Hey guys. I'm not a Modern player so please take anything I have to say with a grain of salt.
So the current meta is very very aggressive and is very hostile towards new strategies. Tons of burn, aggro, and graveyard strategies.
While aggro and combo are having a great time, control variants are currently suffering and really can't keep up with the fast pace of everyone else. In fact, if you're control you pretty much have to find a way to cast Terminus - and it's usually JTMS. Oh and of course you run Teferi.
Do you think this is a healthy metagame? Is there a way to change it or make it better? I'd like to diversify things a little bit and find some answers to stuff which has been getting linear.
To be clear, I'm offering discussion. I'm not trying to argue which meta is best, I'd just like to read some opinions from the community.
This is one of the more classic cards I remember to deal with these kinds of metas. Cheap, deals with most current threats, and most importantly exiles - getting rid of a ton of graveyard-recursive creatures. Why don't I see top decks abusing it?
Most well-performing decks nowadays like to spam a ton of spells, like Izzet Phoenix and Grixis Death's Shadow. Cards like Ethersworn Canonist, Spirit of the Labyrinth might slow them down and decrease their early power. Thalia is run in Humans and I'm sure she's great. I know they're all very fragile bodies, but I've heard that the current meta really doesn't run enough spot removal, and this might abuse that weakness. Why don't I see this deck more?
As a side note, Linvala, Azorius Renegade seems like a great Humans card vs Delve (Hollow One, Death's Shadow), Jund's BBE, and Tron's scary walkers.
Believe me, I've continuously heard that she is a TERRIBLE card. Yes, I know she is very very narrow. But she's a cheap planeswalker that exiles graveyards and gets rid of cheap permanents, so I decided to take a closer look. I've looked at the top decks on MTGGoldfish and compared how she might fare against them.
BTW, if this seems familiar, it's because I've posted this analysis on the Orzhov control thread.
Good Matchups:
They are looking to establish a board with KCI, Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever and the like. In turn, Kaya can get rid of most of their early artifacts, the most important being Pyrite Spellbomb, Mox Opal, and Engineered Explosives. Keep in mind that the removal is exile, so exiling their Spellbomb means that they can't get their combo off. KCI is now banned, so this is somewhat irrelevant. However I won't be surprised if another lantern deck surfaces, so this analysis might be relevant to that.
Kaya is actually pretty good here. Exiling instants and sorceries means that they can't Snap them to cast them again, or exile them for Angler's delve. Exiling Street Wraith gives us life, which is relevant in the matchup. And, of course, Kaya can very effectively deal with the all-star himself.
Looking at their sideboard we have 1 more relevant card to remove in the form of Grim Lavamancer, if they do slot it in.
Here Kaya's +1 is king. They have a ton of creatures for her to exile and gain life from, and disabling their dredgeengines can be crippling to their deck. Exiling Conflagrate is also very relevant to prevent the flashback from happening. Finally, to top it off, we can even get rid of their Shriekhorn to prevent them from running through their deck.
Kaya actually has a ton of stuff which she can remove vs this deck with her -1. The list is: Amulet of Vigor, Engineered Explosives, Walking Ballista, Sakura-Tribe Scout, Skyshroud Ranger. If we use a board wipe, most of these are creatures for her to gain us life with. However she becomes absolutely useless when they get their threats on the board, so our goal with her is to slow them down as much as possible and delay so we can find our answers, and I feel she's actually quite servicable at that.
The good news is that Kaya can kill almost half their deck with her -1, and give us lifegain from 1/3 of their deck with her +1. The bad news is that those that she can't are pretty high priority - Arcbound Ravager and Inkmoth Nexus. However, I do feel like since we're in BW we have plenty of cards that will be able to take care of those cards instead.
Also, their sideboard is highly relevant for her. They have Pithing Needle which can shut her down, but if they don't name her with it she can kill it, which is valuable. Grafidgger's Cage also shuts down our Lingering Souls and she can kill it.
Kaya is surprisingly relevant here. They have plenty of relevant creatures for us to exile from their graveyard, the most important being Bloodghast and Flamewake Phoenix, and exiling stuff from their yard is good in general to prevent Gurmag Angler and Tasigur from hitting the field. She can also get rid of their early Flameblade Adept which is important. The lifegain she gives us can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Looking at their sideboard, relevant things she can remove are Engineered Explosives and Grim Lavamancer.
Bad Matchups:
The monster deck that needs an answer. Admittedly Kaya does less than I'd hoped vs it - Drake doesn't care if the instants and sorceries get exiled, and there are no permanents Kaya can kill. However if the opponent is foolish enough to leave a Phoenix or Jump-Start card in the yard vs you, Kaya can get rid of it and even gain you life, which is very relevant in the matchup.
Kaya can exile Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear, but her lifegain probably won't be relevant since most of their graveyard will be noncreature spells. Her ultimate could gain us some life if we reach it, but she will most likely be killed by burn before then. Still, taking both a creature and a burn spell from them might be enough to help win the matchup.
Kaya takes care of three high priority targets which are Champion, Hierarch, and Vial. Also, her +1 will pretty much always give us lifegain. However, I feel like she is much too vulnerable to their other creatures. If we can protect her and use her +1 to try and keep stabilizing she will net us a sizable amount of lifegain, but I feel like that is a nigh impossible mission with all their threats.
Very similar to Humans. The deck has the same targets for her to kill with her -1, and just as much creatures to benefit from with her +1, but ultimately it's not enough of a defense, especially once Drogskol Captain resolves.
The deck that controls the game better than this deck does. Kaya can kill their small artifacts, most importantly Expedition Map, as well as Wurmcoil Engine tokens and Walking Ballista, but other than that she is completely useless here and will most likely be sided out.
Kaya can't really interact with spells on the stack, so she isn't useful here which isn't surprising. The best she can hope to do is exile stuff that we don't want them to reuse with Past in Flames, but that is way too minor of an effect to help in the matchup.
Admittedly I thought she was better in this matchup, but once I looked at the decklist I saw she really couldn't contribute much. She can kill Kalitas's tokens and shrink their Goyf, but that is too narrow of an effect and not much of a defense. If they do discard creatures to their LOTV, though, we can net some life out of it.
Similar to Jund. We can still shrink their Goyf, and we can eat cards in graveyard with her before their Ooze does or before Liliana, the Last Hope brings them back. Otherwise she's a dead card.
They have an Engineered Explosives and Nihil Spellbomb in sideboard, but that doesn't matter.
Also worth mentioning is that her ulti synergizes with these: Surgical Extraction / Extirpate - can shut down Dredge and Phoenix, and maybe help against storm.
Path to Exile - our lord and savior.
All things considered, I still think Kaya can be, at the very least, a solid sideboard in the current meta.
This one might be a surprise, many of you might even go look up the card since it's so niche. I agree that it's extremely conditional, but it feels like it might be an OK sideboard card.
The key with this card is to abuse the wording on the powerful cheated-into-play creatures of the current meta, on cards that do not state that "you may" put the creature into play, and currently plenty of decks have those. Arclight Phoenix, Prized Amalgam, Vengevine, Collected Company. Maybe there are more that I'm not aware of.
Even when the cards do say "you may", like Bloodghast, Narcomeba, AEther Vial, Flamewake Phoenix, etc., you can flash this card to delay their tempo and cantrip, so that you will find an actual solution.
So that's enough from me! Feel free to correct me if I made any mistakes (which I likely did). I still feel like even in the worst case there's something to talk about. What do you guys think?
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So the current meta is very very aggressive and is very hostile towards new strategies. Tons of burn, aggro, and graveyard strategies.
While aggro and combo are having a great time, control variants are currently suffering and really can't keep up with the fast pace of everyone else. In fact, if you're control you pretty much have to find a way to cast Terminus - and it's usually JTMS. Oh and of course you run Teferi.
Do you think this is a healthy metagame? Is there a way to change it or make it better? I'd like to diversify things a little bit and find some answers to stuff which has been getting linear.
To be clear, I'm offering discussion. I'm not trying to argue which meta is best, I'd just like to read some opinions from the community.
As a side note, Linvala, Azorius Renegade seems like a great Humans card vs Delve (Hollow One, Death's Shadow), Jund's BBE, and Tron's scary walkers.
BTW, if this seems familiar, it's because I've posted this analysis on the Orzhov control thread.
Good Matchups:
KCI is now banned, so this is somewhat irrelevant. However I won't be surprised if another lantern deck surfaces, so this analysis might be relevant to that.
Looking at their sideboard we have 1 more relevant card to remove in the form of Grim Lavamancer, if they do slot it in.
Also, their sideboard is highly relevant for her. They have Pithing Needle which can shut her down, but if they don't name her with it she can kill it, which is valuable. Grafidgger's Cage also shuts down our Lingering Souls and she can kill it.
Looking at their sideboard, relevant things she can remove are Engineered Explosives and Grim Lavamancer.
Bad Matchups:
They have an Engineered Explosives and Nihil Spellbomb in sideboard, but that doesn't matter.
Surgical Extraction / Extirpate - can shut down Dredge and Phoenix, and maybe help against storm.
Path to Exile - our lord and savior.
All things considered, I still think Kaya can be, at the very least, a solid sideboard in the current meta.
The key with this card is to abuse the wording on the powerful cheated-into-play creatures of the current meta, on cards that do not state that "you may" put the creature into play, and currently plenty of decks have those. Arclight Phoenix, Prized Amalgam, Vengevine, Collected Company. Maybe there are more that I'm not aware of.
Even when the cards do say "you may", like Bloodghast, Narcomeba, AEther Vial, Flamewake Phoenix, etc., you can flash this card to delay their tempo and cantrip, so that you will find an actual solution.
So that's enough from me! Feel free to correct me if I made any mistakes (which I likely did). I still feel like even in the worst case there's something to talk about. What do you guys think?