As much as I hate to vote for the fella, I sided mostly with Cedric Phillips. Regarding Rampaging Ferocidon, if nobody cares, then why not unban it? I personally know some locals who actually do care.
I do not understand the Ban decision. Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis is only $4 right now. Altar of Dementia is only $3 right now. They don't need these cards to sell the set, unlike the Eldrazi.
Modern seems like it's in a healthy spot outside of that Hogaak deck(even this might be fine).
I saw both Red Bull tournaments and there was so much fun, interactive magic, with lot's of back and forths and decisions in it, where the most skilled players eventually won(especially in Italy, Javier Dominguez proved again why we should consider him one of the best MTG players in the world).
I would take a "No Changes" today, it's just that I think Modern is soooo fun and interactive outside of Hogaak, that this would make Modern great again!
Do you have a link for coverage? I would love to watch it. Thanks in advance.
It's really amazing how users can complain about having to read posts they don't like yet refuse to simply use the ignore function.
Yep. I have chosen to not ever use the ignore function because nobody has bothered me all that much. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion (especially when that opinion coincides with mine *evil laugh)
I spent a LOT of time here on this site, much more than any other site. There was a time where I admittedly spammed as much as I could to get my post count up. I wanted to feel important, lol. (yes, it is pretty immature of me) Nowadays, I haven't been super upset with the Ban decisions as much as I have for the Unban decisions. I actually really don't enjoy the current meta, which I feel is 10 hate cards vs. my busted deck in a London Mulligan rule yard.
We have enough variance. The London Mull isn't here for laughs.
Don't get me started on that terrible, terrible mulligan rule.
Wizards can't really (in good faith) surgically cut out that many cards in the meta right now. What they should have done from the beginning is have no card on the ban list. Then they could ban problem cards as they arise. Maybe this would scare away too many players? But the problem is that many cards were pre banned with preconceived notions from formats much different than Modern. As we can see, there were mistakes, like Sword of the Meek being banned. Now that Wizards didn't DO that, we have to live with the consequences. All in all, Modern is still a very solid format. (even if I personally hate it the most right now)
*It would be sweet to me if they unleashed KCI to try to stop the Hogaak menace. Then every sideboard would have 7 artifact cards and 8 graveyard cards. I could finally run some Devoted Devastation or even switch it to Company then without fearing a single sideboard card.
Got wrecked today. 2 person FNM. London mulligan again.
Round 1 vs. Humans. I draw my best draw yet with the deck. I get Hogaak and another 10 power of creatures on turn 2. He plays Kitesail Freebooter, sees my remaining hand, and scoops. In the next game, he mulls to 6. Double Leyline of the Void. I kept on 1 land, Faithless Looting, Insolent Neonate. He gets 3 lands into play and just plays a bunch of creatures. I get stuck on 1 land, and can't do much with 2 Leylines. Not even sure if I can rebuild if I were to draw a 2nd land and 2 Wispmare. I cannot beat this draw. In the final game, I keep with Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion. He has Leyline of the Void to start off. I draw and discard. Then I discard 2 cards to Cathartic Reunion. On turn 3, I make the mistake. I reluctantly play a Stitcher's Supplier because I want to have a creature on board. It mills X, X, Wispmare. I lost right there, as I play a few 1/1s while he plays Unsettled Mariner, Image on Mariner (after I Lightning Axe Champion of the Parish), and then Auriok Champion. I draw a few lands and scoop. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Mono Red Phoenix. I keep on 1 land (again!) and double Insolent Neonate. I can't find a 2nd land and when I play Stitcher's Supplier, it puts 2 Vengevine. I die on turn 3. In the next game, I lose to drawing a 2nd and 3rd copy of Hogaak while my opponent Gut Shots my Stitcher's Supplier into Ravenous Trap. Not easy to play around that one and with all those cards gone, the extra Hogaaks are NOT good in hand. Cruuuushed. 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Dredge. In the first game, I literally don't draw nothing but lands, so I start losing the race. On turn 5, I tell him I can mill his deck. The problem? I'm at 6 life and he has 3 Creeping Chill in the deck. He is about to scoop when he realizes this. I milled him a bit and when I saw the 2nd copy and was at 3 life, I assumed there were 2 more. Maybe a mistake? (he had Hogaak and Stitcher's Suppliers) In the next game, he has Tormod's Crypt and a lot of early pressure. Had 2 cards in hand since the beginning, so probably had the answer to Leyline of the Void as well. I got stuck with a bunch of lands. Near the bottom of my deck was 4 Hogaak, 4 Bridge from Below, and 4 Altar of Dementia. Hey, all the potential ban prospects. LOL. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. UW Control. The first game is ugly. I keep on 2 land (!!!!) this time. I peel land after land and smash with Gravecrawler and Bloodghast. He eventually Surgical Extractions both after some Supreme Verdict/Wrath of God/ScM action. Narset hit the board and Jace. I keep drawing Hogaaks. After Narset has been in play for a million turns, I draw Cathartic Reunion into Faithless Looting. The next game is similar, but he does Detention Sphere on my double Altar of Dementia. He uses 2 Path to Exile and 2 Celestial Purge this game, but eventually I run him out of options in the late game. I go for flashback Faithless Looting with 3 Hogaak in hand. He uses his last card to Force of Negation. I then play the Altar and win after that. There is not much time for the final game. I put pressure on him and him having only 2 land in his opener slowed him a bit. When he drew and played his 3rd land, he did triple Path to Exile. Then he did Vendilion Clique and started racing me, but I actually drew a good card - Faithless Looting and he had to Wrath of God the next turn. I killed a Narset with Wispmare and this game went to time. He scooped to me in the end. We both had pretty good hands. He may have beaten me because Hogaak top decks ass while UW has many hits (1 more Path to Exile and 2 Celestial Purge left in the deck and since I Wispmare #2 on turn 2 Rest in Peace, he probably draws ScMs). 2-1.
I got 1-3. Got demolished. I saw what happened when my opponents were prepared, drew their optimal hands, and I drew multiple Hogaak, no grave hate removal, no 2nd land, or only lands. It was not good.
how about take a break, explore other formats, do something else, if modern burns you so much that you want to unload your banhammer all over?
also, wth do you guys/girls have going with SFM? why the obsession with this friggin' creature? it's only a win package. there's things way less deserving of being on the list, like jitte.
Ross Merriam, is that you? (for what it's worth, Ross Merriam said the same thing in the latest video series with Todd Anderson)
Our obsession is probably that it seems like the least offensive of cards on the Ban List. If Wizards is not going to even consider unbanning the Kor Artificer, what does this say about other cards that people want unbanned? (I'll leave that list to your imagination)
I also wondered about the card. My friend borrowed my Martyr deck and he said it was his "best" card in the deck and he wanted to go up to 2.
I'm assuming because it can sacrifice to itself, it kills many X/1 creatures in the format, it is just so flexible. It just does a lot of stuff in the format, even as just a 1/1 or 2/2.
Is there any events this weekend? If not, nothing changes. No bans or unbans.
No, it's M20 Prerelease weekend. I doubt any bans will happen this quickly. Wizards wants to give players a chance to "adapt" to the new meta, just like they did with Eye of Ugin. (Now I don't know if that's the best decision, but just trying to think inside of their mind, lol.)
Kinda makes me look dumb for not buying the foils I wanted (just 2) for $25 a while back. At least I can still play the card, as I did buy 4 non foils during Khans.
UW's all the rage. Maybe something there should get banned?
Once the combo is assembled, Urza generates infinite mana that can be used to activate his "Mind's Desire" ability so some lists are playing stuff that ends the game on the spot like Ghirapur Aether Grid.
Yep, good point. There is an infinite combo in the deck. I kind of didn't listen much or understand that part, partially because I have yet to see and read an Urza in person (or online). Being a Prison deck that has Thopter Sword, and an infinite Combo, makes it a strong deck from different angles.
I seriously underestimated this card/deck. I was on the Hogaak train and figured, "why do I need to know what any other card does, lol?"
just out of curiosity. How does the Urza deck win the game. I mean what's the win con of the deck? thanks
You should check out the Deck Tech by Brian Coval (former SCG Invitational winner). He said that the deck is reminiscent of the KCI deck, with Urza being the new "KCI."
The deck wins with Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek. Each mana, each turn, each artifact that produces U with Urza out, puts 1/1 fliers. Usually there will be an Ensnaring Bridge, so the opponent can't attack. Then the Urza player will draw a card and turn X 1/1s sideways. Pretty brutal stuff. Top 8 competitor Justin Porchas played the deck at 2 local tournaments and I actually didn't realize how strong it was. I was wondering why he'd play something so "bad." Lol, look how wrong I was...
I loved Ravnica/Kamigawa Standard while Gifts Ungiven with Kami was a real deck. Maybe the best I have played in any format, just a tad bit below Almost Blue in Vintage.
That said, I enjoyed Modern in 2014, I enjoy it today.
@CpFusion, IdSurge, and others - I haven't enjoyed Standard since Lorwyn. Faeries, Merfolk, Elves, Reveillark (did you read that freaking card?), Swans of Bryn Argoll, Quick n Toast and later 5 Color Control, and on and on. I did play UW Delver years later a lot. People may have thought I enjoyed the deck, but really honestly I just loved how good Ponder was, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the cards in the deck. "Mono Blue Burn, lol"
What I'm saying is still play the format. You don't have to love it to play it. If it gets too disgusting, take some time off. Find a format that you love. For me, I am really enjoying Legacy right now, so even though I have to drive 55-80 mi. on the weekend to play it, I will do it. I don't enjoy Modern right now. I still play it because Hogaak is too good to turn down, but when I'm playing Hogaak, I run into all kinds of turn 2/3 decks - Neoform, Cheerios, Devoted Devastation, Mono Red Prowess or I run into 8 graveyard hate card.deck. I stick with Modern and don't sell my cards (yet) because I know things will get better. Maybe (probably) it won't be as good as it was before (I will never have Lorwyn back again; WotC will never do "Return to Lorwyn," but I can have a better time than now) But right now, I'll embrace that Legacy tournament once a week, lol.
I will probably try a list with an Overgrown Tomb or 2. Currently I have 2 Gemstone Mine. I have had problems hard casting Vengevines, but part of that honestly was just to drawing multiples in the mid game, which probably shouldn't happen often. I will certainly try it some time within the next few weeks though (I'm away from many of my cards right now...)
Yep, it looks like Urza, Lord High Artificer is starting to go up a bit after SCG Brian Coval's deck tech and Justin Porchas (a player local to me) top 8ing the Dallas Magic Fest.
As much as I hate to vote for the fella, I sided mostly with Cedric Phillips. Regarding Rampaging Ferocidon, if nobody cares, then why not unban it? I personally know some locals who actually do care.
I do not understand the Ban decision. Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis is only $4 right now. Altar of Dementia is only $3 right now. They don't need these cards to sell the set, unlike the Eldrazi.
Do you have a link for coverage? I would love to watch it. Thanks in advance.
Yep. I have chosen to not ever use the ignore function because nobody has bothered me all that much. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion (especially when that opinion coincides with mine *evil laugh)
I spent a LOT of time here on this site, much more than any other site. There was a time where I admittedly spammed as much as I could to get my post count up. I wanted to feel important, lol. (yes, it is pretty immature of me) Nowadays, I haven't been super upset with the Ban decisions as much as I have for the Unban decisions. I actually really don't enjoy the current meta, which I feel is 10 hate cards vs. my busted deck in a London Mulligan rule yard.
I just registered by clicking on it and then going to my email to finish it. Worked fine for me.
Don't get me started on that terrible, terrible mulligan rule.
Wizards can't really (in good faith) surgically cut out that many cards in the meta right now. What they should have done from the beginning is have no card on the ban list. Then they could ban problem cards as they arise. Maybe this would scare away too many players? But the problem is that many cards were pre banned with preconceived notions from formats much different than Modern. As we can see, there were mistakes, like Sword of the Meek being banned. Now that Wizards didn't DO that, we have to live with the consequences. All in all, Modern is still a very solid format. (even if I personally hate it the most right now)
*It would be sweet to me if they unleashed KCI to try to stop the Hogaak menace. Then every sideboard would have 7 artifact cards and 8 graveyard cards. I could finally run some Devoted Devastation or even switch it to Company then without fearing a single sideboard card.
Round 1 vs. Humans. I draw my best draw yet with the deck. I get Hogaak and another 10 power of creatures on turn 2. He plays Kitesail Freebooter, sees my remaining hand, and scoops. In the next game, he mulls to 6. Double Leyline of the Void. I kept on 1 land, Faithless Looting, Insolent Neonate. He gets 3 lands into play and just plays a bunch of creatures. I get stuck on 1 land, and can't do much with 2 Leylines. Not even sure if I can rebuild if I were to draw a 2nd land and 2 Wispmare. I cannot beat this draw. In the final game, I keep with Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion. He has Leyline of the Void to start off. I draw and discard. Then I discard 2 cards to Cathartic Reunion. On turn 3, I make the mistake. I reluctantly play a Stitcher's Supplier because I want to have a creature on board. It mills X, X, Wispmare. I lost right there, as I play a few 1/1s while he plays Unsettled Mariner, Image on Mariner (after I Lightning Axe Champion of the Parish), and then Auriok Champion. I draw a few lands and scoop. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Mono Red Phoenix. I keep on 1 land (again!) and double Insolent Neonate. I can't find a 2nd land and when I play Stitcher's Supplier, it puts 2 Vengevine. I die on turn 3. In the next game, I lose to drawing a 2nd and 3rd copy of Hogaak while my opponent Gut Shots my Stitcher's Supplier into Ravenous Trap. Not easy to play around that one and with all those cards gone, the extra Hogaaks are NOT good in hand. Cruuuushed. 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Dredge. In the first game, I literally don't draw nothing but lands, so I start losing the race. On turn 5, I tell him I can mill his deck. The problem? I'm at 6 life and he has 3 Creeping Chill in the deck. He is about to scoop when he realizes this. I milled him a bit and when I saw the 2nd copy and was at 3 life, I assumed there were 2 more. Maybe a mistake? (he had Hogaak and Stitcher's Suppliers) In the next game, he has Tormod's Crypt and a lot of early pressure. Had 2 cards in hand since the beginning, so probably had the answer to Leyline of the Void as well. I got stuck with a bunch of lands. Near the bottom of my deck was 4 Hogaak, 4 Bridge from Below, and 4 Altar of Dementia. Hey, all the potential ban prospects. LOL. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. UW Control. The first game is ugly. I keep on 2 land (!!!!) this time. I peel land after land and smash with Gravecrawler and Bloodghast. He eventually Surgical Extractions both after some Supreme Verdict/Wrath of God/ScM action. Narset hit the board and Jace. I keep drawing Hogaaks. After Narset has been in play for a million turns, I draw Cathartic Reunion into Faithless Looting.
I got 1-3. Got demolished. I saw what happened when my opponents were prepared, drew their optimal hands, and I drew multiple Hogaak, no grave hate removal, no 2nd land, or only lands. It was not good.
Ross Merriam, is that you? (for what it's worth, Ross Merriam said the same thing in the latest video series with Todd Anderson)
Our obsession is probably that it seems like the least offensive of cards on the Ban List. If Wizards is not going to even consider unbanning the Kor Artificer, what does this say about other cards that people want unbanned? (I'll leave that list to your imagination)
I'm assuming because it can sacrifice to itself, it kills many X/1 creatures in the format, it is just so flexible. It just does a lot of stuff in the format, even as just a 1/1 or 2/2.
No, it's M20 Prerelease weekend. I doubt any bans will happen this quickly. Wizards wants to give players a chance to "adapt" to the new meta, just like they did with Eye of Ugin. (Now I don't know if that's the best decision, but just trying to think inside of their mind, lol.)
Kinda makes me look dumb for not buying the foils I wanted (just 2) for $25 a while back. At least I can still play the card, as I did buy 4 non foils during Khans.
UW's all the rage. Maybe something there should get banned?
Yep, good point. There is an infinite combo in the deck. I kind of didn't listen much or understand that part, partially because I have yet to see and read an Urza in person (or online). Being a Prison deck that has Thopter Sword, and an infinite Combo, makes it a strong deck from different angles.
I seriously underestimated this card/deck. I was on the Hogaak train and figured, "why do I need to know what any other card does, lol?"
You should check out the Deck Tech by Brian Coval (former SCG Invitational winner). He said that the deck is reminiscent of the KCI deck, with Urza being the new "KCI."
The deck wins with Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek. Each mana, each turn, each artifact that produces U with Urza out, puts 1/1 fliers. Usually there will be an Ensnaring Bridge, so the opponent can't attack. Then the Urza player will draw a card and turn X 1/1s sideways. Pretty brutal stuff. Top 8 competitor Justin Porchas played the deck at 2 local tournaments and I actually didn't realize how strong it was. I was wondering why he'd play something so "bad." Lol, look how wrong I was...
I loved that deck! Played it exclusively until I saw the monstrosity of Heartbeat of Spring with Maga, Traitor to Mortals.
@CpFusion, IdSurge, and others - I haven't enjoyed Standard since Lorwyn. Faeries, Merfolk, Elves, Reveillark (did you read that freaking card?), Swans of Bryn Argoll, Quick n Toast and later 5 Color Control, and on and on. I did play UW Delver years later a lot. People may have thought I enjoyed the deck, but really honestly I just loved how good Ponder was, and to a lesser degree, the rest of the cards in the deck. "Mono Blue Burn, lol"
What I'm saying is still play the format. You don't have to love it to play it. If it gets too disgusting, take some time off. Find a format that you love. For me, I am really enjoying Legacy right now, so even though I have to drive 55-80 mi. on the weekend to play it, I will do it. I don't enjoy Modern right now. I still play it because Hogaak is too good to turn down, but when I'm playing Hogaak, I run into all kinds of turn 2/3 decks - Neoform, Cheerios, Devoted Devastation, Mono Red Prowess or I run into 8 graveyard hate card.deck. I stick with Modern and don't sell my cards (yet) because I know things will get better. Maybe (probably) it won't be as good as it was before (I will never have Lorwyn back again; WotC will never do "Return to Lorwyn," but I can have a better time than now) But right now, I'll embrace that Legacy tournament once a week, lol.
Yep, it looks like Urza, Lord High Artificer is starting to go up a bit after SCG Brian Coval's deck tech and Justin Porchas (a player local to me) top 8ing the Dallas Magic Fest.