As a purely standard/EDH player I have very few modern staples. Almost none and if I do they are either standard legal or a 1 of for EDH. How do you feel about a playset of AEther Vials as my first kind of big purchase? It gives me access to pretty affordable decks like White Weenies, Eldrazi/Death & Taxes, and Merfolk. I like these options more than Burn and those seem to be the majority of the kind of budget competitive decks. Any thoughts?
Nothing wrong with buying aether vials, but I think you should look at where you want to go moving forwards.
Owning a playset of aether vials does nothing to get you actually playing the format unless you follow it up with buying the rest of a vial deck, which doesn't seem like the case here.
It depends on your priorities, but actually getting into a store and playing magic is easier if you buy the cheap 56 cards, and not the expensive 4 first.
Well, first I would decide what deck i wanted if i were you. Vials do give you some options, but some of those decks are more Legacy. Vial is a good card and has a home in Modern, but if you decide that those decks aren't what you want, that is a hefty chunk of change you've flushed. do you have your fetches, and ideally shocks from previous Standard seasons? also what kind of budget do you have? preferred playstyle? the Vials aren't a BAD choice, but early on I wasted good money on Storm and I HATED playing it. there are other moderately affordable decks, once you have Karns and O-Stones, nothing in Tron is irreplacable or too pricey. really once you get a couple bigger ticket staples, only BGx stays painful. it all depends what you actually want to play
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No I am going to finish out Eldrazi & Taxes and Death & Taxes since its a lot of crossover, but then I would be able to adjust over to Merfolk or something pretty easily. I think I would like these tempo decks a lot more than burn and there aren't a lot of other competitive budget decks out there.
Eldrazi and Taxes is relatively cheap to build in Modern ($500 or so).
If you want to get up and running in Modern fast and just have something to play that will win games try 8-Whack, probably a $50 deck and will be a 50/50 in most games against most other Modern decks. You're probably not going to win tournaments with 8-whack but it's fun, cheap and you will beat several much more expensive decks. I typically go 2-2, maybe 3-1 at my store in a 14 man tournament with 8 Whack. That's against Tron, Affinity, Elves, Grixis..ect.
Depends on your budget but if you just want to get in the door and play modern while you build a Tier 1 or 2 deck, 8 Whack can be fun.
For entering the format, I'd first get land, which are very useful in EDH too.
Then focus on the parts of the decks you like to play that are at a good price point because of lack of meta play or a recent reprint.
If you know you want to play Eldrazi and Taxes, just start buying parts of the deck up.
One piece of advice: try the deck before you buy through your favorite means. If you buy those Aether Vials and learn that you like a different deck style better, it's going to be hard to break even on the vials (and I have found them hard to move through trade due to being narrow in application, very expensive and highly reprintable).
Owning a playset of aether vials does nothing to get you actually playing the format unless you follow it up with buying the rest of a vial deck, which doesn't seem like the case here.
It depends on your priorities, but actually getting into a store and playing magic is easier if you buy the cheap 56 cards, and not the expensive 4 first.
You can look at Merfolk and Mono white here: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/grand-prix-vancouver-2017#paper
Other are green/white hatebears and white/black/eldrazi death and taxes.
Slivers can also be available down the road but the manabase there is SUPER expensive.
If you want to get up and running in Modern fast and just have something to play that will win games try 8-Whack, probably a $50 deck and will be a 50/50 in most games against most other Modern decks. You're probably not going to win tournaments with 8-whack but it's fun, cheap and you will beat several much more expensive decks. I typically go 2-2, maybe 3-1 at my store in a 14 man tournament with 8 Whack. That's against Tron, Affinity, Elves, Grixis..ect.
Depends on your budget but if you just want to get in the door and play modern while you build a Tier 1 or 2 deck, 8 Whack can be fun.
Then focus on the parts of the decks you like to play that are at a good price point because of lack of meta play or a recent reprint.
If you know you want to play Eldrazi and Taxes, just start buying parts of the deck up.
One piece of advice: try the deck before you buy through your favorite means. If you buy those Aether Vials and learn that you like a different deck style better, it's going to be hard to break even on the vials (and I have found them hard to move through trade due to being narrow in application, very expensive and highly reprintable).
UBRGrixis Kiki Control
BGUSultai Shadow
GWRBushwhacker Zoo
EDH:
BGU Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose
GWU Roon of the Hidden Realm