What is a bit weird/funny, is that decks with a good mixture of say they highest disruption tools (i.e. removals, counters and discard), for example Faeries or Sultai midrange/control, are the ones struggling the most.
Better card selection would help with this, but the issue of closing speed PLUS disruption would likely remain no?
Sideboarding isn't supposed to be a bunch of silver bullets to cover your back against all other decks. It's supposed to help you in matchups where you have a disadvantage. That's why a card like Abrade is actually a lot better than Stony Silence.
That's how I think it should be. The problem is that right now, broad answers are not enough to deal with specific strategies, Abrade is not enough to deal with artifact strategies so if you are playing red and have to deal with them you are more likely to need Shattering Spree or Ancient Grudge if you can play green. The same happens when you compare vs other strategies, a card like Rakdos Charm should be a sideboard all star since it's so versatile but unfortunately none of it's modes does enough (Dredge can take the exile and rebuild, artifact decks get 1for 1 and keep doing their thing)
Your main deck needs to be able to deal with some of these at least. That's my point. If you can't beat gy decks, for example, then that's fine, as long as you are decent vs some number of other decks. 1 hate card like Abrade is not enough vs most decks, thats how powerful decks are constructed, they dont just fold to 1 hate piece. The point of having a card like Abrade in the SB is to slow down your opponent so you can develop your own game. You can't look to just play 1 sideboard card and expect to win
Faithless Looting should not be banned. Like Brainstorm in Legacy, it sets the power level for Modern. Yes, it does degenerate things, but it allows a variety of distinct decks to exist, and serves as a flag stone for what people should expect from Modern. I’m a little surprised Phoenix did so well this weekend. And annoyed. I don’t think it has a lot of staying power, but it looks fun and I’m in the process of building a version myself. Unfortunately now, after its performance in Baltimore, sites are sold out of the key cards!
Re Sultai: The issue with Sultai is it's kind of at odds with the elements it's trying to combine. BG is all about grindy value and tapping out. U is all about reaction and playing on the opponent's turn. Trying to find a shell that uses the best of both worlds puts the deck against itself in what it's trying to do. Basically, what does blue add to BG that is better than what red or white adds? And what is green adding to UB that is better than what red adds?
Re Faithless Looting: Modern is currently defined by 3 cards: Ancient Stirrings, Aether Vial, and Faithless Looting. These cards are either the best cantrip you can cast, are cheating on mana, or both. If you aren't playing one of these cards, you are choosing to play a deck that could be considered objectively inferior. Sometimes inferior decks are enough for enjoyment (especially at FNM level), and is something I have done for the last 3 years. But the decks playing these three cards are a class above everything else in the format.
Stuff like that can help with the sideboard planning and hopefully show that things can actually be beaten.
What is a bit weird/funny, is that decks with a good mixture of say they highest disruption tools (i.e. removals, counters and discard), for example Faeries or Sultai midrange/control, are the ones struggling the most.
This reminds me. When was actually the last time Wizards printed a good Faeries card and Im not talking about a generic spells in UB colors like Fatal Push?
Humans obviously gets tons of tribal support. There is now also Spirits, then there is Elves, Merfolk and Goblins. All of these got good cards in recent times maybe even a few more tribes Im currently forgetting.
But it's like Wizards is thinking Faeries dominated Standard once. We will never print a good Faerie card again.
the thing is brainstorm is only legal because it was busted from the start and therefore became ingrained into the format identity itself. faithless lootings is only now rising to prominence. for instance imagine if brainstorm was just printed into legacy; how do you think people would treat it? it would be banned in a heartbeat.
i dont think arclight is doing anything broken as far as ive seen, but its clear that as more such decks rise wizards might have to make some hard decisions about the direction they want the format to move. when the cards people build around are imbalanced its going to just get more pronounced over time.
the major difference for blue cantrips is they work anywhere, so they can easily get out of hand when its trivial to play 2/3 color decks. however this alternative of modern being the 'stirrings and lootings format' is also worrisome because both of those cards are more narrow in their application; only so many strategies can support them; thus they become favored. color balance doesnt have to be at the forefront of decisions but archetypes and or strategies represented should be.
dont get me wrong, i think arclight is sweet. i play it in standard/arena and its one of the more enjoyable decks ive played in a while. in the context of modern though;where there are already top tier decks doing the GY aggro thing its...something.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Raises a question does Looting make Red the best color in modern? Unlike its friend Ancient Stirrings, Faithless Lootings at least powers up deck that actually play Red.
Re Sultai: The issue with Sultai is it's kind of at odds with the elements it's trying to combine. BG is all about grindy value and tapping out. U is all about reaction and playing on the opponent's turn. Trying to find a shell that uses the best of both worlds puts the deck against itself in what it's trying to do. Basically, what does blue add to BG that is better than what red or white adds? And what is green adding to UB that is better than what red adds?
Re Faithless Looting: Modern is currently defined by 3 cards: Ancient Stirrings, Aether Vial, and Faithless Looting. These cards are either the best cantrip you can cast, are cheating on mana, or both. If you aren't playing one of these cards, you are choosing to play a deck that could be considered objectively inferior. Sometimes inferior decks are enough for enjoyment (especially at FNM level), and is something I have done for the last 3 years. But the decks playing these three cards are a class above everything else in the format.
I'd replace Vial with Hierarch here (covers Bant Spirits and Humans, adds Infect). I also think it's a little broader than this overall. UW Control is still top-tier as is Storm. So is Burn. Other than that, I think you can make an argument that other decks aren't as good as that group, which is thankfully pretty broad. I will say that from an MWP perspective, most decks are about equal except KCI, which is at 58% instead of the usual 50% +/-.
Interaction + Clock, beats Arclight decks. If people are concerned about it, BGx is an actual answer. Jund or Junk.
i get where you are coming from, but interaction + clock literally beats anything. so it comes down to whether the interaction is meaningful enough or if the clock is fast enough. 3 main deck scooze sounds like a good place to be, but the generic BG removal suite is poor. even a card like maelstrom pulse gunning down multiple phoenix is only a short reprieve.
bgx seems alright against phoenix, but i dunno if id consider it the counter. abzan seems way better with a couple paths and souls to hold down the fort, but abzan has been noticeably absent as of late.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Sustained MTGO results plus enough regional paper appearances, including the T8 this weekend. It was top-tier with significant GP T8s since June this year, so it will take another GP miss for that to change. If GP Portland sees UW fail like GP ATL, I will revisit this classification. If it fails again at Oakland then that's a clear change.
the thing is brainstorm is only legal because it was busted from the start and therefore became ingrained into the format identity itself. faithless lootings is only now rising to prominence. for instance imagine if brainstorm was just printed into legacy; how do you think people would treat it? it would be banned in a heartbeat.
i dont think arclight is doing anything broken as far as ive seen, but its clear that as more such decks rise wizards might have to make some hard decisions about the direction they want the format to move. when the cards people build around are imbalanced its going to just get more pronounced over time.
the major difference for blue cantrips is they work anywhere, so they can easily get out of hand when its trivial to play 2/3 color decks. however this alternative of modern being the 'stirrings and lootings format' is also worrisome because both of those cards are more narrow in their application; only so many strategies can support them; thus they become favored. color balance doesnt have to be at the forefront of decisions but archetypes and or strategies represented should be.
dont get me wrong, i think arclight is sweet. i play it in standard/arena and its one of the more enjoyable decks ive played in a while. in the context of modern though;where there are already top tier decks doing the GY aggro thing its...something.
Hmm you already talked about adding consistency last time so I have to ask? Are you in favor of unbanning the blue cantrips?
I already stated my view point about it. I would have nothing against it because I would be playing them but it would be a noticeable shift in the format. I mean Preordain by itself will very likely be absolutely fine. Obviously the demand for Serum Visions will drop to almost nothing but that's OK. But Ponder also? I mean that card is only behind Brainstorm in power so it's not a joke and remember you can play both in your deck while Red only has Faithless Looting and Green only has Ancient Stirrings. 8 is more than 4 and then there is also Snapcaster Mage.
Also as often as people want to dismiss and deny it but Looting and Stirrings are built-around cards. Not every Red/Green deck can and does play them. Case in point Jund which would be another point against it. I already made a speculative post about why Midrange has fallen on hard times in Modern and let's say unbanning both blue cantrips wouldn't make things better. Because not only would you have Lootings and Stirrings decks but also every single Blue deck besides probably Merfolk would start with 4 Ponder and then fill up with Preordain depending on the needs of the deck.
Where would that leave the kind of decks that very often just draw cards naturally and hope they are the right ones and where drawing discard when you need removal or drawing removal when you need a threat to end the game could mean a loss?
Tiers are the representation of a deck's popularity. In that regard, UW Control has stopped being Tier 1, after a brief period with a very strong high tier presence. Unfortunately, we don't have numbers, but if the cutoff was at ~5%, I would say that UW Control is a high Tier 2 deck nowadays.
There's no way anyone can claim this now unless you know of a dataset I don't. UW was the first or second most played deck on Day 2 of GP ATL less than a month ago. Not enough has changed in that less than a month period. I'm largely reserving judgment on what deck is where and what needs or does not need banning/unbanning until after the upcoming GP. Everyone else should do the same.
Interaction + Clock, beats Arclight decks. If people are concerned about it, BGx is an actual answer. Jund or Junk.
i get where you are coming from, but interaction + clock literally beats anything. so it comes down to whether the interaction is meaningful enough or if the clock is fast enough. 3 main deck scooze sounds like a good place to be, but the generic BG removal suite is poor. even a card like maelstrom pulse gunning down multiple phoenix is only a short reprieve.
bgx seems alright against phoenix, but i dunno if id consider it the counter. abzan seems way better with a couple paths and souls to hold down the fort, but abzan has been noticeably absent as of late.
That's not particularly true though. :]
I guess it depends on what that interaction is perhaps, or ones access to that interaction (card selection) because BGx has both, and so do other versions of UR.
Jund can be good. Junk could be good I think, though I have not seen it much lately (last 6 months?).
Either way, just a suggestion.
Also!
I would like to apologize for bringing the negativity I did into the thread over the last week. I get over agitated with the Ban Announcements and the lack of results for ANY card that I feel should be off the list.
I will try my best to not do so again.
For anyone reading who may not post here often who I have upset, I apologize.
Hmm you already talked about adding consistency last time so I have to ask? Are you in favor of unbanning the blue cantrips?
I already stated my view point about it. I would have nothing against it because I would be playing them but it would be a noticeable shift in the format. I mean Preordain by itself will very likely be absolutely fine. Obviously the demand for Serum Visions will drop to almost nothing but that's OK. But Ponder also? I mean that card is only behind Brainstorm in power so it's not a joke and remember you can play both in your deck while Red only has Faithless Looting and Green only has Ancient Stirrings. 8 is more than 4 and then there is also Snapcaster Mage.
Also as often as people want to dismiss and deny it but Looting and Stirrings are built-around cards. Not every Red/Green deck can and does play them. Case in point Jund which would be another point against it. I already made a speculative post about why Midrange has fallen on hard times in Modern and let's say unbanning both blue cantrips wouldn't make things better. Because not only would you have Lootings and Stirrings decks but also every single Blue deck besides probably Merfolk would start with 4 Ponder and then fill up with Preordain depending on the needs of the deck.
Where would that leave the kind of decks that very often just draw cards naturally and hope they are the right ones and where drawing discard when you need removal or drawing removal when you need a threat to end the game could mean a loss?
no im not advocating for their release. sure i think it would be cool to play them (and i would), and that they wouldnt destroy the format. however in the interest in keeping modern distinct from legacy its probably not the wisest choice. what i wanted to point out is that it is A solution, not that its the only one nor the best.
i mean just look at legacy or anywhere else the powerful blue cantrips see heavy play. its as you say, much of their power comes from their nearly universal application. the corollary to this is that they are a universal equalizer. so you can achieve deck, strategy, archetype, whatever diversity, but the color balance is going to suffer. as evidenced in legacy, blue is offering consistency, and importantly a potent form of interaction in counterspells that is/can be free and hits most everything. so we have the likes of aggro/tempo, combo, midrange, and control subsisting on the same set of cards, but still offering different game play. decks using other colors may be using tutors or whatever tools to help their own consistency. or they could be partaking in stuff like fast mana. no matter what though that set of blue cards will act as a counterweight precisely because they are overpowered and universal.
just to reiterate, this is not what i think is best for modern.
now you consider a format like modern, where there are outliers in power similar to the scale of blue cantrips in legacy. however they are narrow in application. need to play creatures, need GY value generation, need colorless or 'lands matters' interactions, need artifacts, etc. so as time goes on with an expanding cardpool (ie more power) these cards, that only work for certain things, become the dominating feature in the format.
Private Mod Note
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Tiers are the representation of a deck's popularity. In that regard, UW Control has stopped being Tier 1, after a brief period with a very strong high tier presence. Unfortunately, we don't have numbers, but if the cutoff was at ~5%, I would say that UW Control is a high Tier 2 deck nowadays.
I dont think we have any data to conclude this. We have our own personal experiences, but say, MTGGoldfish, your 5% would put Humans, and Bant Spirits in Tier 1, and nothing else.
Note: I'm aware of the issues with MTGGoldfish as a data set.
Stuff like that can help with the sideboard planning and hopefully show that things can actually be beaten.
What is a bit weird/funny, is that decks with a good mixture of say they highest disruption tools (i.e. removals, counters and discard), for example Faeries or Sultai midrange/control, are the ones struggling the most.
This reminds me. When was actually the last time Wizards printed a good Faeries card and Im not talking about a generic spells in UB colors like Fatal Push?
Humans obviously gets tons of tribal support. There is now also Spirits, then there is Elves, Merfolk and Goblins. All of these got good cards in recent times maybe even a few more tribes Im currently forgetting.
But it's like Wizards is thinking Faeries dominated Standard once. We will never print a good Faerie card again.
Sadly we had no good Faeries after the original deck I don't think it's Wizard's being afraid, mostly the planes not being suitable for getting a tribal themed Faeries. When we get the tribe back, that's when we get good Faeries again.
And in regards to speed, Fae can turn the corner pretty easily, it's mostly the fact that you play too much with your lifetotal.
Well Elves, Merfolk and Goblins are primary races of course they show up lot even if Merfolks split the job with Veldekans.
Still yeah shouldn't be that hard to work faeries into a setting.
They wouldn't even have to do that with Core Sets being a thing. I mean Elvish Clancaller and Supreme Phantom were both in the last one.
there were faeries on ravnica and so far we got one lol its like hey you got a faerie now wait years for the next one that will also be far under the design bar you need it to be. its not hard, theyre just not looking at that element of the fantasy fanbase
Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
With what is essentially a turbo xerox deck winning the last SCG Open, I really do not think Preordain or Ponder are coming off the banned list anytime soon, if ever.
Interestingly, both Tron and KCI are almost turbo xerox themselves because of Stirrings, the Chromatic cards, Ichor Wellspring, Expedition Map, and others.
I'm just thinking back to when dredge and infect were really good...this may be the day to sleeve up skred red lol. A deck that can justify running maindeck anger and relic of progenitus while also packing eight bolts?
With what is essentially a turbo xerox deck winning the last SCG Open, I really do not think Preordain or Ponder are coming off the banned list anytime soon, if ever.
Interestingly, both Tron and KCI are almost turbo xerox themselves because of Stirrings, the Chromatic cards, Ichor Wellspring, Expedition Map, and others.
What is Turbo Xerox? I've seen it describe Vintage decks, Legacy, and now Modern, but all the decks look very different.
With what is essentially a turbo xerox deck winning the last SCG Open, I really do not think Preordain or Ponder are coming off the banned list anytime soon, if ever.
Interestingly, both Tron and KCI are almost turbo xerox themselves because of Stirrings, the Chromatic cards, Ichor Wellspring, Expedition Map, and others.
What is Turbo Xerox? I've seen it describe Vintage decks, Legacy, and now Modern, but all the decks look very different.
I found this article on Channelfireball on the topic written by Brian DeMars. This was written a year ago when Death's Shadow decks were all the hype and looking back at it a few things that he says in there turned out to be wrong but I think he still does a good job at explaining what Turbo Xerox is about.
Better card selection would help with this, but the issue of closing speed PLUS disruption would likely remain no?
Spirits
Your main deck needs to be able to deal with some of these at least. That's my point. If you can't beat gy decks, for example, then that's fine, as long as you are decent vs some number of other decks. 1 hate card like Abrade is not enough vs most decks, thats how powerful decks are constructed, they dont just fold to 1 hate piece. The point of having a card like Abrade in the SB is to slow down your opponent so you can develop your own game. You can't look to just play 1 sideboard card and expect to win
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
Re Faithless Looting: Modern is currently defined by 3 cards: Ancient Stirrings, Aether Vial, and Faithless Looting. These cards are either the best cantrip you can cast, are cheating on mana, or both. If you aren't playing one of these cards, you are choosing to play a deck that could be considered objectively inferior. Sometimes inferior decks are enough for enjoyment (especially at FNM level), and is something I have done for the last 3 years. But the decks playing these three cards are a class above everything else in the format.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
This reminds me. When was actually the last time Wizards printed a good Faeries card and Im not talking about a generic spells in UB colors like Fatal Push?
Humans obviously gets tons of tribal support. There is now also Spirits, then there is Elves, Merfolk and Goblins. All of these got good cards in recent times maybe even a few more tribes Im currently forgetting.
But it's like Wizards is thinking Faeries dominated Standard once. We will never print a good Faerie card again.
i dont think arclight is doing anything broken as far as ive seen, but its clear that as more such decks rise wizards might have to make some hard decisions about the direction they want the format to move. when the cards people build around are imbalanced its going to just get more pronounced over time.
the major difference for blue cantrips is they work anywhere, so they can easily get out of hand when its trivial to play 2/3 color decks. however this alternative of modern being the 'stirrings and lootings format' is also worrisome because both of those cards are more narrow in their application; only so many strategies can support them; thus they become favored. color balance doesnt have to be at the forefront of decisions but archetypes and or strategies represented should be.
dont get me wrong, i think arclight is sweet. i play it in standard/arena and its one of the more enjoyable decks ive played in a while. in the context of modern though;where there are already top tier decks doing the GY aggro thing its...something.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)I'd replace Vial with Hierarch here (covers Bant Spirits and Humans, adds Infect). I also think it's a little broader than this overall. UW Control is still top-tier as is Storm. So is Burn. Other than that, I think you can make an argument that other decks aren't as good as that group, which is thankfully pretty broad. I will say that from an MWP perspective, most decks are about equal except KCI, which is at 58% instead of the usual 50% +/-.
Spirits
What makes you say that?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
i get where you are coming from, but interaction + clock literally beats anything. so it comes down to whether the interaction is meaningful enough or if the clock is fast enough. 3 main deck scooze sounds like a good place to be, but the generic BG removal suite is poor. even a card like maelstrom pulse gunning down multiple phoenix is only a short reprieve.
bgx seems alright against phoenix, but i dunno if id consider it the counter. abzan seems way better with a couple paths and souls to hold down the fort, but abzan has been noticeably absent as of late.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Sustained MTGO results plus enough regional paper appearances, including the T8 this weekend. It was top-tier with significant GP T8s since June this year, so it will take another GP miss for that to change. If GP Portland sees UW fail like GP ATL, I will revisit this classification. If it fails again at Oakland then that's a clear change.
Hmm you already talked about adding consistency last time so I have to ask? Are you in favor of unbanning the blue cantrips?
I already stated my view point about it. I would have nothing against it because I would be playing them but it would be a noticeable shift in the format. I mean Preordain by itself will very likely be absolutely fine. Obviously the demand for Serum Visions will drop to almost nothing but that's OK. But Ponder also? I mean that card is only behind Brainstorm in power so it's not a joke and remember you can play both in your deck while Red only has Faithless Looting and Green only has Ancient Stirrings. 8 is more than 4 and then there is also Snapcaster Mage.
Also as often as people want to dismiss and deny it but Looting and Stirrings are built-around cards. Not every Red/Green deck can and does play them. Case in point Jund which would be another point against it. I already made a speculative post about why Midrange has fallen on hard times in Modern and let's say unbanning both blue cantrips wouldn't make things better. Because not only would you have Lootings and Stirrings decks but also every single Blue deck besides probably Merfolk would start with 4 Ponder and then fill up with Preordain depending on the needs of the deck.
Where would that leave the kind of decks that very often just draw cards naturally and hope they are the right ones and where drawing discard when you need removal or drawing removal when you need a threat to end the game could mean a loss?
There's no way anyone can claim this now unless you know of a dataset I don't. UW was the first or second most played deck on Day 2 of GP ATL less than a month ago. Not enough has changed in that less than a month period. I'm largely reserving judgment on what deck is where and what needs or does not need banning/unbanning until after the upcoming GP. Everyone else should do the same.
That's not particularly true though. :]
I guess it depends on what that interaction is perhaps, or ones access to that interaction (card selection) because BGx has both, and so do other versions of UR.
Jund can be good. Junk could be good I think, though I have not seen it much lately (last 6 months?).
Either way, just a suggestion.
Also!
I would like to apologize for bringing the negativity I did into the thread over the last week. I get over agitated with the Ban Announcements and the lack of results for ANY card that I feel should be off the list.
I will try my best to not do so again.
For anyone reading who may not post here often who I have upset, I apologize.
Spirits
no im not advocating for their release. sure i think it would be cool to play them (and i would), and that they wouldnt destroy the format. however in the interest in keeping modern distinct from legacy its probably not the wisest choice. what i wanted to point out is that it is A solution, not that its the only one nor the best.
i mean just look at legacy or anywhere else the powerful blue cantrips see heavy play. its as you say, much of their power comes from their nearly universal application. the corollary to this is that they are a universal equalizer. so you can achieve deck, strategy, archetype, whatever diversity, but the color balance is going to suffer. as evidenced in legacy, blue is offering consistency, and importantly a potent form of interaction in counterspells that is/can be free and hits most everything. so we have the likes of aggro/tempo, combo, midrange, and control subsisting on the same set of cards, but still offering different game play. decks using other colors may be using tutors or whatever tools to help their own consistency. or they could be partaking in stuff like fast mana. no matter what though that set of blue cards will act as a counterweight precisely because they are overpowered and universal.
just to reiterate, this is not what i think is best for modern.
now you consider a format like modern, where there are outliers in power similar to the scale of blue cantrips in legacy. however they are narrow in application. need to play creatures, need GY value generation, need colorless or 'lands matters' interactions, need artifacts, etc. so as time goes on with an expanding cardpool (ie more power) these cards, that only work for certain things, become the dominating feature in the format.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)I dont think we have any data to conclude this. We have our own personal experiences, but say, MTGGoldfish, your 5% would put Humans, and Bant Spirits in Tier 1, and nothing else.
Note: I'm aware of the issues with MTGGoldfish as a data set.
Spirits
And in regards to speed, Fae can turn the corner pretty easily, it's mostly the fact that you play too much with your lifetotal.
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
Still yeah shouldn't be that hard to work faeries into a setting.
They wouldn't even have to do that with Core Sets being a thing. I mean Elvish Clancaller and Supreme Phantom were both in the last one.
there were faeries on ravnica and so far we got one lol its like hey you got a faerie now wait years for the next one that will also be far under the design bar you need it to be. its not hard, theyre just not looking at that element of the fantasy fanbase
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
Interestingly, both Tron and KCI are almost turbo xerox themselves because of Stirrings, the Chromatic cards, Ichor Wellspring, Expedition Map, and others.
What is Turbo Xerox? I've seen it describe Vintage decks, Legacy, and now Modern, but all the decks look very different.
Spirits
I found this article on Channelfireball on the topic written by Brian DeMars. This was written a year ago when Death's Shadow decks were all the hype and looking back at it a few things that he says in there turned out to be wrong but I think he still does a good job at explaining what Turbo Xerox is about.
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/decks-like-deaths-shadow-will-always-become-the-best-deck/