A Snapcaster Mage ban is ridiculous. As far as SFM goes, it's a much lower power level card than Thought Knot Seer, which is also a 4/4 on turn 3, and TKS comes with it's own protection.
In a vacuum its less powerful yes. Without batterskull its decently fair. WITH batterskull that's what made it broken. Make u/w control with stoneforge and not play batterskull with it, only use the swords of and such. It's not nearly oppressive.
With JTMS now that he's back why not test a meta without snapcaster and see if its jace that's more powerfull or snapcaster/jace together. I mean they nuked Naya with nactal for a few years to see how the meta shook out. Then they brought back nactal. Do the same with snappy. Blue doesn't always have to have all the tools twice with snap if it has good filtering with Jace.
Personally Id like to see a snapcaster ban. It be interesting to see how modern blue would shake out if they couldn't stall out and double use a bunch of utility spells.
Yikes. I can't really parse the last 2.5 years of Modern in any way that could possibly justify a Snapcaster ban. This was a deck type that was outright bad for 2016-2017, struggling but solidly Tier 2 for 2017-2018, and only verifiably Tier 1 for 3-4 months of this year. And even there, it has far less metagame presence than other top-tier regulars and all-stars like Gx Tron, Burn, Humans, Affinity, etc. I just can't see where this suggestion comes from.
Mostly from seeing too many shenanigans with snapcaster from over the years, not just in modern. It is a broken card in some respects in that it allows you to use things twice, yes you usually cant cheat the play from yard cmc cost much but its still aggressively played in anything that has a lot of instants and sorceries with cheap value and access to blue. Add in stoneforge and you pretty much have what caw blade was back in the day with even more and better removal options.
Also recently for me U/W/? within two matches cryptic commanded me 7 times with snapcaster backup, if you don't find THAT obnoxious well.... Admittedly also that was in a match that top decked terminus twice on turn three naturally ugh. Still shows how with the correct build of U/W it can get oppressive.
Personally Id like to see a snapcaster ban. It be interesting to see how modern blue would shake out if they couldn't stall out and double use a bunch of utility spells.
Taking stoneforge off the banlist would be interesting as well. But the corralary to it is the banning of batterskull at the same time. Stoneforge by itself isnt that bad as seen by the zendikar standard before mirroden dropped. Used ALOT yes, but living weapon is what pushed it over the top especially batterskull. Letting u/w players get that combo on turn 3 and dropping it on 4 with protection is just too broken. Adding the tool box that is JTMS pushes it too far. You really dont need to see a quickban in modern if it just goes into cawblade folks.
Ok you can use Dauntless but then you are two for oneing yourself to maybe remove 3 to maybe 4 creatures. Which could yes win you the game depending on board state but its still a 1/120+ chance at happening alongside getting the wrath when needed.
If you use Selfless Spirit then you may as well drop exemplar altogether and add Honor of the pure or a glorious anthem type card like Benalish marshal so that you are still two for oneing yourself but you get an evasive beater in the air as alongside keeping the buff going on your tokens and other knights. The only real issue I have for vial is are we always keeping it at two or would it be better at three so we have more reactives in like dropping spirit or exemplar during an opponents turn or in response to a removal?
Its not actually. Yeah you can theoretically do it and it kinda sorta works but the hoops you go thru just to do it are more than its really worth.
You have to remember the wording on exemplar is "Other Knights" so in itself it doesn't have indestructible meaning you need two so that both gain that keyword. Or that you need a darksteel plate on your exemplar. Getting a exemp is a 1 in 60, getting two is a 1 in 120, same for any combination of exemplar and plate depending on the ratios. That isn't factoring in the land ratio to run wrath/day/damnnation alongside its own ratio of how many in the deck to when you need it to draw factor. Which also squeezes the amount of flex space down for other parts of the agro cards needed.
This all assumes that the knight/s isn't removed by path, bounced, killed before equipped, opponent has no -x/-x effects, and so on.
Actually I wouldn't mind full art if they only did it at the uncommon common level for vanilla or French vanilla creatures. Anything that needed rules text to be written should then have a regular text box so as to keep legibility high. Would make getting the base creatures a little more special for newer players.
That's somewhat reasonable, since worn sleeves can be used to mark important cards if you have low ethics. Doesn't mean you do have low ethics just that it can be a thing.
I would say the biggest non budget concern about vial is that its not really doing much for the deck overall since unlike vial goblins or death and taxes you have no real shut off valve or big trick that would warrant inclusion. Sure you can set it to two and have creatures come out for free, but other than that what are you really doing that disruptive enough that you need to do such a thing?
I would suggest that if you had to cut and add a pump it would be blossoming defense. Don't worry about being 2 for 1'ed in this deck. Yes its going to happen but if you play too conservatively you just lose since your not doing anything to spend the removal on until they can ultimately stymie you anyway and then swing for their kill.
I think your 3cc spot is a little to cloggy for what your trying. I mean I know you have dorks and that can add depth to what your trying, but a total 14 3cc creatures/spells make me feel like you would be gasping for mana.
Gesit or scooze first and then avatar depending on board situation. Avatar is always coming last from that out of hand since its the one that wants to check counters the most. Likely its geist then scooze so that you can ram geist in to get the +1 and use a scooze ability to hopefully +1 as well, then get a 5/4 avatar assuming everything lines up correctly.
other than empty its not really adding much so that it reduces more I'd imagine. ALOT of things and spells we play are 1cc anyway whereas warchief can add some better value to other cards more.
With JTMS now that he's back why not test a meta without snapcaster and see if its jace that's more powerfull or snapcaster/jace together. I mean they nuked Naya with nactal for a few years to see how the meta shook out. Then they brought back nactal. Do the same with snappy. Blue doesn't always have to have all the tools twice with snap if it has good filtering with Jace.
Mostly from seeing too many shenanigans with snapcaster from over the years, not just in modern. It is a broken card in some respects in that it allows you to use things twice, yes you usually cant cheat the play from yard cmc cost much but its still aggressively played in anything that has a lot of instants and sorceries with cheap value and access to blue. Add in stoneforge and you pretty much have what caw blade was back in the day with even more and better removal options.
Also recently for me U/W/? within two matches cryptic commanded me 7 times with snapcaster backup, if you don't find THAT obnoxious well.... Admittedly also that was in a match that top decked terminus twice on turn three naturally ugh. Still shows how with the correct build of U/W it can get oppressive.
Taking stoneforge off the banlist would be interesting as well. But the corralary to it is the banning of batterskull at the same time. Stoneforge by itself isnt that bad as seen by the zendikar standard before mirroden dropped. Used ALOT yes, but living weapon is what pushed it over the top especially batterskull. Letting u/w players get that combo on turn 3 and dropping it on 4 with protection is just too broken. Adding the tool box that is JTMS pushes it too far. You really dont need to see a quickban in modern if it just goes into cawblade folks.
only if they ban batterskull when they bring back the stoneforge, cant let u/w get too many toys or make caw blade a deck again.
If you use Selfless Spirit then you may as well drop exemplar altogether and add Honor of the pure or a glorious anthem type card like Benalish marshal so that you are still two for oneing yourself but you get an evasive beater in the air as alongside keeping the buff going on your tokens and other knights. The only real issue I have for vial is are we always keeping it at two or would it be better at three so we have more reactives in like dropping spirit or exemplar during an opponents turn or in response to a removal?
You have to remember the wording on exemplar is "Other Knights" so in itself it doesn't have indestructible meaning you need two so that both gain that keyword. Or that you need a darksteel plate on your exemplar. Getting a exemp is a 1 in 60, getting two is a 1 in 120, same for any combination of exemplar and plate depending on the ratios. That isn't factoring in the land ratio to run wrath/day/damnnation alongside its own ratio of how many in the deck to when you need it to draw factor. Which also squeezes the amount of flex space down for other parts of the agro cards needed.
This all assumes that the knight/s isn't removed by path, bounced, killed before equipped, opponent has no -x/-x effects, and so on.
4 Pride of the Clouds
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
4 Selfless Spirit
3 Lightning Angel
4 Mantis Rider
Enchantment
4 Favorable Winds
Land
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Arid Mesa
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
2 Steam Vents
4 Flooded Strand
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Vapor Snag
Sorcery
3 Chart a Course
2 Hope of Ghirapur
2 Disenchant
2 Holy Day
3 Spell Pierce
3 Midnight Haunting
3 Boros Charm
Took the advice and here is take two of the deck