-Censor: A counterspell that is good at every phase of the game is worth the draw back of only being a force spike. I can see tempo decks to use this card such as delver. Worth taking about the cute synergy of discarding this early and having snapcaster mage with censor back up turn 4. Also worth mentioning that these instants that have cycling help out cryptic serpent.
-Cast Out: This is an absurd card that gets better and better the more I think about it. It doesn't have the same issues as other oblivion ring effects have because it dodges abrupt decay and Inquisition of kozilek. Add in flash and the ability to pitch this for just a W seems modern playable to me. Something to note is that this card can get an enchantment in your graveyard for delirium/tarmogoyf decks that are looking for a little more removal.
-Curator of Mysteries: I'm testing this in grixis control so I'll let the guys know when I go to my next fnm. The card has a lot of small synergies in the deck itself. The first one that is interesting is that you can get back the curator with kolaghan's command so you can have a late game beater to close out the game after you have pitched it earlier. Being food for Tasigur, the golden fang helps as well. While an uncounterable cantrip seems weak on the surface, the fact that this guy becomes a threat late game has me testing 2 copies.
-Scarab Feast: A nice utility card that has some merits of seeing mainboard play in a world where death shadow is really good.
-sweltering suns: A worse Anger of the gods but there are metas where exile isn't that important. Due to Dredge being a tier 1 deck, we currently don't live in that world.
Let me know if I missed any of them that catch your eye.
I agree most people forgot how good cycling is on either a tempo control reactive card, or a super agressive or niche card.
Most of the current cycle cards dont fit that theme though, or are outclassed by curent cards I think. Some might be up to par. Censer chief among them.
I think sideboard ones are good too like sweltering suns. If there was a cycleing natralize (not just artifacts) that would be dope.
I agree most people forgot how good cycling is on either a tempo control reactive card, or a super agressive or niche card.
Most of the current cycle cards dont fit that theme though, or are outclassed by curent cards I think. Some might be up to par. Censer chief among them.
I think sideboard ones are good too like sweltering suns. If there was a cycleing natralize (not just artifacts) that would be dope.
Cards with cycling are generally overcosted and/or underpowered. Nothing really stands out as playable or "good" in a format as cutthroat as Modern.
Obvious exclusions for Living End, who never intends to actually cast the cards, and the RG land, that would likely go into Valakut strategies as additional Mountains.
I think the lands with find some fringe homes in some numbers, but as for the rest of them, Wizards is too cautious. it's my least favorite set in years, even counting BFZ block, and a huge part of that is just that none of the cycle cards are remotely pushed, no risks were taken. put cycling on a counterspell that could see play without it, put it on a kill spell, the is no O-ring variant that will ever make waves in Modern
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
I think the lands with find some fringe homes in some numbers, but as for the rest of them, Wizards is too cautious. it's my least favorite set in years, even counting BFZ block, and a huge part of that is just that none of the cycle cards are remotely pushed, no risks were taken. put cycling on a counterspell that could see play without it, put it on a kill spell, the is no O-ring variant that will ever make waves in Modern
There is no point of pushing any mechanic. They don't design for modern. Imagine if every block mechanic was playable in Modern - renown, energy, heroic and so on. We would have countless Affinity style decks running the format.
I don't want every mechanic to be playable in Modern, especially not the boring 1/1 counter they love to the point of a borderline fetish. I just don't seethe harm in a returning mechanic that was very popular and has a lot of potential to improve a game living up to the hype, which would mean having something that you really want to play/is pushed. the other option is goodstuff being pushed, with nothing that makes you fondly remember that set. something in almost every set will be good in Modern, no harm in having it capture the feel of the set.
and for the record, I have no objection to the scenario you describe, more decks being viable is a good thing. if anything it would be great because it makes it easier for Standard players to enter Modern if they just need to upgrade the lands and a few utility cards from some Heroic deck
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
Cast Out saw play in the Top 32 of the latest SCG Modern Classic in RW Prison. I have to admit that being able to 1-mana-cantrip away your expensive Banishing Light-with-Flash gets useful in that deck.
When I was testing Censor, it felt the best in combo shells, as non-combo shells with Remand couldn't take enough advantage of the cantrip or the small window to counter stuff. Granted, I haven't had the opportunity to test it in the same deck as harder counterspells like Mana Leak yet.
I've been happy with a 2-of Cast Out in my Esper delirium control (Scour the Laboratory). It's nice having a catch-call answer in the main that is instant speed and dodges IOK/Abrupt Decay while also being an enabler.
When I was testing Censor, it felt the best in combo shells, as non-combo shells with Remand couldn't take enough advantage of the cantrip or the small window to counter stuff.
In which combo decks have you tested it ?
I would imagine that Remand would be the countersell of choice in those decks.
Hieroglyphic Illumination has been excellent in my testing, I think it's better than Think Twice. 1 mana cantrips are just significantly better than 2 mana cantrips, and lategame it can be snapcastered back
I'm having sucess with censor in rug scapeshift. Yeah, the deck is not supposed to be viable but I'm doing alright so far and censor is good enough, I'd say it's an important piece in the deck as a 4-of so far. It's good in the first few turns and you don't feel bad for drawing it on T7 like with mana leak.
When I was testing Censor, it felt the best in combo shells, as non-combo shells with Remand couldn't take enough advantage of the cantrip or the small window to counter stuff.
In which combo decks have you tested it ?
I would imagine that Remand would be the countersell of choice in those decks.
I have the best memories of testing it in Jeskai CopyCat. Like pretty much every combo shell I tried Censor in, it already plays 4 Remands.
I've now tried Censor in Blue Moon (only 3 Remands, but appreciates the nonzero chance of a hard counter and is looking for specific hoser cards every game). I still haven't gotten enough testing in, as I've only ended up with it against decks where Censor's counter mode is live surprisingly late (Eldrazi Tron, Death's Shadow).
Hieroglyphic Illumination has been excellent in my testing, I think it's better than Think Twice. 1 mana cantrips are just significantly better than 2 mana cantrips, and lategame it can be snapcastered back
With Nahiri you don't generally want to go that long, so I wouldn't want Hieroglyphic Illumination (boy what a crappy name btw). And of course if you wanted to run CA like that, Think Twice has synergy with Nahiri I wouldn't pass up.
I currently run it in a jeskai build with Trials Gideon and there it perfectly fills the role that Thought Scour fills in Grixis, giving the deck such a boost in velocity. Generally I think the main upside of HI (even the abbreviation options are lousy) is that it provides card advantage in the matchups where you need it, without getting in the way in the matchups where you don't want it.
Well, I have been testing the RG cycling land in valakut and it has not been good. You find yourself not wanting to search for it with a fetchland in case you need to draw and cycle it later, but if you ever draw it it comes in tapped which is not what the deck wants. You want to be able to drop any land off the top of the library as land 6 and cast Primetime if you have it. 4 valakuts already make that awkward sometimes. Also, if you draw it late game, you would rather play it as a land to trigger active valakuts or Khalni Heart Expeditions.
If for some reason you were running 4 stomping ground 4 cinder glade and wanted more duals, you could try it. Or if fetches were banned or something. As it is, the best it's done for me so far is stay in my deck and never do anything and the worst it's done is force me to mulligan otherwise ok hands by screwing up the sequencing and putting it a turn or 2 behind.
As for Sweltering Suns, I think it's niche is going to be decks that want a maindeck sweeper or two and have room for some Anger of the gods in the sideboard. That let's them have a sweeper when they need it game one, cycle it if they don't, and still bring in the graveyard hate for Dredge
-Irrigated Farmland, Canyon Slough, Sheltered Thicket, Scattered Groves and fetid pools: The new cycle lands seem interesting with seismic assault/life from the loam decks but I really just see some of these lands making as a 1-2 of in scapeshift/26 land control decks.
-Censor: A counterspell that is good at every phase of the game is worth the draw back of only being a force spike. I can see tempo decks to use this card such as delver. Worth taking about the cute synergy of discarding this early and having snapcaster mage with censor back up turn 4. Also worth mentioning that these instants that have cycling help out cryptic serpent.
-Cast Out: This is an absurd card that gets better and better the more I think about it. It doesn't have the same issues as other oblivion ring effects have because it dodges abrupt decay and Inquisition of kozilek. Add in flash and the ability to pitch this for just a W seems modern playable to me. Something to note is that this card can get an enchantment in your graveyard for delirium/tarmogoyf decks that are looking for a little more removal.
-Curator of Mysteries: I'm testing this in grixis control so I'll let the guys know when I go to my next fnm. The card has a lot of small synergies in the deck itself. The first one that is interesting is that you can get back the curator with kolaghan's command so you can have a late game beater to close out the game after you have pitched it earlier. Being food for Tasigur, the golden fang helps as well. While an uncounterable cantrip seems weak on the surface, the fact that this guy becomes a threat late game has me testing 2 copies.
-Hieroglyphic Illumination: Interesting design but I don't see it getting there in a world where think twice exists.
-Desert Cerodon/Horror of the Broken Lands/Archfiend of Ifnir: These seem tailor made for living end strategies. Ifnir seems more of a sideboard card for them due to his slow nature of costing 2 rather than one mana to cycle.
-Scarab Feast: A nice utility card that has some merits of seeing mainboard play in a world where death shadow is really good.
-sweltering suns: A worse Anger of the gods but there are metas where exile isn't that important. Due to Dredge being a tier 1 deck, we currently don't live in that world.
Let me know if I missed any of them that catch your eye.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Most of the current cycle cards dont fit that theme though, or are outclassed by curent cards I think. Some might be up to par. Censer chief among them.
I think sideboard ones are good too like sweltering suns. If there was a cycleing natralize (not just artifacts) that would be dope.
I forgot sweltering suns. Added to the OP.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Obvious exclusions for Living End, who never intends to actually cast the cards, and the RG land, that would likely go into Valakut strategies as additional Mountains.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I don't want every mechanic to be playable in Modern, especially not the boring 1/1 counter they love to the point of a borderline fetish. I just don't seethe harm in a returning mechanic that was very popular and has a lot of potential to improve a game living up to the hype, which would mean having something that you really want to play/is pushed. the other option is goodstuff being pushed, with nothing that makes you fondly remember that set. something in almost every set will be good in Modern, no harm in having it capture the feel of the set.
and for the record, I have no objection to the scenario you describe, more decks being viable is a good thing. if anything it would be great because it makes it easier for Standard players to enter Modern if they just need to upgrade the lands and a few utility cards from some Heroic deck
When I was testing Censor, it felt the best in combo shells, as non-combo shells with Remand couldn't take enough advantage of the cantrip or the small window to counter stuff. Granted, I haven't had the opportunity to test it in the same deck as harder counterspells like Mana Leak yet.
In which combo decks have you tested it ?
I would imagine that Remand would be the countersell of choice in those decks.
I have the best memories of testing it in Jeskai CopyCat. Like pretty much every combo shell I tried Censor in, it already plays 4 Remands.
I've now tried Censor in Blue Moon (only 3 Remands, but appreciates the nonzero chance of a hard counter and is looking for specific hoser cards every game). I still haven't gotten enough testing in, as I've only ended up with it against decks where Censor's counter mode is live surprisingly late (Eldrazi Tron, Death's Shadow).
I've actually found Hieroglyphic Illumination to be surprisingly mediocre in UWR Nahiri. I miss both Think Twice's guarantee of two cards and its ability to be discarded to Liliana of the Veil and still cantrip.
I currently run it in a jeskai build with Trials Gideon and there it perfectly fills the role that Thought Scour fills in Grixis, giving the deck such a boost in velocity. Generally I think the main upside of HI (even the abbreviation options are lousy) is that it provides card advantage in the matchups where you need it, without getting in the way in the matchups where you don't want it.
If for some reason you were running 4 stomping ground 4 cinder glade and wanted more duals, you could try it. Or if fetches were banned or something. As it is, the best it's done for me so far is stay in my deck and never do anything and the worst it's done is force me to mulligan otherwise ok hands by screwing up the sequencing and putting it a turn or 2 behind.
As for Sweltering Suns, I think it's niche is going to be decks that want a maindeck sweeper or two and have room for some Anger of the gods in the sideboard. That let's them have a sweeper when they need it game one, cycle it if they don't, and still bring in the graveyard hate for Dredge
Modern
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)