MTG Salvation

At GP Dallas, I played 15 rounds. I played against 10 different decks in those rounds. 3 Hogaak, 2 UW Control, 2 Rock, 2 Burn, 8-whack, UR Phoenix, Eldrazi Tron, Storm, Whir Prison, and Humans. I was playing an almost mono-blue tempo deck and finished in the money, 10-4-1. If you think the format isn't varied maybe that's your local metagame or online, because it is quite varied. Faithless Looting is unlikely to ever leave the format, along with Mox Opal and Ancient Stirrings, these cards make the format what it is. They enable stupid stuff yes, but they also enable a wide range of things.

I imagine Stoneforge Mystic will be unbaned at some point, but they will wait till Modern needs a shake-up. With the new mulligan and all the new toys in Modern Horizons, there's no need to add it now.

Personally I love the format right now, and Modern Horizons did exactly what I hoped, made the format even more varied. Even with Hogaak being every where at that GP, it still felt great. Hogaak will still be a viable deck without having busted turn two kills, although in three matches that never happened.

If you don't feel there's enough interaction, play some yourself.

Echoing truth is good against a host of targets, Phoenix, think in the ice, Hogaak. I can also hit non-creatures like Aria. Infect I'm 2-0 against. They can win turn 2, but aside from that draw I have enough counterspells and tempo to slow them down. I've twice stolen their infect creature with archmage charm. It also helps that their main defense is Spell Pierce which does nothing to stop spellstutter Sprite from countering something or ice-fang with deathtouch from killing their creature. I only equip when I have no other interaction available or if I know I'll connect with Feast and Famine to untap. I've made a few changes, but it's mostly been to add String of Disappearances over Wizard's Retort as I wanted more interaction.

The set is legal in Modern, not made for modern. No set is made for just one play group. There's a good 20 cards out of the 100 spoiled so far that will see play and I'd guess about another 20 will see play as well and by that I mean be in decks that are in the top 16 deck lists. On top of that there are tons of cards that will see play in new tier 3 decks. What I'm really amazed by is how many cards don't slot in to current tier 1 decks (a good thing) They are new avenues to explore. This set is a brewers delight already. I'll admit there are some misses, some of the force cycle and the mox, but that's likely because play design felt they were too risky as designed and lowered their power level.

Just because it's not busted, doesn't mean it's not good. Lots of potential. Won't be as commonplace as collected company can be, but still good.

Also probably beautiful foil.

Won a pptq this weekend, deck list at end of post. There were a couple oddities but either way 8-whack got there in the end.

29 players

Round 1- Tooth & Nail
My opp. and I are mulliganing when the match slip arrives and he realizes he is at the wrong table. My real opp. arrives and gets a game loss for not having his deck list finished on time.
Match actually starts, he wins game one as I have a slow start. And game two I kill his first mana creature with a bolt off of a burning-tree emissary and swarm him to death
2-1*

Round 2-Eldrazi & taxes
Both games he has path and tidehollow sculler to slow me down and once the eldrazi displacers come down and can't regain the advantage.
0-2

Round 3-KCI
game 1- he goes off turn three... but never sees my sacred foundry, so doesn't sideboard hate for stony silence.
Game 2- I keep a one land hand since it has stony silence and Rest in peace. Finally on turn six I draw a second land and Stony silence shuts him down. He does have Sai to make tokens, but I kill it with a grenade and kill him. Game 3 is then exact same but I get stony down on turn two this time.
2-1

Round 4-no idea, but I think it's humans
We get deck checked and his aether vials are too warped. He gets a game loss and decides to drop.

Round 5-Humans
game 1-I mull to 5 and lose.
Game 2- I kill his turn one noble after playing two Burning-tree Emissarys and kill him two turns later.
Game 3- He mulls to five and I easily swarm him.
2-1

Going into round 5 I had the second worst opp win % and had to play, but all the 3-1 decided to play and I ended up in first after the swiss. No one with a record worse than 2-2 had stayed in and the bye went to the 2-2 player with the best opp win % and got him into the top 8... it was kinda weird.

Quarter finals- Eldrazi & Taxes- same opp as round 2
Game one I have a fast hand but he has double path and is able to pull ahead.
Game two I kill him on turn three with a huge swarm.
Game three we both mulligan and keep one land hands, but he has double vial. I get a second land on turn three, but he keeps vialing in Flickerwisps to slow me down. He gets a thought-knot down and double Eldrazi dispacer when I get him down to 2. Luckily he was overly conservative with his attacks, I think due to fearing the swarm attack I did in game two. I top deck a goblin grenade on my last possible turn and win.
2-1

Semis-Living End
Game one- all the salt. He cycles a bunch and I figure out what he is playing. Due to double goblin guides I see most of his draws and know he has an instant cascade spell. I haven't played against living end in awhile (6 months) He's down to 3, I draw a lighting bolt. Decide to attack for lethal and once he casts cascade spell (tapping out) I bolt him. This completely tilts him the following two games as he feels I slow rolled him. I could understand if I had let him cascade and resolve Living End, but I just waited till he tapped out in case there was any card I wasn't aware of.
Game two- he crushes me
Game three- I have a fairly quick hand and get him down to 5. He's digging for a cascade spell and cycles a streetwraith then I bolt him for the win.
He spends the next half hour salty while I wait for the finals
2-1

Finals-Tron
game one he mulls to 5, I have turn one goblin guide, and turn three have burning-tree into Reckless and another reckless plus a one drop on turn 4.
game two he mulls to five again, keeps then says go, to which I respond “no, you are going first” he says “I know... go” he kept a no land hand hoping I would goblin guide him again. Turn one is a foundry Street Denizen, turn two is Burning-tree, burning-tree, Reckless, take 13. He finally plays a land and I swing for 7 for the win.



After the tournament the only card I question having was Harsh Mentor. I sided it in but wonder if two copies of Shattering Spree would have been a better option as Mentor doesn't actually hurt KCI much. I don't like more than the one Goblin Chainwhirler as three mana is a lot in this deck. Not impossible but I'd rather have two CMC and lower. Mentor was a good option for against Eldrazi & Taxes, but I never drew it. The white splash for Stony Silence and Rest in Peace is well worth it in my opinion.

Quote from Evil Never Dies »

- Don't understand jokes
- I'm an EDH player

Good job, sherlock.

After hearing this joke every time a rare that is not Urza's level it became boring

Quote from Evil Never Dies »

I wonder why this Commander set is called "Modern" Horizon.

- Reprint a card that sees play in Legacy and might as such very well see Modern play
- Still whine about "Commander Horizons"

Good job.

UR Ponza? I'll take a Stone Rain and Molten Rain for 4, thank you.

Holy *****! I'm almost tempted to call it fake, because it beats the living hell out of Jace's spellbook. I also find it weird that they kept the original art for Gideon Jura since he was retconned to a Greek beefcake.

EDIT! RICHARD KANE FERGUSON!!!!!!! WotC needs to have him illustrate a ton more cards. Like, right now. Call him, Wizards. Call him.

Love the RKF Blackblade Reforged. That's a fantastic throwback.

Quote from MonoBlackOut »

Quote from krishnath »

Quote from CX316 »

Quote from MonoBlackOut »

I'm sure glad these planeswalkers who made wrong decisions for their entire life could simply change their mind at the absolute last second and stop the evil mastermind who made the right decisions for his entire plan. Thank God that family was standing under that rock that fell so Liliana could see how bad she was.

Um, you know she was working for Bolas against her will, right? Liliana is one of the good guys, albeit a self-centred and power hungry one. Bolas has control of the pacts she made with the four demons to keep her youth and grant her power, and she was working for him because if he wanted he could snuff her out (in theory) by cancelling the deals. The family who got killed in the trailer looked like her and her brother when they were younger and made her decide that living wasn't worth the damage she was causing.

So it's not that a bad character suddenly changed her mind, it's more she finally decided something was more important than living.

Now, if Tezzeret suddenly turns hero on us, then you can complain.

No, no she is not one of the good guys. A good guy does not have a zombie horde ravage a major city, killing thousands, and force a hero to release a demon or see her compatriots be devoured alive by zombies. A hero does not traffic with demons. Lily is primarily motivated by her fear of dying and her own freedom. She does not care about you, she does not care about what is right. She cares about herself first and foremost. All that happened was that she realized she'd rather die free than live as a slave. But she is not good by any stretch of the imagination.

THIS.

In the end, it doesn't even matter because it's a card game. Story telling to the back.

Indeed, it doesn't even matter. She had to fall to lose it all.