MTG Salvation

Quote from Deadkitten »

So you're saying that those of with the deck should play as much as possible online before the B&R date. Well if I must, I can take one for the team. For the sake of the format.

I believe in you! Do it for the greater good!

Let's just say that my expectations for Wizards are exceedingly low. Anything other than "no changes" will be considered a good thing for Modern. But yes, given their continued display of incompetence with regards to the inner workings of the format, I could very easily see them coming out and saying "This is fine. None of us extensively play Modern, but our spreadsheets say this is OK. No changes."

So if people are weary of Hogaak's ban potential as soon as two weeks from now, and refuse to buy it in paper to show it off dominating a large GP, then we're just in for yet another period of insufferable misery in Modern?

I remember when "battle of sideboards" was a ban criteria. Now 8 pieces of GY hate in your 75 is supposed to be "normal."

Why do I play this format again? /shrug

Quote from pierrebai »

F2F Hamilton modern open was won by Hogaak, with two copies of the deck placing in the top 8.

The report says they were surprised it was not played more, being so dominant: "We had two copies of the deck in our Hamilton Top 8, and from where I’m sitting, that number is actually pretty low for how good this deck is compared to the rest of the format."

Either buy it now or sell it now, I'd say.

People are likely hesitant to buy in since it will very likely be banned. With Eldrazi, the opportunity cost of so many free wins was small since, other than Eye of Ugin, pretty much everything in the deck was dirt cheap and available in current Standard sets. If you don't have Vengevines, Bloodghasts, Bridges, Gravecrawlers, and Hogaak himself (in addition to the black fetchlands, you're looking at a LOT of money to buy into a deck that is very likely not set to live past July 8th.

It's a lot easier and faster to buy/sell/change decks on MTGO, but paper metas are much slower. Buying cards is a more weighty investment, and selling them is slow and arduous for most players. As a result, paper metas are often filled with Cards_I_Own.dec (also helping to contribute to the idea of "diversity").

Quote from idSurge »

Probe hit 2 decks, and forced 1 to be even better.

It also hit Grixis Control and many Delver strategies, which have been irrelevant ever since. Who knows if they would have survived anyway? But it was a killing blow to Delver with the addition of Fatal Push.

Looting, is too important a piece of the format imo. Its our Brainstorm.

I no longer care. Looting is an atrocity. And if they're going to look us in the face and tell us Looting is OK, then why in the living hell is Preordain banned?

Bridge + Altar will kill the deck, and if thats the goal, so be it.

Nuke it from orbit.

For some context on Twin: when it was legal, Electrolyze was a playable Magic card. Lightning Bolt killed a lot of relevant things. Remand had a meaningful tempo impact. Graveyards were almost exclusively Tarmogoyf buffs. And the decks which could kill fast (Infect and Burn) got hosed by cards like Electrolyze, Bolt, Tap-Your-Attacker, and Sure-I'll-Block. Nowadays, best fast decks don't care about discard, don't care about removal, don't care about counterspells, and kill faster and more consistently than either of those used to. Sometimes they even do it through many of the targeted pieces of hate we're forced to play.

Meanwhile, a 1/2 that sometimes fetches a 4/4 is banned. Good grief.

Quote from metalmusic_4 »

On the other hand I am encouraged by MH1. The strong new hogaak combo is my kind of deck, and several decks got some new peices. People in my area bought lots of it so hopefully they will make more sets like this. We should have gotten counterspell though.

I don't know how attached I would get to the Hogaak deck. If there is any justice in the world, that horrid monstrosity will be killed off in the next B&R. It is stupidly fast, powerful, resilient, and hard to hate out.

Bolt and Remand ain't what they used to be, and Turn 4 is an eternity, if you even have it and jam it totally unprotected.

Completely separately, Wizards has demonstrated multiple times that they have absolutely no basic understanding of the Modern format. Sometimes to the point of utter embarrassment.

Did you happen to see the "Hogaak vs Banned List video series from SCG? It's long, but fairly enlightening, and lots of interesting commentary.

Check out this video "VS Live! | Hogaak VS The Modern Banlist | Modern" http://www.twitch.tv/scgtour/v/441759362?sr=a&t=0s

Quote from SFMnotunbannedin2030 »

Isn't it time for the obligatory SFM unban hype train?

I have long since lost any confidence in WOTC doing anything remotely competent with regards to the banned list. At least while they continue to break graveyard decks set after set after set.

She should absolutely be unbanned, along with Twin. But I don't think either of those will ever see the light of day, because of the aforementioned incompetence about modern that WOTC holds.

Quote from idSurge »

New dino can lead to an infinite loop with Marauding Raptor and Polyraptor, or just some nice value with Ripjaw Raptor that it curves into.

Probably not good enough still, but the infinite loop with whatever that enchantment is that does a ping when a creature enters the board? The red one...

Polyraptor already had an infinite loop with Forerunner of the Empire. Key difference here is that Forerunner is a "may" ability, and Marauding Raptor is not; it just happens infinitely, unless there is some other way to stop it. Most definitely a bit janky for Modern, but definitely going into my Dino Commander deck (where the original combo already lives).

And you're thinking of Impact Tremors. Also works with Purphoros, God of the Forge.

Quote from cfusionpm »

Quote from ktkenshinx »

2. Modern is currently healthy in Wizards' eyes. So take a snapshot of Modern for the past few months: that's healthy. If you don't like that, you are probably out of sync with Wizards' views on format health.

WOTC things an abundance of high variance graveyard abuse is healthy. I guess it's time to sell out of the format? I have heard many people compare the past few months to how awful the GGT/Probe meta was, and I agree with them. I'm curious how many at WOTC actually play competitive Modern, instead of simply look at excel spreadsheets of deck labels and card names.

Well, based on the announcement itself, it seems like they were focused on the MC results to assess Modern's health:

We were happy with the outcome of the Modern portion of Mythic Championship II

Which seems super loose after some months of Phoenix dominance (at least in metagame share).

We already know that we shouldn't make conclusions from a small sample size and that PTs MCs are not the greatest data source since it combines limited and players are trying to metagame everyone else as there aren't that many players compared to a GP, so using the London MC that tested a new mulligan rule and also gave decklist information, seems rather questionable.

I agree that no changes is probably the best outcome for Modern right now but I didn't like that they used the MC as an indicator of how Modern fares to be honest.

Its also not just the turn 1 plays of course, but letting blue players actually move forward, without a fear of being dead on the untap.

So Tron is now the top deck in the meta, just got Karn the Great Creator, gets even more powerful with the London Mulligan which will be implemented soon, and makes for miserable game play.

Can we finally start talking about how the Urzatron lands may be too strong in a format without wasteland?

Modern Horizons can change this, true. But, as weve seen, even all the recent tron hate printed lately has done very little

4 CMC Colorless repeatable Wish is strong who would have thought.

As long as skillful players deem it necessary to put Surgical Extraction in their mainboard I will not consider Modern to be "fine".

Yep, just speaks to the fact a deck was removed a playstyle, and never really given a competitive chance again, unlike Dredge, or Amulet.

Quote from JaceBluesMaster »

Someone is forming the basis for a class action lawsuit.

the basis is already formed, as seen by the specifics outlined by that law firm. the question is whether said basis forms a case that a judge would be willing to pursue.

im not an expert on the law by any means, but personally i think the suit is a non-starter. especially because both ebay and hasbro have voluntarily offered compensation; meaning any sort of damages that the prosecutors aims to get reparations for would have to exceed the value of those by a considerable margin. people may not realize it, but both ebay and hasbro offer those things for more than just garnering any lost good will; they do it to shield themselves specifically from these types of class action suits as its akin to a preemptive settlement.

the suit also notably avoids ebay, as their terms of agreement have arbitration clauses that protect them from class action suits. however hasbro/wizards would undoubtedly include them in their defense since they ran the sale and at the very least would need to be subpoenaed for their system logs. im dubious that those logs would paint a picture that doesnt bring doubt upon any parties culpability in breaking the 'contract' cited as the premise of the lawsuit.

as i understand it though, the lawyer is legit with experience in other class action cases. what was filed isnt completely unfounded, so i do hope it gets traction. if nothing else than to serve as a stark reminder that what happened should be avoided in the future.

on another but somewhat related note; this sale was cocked up so badly that its plausible hasbro and ebay cut their partnership for sales of this type. meaning if mythic editions are sold in the future (why would they not be, they are a gold mine) then there is a decent chance it will be ran somewhere else/differently.

My box arrived today. Good luck to those still waiting.

I can confirm they are still shipping these. Just got my confirmation.

2 Boxes, Texas, last name starts with S. Not sure if there are any other things that can be clues to how they are shipping.