MTG Salvation

Birthing Pod was like a $5-$6 card. Avoiding an entire archetype of the game, let alone one with WOTC/Pro Tour support because you're fearful of not getting back your investment seems silly. This is still a card game, after all. You're not buying stock. What is the value of your entertainment dollar? The time invested being greater than zero means that your entertainment dollar has to be greater than zero. There's multiple archetypes over a wide array of multiple formats with new sets coming out every three months. If the banning of a card in one format discourages you from ever considering "buying into" said format, then this hobby is one that is going to leave you quite conflicted. Magic is certainly never going to get any cheaper.

EDIT: I guess that might overly simplify things as anyone that got the POD deck, obviously would have had to get cards other than Birthing Pod itself. However my point was simply if you get cards & get to play with them, the time spent playing with them should still matter, not just the time that you can't play with them anymore. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last time, that changes are made to a format. It just goes with the territory of competitive play in trying to maintain healthy metagames.

I'm fine with these changes. Worldgorger Dragon & Gifts Ungiven surprised me, as they both seem out of left field. Not seeing BBE or A. Visions is Modern but getting back GGT sort of surprised me too as I've not heard anyone talk about him.

Cruise had to go. It was degenerate & defined multiple formats. You had decks like Burn splashing it & it hit decks like Shardless BUG hard when they can't card advantage you anymore 'cause you just draw three cards for a blue mana.

Happy with the changes (for now).

As long as people are at least talking about Library of Alexandria again, I'm happier. If the "powers that be" deemed it too strong that doesn't mean that as a community we can't disagree with that. It's not too strong, it's not too broken, it's not too expensive. Some could even argue that it's not an auto-include in every deck.

At the very least, Sheldon should say something about it now instead of just hanging on to what was said & created for the format years ago. The lists need to be ever evolving & ever changing for the health of the format.

I personally don't care what the real life cost of a card gets to. That should not be something that factors into the equation of if something is legal or not, just like in other formats. It is hypocritical to allow other expensive cards but say that Library is too expensive. Even if the price climbed, you can use one in Vintage...that's it. The people that play Vintage already have one. The people that don't wouldn't get one. It wouldn't matter.

I doubt a ton of people would go out & get a Library just to play in their EDH deck at their local card shop with a couple buddies on a work night after noon.

I don't want a new land. I want Arabian Night's Library of Alexandria legal.

I've had the conversation with my local scene & they all agree that it would be a card that is pretty much an auto-include in all EDH decks. Even the decks that just dump all of their hand on the first couple turns. However, the power level does not justify the price tag, so most wouldn't bother. Certainly not to acquire one just for EDH.

I just think it should be legal because it is not strong enough to be banned. The added bonus being that long-time players or collectors could play with one if they already had it.

I have played since 1994. I had an opportunity to buy a Library for $30 back in the day, which I still kick myself for not pulling the trigger on, but even not owning the card I think it should be legal. So it's not a personal bias because I own one & want to play it. We've used house rules before & allowed it & it was never degenerate (people proxied it). It got blown up & cloned with Vesuva sometimes but was mostly left unchecked & only provided a couple extra cards during the early game when everyone else was developing their mana.

I'm not even sure why it bothers me so much. Maybe just because I have been blowing this horn for a few years now & it has fallen on deaf ears. It just irks me at this point. EDH, for the most part, is a casual format played among friends...but house rules don't apply when you pack an EDH deck with you and take it to tournaments & what not. I just think people should be able to play the card. Those that don't have one wouldn't play it. Same way cost affects other legal cards.

Four years later, I'm STILL saying that Library of Alexandria should 100% be legal in Commander/EDH. It's ridiculous that it's not. I get that Sheldon didn't want super expensive stuff, like Power, legal...but Bizarre of Baghdad, Gaea's Cradle, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale & Mishra's Workshop are all legal, so that goes out the window. And people have answers to a singular land, the way they have answers to any degenerate combo or things that can get out of hand. That's the entire point. It irks me to no end that it's not legal, even though I don't have one & couldn't play it if it were legal. It should just not be banned and never should have been.

Quote from DOLZero

Aether Vial is not very common in Modern. There was one deck recently that did well with it, but not much else has been making waves with Vial. I wouldn't worry about it specifically, but it's good to have some artifact hate in the board for Affinity anyway.

I'm not worrying about it, I want to play with it because it's busted.

I won't be playing Magnivore as he is just not good enough. It's a fun idea, but not for a competitive tournament.

I'm really glad that I found this thread. I just recently started looking at Modern & I wanted to get into it more heavily. Mostly because I fell out of favor with Legacy. That being said, one of the first things that I noticed was how strong Blood Moon was in Modern. Which then led to me thinking about almost an old school "Ponza" deck idea. I found that Molten Rain, Stone Rain & Avalanche Riders were all legal. After some more tinkering around & testing various ideas (some good, a lot bad) on Magic Workstation, I had to abort on my initial brew idea.

I wanted to play a rogue deck as I don't like a lot of the Metagame decks. Burn seems like too linear a strategy & I'm not a big fan of just being dead to certain cards. I think everyone will be gunning for Pod, Jund & Delver decks but I expect people to just slap some graveyard hate in their Sideboards "just in case" as well.

I saw that Squee, Goblin Nabob is legal & wanted to try some things with him. That led to a discard strategy where I was casting Faithless Looting & pitching Squee along with cards seen in this thread, like Demigod. I even tried Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded but I just can't find a way to make that guy playable. He's just bad, no matter what. Pitching Squee at random to bring back is fine but then his other abilities aren't any good either. Spend several turns & card disadvantage so that I can Storm Seeker? UGH.

I like the Magnivore idea. That seems solid. But without any evasion, I'm not sure it's good enough. Even with a plethora of removal at our disposal, the format seems to be a lot of dudes & then protecting those dudes. Thragtusk is annoying. Restoration Angel is annoying. Path to Exile is still a thing. I'll champion Flame Slash for as long as Restoration Angel is so popular. Being Sorcery speed doesn't matter to me when the next best option (at least in Red) seems to be a kicked Burst Lightning

I like Ensnaring Bridge too as it was a card that I initially wrote down before finding this thread. I had a few different ideas but they were counter-productive to one another. Discard a Squee to Tibalt is fine but then bringing back Squee with a Bridge out isn't, as an example. I was all over the place.

I have a few worries:

• I don't want to morph into just a bad Burn deck
• Mono-Colored decks don't care about Moon effects & just give me dead draws
• I don't want to be "dead" to the top decks (Pod, Jund, Delver)
• Æther Vial is legal & should probably not be ignored
• How much of an impact will Return to Ravnica have on the metagame

I have more to write but I'll have to do it later as I'm out of time & being hassled right now. Sorry!

EDIT: I might have to try Wildfire as it seems pretty silly right now.

What has your experience been like with Jace, Memory Adept?

We had to cut him from our local Cube because with Power, he was way too strong. Play him early (due to ramp) then +0 twice to Millstone people out. He's insane. Even more so than when people were doing silly things with Channel or even Bonfire of the Damned which next to Karn Liberated feels like the strongest card in the Cube.

Sure, there are answers (like Pithing Needle) but we didn't like the idea of having to Draft an answer card for whichever person got Jace.

As for personal preference, I would replace Arcane Denial & Jace, Memory Adept with Frantic Search and Brain Freeze but I am a Combo player at heart. I might even try to jam in a High Tide somewhere.

Also, to get off Blue for a bit, I like Hail Storm as a good pick against Super-Aggro decks. But your green is pretty great, so I would struggle to cut something. Or maybe Sandstorm instead but you don't have Empty the Warrens in your Cube so it's not as good. Your Cube is definitely geared more toward Aggro/Mid-Range/Control than Combo!

I think an ideal Cube is where there are multiple different archetypes represented. LD/Mana Denial, Control, Aggro, Combo, Mid-Range, ReAnimate/Graveyard Shenanigans, etc.

Quote from Culex69

So i make you lose 4 life regardless? Works for me.

Also, why is ANYONE hating on this card? At worst its 4 damage for one red mana, at best he sticks around for a few turns and pounds the opponents face in for a 4/3 creature for ONE MANA.

Well, see, the 4-damage for 1-mana is all well & good but when is it ever relevant? How often, in Standard, was going Mountain --> Lighting Bolt you a good play? And in Legacy, they'll just give you the 4/3 & deal with it by using Lighting Bolt, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile or any other relevant removal spell that outside of Goblin Guide is dead in the match-up anyway.

Quote from AdamM

Kuda: if you have swords, run Mono Green. Or G/R aggro.

I have everything. Cards aren't a problem, in any format. But I settled on U/B Zombies & I've been doing pretty well with it so far. I like it.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

I have no idea which deck to choose for Standard right now. I think that I am leaning toward "Zombies!" but I am struggling to justify any reasoning in doing so. I like Mono-Green a lot too. Decisions, decisions.

Sell me on a deck!

EDIT: Meant to post this is the "help me pick a deck" thread. Can a moderator move it for me, please?

Moved.
-Sene

Wow, yeah, that is a good idea. I never would have thought of that (Flash) either. How about Lobo? Or Hellboy?

Quote from sandreline

Awesome work on last pages

Nighty Jace :

Is this going to be for sale?