Hmm. Definitely appreciate your input here and I'm definitely going to try Ewitt in the spot, but I don't think there are many positions where I'd want more than one, which is also the general consensus about it in the facebook group/articles by Zach Goldman and Todd Stevens. I definitely see what you're saying, but a 2/1 regrowth just doesn't advance the gameplan as much as we need as our primary function is to get the land engine online. If we were more of an aggro deck, something more like Little Kid Junk, I can see Ewitt being much more useful.
I'd definitely recommend trying out this deck as lots of it's card choices seem un-intuitive, especially when compared with other midrange decks. We're not trying to win, we're trying to not lose. Everything here is designed to either contribute to the engine, or prevent us from losing. Worship, Scooze, and Mindcensor all definitely contribute to that gameplan. Some winning 5-0 mtgo lists have recently featured up to two Worships in the main, which seems a little overboard to me but is definitely interesting to think about.
Could you put your decklist into sections (like creatures, lands, spells) so it's easier to read?
I would suggest Eternal Witness. And I would suggest 4. The best card in the deck is company and I would argue the best line of play is Company into Eternal Witness. It just generates so many bodies so quickly I don't think it should be overlooked. It really depends on your meta though. But this isn't the best deck for a fast meta anyways.
Edited the decklist for clarity.
I think you're right about E-Witt and it's almost certainly the way to go in that spot. Are you suggesting though that 4 E-Witts are correct? What does your list look like?
I feel pretty confident in all of the numbers except for 1 slot - the Shalai in the main. I found myself constantly boarding Shalai in and moved her to the main, but now I'm not terribly sure if it's correct. My board doesn't really have room for anything else either. In the Shalai spot I'm considering these cards: Tireless Tracker, Scavenging Ooze, Qasali Pridemage, Dromoka's Command, Eternal Witness, and Aven Mindcensor. All of these have huge upside.. but so does Shalai. Just not sure. Anyone have any input?
Some notes:
- My meta is full of blue players and grindy decks. Sweet. 2 Chokes was *great*.
- I'm just trying out some various flex slots with different things. Shalai was good in the main but I don't know that I was in love w/ it in the main like I wanted it to be. QP was bad and I'll be removing it. Mindcensor continues to be a house. I'll be switching QP out for a worship next week (I didn't have any with me). I'm just not impressed with Bojuka Bog. Sigarda was fine/good but I'd rather have had Nissa (which I now have).
Match 1 - Jund - 2-1
Game 1 he has no idea what is going on and I assemble the GQ lock after he stumbles on mana.
Game 2 he strips my early plays and finds a LOTV that I can't stop - goyfs go ham.
Game 3 he can't check a Scooze that absolutely decimates his yard (and shrinks his goyfs) and he can't keep up with late game Cocos. EZPZ
Match 2 - Grixis Control (Burkhart style w/ a Jace) - 1-2
Game 1 is just a slog through piles of removal/Cryptics - seriously, 4 Cryptics and 4 K-Commands? Woof. Eventually he lands a Jace I can't pressure and wins through the Ultimate.
Game 2 I land a choke after baiting a cryptic out on an end step with a Coco. He fights for a little bit after hitting an EE for three. Sigarda and a knight provide good pressure until he double Anger of the Gods. I find the second choke and a Ramunap and the lock is easy to assemble after that.
Game 3 is just like game 2 with hate cards a plenty, a damnation, chokes, EEs, etc. In this one though he ends up with a Tasigur on board and I only have a Courser. Jace comes down and starts fate sealing me. I can't get anything going and lose to the ultimate again. Ugh. So much goddamn removal.
Match 3 - U Tron - 2-1
I'm convinced this is one of our worst matchups, so I was definitely dreading this pairing.
Game 1 I get slaver locked after he spends his turns remanding and bouncing my attackers out of the game. Can't get any traction at all.
Game 2 I land an early choke followed by a Stony to complete cut him off blue. He finds 2 wurmcoils but I was holding paths.
Game 3 I mull to 5 but end up hitting stony for turn 2, Knight for turn 3, and a choke to seal it. I path a Solemn he was planning to chump with and when he failed to find I started aggressively going after his islands. Is O-Stone did nothing and he died with no lands in play.
Match 4 - BUG Mid - 2-0
This matchup is just jund but worse against us. Nice.
Game 1 I stone rain him by hitting a Mindcensor with Coco. Knight starts on his basics w/ GQ once I see he's only got three in the deck.
Game 2 was over even faster as I turn 2 choke and his only sources of colored mana are a Watery Grave and Breeding pool. Paths clean up his goyfs and that's all she wrote.
KEEP DURDLING. KEEP GRINDING FOR A STUPID AMOUNT OF VALUE.
GU
Instant
Target creature fights another target creature
This spell already exists a few times over but with a less restrictive mana cost and relative (if minor) upsides in Setessan Tactics, Pounce, and Ancient Animus. Now, a GU spell that is of equivalent power level to Dromoka's Command would definitely be sweet.
That's your creature fights a target creature, their version is much more powerful with target creature fights another target creature. Your opponents 3/3 can fight his or her other 3/3 and both die. You as the caster wouldn't need a creature.
Oh! You're totally right. My brain filled in the rest of the text automatically.
Yeah, this would be sweet then. Maybe it could be modal with some of the other spells that have been suggested (with the other option being a Rabid Bite)?
GU
Instant
Target creature fights another target creature
This spell already exists a few times over but with a less restrictive mana cost and relative (if minor) upsides in Setessan Tactics, Pounce, and Ancient Animus. Now, a GU spell that is of equivalent power level to Dromoka's Command would definitely be sweet.
This is a little off topic, but I just skimmed through the last few years of ban threads (particularly the pod ban thread, and twin ban thread ((which was double bad because of the Eldrazi dominance)) and we've come so far as a format in that time. It seemed as if every other post was about leaving the format, and in general the attitudes were some of the most toxic I've seen in the magic community. Modern isn't perfect now (a perfect format doesn't exist), but it's *so* much better than it was 2 years ago.
Some things about this list - I don't know that I like anything less than 4 GQs. It just seems so integral to the strategy more often than either the tec edge or field of ruin would be. It is nice to insulate yourself from Surgical on GQ, but still. I also think I'd rather have the second plains than the second Temple Garden - fetching basics to preserve life is often much more important to me than fixing in the later stage of the game.
Out of the side, I *really* like the idea of Nissa, Vital Force as the go to planeswalker. She comes down a turn earlier than Elspeth, she presents a HUGE problem for control decks (just like Elspeth), and her ultimate is both easy to attain and game winning. Definitely going to try it out. Everything else looks more or less standard.
Going forward, I'm going to try a Qasali Pridemage in the main. I'm noting lots of 'gotcha' artifacts and enchantments in maindecks in my meta currently (a single bridge, worship, etc) and I'd like to have outs to them in the main. QP happens to be a more serviceable creature than Rec Sage, so in the event I don't need the destroy ability, I'd rather have access to it.
Are we really arguing that green needs help? There were calls for banning Goyf at one point.
Green is fine. White could use a small bump - and that's only so it could have its 'own' identity as there are plenty of plains on the top tables. That's pretty much it.
Todd's articles about Valuetown that he wrote have finally become available to non-premium SCG users - DEFINITELY check them out as his choices are pretty illuminating.
He specifically confirmed something I've learned over the course of playing with it in that main phase cocos are often where you want to be, Courser is incredible for the draw knowledge, and Knight shouldn't really be attacking until it's presenting a very very fast clock. This deck is bizarre and your play patterns have to follow that, but it is a ton of fun.
Finally a place to talk about GW Company, thank god!
@Barthenrykson:
I've played Dark Maverick (GWb) in Legacy and your list looks like a direct port over to modern. A couple of notes from my experience:
-Scryb Ranger + Dryad Arbor is too cute for modern. In Legacy this is a far better combo due to wasteland > ghost quarter and both creatues beeing tutorable via GSZ. I would cut them. Imho Ramunap Excavator + Azusa is far more viable if you want to go that route.
- Thalia GoT is not needed imho. In Legacy she is a necessaryevil due to the format beeing much more spell based than modern but if you like her i would add a couple to the board instead of maindecking her in the current meta.
- A black splash is workable for sure. It comes down to personal preference if you go with the GW Eldricth Evolution silver bullet board or with a black splash. However, the only black cards i see worthwile are Thoughtseize/Collective Brutality, Abrupt Decay and Orzhov Pontiff (can be tutored via EE).
Edit: Avacyn is a hell of a card. Has won me every game i've cast her so far. Another underestimated card is Rogue's Passage, especially when the board is crowded as hell. A unblockable KotR or Tracker can end the game in 2 or 3 turns.
These are all great points and I'm inclined to agree based on my testing but YMMV. I've talked about Scryb with some friends who play maverick religiously and without Delver being a big format player and GSZ to tutor it, it's just a little too lackluster. Sure, situationally you can come up with plenty of examples of when you'd want it, but on the average it's not performing nearly as strongly as any of your other three drops. Top decking a night with an empty board can snowball into you winning the game. Topdecking a Scryb doesn't have nearly the same impact.
Played at a modern night last night and went 2-1-1 - I made basic changes to my list above -
Dropped one tracker and replaced with a second scavenging ooze. Dropped the Dromoka's Command and replaced it with a Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Switched Avacyn and Mindcensor between main/board. In the board I dropped a Blessed Alliance for a Bojuka Bog, I switched a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in for the Nissa, and the friend I'm borrowing EEs from needed one back so I replaced it with a Gideon's Intervention.
Explanation of changes and thought process - Mainboard changes were designed to give me more coco hits in game one, and I've really liked 3 mana Thalia in testing (especially on the play). Mindcensor and Thalia both on the play on turn 2 are SO backbreaking against so much of the format. I'm also concerned with a rise in graveyard decks and wanted access to the second scooze in the main as more incidental graveyard hate. Dromoka's was too cute so it got the axe, and Tracker *can* get out of hand, but seems like it's a step too slow to generate too much value for me to want the full three. I haven't liked mainboard Bojuka Bog because of how wonky it can make your starting hands (GQ, BB, and two birds is such a bad feeling in an opening hand), and you don't want to see it every game at all, but having access to tutoring it with Knight at instant speed is very powerful out of the side.
Match 1 - U Tron - 0-2
I got destroyed in both games. Game 1 he repealed my board out of existence and then won with an overloaded cyclonic rift at my end step into an unchecked Jace and Ugin. Yikes. Game 2 I didn't see a single sideboard card and he started recurring O-stones with academy ruins (and I couldn't find a GQ). GGs. This matchup feels genuinely terrible because we have a hard time dropping a serious clock against bounce effects, they don't care that much about finding tron, and their late game is the best in modern. Them's the beats.
Match 2 - GR Eldrazi - 2-0
I kept a hand that had the ghost quarter lock by turn 4 and he stumbled on mana. Salt flowed but on his side but MAN did it feel good. Noble - Knight - Mindcensor - Ramunap WEW. Second game was a little more of the same - my Knights got too big too fast for him to deal with, and I found Mindcensor again in conjunction with some Paths. He couldn't answer it.
Match 3 - Jeskai Control - 2-1
Game 1 he's on all of the removal and I stumbled a bit in the beginning. I scoop once I'm working off the top of my deck and he's got a grip full of cards and a flipped Azcanta - we just don't have time to waste playing to 1% outs in game 1. Game 2 I bait him into countering a Voice and then slam a Choke that he definitely can't answer. I strip mine him out of the game over the next few turns once I find Azusa/Ramunap. Game 3 is super grindy but I manage to keep stringing out Voices one after another. He's terrified of tapping out in fear of getting choked so I got to free time walk him quite a few times and it just proved to be too much.
Match 4 - Id'd for prizes.
Deck still feels great. Need to keep getting better with it, but I'm looking forward it to running it through a few PPTQs and the GP in Portland in December.
EDIT: Honestly, I'm going to start looking into Legacy. They dont manage that format based on $ because they know its already a lost cause due to the reserve list.
I'm sure as hell not. If you could imagine how mad I was at WOTC invalidating my $1500 Twin deck, I would be furious at them invalidating my $5000 Delver deck. I'm sure you could pick up the pieces and build something else, but I can tell you if I were playing Legacy right now, it would be Delver and I would be livid.
Are you calling Delver and the rest of the blue staples in legacy completely invalidated? Fat chance.
I honestly don't know Legacy well enough to make that statement. But it sure as hell happened to my blue staples in Modern for 2+ years. That's why it was so easy to slowly finish foiling out all my staples: they were fairly worthless for a LONG, LONG time, and therefore cheap to pick up.
Fair. Legacy is definitely a different beast though and it actually opens up some blue space that wasn't there as a huge amount of the format had coalesced into 4c goodstuff decks. No one really lost any value from these bans, and even further than that, they can't be beholden to how much money people are willing to pump into their decks as it sets a terribly dangerous precedent. The vintage format would be better if they restricted Workshop - but then you're literally cutting ~$5k of value out of decks that people have been dedicated to for a long time. Vintage is quite a bit different as it caters to such a limited group, but it's still a bad spot to be in if you can't ban cards due to people overspending on their cardboard.
EDIT: Honestly, I'm going to start looking into Legacy. They dont manage that format based on $ because they know its already a lost cause due to the reserve list.
I'm sure as hell not. If you could imagine how mad I was at WOTC invalidating my $1500 Twin deck, I would be furious at them invalidating my $5000 Delver deck. I'm sure you could pick up the pieces and build something else, but I can tell you if I were playing Legacy right now, it would be Delver and I would be livid.
Are you calling Delver and the rest of the blue staples in legacy completely invalidated? Fat chance.
Again - if the format was in a bad place, then yes, this would be a disaster of a day. But it's not. Things look really good. Like it has been during it's best days, if you're proficient with a deck you can play it to the top (within relative reason). I would love GSZ unbanned. Others want stronger cantrips. Others still want SFM. They'll come off in time. We just got insane unbans (that are still shaking out) less than 6 months ago.
Their reasoning behind no unbans is that the format is currently in a cyclical healthy metagame cycle. Yes, Stoneforge (and a few other cards) are 'safe' to come off, but if their goal in the management of the banlist is to make sure that they've curated a healthy and vibrant format then why would they do that right now? We'll get it eventually.
If that were the case, they should have unbanned quite a few more things since 2016... Because the format was trash for 2 years and mostly ignored (because Standard was on fire). And I'm sure we were mostly ignored again this time because Standard has the perception of being on fire, while "every" Legacy deck is playing 4 Probes and 4 DRS.
For sure though, they're saving this unban to shake up the PT (before or after) or to coincide with a Masters set reprint. I have zero doubts of this.
I don't disagree with any of that - but I also don't think there is anything wrong with the format right now.
Saving the unbans for either of the two things you mentioned is largely good for the format. Hype sells packs, ups viewership counts, and puts butts in seats. Wizards wants all of those things, and we as players of this format should want all of those things as well.
With that - yes, they've let the format just stew in it's own crap before, hopefully we're past that era of banlist management.
I'd definitely recommend trying out this deck as lots of it's card choices seem un-intuitive, especially when compared with other midrange decks. We're not trying to win, we're trying to not lose. Everything here is designed to either contribute to the engine, or prevent us from losing. Worship, Scooze, and Mindcensor all definitely contribute to that gameplan. Some winning 5-0 mtgo lists have recently featured up to two Worships in the main, which seems a little overboard to me but is definitely interesting to think about.
Edited the decklist for clarity.
I think you're right about E-Witt and it's almost certainly the way to go in that spot. Are you suggesting though that 4 E-Witts are correct? What does your list look like?
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Courser of Kruphix
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Ramunap Excavator
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2x Tireless Tracker
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Path to Exile
1x Worship
5x Forest
1x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Plains
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
2x Choke
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Eldritch Evolution
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Gideon's Intervention
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Nissa, Vital Force
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
I feel pretty confident in all of the numbers except for 1 slot - the Shalai in the main. I found myself constantly boarding Shalai in and moved her to the main, but now I'm not terribly sure if it's correct. My board doesn't really have room for anything else either. In the Shalai spot I'm considering these cards: Tireless Tracker, Scavenging Ooze, Qasali Pridemage, Dromoka's Command, Eternal Witness, and Aven Mindcensor. All of these have huge upside.. but so does Shalai. Just not sure. Anyone have any input?
Went 3-1 at my store's modern monday night with this list - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/19-06-18-value-town/
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Collected Company
4x Courser of Kruphix
5x Forest
1x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Horizon Canopy
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Path to Exile
2x Plains
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Ramunap Excavator
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2x Temple Garden
2x Tireless Tracker
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Archangel Avacyn
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
2x Choke
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
2x Eldritch Evolution
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Gideon's Intervention
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Stony Silence
Some notes:
- My meta is full of blue players and grindy decks. Sweet. 2 Chokes was *great*.
- I'm just trying out some various flex slots with different things. Shalai was good in the main but I don't know that I was in love w/ it in the main like I wanted it to be. QP was bad and I'll be removing it. Mindcensor continues to be a house. I'll be switching QP out for a worship next week (I didn't have any with me). I'm just not impressed with Bojuka Bog. Sigarda was fine/good but I'd rather have had Nissa (which I now have).
Match 1 - Jund - 2-1
Game 1 he has no idea what is going on and I assemble the GQ lock after he stumbles on mana.
Game 2 he strips my early plays and finds a LOTV that I can't stop - goyfs go ham.
Game 3 he can't check a Scooze that absolutely decimates his yard (and shrinks his goyfs) and he can't keep up with late game Cocos. EZPZ
Match 2 - Grixis Control (Burkhart style w/ a Jace) - 1-2
Game 1 is just a slog through piles of removal/Cryptics - seriously, 4 Cryptics and 4 K-Commands? Woof. Eventually he lands a Jace I can't pressure and wins through the Ultimate.
Game 2 I land a choke after baiting a cryptic out on an end step with a Coco. He fights for a little bit after hitting an EE for three. Sigarda and a knight provide good pressure until he double Anger of the Gods. I find the second choke and a Ramunap and the lock is easy to assemble after that.
Game 3 is just like game 2 with hate cards a plenty, a damnation, chokes, EEs, etc. In this one though he ends up with a Tasigur on board and I only have a Courser. Jace comes down and starts fate sealing me. I can't get anything going and lose to the ultimate again. Ugh. So much goddamn removal.
Match 3 - U Tron - 2-1
I'm convinced this is one of our worst matchups, so I was definitely dreading this pairing.
Game 1 I get slaver locked after he spends his turns remanding and bouncing my attackers out of the game. Can't get any traction at all.
Game 2 I land an early choke followed by a Stony to complete cut him off blue. He finds 2 wurmcoils but I was holding paths.
Game 3 I mull to 5 but end up hitting stony for turn 2, Knight for turn 3, and a choke to seal it. I path a Solemn he was planning to chump with and when he failed to find I started aggressively going after his islands. Is O-Stone did nothing and he died with no lands in play.
Match 4 - BUG Mid - 2-0
This matchup is just jund but worse against us. Nice.
Game 1 I stone rain him by hitting a Mindcensor with Coco. Knight starts on his basics w/ GQ once I see he's only got three in the deck.
Game 2 was over even faster as I turn 2 choke and his only sources of colored mana are a Watery Grave and Breeding pool. Paths clean up his goyfs and that's all she wrote.
KEEP DURDLING. KEEP GRINDING FOR A STUPID AMOUNT OF VALUE.
Oh! You're totally right. My brain filled in the rest of the text automatically.
Yeah, this would be sweet then. Maybe it could be modal with some of the other spells that have been suggested (with the other option being a Rabid Bite)?
This spell already exists a few times over but with a less restrictive mana cost and relative (if minor) upsides in Setessan Tactics, Pounce, and Ancient Animus. Now, a GU spell that is of equivalent power level to Dromoka's Command would definitely be sweet.
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Courser of Kruphix
1 Elvish Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Ramunap Excavator
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Collected Company
1 Dromoka's Command
4 Path to Exile
1 Field of Ruin
6 Forest
1 Gavony Township
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Plains
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Aven Mindcensor
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Choke
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction
Some things about this list - I don't know that I like anything less than 4 GQs. It just seems so integral to the strategy more often than either the tec edge or field of ruin would be. It is nice to insulate yourself from Surgical on GQ, but still. I also think I'd rather have the second plains than the second Temple Garden - fetching basics to preserve life is often much more important to me than fixing in the later stage of the game.
Out of the side, I *really* like the idea of Nissa, Vital Force as the go to planeswalker. She comes down a turn earlier than Elspeth, she presents a HUGE problem for control decks (just like Elspeth), and her ultimate is both easy to attain and game winning. Definitely going to try it out. Everything else looks more or less standard.
Going forward, I'm going to try a Qasali Pridemage in the main. I'm noting lots of 'gotcha' artifacts and enchantments in maindecks in my meta currently (a single bridge, worship, etc) and I'd like to have outs to them in the main. QP happens to be a more serviceable creature than Rec Sage, so in the event I don't need the destroy ability, I'd rather have access to it.
Green is fine. White could use a small bump - and that's only so it could have its 'own' identity as there are plenty of plains on the top tables. That's pretty much it.
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/37238_Everything-You-Need-To-Know-About-GW-Company-Part-1.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/37265_Everything-You-Need-To-Know-About-GW-Company-Part-2.html
He specifically confirmed something I've learned over the course of playing with it in that main phase cocos are often where you want to be, Courser is incredible for the draw knowledge, and Knight shouldn't really be attacking until it's presenting a very very fast clock. This deck is bizarre and your play patterns have to follow that, but it is a ton of fun.
These are all great points and I'm inclined to agree based on my testing but YMMV. I've talked about Scryb with some friends who play maverick religiously and without Delver being a big format player and GSZ to tutor it, it's just a little too lackluster. Sure, situationally you can come up with plenty of examples of when you'd want it, but on the average it's not performing nearly as strongly as any of your other three drops. Top decking a night with an empty board can snowball into you winning the game. Topdecking a Scryb doesn't have nearly the same impact.
Played at a modern night last night and went 2-1-1 - I made basic changes to my list above -
Dropped one tracker and replaced with a second scavenging ooze. Dropped the Dromoka's Command and replaced it with a Thalia, Heretic Cathar. Switched Avacyn and Mindcensor between main/board. In the board I dropped a Blessed Alliance for a Bojuka Bog, I switched a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in for the Nissa, and the friend I'm borrowing EEs from needed one back so I replaced it with a Gideon's Intervention.
Explanation of changes and thought process - Mainboard changes were designed to give me more coco hits in game one, and I've really liked 3 mana Thalia in testing (especially on the play). Mindcensor and Thalia both on the play on turn 2 are SO backbreaking against so much of the format. I'm also concerned with a rise in graveyard decks and wanted access to the second scooze in the main as more incidental graveyard hate. Dromoka's was too cute so it got the axe, and Tracker *can* get out of hand, but seems like it's a step too slow to generate too much value for me to want the full three. I haven't liked mainboard Bojuka Bog because of how wonky it can make your starting hands (GQ, BB, and two birds is such a bad feeling in an opening hand), and you don't want to see it every game at all, but having access to tutoring it with Knight at instant speed is very powerful out of the side.
Match 1 - U Tron - 0-2
I got destroyed in both games. Game 1 he repealed my board out of existence and then won with an overloaded cyclonic rift at my end step into an unchecked Jace and Ugin. Yikes. Game 2 I didn't see a single sideboard card and he started recurring O-stones with academy ruins (and I couldn't find a GQ). GGs. This matchup feels genuinely terrible because we have a hard time dropping a serious clock against bounce effects, they don't care that much about finding tron, and their late game is the best in modern. Them's the beats.
Match 2 - GR Eldrazi - 2-0
I kept a hand that had the ghost quarter lock by turn 4 and he stumbled on mana. Salt flowed but on his side but MAN did it feel good. Noble - Knight - Mindcensor - Ramunap WEW. Second game was a little more of the same - my Knights got too big too fast for him to deal with, and I found Mindcensor again in conjunction with some Paths. He couldn't answer it.
Match 3 - Jeskai Control - 2-1
Game 1 he's on all of the removal and I stumbled a bit in the beginning. I scoop once I'm working off the top of my deck and he's got a grip full of cards and a flipped Azcanta - we just don't have time to waste playing to 1% outs in game 1. Game 2 I bait him into countering a Voice and then slam a Choke that he definitely can't answer. I strip mine him out of the game over the next few turns once I find Azusa/Ramunap. Game 3 is super grindy but I manage to keep stringing out Voices one after another. He's terrified of tapping out in fear of getting choked so I got to free time walk him quite a few times and it just proved to be too much.
Match 4 - Id'd for prizes.
Deck still feels great. Need to keep getting better with it, but I'm looking forward it to running it through a few PPTQs and the GP in Portland in December.
Fair. Legacy is definitely a different beast though and it actually opens up some blue space that wasn't there as a huge amount of the format had coalesced into 4c goodstuff decks. No one really lost any value from these bans, and even further than that, they can't be beholden to how much money people are willing to pump into their decks as it sets a terribly dangerous precedent. The vintage format would be better if they restricted Workshop - but then you're literally cutting ~$5k of value out of decks that people have been dedicated to for a long time. Vintage is quite a bit different as it caters to such a limited group, but it's still a bad spot to be in if you can't ban cards due to people overspending on their cardboard.
Are you calling Delver and the rest of the blue staples in legacy completely invalidated? Fat chance.
The sky isn't falling.
I don't disagree with any of that - but I also don't think there is anything wrong with the format right now.
Saving the unbans for either of the two things you mentioned is largely good for the format. Hype sells packs, ups viewership counts, and puts butts in seats. Wizards wants all of those things, and we as players of this format should want all of those things as well.
With that - yes, they've let the format just stew in it's own crap before, hopefully we're past that era of banlist management.