Interestingly, Browbeat is legal and sees zero play. Just goes to show that not all cards people want are actually Modern-playable or even interesting.
That said, I'd still really love Innocent Blood. I'm ambivalent about Strix because I could both see it helping UBx strategies but also disproportionately harming fair decks (unfair ones can maybe ignore it). Still, I see the possible pros.
I think Counterspell in Modern is totally fine. I also think it won't be as good as many people believe; lots of decks will try going under it, so the real losers might be fairer decks that can't. Stuff like Affinity, Burn, and Infect might fare better.
That all said, Counterspell is not happening in Standard any time soon, and Wizards has explicitly said they have no plans to bypass Standard to get cards into Modern. That means we need to look at countermagic options which are palatable in Standard. Prohibit is a much better fit.
Fire // Ice would be sweet in Modern, not overpowered but a really good toolbox-esk card. It would definitely see play in UR Delver, and some versions of RUG and Grixis Delver would play a couple of copies depending on the build.
Another card I would like to see is Curfew. It is nowhere near overpowered, it has some cool synergies with cards like Snapcaster Mage and other ETB effects plus it is another tool to fight all-in decks like Infect while not being dead in the water against other decks.
And where are they going to reprint these cards?
They don't want introduce cards in Modern outside of Standard.
I still believe Prohibit would be totally fair in Standard and would give Modern a badly-needed blue catchall. Same with poor Innocent Blood. Both cards fit Wizards' criteria of conditional spells that don't trump all other options (e.g. Counterspell vs. Negate/Essence Scatter), and cards you wouldn't just splash to play on their own (e.g. playing Red just for Bolt).
I'm not much of a competitive player but I've watched a lot of coverage recently, and I was thinking to myself that the format would be very different if these cards were around:
Disrupt is largely fine. Generally inoffensive, although you have to be careful about adding the Spell Pierce counters that tend to benefit fast combo.
Pyro would be great. Burn wouldn't run it, which means red-based decks would get a semi-FoW kind of effect. Are there any linear decks which would run this? Burn in the SB probably, but not main.
Ankh seems like it would be bad. Format doesn't need more damage to punish slower strategies.
AMONKHET got revealed with Nicol Bolas as it's overlord. If there is ever a time for an innocent blood reprint... I'll take that and a busted Nicol Bolas please
SECOND THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM for flavorful set/card pairings!
Now that is a cool counterspell design! Could easily be extended to modern or just straight up printed to see if it sees play. Countering goyf and most removal spells and almost all aggro spells seems pretty legit. The ability to scale late game seems nifty.
Strongly agree. It even fits contemporary Standard design philosophy of forcing players to choose between specialized answers (e.g. Negate vs. Essence Scatter).
What combo decks do you think would switch to counterspell from what they're currently running?
Put it this way, why would a combo deck with blue in it not play counterspell if it was legal? Other than deprive, there is no blue counterspell at 2 mana that answers everything. The combo deck can use it to: keep themselves alive, protect the combo, etc.
Are there currently any blue combo decks that would use the card? Ad Naus sure doesn't want it. Twin would have but Twin is dead. Scapeshift would, but that shouldn't make it too much better than its tier 2 standing.
Scapeshift, (not a combo deck but blue Tron), Gifts, sideboard of infect, Griselbrand reanimator, Jeskai acendency
Not remotely worried about any of those, especially the stuff that doesn't even qualify as Tier 3. I really believe CS would be totally fair in Modern; just another powerful card in a series of powerful options.
What combo decks do you think would switch to counterspell from what they're currently running?
Put it this way, why would a combo deck with blue in it not play counterspell if it was legal? Other than deprive, there is no blue counterspell at 2 mana that answers everything. The combo deck can use it to: keep themselves alive, protect the combo, etc.
Are there currently any blue combo decks that would use the card? Ad Naus sure doesn't want it. Twin would have but Twin is dead. Scapeshift would, but that shouldn't make it too much better than its tier 2 standing.
The only cards on that list that strike me as even remotely busted in Modern are Stifle and Price of Progress.
I don't think Stifle would necessarily be "busted," although it would certainly be good. PoP, however, would be totally broken in Burn and will/should never ever see Modern printing.
I've been playing and watching more Legacy recently, and I'm a bit nervous about the Probe/Therapy synergy in Modern, let alone Therapy on its own in a variety of creature/graveyard-based decks. I'm not saying it would be broken or format-warping, but that one needs some serious testing. Blood, on the other hand, would be ridiculously fair.
You can't even compare Innocent Blood and Baleful Strix as the latter is way more powerful card. I would be fine with Innocent Blood but can't say this for Baleful Strix.
What exactly is Strix breaking? Is a Tier 1 Grixis deck such a problem? I'm sure it would see about as much play as Jeskai currently (~6% of the format), and that might be optimistic. Is this Tier 2 to Tier 1 jump so scary? Seems like it increases diversity across the board, to say nothing of all the Tier 3 or lower decks Strix helps.
Someone please make a case about what DECK Strix breaks. I don't care about how Strix is a broken card in a vacuum or the theoretical discussion of it being a 2-for-1. What DECK does the card break and why?
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Interestingly, Browbeat is legal and sees zero play. Just goes to show that not all cards people want are actually Modern-playable or even interesting.
That said, I'd still really love Innocent Blood. I'm ambivalent about Strix because I could both see it helping UBx strategies but also disproportionately harming fair decks (unfair ones can maybe ignore it). Still, I see the possible pros.
That all said, Counterspell is not happening in Standard any time soon, and Wizards has explicitly said they have no plans to bypass Standard to get cards into Modern. That means we need to look at countermagic options which are palatable in Standard. Prohibit is a much better fit.
I still believe Prohibit would be totally fair in Standard and would give Modern a badly-needed blue catchall. Same with poor Innocent Blood. Both cards fit Wizards' criteria of conditional spells that don't trump all other options (e.g. Counterspell vs. Negate/Essence Scatter), and cards you wouldn't just splash to play on their own (e.g. playing Red just for Bolt).
Rune Snag is legal in Modern and sees zero play.
As far as countermagic goes, I would love to see Prohibit. It would be quite fair in Standard and would definitely improve Modern countermagic.
I don't think Abolish would do much to the format. It's still a narrow answer that only a few decks can play.
Pyrokinesis, however, would be a great addition. I think it's been suggested in this thread and I agree it would help.
Disrupt is largely fine. Generally inoffensive, although you have to be careful about adding the Spell Pierce counters that tend to benefit fast combo.
Pyro would be great. Burn wouldn't run it, which means red-based decks would get a semi-FoW kind of effect. Are there any linear decks which would run this? Burn in the SB probably, but not main.
Ankh seems like it would be bad. Format doesn't need more damage to punish slower strategies.
SECONDTHIRD TIME'S THE CHARM for flavorful set/card pairings!Strongly agree. It even fits contemporary Standard design philosophy of forcing players to choose between specialized answers (e.g. Negate vs. Essence Scatter).
Not remotely worried about any of those, especially the stuff that doesn't even qualify as Tier 3. I really believe CS would be totally fair in Modern; just another powerful card in a series of powerful options.
Are there currently any blue combo decks that would use the card? Ad Naus sure doesn't want it. Twin would have but Twin is dead. Scapeshift would, but that shouldn't make it too much better than its tier 2 standing.
Remember that this is the reprint thread, not the custom card thread. Keep custom cards out of this discussion.
Speaking of Odyssey block reprints, we already got Mongrel and development indicated Psychatog would probably be fine in Standard.
http://wizardsdeveloper.tumblr.com/post/146969127035/i-have-asked-maro-if-psychatog-could-ever-see-a
I don't think Stifle would necessarily be "busted," although it would certainly be good. PoP, however, would be totally broken in Burn and will/should never ever see Modern printing.
I've been playing and watching more Legacy recently, and I'm a bit nervous about the Probe/Therapy synergy in Modern, let alone Therapy on its own in a variety of creature/graveyard-based decks. I'm not saying it would be broken or format-warping, but that one needs some serious testing. Blood, on the other hand, would be ridiculously fair.
What exactly is Strix breaking? Is a Tier 1 Grixis deck such a problem? I'm sure it would see about as much play as Jeskai currently (~6% of the format), and that might be optimistic. Is this Tier 2 to Tier 1 jump so scary? Seems like it increases diversity across the board, to say nothing of all the Tier 3 or lower decks Strix helps.
Someone please make a case about what DECK Strix breaks. I don't care about how Strix is a broken card in a vacuum or the theoretical discussion of it being a 2-for-1. What DECK does the card break and why?