The Pro Tour is going to be starting in roughly 5 hours from this post. It's starting with draft, but will move to Modern constructed for the latter half of each day. Tune in and watch it here at Twitch.tv, or follow the text coverage here on the mothership.
This event and the subsequent Grand Prix next week are poised to have the single biggest impact in recent memory on the Modern format. You don't what to miss it!
And as always, remember to follow the forum rules when posting.
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That said, what do you think the top 8 will look like? The results will be heavily skewed by the draft portion of the event, and some great decks may go unseen because of it. Overall I expect the event to be dominated by resilient but linear decks like GDS, Lantern, Affinity, or Storm. They are straightforward to pilot, can adapt to pretty much anything, or just win very very fast. Those 4 seem like the top choices to me right now for the event as the field will overall be less diverse than other events.
Overall I expect the event to be dominated by resilient but linear decks like GDS, Lantern, Affinity, or Storm. They are straightforward to pilot, can adapt to pretty much anything, or just win very very fast. Those 4 seem like the top choices to me right now for the event as the field will overall be less diverse than other events.
I reckon that the vast majority of Team Pantheon will be running Storm, and if not, then GDS because they feel it's the best deck or at least has even MU's against most of the field. If you take a quick glance at Gab Nassif's most recent CFB article you see the pattern of the team highly skewing towards picking the best and fastest linear deck in the past Pro Tours, basically always favoring Infect and Storm.
As for predicting the top 8, I'll give it a shot even though it's completely random depending on the MU's everyone faces along the tourney and the draft portion. 1 U/R Storm, 2 Jeskai Control, 2 GDS, 1 Burn, 1 Hollow One deck, 1 Lantern.
A control mirror to start of the modern day! UW control against Jeskai control!
Sweet!
I can't watch right now but I'd guess if neither player makes any crazy mistakes, jeskai might come out on top of that battle? Great start for coverage though.
Let's hope they showcase a nice mix of decks
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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
Wow what a game to start off with. Who would have thought we'd see an Ancestral Vision targeting the opponent for lethal! PVDDR could have bolted his Solider token in response to the Detention Sphere but I don't think it would have helped.
He cast the secure in response to the vendilion clique, so he'd have to leave up a land and hope raph didn't choose to take the bolt with clique. Was unlikely to work.
Mardu Pyromancer higher than Abzan and GB Rock. Didn't see that coming, but I guess it makes sense to have a removal full red deck if the most popular decks are Human and Affinity.
That's a weird metagame! Humans most represented archetype was not something I could have predicted
When the meta is unknown or varied, linear aggro is always a good choice. The top 3 archetypes are such decks. Then you have a few varieties of Tron, which are linear decks as well.
Yeah as much as KCI Eggs is a cool deck, it gets hit by both graveyard hate and artifact hate which every sideboard has multiple of. Beyond that the meta is full of Humans and Burn which will be terrible matchups for the deck. I don't expect to see him anymore.
So, 5 Taxes decks (3 D&T, 1 E&T and 1 GW Hatebears), 2 Ponza, 2 Merfolks and only 2 traditional Jund decks. If the card they are thinking of unbanning is BBE, I guess it makes sense to do it now.
Wow what a game to start off with. Who would have thought we'd see an Ancestral Vision targeting the opponent for lethal! PVDDR could have bolted his Solider token in response to the Detention Sphere but I don't think it would have helped.
He had no R mana available. However, if he had, it would have been lethal.
Greetings,
Kathal
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What I play or have:
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
seeing 2 rounds for now, the tournament seems awesome from a gameplay perspective
From a coverage perspective, there are one or more people whose sole job it is to sift through the lists and select the matchups for feature on camera. Looks like that person/people have been doing a fantastic job so far. Let's see what happens by tomorrow!
Wow what a game to start off with. Who would have thought we'd see an Ancestral Vision targeting the opponent for lethal! PVDDR could have bolted his Solider token in response to the Detention Sphere but I don't think it would have helped.
He had no R mana available. However, if he had, it would have been lethal.
Greetings,
Kathal
I thought he had one untapped source but I guess I missed it. I have the stream open on another monitor and I'm more listening than straight watching.
Wow what a game to start off with. Who would have thought we'd see an Ancestral Vision targeting the opponent for lethal! PVDDR could have bolted his Solider token in response to the Detention Sphere but I don't think it would have helped.
He had no R mana available. However, if he had, it would have been lethal.
Greetings,
Kathal
He still had to wait for Clique to resolve before Bolting his token. Clique would have taken the Bolt away, so that wouldn't work as well.
Mardu Pyromancer vs 5c Humans. Pyromancer is lower down on the percentage played ladder so it's nice to see it on stream. Also he has what looks like Beta Bolts. I expect this one to go to the Pyromancer game 1 and then game 2/3 may be decided by some well timed Izzet Staticasters if he has them in the sideboard otherwise it's Pyromancer all the way.
This event and the subsequent Grand Prix next week are poised to have the single biggest impact in recent memory on the Modern format. You don't what to miss it!
And as always, remember to follow the forum rules when posting.
---
That said, what do you think the top 8 will look like? The results will be heavily skewed by the draft portion of the event, and some great decks may go unseen because of it. Overall I expect the event to be dominated by resilient but linear decks like GDS, Lantern, Affinity, or Storm. They are straightforward to pilot, can adapt to pretty much anything, or just win very very fast. Those 4 seem like the top choices to me right now for the event as the field will overall be less diverse than other events.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
I reckon that the vast majority of Team Pantheon will be running Storm, and if not, then GDS because they feel it's the best deck or at least has even MU's against most of the field. If you take a quick glance at Gab Nassif's most recent CFB article you see the pattern of the team highly skewing towards picking the best and fastest linear deck in the past Pro Tours, basically always favoring Infect and Storm.
As for predicting the top 8, I'll give it a shot even though it's completely random depending on the MU's everyone faces along the tourney and the draft portion. 1 U/R Storm, 2 Jeskai Control, 2 GDS, 1 Burn, 1 Hollow One deck, 1 Lantern.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Sweet!
I can't watch right now but I'd guess if neither player makes any crazy mistakes, jeskai might come out on top of that battle? Great start for coverage though.
Let's hope they showcase a nice mix of decks
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Remember kids: "Friends don't let friends play Control!"
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
-_-
OTOH I really want to see that Living End deck reaching top tables. It is so crazy!
Currently working on making the best Time Warp deck in here: Taking Turns
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
When the meta is unknown or varied, linear aggro is always a good choice. The top 3 archetypes are such decks. Then you have a few varieties of Tron, which are linear decks as well.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
So, 5 Taxes decks (3 D&T, 1 E&T and 1 GW Hatebears), 2 Ponza, 2 Merfolks and only 2 traditional Jund decks. If the card they are thinking of unbanning is BBE, I guess it makes sense to do it now.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
He had no R mana available. However, if he had, it would have been lethal.
Greetings,
Kathal
Modern/Legacy
either funpolice (Delver, Deathcloud, UW Control) or the fun decks (especially those ft. Griselbrand)
From a coverage perspective, there are one or more people whose sole job it is to sift through the lists and select the matchups for feature on camera. Looks like that person/people have been doing a fantastic job so far. Let's see what happens by tomorrow!
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
He still had to wait for Clique to resolve before Bolting his token. Clique would have taken the Bolt away, so that wouldn't work as well.
WGUBR 5c Humans
GWR Naya Zoo
Legacy:
GW GW Maverick
R Goblins
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge