands since they show up in every deck and they are boring to play with too?
Brainstorm isnt an issue though. The card doesnt do anything degenerate outside of showing up in a lot of decklists. There will always be some group of cards that see play in a series of decks regardless of the format. If Brainstormed was banned then Preorder and Ponder would take up the same slots in all of these decks. If Preordain and Ponder banned, then Serum Visions would take their place. If Serum Visions got banned, well then you should probably be quitting Magic at this point since then the game would become sheer stupidity at that point.
Really, it doesnt take a rocket science to understand why Legacy is struggling. The format cost much money to play in and the format has no good support for organized play. If any other competitive Magic format was treated this way, it would end up in the same exact position, which Vintage is deal with the same way but even worse.
I dont mean to be that guy but your a small majority who thinks that way. I do not like Modern just due to the principle of why it exist. Modern exists because Wizards is scared of dealing with the reserved list and had to find a way to make a format that supports older cards. Its all political and financial. Any magic format that's basis is around how to sell packs is not going to be balanced since its strictly sales driven and not driven by balancing/the integrity of the game.
You say that you dont like to play around "cards that cost 0 mana", but what about things like Twin that warp an entire format? You cant build a modern deck with no removal since you just die to twin, unless your deck is killing first with some other combo. Any TCG is going to have cards that warp a format, to say that you dont like to play a format because some cards dictate how they play is a bit hypocritical since all formats are all warped by some set of cards.
No, I want everyone to not think what I think. I want everyone to think what my dog thinks or what my sisters neighbor's 1st born son thinks. Its ok, I know you will be back once you have taken a few english courses and gotten a bit smarter. Its fine to be jealous, I dont judge.