Something I was tossing around with a friend (came onto the topic talking about Vintage/Legacy) is re-printing Ancient Tomb.
The thought process was; there are a lot of good 2-drop hate artifacts, that are all proving too slow to combat crazy combo decks (Chalice of the Void on 1, Torpor Orb, Damping Sphere etc) that just do not make it onto the battlefield fast enough anymore.
Now it might be crazy and I dont know if it just breaks particular combos or whatever, but I thought it was an interesting card at least.
Because I think if a meta is balanced, it is either cyclical, or at least adaptable.
Many of us plebs predicted what the meta would look like, so I'm sure the pro's and grinders did too, yet the top 8...and much of the day 2...is what we predicted.
I want prison to be JUST AS viable as Aggro.
I want midrange to be JUST AS viable as Aggro.
I want combo to be JUST AS viable as Aggro.
And yes.
I want control to be JUST AS viable as Aggro.
They are not though. 5 different flavours of Aggro is not a good thing, because its not truly diverse.
6% of the Day 2 was Control.
31% of the Day 2 was Aggro.
Yes, thats a problem.
This in a nutshell.
There is nothing wrong with having strong decks; there just needs to be strong/competitive decks in each archetype, not only one or two. Control is hurting bad right now (and for a long time) and midrange has struggled recently. They dont need 4 CMC sorcery speed cards, they need better generalized answer cards and they need to be viable early.
My opinion is decks that interact with each other leads towards better Magic. Decks which seek to ignore the opponent lead to a much worse format. That's not to say that there's not room for those types of decks, only that it shouldn't be the go to strategy.
Formats solely composed of combos are bad, same as aggro/control/midrange. I will expand on this later when I am sober.
So much this!
Deck % is so much less important than archetype %. A format will never be equal %, its just not possible. But I would like to see a top 8 that had more than just non-interactive combo in it.
Formats need to draw people to be good and you draw the most people when each person can play a deck style they like; which doesnt happen in 1-dimensional formats.
I run a talisman of dominance, so I think that is a slot it could swap into; it loses the ramp but gains life (instead of losing) colour fixes and comes down early.
But ya, im not sure if its good enough to completely redo the deck or make significant changes for but I thought it was at least an interesting new card that does somethings that are needed in our deck (life gain, colour fixing).
But maybe it just isnt good enough to make the 75.
Cheap artifact (easy discard to TfK)
Colour fixer (makes an island a swamp for dismember, makes a A Ruin/Field of Ruin an island)
Easy life gain (anti-bolt)
I might be the minority here but I would love this thread.
I am of the personal belief that Blue is strong in Modern, IF you know what the field looks like and if you know what 90% of what each deck will look like. Without this information, Blue feels meh. The cards in Blue (whether necessary or not, which is a different argument) are just too focused to play in a wide open field.
Sleeved up a version of Bloody Rabbit's deck (missing some Chalices and a Snap due to availability in my area).
Only played 2 rounds but man I missed playing this game.
My question (no this isnt just a post about my playing magic) is; how bad is our burn matchup? I played it tonight and even with a chalice on 1 on the play, it still required my opponent misplaying to win a single game (lost the match on a mull to 4).
I have really enjoyed reading your posts; I like to see the thought process.
I am getting back into Modern (MTG as a whole as well) and I am going to be picking up U Tron as my deck. Really like your build, and I am going to start with it.
How noob friendly is it? I play U Tron back when I played but its been a long time (before Khans). Am I better off with a more traditional build of U Tron (Shok's/the 5-0 deck that has been floating around for a few months)?
...lol? i think that could be a great card for a control deck!! or maybe the sorcery speed is too bad? i think in late game (turn 7+) could be great..but maybe can't take the slot of sphinx rev...instant and life gain is too good
I think its good in tap-out decks, that want to play permanents like D Sphere or Planeswalkers. It being sorcery speed and its main advantage being the scry before drawing, just seems poor in draw-go.
Rev is just prolly better though (CMC 5 to draw 3 at sorcery speed or CMC 6 to draw 3 at instant speed and gain 3).
I echo what cbgirardo says. Emrakul only helps in matchups that we should already be heavily favored, more specifically the control matchups that take forever to grind out. It is otherwise dead in hand. Running Treasure Mage is way more worth it than Eye, and U Tron's list is way too tight to accommodate Emrakul without a bad cut even if we want to.
I don't think we're as favored against control as we once were, at least not against Grixis Control. Jeskai was always a feasible 2-0 provided you were especially patient in grinding them out, but Grixis- with its access to Tasigur and Kolaghan- can actually grind us out in the ultra long game, and can just exhaust our supply of answers and prevent us from finally blowing them out at the top of the curve. But a lone Emrakul isn't something they can deal with upon resolution (and neither can any other deck), so I really don't see the harm in making room in the sideboard for 1x 15 mana: you win the game (especially since we have nothing but time to get to that point, with or without
).
I also think that grixis control is slightly unfavorable. They run a lot of cheap, hard counters like dispel. If you did drop a chalice too early then you risk eating a kolaghans command. Also, when they drop tasigur for 1 you basically have to be ready to dismember with counter magic backup because he's so cheap he allows them to protect his casting. Then if he does come down and you kill him they might just use his ability to go up on card advantage. It's a tough matchup for sure, but I'm not sure how I would like a singleton emrakul since getting to 15 or 13 mana with eye is not trivial sometimes.
I disagree, I find the Grixis control match up to be favourable, if not strongly so. Yes, if they have the god had of Scour into Tas/Angler into counter/K Command it can be difficult but other than that I find the match up to be easy. Grixis is more midrange than control and we just go bigger than them. Chalice on 1 into Chalice on 3 is almost unbeatable, Remanding a tasigur/angler is usually fairly back-breaking and Wurmcoil is always a 2 for 1 at least. The delver version is a little harder but its still a match up id take over Infect/burn/zoo any day of the week.
After it won the last SCG open fairly easily, multiple on-camera games won on turn 3 through removal. Since Become Immense was released the deck has been placing well and is a lot more consistent than people seem to think it is.
I think, given the previous rage against Bloom and Goryo's winning before turn 4 and being hard to stop, that Infect should be getting the hate too?
The thought process was; there are a lot of good 2-drop hate artifacts, that are all proving too slow to combat crazy combo decks (Chalice of the Void on 1, Torpor Orb, Damping Sphere etc) that just do not make it onto the battlefield fast enough anymore.
Now it might be crazy and I dont know if it just breaks particular combos or whatever, but I thought it was an interesting card at least.
This in a nutshell.
There is nothing wrong with having strong decks; there just needs to be strong/competitive decks in each archetype, not only one or two. Control is hurting bad right now (and for a long time) and midrange has struggled recently. They dont need 4 CMC sorcery speed cards, they need better generalized answer cards and they need to be viable early.
So much this!
Deck % is so much less important than archetype %. A format will never be equal %, its just not possible. But I would like to see a top 8 that had more than just non-interactive combo in it.
Formats need to draw people to be good and you draw the most people when each person can play a deck style they like; which doesnt happen in 1-dimensional formats.
I looked back a few pages but couldnt find a list of yours. Would you mind sharing your current 75?
Thanks
I run a talisman of dominance, so I think that is a slot it could swap into; it loses the ramp but gains life (instead of losing) colour fixes and comes down early.
But ya, im not sure if its good enough to completely redo the deck or make significant changes for but I thought it was at least an interesting new card that does somethings that are needed in our deck (life gain, colour fixing).
But maybe it just isnt good enough to make the 75.
Cheap artifact (easy discard to TfK)
Colour fixer (makes an island a swamp for dismember, makes a A Ruin/Field of Ruin an island)
Easy life gain (anti-bolt)
I am of the personal belief that Blue is strong in Modern, IF you know what the field looks like and if you know what 90% of what each deck will look like. Without this information, Blue feels meh. The cards in Blue (whether necessary or not, which is a different argument) are just too focused to play in a wide open field.
2x Field of Ruin
6x Island
3x River of Tears
4x Urza's Mine
4x Urza's Power Plant
4x Urza's Tower
4x Condescend
1x Cyclonic Rift
3x Dismember
3x Remand
1x Repeal
3x Supreme Will
3x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Expedition Map
1x Mindslaver
2x Oblivion Stone
1x Talisman of Dominance
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Treasure Mage
3x Walking Ballista
2x Wurmcoil Engine
Sideboard (not finished, need more Chalices, cant find any in my area)
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Mindslaver
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Remand
3x Spatial Contortion
1x Spell Pierce
3x Spreading Seas
1x Wurmcoil Engine
Glad to know that my judgement of the match up wasnt completely off.
Sleeved up a version of Bloody Rabbit's deck (missing some Chalices and a Snap due to availability in my area).
Only played 2 rounds but man I missed playing this game.
My question (no this isnt just a post about my playing magic) is; how bad is our burn matchup? I played it tonight and even with a chalice on 1 on the play, it still required my opponent misplaying to win a single game (lost the match on a mull to 4).
I have really enjoyed reading your posts; I like to see the thought process.
I am getting back into Modern (MTG as a whole as well) and I am going to be picking up U Tron as my deck. Really like your build, and I am going to start with it.
How noob friendly is it? I play U Tron back when I played but its been a long time (before Khans). Am I better off with a more traditional build of U Tron (Shok's/the 5-0 deck that has been floating around for a few months)?
Thanks
Re: Ugin's Insight
I think its good in tap-out decks, that want to play permanents like D Sphere or Planeswalkers. It being sorcery speed and its main advantage being the scry before drawing, just seems poor in draw-go.
Rev is just prolly better though (CMC 5 to draw 3 at sorcery speed or CMC 6 to draw 3 at instant speed and gain 3).
Further proof that WotC hates Blue......
If it had lost the creature provision, it would have been amazing but double conditional counters are just a joke......
I disagree, I find the Grixis control match up to be favourable, if not strongly so. Yes, if they have the god had of Scour into Tas/Angler into counter/K Command it can be difficult but other than that I find the match up to be easy. Grixis is more midrange than control and we just go bigger than them. Chalice on 1 into Chalice on 3 is almost unbeatable, Remanding a tasigur/angler is usually fairly back-breaking and Wurmcoil is always a 2 for 1 at least. The delver version is a little harder but its still a match up id take over Infect/burn/zoo any day of the week.
And everyone makes mistakes, especially the first time on camera.
After it won the last SCG open fairly easily, multiple on-camera games won on turn 3 through removal. Since Become Immense was released the deck has been placing well and is a lot more consistent than people seem to think it is.
I think, given the previous rage against Bloom and Goryo's winning before turn 4 and being hard to stop, that Infect should be getting the hate too?