MTG Salvation

I hope it's a preview for the next Masters set, made as a buy-a-box promo for the Holidays, like last year's very successful Treasure Chest Promo. On a personnal note, I really like the wider artwork on the cards, since it really helps the art pop out of the card, and I hope they are considering it for regular cards in the future.

Not participating, but I would put the minimum number of Thalia to 3, since some players prefer that number due to the Legendary rule (not saying it's correct or not, just mentioning it happens).

When the ability of Aether Vial resolves, they get to search their hand for a creature that costs X. They do not announce which creature they want to play and they can simply "fail" their search. You can actually bluff by activating the vial and not putting anything in play. It works the same way as fetch lands, except for the hand instead of the library.

- Jund vs BG is a matter of preference. Jund is still the fastest version, but BG Rock is the deck that has gained the most from Assassin's Trophy, due to the duplicate effect from Field of Ruins (3 color decks don't run that many basic lands) and the fact it didn't have an equivalent to Terminate/Dreadbore. Abzan... well, Lingering Souls doesn't seem very well placed right now.
- It's version dependent. In BG, run 4. In Jund, you have more options (Bolt, Terminate, Dreadbire, K-Command). Running 3 seems the consensus at the moment.
- Don't know at the moment.

Quote from FlyingDelver »

Yeah I already implemented the article in the primer the minute it went live. Good stuff, as always.

I've taken a look at the primer, and there's a little change to make, about Lily of the Veil: "The second best planeswalker ever printed (But the best in modern)" is no longer true.

Edit: And frankly, she might actually be in 3rd place now.

Congratulations! I've just built the deck, and I'm looking forward to playing it.

It might have been simpler than that: they probably changed the token from "Dryad" to "Elf knight" AFTER the artwork had been commissioned. The playtesters probably mentioned that they needed more Knight and Elf tribal support, since Dominaria and Core 2019 supported both tribes.

Oh, Assurance//Association will be a very nice card against control decks in the coming standard: 3x 2/2 at Instant speed will need to be answered fast. It would play the same role as CoCo.

Quote from idSurge »

Push, an Uncommon in what I believe was a hugely opened set, is still 5 bucks.

But it is in a single color, costs only one mana, has a keyword (meaning it can't be reprinted easily) and was in a small set that didn't include any rare land cycle. All of these are factors that impact its price to a higher level.

I think its price will be higher than Vraska's Contempt while it is in Standard (depending on how popular it is in Standard, which I expect will be a lot, since Search for Azcanta and Teferi are both legal for another year). I do not believe it will reach less than $10 until it rotates.

I agree: Kolaghan's Command is good, but not enough to add a third color. The reasons for Jund over GB Rock are Lightning Bolt and Bloodbraid Elf, K-Command always was a fringe benefit.

Now, I'm thinking Assassin's Trophy may be good enough to cut red entirely, since the PtE text plays well with the 4 Field of Ruin GB Rock often plays. It's an easy 4-of in that deck.

Rabblemaster, since we don't run Cantrips. We bring him in grindy matchups, when we often are topdecking.

$30-40 for Liliana of the Veil? No. Not unless she is reprinted in a Standard set, and I don't think that will happen: when was the last planeswalker reprint in Standard? M15 I think?

Price memory is a really powerful force, and non-standard card prices go down very, very slowly. If they announced that they were reprinting Modern Masters 2017 today, she might reach down to the $70ish pre-order price she was back then, but not that much lower: Masters reprint at Mythic of Modern staples don't affect the card prices that much. And certainly not cut such a card price by 60-70%!

And we have no idea how WotC will push Modern reprints will be in the near future.

It's fair to say that she doesn't see as much play as she used to, but Modern is always changing, and Black is the most disruptive color of Magic. I bet that, even if we don't have her in a deck at the moment, many of us still have a play set of her sitting around.

So, I don't expect a reprint any time soon. The earliest would be in a Masters set in 2019, and I doubt she would be in there: they have far too much stuff to reprint at the moment to duplicate MM3. Still... $100 is too high for the card at the moment, and she is in a downward trend. Wait until there is a sale: stores and eBay sometimes offer 10-15% off, especially during the holidays.

Quote from Colt47 »

I've been looking around a bit last night. Does anyone else have any input on the idea that green is under-represented in modern right now in the top deck line up? I tend to be bigger on FNM level play than the top level these days and I know people still play a lot of green decks at that level. I haven't heard of a lot of top lists being primarily green though, and seeing the decay on Tarmogoyf prices on the second hand market appears to indicate that the pro scene for green is a tad stagnant.

Well, green has the best creatures and mana acceleration... but how many of the top decks are actually looking at casting creatures? Humans is the only such deck, the only creature deck disruptive enough to push through the Combo/Tron/Control gauntlet. Bridgevine and Hollow One are cheating creatures into play, Jund is pretty bad against the decks that are at the top of Modern and Titanshift is far too slow against the other combo decks.

Frankly, who is scared of Tarmogoyf nowadays, when you can have over 10 power on the board on turn 1 or 2, or Karn or a combo on turn 3? Green decks are too fair for Modern.

I would say that the most annoying card in Humans is Meddling Mage, but that card in no way deserves a ban. In fact, no card in that deck deserves a ban at all, not on power level, or consistency. The deck doesn't even deserve a ban at all. IMHO, the fact that it performs so well is that its natural predator, the removal heavy mid-range decks, is in a slump due to rampant big mana, combo and control decks forming the rest of the meta.

Getting rid of Ancient Stirrings would do wonders to balance the meta closer to what WotC wants it to be.

We're talking about the most experienced players around, and there are two kinds of players that stick around for years and years. Those that find pleasure in competition and winning: they are the ones that play the most powerful linear decks, either aggro, combo or Tron, and trying to break the game. They are always looking for the most powerful, newest decks.

And then there are the players who find pleasure in outplaying their opponents: they are the ones who enjoy grindy games, interactive games, or decks so complicated that it may take 10-15 minutes to combo off. They are the players who always play Control, and who pushed decks like KCI and Storm... before they became mainstream.