- AgrusKosEnforcerofTruth
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Aug 23, 2014AgrusKosEnforcerofTruth posted a message on Off Topic: Gaming the $ystem for ValueThe reason more people don't this is simple: if you are doing it to play with the cards, you have to wait 2 months and if you are doing it for the money, its extremely hard to actually move a full set. That being said, good article and I hope for more articles about balancing MTGO and paper.Posted in: Articles
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I think these two things could greatly help the format.
-We need better counterspells. Yes, this is an incredibly hard line to walk, and the relative power of the counterspell in question changes based on the meta, but we need real answers for control to exist. Counterspell may or may not be our answer, Complicate could be okay, Prohibit is my personal favorite suggestion for this. Basically we need counterspells that can function early, and can retain some value in the later game, while still having it fairly costed and not too powerful.
-More advantage engines. I'm not asking for something as powerful as Birthing Pod, although I would like to see it eventually come off, but I want to see some more advantage in turns 3-6, and it has to be big enough to make up for the delayed payoff, but not so powerful that it completely takes over the game (which Birthing Pod pretty much does). I realize that this is incredibly hard to do, but I contend some cards such as Ancestral Vision, Dig Through Time, Splinter Twin, and possibly Jace could be the right power level to bring back longer strategies. Yes, they may be of a higher power level, but I think we can mostly agree we would rather see a higher power level and some semblance of balance than this unstable clusterf**k. Some of this stuff could be introduced through standard, such as a deck similar to the UG Madness deck from the old days.
2UU
Counter target spell.
You may cast this spell without paying its mana cost. If you do, at the beginning of your next upkeep, pay 3UU. If you don't, you lose the game.
Love Pact, hate that I can't choose to pay now and I think 2UU is more than fair.
Control: You describe control as a deck, "seek[ing] not to present threats or pressure their opponents in any way," "seek[ing] to answer the threats presented by their opponents," and using one large 'unanswerable' threat, but then give Death and Taxes as an example, which doesn't make any sense. I understand that D&T has a 'lockout' aspect, but it goes against pretty much the rest of the definition, with the biggest offense being that it is a proactive and not reactive deck. D&T also does not try to push to the late game usually, rather trying to knock your opponent off balance through disruption long enough to aggro it out. I think this deck pretty much defies definition, and it definitely does not fit in control.
I also think putting "mana denial" strategies in control's camp is incorrect, very few control decks actually use mana denial (unless you count a few Tec Edges which aren't really for mana denial, more mana selection as they are used to cut of utility lands and certain colors in select instances, not to deny your opponent lands completely), and it is much more characteristic (especially outside of modern like in RUG Delver in Legacy) of a tempo strategy.
That's pretty much it, I don't exactly agree with your midrange-combo and tempo-combo definitions, I prefer to think of combo on a sliding scale, but I wouldn't call them tempo or midrange decks. A generalized principle that is really helpful for the "tempo" and "midrange" definitions (which I think were quite nicely defined) is something ashtonkutcher said in one of the banlist threads (paraphrasing here), 'tempo plays threats then answers and midrange plays answers then threats.' Lastly, I agree with Galerion that the definition really need to 'powerlevel based on turn (or stage of the game),' but I would advise it be applied loosely because it is not exact/can be misleading.
-Valakut: LOLOLOL everyone still played Jund, Valakut has made a splash since, but when it was unbanned it really didn't do anything.
-Bitterblossom: Faeries is still a tier 2/3 deck even though it was the boogie man of standard.
-Wild Nacatl: Zoo is still tier 2/3, even though it had a huge turnout in its first "free" PT, it got rekt and way underperformed.
-Golgari Grave-Troll: Dredge is cool, but again tier 2/3/4
Now looking at this list do you actually think that Jace, the Mind Sculptor will be unbanned any time soon? Five years down the road? Maybe. If Wizards changes their tune about modern? Maybe. If (by some ridiculously improbable happenstance) Jace becomes the joke of the banlist? Maybe. Realistically, it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Spring of Vitality
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool
{T}: Gain 1 life.
or even
1{T}: Gain 2 life.
It's slow enough that you really have to work for the life, but it gives control a way to better stabilize. The closest things we have now is the Refuges/Khans taplands, Radiant Fountain, Miren, the Moaning Well, Orzhova, Church of Deals, Sapseep Forest, Springjack Pasture and Tomb of the Spirit Dragon, but none of those really fill the desired role sufficiently.
@AshtonKutcher That is a very interesting point. While all decks benefit from the card selection, "unfair" decks are usually going to just find redundant gas (similar to the DTT/TC argument with Delver, the raw card advantage matters a lot more than the selection simply because its all practically serving the same goal) while "fair" decks can use the selection to find high impact "Silver Bullets," making the selection much more valuable to "fair" decks. It would be interesting to unban Preordain and see where the format goes.
UU(R/W)
Counter target spell.
If W was used to cast Narset's Condescension, you gain 3 life.
If R was used to cast Narset's Condescension, it deals 3 damage to each opponent.
Okay, just 11 days out, what is the consensus on this thread about possible bans? Anyone still calling for ban? Anyone think there will be a ban that you aren't necessarily calling for?