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    posted a message on [MH1] Modern Horizons Discussion Thread



    Wing Shards is going to build storm count against Boggles, Infect, and Death's Shadow. All three decks cast spells before combat or before connecting in combat.


    I don't think that any of those decks need a Storm count for Wing Shards, though. If Bogles has more creatures than Auras, you should already be winning. For Infect, similar thing, they don't usually attack with more than 1 creature, especially with Hierarch out. For Shadow, if they cast anything precombat, it's going to be a Thoughtseize/IoK, and they just take the Shards anyways. Except for special cases where the Bogle player diversifies their threats for some reason, or the Infect player swings with a bunch of Glistener Elves/Inkmoths, or the Shadow player deploys a threat precombat (?!) or casts a Thought Scour at sorcery speed (?!), I don't think Wing Shards lines up particularly well against any of those, at least not moreso than Blessed Alliance would in those same circumstances.
    Posted in: Modern
  • 1

    posted a message on UW Control
    You also don't need Snow-Covered Plains for OTI, it goes on any snow land. You just need one of your early fetches to be a Snow-Covered Island, and to also have a white source to cast OTI.
    Posted in: Control
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    posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/05/2019)
    That's a lot of optimism right there.

    Bad, sorcery speed Helix seems like Draft fodder to me. I don't think arguing that Exarch is a value card is going to get you anywhere, and I'm not sure if anyone would consider Allies a viable, meta-shaping deck.

    Unearth has the most potential of the cards you listed, but Claim//Fame is almost the same card, with a different upside, and it sees approaching 0 play. There might be some cheeky Abzan lists that Unearth a Renegade Rallier or Eternal Witness, but outside of that Jank I don't think any deck outside of Counters Company could use it (and they already had access to Claim, and don't really care about 3 cmc over 2).
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • 1

    posted a message on where to go for rumors after this site closes
    If you're desperate for content, I'd be happy to contribute, I've thoroughly enjoyed what this site has had to offer for many years now, and if I can help contribute to our successor I'd be willing.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • 1

    posted a message on Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis (Maro Preview)
    Really spicy card, but this really feels like Modern Horizons has more focus on Commander than Modern, at least in terms of bones it throws.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • 7

    posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/05/2019)
    I'd just like to voice my opinion that I am very disappointed that Counterspell will not be joining us. People at Wizards have, time and time again, stated that Counterspell is "too good" for Standard, so this was the first real opportunity to give us a card that helps level the playing field from non-interactive, linear decks and the reactive playstyles that have, in truth, been helped a lot by the additions of Teferi(s) and Jace, but still are left lacking a lot of the time because of a universal answer in the first few turns of the game.

    If they honestly believe that Counterspell would have outshone the rest of the set, then I have a great deal of concern for the cards we haven't seen yet. Sure, Counterspell is big, and strong, and has a heavy amount of emotional baggage, but if as a designer of a set don't think you're capable of outshining Counterspell with the boatload of tools MH1 has (countless mechanics, ignoring New World Order, nostalgia out the wazoo) then maybe there should have been someone else in charge of that decision. Urza, for instance is a friggin bombshell of nostalgia and power which would have made as large a splash as Counterspell. FoN has generated a lot of dialog. Serra made most of the Vorthoses happy, and I think the Commander crowd has been overjoyed with Modern Commander Horizons. We have the return of Sliver after 5 years. We have presumably the remaining Swords in the Sword of X and Y cycle. Canopy lands are pretty big side-grades for a lot of Modern decks. I don't buy that Counterspell would have detracted from the overall hype of the set. Sure, it might have overshadowed some of the sub-par cards they seem to be tossing Modern's way, but don't "restrictions breed creativity"? Just go into design trying to make cards as exciting as Counterspell. Give midrange a powered up Thrun with the WAR god ability. Let stepmom target herself. Make Force of White actually playable. It isn't impossible to create cards on Counterspell's level; they've been doing that in Standard legal sets for a while (Arclight Phoenix being the most recent). I just don't get the reasoning for Counterspell's lack of inclusion. Sorry, rant over.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • 1

    posted a message on Counterspell confirmed NOT in set
    I believe part of the issue is that Modern is a frickin expensive format to get into. If you are already playing Modern, chances are you were looking to this set to supplement your choices for whatever deck you already owned. A lot of the set revealed thus far have been interesting hooks that might inspire one to build a completely (or mostly) new deck, which is prohibitively expensive for many players. Was it too much to ask that players with existing decks get a sizable amount of straight upgrades to consider? I'm struggling to think of many cards that slot 100% into existing archetypes without debate, outside of maybe Big Pyromancer and Aladdin for Dredge, and FoN for Blue-based control (and even then, FoN is the subject of much discussion right now. People aren't as gung ho about it as Wizards probably assumed). Personally, as a Control player, I would have liked to sit back at the end of this spoiler season and be content that I could continue to play the deck I enjoy the most with upgrades, and outside of FoN, which I'll be trying out, I haven't seen any direct upgrades for pretty much any card in the deck so far, outside of maybe FoF, and even then at 4 mana I don't think it trumps the versatility of Hieroglyphs' Cycling on T1.

    I'm thankful that I can finally rebuild Slivers in Modern and not feel like I'm the worse Merfolk (last I played Slivers was before Humans were a thing), but I would have liked to see more obvious direct upgrades to existing decks. Maybe it will just take time for people to figure out that some of these cards are much better than first impressions implied, (I'm intrigued by Hexdrinker) but the familiarity of getting Counterspell and being able to just safely tuck a couple into my deck would have been nice. So much crazy stuff happens in Modern in the first 2-3 turns of the game; is spending 2 whole mana to stop a single thing really too good?
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • 3

    posted a message on Force of Rage - The Mana Source Spoiler
    Sacrificing at the beginning of your upkeep makes this so much worse. You can't sneak into play at end of turn and attack the next turn.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • 1

    posted a message on Mother Bear
    I'm not crying, you're crying.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
  • 2

    posted a message on Zhalfirin Decoy
    Quote from SnowCrow »
    Quote from 13055 »
    Mechanically, isn't this a little weak? You basically need three creatures for this ability to be actually useful; the Decoy, a creature to enter the battlefield, and then a creature to attack to make use of the tapped blocker. This just seems much more difficult than it needs to be to activate on your opponent's turn, which is when you would want to most of the time in my experience.

    Or just play a flash creature at their EOT.


    But then that's yet another restriction you need to have in order to make this playable. Idk, cards that force you to bend over backwards to get a so-so effect are rarely any good. I just don't know why this card was so restrictive.
    Posted in: The Rumor Mill
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