I have to say, maybe I am underestimating the value of Punishing Grove as a removal combo, but I don't think I am. Current top tier decks won't care if you have a repeatable shock. Punishing does best to out grind an opponent, and decks like storm, Titanshift, even Eldrazi Tron would laugh it off.
Yes but most decks could be stopped by 52 other cards. Having more linear all in decks try and "police" the format is exactly the problem most users on this forum have about Modern in its current state. Why would anyone on this forum suggest pushing the current issues we have further?
Also yes, you are dramatically underestimating it.
Did a bit more reading on other decks... And Punishing Fire can slot into one tier 2 deck: Dredge. While I don't think this card would put it back into tier 1 status, the fact that it can slot into its strategy is probably enough that it won't come off the ban list while Dredge as a deck exists. Main reason, they had to nerf Dredge again recently, why intentionally give it another possible card.
I guess those that dread it's return can rest easy.
I guess those that dread it's return can rest easy.
Hmmm...I think my paranoia is showing, but my brain just couldn't look past the wording. Dread Return is something that should never see the light of day again. GY hate is stronger than ever, but that cards power is off the charts.
Hypergenesis is maybe the hero we need, but don't deserve
Sadly, as long as Emrakul and Ulamog exist, Hypergenesis is gonna have to remain on the sidelines. It's also an enabler of broken things, which I don't think we need anymore of right now.
I do kinda like that my comment about whether we should just unban everything that may help jund midrange has escalated.
I didn't play in the punishing fire era, hell not even the twin era. I do think that creature based aggro is pretty bad in modern right now, and wonder if there are suitable unbans that would assist it to boost decks which would presumably be tougher matchups for ramp. It's the same logic I used in advocating for a Chalice ban. Chalice in a vacuum isn't terrible, but it is allowing ramp decks an out against fast aggro on top of anger of the gods/pyroclasm/all is dust.
I guess those that dread it's return can rest easy.
Hmmm...I think my paranoia is showing, but my brain just couldn't look past the wording. Dread Return is something that should never see the light of day again. GY hate is stronger than ever, but that cards power is off the charts.
Yeah, it was unintentional word play when I made the post... Though couldn't help but leave it the way it was before posting!
As far as bringing back that or Hypergenisis, no way. Cheated in monsters is hard to deal with and these set it up too easy.
I do kinda like that my comment about whether we should just unban everything that may help jund midrange has escalated.
I didn't play in the punishing fire era, hell not even the twin era. I do think that creature based aggro is pretty bad in modern right now, and wonder if there are suitable unbans that would assist it to boost decks which would presumably be tougher matchups for ramp. It's the same logic I used in advocating for a Chalice ban. Chalice in a vacuum isn't terrible, but it is allowing ramp decks an out against fast aggro on top of anger of the gods/pyroclasm/all is dust.
It's pretty weird that 1 or 2 years ago people in this same forum were demanding Swords To Ploswhares in Modern, because fast aggro is all what's Modern about, and now people are clamoring for some unbans to help those strategies.
Of course, I dont wish to disrespect your comment, as you are not wrong. It's just that Wizards does not care about Modern all that much, and bad things are happening overall and they don't even bat an eye and they go on calling this format "healthy", only because IT IS healthy when you take a look at the metagame shares and data and numbers.
Sad truth is that there are so much more in a game besides data, there is the fun aspect(which, granted, is a subjective call), there is the strategic diversity aspect(which is literally thrown out of the window) and there is the degree in which a given format is interactive aspect(which is also thrown out of the window).
But I guess if data say the format is "healthy", then the format should be "healthy". Allow me to hugely disagree. @Wizards, this current Modern format is not healthy.
You could do things to make it more healthy, but I am not going to scream for unbans yet for another time. If they recognized that the format needs help, they would have already done it. Unbanning a solee Bloodbraid Elf in February, only to unban another card a year later is not going to cut it.
And I believe that's they are going to do. And I bet it's going to change nothing.
Let;s wait for the Pro Tour and see now.
We could learn from Legacy and just set up street signs and send pizzas to the WOTC office calling for unbans?
So I don't think hypergenesis will ever be unbanned, and I think it should stay on the banned list. But I have a lot of experience with it so I am posting my thoughts on it. I played it in legacy for a while and almost all the same creatures and permanents I used are Modern legal, with only a few exceptions. The only things that wouldn't be legal I think are the force of wills I used, which are very important, shardless agent, and a 2-of maelstrom wanderer. But there are other cards in the format that do some of those effects.
However I have thought for a while if it were unbanned I think it would basicly serve the same role and market share as living end but it would actually be worse. It is completely dependant on the cascade mechanic which requires there be nothing in the deck with converted mana cost 2 or less just like living end. But living ends creatures serve a double role, not only do they beat face or kill creatures (Shriekmaw) or destroy lands (Fulminator Mage), but many of them cycle. This means you don't have to have the cascade card or enough lands in your opening hand, you just keep cycling which progresses your game plan anyway until you find a cascade card and enough lands and then cast it. And if living end gets countered, just keep cycling and destroying lands and creatures till you find another cascade card. Or you can start hard casting your creatures if they are sitting on counters or the game is moving slowly. Hypergenesis has no such alternate game plan due to having higher mana cost creatures, intense color requirements to start hard casting things and a lack of alternative abilities like Shriekmaw, fulminator and most importantly all the cycling. The build I ran in legacy, which I think would be close to the modern version, has to resolve the hypergenesis or you lose. If you do not have the mana you need or the cascade card or the right things to put into play in your opening hand, you simply draw one card each turn until you do without any cycling or dig spells of anykind. Converted mana cost requirements ensure you don't have Serum visions or something like that to dig for your spell. Mana colors and costs prevent hard casting your threats. And if you do get one threat into play it better be Emrakul (obviously the best thing to put into play is Omniscience, then grisselbrand, draw your deck and then cast Emrakul to get the time Warp trigger followed by casting all your other cards, but that's semi rare and I'm trying to stay simple and not get off in the weeds much.),because almost anything else is getting pathed, or the hypergenesis is getting countered.
When the deck goes off, it's amazing. But I don't think it will be as consistant as living end due to lack of free counter spells, lack of cycling to find the peices you need, higher mana costs of creatures which will prevent hard casting and its inability to recover from one counter spell without any kind of deck manipulation. The deck would require major work from my starting point to be tier one, however it would win alot of games against decks without counter spells without many changes at all and would make lots of people mad.(alot like living end does)
Again I am not arguing for its unban, I just don't think it would be the absolute monster lots of people make it out to be.
So I don't think hypergenesis will ever be unbanned, and I think it should stay on the banned list. But I have a lot of experience with it so I am posting my thoughts on it. I played it in legacy for a while and almost all the same creatures and permanents I used are Modern legal, with only a few exceptions. The only things that wouldn't be legal I think are the force of wills I used, which are very important, shardless agent, and a 2-of maelstrom wanderer. But there are other cards in the format that do some of those effects.
However I have thought for a while if it were unbanned I think it would basicly serve the same role and market share as living end but it would actually be worse. It is completely dependant on the cascade mechanic which requires there be nothing in the deck with converted mana cost 2 or less just like living end. But living ends creatures serve a double role, not only do they beat face or kill creatures (Shriekmaw) or destroy lands (Fulminator Mage), but many of them cycle. This means you don't have to have the cascade card or enough lands in your opening hand, you just keep cycling which progresses your game plan anyway until you find a cascade card and enough lands and then cast it. And if living end gets countered, just keep cycling and destroying lands and creatures till you find another cascade card. Or you can start hard casting your creatures if they are sitting on counters or the game is moving slowly. Hypergenesis has no such alternate game plan due to having higher mana cost creatures, intense color requirements to start hard casting things and a lack of alternative abilities like Shriekmaw, fulminator and most importantly all the cycling. The build I ran in legacy, which I think would be close to the modern version, has to resolve the hypergenesis or you lose. If you do not have the mana you need or the cascade card or the right things to put into play in your opening hand, you simply draw one card each turn until you do without any cycling or dig spells of anykind. Converted mana cost requirements ensure you don't have Serum visions or something like that to dig for your spell. Mana colors and costs prevent hard casting your threats. And if you do get one threat into play it better be Emrakul (obviously the best thing to put into play is Omniscience, then grisselbrand, draw your deck and then cast Emrakul to get the time Warp trigger followed by casting all your other cards, but that's semi rare and I'm trying to stay simple and not get off in the weeds much.),because almost anything else is getting pathed, or the hypergenesis is getting countered.
When the deck goes off, it's amazing. But I don't think it will be as consistant as living end due to lack of free counter spells, lack of cycling to find the peices you need, higher mana costs of creatures which will prevent hard casting and its inability to recover from one counter spell without any kind of deck manipulation. The deck would require major work from my starting point to be tier one, however it would win alot of games against decks without counter spells without many changes at all and would make lots of people mad.(alot like living end does)
Again I am not arguing for its unban, I just don't think it would be the absolute monster lots of people make it out to be.
I think you are underestimating the MtG community at large. I know there are random no banlist modern events here and there for fun, but if you had the entire mtg modern community from my brother in law and I testing in a kitchen all the way up to team CFB preparing for a pro tour working on Hypergenesis, I bet it would go from absolutely busted but a gamble to absolutely busted and surprisingly consistent. Took people a year to break Aetherworks Marvel in half...
Aetherworks marvel had nothing keeping it in check like pithing needle for example. And I didn't mention thoughtsieze just taking your cascade spell. Modern has lots of interaction if you chose to use it.
Hypergenisis would be less consistent than living end for the reasons I gave. There have been lots of pro tours with the chance to break living end and it is a decent deck but is not unstoppable.
In january they have to/must ban something about storm.
Why?
is too strong, breake the rule of 4th turn too easily now and even with 1 card in hand u could win.
the right choice will be ban past in flame or gifts to slow down a bit. My personal choice will be ban grapeshot, but it's my dream.
I'm worry about the pro tour. I think the meta is not safe as everyone say. In future months storm will be more and more present in the top 8 and i'm sure that sooner or later something about storm will be banned
I'm curious as to whether or not you play Storm or simply against Storm. If it's the former, are you seeing a lot of the same decks, and if it's the latter, how often do you play against Storm and what do you normally use?
Not trying to make any attacks, just genuinely curious
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Decks
Modern: UWUW Control UBRGrixis Shadow URIzzet Phoenix
In january they have to/must ban something about storm.
Why?
is too strong, breake the rule of 4th turn too easily now and even with 1 card in hand u could win.
the right choice will be ban past in flame or gifts to slow down a bit. My personal choice will be ban grapeshot, but it's my dream.
I'm worry about the pro tour. I think the meta is not safe as everyone say. In future months storm will be more and more present in the top 8 and i'm sure that sooner or later something about storm will be banned
Very generic argument. Storm has two bad matchups against top tier decks in Grixis Shadow and Burn. It is vulnerable to graveyard hate as well as basic creature removal. Your statement that it can win with one card in hand is technically true, but leaves out the part that there has to also be a reducer in play, or six lands, plus a graveyard full of spells. Sorry, but this sounds more like YOU play a deck with a bad matchup against storm.
Wizards strongly hinted in their announcement that Modern unbans are on the horizon. In a piece for Modern Nexus this morning, I went through what I believe are the five most likely candidates. Would love to hear some of your thoughts 💃🏻
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Wizards strongly hinted in their announcement that Modern unbans are on the horizon. In a piece for Modern Nexus this morning, I went through what I believe are the five most likely candidates. Would love to hear some of your thoughts 💃🏻
I have a lot of thoughts, but being on mobile, at lunch, I'll just give one brief one:
"It seems to me that players who want Splinter Twin back don’t understand how the deck warped Modern during its legality."
This is an incredibly condescending and arrogant comment to make. Not the least bit coming from an advocate of Eldrazi decks, which themselves have warped our format more than Twin ever did. And rather than "warp" towards traditional interaction (discard, counters, removal), they instead warp away, promoting the growth of narrow, linear decks like Storm and Titanshift to be premiere choices for competition.
Wizards strongly hinted in their announcement that Modern unbans are on the horizon. In a piece for Modern Nexus this morning, I went through what I believe are the five most likely candidates. Would love to hear some of your thoughts
I've been predicting an eventual SFM unban in Modern since I first got into the format, so I agree with you that's it's at the top of the list and now is likely to be unbanned after PT. But I think it will be just SFM in Feb.
Wizards strongly hinted in their announcement that Modern unbans are on the horizon. In a piece for Modern Nexus this morning, I went through what I believe are the five most likely candidates. Would love to hear some of your thoughts 💃🏻
I have a lot of thoughts, but being on mobile, at lunch, I'll just give one brief one:
"It seems to me that players who want Splinter Twin back don’t understand how the deck warped Modern during its legality."
This is an incredibly condescending and arrogant comment to make. Not the least bit coming from an advocate of Eldrazi decks, which themselves have warped our format more than Twin ever did. And rather than "warp" towards traditional interaction (discard, counters, removal), they instead warp away, promoting the growth of narrow, linear decks like Storm and Titanshift to be premiere choices for competition.
I've been predicting an eventual SFM unban in Modern since I first got into the format, so I agree with you that's it's at the top of the list and now is likely to be unbanned after PT. But I think it will be just SFM in Feb.
You must be a smart guy! I agree. While Jace is #2 on the list, I think he's a good deal less likely to come off than SFM.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
I played twin some of the time that it was legal and I also played against it with a variety of decks over the years. It was good but not unstoppable. I expect it will be unbanned eventually, but probably not in Feb.
I would have ranked the most likely unbans as:
1. Bloodbraid elf
2. Stoneforge
3. Splinter twin
4. Jace
they will not unban Preordain so close to introducing opt. Maybe one day, not right now.
I read through the article, some I can't help points I can't help to agree with (Stoneforge and JTMS), but I do feel bias here, especially towards twin. I do feel this needs a look at. On the subject of URx homoginizing, I'll say that is a little extreme, versions of storm and delver existed before in meta's where Twin existed as well and GDS was coming into its own while this deck was still top dog along with Jund (which I did feel a bit of bias towards as well.) The question is though, with the current bans in place, including probe, could these decks still coexist? It's questionable, but wouldn't mind testing.
I know for sure Etron has tools to at least keep the deck off of the combo (Warping Wail and TKS).
Still its reintroduction would be a likely meta-warper for decks not Etron or GDS as they adjust to deal with a different strong combo.
I also sensed some bias against the BBE unban, not wanting to give Jund a chance to be top dog. I don't think I can add to the circle of discussion that has done several laps around the forum, but I don't think Jund is the only deck that might play this.
One last note, kind of think it is laughable to include ponder as an unban discussion point given Wizards insistence of eliminating consistency tools which have included ponder, preordane, and most recently Gixtaxian Probe. Also between Opt now existing in modern, and Ponder being an old Storm enabler, no way would they even consider it. Think even Punishing Fire would come off sooner...
I hate agree with cfusionpm here but the article comes across as massively biased.
You are correct that this is an article about the Modern banlist.
I feel that an article dealing with this subject should try and come from a neutral unbiased view point (as much as possible anyway), your article does not. Perhaps attempt to look at all the positives and negatives of each card and then form a conclusion based on these points and how they would benefit, or hinder, the format in its current state rather than seemingly relating them to you're own views and opinions of the cards and decks they would fit in. This was meant as constructive criticism, I assumed that that is what you posted your article here for.
Personally I don't think it's possible to have an "objective" or "unbaised" opinion about the banlist, so of course I would never claim to be neutral in my analysis. I would like to see some examples of unbiased banlist pieces if you have read some (I have not).
He troll's all the time, and is looking to drive traffic.
Actually I just love Modern and spend most of my time playing it and theorizing about it. I thought this piece would be interesting or useful to some users here, and enjoy contributing to the Modern community I myself appreciate and benefit from. Could care less about "traffic" (which, for the record, I don't even know how to measure); I do not own Modern Nexus, nor do I directly receive any of its ad revenue or have an explicit responsibility to promote the site.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Wizards strongly hinted in their announcement that Modern unbans are on the horizon. In a piece for Modern Nexus this morning, I went through what I believe are the five most likely candidates. Would love to hear some of your thoughts 💃🏻
I have a lot of thoughts, but being on mobile, at lunch, I'll just give one brief one:
"It seems to me that players who want Splinter Twin back don’t understand how the deck warped Modern during its legality."
This is an incredibly condescending and arrogant comment to make. Not the least bit coming from an advocate of Eldrazi decks, which themselves have warped our format more than Twin ever did. And rather than "warp" towards traditional interaction (discard, counters, removal), they instead warp away, promoting the growth of narrow, linear decks like Storm and Titanshift to be premiere choices for competition.
Are you even allowed to talk about this in here 🤔
Since the first thought wasn't actually addressed, I'll just leave in it quote there.
Some other thoughts:
Re: "Fatal push great against it" - Agreed! A 1cmc kill spell that reliably kills 0-4cmc creatures.
Re: "Not cracking fetchland = Twin too powerful" - The first of many strikes against reasonable argument.
Re: "Shaun McLaren thinks it's strange that Storm is allowed to survive (and thrive) but Twin is not" - I agree! That does seem weird, considering Wizards categorically hates everything about Storm.
Re: "Storm is relatively harmless without mana bears" - It can still win, fairly easily, without a bear. Killing a bear in Storm buys you a turn; maybe two. The deck threatens a win untapping with 3 lands, whether they have a bear or not. Killing Twin's creature stops the combo entirely and forces them to find another piece. If killed with the enchantment on the stack, it forces them to find TWO pieces. It's a little different when your entire deck is made of combo pieces and cantrips vs 6 creatures, 4 enchantments, and a bunch of interaction.
Re: "Twin has solid plan B" - Sure, I guess. But beating down with Snapcaster Mage is actually pretty terrible without the threat of the combo. And Keranos is a 5 drop trying to be cast in a world of Thoughtseizes and decks killing on Turn 3, 4, and 5.
Re: "Storm folds to GY hate, Twin doesn't fold to hate, Twin hate is narrow" - Spellskite? Literally castable by any deck, can be cast through Blood Moon, and doesn't die to Bolt. Twin also falls HARD to broad and common things like: discard spells, counterspells, creature removal, fast aggro clocks.
Re: "Twin homogenized URx decks" Another huge falsehood. Delver, Control, Storm, and other variants of Grixis, Jeskai, and UR existed and had success with Twin legal.
Re: "Twin’s two biggest offenses are how it hinders turn-three plays and abuses the Turn-Four Rule. "
1. It SHOULD hinder turn 3 plays. Tapping out and slamming some creature with no respect or regard for what your opponent is doing SHOULD be punished. Mindless Battlecruiser Magic should be relegated to the realms of Standard.
2. Twin does not in any way, shape, or form break or abuse the turn 4 rule. It only wins on turn 4 (and NOT earlier), if the opponent has done nothing to interact, nothing to warrent using mana on your third turn, and has no answer to a creature or enchantment by turn 4 when you have tapped out and hoped for the best. And EVEN IF ALL THAT IS DONE, crunching the math says turn 4 combos only happened ~13-25% of the time, under the BEST case scenarios and completely uninterrupted.
It is clear you just have a deep-seeded personal beef with Twin (and probably with me too), and it shows in this blatantly slanted opinion piece masquerading as a serious article. I have strong biased opinions, but I also own them. What is written in this article is just that: opinions. Opinions of a seasoned Eldrazi player complaining about Twin being warping. Frankly, I find that laughable.
In that case ashton (and you should get paid imo) I'll just disagree with you. If Eldrazi deserve to see play still, so does Twin. Its no less warping, and many would say its more so.
Eldrazi creatures and fatal push has warped this format far more than anything in a while. Shadow was good, but I also feel Shadow was built because players were frustrated with Urza lands.
I do think Twin/Jund/Infect/Affinity was a better modern format, but I'm still happy with modern.
Splinter Twin would be a good deck to help fight off Storm, E-Tron and Titanshift.
aggro creature would probably be bolstered in numbers and we'd have less degenerate, linear decks.
My money is on BBE, I think people hoping for SFM or Twin are in for dissapointment
It feels like SFM has a 25% chance, while BBE has a 50% chance.
I believe a Jace unban is 100% unrealistic, you have half the pro community against the card, and I believe WOTC will take that into account.
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Also yes, you are dramatically underestimating it.
I guess those that dread it's return can rest easy.
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Hmmm...I think my paranoia is showing, but my brain just couldn't look past the wording. Dread Return is something that should never see the light of day again. GY hate is stronger than ever, but that cards power is off the charts.
Sadly, as long as Emrakul and Ulamog exist, Hypergenesis is gonna have to remain on the sidelines. It's also an enabler of broken things, which I don't think we need anymore of right now.
I didn't play in the punishing fire era, hell not even the twin era. I do think that creature based aggro is pretty bad in modern right now, and wonder if there are suitable unbans that would assist it to boost decks which would presumably be tougher matchups for ramp. It's the same logic I used in advocating for a Chalice ban. Chalice in a vacuum isn't terrible, but it is allowing ramp decks an out against fast aggro on top of anger of the gods/pyroclasm/all is dust.
As far as bringing back that or Hypergenisis, no way. Cheated in monsters is hard to deal with and these set it up too easy.
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We could learn from Legacy and just set up street signs and send pizzas to the WOTC office calling for unbans?
However I have thought for a while if it were unbanned I think it would basicly serve the same role and market share as living end but it would actually be worse. It is completely dependant on the cascade mechanic which requires there be nothing in the deck with converted mana cost 2 or less just like living end. But living ends creatures serve a double role, not only do they beat face or kill creatures (Shriekmaw) or destroy lands (Fulminator Mage), but many of them cycle. This means you don't have to have the cascade card or enough lands in your opening hand, you just keep cycling which progresses your game plan anyway until you find a cascade card and enough lands and then cast it. And if living end gets countered, just keep cycling and destroying lands and creatures till you find another cascade card. Or you can start hard casting your creatures if they are sitting on counters or the game is moving slowly. Hypergenesis has no such alternate game plan due to having higher mana cost creatures, intense color requirements to start hard casting things and a lack of alternative abilities like Shriekmaw, fulminator and most importantly all the cycling. The build I ran in legacy, which I think would be close to the modern version, has to resolve the hypergenesis or you lose. If you do not have the mana you need or the cascade card or the right things to put into play in your opening hand, you simply draw one card each turn until you do without any cycling or dig spells of anykind. Converted mana cost requirements ensure you don't have Serum visions or something like that to dig for your spell. Mana colors and costs prevent hard casting your threats. And if you do get one threat into play it better be Emrakul (obviously the best thing to put into play is Omniscience, then grisselbrand, draw your deck and then cast Emrakul to get the time Warp trigger followed by casting all your other cards, but that's semi rare and I'm trying to stay simple and not get off in the weeds much.),because almost anything else is getting pathed, or the hypergenesis is getting countered.
When the deck goes off, it's amazing. But I don't think it will be as consistant as living end due to lack of free counter spells, lack of cycling to find the peices you need, higher mana costs of creatures which will prevent hard casting and its inability to recover from one counter spell without any kind of deck manipulation. The deck would require major work from my starting point to be tier one, however it would win alot of games against decks without counter spells without many changes at all and would make lots of people mad.(alot like living end does)
Again I am not arguing for its unban, I just don't think it would be the absolute monster lots of people make it out to be.
I think you are underestimating the MtG community at large. I know there are random no banlist modern events here and there for fun, but if you had the entire mtg modern community from my brother in law and I testing in a kitchen all the way up to team CFB preparing for a pro tour working on Hypergenesis, I bet it would go from absolutely busted but a gamble to absolutely busted and surprisingly consistent. Took people a year to break Aetherworks Marvel in half...
Why?
Hypergenisis would be less consistent than living end for the reasons I gave. There have been lots of pro tours with the chance to break living end and it is a decent deck but is not unstoppable.
Not trying to make any attacks, just genuinely curious
Modern:
UWUW Control
UBRGrixis Shadow
URIzzet Phoenix
Very generic argument. Storm has two bad matchups against top tier decks in Grixis Shadow and Burn. It is vulnerable to graveyard hate as well as basic creature removal. Your statement that it can win with one card in hand is technically true, but leaves out the part that there has to also be a reducer in play, or six lands, plus a graveyard full of spells. Sorry, but this sounds more like YOU play a deck with a bad matchup against storm.
http://modernnexus.com/challenger-approaching-unban-candidates/
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Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
"It seems to me that players who want Splinter Twin back don’t understand how the deck warped Modern during its legality."
This is an incredibly condescending and arrogant comment to make. Not the least bit coming from an advocate of Eldrazi decks, which themselves have warped our format more than Twin ever did. And rather than "warp" towards traditional interaction (discard, counters, removal), they instead warp away, promoting the growth of narrow, linear decks like Storm and Titanshift to be premiere choices for competition.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I've been predicting an eventual SFM unban in Modern since I first got into the format, so I agree with you that's it's at the top of the list and now is likely to be unbanned after PT. But I think it will be just SFM in Feb.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
I would have ranked the most likely unbans as:
1. Bloodbraid elf
2. Stoneforge
3. Splinter twin
4. Jace
they will not unban Preordain so close to introducing opt. Maybe one day, not right now.
I know for sure Etron has tools to at least keep the deck off of the combo (Warping Wail and TKS).
Still its reintroduction would be a likely meta-warper for decks not Etron or GDS as they adjust to deal with a different strong combo.
I also sensed some bias against the BBE unban, not wanting to give Jund a chance to be top dog. I don't think I can add to the circle of discussion that has done several laps around the forum, but I don't think Jund is the only deck that might play this.
One last note, kind of think it is laughable to include ponder as an unban discussion point given Wizards insistence of eliminating consistency tools which have included ponder, preordane, and most recently Gixtaxian Probe. Also between Opt now existing in modern, and Ponder being an old Storm enabler, no way would they even consider it. Think even Punishing Fire would come off sooner...
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sigpic.
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Twin was a good deck. Its pretty simple. I wont be feeding you clicks today ashton.
Twin has no reason to be on the banned list, and the format is making a mockery of itself with it on there.
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Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Since the first thought wasn't actually addressed, I'll just leave in it quote there.
Some other thoughts:
Re: "Fatal push great against it" - Agreed! A 1cmc kill spell that reliably kills 0-4cmc creatures.
Re: "Not cracking fetchland = Twin too powerful" - The first of many strikes against reasonable argument.
Re: "Shaun McLaren thinks it's strange that Storm is allowed to survive (and thrive) but Twin is not" - I agree! That does seem weird, considering Wizards categorically hates everything about Storm.
Re: "Storm is relatively harmless without mana bears" - It can still win, fairly easily, without a bear. Killing a bear in Storm buys you a turn; maybe two. The deck threatens a win untapping with 3 lands, whether they have a bear or not. Killing Twin's creature stops the combo entirely and forces them to find another piece. If killed with the enchantment on the stack, it forces them to find TWO pieces. It's a little different when your entire deck is made of combo pieces and cantrips vs 6 creatures, 4 enchantments, and a bunch of interaction.
Re: "Twin has solid plan B" - Sure, I guess. But beating down with Snapcaster Mage is actually pretty terrible without the threat of the combo. And Keranos is a 5 drop trying to be cast in a world of Thoughtseizes and decks killing on Turn 3, 4, and 5.
Re: "Storm folds to GY hate, Twin doesn't fold to hate, Twin hate is narrow" - Spellskite? Literally castable by any deck, can be cast through Blood Moon, and doesn't die to Bolt. Twin also falls HARD to broad and common things like: discard spells, counterspells, creature removal, fast aggro clocks.
Re: "Twin homogenized URx decks" Another huge falsehood. Delver, Control, Storm, and other variants of Grixis, Jeskai, and UR existed and had success with Twin legal.
Re: "Twin’s two biggest offenses are how it hinders turn-three plays and abuses the Turn-Four Rule. "
1. It SHOULD hinder turn 3 plays. Tapping out and slamming some creature with no respect or regard for what your opponent is doing SHOULD be punished. Mindless Battlecruiser Magic should be relegated to the realms of Standard.
2. Twin does not in any way, shape, or form break or abuse the turn 4 rule. It only wins on turn 4 (and NOT earlier), if the opponent has done nothing to interact, nothing to warrent using mana on your third turn, and has no answer to a creature or enchantment by turn 4 when you have tapped out and hoped for the best. And EVEN IF ALL THAT IS DONE, crunching the math says turn 4 combos only happened ~13-25% of the time, under the BEST case scenarios and completely uninterrupted.
It is clear you just have a deep-seeded personal beef with Twin (and probably with me too), and it shows in this blatantly slanted opinion piece masquerading as a serious article. I have strong biased opinions, but I also own them. What is written in this article is just that: opinions. Opinions of a seasoned Eldrazi player complaining about Twin being warping. Frankly, I find that laughable.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
"OH NOS I CANNOT TAP OUT ON TURN 3?!"
The horror.
Spirits
Eldrazi creatures and fatal push has warped this format far more than anything in a while. Shadow was good, but I also feel Shadow was built because players were frustrated with Urza lands.
I do think Twin/Jund/Infect/Affinity was a better modern format, but I'm still happy with modern.
Splinter Twin would be a good deck to help fight off Storm, E-Tron and Titanshift.
aggro creature would probably be bolstered in numbers and we'd have less degenerate, linear decks.
My money is on BBE, I think people hoping for SFM or Twin are in for dissapointment
It feels like SFM has a 25% chance, while BBE has a 50% chance.
I believe a Jace unban is 100% unrealistic, you have half the pro community against the card, and I believe WOTC will take that into account.