Those 'free wins' are what determine are the best decks in the format however. 'Fair Magic' is not what most high end players look for in a deck. This was commonly being discussed on twitter months and months ago.
this is the core of my issue.
Modern needs to be less broken Imo. Otherwise it's a Game of who can play the more broken deck.
Is thoughtsieze broken? No
Is snappy broken? No
Is Bolt broken? No
Push? No
Is a turn 2-3 1 mana 8/8 broken? Yes
Is a turn 3 karn broken? Yes
Is dumping your entire affinity hand pretty much making it impossible for the opponent to catch up broken? Yes
Is a Turn 2 tks or reality smasher broken? Yes
Is a turn 4 grapeshot lethal broken? Hell yes
People will say: but it's a small percentage that happens.
But combined with all the decks it happens more than I feel is healthy. Not to mention highroll magic is not a test of skill but rather a test of luck in which you pretty much auto lose that game no matter how good the answers are.
Well, yeah if they could make modern less broken we would probably all be happier. The trouble is that they basically can't without invalidating everyones current multi-hundred dollar deck that is literally only propped up by the fact that they have some metric of performance.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Given the system limitations wotc has to deal with I'm surprised that interactive decks even exist in Modern competition.
I've said it before, competitive magic is about going for the throat. There is no time or point to worrying about interacting with the opponents field or spells unless doing so actively furthers your board state. There aren't a lot of opportunities in modern where slowing the advancement of an opponents board is better than advancing ones own, and now with more etb creatures we've now gone to just advancing the board while coincidentally interacting with the opponent.
While combo decks like storm are by their nature not interactive, I can't say something like reflector mage or meddling mage is much better with how those ultimately function. Wotc can't print a spell strong enough to beat the value gained from some of these creatures, really.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
To be frank, the problem with interactivity in magic is largely a result of the core rules set with phases and how combat works. The forefathers of the game stuck with a single combat phase and unidirectional attacks and blocks as it is a simple and easy to understand system. Today, people are exposed to game systems far more early on and can handle more flexible and loose interaction systems. Wizards has tried to ape other games by introducing fight cards, but they can't easily transition to a phaseless system such as those found in Force of will and some bushi-road titles.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I actually got a beef with people calling linear decks bad for the format. The fact is that linear decks are where every person starts when building a magic deck. When people were first building Merfolk the obvious goal was to just fill the board with a glut of lords and steamroll, but as the deck evolved people put in new lines of play via cards with non-linear abilities, sacrificing power for card draw, counter magic, etc. Then we had Aether Vial join in to push the deck further along with the tribal block of Lorwyn / Shadowmoor. This is just going into merfolk and not even talking about the evolution of Jund and burn. Linear decks showing up that are not necessarily heavily established are a sign of growth, not necessarily a sign of a design flaw.
The T1 and T2 decks we see today should be considered the chronicles of modern magic history, to be frank.
They are bad, when its the best way to play.
I agree with you, if the deck doesn't evolve into something more and just stagnates because the power of the linear play is just so good there isn't a reason to move things forward, then its a bad thing. Queue a giant rant on how parasitic mechanics like infect are a mistake and they should be designing things that work with existing mechanics. That or they just plug up their ears and make brick counters or have that entire deal with eldrazi happen again. Also now I'm imagining a future where they make TKS, and when I say that I'm talking Thought-Knot Sliver...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I actually got a beef with people calling linear decks bad for the format. The fact is that linear decks are where every person starts when building a magic deck. When people were first building Merfolk the obvious goal was to just fill the board with a glut of lords and steamroll, but as the deck evolved people put in new lines of play via cards with non-linear abilities, sacrificing power for card draw, counter magic, etc. Then we had Aether Vial join in to push the deck further along with the tribal block of Lorwyn / Shadowmoor. This is just going into merfolk and not even talking about the evolution of Jund and burn. Linear decks showing up that are not necessarily heavily established are a sign of growth, not necessarily a sign of a design flaw.
The T1 and T2 decks we see today should be considered the chronicles of modern magic history, to be frank.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm super ambivalent. On the one hand, it's great Wizards is taking the formats seriously and identifying a need for a play design specialist in those areas. And Tom is definitely experienced in both formats. On the other hand, Tom has made some very worrying ban suggestions over the last 1-2 years and although I know play design isn't responsible for bannings, it makes me question his judgment. In one particularly heinous June 2016 article, he predicted a Nahiri ban within 6 months. He also thought AV and Sword were en route for big Modern finishes. Early this year he talked about Monastery Mentor being well-positioned in Modern, and he predicted Storm would be the top post-Miracles Legacy deck. Some big misses there for the single Modern/Legacy specialist on play design. Makes me nervous, but I hope I'm proven wrong.
Considering how long it takes to get an urban going that doesn't sound promising. Not to mention we may be looking at an even more depressing standard if every Modern viable card is getting filtered twice.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
\I don't think Punishing Fire would be as bad in the current meta as it was when it first was a menace, though.
Fatal Push AND punishing fire? Sure. Why play decks like Death and Taxes, Abzan Company, Affnity or Merfolk anymore? There really is no reason at all.
Oh, I said it was (probably) a hard pass on unbanning any of the spells on that ban list. I love punishing fire as a casual player, but stick that in a tournament and now we just have the three ring circus with the clown cars coming in. At this point, though, we're already at a point where 2 toughness creatures are being suppressed and creatures with mana costs 2 or less are being suppressed. Throwing punishing fire into the mix is going to be like throwing a couple of marshmallows on an already stacked sunday. It doesn't even matter that it's repeatable anymore, really. (Coming from someone who has been playing punishing fire with grove in 60 card casual for the last two years).
Also, fun fact: Wild Nacatl and Punishing Fire were both banned in the same banning announcement of 2011. At the time they were worried about the prevailence of zoo. Wow have we come a long way...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Does anyone think that if Wizards were to take modern out of the PT again it would impact the meta? Also, as far as BBE unbanning goes, my thought is that the only way Wizards unbans it is if they think it's a safe unban. Given the last time they unbanned something (Sword of the Meek and Golgari Grave-troll) safe basically translated to one card not having much of an impact at all and another reviving dredge. I'd like to see more powerful spell magic make a return, but given the only one I can think of is Dread Return or Punishing Fire, I think that idea may be a hard pass. I don't think Punishing Fire would be as bad in the current meta as it was when it first was a menace, though.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Huh, I forgot about Through the breach. I think I was thinking 5 drop creatures outside control builds as modern has a lot of 5 drop spells. As long as the card has an immediate impact on the field it usually is viable somewhere.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The only deck that I can think of off the top of my head that does run 5 drops in modern as the top of the curve is Soul Sisters, in large part because the lifegain lets them brute force their way to turn 5. Even then that deck sometimes feels like it plays better just comboing out with Rally the Ancestors or immortal Servitude into a couple of giant Ajani's Pridemate. That deck hasn't felt relevant for a long time in the top of the meta.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
A rotating ban list would probably drive modern players insane. It would introduce a buying / sell off pattern like they have in standard, only in this case people are diving for a limited supply of cardboard from potentially 10+ years ago. Also, the sell off pattern would be interesting because who exactly buys up modern cards that aren't modern legal? There's some cross over with Legacy and EDH, but Legacy players likely already have the copies of what they are after and EDH players are not a seriously big source of demand for MTG singles. My own opinion is that a rotation of any sort in modern would basically tank the format.
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():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Re: Chalice
The rebuttal to all these anti-Chalice arguments is that the card never sees regular play. It's like Blood Moon: it can theoretically be a knockout, but in practice, it has little format impact. There are plenty of decks that play around both cards. Indeed, THE hallmark Chalice deck of Modern (ETron) sees very little play right now, in no small part because Chalice isn't well-positioned. And no other decks really play Chalice because those decks, and Chalice itself, aren't well-positioned either. Overall, this is just another example of people picking a card they personally dislike and reframing it as a format problem.
It's more a case that modern is a format characterized by a lot of powerful cards that alter how the game itself plays. It's one of the weaknesses the format has, which honestly isn't that bad considering it does let people play hypothetically the largest variety of strategies of any format. After playing a format that doesn't have these strong hate cards I don't think people quite realize how important they are, as the new "soft answer" strategy adopted by wizards in more recent sets aren't really effective. That's why I posted earlier that I'd rather see something like a fixed version of certain hate cards get reprinted first before any kind of ban happens, assuming wizards would even do that.
The way I'm envisioning this would go down is that wizards would print a fixed hate card of say Chalice of the Void, people talk it down, then they ban Chalice of the Void and every modern deck builder suddenly gets that uplifting feeling of not being oppressed by it. Then everyone starts seeing a lot of linear deck strategies start popping up on MTGO and eventually in the paper game until the new hate card gets adopted. Not saying this would absolutely happen, but I've seen it in other types of games like MOBAs that have a similar competitive nature. It's reasons like that why I doubt wizards would ever ban Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void, etc, even if they printed a fixed version.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
...Billion, Chalice is barely relevant in the format right now
The meta is cyclical. It will come back.
Also, others apparently agree with me as it was the 2nd most suggested card for banning during the last poll behind Eldrazi Temple
I agree with you on Chalice. The problem is that it just passively sits there and warps the game around it at potentially a very early point in the game. It also can make games turn into a coin flip where it's all about whether chalice lands or not, which is also why I don't like leylines. However, at least with the Leyline of Sanctity, it's a bit of a high variance affair since usually someone isn't running 4x of them, they are bad in multiples, and if one doesn't get it in their opening hand it comes down kind of late.
I normally stay out of this thread, but I have to disagree here. As uncomfortable to play against as Chalice may be, it's critical for allowing fair decks to exist in the format. In my experience, Chalice is most effective against decks that go all in on a combo. It primarily acts as a safety gauge on decks like Storm, or UG Infect. Those sorts of combo decks are usually unable to answer a Chalice in Game 1, and must dilute their gameplan to answer it or lose outright. Basically, when this card starts showing up in most deck lists, it's a signal that the format has gotten too fast and linear. Bannings are likely to follow. Value based decks get to run things like Abrupt Decay, Cyclonic Rift, Spell Snare, Engineered Explosives, Kolaghans's Command, etc. etc. to answer it. If you're unable to play around Chalice because of how all of your interaction is 1 cmc or whatever- that's on you as a deckbuilder. The only edge case where Chalice could be considered a problem IMO is Turn 1 Chalice on 1, and even then I still think there are enough answers available to answer it.
So you view the card as more of an alarm bell? Fair enough. I'm more on board with having broad answers be a bit softer and not so strict. I still feel Rule of Law is too slow as a soft answer and would rather have something like Chalice that can only hit turn 2 minimum.
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():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
...Billion, Chalice is barely relevant in the format right now
The meta is cyclical. It will come back.
Also, others apparently agree with me as it was the 2nd most suggested card for banning during the last poll behind Eldrazi Temple
I agree with you on Chalice. The problem is that it just passively sits there and warps the game around it at potentially a very early point in the game. It also can make games turn into a coin flip where it's all about whether chalice lands or not, which is also why I don't like leylines. However, at least with the Leyline of Sanctity, it's a bit of a high variance affair since usually someone isn't running 4x of them, they are bad in multiples, and if one doesn't get it in their opening hand it comes down kind of late.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Anyone who is so jaded by a single bad year of Modern (2016) that they can't see any positives in 2017 is probably just looking for an axe to grind.
Not everyone's 2017 has been all sunshine and rainbows.
You don't have to enjoy Modern now or at any future time period. In fact, I don't think Modern is the format for you. Based on what you have said about matchup variance, sideboard slots, blue control, and a certain preferred type of gameplay, Legacy is almost definitely a better format for you. See Jadine's excellent article today for more on this and the different skills required in Modern.
That said, you do have to be open to how Modern is very healthy by non-cfusion standards. It's the difference between saying "I don't like Modern" (totally fair but you don't really say this) and "Modern is objectively bad" (this is not even defensible today and is mostly what you say). You keep repeating the same tired anti-Modern arguments even as the format's finishes/events no longer support those kinds of criticisms. They were true in 2016. 2016 kinda sucked. But they are untrue today and have been untrue for most of 2017.
Eh, Modern being good from a design standpoint or fun to play? I'll agree with the latter, but oh dear lord lets not start going into the former. I used to play Palladium Books Rifts with their megaverse mashup of different gameplay rule sets and core books coming from two different versions of the game, yet somehow material from all the books still ended up being perfectly applicable and legal in the current game. Modern is like that in many respects.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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Well, yeah if they could make modern less broken we would probably all be happier. The trouble is that they basically can't without invalidating everyones current multi-hundred dollar deck that is literally only propped up by the fact that they have some metric of performance.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I've said it before, competitive magic is about going for the throat. There is no time or point to worrying about interacting with the opponents field or spells unless doing so actively furthers your board state. There aren't a lot of opportunities in modern where slowing the advancement of an opponents board is better than advancing ones own, and now with more etb creatures we've now gone to just advancing the board while coincidentally interacting with the opponent.
While combo decks like storm are by their nature not interactive, I can't say something like reflector mage or meddling mage is much better with how those ultimately function. Wotc can't print a spell strong enough to beat the value gained from some of these creatures, really.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I agree with you, if the deck doesn't evolve into something more and just stagnates because the power of the linear play is just so good there isn't a reason to move things forward, then its a bad thing. Queue a giant rant on how parasitic mechanics like infect are a mistake and they should be designing things that work with existing mechanics. That or they just plug up their ears and make brick counters or have that entire deal with eldrazi happen again. Also now I'm imagining a future where they make TKS, and when I say that I'm talking Thought-Knot Sliver...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The T1 and T2 decks we see today should be considered the chronicles of modern magic history, to be frank.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Considering how long it takes to get an urban going that doesn't sound promising. Not to mention we may be looking at an even more depressing standard if every Modern viable card is getting filtered twice.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Oh, I said it was (probably) a hard pass on unbanning any of the spells on that ban list. I love punishing fire as a casual player, but stick that in a tournament and now we just have the three ring circus with the clown cars coming in. At this point, though, we're already at a point where 2 toughness creatures are being suppressed and creatures with mana costs 2 or less are being suppressed. Throwing punishing fire into the mix is going to be like throwing a couple of marshmallows on an already stacked sunday. It doesn't even matter that it's repeatable anymore, really.
Also, fun fact: Wild Nacatl and Punishing Fire were both banned in the same banning announcement of 2011. At the time they were worried about the prevailence of zoo. Wow have we come a long way...
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
It's more a case that modern is a format characterized by a lot of powerful cards that alter how the game itself plays. It's one of the weaknesses the format has, which honestly isn't that bad considering it does let people play hypothetically the largest variety of strategies of any format. After playing a format that doesn't have these strong hate cards I don't think people quite realize how important they are, as the new "soft answer" strategy adopted by wizards in more recent sets aren't really effective. That's why I posted earlier that I'd rather see something like a fixed version of certain hate cards get reprinted first before any kind of ban happens, assuming wizards would even do that.
The way I'm envisioning this would go down is that wizards would print a fixed hate card of say Chalice of the Void, people talk it down, then they ban Chalice of the Void and every modern deck builder suddenly gets that uplifting feeling of not being oppressed by it. Then everyone starts seeing a lot of linear deck strategies start popping up on MTGO and eventually in the paper game until the new hate card gets adopted. Not saying this would absolutely happen, but I've seen it in other types of games like MOBAs that have a similar competitive nature. It's reasons like that why I doubt wizards would ever ban Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void, etc, even if they printed a fixed version.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
So you view the card as more of an alarm bell? Fair enough. I'm more on board with having broad answers be a bit softer and not so strict. I still feel Rule of Law is too slow as a soft answer and would rather have something like Chalice that can only hit turn 2 minimum.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I agree with you on Chalice. The problem is that it just passively sits there and warps the game around it at potentially a very early point in the game. It also can make games turn into a coin flip where it's all about whether chalice lands or not, which is also why I don't like leylines. However, at least with the Leyline of Sanctity, it's a bit of a high variance affair since usually someone isn't running 4x of them, they are bad in multiples, and if one doesn't get it in their opening hand it comes down kind of late.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Eh, Modern being good from a design standpoint or fun to play? I'll agree with the latter, but oh dear lord lets not start going into the former. I used to play Palladium Books Rifts with their megaverse mashup of different gameplay rule sets and core books coming from two different versions of the game, yet somehow material from all the books still ended up being perfectly applicable and legal in the current game. Modern is like that in many respects.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!