Some cards whose price had raised too much in the last two years have been reprinted as well. In this category we find Fulminator Mage, Noble Hierarch, Spellskite, Remand, Splinter Twin and Daybreak Coronet. In the case of the later two, these cards have appeared in the collection without the combo cards that make them work in Modern (Deceiver Exarch for Twin, and any other aura for Coronet). Kiki-Jiki+Pestermite was a combo that was very present in the first Modern Masters format, and probably they wanted to avoid it; however, not making room to cards like Rancor and some totem armors and/or hybrid mana auras from Shadowmoor/Eventide to make Daybreak Coronnet playable in the format is a clear mistake. The conclusion is clear: if you get a money rare, don't expect to win Limited games with it.
Finally, there are the missing cards from this set. There are many cards that were printed in the first Modern Masters edition that didn't appear in this new edition, like Blood Moon, Engineered Explosives and Vedalken Shackles. In order to make room to new additions, specially if they're rare cards, you need to cut older cards, so there's little to complain about it. However, after two editions there are some cards that haven't been printed yet. The most flagrant case is Serum Visions. With the scry ability being present in Theros, we all thought (or hoped) that the card would be reprinted in that block; we didn't only get the original one, but nothing remotely similar. Now it hasn't been reprinted in Modern Masters again, and its price is skyrocketing.
Once the understanding of the game has improved, Wizards have realized the best decks are both consistent and versatile, something you can only achieve with the control of what you draw via cantrips. Modern is a format in which you can't have it all and you are forced to make a choice: the consistent deck that has a very streamlined plan but can be easily hated, or the versatile deck that has reactive cards that can be useful in a large amount of match-ups, but will still have some unwinnable pairings and, since there aren't completely versatile answers against the full metagame, can still draw the wrong ones against a given opponent.
Other effects that Wizards seem to dislike are stealing creatures (not only Shackles disappear, but Sower of Temptation and Threads of Disloyalty haven't been reprinted), preventing players from searching their libraries (Shadow of Doubt and Aven Mindcensor haven't made the cut twice, while Leonin Arbiter could have been reprinted this year but it wasn't as well) and cheating fatties into play (Goryo's Vengeance and Through the Breach). Inquisition of Kozilek hasn't been printed too, but it appeared in the Modern event deck a year ago.
Overall, the selection of cards in Modern Masters 2015 is pretty good, and if we only look at money cards even better than in the previous Modern Masters edition (something we should already expect from the price increase). The price of some of the reprinted cards is already falling down, so May is a good month to start building or completing your Modern pool, before there is the rebound effect that we observed with the original Modern Masters edition.
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Last active Fri, Oct, 11 2019 06:05:01
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You're right that "lock" was not the appropriate word to describe the strategy of this deck, though the concept is clear.
My plan against BGx decks is replacing the Mindcensors with Mirran Crusaders from the board, though the card lacks the ability of Smiter of being good also against UWR.
Besides Loxodon Smiter and the good cmc=2 creatures, the other good options that green offer and WW doesn't have access (or at least the ones I'm missing) are the possibility of casting Leonin Arbiter and destroying a land turn 2 with Ghost Quarter thanks to Noble Hierarch, and playing Thrun, the Last Troll in the sideboard.
However, the bunch of fliers and colorless creatures you play in WW turn the Affinity match-up from hard to favorable, you have more answers against Twin and it is harder to get stalled by Blood Moon, so staying monocolor is not that bad.
As stated in the post above, we need more cmc=2 creatures besides Leonin Arbiter and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but the WW lacks them. While playing GW we could have access to creatures like Scavening Ooze, Voice of Resurgence or Qasali Pridemage, WW doesn't have a single creature with that power level. If we opt for more hatebears, cards like Phyrexian Revoker, Grand Abolisher or Imposing Sovereign are very fragile, walls like Spellskite or Wall of Omens don't attack, and the available dumb beaters (Serra Avenger, Jötun Grunt and Epochrasite) aren't very reliable.
So far, I've opted for the Revoker, since it's the creature that better fits the tax strategy of this deck, being able to stop cards like Deathrite Shaman, Birds of Paradise or Wall of Roots, and I even won a game naming Chromatic Sphere against Urzatron to avoid him casting a Pyroclasm; it can also block Etched Champion. However, that single point of toughness and being useless in some match-ups makes me open to alternatives.
My second concern is about the effectivity of our lock. I've never been able to stall a Jund player with Leonin Arbiter or Aven Mindcensor. They crack their fetchlands before we can get any of those guys into play, play tons of lands despite having a very low mana curve and also have a lot of removal. In which pairings or situations do you abandon the mana denial strategy and try to go for an alternative path to victory? If you know that your opponent plays many manlands in his list, do you try to be aggressive with the land destruction in the early game or reserve your Ghost Quarters for their Celestial Colonnades or Treetop Villages?
Thank you for your advice.