Shame the software went down. Were there filler games during the downtime or am I going to have to sift through the coverage vods? I hear the CFB coverage was better than normal?
Shame the software went down. Were there filler games during the downtime or am I going to have to sift through the coverage vods?
No shifting necessary because GP Charlotte had no video coverage to begin with. Which was actually probably lucky for them considering the circumstances.
Shame the software went down. Were there filler games during the downtime or am I going to have to sift through the coverage vods? I hear the CFB coverage was better than normal?
Just saw that any idea what happened??
As far as I know their software went down causing them to have to repair everyone randomly. This made people upset so one round later they allowed people to drop and play in side events for free all weekend. 6-3 also made day 2 because of it. There is a lot better explanations in this thread and reddit if you look around.
Shame the software went down. Were there filler games during the downtime or am I going to have to sift through the coverage vods?
No shifting necessary because GP Charlotte had no video coverage to begin with. Which was actually probably lucky for them considering the circumstances.
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
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
From this statement from Wizards it sounds as if it was only in round 4 that pairings were random, and that it got back to normal (or something resembling normality) for the rest of the day.
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
55 Costantini 24 Ad Nauseam (?)
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 Ad Nauseam
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 (?)
561 Gniadek 18 White Weenie
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.
My guess is something like this. Turn 1 birds. Turn 2 stone rain. Turn ? Deus of calamity. But it could be something spicier like liquimetal coating?
It beats tron, right?
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
The RG Ponza deck. I think there is a primer on Manasource somewhere. It's a sweet deck, Blood Moon mixed with Stone Rain and Acid Moss. Seems like it could be viable.
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
I don't think so. They were showing his decklist but it was actually incomplete so I'm not a hundred percent sure. But he plays Ancestral Visions and Goblin Dark-Dwellers as well as Dreadbore main and Boom/Bust in the side, which seams like really nice tech for Tron and RG Valakut. I don't see him having room to also put in the cards you mentioned in.
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?
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
Like I said a page or two back, boring to you, fun to others. Welcome to Modern!
Titan Shift, Eldrazi, Tron, and the big-mana deck is an important part of Modern balance. Without it, controlling strategies could easily hedge their bets against both aggressive and combination decks to just be the best choice at any given event. With big-mana in the picture, especially at its current percentage, this can't happen and it is far less likely for any single deck to occupy a format-warping plurality from tournament to tournament.
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.
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.
I find this highly ironic coming from the primary defender of the Eldrazi deck pre-ban. I also don't agree with the premise. Affinity, Infect, Zoo, and Burn can all be hated very effectively and with many over-lapping cards/strategies. In fact, a good reason these decks are down right now is because Jund and Jeskai Nahiri are both popular and both have many main and side cards that hose those decks. If you had made this argument regarding fast combo decks, I may have agreed.
i think everyone's been focusing on aggro ever since the unbannings.... and the reason coco and jeskai decks got popular was becuase of their great aggro matchups...
we're at a really great point in the meta.... i think all archetypes are represented fairly equally....
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.
Sorry for sidetracking, but I found your example extremely funny to the point I just had to comment on it because when I attended my first (and still only at the moment) Modern GP last year, I faced exactly 6 burn decks out of 9 swiss rounds. I know that rationally that your example is still very unlikely, but the sheer coincidence of the exact same number just made me really literally laugh. (By the way I was running some budget version of the WB Midrange deck, so I wasn't exactly doing stellar (eventually went 4-5 but I just wanted to play all the rounds regardless), so it was not an indication of Burn's strength (in fact it probably meant plenty of Burn decks weren't faring too well either.))
Well, you're not wrong, but I wouldn't say the problem is exclusive to aggro. Had all my 6 opponents played Jund instead of Burn, I would have been equally annoyed with the lack of diversity. Even "fair and interactive" decks get boring on camera if it's all I see round after round (whether on camera or playing). The true key is diversity across all deck types - the ability to keep a format diverse by checking every archetype against each other. Sometimes the unstable nut draws from aggro/combo-Control decks are necessary to spice up games that would be a "fair, interactive but grindy snoozefest". Likewise, it's also necessary to maintain that when those decks don't get their nut draws, they are still capable of engaging in the grind long enough to possibly change the tide instead of just grinding to oblivion.
As an aggro-player for now (I'm running Affinity exclusively at the moment since I didn't build anything else), I'm admittedly more biased towards aggro. But if I had to pick a poison of lack of diversity, I would actually still prefer an aggro-infested meta not because I run aggro, but because I'm okay with the occasional nut-draw situation with the most important caveat being games ending faster - if it's going to be the same match over and over again, I'd rather it end faster than slower - the 6th Jund matchup is incredibly more frustrating than the 6th Burn matchup in my own opinion (others may differ) when I could be spending the time doing other things instead (especially at a GP, honestly).
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)
Just saw that any idea what happened??
It was pretty good, yeah.
Ah got them mixed up. That's lucky then.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Any idea of some day 2 decklists at this early stage?
I happen to know a Taking Turns list made day 2 of LA.
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?
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
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
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
55 Costantini 24 Ad Nauseam (?)
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 Ad Nauseam
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 (?)
561 Gniadek 18 White Weenie
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.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Cubetutor Peasant'ish-Funbox
Project: Khans of Tarkir Cube (cubetutor)
My guess is something like this. Turn 1 birds. Turn 2 stone rain. Turn ? Deus of calamity. But it could be something spicier like liquimetal coating?
It beats tron, right?
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Gniadek (don't remember place off the top of my head, but I'm on 18 points): White Weenie (aka White Goyfs)
that's not an extensive list, right?
i mean Finkel, at 499th place, makes day 2 I am assuming...?
Chapin's match: 2h 27m 48s
Decklist: 2h 49m
No Goggles.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
% is wrong. N is right. Just double the %s.
Did you guys see how boring the streams were when RG Tron was on camera? Watching that Blue Bloon V RG Tron was painful
Like I said a page or two back, boring to you, fun to others. Welcome to Modern!
Titan Shift, Eldrazi, Tron, and the big-mana deck is an important part of Modern balance. Without it, controlling strategies could easily hedge their bets against both aggressive and combination decks to just be the best choice at any given event. With big-mana in the picture, especially at its current percentage, this can't happen and it is far less likely for any single deck to occupy a format-warping plurality from tournament to tournament.
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.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
we're at a really great point in the meta.... i think all archetypes are represented fairly equally....
Sorry for sidetracking, but I found your example extremely funny to the point I just had to comment on it because when I attended my first (and still only at the moment) Modern GP last year, I faced exactly 6 burn decks out of 9 swiss rounds. I know that rationally that your example is still very unlikely, but the sheer coincidence of the exact same number just made me really literally laugh. (By the way I was running some budget version of the WB Midrange deck, so I wasn't exactly doing stellar (eventually went 4-5 but I just wanted to play all the rounds regardless), so it was not an indication of Burn's strength (in fact it probably meant plenty of Burn decks weren't faring too well either.))
Well, you're not wrong, but I wouldn't say the problem is exclusive to aggro. Had all my 6 opponents played Jund instead of Burn, I would have been equally annoyed with the lack of diversity. Even "fair and interactive" decks get boring on camera if it's all I see round after round (whether on camera or playing). The true key is diversity across all deck types - the ability to keep a format diverse by checking every archetype against each other. Sometimes the unstable nut draws from aggro/combo-Control decks are necessary to spice up games that would be a "fair, interactive but grindy snoozefest". Likewise, it's also necessary to maintain that when those decks don't get their nut draws, they are still capable of engaging in the grind long enough to possibly change the tide instead of just grinding to oblivion.
As an aggro-player for now (I'm running Affinity exclusively at the moment since I didn't build anything else), I'm admittedly more biased towards aggro. But if I had to pick a poison of lack of diversity, I would actually still prefer an aggro-infested meta not because I run aggro, but because I'm okay with the occasional nut-draw situation with the most important caveat being games ending faster - if it's going to be the same match over and over again, I'd rather it end faster than slower - the 6th Jund matchup is incredibly more frustrating than the 6th Burn matchup in my own opinion (others may differ) when I could be spending the time doing other things instead (especially at a GP, honestly).
First up is Daniel Goetshel's Mono Blue Tron (9-0) vs. Wesley Higbee's Affinity (9-0).
Affinity up 1-0 after going all-in on the Ravager/Inkmoth/Pest attack.
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)