I'm not too enthusiastic about this recent discussion.
For starter, like many, I think the speculation of what would happen without the current tier-1 is both mostly hot air and entirely pointless. It's not that I mind people shooting from the hip and giving their opinion, but that I find the discussion to be a symptom of a lack of mental rigor. Any meta has a tier one, every tier set will have its detractor, every deck has its lover and hater. You'd replace one set of dissatisfied players with another. I'd rather read people discuss how to make some decks better than how to destroy the ones that exist. I find the current displayed hate for the existing tier-1 a bit tasteless.
Furthermore, the discussion seems to take for granted two things. One, that the current tier-1 suite is dominating. It's not true. Multiple recent results have shown other decks taking the crown in a given tournament. There is no huge gulf between tier-1 and tier-2. So why want to change the tier-1? It does not extinguish variety, that's just not true. Two, history bears this out, a single new card can push tier-2 deck into tier-1. Look at Baral making storm better for example. So, I would much prefer to see people speculating on new cards (even made up ones) that would help change the meta rather than bashing tier-1 decks you think are no-fun.
Agreed. It's really a simple matter to create another subforum here and pin it to the top strictly for discussion of cards to ban/unban in the Modern format. A thread titled in any way w/ "State of the Meta" should not include discussion about banning/unbanning cards, rather it should center on the discussion of decks and cards actually legal in the format. This, imho, is what most players would rather talk about and especially READ about even if they don't want to start or engage in conversation themselves. This particular thread is dominated by about 12 posters who say the same thing every day all day long, and they only focus on what they want banned/unbanned. So there is really no discussion about the state of the meta in this thread it's all about a meta of fantasy.
The two-month or whatever it was "ban Splinter Twin" talk here was just a half-assed attempt at what I've stated above.
If you look at the colors, the only 2-color combination in the game that does not have a PW in Modern being played is B/G. I understand completely being a Modern player that many of the walkers above are not really that good, but they are cheap/powerful/synergistic enough for people to try and make them work in the format. I will note the only B/R walker here is 3-color Nicol Bolas and the only G/W walker is 3-color Tamiyo. Still, there is no B/G walker anywhere of any combination. The first Vraska is unplayable b/c her + ability does absolutely nothing to affect the game...no mana ramp, no card draw, no tap down, no buff or nerf of creatures...nothing, so she is essentially a 5CMC Maelstrom Pulse. The new one is unplayable at 6CMC. The last Vraska was in RtR, which came out in 2012...so, do we wait another five years for another version of Vraska that might be Modern playable? Highly unlikely we will get another version in Rivals. If Angrath (likely B/R) and Ajani (possibly G/W) in Rivals are cheap enough to be Modern playable, I will send Vraska to WotC headquarters for a face-to-face chat.
Further, the Gatewatch walkers all have recently gotten either a 3CMC (I count UG Nissa here) version (as soon as Ixalan Jace becomes legal), or, as in the case of Chandra, a Modern-playable walker w/ four abilities.
Why no love for Golgari walkers? Given the change in Planeswalker rules, and how much PWs have become the face of this game, one would think WotC would have tried to push the new Vraska a bit so it could at least be given a chance in Modern. She is THE B/G walker.
As a face walker of a Standard-legal set she is wretchedly bad everywhere but EDH. She was spoiled today at Hascon so her wretchedness would be lost in the spoilers for Iconic (Commander) Masters, which is where all the chatter is now.
I guess I should not be surprised at this though, b/c Standard expansions now are nothing but Commander products in disguise.
She could easily have been 4cmc and 4 starting loyalty w/ exact same abilities, not be broken in Standard, and potentially be playable in Modern, b/c the other Vraska misses by just oh so much.
I love dinosaurs and was ready to play prerelease and pull the plug on two booster boxes of this set...all I was waiting for was to see my other favorite walker be Modern playable.
If Path was the answer (lol it wasn't) there would have been no need for a ban just play Path, easy!
Only, it's not that easy, and the downside to path is huge in a game where the early resources are critical.
If banning is good management well then since that's all wizards has really done, they must be great.
Forget testing.
Forget trying new cards.
Forget unbans.
All wizards must do is ban that which offends, hide their numbers to keep players ignorant and wave 'nothing to see, trust us'.
Absolutely garbage level thinking.
Why don't you tell us where we can access that data you are working on, for free, since you think you are entitled to free MTGO data from WotC. I'd like to see it...all of it.
WotC has managed the Modern format excellently the last two years by cleaning out problematic cards (Twin, Bloom, Probe, Troll) that enabled broken or overly-restrictive decks and printed an excellent card in Fatal Push that is now the most played card in Modern.
You forgot to mention how between banning Twin (premiere "Control" deck and safety valve against linear overload) and simultaneously printing completely broken Eldrazi, they managed to destroy the format for more than a year. Then those additional bans (Probe and GGT) were a result of them printing more stupidbusted things as well as removing the primary means for helping keep speedy linear decks in check while being vulnerable to highly interactive decks. Never mind that they didn't even try to allow Fatal Push to reign in the fast aggro decks that played Gitaxian Probe and got wrecked by Push anyway (to try and create a balance) but instead, decks like Delver, Infect, and UR Spells (Bloo) were effectively destroyed between the two actions. Meanwhile, Death's Shadow morphed into something that will likely eat another ban.
Ignorant, lazy, and ham-fisted doesn't even begin to describe their ability to "manage" formats.
Bloom was a great ban. Deck killed too quickly and through several layers of targeted hate. Nobody lost any sleep over that one, but also literally everyone saw it coming.
I didn't forget to mention anything. I just don't agree with you. You and I will never agree on Twin. I also don't agree w/ anybody making the Push/Probe connection...that is a lazy connection done w/o critical thought, the assumption that Push itself would keep Probe in check when Bolt/Path/pick a cheap removal spell were not already doing so. Basically I don't see the clause on Push that states that if you get Probed while holding Push in your hand you do not have to reveal your hand. The information Probe gave w/o the expenditure of mana is what broke that card in hyper-aggro decks, and why it had to go. Push was not going to stop that.
WotC has managed the Modern format excellently the last two years by cleaning out problematic cards (Twin, Bloom, Probe, Troll) that enabled broken or overly-restrictive decks and printed an excellent card in Fatal Push that is now the most played card in Modern.
What are you looking for exactly, Surge, and what are you doing for 3-4 turns whilst your opponent assembles Urzatron and Ugins you?
Hat feels great and there is no tin or foil involved in its construction, just straight common sense and critical thought. When people "leak" something like an Ixalan set and they are outside of the company making the product, they do not "leak" unclear images, as unclear images serve no purpose to anybody except the company whose property is being "leaked"...unless there is blackmail/ransom involved. Have we heard any evidence of that? Meanwhile, you all got a nice, if unclear, tease of those cool Dinosaurs and Pirates about to invade your gaming tables come Sept., a nice salve for the garbo HOU being released.
What do the Ixalan Planeswalkers do?
Give me the exact wording on all the "new" mechanics.
Ahhh, but you can't, b/c WotC is saving that for when it's time to spoil Ixalan for "reals".
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can illuminate for the masses, but you can't make them think.
This is theft IF it was stolen from a printing press. If this was not stolen from any press but simply a picture of a sheet that was either at the work station or being evaluated for defects than this is legal. There is nothing illegal about taking a photo of something in America, only how you took the photo or what you plan to do with said photo.
Have you ever dealt with an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)? I guarantee you Wizards uses them, as most companies with some form of intellectual property do. In such a case, taking a photo and broadcasting it to the world is a complete breach of contract and against the law. Wizards makes money by creating intellectual property. So, whether the sheet was physically stolen, or the copyrighted intellectual property was only "virtually" stolen, it amounts to the same thing.
And photography laws apply to things that can be seen in public. I doubt Wizards put this sheet out on the sidewalk - it was clearly on private property, secure behind a wall and not accessible to the general public. Whoever leaked this can be in a lot of trouble.
Are you open to the possibility that this was leaked by WotC purposefully? Why are the images so obscured? Why are the money planeswalkers unreadable? Did the worst camera-phone operator in the world just luck out?
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Agreed. It's really a simple matter to create another subforum here and pin it to the top strictly for discussion of cards to ban/unban in the Modern format. A thread titled in any way w/ "State of the Meta" should not include discussion about banning/unbanning cards, rather it should center on the discussion of decks and cards actually legal in the format. This, imho, is what most players would rather talk about and especially READ about even if they don't want to start or engage in conversation themselves. This particular thread is dominated by about 12 posters who say the same thing every day all day long, and they only focus on what they want banned/unbanned. So there is really no discussion about the state of the meta in this thread it's all about a meta of fantasy.
The two-month or whatever it was "ban Splinter Twin" talk here was just a half-assed attempt at what I've stated above.
1
These numbers come from MTG Top 8 over the last two months. There are twenty two PWs seeing play in Modern in that time:
Liliana
Karn
Jace
Gideon
Chandra
Ugin
Elspeth
Nahiri
Ajani
Sorin
Saheeli
Garruk
Nissa
Koth
Domri
Tamiyo
Tezzeret
Dovin Baan
Ashiok
Kiora (KIORA!!!)
Narset
Nicol Bolas
If you look at the colors, the only 2-color combination in the game that does not have a PW in Modern being played is B/G. I understand completely being a Modern player that many of the walkers above are not really that good, but they are cheap/powerful/synergistic enough for people to try and make them work in the format. I will note the only B/R walker here is 3-color Nicol Bolas and the only G/W walker is 3-color Tamiyo. Still, there is no B/G walker anywhere of any combination. The first Vraska is unplayable b/c her + ability does absolutely nothing to affect the game...no mana ramp, no card draw, no tap down, no buff or nerf of creatures...nothing, so she is essentially a 5CMC Maelstrom Pulse. The new one is unplayable at 6CMC. The last Vraska was in RtR, which came out in 2012...so, do we wait another five years for another version of Vraska that might be Modern playable? Highly unlikely we will get another version in Rivals. If Angrath (likely B/R) and Ajani (possibly G/W) in Rivals are cheap enough to be Modern playable, I will send Vraska to WotC headquarters for a face-to-face chat.
Further, the Gatewatch walkers all have recently gotten either a 3CMC (I count UG Nissa here) version (as soon as Ixalan Jace becomes legal), or, as in the case of Chandra, a Modern-playable walker w/ four abilities.
Why no love for Golgari walkers? Given the change in Planeswalker rules, and how much PWs have become the face of this game, one would think WotC would have tried to push the new Vraska a bit so it could at least be given a chance in Modern. She is THE B/G walker.
1
I guess I should not be surprised at this though, b/c Standard expansions now are nothing but Commander products in disguise.
1
I love dinosaurs and was ready to play prerelease and pull the plug on two booster boxes of this set...all I was waiting for was to see my other favorite walker be Modern playable.
Now I will purchase nothing from Ixalan.
1
Why don't you tell us where we can access that data you are working on, for free, since you think you are entitled to free MTGO data from WotC. I'd like to see it...all of it.
3
I didn't forget to mention anything. I just don't agree with you. You and I will never agree on Twin. I also don't agree w/ anybody making the Push/Probe connection...that is a lazy connection done w/o critical thought, the assumption that Push itself would keep Probe in check when Bolt/Path/pick a cheap removal spell were not already doing so. Basically I don't see the clause on Push that states that if you get Probed while holding Push in your hand you do not have to reveal your hand. The information Probe gave w/o the expenditure of mana is what broke that card in hyper-aggro decks, and why it had to go. Push was not going to stop that.
2
What are you looking for exactly, Surge, and what are you doing for 3-4 turns whilst your opponent assembles Urzatron and Ugins you?
1
Modern is in a great place at the moment and it's in that place b/c of WotC's management of it the last two years.
2
What do the Ixalan Planeswalkers do?
Give me the exact wording on all the "new" mechanics.
Ahhh, but you can't, b/c WotC is saving that for when it's time to spoil Ixalan for "reals".
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can illuminate for the masses, but you can't make them think.
1
Are you open to the possibility that this was leaked by WotC purposefully? Why are the images so obscured? Why are the money planeswalkers unreadable? Did the worst camera-phone operator in the world just luck out?