Going through the VODS of day 1 now. Coverage off of the bat looks good, the transitions with animated cards seem better than normal, and I lol'd at the Abzan Company deck they displayed twice with a Jund maindeck and Company sideboard.
LSV starting in round 1 is great though!
I especially appreciated Andy Cooperfauss trying to type labels for the Cavern of Souls on screen and moving them around by hand. that was a nice touch (and amusing at the same time)
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
All the top-32 of GP Los Angeles are solid decks. GP Charlotte... I'm lost. Especially Ad-Nauseam. How often does it win before turn 4? And where does it get its consistency from? You need multiple pieces, it's like a collected company deck without the beatdown plan. This is one deck I have no clue how it works.
It's also completely unbeatable if they have Angel's Grace and Boseiju, Who Shelters All. I lost to Ad Nauseam at SCG Regionals, dying game 3 with Dispel, Remand, Remand in hand. Nothing you can do against Split Second and an uncounterable sorcery. Once they draw their deck, they have 4x Pact of Negation. Granted it also can fall apart completely if it doesn't draw well, it can be frustrating to go up against in a match that matters in a large event.
in a metagame with ad nausea, those long-languishing vendilion cliques in my sideboard suddenly start to make sense. beaten the deck many times with a draw-step clique.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
how's about Matt Nass crushing with a very simple GW Tokens list... seems almost out of place in all honesty. no idea how he intends to beat combo decks aside from dodging matchups or getting a quick clock in place but wow, the deck looks genuinely fun, and in round 13 he's 10-2 which shows that the deck has some chops for sure.
new nissa and new gideon both pulling some serious work as well.
surprised! haven't seen a worthwhile tokens list in a good long while. i'm enjoying it being on coverage for sure.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
So, how many times did Paulo Cua punt game 2 against Chapin? He went down to 1 life and took his sweet time with the clock ticking down hoping for a draw
He also let that token eat that terminate instead of redircting with Spellskite.
don't know about you but if patrick sat down opposite me at a tournament table, i'd probably feel more than a little nervous. who knows, maybe that's just me. =P
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
favourite includes for me - Taking Turns (hilarious), Mill (unexpected), Eldrazi (good to see the deck existing without being a problem), Tron (a nostalgic favourite of mine even when it's unplayable) and Merfolk (always happy to see this deck do well)
Calling Tron "unplayable" is some combination of misleading, inaccurate, and/or disingenuous, at least if you are referring to RG Tron with regard to Eye's banning. RG Tron is totally viable.
Mono U Tron ties it up 1-1 off of a Chalice at one and a Chalice at two.
apologies if you mistook my meaning; i meant in the fullness of time since modern began, there have been clear distinct times when RG Tron was essentially unplayable at larger events, before swinging back to viable after a couple of months out of the limelight. I can distinctly remember a singularly long period of time (maybe up to a whole year) when some of the spikier members of my playgroup would scoff or laugh when I said I was tweaking or running Tron at PTQs or whatever. as far as they were concerned, it was tier 3 jank. then like clockwork it came back around and worked its way up to tier 1 for a few weeks, before ebbing away again.
i wasn't talking about Tron being unplayable right now. clearly it's doing just fine - i'm a big fan of your metagame analyses on the Nexus and am well aware of the current positioning of the deck.
I find this highly ironic coming from the primary defender of the Eldrazi deck pre-ban.
first, I was just playing devil's advocate (and i said as much, very clearly). i love the meta right now, and i love aggro decks. Modern is in a brilliant place and i'm loving it from top to bottom.
second, I wasn't a "defender of the eldrazi deck"... I was however, a big critic of the absolutely insane ban-mania which occurred less than a week after the deck first appeared at a single isolated tournament. at the time, regardless of whether it was eventually proven to be a problematic deck, the community response was nothing short of herd-mentality idiotic panic.
after the deck continued to be an issue, I very plainly and clearly went on record saying that continued metagame dominance was unhealthy and something needed doing. at no point was I blindly rallying behind the deck without a logical foundation to my comments. it's certainly not an angle you can use to try to degrade anything i'm currently saying.
in fact, looking back at what you've written, I think you just misread my comment, or the detail, or maybe the intent. either way you've based your response on a subtle misunderstanding, so I vote we drop it and move back to the topic at hand, which is what an amazing day-2 metagame we have right now!
favourite includes for me - Taking Turns (hilarious), Mill (unexpected), Eldrazi (good to see the deck existing without being a problem), Tron (a nostalgic favourite of mine even when it's unplayable) and Merfolk (always happy to see this deck do well)
Going off that list, aggro is the smallest it's been in a while. This means ramp and RG Tron are good strategies. Boo
Did you guys see how boring the streams were when RG Tron was on camera? Watching that Blue Bloon V RG Tron was painful
to be devil's advocate for the moment - surely it's more boring when two aggro/hyper-fast decks face up against each other and the round is over in 8 minutes flat including shuffling...?
a glaring issue with fast aggro style decks is that they can't reliably be boarded against or hated out effectively (when they are in a dominant position).
for instance, I go to a GP, and throughout the myriad rounds I end up facing 6 burn decks (unlikely but indulge me for a moment). At this point i might be high-fiving the fates or whatever because I was a smart magic player and stuck 8 cards in my sideboard that work well against burn (stuff like obstinate baloth in the scapeshift deck)... except that despite boarding in a stupendous amount of specific deck hate, they can still just kill me on turn 3 and take the match with ease. i may be able to affect my win percentage over a large sample of games but it's possible for spikey decks like burn and affinity to just nut-draw you out, in a way that slower or more interactive decks just can't do. this doesn't make for pleasing tournament experiences, and doesn't reward tight gameplay or pilot skill. it also evokes a huge case of the feel-bads when an aggro player doesn't get the nut-draw, and has to play a drawn-out losing battle, as their deck hands them all the wrong pieces in the wrong order.
aggro needs to exist, obviously, but if aggro starts being the majority, we run into serious problems.
6 De La Torre 27 Affinity (?)
8 Li 25 UB Mill
12 Chapin 24 Grixis (AV, Goblin Dark-Dwellers)
14 Holiday 24 Affinity
15 Nass 24 GW Tokens w/ Nissa
19 Armstrong 24 Abzan Company
20 McClain 24 Abzan Company
43 Eckhoff 24 UG Infect
67 Lossett 22 RG Tron
74 Pardee 21 Bant Eldrazi
81 Hwang 21 RG Tron
84 Phillips 21 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
85 Son 21 UG Infect
95 Yasooka 21 Abzan Company
97 Ichikawa 21 Jund
100 Montoya 21 Merfolk
103 Nokes 21 Mono-green Stompy
109 Wu 21 Affinity
110 Froehlich 21 RG Land Destruction
112 Rietzl 21 Blue Moon
114 Donati 21 Goblins
132 Edel 21 Abzan
159 Weitz 21 Bant Eldrazi
168 Brown 21 Ad Nauseam
219 Clark 21 Kiki Chord
266 McMartin-Rosenquist 19 Temur w/ Pili-Pala combo
274 Sacher 19 Jeskai w/ AV and Nahiri
300 Li 18 Abzan
326 Macurda 18 RG Eldrazi
340 Boyd 18 Nacatl Burn
355 Egashira 18 UG Infect
464 Chu 18 Bring to Light Scapeshift
502 Shimada 18 UG Infect
562 Jew 18 RG Valakut (Khalni Heart Expedition + Scapeshift + Omen, no Breach)
575 Velazquez 18 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
576 Beardsley 18 Mono-blue Tron
640 Huey 18 Naya Zoo
GP Charlotte:
Note: since there's no video coverage for this event it's harder to confirm who's playing what. The upside is that this GP is an SCG event and several players have records at previous SCG events, which lets me make an educated guess.
1 Ingram 27 RG Tron (?)
4 Dilks 27 BW Eldrazi (?)
5 Braun-Duin 27 (Something with Siege Rhino, most likely plain Abzan)
11 Kastel 27 Abzan (?)
30 Cohen 24 Suicide Zoo
43 Wescoe 24 Mardu Humans
45 Syed 24 Zoo (?)
48 Nelson 24 Jund
52 Araujo 24 Nacatl Burn
60 Donaldson 24 Storm
65 Nguyen 24 (T8ed a GP with RG Valakut)
66 Nikolich 24 (Plays UR a lot, so probably Jeskai w/ Nahiri)
78 Majlaton 24 Affinity (?)
89 Pendergast 22 Mono-blue Tron (?)
95 Walter 21 Storm (?)
101 Stokes 21 RG Tron
123 Scherer 21 Affinity (?)
184 Mize 21 Abzan Company (?)
188 Nance 21 Merfolk (?)
216 Cox 21 (Some kind of Zoo?)
229 Bowman 21 Slivers (?)
260 Huang 21 Grishoalbrand (?)
307 Lerch 19 BW Eldrazi & Taxes
310 Whitehouse 19 Grixis Control w/ AV and Goblin Dark-Dwellers (side note, Blue Jund is a dumb name)
335 Ekendahl 18 Living End
353 Speth 18 4C Jeskai Ascendancy with mana dorks & Wish
403 Maddalena 18 Affinity
487 Wade 18 Temur Moon
501 Donegan 18 Grixis Control (?)
512 Roohi 18 Burn (?)
566 Hott 18 Mono-blue Turns
569 Orange 18 Jeskai w/ Nahiri
614 Kesselman 18 Grixis Delver w/ Death's Shadow
615 Egan 18 Naya Burn
Fun fact: Finkel is at 499th place with 18 points. A Mike Long is at 647th with 18 points, not sure if it's THAT Mike Long.
that's not an extensive list, right?
i mean Finkel, at 499th place, makes day 2 I am assuming...?
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
All estimates, but it appears GP Charlotte ended R9 with about 1072 players (22% of starting 2400) still in the event. GP LA ended R9 with 1172 players (26% of starting 2241). So overall, if those numbers represent the Day 1 situation, it may not have been that bad.
Am I missing something, or are those percentages way off? They should be more like 50% surely. Is there a metric I'm not aware of influencing your calculation here or just an honest mistake?
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
So it's Sunday morning where I am. Not really sure what time zone these GPs are in, but they will be at least five hours behind. This means they will have either finished day one about 3 hours ago, or could just be wrapping up.
Any idea of some day 2 decklists at this early stage?
I happen to know a Taking Turns list made day 2 of LA.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
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I especially appreciated Andy Cooperfauss trying to type labels for the Cavern of Souls on screen and moving them around by hand. that was a nice touch (and amusing at the same time)
in a metagame with ad nausea, those long-languishing vendilion cliques in my sideboard suddenly start to make sense. beaten the deck many times with a draw-step clique.
new nissa and new gideon both pulling some serious work as well.
surprised! haven't seen a worthwhile tokens list in a good long while. i'm enjoying it being on coverage for sure.
not sure i'd play it myself (currently back on the competitive scapeshift train), but it's a cool deck no doubt.
don't know about you but if patrick sat down opposite me at a tournament table, i'd probably feel more than a little nervous. who knows, maybe that's just me. =P
amazing
apologies if you mistook my meaning; i meant in the fullness of time since modern began, there have been clear distinct times when RG Tron was essentially unplayable at larger events, before swinging back to viable after a couple of months out of the limelight. I can distinctly remember a singularly long period of time (maybe up to a whole year) when some of the spikier members of my playgroup would scoff or laugh when I said I was tweaking or running Tron at PTQs or whatever. as far as they were concerned, it was tier 3 jank. then like clockwork it came back around and worked its way up to tier 1 for a few weeks, before ebbing away again.
i wasn't talking about Tron being unplayable right now. clearly it's doing just fine - i'm a big fan of your metagame analyses on the Nexus and am well aware of the current positioning of the deck.
first, I was just playing devil's advocate (and i said as much, very clearly). i love the meta right now, and i love aggro decks. Modern is in a brilliant place and i'm loving it from top to bottom.
second, I wasn't a "defender of the eldrazi deck"... I was however, a big critic of the absolutely insane ban-mania which occurred less than a week after the deck first appeared at a single isolated tournament. at the time, regardless of whether it was eventually proven to be a problematic deck, the community response was nothing short of herd-mentality idiotic panic.
after the deck continued to be an issue, I very plainly and clearly went on record saying that continued metagame dominance was unhealthy and something needed doing. at no point was I blindly rallying behind the deck without a logical foundation to my comments. it's certainly not an angle you can use to try to degrade anything i'm currently saying.
in fact, looking back at what you've written, I think you just misread my comment, or the detail, or maybe the intent. either way you've based your response on a subtle misunderstanding, so I vote we drop it and move back to the topic at hand, which is what an amazing day-2 metagame we have right now!
favourite includes for me - Taking Turns (hilarious), Mill (unexpected), Eldrazi (good to see the deck existing without being a problem), Tron (a nostalgic favourite of mine even when it's unplayable) and Merfolk (always happy to see this deck do well)
to be devil's advocate for the moment - surely it's more boring when two aggro/hyper-fast decks face up against each other and the round is over in 8 minutes flat including shuffling...?
a glaring issue with fast aggro style decks is that they can't reliably be boarded against or hated out effectively (when they are in a dominant position).
for instance, I go to a GP, and throughout the myriad rounds I end up facing 6 burn decks (unlikely but indulge me for a moment). At this point i might be high-fiving the fates or whatever because I was a smart magic player and stuck 8 cards in my sideboard that work well against burn (stuff like obstinate baloth in the scapeshift deck)... except that despite boarding in a stupendous amount of specific deck hate, they can still just kill me on turn 3 and take the match with ease. i may be able to affect my win percentage over a large sample of games but it's possible for spikey decks like burn and affinity to just nut-draw you out, in a way that slower or more interactive decks just can't do. this doesn't make for pleasing tournament experiences, and doesn't reward tight gameplay or pilot skill. it also evokes a huge case of the feel-bads when an aggro player doesn't get the nut-draw, and has to play a drawn-out losing battle, as their deck hands them all the wrong pieces in the wrong order.
aggro needs to exist, obviously, but if aggro starts being the majority, we run into serious problems.
that's not an extensive list, right?
i mean Finkel, at 499th place, makes day 2 I am assuming...?
Am I missing something, or are those percentages way off? They should be more like 50% surely. Is there a metric I'm not aware of influencing your calculation here or just an honest mistake?
Any idea of some day 2 decklists at this early stage?
I happen to know a Taking Turns list made day 2 of LA.