I have a very simple and straightforward idea to fix Modern: Wizards, stop messing with the friggin format! Why not just let Modern to be self-regulating format like Legacy. And for the record, neither of my decks were affected by the recent announcement (no, Wild Nacatl doesn't count, I am not upgrading my Gruul Zoo deck to Naya Zoo), and I am concerned about the direction of where the format is going. Wizards claims that they "want to leave room for innovation." However, what ends happening is that whenever a deck becomes too successful, then oh no, Wizards feels like they have to intervene to keep things diverse, whatever the heck that means. So, Wizards, please just leave the friggin format alone. You are doing more harm than good.
I do agree, but WotC doesn't want Modern to be self-regulating format like Legacy. Modern may be a non-rotating, non-eternal format but the ban list is Modern's version of rotation.
The thing is, the format then has to deal with an undertone of fear. I just spent months trading and buying to make a deck I have gotten 3 weeks worth of play out of. I feel very uncomfortable with the format now and I was having fun.
If you keep pruning a hedge, you run the risk of killing off the best parts of it. Sometimes you have to let it grow.
I have a very simple and straightforward idea to fix Modern: Wizards, stop messing with the friggin format!. Why not just let Modern to be self-regulating format like Legacy. And for the record, neither of my decks were affected by the recent announcement (no, Wild Nacatl doesn't count, I am not upgrading my Gruul Zoo deck to Naya Zoo), and I am concerned about the direction of where the format is going. Wizards claims that they "want to leave room for innovation." However, what ends happening is that whenever a deck becomes too successful, then oh no, Wizards feels like they have to intervene to keep things diverse, whatever the heck that means. So, Wizards, please just leave the friggin format alone. You are doing more harm than good.
modern is still a very young format less than 3 years if I'm correct, legacy it took years before the unbanning of cards like entomb, land tax, and dream halls. Wizards wants this format to succeed because of the reserve list. now if it weren't for the reserve list we likely would still have "old" extended and have sets like Legacy masters but because of the knee-jerk reaction by wizards from collectors we have to settle with Modern. so be patient. also one thing if people would stop playing the same damn deck (jund I'm looking at you) wizards likely wouldn't have had to ban DRS. In other words: we need more rogue decks in Modern tourneys. seems to me its essentially: affinity, jund, tron, Scapeshift. I'm a player that cant stand to run the same deck as someone else, but I do understand why but at least put your own personal touch on the deck to make it your own or something. I'm brewing up a naya metal-craft deck. SO many possible decks out there that have yet to be realized if people actually studied the card pool of the format.
Modern is designed for people who can't afford Legacy but don't want to play Standard. Ideally these are players who have a solid amount of money (maybe $300-700) and want something that they don't have to worry about rotating tomorrow. That's the whole reason they shift from Standard, because it doesn't rotate and their investment lasts a long time.
Now what happens in actuality is the format shifts frequently. Wizards wants to balance the format completely, so despite it not rotating, cards shift in and out of the format. Nacatl went out and is back in. In recent times we saw Seething Song move Storm out of the format, Second Sunrise move Eggs out of the format, and Deathrite Shaman get banned, making Jund overall weaker. So people get scared and think, "oh jeez, what if I buy a deck and then Wizards bans a card", and then you just have a bunch of people who are scared to invest in the format.
What Wizards needs to do with this format is to just reprint cards. There are several cards they can reprint and add to the format in order to balance it. It puts the power level higher but at some point they'll probably need to concede that banning cards isn't the right way to go. Or they could actually print a proper MM2 and actually accomplish their goal of making product more accessible. More Goyfs in the world != easier for me to obtain.
At least they're at a point where we agree the ban list doesn't need new cards. All they wanted to do was ban combo that won before turn 4, and then Deathrite Shaman was a mistake we've been asking them to ban basically since it was printed. So for now I think it's going to end up stable.
PS. To be fair, Deathrite Shaman left little room for innovation. It's why I am pro DRS banned. It hates out way too many decks (read: all grave-based decks). The only competitive one that survived was Melira Pod, and they basically cut most of the combo to play random cards just for value, or get their Archangel + Spike Feeder combo.
Modern is designed for people who can't afford Legacy but don't want to play Standard. Ideally these are players who have a solid amount of money (maybe $300-700) and want something that they don't have to worry about rotating tomorrow. That's the whole reason they shift from Standard, because it doesn't rotate and their investment lasts a long time.
Now what happens in actuality is the format shifts frequently. Wizards wants to balance the format completely, so despite it not rotating, cards shift in and out of the format. Nacatl went out and is back in. In recent times we saw Seething Song move Storm out of the format, Second Sunrise move Eggs out of the format, and Deathrite Shaman get banned, making Jund overall weaker. So people get scared and think, "oh jeez, what if I buy a deck and then Wizards bans a card", and then you just have a bunch of people who are scared to invest in the format.
What Wizards needs to do with this format is to just reprint cards. There are several cards they can reprint and add to the format in order to balance it. It puts the power level higher but at some point they'll probably need to concede that banning cards isn't the right way to go. Or they could actually print a proper MM2 and actually accomplish their goal of making product more accessible. More Goyfs in the world != easier for me to obtain.
At least they're at a point where we agree the ban list doesn't need new cards. All they wanted to do was ban combo that won before turn 4, and then Deathrite Shaman was a mistake we've been asking them to ban basically since it was printed. So for now I think it's going to end up stable.
PS. To be fair, Deathrite Shaman left little room for innovation. It's why I am pro DRS banned. It hates out way too many decks (read: all grave-based decks). The only competitive one that survived was Melira Pod, and they basically cut most of the combo to play random cards just for value, or get their Archangel + Spike Feeder combo.
Graveyard decks disappearing is Scavenging Ooze's fault, not Deathrite Shaman's. Also, Living End was still around.
I'm pretty sure you make these posts just to stoke the fire.
There is nothing wrong with the Modern format. Just because you and some other people are butthurt that they messed with your deck does not make the format suck. Get over it. People pissed and moaned when BBE was banned saying that Jund was dead and it ended up being just fine. How about adapt your deck rather than have the sky is falling mentality and throw in the towel. It's not Wizards fault that you guys can't look past a ban to see other possibilities. I'm tired of seeing these worthless outrage posts because a single card was banned.
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Modern xWBreakfast at Urza'sxW UWGBantUWG GWRNaya ZooRWG
I'm pretty sure you make these posts just to stoke the fire.
There is nothing wrong with the Modern format. Just because you and some other people are butthurt that they messed with your deck does not make the format suck. Get over it. People pissed and moaned when BBE was banned saying that Jund was dead and it ended up being just fine. How about adapt your deck rather than have the sky is falling mentality and throw in the towel. It's not Wizards fault that you guys can't look past a ban to see other possibilities. I'm tired of seeing these worthless outrage posts because a single card was banned.
You missed the part where I said that neither of my decks were affected by the ban/unban. Both of these decks will do just fine. It's just that I don't want this format to be defined by micromanagement from Wizards, unlike Legacy, which is a self-correcting format.
Problem is that Legacy's what it is because it's a format that spans everything from Alpha to now and is defined by a bunch of mistake cards that happen to antagonize each other into a cold war standoff.
Modern is not that format.
It may one day be that format, but it's too young to be it now. You can't get a fire going without stoking the embers.
Problem is that Legacy's what it is because it's a format that spans everything from Alpha to now and is defined by a bunch of mistake cards that happen to antagonize each other into a cold war standoff.
Modern is not that format.
It may one day be that format, but it's too young to be it now. You can't get a fire going without stoking the embers.
To be fair, I'm sure that Mental Misstep regulating broken combo decks would have worked. It just wouldn't be the Modern we all know and usually love.
Graveyard decks disappearing is Scavenging Ooze's fault, not Deathrite Shaman's. Also, Living End was still around.
Normally I agree with you, but that statement is categorically and demonstrably wrong. Perhaps pure Graveyard decks disappeared with Scavenging Ooze, but there was a year between the printing of Deathrite and the introduction of Ooze to the format. Loam, Knight of the Reliquary, Classic Rock with Retrace spells in general, dedicated gifts decks (reanimator, tron, storm, and 4-color) all vanished or were relegated to the farthest fringes of the format. RUG Delver, in part because of Abrupt Decay and in part because of the reach/Snapcaster hate Deathrite provided main, also faded away at this time. Living End, which had earlier been a pretty legitimate contender for tier 1, got hit hard. For some reason, having half the tier 1 of the format running 4 of a 1-mana hate card maindeck that also fixed their mana, accelerated them, provided reach and gained life made Graveyard decks a pretty tough sell long before Ooze was in Modern.
EDIT: And I agree, free Bloodbraid Elf, but can we at least free Golgari Grave-troll first? It's embarassing, having that card on the banned list.
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Graveyard decks disappearing is Scavenging Ooze's fault, not Deathrite Shaman's. Also, Living End was still around.
Normally I agree with you, but that statement is categorically and demonstrably wrong. Perhaps pure Graveyard decks disappeared with Scavenging Ooze, but there was a year between the printing of Deathrite and the introduction of Ooze to the format. Loam, Knight of the Reliquary, Classic Rock with Retrace spells in general, dedicated gifts decks (reanimator, tron, storm, and 4-color) all vanished or were relegated to the farthest fringes of the format. RUG Delver, in part because of Abrupt Decay and in part because of the reach/Snapcaster hate Deathrite provided main, also faded away at this time. Living End, which had earlier been a pretty legitimate contender for tier 1, got hit hard. For some reason, having half the tier 1 of the format running 4 of a 1-mana hate card maindeck that also fixed their mana, accelerated them, provided reach and gained life made Graveyard decks a pretty tough sell long before Ooze was in Modern.
Storm was the second best deck until the Seething Song ban, so DRS didn't kill it. Even after that it was still Tier 2 until Scavenging Ooze got printed. Also, I seem to recall Living End making Top 2 and almost winning a Grand Prix after Scavenging Ooze was printed and then having multiple Top 8 decks afterwards.
EDIT: And I agree, free Bloodbraid Elf, but can we at least free Golgari Grave-troll first? It's embarassing, having that card on the banned list.
Agreed, but I am going to say Free Bloodbraid Elf in every one of my posts until it is unbanned, regardless of the topic.
I have a very simple and straightforward idea to fix Modern: Wizards, stop messing with the friggin format! Why not just let Modern to be self-regulating format like Legacy.
Because Modern is not legacy? If you want to play a self-regulating format, there is a format for that.
And for the record, neither of my decks were affected by the recent announcement (no, Wild Nacatl doesn't count, I am not upgrading my Gruul Zoo deck to Naya Zoo), and I am concerned about the direction of where the format is going.
Why? Where is the format going?
Wizards claims that they "want to leave room for innovation." However, what ends happening is that whenever a deck becomes too successful, then oh no, Wizards feels like they have to intervene to keep things diverse, whatever the heck that means. So, Wizards, please just leave the friggin format alone. You are doing more harm than good.
What harm is WotC doing? Is their long standing tradition of removing entire sets from standard harming that format?
You say WotC is harming something but have yet to say what harm it's doing nor have you stated what your idea is fixing.
Storm, with Seething Song, was just too fast of a deck for it to care about DRS. It had good consistency and could just run through DRS activation. It was like 12.5% of the meta then, that was pretty significant I think. It just had a ton of raw power and we were seeing it. Especially when they printed Electromancer the deck just went to another level. DRS certainly made their Jund matchup harder but it was a solid matchup in the first place for them. They played it after Seething Song got banned, but that was almost nobody playing it. I remember an event where Jon Finkel, Tom Martell, and Owen Turtenwald all played it. IIRC, Finkel top 16'd. That was the last I ever saw of it. Ooze was more of a nail in the coffin for anyone that wanted to fringe play it.
I remember Assault Loam completely disappearing after Deathrite Shaman came out. It was a tier 1 deck and then "poof", never heard of again. The option to remove Punishing Fire or Raven's Crime to limit to 1 activation, or even the Loam itself, was just too powerful. It died well before Ooze was a thing.
Living End is a deck I personally will never get how it ever does well. I think the deck isn't very strong. It got piloted to a second place finish buy someone who was clearly luckier than he was good, considering the way he lost the tournament. I'd rather be lucky than good. Living End for that specific tournament wasn't a bad choice if you consider what the meta was like. Jund wasn't at an all-time high, and basically everyone was opting out of grave hate. He probably won more g2s than he would have a few months prior simply because people elected not to hate him out. Even now, I don't play nearly as much grave hate. I used to auto put 2 Relic/Cage but now it's like "do I even want to?"
I admit, I played UW Tron after Deathrite came out. Then again, I was playing a Tron deck against Jund. Any game I didn't see Deathrite I could grave-based win on turn 4, and any game I did I could just stall out to Emrakul. What made me pack it in was that every game I saw turn 3 Geist.
I think they should have just stuck with the unbanning. I would like to see modern have a zero card banned list.
That is one of the stupidest ideas that I have ever heard on here (no offense intended. I am not trying to flame here). You do realize that Skullclamp would be Modern-legal then right? The card that is too powerful even for Legacy and in a much more creature-based format? Even if you remove the turn 4 rule and let Mental Misstep police the format, Skullclamp can NEVER come off.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I do agree, but WotC doesn't want Modern to be self-regulating format like Legacy. Modern may be a non-rotating, non-eternal format but the ban list is Modern's version of rotation.
If you keep pruning a hedge, you run the risk of killing off the best parts of it. Sometimes you have to let it grow.
Current decks of choice:
Vintage: Shops.
Legacy: Lands.
Modern: Lantern.
modern is still a very young format less than 3 years if I'm correct, legacy it took years before the unbanning of cards like entomb, land tax, and dream halls. Wizards wants this format to succeed because of the reserve list. now if it weren't for the reserve list we likely would still have "old" extended and have sets like Legacy masters but because of the knee-jerk reaction by wizards from collectors we have to settle with Modern. so be patient. also one thing if people would stop playing the same damn deck (jund I'm looking at you) wizards likely wouldn't have had to ban DRS. In other words: we need more rogue decks in Modern tourneys. seems to me its essentially: affinity, jund, tron, Scapeshift. I'm a player that cant stand to run the same deck as someone else, but I do understand why but at least put your own personal touch on the deck to make it your own or something. I'm brewing up a naya metal-craft deck. SO many possible decks out there that have yet to be realized if people actually studied the card pool of the format.
Modern is designed for people who can't afford Legacy but don't want to play Standard. Ideally these are players who have a solid amount of money (maybe $300-700) and want something that they don't have to worry about rotating tomorrow. That's the whole reason they shift from Standard, because it doesn't rotate and their investment lasts a long time.
Now what happens in actuality is the format shifts frequently. Wizards wants to balance the format completely, so despite it not rotating, cards shift in and out of the format. Nacatl went out and is back in. In recent times we saw Seething Song move Storm out of the format, Second Sunrise move Eggs out of the format, and Deathrite Shaman get banned, making Jund overall weaker. So people get scared and think, "oh jeez, what if I buy a deck and then Wizards bans a card", and then you just have a bunch of people who are scared to invest in the format.
What Wizards needs to do with this format is to just reprint cards. There are several cards they can reprint and add to the format in order to balance it. It puts the power level higher but at some point they'll probably need to concede that banning cards isn't the right way to go. Or they could actually print a proper MM2 and actually accomplish their goal of making product more accessible. More Goyfs in the world != easier for me to obtain.
At least they're at a point where we agree the ban list doesn't need new cards. All they wanted to do was ban combo that won before turn 4, and then Deathrite Shaman was a mistake we've been asking them to ban basically since it was printed. So for now I think it's going to end up stable.
PS. To be fair, Deathrite Shaman left little room for innovation. It's why I am pro DRS banned. It hates out way too many decks (read: all grave-based decks). The only competitive one that survived was Melira Pod, and they basically cut most of the combo to play random cards just for value, or get their Archangel + Spike Feeder combo.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Graveyard decks disappearing is Scavenging Ooze's fault, not Deathrite Shaman's. Also, Living End was still around.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
There is nothing wrong with the Modern format. Just because you and some other people are butthurt that they messed with your deck does not make the format suck. Get over it. People pissed and moaned when BBE was banned saying that Jund was dead and it ended up being just fine. How about adapt your deck rather than have the sky is falling mentality and throw in the towel. It's not Wizards fault that you guys can't look past a ban to see other possibilities. I'm tired of seeing these worthless outrage posts because a single card was banned.
Modern
xWBreakfast at Urza'sxW
UWGBantUWG
GWRNaya ZooRWG
You missed the part where I said that neither of my decks were affected by the ban/unban. Both of these decks will do just fine. It's just that I don't want this format to be defined by micromanagement from Wizards, unlike Legacy, which is a self-correcting format.
Modern is not that format.
It may one day be that format, but it's too young to be it now. You can't get a fire going without stoking the embers.
To be fair, I'm sure that Mental Misstep regulating broken combo decks would have worked. It just wouldn't be the Modern we all know and usually love.
Free Bloodbraid Elf.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Normally I agree with you, but that statement is categorically and demonstrably wrong. Perhaps pure Graveyard decks disappeared with Scavenging Ooze, but there was a year between the printing of Deathrite and the introduction of Ooze to the format. Loam, Knight of the Reliquary, Classic Rock with Retrace spells in general, dedicated gifts decks (reanimator, tron, storm, and 4-color) all vanished or were relegated to the farthest fringes of the format. RUG Delver, in part because of Abrupt Decay and in part because of the reach/Snapcaster hate Deathrite provided main, also faded away at this time. Living End, which had earlier been a pretty legitimate contender for tier 1, got hit hard. For some reason, having half the tier 1 of the format running 4 of a 1-mana hate card maindeck that also fixed their mana, accelerated them, provided reach and gained life made Graveyard decks a pretty tough sell long before Ooze was in Modern.
EDIT: And I agree, free Bloodbraid Elf, but can we at least free Golgari Grave-troll first? It's embarassing, having that card on the banned list.
You may also know me as the guy in the art of Dark Confidant. No, not Bob Maher, the OTHER one.
Storm was the second best deck until the Seething Song ban, so DRS didn't kill it. Even after that it was still Tier 2 until Scavenging Ooze got printed. Also, I seem to recall Living End making Top 2 and almost winning a Grand Prix after Scavenging Ooze was printed and then having multiple Top 8 decks afterwards.
Agreed, but I am going to say Free Bloodbraid Elf in every one of my posts until it is unbanned, regardless of the topic.
Free Bloodbraid Elf.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Because Modern is not legacy? If you want to play a self-regulating format, there is a format for that.
Why? Where is the format going?
What harm is WotC doing? Is their long standing tradition of removing entire sets from standard harming that format?
You say WotC is harming something but have yet to say what harm it's doing nor have you stated what your idea is fixing.
I remember Assault Loam completely disappearing after Deathrite Shaman came out. It was a tier 1 deck and then "poof", never heard of again. The option to remove Punishing Fire or Raven's Crime to limit to 1 activation, or even the Loam itself, was just too powerful. It died well before Ooze was a thing.
Living End is a deck I personally will never get how it ever does well. I think the deck isn't very strong. It got piloted to a second place finish buy someone who was clearly luckier than he was good, considering the way he lost the tournament. I'd rather be lucky than good. Living End for that specific tournament wasn't a bad choice if you consider what the meta was like. Jund wasn't at an all-time high, and basically everyone was opting out of grave hate. He probably won more g2s than he would have a few months prior simply because people elected not to hate him out. Even now, I don't play nearly as much grave hate. I used to auto put 2 Relic/Cage but now it's like "do I even want to?"
I admit, I played UW Tron after Deathrite came out. Then again, I was playing a Tron deck against Jund. Any game I didn't see Deathrite I could grave-based win on turn 4, and any game I did I could just stall out to Emrakul. What made me pack it in was that every game I saw turn 3 Geist.
Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
The fact that they are unbanning cards really appeals to me though.
I loathe creatures! Praise Prison and Land Destruction!
My Peasant Cube (looking for feedback)
That is one of the stupidest ideas that I have ever heard on here (no offense intended. I am not trying to flame here). You do realize that Skullclamp would be Modern-legal then right? The card that is too powerful even for Legacy and in a much more creature-based format? Even if you remove the turn 4 rule and let Mental Misstep police the format, Skullclamp can NEVER come off.
Free Bloodbraid Elf.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.