Quote from ktkenshinx »Some interesting insights in Stoddard's article today. It's about Standard but the following quotes clearly pertain to Modern.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/standard-2017-01-13
This is a CRITICAL piece of the article for Modern players who get cards through Standard:
We're also having a lot of very serious discussions about hate cards and powerful answers. As you have noticed with Fatal Push, we are not totally against printing very powerful answers in Standard, but we need to up that number. The pendulum of threats versus answers has swung too far toward the threats, and that has caused problems with our metagame. Our decision to not print enough answer cards also has shown to be a real problem.
Wizards is aware that answers suck, and they will be printing better answers in the future. This bodes well for Modern, which depends on getting answers through Standard.
I'm gunna take this as justification for the dozens of posts I kept reading that didnt understand this point was clearly an issue, or to the people who very loudly asked the people who Identified this as a problem to create the solution.
I don't really have to know exactly the best way to put out a garbage fire to know a garbage fire still is a problem.
That rant aside. It was pretty clear this was a center of the issue... after all they JUST brought that up when talking about bannings, saying this has been an issue in the making for years. I'm going to chalk this one up for a win and greatly expect the number of stuff like push to increase over the next 3 or so years. I'm also going to see the recent bannings, these little talks (though more is needed), Worth Wollpert being fired off mtgo and the increase in ban chances as wizards actually meaning what they said. "We are listening and thinking about what you said."
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Sultai Arixmethes as the primary commander. Just sayin
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2) I think there are way more crops than just the ones we see in card names, kind of like there were a bunch of Consuls on Kaladesh (I think 11?) but only 2 of them were named on cards.
3) I think children come from where they always come from, they're just taken and raised by mummies as soon as they are born and the child's birth mummy (yes I did) just goes right back into training. As for mummification, I'm pretty sure that's an honor given only to things that have earned or are deemed to deserve the honor. Obviously all the initiates who die in the trials are worthy of mummification, but so are sacred cats, wise sphinxes, mighty obstacles from the trials like a manticore, and absolutely a god's personal pet hydra. Stray cats, beasts of burden, random less impressive monsters, and anything outside the wall (sandwurms) probably aint getting mummified. I agree w/ you on the illusion though. That's just sillyness.
I agree that within the Amonkhetu worldview the gods are benevolent and I'd really like to see the other 3 at some point. I think Oketra brought Gideon to Bontu's trial because she wanted him to come to terms with himself and his ideas of faith, and she knew the trial of Bontu would force him to confront them.
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Pull from tomorrow isn't quite there I think, you need to pay 3 before it does anything more than cycle a card. That said it's and instant so maybe.
Oketra could maybe see play as a top end in tokens? Sorin, S.V. may just be better but an indestructible 3/6 w/ ds that can turn your late game mana into more creatures may be worth it.
Not sure if there's a deck for honored hydra but cool to have a roar of the wurm in modern
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@Kovo I would classify Blue control decks (and as above stated there is a difference between blue control and decks that are blue *merfolk*) as any deck that tries to stall in the early to mid and win in the long game while playing at instant speed as much as possible. The difference between blue control and big mana decks like Tron, or combo decks like Scapeshift, is that they try to win the game through answers, permission, and the slow incremental accumulation of advantage rather than just hanging on to survival until the game-ending hail-Mary kill shot. I think it could be argued that Scapeshift and Tron are both control decks of a fashion, but they are not the incremental interactive control decks that make for such involved games against midrange, combo, and aggro. I am actually pretty happy with the way modern looks right now, while archetype diversity may be a little low deck diversity is very high, and that's one of the reasons I love modern. However, I would say that we shouldn't be unwilling to explore unbans or be critical of a desire to help blue control decks because 1) they are a legitimately underrepresented archetype, and 2) they are a fun addition to the format.
@ktkenshinx I think that white faces the same problem as blue (namely that their sections of the color pie have been nerfed) and that both can be fixed the same way. What are whites strengths? It is the color of creature swarm, fair-play, equipment, enchantments, and lifegain. The issue is that all of those themes are fairly weak in modern sets. The creatures for creature swarm are better in other colors, wraths are more expensive and moving to black, SFM is banned and BS has WOTC spooked, Theros block wasn't close to pushing a modern enchantment deck, and lifegain is not a competitively viable modern strategy. (Blue faces similar issues w/ its counterspells, extra turns, bounce, and library manipulation being significantly weaker than they once were). The fix is easy, power up their portions of the color pie. Print another solid Brimaz level token maker, some better enchantment support, and a few more lifegain payoff cards and we'd have white weenie, W-based enchanments and soul sisters moving up modern's ranks. Or there could be a SFM unban and then everyone and their third aunt would play white, at least for a while