I honestly think the real culprit here is that WOTC has hammered out all of the pillars and police of the format. Now that they are gone, we are ruled by the fastest. Look at the metagame breakdown of the Pro Tour: 49% aggro and 32% combo. Yes, this is just after a major ban, so it makes sense to go fast in a new meta, but it is still crazy that the meta is that out of balance. What we really need are good payoff cards for mid to long range decks, but the best have been kicked out of the format: Ancestral Vision, Birthing Pod, Bloodbraid Elf[/] (to some extent, the argument can be made either way), Dig Through Time, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Punishing Fire, and Splinter Twin. These are all cards that allow decks to grind advantage or allow decks a powerful asset in the mid game. Why are we in an aggro dominated format? Because we don't have pay-off cards good enough to warrant playing midrange/control/combo-control. If we had some more powerful midrange decks, we would be able to see the return of control as an actual force in the format, and we would see more self-regulation. Eldrazi may or may not be too powerful, I'm on the side that contends it is, but the real problem is that the format has been mishandled.
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.
I really dislike the amount of GBx and linear decks, but let's hope something changes in the upcoming months. I will say that without Sword of the Meek, Burn is going to be really scary and packing Atarka's Command. Burn could very well reach number 1.
It would be nice if we got a more playable version of Pact of Negation, something like
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.
Okay, as someone that wants JTMS unbanned, let me try to put this to rest (at least for a little while). Jace, the Mind Sculptor is an incredibly powerful card, despite being a sorcery speed 4 drop. Jace may or may not be too powerful for the format, and he may or may not make certain decks too good, but let's realistically look at this instead of theorycrafting. Wizards doesn't unban a card until the card is a joke. It's as simple as that, Wizards is so deathly afraid of breaking the format (especially now that Modern Masters is around the bend) that they wait until they are sure a card is going to have little to no impact on the format until they unban it, let's look at the history of this:
-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.
Love watching Legacy, but by no means an expert. Do any of you think a Standstill-esque deck could utilize this as a fast wincon rather than dragging the game out with manlands?
Hello all, I'm currently on UR Twin, but Burn and Abrupt Decay are no fun so I have been thinking about switching to UWR Twin. Looking through a lot of the decklists though, it seems the decks are more like Kiki-Control+Splinter Twin, has anyone had success with deck closer to the UR play style? I am looking for something like UR Twin+Restoration Angels and a few goodies, anyone have experience with such a list? Any pointers?
I find it funny that the boogie man Pod was being attacked for getting new cards (mostly slight upgrades like Harmonic Sliver-->Reclamation Sage) every set, but now we get to point where we realize that Burn was getting even better upgrades (Eidolon of the Great Revel, Skullcrack, Taylor Swiftspear...), but Pod is no longer here to save us with their Rhinos and Finks. I am not at all advocating for the unban of Birthing Pod, I realize that by the end certain players had turned the deck into degenerate value Pod, but I think it is a huge problem that we are talking about banning decks out (or at least down) because they are actually using new cards. A format isn't healthy when a select few decks get big upgrades once or more a block and the rest of the format stays where it is; something needs to be done so that Modern can handle standard. Maybe Sword of the Meek is our savior, but I think its a problem that runs much deeper.
@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.
Gigadrowse should be banned in modern. It in no way promotes healthy game play. I've never seen a fair deck that plays it. Very few controlling decks can survive it cast EOT (it takes smart play and luck, not either/or). It alone can stop too many decks in the format dead-in-their-tracks from responding to combo strategies.
Sarcasm? Gigadrowse doesn't see play anywhere ever.
The poll shows what the problems are between the player base here on this site. 2 groups with different ideas about what and how the format should be handled. Wotc has created a monster and sooner or later Wotc is going to have to make one group upset by choosing a direction for the format.
I don't think its as close as you pretending. You shouldn't read the poll as, "two groups at 38.2% want different things," the poll clearly says, "53.8% want a more powerful format (whether or not they want to play legacy is largely irrelevant for a discussion about modern), 38.2% want it to stay the same, and a measly 8% want less power."
What would happen if Splinter Twin was chosen for the next ban?
The format would die.
Lol, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but kind of. If Wizards took out two pillars of the format in a row, players would lose a lot of confidence in Wizards, Modern and the prices of the modern market. They won't do it though because they wouldn't shot themselves in the foot just before Modern Masters 2 comes out.
Narset's Condescension 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.
Narset's Condescension 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?
The 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.
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?