MTG Salvation

I don't like the design. Reminds me or Arcane Savant in that it's just not a design I like and the powerlevel is so high that I can exclude it and will be better for it.

As always, thanks for the writeup. I'm pleased this is a relatively lower power set. I think I'm only including 2 cards at 360, and one is just to clear a gold spot replacing Verdict.

No posts in this thread in days is a sign of the format being pretty great right now, yes?

I think "the Conspiracy Module" is something many cube owners play around with for a while, then give up on. Other than just completionism, I see no real reason to rank them.

Quote from lukey52 »

All things considered I'd say this ends up as a win for modern. I'm still shocked at some of the cards on the ban list considering what is legal but I'm glad they did what they could to not disrupt other decks and also keep the Hogaak deck as a competitive option.

I am starting to get worried about WU control though. With bridge gone and the Hogaak deck slowing down in general sweepers will become far more effective. On top of that with the 4 field of ruin 2 surgical package tron is a far less scary matchup than it used to be so if people reckon tron will be back that's pretty grim.

It's not like there's any 1 card in WU that is too strong it's just that in the last 2 years the deck has got access to field of ruin, opt, big teferi, little teferi, narset, jace, force of negation, dovin's veto and other less played options like fof and search for azcanta. That is a ton of tools that have really pushed the deck to the top.

Agreed that UW has gotten way stronger, but I think the thing going forward is that more cards like that should be printed that can go in other strats. Stuff like Hexdrinker, Seasoned Pyromancer, W6, Plague Engineer are all a good start. But we need more.

I'm kind of over arguing about bans. Wizards does whatever they'll do and nothing I can do or say will make much difference. I'm going to focus on playing the format in front of me. And for now, that means maindeck Surgical with Traps in the board.

Yeah, my takeaway was that it still managed to put 2 copies in the top 8 when people were warping their 75s to beat it. It had a target on its back unlike any deck I can think of since the Eye of Ugin ban, and still put 2 copies in the top 8. Deck's great, not totally solved yet, and has huge margins for error. I mean, this is a deck that can win from nowhere from an empty board. That's nuts.

The UW Control vs Humans matchup in the quarters in DFW was sweet Magic. Humans turned into a prison deck game 2, and UW turned into a Monastery Mentor tempo deck game 3.

Quote from The Fluff »

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

**Umezawa's Jitte does not need to be unbanned. Hogaak and hopefully Bridge will eventually get banned. Please don't use this argument. It's funny that Ross Merriam believes that Jitte should be unbanned, but not Stoneforge Mystic. WTF?!?!?! Jitte further pushes people to play their's first to win creature matches (much of Modern) or play (non creature) Combo to avoid losing to those. I played during Jitte Standard. I know a lot has changed. I still think Jitte would be too much, close to what Punishing Fire does, except it is colorless.

played legacy for some years, and my opinion is we are in for some tough games if Jitte is unleashed into modern.
This equipment is some people won't realize it is broken until seen in action.

I used to think Jitte was fine. But then I built a cube and played Jitte in creature matchups. It just dominates those games.

Stoneforge is totally fine, but Jitte would be too much.

For extra fun in the practice room, don't concede because you dont like the matchup.

Hello again fellow cube enthusiasts!

This is my 31st installment of the "top 20" set (P)review articles! Just like the previous reviews, it will be in a spoiled top X countdown format, with each section having an image, a brief summary/description, and my verdict on what cubes I think it could potentially see some play in. I got a lot of positive feedback on the format from the last few articles, so I’m going to keep the “what I like” and “what I don’t like” sections.


Throne of Eldrane is another awesome set for cubes! It explores some new design space, and it is really fun and flavorful. I enjoyed the way Wizards delved into the fairy tale universe, and it allowed for some cool new designs that cube players will be able to enjoy for a long time.

Without further ado, I can start the countdown!

Heyo, long time lurker and frequenter of the Delver Discord, I think if we want that effect Oko himself would be a good place to start.

Seems like MTGNexus is the new place to discuss modern. Might be going there now

The community has spoken! Here are the results of this year's Power Rankings voting for BLACK:


A full list of results, with all cards that received votes and the number of lists a card appeared on, can be found on this Google spreadsheet.

Thanks to all 24 voters!

Trivia, Useless Ramblings, and Facts (TURF)

Variety is the Spice of Unlife - 51 different cards were voted upon compared to 45 in 2016 despite having 2 fewer voters this year.

Getting Schooled - The top 4 looks quite different with Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor moving from 3rd and 4th respectively to 1st and 3rd. I think the new guidelines that permit people to refrain from voting for cards they don't have experience with was a big part of this since Mind Twist (#2) and Recurring Nighmare (#4)both had 21 people vote for them, but Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor had 24 and 22 people respectively.

Just Missed - Dismember (#21), Duress (#22), and Shriekmaw (#23).

Newcomers and Dead Droppers - Both Animate Dead and Ophiomancer jumped into slots #19 and #20 they were the first two cards out in 2016. Shriekmaw dropped out but only moved from 19th to 23rd. Languish on the other hand went from #20 to getting a single vote in 2019 putting it at 44th. Ouch!

Other Big Movers - Bitterblossom fell from 6th in 2016 to 11th today. Damnation fell from 10th to 14th, Pack Rat from 12th to 17th. Thoughtseize climbed from 13th to 7th! Griselbrand climbed from 16th to 11th!

Stay tuned for the RED voting thread which should be up tomorrow or Monday morning.

Played in my local Saturday Modern tournament to a successful 4-0 finish. Same list as I posted before except I replaced the 2 Grafdigger's Cage in the SB with a Gut Shot and an Destructive Revelry. I don't have time to post a full report, but the matches were 2-0 UW Tron, 2-1 UR Phoenix, 2-0 GW Devoted Devastation, and 2-0 RUG Scapeshift. All I can say is that Nimble Mongoose and Hexdrinker have over preformed for me the last two weeks. Thinking about taking Ashton's advice, however, and give Fry a try out of the SB as I can see it being powerful in certain match ups.

Quote from Tubbybatman »

Guys I'm running into an issue, how the hell do we beat jund?

Jund is a rough match up and the only way I've been able to beat GBx (this is before the additions of Nimble Mongoose and Hexdrinker mind you) is by Blood Mooning them with Huntmaster of the Fells as backup. I haven't played against a Rock deck since the addition of the new cards so I'm still waiting to see how they preform here.

I would vote for classifying everything where it's intrinsically best. Including Hierarch in Bant and phyrexian mana in its respective color.

I also think it's time to eliminate the notion of voting for "best" cards. It's too subjective and cubes are too different for the results to be meaningful. People should list their 20 favorite cube cards in each color, and the "ranking" should be based on frequency of appearance. That way, no matter how you measure quality, what metrics you use to subjectively determine "best" or why you consider cubing a card, people can look at a list of the 20 white cards that cube players/managers like the most. For me, there's a strong correlation between the most powerful cards and the cards I think are the "best" cards to cube with. But that's not the case for everybody. By the time you try to meaningfully filter through the results, every voter is using a different metric to determine "best" anyways that the results have basically lost all meaning.

tl;dr - I think we should make lists of our favorite cube cards instead of the "best" cube cards.

Thanks for taking this on. I'd be very interested in another Top 20 project. I'd be willing to help, but I'm not the most tech savvy person so depending on what you need I may or may not be the right person.

My quick thoughts:
1. Lands and artifacts that require a certain color to function should go in that color. e.g. Vedalken Shackles is blue; Treetop Village is green.
2. Functional reprints should be counted at the same cost so we don't have Ravages of War and Armageddon taking two slots.
3. 10 per guild is more than enough. For tricolor, we could rank overall top 10 or maybe vote on top 3 per trio.
4. Need to establish how to rank "best." I think last time we did it by measuring how likely you are to win if the card resolves.

Thanks for trying to get the ball rolling on this, BlackWaltz3!

Cheers,
rant

Hello everyone! I'm, I believe, a new poster to this forum, but have been a lurker for some time. With the release of Nimble Mongoose, Hexdrinker, and Force of Negation into the Modern format I decided to return to the RUG colors after dabbling in UR and Jeskai Delver variants. What I wanted to test was to run all one drop creatures that I can always drop on turn one or turn two with protection backup instead of cards like Tarmogoyf or Hooting Mandrills. After playing in a local tournament this past Saturday I'm pleased to say that I went 4-1. I'll type in a report below the deck list.



Match 1 vs. Bant Spirits 2-0:
Game one was a very close match with me bolting as many of his lords as possible and trading away Delver of Secrets until finally leveling up a Hexdrinker to level eight. After three hits the snake won the race with me at one life. Game two played out diffrently with me playing two Nimble Mongoose turns one and two before gaining threshold on turn 3. Vapor Snag was an allstar here as it managed to bounce a lord to enable the two Lightning Bolts in my hand.

SB changes: -3 Spell Pierce -1 Force of Negation, +2 Abrade +2 Young Pyromancer

Match 2 vs. Rakdos Goblins 2-0:
This was by far my favorite match of the day with swings on both sides in game one until finally I was able to stabilze with a level four Hexdrinker, which I was constanly scared to level up due to the presence of Munitions Expert. I managed to work my opponent down to 10 life before going all in on the snake and kicking a Burst Lightning in conjuction with the attack. Game two I used a Force of Negation to counter an Aether Vial on the draw and proceeded to play defence with a Nimble Mongoose until I flipped a Delver of Secrets that I protected. While fairly one sided in the second game the first came down to the wire while we traded resources back and forth. Very cool deck and only getting stronger with M20!

SB changes: -3 Spell Pierce -1 Force of Negation, +2 Abrade +2 Young Pyromancer

Match 3 vs. Burn 2-0:
So Burn is, in my expeirience, a fairly simple matchup where if we find our free/cheap counter magic with an early threat then we are likely to win. Nimble Mongoose was the ideal threat in this matchup for obvious reasons while Hexdrinker played the role of being thrown in front of any creature swung my way. After killing their early threats a mongoose and a level three snake took the game home for me with the second game playing out much the same way except instead of a Hexdrinker it was a Delver of Secrets. I found my counter magic at the right time which led me to win the game.

SB changes: -1 Dismember -3 Vapor Snag, +2 Flusterstorm +2 Abrade

Match 4 vs. Grixis Shadow 2-1:

A tough match for sure, but one that Nimble Mongoose and Vapor Snag shine in. Game one I keep a risky six card hand with a single land, a Delver of Secrets, and a Serum Visions as the important cards. Since I was on the draw he managed to Thoughtsieze me and after some thought he took my cantrip. I never drew another land. Game two I used a Spell Pierce on his discard spell and slammed a Hexdrinker with multiple ways to protect it. After countering a removal spell I proceeded to level it up to three where the only card I was worried about was Liliana of the Veil out of his side board. The final match came down to the two Nimble Mongoose that managed to get around his Liliana, the Last Hope. With a hand full of removal and his single Death's Shadow getting snagged several times I successfully managed to tempo him out on the turn that the LtLH was going to ultimate.

SB changes: -1 Lightning Bolt -1 Burst Lightning -2 Force of Negation, +2 Young Pyromancer +2 Flusterstorm

Match 5 vs. Humans 0-2: Not much to say here. I as rolled so hard that I barely remember the match. Games one and two he had Cavern of Souls into Aether Vial and I was never able to recover both games. I had a fleeting chance game one when I used a free counter to stop the vial, but it was all for naught. Nimble Mongoose tried its best to stop the onslaught.

SB Changes: -3 Spell Pierce -1 Force of Negation, +2 Abrade +2 Young Pyromancer

Conclusion: I loved the feel of the deck with all one drop creatures with Force of Negation as my backup counter spell. The new green creatures have overpreformed for me in both the tournament and the few online games I've managed to play. To this end I wanted to test Flusterstorm in the side board, but I feel it would be better as Dispel. Sorry for the long write up, but please tell me what you think! It has certainly been a while since I've done a report like this.