This is such a good post, and it hits in the nail on the head with the "Tron problem".
I feel that the BBE ban was absolutely fantastic since I now see much less Jund while still being a quite popular deck, and I love that I have a good shot at winning against them when in a topdeck war; it's much better to have a Cryptic Command against a topdecked Olivia than a BBE.
Jund is still very powerful, but much more "fair" now.
But I've also noticed an INSANE amount of Tron, mostly in the new Blue from (which in my opinion is much better and annoying), which could be a problem. Getting Mindslavered turn after turn, while having a turn 3 Wurmcoil beat your face, AND getting your Sowing Salts/Molten rains countered is quite disgusting.
So I'm starting to think that the Seething Song ban may have been a mistake, since it keeps Tron decks in check (although we'd have to see about the blue one with counters...), even if I've always HATED storm and its 5 minute turns.
It will be interesting to see how the metagame evolves ^^
PS: I play WUR Geist of Saint Win mostly
After seeing Force of Negation and Nimble Mongoose I could not resist, as these cards overpower this deck so much (I dare say Nimble Mongoose is the best creature for this deck since Goyf).
I'm gonna try 2 variants:
"Classic" RUG Delver
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Serum Visions
4 Opt
4 Thought Scour
4 Force of Negation
4 Remand
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Deprive
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Forked Bolt
2 Vapor Snag
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Grounds
2 Fiery Islet
2 Waterlogged Grove
1 Island
2 Collector Ouphe
2 Flame Slash
2 Flusterstorm
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Damping Sphere
and another which I feel may be even better, Wrenn and Six is retardedly good.
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Serum Visions
2 Faithless Looting
4 Opt
4 Thought Scour
3 Remand
4 Force of Negation
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Vapor Snag
3 Wrenn and Six
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Grounds
2 Fiery Islet
2 Waterlogged Grove
1 Botanical Sanctum
2 Collector Ouphe
2 Flame Slash
2 Flusterstorm
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Damping Sphere
Very excited for Horizons to come out
Regarding hybrid cards, can you target for example the "Carnival" part of "Canival/Carnage" (since there is a sorcery in the double card) plus for example "Shock" (an instant)? My guess is no, but I remember in Modern there were some shenanigans with some double cards which doing some tricks you could cast the "expensive part" of a double card by only paying the mana for the cheap one.
Cause I've been looking and there aren't really any good 1 mana sorceries in standard, right? Opt, shock, etc are all instants. So maybe Final of Promise will be really good only from 4+ mana on, to cast two 2-mana spells?
Thanks!
Regarding hybrid cards, can you target for example the "Carnival" part of "Canival/Carnage" (since there is a sorcery in the double card) plus for example "Shock" (an instant)? My guess is no, but I remember in Modern there were some shenanigans with some double cards which doing some tricks you could cast the "expensive part" of a double card by only paying the mana for the cheap one.
Cause I've been looking and there aren't really any good 1 mana sorceries in standard, right? Opt, shock, etc are all instants. So maybe Final of Promise will be really good only from 4+ mana on, to cast two 2-mana spells?
Thanks!
I see. So it's because of this "best of one" games without Sideboard. Interesting.
But the legal cards in Standard are the same in MTGO and in arena, right? And finally, is UR Phoenix then a competitive deck (meaning, tier 1 or 2) in Arena?. Will I be able to win games at a high level? (notwithstanding my skill or lack of it haha)
Anyways, I've always been a huge fan of UR decks and only played that (Twin, Delver, whatever) and seeing Arclight Phoenix has rekindled my love for the archetype. I would never go back to MODO but I'm very interested in arena, it seems great.
However, I've seen that UR Phoenix is around tier 1/2 in "Normal Standard" but in "Arena Standard"is nowhere to be seen (in MTG Goldfish). Wut? Isn't it literally the same format? Is it because people are more casual there or don't want to spend as much? Or is UR Phoenix just not good there?
I'm really confused, could you help me out?
Traverse was never ever a bad card. It was awesome from the beggining, I called it and it was obvious. I destroyed people with my RUG Traverse already back then.
It's fine, just accept it and move on. You weren't right about Traverse and I was. You seem to have an extremely bad time accepting when you mess up, from what I see in your posts.
My point is, nobody is ever right about all the cards (Stormchaser actually I deem it as a sucess - it is key in may UR prowess decks as predicted), Leopard, definitely not.
But a 1 mana tutor that can be Snapcastered and gives you a virtual threat every time? That was a sure bet.
To be honest, we also had a huge discussion about Traverse the Ulvenwald (like, pages long) and, as I predicted, it ended up being the best card in the set, widely played in a million Death Shadow variants and Traverse toolbox decks, heheheh
The main problem with Mana Leak is that it sucks at almost any stage of the game besides beggining-early midgame, and its a typical topdeck that instantly makes you lose against a decent board.
This on the other hand can get lilianas on turn 3, curved karns and basically anything, but f you topdeck it you inmediately get a shot at a real, impactful card.
Remand does not do this the same way since many good opponents will simply not cast things against your remand if they are significantly ahead and you will just die with it on your hand.
So, I think it will get some play and people will randomly eat hats
Unfortunately, that combination is currently dead because of the Probe ban and not having other zero mana spells good enough for it (and no, don't try putting 4 muta growths or gut shots in your deck, they suck for the most part :D)
I'm curious why you say that, I haven't tried the combo at all yet, but in theory seems "not quite bad". It is definitely worse than Twin (nothing can replace that), but I don't think it's worse than Resto-Kiki or Nahiri:
-It kills instantly on T4, which is one turn sooner than Resto-Kiki and many times sooner than Nahiri (which is just a reliable win-con more than a combo).
-Saheeli is a bad PW, but it's still a PW and can do some neat stuff. You can copy Snapcasters in a much easier way and less prone to removal than putting a Twin in your Snap, so overall I think Saheeli is actually a "better card" alone than Splinter Twin. I played Twin many years and the deck was great, but sometimes you did have several Twins rotting in your hand and there was nothing to do.
-Felidar Guardian is a terrible card, yes, but Exarch also was. Flash is a great loss, but this one let's you (again) blink Snapcasters and even other PWs that you may have in the deck to do some cool stuff.
I think the deck has a promising powerlevel in the right shell.
Blood Moon will continue to be good, maybe better with the rise of BUG and Esper strategies thanks to Push, yeah
You cannot say that Chalive is a good T1 play because of Fatal push lol, it's just a card which is playable in certain (limited) archetypes like Eldrazi and simply destroys many Modern decks, now, before, and always.
Wraith and Mishra have lost their main user in Death's Shadow because of Probe ban, so I think their numbers will definitely reduce.
Tasi, Gurmag and Hooting will get MUCH better in a Push/Bolt meta, that's for sure!
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy may rise again thanks to it's interaction with revolt and being able to flashback Push inmmediately killing a 4-mana creature
There's already a thread for this deck (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/664752-goryos-twin), I had the idea a while back based on the strength of Goryo + Jace
Anyways, back then I had quite a lot of success, the problem now is that there is a lot of incidental graveyard hate because of Dredge, so I don't think it's a good meta choice. I was actually testing with Liliana the creature and Insolent neonate and it was pretty interesting, cause you could revive her with Goryos and flip her saccing Neonate (and keeping her forever like Jace). Her abilities go well with the deck as a discard outlet and as a way to get back Deceiver/Pestermite from the yard since that was a problem for me sometimes. You can also flip her by reviving two copies of her and legend ruling on of them.
Cheers, see how it goes
Drop the ball? That combo wouldnt even be playable even if it said that the opponent should take a creature. This is Modern man, not kitchen table
Besides that, anybody see anything Modern playable?
What? Perpetual Timepiece does literally nothing in Dredge, what it wants to put creatures in the yard, not in the library (and I don't think you are referring to putting a random dead Neonate or Narcomoeba in the library again because that obviously does nothing either lol). I think you may have confused the deck.