Card release notes says "If either target is an illegal target as Grim Contest tries to resolve, neither creature will deal or be dealt damage."
If however it one of the targets is bounced by say Jeskai Charm, that doesn't make it illegal and it would use LKI to see what the toughness was, correct? This is not like Fight, which has a specific entry in the comp rules stating:
701.10b If a creature instructed to fight is no longer on the battlefield or is no longer a creature, no damage is dealt. If a creature is an illegal target for a resolving spell or ability that instructs it to fight, no damage is dealt.
It didn't end up mattering in the pre-release but I wanted to make sure I was getting it right.
413.2f If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures in play), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, including the source of the ability itself, the effect uses the current information of that object if it hasn’t changed zones; otherwise, the effect uses the last known information the object had before leaving the zone it was expected to be in. There are two exceptions: (1) if an effect deals damage divided among some number of creatures or players, the amount and division were determined as the spell or ability was put into the stack (see rule 402.6), and (2) static abilities can’t use last known information (see rule 412.5). If the ability text states that an object does something, it’s the object as it exists—or as it most recently existed—that does it, not the ability.
That's only because people are running way too much discard in these lists. Run draw spells instead and I bet you find it. I definitely will try in a mono black devotion shell w/whip.
G/B with Commune is pretty decent as well. It definitely won't start off high tier like all the current reanimator decks but it will be something. The minus one ability is almost assuredly included so as to prevent you from chaining Deals together with a Waste Not, which can be very insane (depending on opponent discards, you only ever need to hit 2 lands to keep a chain going but eventually no matter how many cards you draw off of Waste Not, you will run out of mana). I'm pretty sure though that T1 Thoughtseize to clear the path, T2 Waste Not T3 Dark Deal chaining into a 2nd Dark Deal that you cast that turn will be very hard to beat.
Wow, can't believe I blanked on Sidisi, that is awful. It's really bad I missed that since I'm kinda the rules guru at my lgs and will be attempting lvl 1 judge certification hopefully soon. /smacks forehead
Will still keep the blue splash and probably go 1 Mauler main or the 3rd charm.
Gonna drop See for Rescue, swapping out manadorks to recur is pretty sweet; also, it does work with whipped creatures and 9 mana isn't that hard with the ramp I run. That should definitely be closing out games.
I do like the random value Sidisi brings and a few bodies is always welcome but I may try a MD Mauler in her place.
Took this to 3-1 last night at FNM, beating Mardu aggro, Jeskai Tempo, UR control, lost to UW Heroic (very fast and I foolishly kept a bad hand with all renaimation targets and lands). I'll tell you now the SB is AWFUL, the only all stars were maulers and impersonators (resolve them against control, you win, UB, UR, UWx, nothing has good answers out of hostilities or crackling doom). I was originally looking to get a Medomai the Ageless (wanted to whip a Medomai just once in life....) instead of Soul.
Yes, the blue splash is just for Sultai Charm and one Sidisi main + the Maulers and Impersonator in the SB. The "penalties' to the manabase seem very inconsequential; it's really just the additional BUG tritaps, as with all the burn and fast aggro decks I'd be playing additional life gain lands anyway in their place.
Angel was overperforming all day. She surprised the hell out of all 4 opponents and did serious work. Loved her.
Hardcasting Sidisi is preferable to whip; with whip, her best case scenario is definitely better than Hornet Queen (6 bodies 12 power) and most of the time she is going to average about 2-3 zombies. While more power overall w/less bodies, the flying and deathtouch from a guaranteed 4 bodies is really really good. It's the main reason I prefer Junk splash blue instead of all in on BUG reanimator, your white cards are very high impact. When someone sweeps Sidisi, you don't have that guarantee of getting as many tokens back. Still, she is solid value and does an excellent job of gumming up the ground. I don't think I have to explain how bonkers Sultai Charm is, card was great all night.
Sideboard
Oh boy. So my initial thinking was way off. I fully expected exile removal and Disdainful Stroke so I simply wanted to overload my opponents removal and hope to get there. With opponents also running Nullify basically all I did was make it to where all they had to counter was whip with Stroke and use all the other removal on everything else. Bad idea. To me, it seems like the better route is to go semi transformational and run an aggro plan out of the board. While it doesn't skirt around nullify on the draw, forcing them to use it on my Rakshasa Deathdealer/Fleecemane Lion/Anafenza, means now that casting a 4 drop creature is a harder choice for them if they burned a nullify on the 2 drop. Now they have to choose between 'wasting' the Stroke on creature vs. whip. Additionally, if they want to use Banishing Light/Utter End/Abzan Charm on these non 4 drops go ahead, they are outspending on mana. You win. Additionally, vs Jeskai, if they are siding out burn like strike and jet since they don't hit the big targets, you can pull far ahead when their only answer is to waste Stoke/Anger/End Hostilities on your little creatures. I would try something like this in the future:
I'd love to find room for a second Sidisi, maybe coming down on the Abzan Charm but you have to have a good answer to Anafenza besides Light. Also, the 4th Whip could be a Clever Impersonator. Idk.
Any thoughts, criticisms or suggestions are welcomed.
Turn 1 GG, swing for 2
Turn 2, swing for 2, bolt bolt
10 damage
Turn 1 MS, swing for 1
Turn 2, bolt bolt, swing for 3
10 damage
Turn 1 Devil, take 4
Turn 2 GG, swing for 2, bolt
9 damage
Turn 1 Devil, take 4
Turn 2 MS, bolt, swing for 2
9 damage
Turn 1 GG, swing for 2
Turn 2 GG #2 and #3, swing for 6
8 damage
Turn 1 MS, swing for 1
Turn 2, MS #2 and #3, swing for 3
4 damage
Turn 1 GG, swing for 2
Turn 2 GG #2, bolt, swing for 4
9 damage
Turn 1 MS, swing for 1
Turn 2, MS #2, bolt, swing for 4
8 damage
I looked at turns 1 and 2 because that is the best impact of a 1 drop of course. It goes without saying that MS is worse with creature heavy hands/draws and shines with a spell heavy hand. Each spell past the first makes her better than GG, other than that she is pretty much on par, sometimes just a tad worse. Given how good GG is, that's a pretty high bar to meet and I think MS is essentially meeting that bar. With my build running Bob, she is REALLY good and pulls far ahead when I draw 2 spells.
The issue becomes with trading. In the mirror, she is not going to ever trade, she is going to win out. However, knowing that, your opponent is almost never going to block so that becomes moot. The same thing will happen vs other aggro decks. Consider the following:
Affinity
Ornithopther
Swing with GG, they won't block, you bolt them, they take 5.
Swing with MS, THEY MAY BLOCK.
If they block, you bolt, thopter dies, they take 3.
If they don't, you bolt, they take 5.
To be completely fair, she is giving your opponent a choice which of course is not where you want to be. 99.9% of your opponents know that she is going to kill an x/2 so they get to decide how you spend your damage. The scenario is exactly the same as with GG except here, it requires you to have the spell. Basically, any time you are bluffing and the opponent calls it, you lose. Otherwise, it's the same as GG. In practice, it's such a niche case that it's hardly worth mentioning but it is a 'drawback'. However, much like GG's 'drawback', it's small enough to justify running MS imo.
Where MS really shines is x/3 and that is incredibly relevant with Sylvan Carytid in Ascendancy Storm. The matchup is favored for us already, especially sticking an Eidolon is just lulz but she does provide interaction with a card that previously blanked us.
Vs first strikers like Thalia, she wins out over GG. Vs 3/3 like Nacatl, 2 spells let her win.
"Nacatl"
1 spell
GG, bolt blocker, swing for 2
MS, bolt blocker, swing for 2
2 damage
MS, swing, THEY MAY BLOCK.
If they block, bolt bolt, MS lives, "Nacatl" dies, 6 damage.
If they don't block, 9 damage.
As you can see, she pulls far ahead of GG in these type of situations.
While MS doesn't add a new dynamic to the deck like Eidolon did she provides something just as good: more redundancy aka consistency. As shown above, most of the time she is GG 5-8. when's she's good, she's really good and when she is bad (trip MS hand...ship that crap back lol) she is bad. But again, those are really the extremes, fringe scenarios. Just liek their are times when GG draws your opponent 3 extra cards, there are days where you flipped vital info and you chuckle to yourself on how in the hell is GG ever fair. There will be days where MS is hanging around with a bunch of creatures, looking like the lame kid on the block. Then other times, it's just her, 5 spells, 3 lands and you win on turn 3.
I used to run White for 1 Kami, 1 Ronom, 4 Boros Charm and 3 Wear/Tear in the SB. Revelry seems to condense a lot of spots in addition to burning them, it's great.
I'm very torn on Bob vs. Grim. Neither really becomes active until turn 3 (technically you could fetch turn 1, then turn 2 spell/fetch and tap to do Grim for 2 but that doesn't seem efficient really....you did less than damage a turn 1 GG/MS). Both do 2 damage (good luck on bob getting through lol). I've also wanted to cut down to 18 lands but i think the "flooding" is a side effect of running Confidant and I'm just looking at it wrong. SB should be fairly obvious, there is a lot of Pod/RUG Twin/UR Twin/UWR Control at my shop, hence the Combust. Also, everyone seems to like Blood > Blaze, I see both but if I had to go with one....I just chose Blaze due to my history with it. Blood does seem to be very good in the mirror, always getting that 3 damage but I am 99.9% no one else at the shop is running Burn. There will be Ascendancy Storm though.
The color pie issue with this card is just one of the reasons we got a wedge set rather than a wedge block. Three-colored cards are difficult to design, and a three-color theme naturally leads to factions that have themes of their own. You solve this problem by designing three-colored cards that fit the factions, even if they don't really fit each one of its colors. Just remember Alara and the likes of Fire-Field Ogre. Hell, even two-colored factions are not safe from this: why couldn't Shambleshark be mono-blue? Because it's so Simic, that's why.
Blue doesn't get a 2/1 for 1U (or even UU) with 2 bonuses. That's why Shambleshark is multi-color. Blue is 5th on the list for creatures according to WotC.
Wedge design is definitely narrower and harder to design but it doesn't have to be bad. That's the issue here. If a RUG card is hard to design for, you don't just slap it on a card that is something else and say "well, this is what wedge looks like, sorry". That is very much the issue here. Just like the Sage, this card they just added the wedge for no reason and I personally don't even think it has that strong of a flavor faction tie in either. I understand WotC is trying VERY hard to make the wedges stick but 2 years from now, it's still gonna be Raka, Dega, Junk, RUG and BUG. Green Bant cards were different from Naya Green cards were different from Jund Green cards. So far, there are not really any cards that give that kind of strong tie, multi or mono.
Shards worked, Conflux "cheated" cause it was 5 color and ARB was so terribly forced. Why they chose to take the Shards idea, not use Conflux and copy the ARB model with Khans is beyond me.
This was my exact issue. I had to use my old password which I know I have changed within the past year or 2. I can go to the old salvation site and use my new gmail and new password and log in fine. To log in here I had to use my old hotmail account and my very old Salvation password. I am now logged in. Just an FYI for people who are experiencing issues. Seppel was right 100% in describing my problem, hope it helps.
Ok, total loss, even after visiting the source boards. What is the TSP pass the turn pile? The SCG open list did not have Lab Maniac so I do not understand the DD with BW into TSP play at all.
Who cares if it is a cliche? That's not a factor for banning a card. ><
People play Legacy to play Brainstorm. WotC has said it, the players have said it, it is never going away. That will be the day Legacy dies.
Gush protects your lands from Wasteland (a pillar and check on the format, stated by WotC again) at the steep cost of drawing cards for free. Never going to be unbanned again.
Unban Survival? Ok, you are clearly trolling at this point. I'd say kudos but it wasn't a particularly inspired troll so no for you. I don't even need to address the other 2 cards on your list.
Yeah, congrats on having 3 versions of an archtype instead of one. I wouldn't say ramp is much healthier in modern than legacy with those numbers. Some of the decks you name as t1 aggro in modern are far from t1. But I doubt this is going to go anywhere as our opinions are quite different.
Sidebar- I play tron and it's a great deck.
A threefold increase isn't good enough for you?
If we are counting tron decks as ramp, Modern has MonoU tron, UWx gifts tron, Urza's Breakfast (I'm pretty sure hardcasting an Emrakul turn 3 or 4 is a ramp deck but to be fair it's combo/ramp) and Kangaroo. Not every single one of those are Tier 1 but 12 post isn't a tier 1 Legacy deck by FAR. I'm definitely not saying these are tier 1 ramp strategies but you can at least use these at a modern event and not completely embarrass yourself (as a few of these decks have 3-1 and 4-0 dailies repeatedly). When was the last time Nic Fit did something consistent like that in Legacy?
For pure aggro in legacy, get real. Maverick? Yeah, falling off the map, it puts up a random top 8 here and there. Goblins? Burn? Gate? Merfolk? Yeah um ok. All the aggro decks lose hard to the Delver tempo variants cause they try to play fair. Elves is combo. Infect doesn't exist. Zombies is combo. Death and Taxes is not an aggro deck. I think someone jokingly took a stompy green deck recently to an open if you want to count that.
Aggro is the fairest level of interaction, ramp is slightly more unfair in that it cheats on mana. In a format where the combo decks are cheating on mana, card draw AND free spells, no one is surprised why these 2 archetypes have virtually no representation.
Until Legacy players ***** about the uneveness of their format, your comments on Modern's "archetype under representation" are laughable indeed.:nod:
Card release notes says "If either target is an illegal target as Grim Contest tries to resolve, neither creature will deal or be dealt damage."
If however it one of the targets is bounced by say Jeskai Charm, that doesn't make it illegal and it would use LKI to see what the toughness was, correct? This is not like Fight, which has a specific entry in the comp rules stating:
701.10b If a creature instructed to fight is no longer on the battlefield or is no longer a creature, no damage is dealt. If a creature is an illegal target for a resolving spell or ability that instructs it to fight, no damage is dealt.
It didn't end up mattering in the pre-release but I wanted to make sure I was getting it right.
413.2f If an effect requires information from the game (such as the number of creatures in play), the answer is determined only once, when the effect is applied. If the effect requires information from a specific object, including the source of the ability itself, the effect uses the current information of that object if it hasn’t changed zones; otherwise, the effect uses the last known information the object had before leaving the zone it was expected to be in. There are two exceptions: (1) if an effect deals damage divided among some number of creatures or players, the amount and division were determined as the spell or ability was put into the stack (see rule 402.6), and (2) static abilities can’t use last known information (see rule 412.5). If the ability text states that an object does something, it’s the object as it exists—or as it most recently existed—that does it, not the ability.
G/B with Commune is pretty decent as well. It definitely won't start off high tier like all the current reanimator decks but it will be something. The minus one ability is almost assuredly included so as to prevent you from chaining Deals together with a Waste Not, which can be very insane (depending on opponent discards, you only ever need to hit 2 lands to keep a chain going but eventually no matter how many cards you draw off of Waste Not, you will run out of mana). I'm pretty sure though that T1 Thoughtseize to clear the path, T2 Waste Not T3 Dark Deal chaining into a 2nd Dark Deal that you cast that turn will be very hard to beat.
Very nice card otherwise though.
1x Stomping Ground
1x Steam Vents
1x Blood Crypt
1x Island
1x Swamp
1x Forest
5x Mountain
1x Scalding Tarn
3x Wooded Foothills
4x Bloodstained Mire
Creatures (12)
4x Goblin Guide
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Bump in the Night
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
2x Shard Volley
2x Searing Blood
3x Treasure Cruise
3x Gitaxian Probe
3x Mutagenic Growth
4x Skullcrack
4x Rakdos Charm
4x Destructive Revelry
3x Combust
Guess I'll find out tonight.
P.S. And FNM gets cancelled in the time it takes me to post this. Nice.
Bogardan Hellkite
Where in the comp rules is the ruling about casting Hallow targeting Hellkite on the stack will also prevent the damage when it ETB? Much obliged.
Will still keep the blue splash and probably go 1 Mauler main or the 3rd charm.
I do like the random value Sidisi brings and a few bodies is always welcome but I may try a MD Mauler in her place.
Thanks for the feedback.
4x Opulent Palace
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
4x Windswept Heath
3x Llanowar Wastes
3x Forest
2x Plains
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Thornwood Falls
1x Jungle Hollow
Creatures (24)
4x Siege Rhino
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Sylvan Caryatid
4x Satyr Wayfinder
3x Hornet Queen
2x Ashen Rider
1x Resolute Archangel
1x Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1x Nyx Weaver
4x Commune with the Gods
3x Whip of Erebos
2x Sultai Charm
2x See the Unwritten
1x Banishing Light
1x Murderous Cut
4x Abzan Charm
2x Reclamation Sage
2x Sagu Mauler
2x Clever Impersonator
1x Whip of Erebos
1x Banishing Light
1x See the Unwritten
1x Soul of Theros
1x Empty the Pits
Took this to 3-1 last night at FNM, beating Mardu aggro, Jeskai Tempo, UR control, lost to UW Heroic (very fast and I foolishly kept a bad hand with all renaimation targets and lands). I'll tell you now the SB is AWFUL, the only all stars were maulers and impersonators (resolve them against control, you win, UB, UR, UWx, nothing has good answers out of hostilities or crackling doom). I was originally looking to get a Medomai the Ageless (wanted to whip a Medomai just once in life....) instead of Soul.
Yes, the blue splash is just for Sultai Charm and one Sidisi main + the Maulers and Impersonator in the SB. The "penalties' to the manabase seem very inconsequential; it's really just the additional BUG tritaps, as with all the burn and fast aggro decks I'd be playing additional life gain lands anyway in their place.
Angel was overperforming all day. She surprised the hell out of all 4 opponents and did serious work. Loved her.
Hardcasting Sidisi is preferable to whip; with whip, her best case scenario is definitely better than Hornet Queen (6 bodies 12 power) and most of the time she is going to average about 2-3 zombies. While more power overall w/less bodies, the flying and deathtouch from a guaranteed 4 bodies is really really good. It's the main reason I prefer Junk splash blue instead of all in on BUG reanimator, your white cards are very high impact. When someone sweeps Sidisi, you don't have that guarantee of getting as many tokens back. Still, she is solid value and does an excellent job of gumming up the ground. I don't think I have to explain how bonkers Sultai Charm is, card was great all night.
Sideboard
Oh boy. So my initial thinking was way off. I fully expected exile removal and Disdainful Stroke so I simply wanted to overload my opponents removal and hope to get there. With opponents also running Nullify basically all I did was make it to where all they had to counter was whip with Stroke and use all the other removal on everything else. Bad idea. To me, it seems like the better route is to go semi transformational and run an aggro plan out of the board. While it doesn't skirt around nullify on the draw, forcing them to use it on my Rakshasa Deathdealer/Fleecemane Lion/Anafenza, means now that casting a 4 drop creature is a harder choice for them if they burned a nullify on the 2 drop. Now they have to choose between 'wasting' the Stroke on creature vs. whip. Additionally, if they want to use Banishing Light/Utter End/Abzan Charm on these non 4 drops go ahead, they are outspending on mana. You win. Additionally, vs Jeskai, if they are siding out burn like strike and jet since they don't hit the big targets, you can pull far ahead when their only answer is to waste Stoke/Anger/End Hostilities on your little creatures. I would try something like this in the future:
3x Rakshasa Deathdealer
2x Fleecemane Lion
2x Reclamation Sage
2x Sagu Mauler
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
1x Whip of Erebos
1x Banishing Light
I'd love to find room for a second Sidisi, maybe coming down on the Abzan Charm but you have to have a good answer to Anafenza besides Light. Also, the 4th Whip could be a Clever Impersonator. Idk.
Any thoughts, criticisms or suggestions are welcomed.
Turn 2, swing for 2, bolt bolt
10 damage
Turn 1 MS, swing for 1
Turn 2, bolt bolt, swing for 3
10 damage
Turn 1 Devil, take 4
Turn 2 GG, swing for 2, bolt
9 damage
Turn 1 Devil, take 4
Turn 2 MS, bolt, swing for 2
9 damage
Turn 1 GG, swing for 2
Turn 2 GG #2 and #3, swing for 6
8 damage
Turn 1 MS, swing for 1
Turn 2, MS #2 and #3, swing for 3
4 damage
Turn 1 GG, swing for 2
Turn 2 GG #2, bolt, swing for 4
9 damage
Turn 1 MS, swing for 1
Turn 2, MS #2, bolt, swing for 4
8 damage
I looked at turns 1 and 2 because that is the best impact of a 1 drop of course. It goes without saying that MS is worse with creature heavy hands/draws and shines with a spell heavy hand. Each spell past the first makes her better than GG, other than that she is pretty much on par, sometimes just a tad worse. Given how good GG is, that's a pretty high bar to meet and I think MS is essentially meeting that bar. With my build running Bob, she is REALLY good and pulls far ahead when I draw 2 spells.
The issue becomes with trading. In the mirror, she is not going to ever trade, she is going to win out. However, knowing that, your opponent is almost never going to block so that becomes moot. The same thing will happen vs other aggro decks. Consider the following:
Affinity
Ornithopther
Swing with GG, they won't block, you bolt them, they take 5.
Swing with MS, THEY MAY BLOCK.
If they block, you bolt, thopter dies, they take 3.
If they don't, you bolt, they take 5.
To be completely fair, she is giving your opponent a choice which of course is not where you want to be. 99.9% of your opponents know that she is going to kill an x/2 so they get to decide how you spend your damage. The scenario is exactly the same as with GG except here, it requires you to have the spell. Basically, any time you are bluffing and the opponent calls it, you lose. Otherwise, it's the same as GG. In practice, it's such a niche case that it's hardly worth mentioning but it is a 'drawback'. However, much like GG's 'drawback', it's small enough to justify running MS imo.
Where MS really shines is x/3 and that is incredibly relevant with Sylvan Carytid in Ascendancy Storm. The matchup is favored for us already, especially sticking an Eidolon is just lulz but she does provide interaction with a card that previously blanked us.
Vs first strikers like Thalia, she wins out over GG. Vs 3/3 like Nacatl, 2 spells let her win.
"Nacatl"
1 spell
GG, bolt blocker, swing for 2
MS, bolt blocker, swing for 2
2 damage
2 spells
GG, bolt blocker, bolt, swing for 2
5 damage
MS, swing, THEY MAY BLOCK.
If they block, bolt bolt, MS lives, "Nacatl" dies, 6 damage.
If they don't block, 9 damage.
As you can see, she pulls far ahead of GG in these type of situations.
While MS doesn't add a new dynamic to the deck like Eidolon did she provides something just as good: more redundancy aka consistency. As shown above, most of the time she is GG 5-8. when's she's good, she's really good and when she is bad (trip MS hand...ship that crap back lol) she is bad. But again, those are really the extremes, fringe scenarios. Just liek their are times when GG draws your opponent 3 extra cards, there are days where you flipped vital info and you chuckle to yourself on how in the hell is GG ever fair. There will be days where MS is hanging around with a bunch of creatures, looking like the lame kid on the block. Then other times, it's just her, 5 spells, 3 lands and you win on turn 3.
4x Blood Crypt
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
1x Stomping Ground
1x Verdant Catacombs
Creatures (20)
4x Dark Confidant
4x Goblin Guide
4x Vexing Devil
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Bump in the Night
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
3x Shard Volley
2x Searing Blaze
4x Skullcrack
4x Rakdos Charm
4x Destructive Revelry
3x Combust
I used to run White for 1 Kami, 1 Ronom, 4 Boros Charm and 3 Wear/Tear in the SB. Revelry seems to condense a lot of spots in addition to burning them, it's great.
I'm very torn on Bob vs. Grim. Neither really becomes active until turn 3 (technically you could fetch turn 1, then turn 2 spell/fetch and tap to do Grim for 2 but that doesn't seem efficient really....you did less than damage a turn 1 GG/MS). Both do 2 damage (good luck on bob getting through lol). I've also wanted to cut down to 18 lands but i think the "flooding" is a side effect of running Confidant and I'm just looking at it wrong. SB should be fairly obvious, there is a lot of Pod/RUG Twin/UR Twin/UWR Control at my shop, hence the Combust. Also, everyone seems to like Blood > Blaze, I see both but if I had to go with one....I just chose Blaze due to my history with it. Blood does seem to be very good in the mirror, always getting that 3 damage but I am 99.9% no one else at the shop is running Burn. There will be Ascendancy Storm though.
Blue doesn't get a 2/1 for 1U (or even UU) with 2 bonuses. That's why Shambleshark is multi-color. Blue is 5th on the list for creatures according to WotC.
Wedge design is definitely narrower and harder to design but it doesn't have to be bad. That's the issue here. If a RUG card is hard to design for, you don't just slap it on a card that is something else and say "well, this is what wedge looks like, sorry". That is very much the issue here. Just like the Sage, this card they just added the wedge for no reason and I personally don't even think it has that strong of a flavor faction tie in either. I understand WotC is trying VERY hard to make the wedges stick but 2 years from now, it's still gonna be Raka, Dega, Junk, RUG and BUG. Green Bant cards were different from Naya Green cards were different from Jund Green cards. So far, there are not really any cards that give that kind of strong tie, multi or mono.
Shards worked, Conflux "cheated" cause it was 5 color and ARB was so terribly forced. Why they chose to take the Shards idea, not use Conflux and copy the ARB model with Khans is beyond me.
People play Legacy to play Brainstorm. WotC has said it, the players have said it, it is never going away. That will be the day Legacy dies.
Gush protects your lands from Wasteland (a pillar and check on the format, stated by WotC again) at the steep cost of drawing cards for free. Never going to be unbanned again.
Unban Survival? Ok, you are clearly trolling at this point. I'd say kudos but it wasn't a particularly inspired troll so no
A threefold increase isn't good enough for you?
If we are counting tron decks as ramp, Modern has MonoU tron, UWx gifts tron, Urza's Breakfast (I'm pretty sure hardcasting an Emrakul turn 3 or 4 is a ramp deck but to be fair it's combo/ramp) and Kangaroo. Not every single one of those are Tier 1 but 12 post isn't a tier 1 Legacy deck by FAR. I'm definitely not saying these are tier 1 ramp strategies but you can at least use these at a modern event and not completely embarrass yourself (as a few of these decks have 3-1 and 4-0 dailies repeatedly). When was the last time Nic Fit did something consistent like that in Legacy?
For pure aggro in legacy, get real. Maverick? Yeah, falling off the map, it puts up a random top 8 here and there. Goblins? Burn? Gate? Merfolk? Yeah um ok. All the aggro decks lose hard to the Delver tempo variants cause they try to play fair. Elves is combo. Infect doesn't exist. Zombies is combo. Death and Taxes is not an aggro deck. I think someone jokingly took a stompy green deck recently to an open if you want to count that.
Aggro is the fairest level of interaction, ramp is slightly more unfair in that it cheats on mana. In a format where the combo decks are cheating on mana, card draw AND free spells, no one is surprised why these 2 archetypes have virtually no representation.
Until Legacy players ***** about the uneveness of their format, your comments on Modern's "archetype under representation" are laughable indeed.:nod: