Fatal Push and 5-toughness creatures definitely is shaping the format and in particular pushed out lightning bolt. I think a different bolt could shake up the meta. This is what I have i mind:
That card would be broken in Standard. Everyone would be looking to play 4 of those. This is not happening through Standard, end of.
If that's broken in Standard now, who'd want to play that format? Anyway, I agree with all those who say Fatal Push has warped Modern. Now we are seeing the results. More combo, more control, and more big mana. There's been a mass reduction in Midrange and Aggro outside of Affinity since it's super fast.
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I was checking the Tier 1 (Modern) forum, and I realized that currently we got in Tier 1:
2 Aggro decks (Affinity & Burn)
2 Midrange decks (Death's Shadow & Eldrazi Tron)
2 Combo decks (Storm & Scapeshift)
1 Control deck (UW Control)
I think this is the telling of a really nice and healthy meta.
IMO, the current Tier 1 decks are -
1. Grixis Death's Shadow
2. Eldrazi Tron
3. Titanshift
4. Affinity
and that's it. Nothing is really on the level of those 3 decks. You could possibly just say GDS and E Tron are Tier 1 and I could buy that. But, I don't think UW Control or Burn is in Tier 1 currently. UWR is probably better than UW right now. It's close to Tier 1.
You may think that it's healthy, but someone else may think this -
1. Interaction like crazy, finishes with 1 mana 6/6s or bigger.
2-4. All non interactive decks, E Tron or Titanshift being the most so with TKS/Dismember/Chalice or Bolt/Sweltering Suns/Valakut triggers.
Yeah, ever since we stopped getting any reliable tier data from MTGO, our organizational Tier structure here is just an arbitrary mess. UW Control has done nothing for quite a while. Jeskai Geist has been doing OK, but nothing close to the Shadow/ETron/Valakut/Affinity levels. Those decks are heads and shoulders above just about everything else in the format. I think our lack of data is exactly why we don't really see how things actually are (despite seeing MASSIVE day 2 numbers for those 4 decks), because we are blinded by variance-driven Top 8 placements in random paper events.
I don't know. I think we've seen enough UR Gifts Storm and Jeskai Control make top 8's to consider them Tier 1. They're doing about as good as GDS IMHO. If they aren't Tier 1, they're 1.5 then. They're better than any other Tier 2 deck right now.
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For the sake of argument I would say we go full NUKE: Death's Shadow, Eldrazi Temple, Grapeshot and Valakut. This assuming Affinity can be reasonably controlled.
You'll notice that gkourou didn't even list Affinity in his long post, and there's a reason for that. I believe that the only reason Affinity is still considered Tier 1 is because it's one of the oldest good Modern decks and it feels wrong to demote it. As an Affinity player, I can say that Modern is a pretty treacherous place for the deck these days. Chalice and Stony Silence are basically game over and those two cards are everywhere now. Ultimately, I would say that Affinity has failed the test of Tier 1 for quite a long time. When is the last time Affinity has won a major event (PT, SCG Open, Grand Prix, I'll even give RPTQ as valid for a major event, but not PPTQ)? When is the last time it has had a dominating presence in the top 8 or top 16 of such an event? I thought these were the criteria for determining which decks are Tier 1.
It hasn't happened in a long time. The deck is Tier 2, maybe Tier 1.5. Definitely not Tier 1 anymore.
Lot's of colorless stuff going on. Get out those Ceremonius Rejections. Also, cool to see a couple WR Prison decks make day 2. Such a weird color combo outside a burn deck.
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Storm isn't too hard to hate out IMO. People will start running more Eidolons (both red and white) as well as more graveyard hate if the deck ever begins to take up too many meta slots. Add to this the fact that spot removal is already good against them - I don't think storm can ever completely take over modern to the point where bans are needed.
Storm may not even become the best turbo Xerox style deck once Opt becomes legal. There could be something else lurking in the shadows that is ready to abuse 12+ decent cantrips and requires fewer pieces to assemble (let's face it, storm still requires a lot of different cards to execute the kill).
storm isnt to hard to hate out? than why is it one of the best decks in the format regardless of shadow and uw/x decks being prevalent, burn being prevalent, and graveyard hate being prevalent.
the same could be said about titanshift and etron. look what happens when we dont have adequate hate for them, and they have a high power level? they hold top tier status.
People are rebalancing their hate toward artifacts and away from the graveyard atm. It will start to shift back towards the gy soon as Affinity declines and storm/dredge ascend.
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That's the thing I seem to disagree with a lot of people on. Deck space itself is a resource. And storm may be a combo deck that only needs to hit5-6 mana and cast Gifts with a reduced in play to win, but so much deck space has to be dedicated to making this happen that it stops you from doing many other things. So, the deck has expended almost all of the deck space resource just on trying to win and is left without enough of that resource to run a bunch of disruption and stuff.
Eh. They'll probably just an Gifts Ungiven at some point.
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So opinions on 'Field of Ruin'?
Too expensive to activate or worth it was grabbing a replacement land?
Feel like it needed to be 1 and tap to be modern good. But worth investigating.
I'd be considering it. It's certainly better than Tectonic Edge.
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To transform on turn 3 you need: t1 fetch, thoughtscour. (4) T2 fetch, play this. (5) T3 any upkeep instant. The trigger is card 7. Admittedly, this does leave a land tapped so you can't tap for four which was the point of the experiment. So hope your opponent plays thoughtseize.
Or you cycle a Street Wraith or play a Mishra's Bauble or hit somebody with a Surgical Extraction. It's not as tough as one might think. Now, it may not transform until turn 4 or 5, but that means it'll be easier to Snapcaster Mage into something sooner or play other control cards. There's lots of good things this card can do by accelerating you a mana one turn early. I think control decks ought to play one, maybe two.
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You know, Search for Azcanta is a pretty cool way for blue players to be on 4 lands by turn 3. Makes casting Cryptic Command more feasible early too kinda like land ramp for blue.
In all seriousness, I doubt the card can flip on Turn 3. It requires you tossing every card on the upkeep(what happens if you like the card), having fetchland + cantrip + potentially thought scour. This card will flip more on turn 4-5, I feel like. So, you become a mini combo deck and you waste your early game just to have a small ramp deck with a more expensive, nonland + non creature Impulse that can be Abrupt Decay'd and it's legendary.
Verdict: This card seems too slow and "do nothing" in today's meta, although I do like that the condition to flip is optional and that it can have great value in grindy games.
Yeah, but if all the stuff you're putting in the yard is cantrips, then you're still going to have a full grip plus be ahead on lands.
EDIT: And if they want to waste their Abrupt Decay on that rather than whatever your threat is, awesome. Let 'em.
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You know, Search for Azcanta is a pretty cool way for blue players to be on 4 lands by turn 3. Makes casting Cryptic Command more feasible early too kinda like land ramp for blue.
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It's interesting how different opinions can be on what should be banned/unbanned.
I see zero chance of GSZ or Jace ever coming off.
Preordain also seems highly unlikely. Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand are as good as WotC wants to allow in terms of scry/draw type cards. The fact that Preordain was banned in MTGO Commander is a pretty strong clue. Ponder is definitely never coming off as well (duh).
SFM and BBE both should come off for a trial phase if nothing else. I have playsets of both ready to go...
I see us getting an Opt reprint before Preordain ever comes off the banned list.
Ha! I knew it! Good to see Opt back in the mix now.
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If that's broken in Standard now, who'd want to play that format? Anyway, I agree with all those who say Fatal Push has warped Modern. Now we are seeing the results. More combo, more control, and more big mana. There's been a mass reduction in Midrange and Aggro outside of Affinity since it's super fast.
Good time to play Titanshift and Affinity then.
I don't know. I think we've seen enough UR Gifts Storm and Jeskai Control make top 8's to consider them Tier 1. They're doing about as good as GDS IMHO. If they aren't Tier 1, they're 1.5 then. They're better than any other Tier 2 deck right now.
The last time Affinity won a Grand Prix was back in June of this year, so not that long ago at all: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gplv17-modern/top-8-decklists-2017-06-18
Eldrazi Tron – 17
Affinity – 13
Grixis Death’s Shadow – 11
Elves – 11
Burn – 8
U/R Gifts Storm – 7
Jeskai Control – 7
U/W Control – 6
Scapeshift – 5
Ad Nauseam – 5
Jund – 4
Counters Company – 4
Death and Taxes – 3
Abzan – 3
Dredge – 2
Merfolk – 2
Mardu – 2
Five-Color Death’s Shadow – 2
Esper Death’s Shadow – 2
W/b Eldrazi Taxes – 2
R/G Breach – 2
G/W Taxes – 2
Living End – 2
W/R Prison – 2
Infect – 2
U/R Breach – 2
Goryo’s Vengeance – 2
G/B Tron – 1
G/W Tron – 1
G/R Tron – 1
Lantern Control – 1
Grixis Delver – 1
Jeskai Aggro – 1
Goblins – 1
R/G Vengevine – 1
Bant Eldrazi – 1
R/B Eldrazi – 1
Mardu Pyromancer – 1
Jeskai Breach – 1
Amulet Titan – 1
Restore Balance – 1
8-Rack – 1
R/W Aggro – 1
G/R Ponza – 1
Grixis Control – 1
Goryo’s DeathVine – 1
Lot's of colorless stuff going on. Get out those Ceremonius Rejections. Also, cool to see a couple WR Prison decks make day 2. Such a weird color combo outside a burn deck.
People are rebalancing their hate toward artifacts and away from the graveyard atm. It will start to shift back towards the gy soon as Affinity declines and storm/dredge ascend.
Eh. They'll probably just an Gifts Ungiven at some point.
I'd be considering it. It's certainly better than Tectonic Edge.
Low turnout for that one. Probably why there's such weird results.
Or you cycle a Street Wraith or play a Mishra's Bauble or hit somebody with a Surgical Extraction. It's not as tough as one might think. Now, it may not transform until turn 4 or 5, but that means it'll be easier to Snapcaster Mage into something sooner or play other control cards. There's lots of good things this card can do by accelerating you a mana one turn early. I think control decks ought to play one, maybe two.
Yeah, but if all the stuff you're putting in the yard is cantrips, then you're still going to have a full grip plus be ahead on lands.
EDIT: And if they want to waste their Abrupt Decay on that rather than whatever your threat is, awesome. Let 'em.
Ha! I knew it! Good to see Opt back in the mix now.