I think after MH Blue will have more than enough tools to be very strong. Playable planeswalkers from War were mostly blue, I think other colors also need some support.
It's a matter of fact that Pro Players running GDS stated they were more than 50% against UW Control.
What is the source for that? I normally don't request a specific citation, but if we're discussing objective MWP stats in a tournament for which 100% of the matchups are known, I need to see a source. The source is particularly important because Henke calculated the GDS vs. UWx matchup at 9/24 or 37.5% at the MCII. When we combine that with my GP sample from last year, where GDS was 43.6% vs UW Control (24/55), we get a combined sample of 33/79 or 42% MWP. The confidence interval on this is 30.8%-53.4%. This does not support the assertion that it is secretly a favorable matchup. There's a small chance that the matchup is truly 50% and our GP/MC sample is just estimating low, about an 8.5% chance, but that's fairly unlikely. It's statistically very unlikely that the matchup is favorable at 55%+ (1.4% chance).
I think after MH Blue will have more than enough tools to be very strong. Playable planeswalkers from War were mostly blue, I think other colors also need some support.
Blue on its own is definitely fine. It just got Narset, little Teferi, Ashiok, and Veto in WAR alone. It's about to get FoN and Charm assuming there are no other hits in the set. There's a popular, or at least vocal, opinion that blue is struggling and needs some support in Modern. UW Control is consistently a top 5 deck at most events with significant recent performance in both paper and MTGO venues. Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
Remember when diversity of blue reactive decks used to matter? And how a deck was banned over such a view? I guess that doesn't matter anymore right? Just "shut up, take UW and like it"?
Hopefully these new tools will give some help to decks that are not UW, and I know damn sure that I will be pushing that myself. But it is absolutely justified to complain about that considering all of the past actions and explanations given to us over several years, as well as their desire to push blue reactive decks in general and promote the diversity within those decks. Instead, they let them flounder for 2+ years and then exclusively make UW the only playable control color. So much for "diversity." I guess it wasn't really that important to suppress and supplant similar decks.
The GDS vs. UW matchup isn't as bad as it used to be when GDS was a new deck. Back then, UW was playing Verdict and Condemn, and a lot of GDS pilots didn't know how to play the matchup. I would always see people try to side into a grindy plan post-board, but you're just not going to out-grind UW Control. You have to be the aggro deck, strip all their answers and then kill them quickly before they find another.
With GDS pilots starting to figure that out, and UW moving towards Terminus and Oust, the matchup improved. I think it's still very unlikely to be an even matchup, though. If UW moves back towards Verdict, it'll make it bad again.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern UBR Grixis Shadow UBR UR Izzet Phoenix UR UW UW Control UW GB GB Rock GB
Commander BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
Blue on its own is definitely fine. It just got Narset, little Teferi, Ashiok, and Veto in WAR alone. It's about to get FoN and Charm assuming there are no other hits in the set. There's a popular, or at least vocal, opinion that blue is struggling and needs some support in Modern. UW Control is consistently a top 5 deck at most events with significant recent performance in both paper and MTGO venues. Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
I guess you mean URx control decks, because UR phoenix is doing just find. As a matter of fact, right now there are 2 mainly U and 1 party U decks at tier 1: UW control, UR Phoenix, and Grixis DS. That's not only 3 blue decks, but three distinctly different blue decks. Meanwhile, Jeskai is solidly at Tier 2 if not 1,5 when people figure out how to play the new cards, and the same goes for Esper which has several strong showings and sits easily at Tier 1,5. So yeah, I think U is both at an ok spot, and reasonably diverse, definitely much more diverse than when you would either play URx Twin or basically bust, since even Jeskai had developed into a twin variant.
I guess you mean URx control decks, because UR phoenix is doing just find. As a matter of fact, right now there are 2 mainly U and 1 party U decks at tier 1: UW control, UR Phoenix, and Grixis DS. That's not only 3 blue decks, but three distinctly different blue decks.
Yep, you have an aggro/combo deck, which is basically just replacing Storm, you have black-based "Jund with Negate", and then you have the only reasonable U-based reactive deck, as well as a variant of the same deck that plays Bolt and is considerably worse. Sure, I guess UW isn't "reducing diversity by supplanting similar decks"?
Phoenix supplanted Storm, GDS supplanted Jund, and UW supplanted every other reactive blue deck.
Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
Remember when diversity of blue reactive decks used to matter? And how a deck was banned over such a view? I guess that doesn't matter anymore right? Just "shut up, take UW and like it"?
Hopefully these new tools will give some help to decks that are not UW, and I know damn sure that I will be pushing that myself. But it is absolutely justified to complain about that considering all of the past actions and explanations given to us over several years, as well as their desire to push blue reactive decks in general and promote the diversity within those decks. Instead, they let them flounder for 2+ years and then exclusively make UW the only playable control color. So much for "diversity." I guess it wasn't really that important to suppress and supplant similar decks.
man what you are talking? You have UR Phoenix, you have UW control and even grixis Shadow. Should we play now 5 different tier 1 decks all with blue? I don't understand it, really. So many blue everywhere and still not enough?? Even if I don't talk about esper, storm, jeskai, ad naseum, blue Tron.... It's enough man. You have tier 1-tier 252 full of blue P. S ON STREAM SCG Jeskai control versus Izzet Phoenix at this moment. I see 6 lands, 1 field, 1 mountain, 4 which makes blue. What this mean to you?
Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
Remember when diversity of blue reactive decks used to matter? And how a deck was banned over such a view? I guess that doesn't matter anymore right? Just "shut up, take UW and like it"?
I think you'll enjoy the format more if you move past the Twin ban. I've already agreed it didn't meet its stated goals on diversity and merely reshuffled blue diversity at a GP/PT/MC level. The failure of the Twin ban to accomplish this goal does not indict the format as heavily as you often frame it. If you want to play a top-tier blue deck that is viable at the GP level, you can do so with GDS, Phoenix, UW Control, or Storm. Each of these decks will fulfill different Ux experiences. If you want to play a blue deck that is viable at more local levels, as I can't imagine you play exclusively GP, there are many more options out there.
What is the source for that? I normally don't request a specific citation, but if we're discussing objective MWP stats in a tournament for which 100% of the matchups are known, I need to see a source. The source is particularly important because Henke calculated the GDS vs. UWx matchup at 9/24 or 37.5% at the MCII. When we combine that with my GP sample from last year, where GDS was 43.6% vs UW Control (24/55), we get a combined sample of 33/79 or 42% MWP. The confidence interval on this is 30.8%-53.4%. This does not support the assertion that it is secretly a favorable matchup. There's a small chance that the matchup is truly 50% and our GP/MC sample is just estimating low, about an 8.5% chance, but that's fairly unlikely. It's statistically very unlikely that the matchup is favorable at 55%+ (1.4% chance).
Several interviews throughout the past two years, during GPs and such. I heard once LSV talking about the matter, in the same terms I used, more or less one year ago. Then another Pro basically reiterated the same a pair of months later, but I'm ashamed I didn't know him and I can't remember the name.
Anyway, I said "secretly quite good", which I translate "more or less 50/50, definitely not unfavourable". For the completeness of the argument (I may have been misleading, English obviously isn't my native language).
Again, I'll state that most people don't know how to play the matchup (being on the GDS side). At first players tended to make it a grindfest, while UW is obviously better positioned at doing that. I remember the times when I was suggesting to bring Surgical in after sideboard, cause you have to take their removals and race them instead of procrastinating the game, and people told me something along the lines "whut, they run Rest in Peace, this is just stupid". That's just an example, obviously, in order to make you understand what was the "post sb ideal gameplan" for most of them. Then, when I decided to race UWx Control(s) instead of grinding them out, my win ratio went from around 30% to around 55%. I'm talking about more than 100-120 matches, which isn't a small sample. And players I know that took the same approach had similar results.
I guess you mean URx control decks, because UR phoenix is doing just find. As a matter of fact, right now there are 2 mainly U and 1 party U decks at tier 1: UW control, UR Phoenix, and Grixis DS. That's not only 3 blue decks, but three distinctly different blue decks.
Yep, you have an aggro/combo deck, which is basically just replacing Storm, you have black-based "Jund with Negate", and then you have the only reasonable U-based reactive deck, as well as a variant of the same deck that plays Bolt and is considerably worse. Sure, I guess UW isn't "reducing diversity by supplanting similar decks"?
Phoenix supplanted Storm, GDS supplanted Jund, and UW supplanted every other reactive blue deck.
I honestly don't understand what is that you want (besides Twin unban). You are jumping from logical loop to logical loop to create a narrative that Twin was unjustly banned, a point which, at several points, people have agreed. Yes, it is possible that Twin would be safe now. Yes, the argument about deck diversity doesn't necessarily stand, although at THAT point when it was made, it stood (even though it didn't work, I hope I won't have to restate it).
HOWEVER, at this point, the format DOES have a variety of U decks. Whether you choose to describe them in weird ways to fit your narrative is a different matter.
Phoenix did not supplant Storm, Storm is still a relevant Tier 1 strategy.
GDS description of Jund with negate I think is rather unfair. It's like describing 8-rack Jund with 1 color. Just because both decks are midrange it doesn't mean that they are the same. The deck plays 12-14 U cards maindeck, and 4-6 on the SB.
Regarding UW control, yes it is the best control deck you can play atm, although Esper and Jeskai have a lot to show, whether you choose to see it or not.
So what is it EXACTLY that you expect, besides a Twin unban?
Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
Remember when diversity of blue reactive decks used to matter? And how a deck was banned over such a view? I guess that doesn't matter anymore right? Just "shut up, take UW and like it"?
I think you'll enjoy the format more if you move past the Twin ban.
It has nothing to do with the Twin ban, it has everything to do with play patterns. I have greatly enjoyed Modern once I stopped caring about winning and just played my trashy blue decks (usually Blue Moon variants) and humbly 3-2 and 4-1 most FNMs, usually getting stomped by obnoxious nonsense like Dredge and Hollow One that's still around.
The point I am getting at is more on principle. If the idea that a deck supplanting others actually matters, than UW is supplanting other reactive blue decks. As mentioned, this was enough of a reason to cite within a ban announcement. If they want to come out and say that reason was a load of horses**t, then fine. But if they accept that was a reasonable justification, then why do they continue to force UW, thus supplanting all other reactive blue decks? Could it be that they simply just didn't like Twin? And just came up with a bunch of thinly-veiled, nonsensical BS to justify removing it? Yeah, I wonder why that would leave a lasting impression... especially after more than a handful of stints in which the format was the worst it has ever been.
I guess it's just inevitable that, as a result of my Snap Bolt deck supplanting too many other reactive Snap Bolt decks, and whose removal resulted in no Snap Bolt reactive decks being actually any good, that would frustrate someone who just wants to play a damn Snap Bolt deck. Hopefully one that doesn't get utterly steamrolled by pretty much all the top decks in the format, and whose life is limited to beating up on janky brews and bad budget FNM decks.
Once you stop caring about winning, it's almost enjoyable! I look forward to playing bad Mentor decks with the new free protection spell.
As a therapist in real life, I have to say I've never seen ptsd occur from the banning of a card before.
I mean, did the twin ban fail? Yup. Does blue have a bunch of good, viable tier 1 and tier 2 decks? Yeah. You're making this hard, man.
It's more a matter of I don't want someone misquoting or misrepresenting, to me, what my beliefs or views are or should be. Especially when I have explained them thoroughly multiple times. Honestly, I don't care as much as it probably seems like online, but online discussions usually trend toward extremes fairly quickly (I'm also only teaching part time this year to spend time with my newborn, and have WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME to sit in front of a computer). For me personally, my tie is mostly because I spent thousands of dollars and years of my life playing Snap Bolt decks and loving every minute of it. All I want in Magic is to play a competitive Snap Bolt deck, which is what I'd spent the last 3 and a half years searching for (and found a few before Probe and Push took away Delver, Geist became irrelevant, and Moon ain't what it used to be, no matter what wincon you shove in, etc). All the while, having people tell me to play these other things that are nothing like it, and to shut up and enjoy it because it plays islands. Whatevs. I play bad decks and no longer care about winning.
I spent years playing a foiled out jund deck that is mainly irrelevant now. What makes you so feel you're entitled? I'd love a drs unban or pod but it's not happening. Great arguements or not. You moved the goal line. Before it was all blue is bad, then it was gds isnt for me. Then Phoenix is too linear.
You said it yourself, you're doing 3 and 1 or 4 and 0 a lot. Its competitive enough with where you play.
It's an untenable argument to state Blue is in any way struggling, it could easily be the best colour in the format after MH goes live.
UW Control/Midrange (more Tap Out Control) could easily be the formats best deck.
UR Phoenix is still the best xerox deck.
Esper Control can still snipe a tournament if the meta warps.
GDS is still a Grixis deck, and is therefore Blue.
I'm actually getting concerned that outside of fringe decks that beat up on UW, that UW is potentially going to be the best deck in the format, and people will hate it.
As a therapist in real life, I have to say I've never seen ptsd occur from the banning of a card before.
I mean, did the twin ban fail? Yup. Does blue have a bunch of good, viable tier 1 and tier 2 decks? Yeah. You're making this hard, man.
It's more a matter of I don't want someone misquoting or misrepresenting, to me, what my beliefs or views are or should be.
I think you are the person who is best able to explain your views. I also don't think anyone in this thread would be able to explain those views beyond "Want to play Twin," "Want to play Snap/Bolt URx," "Don't like Modern decks perceived as too linear," and "Haven't liked many Modern metagames/top tier decks in the past few years." And honestly, I think it would be significantly less generous than that. If you feel like your beliefs are misrepresented, you should explain them.
All I want in Magic is to play a competitive Snap Bolt deck, which is what I'd spent the last 3 and a half years searching for (and found a few before Probe and Push took away Delver, Geist became irrelevant, and Moon ain't what it used to be, no matter what wincon you shove in, etc). All the while, having people tell me to play these other things that are nothing like it, and to shut up and enjoy it because it plays islands. Whatevs. I play bad decks and no longer care about winning.
This is a relatively specific desire. Wanting a top-tier, GP-viable Ux reactive deck is not; Wizards does have an obligation to make such decks viable in Modern. They have fulfilled that obligation. Such a Snap/Bolt/URx deck, however, is not a Modern or Wizards obligation. It is especially not something Wizards owes the format when such decks are viable in all but the largest events. As most of us don't play those regularly, if at all, any of our needs should be relatively met when it comes to viable (at the level we typically play) URx decks.
]
It's more a matter of I don't want someone misquoting or misrepresenting, to me, what my beliefs or views are or should be. Especially when I have explained them thoroughly multiple times. Honestly, I don't care as much as it probably seems like online, but online discussions usually trend toward extremes fairly quickly (I'm also only teaching part time this year to spend time with my newborn, and have WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME to sit in front of a computer). For me personally, my tie is mostly because I spent thousands of dollars and years of my life playing Snap Bolt decks and loving every minute of it. All I want in Magic is to play a competitive Snap Bolt deck, which is what I'd spent the last 3 and a half years searching for (and found a few before Probe and Push took away Delver, Geist became irrelevant, and Moon ain't what it used to be, no matter what wincon you shove in, etc). All the while, having people tell me to play these other things that are nothing like it, and to shut up and enjoy it because it plays islands. Whatevs. I play bad decks and no longer care about winning.
Really this is not a valid general argument. A personal desire or grudge, sure. But we all have one. I would love to have a competitive UB Faeries deck or a competitive Cruel Ultimatum/Grixis deck, but I don't have it. And no, I don't want to play GDS, hence I am not playing it. I do jam my Faeries or Grixis control almost every FNM, unless I want to practice UW for a bigger tournament. I get frustrated that UB colors get stupid mill cards. But it is what it is, there is still a playable Faeries deck, and I pilot it to the best of my abilities (admittedly not that great). That's how ANY format works.
Can't hear it anymore. Blue gets so much stuff. I get nothing for my eldrazi stompy this time till now, but it's OK because this happens sometimes. But if we look at blue, there is no set, standard or premium, where they don't get great cards
Really this is not a valid general argument. A personal desire or grudge, sure. But we all have one.
It's different when your deck was banned for "suppressing" all these other decks that were supposed to flourish, compared to a deck just always being bad or falling out of favor over time through natural evolution.
Either way, I have no desire to discuss this further. New cards look interesting and I will put them in all sorts of bad decks that I don't expect to win with.
Can't hear it anymore. Blue gets so much stuff. I get nothing for my eldrazi stompy this time till now, but it's OK because this happens sometimes. But if we look at blue, there is no set, standard or premium, where they don't get great cards
Can't hear it anymore. Blue gets so much stuff. I get nothing for my eldrazi stompy this time till now, but it's OK because this happens sometimes. But if we look at blue, there is no set, standard or premium, where they don't get great cards
You got Karn.
Tron + red stompy get karn. We tested it and it seems it is not worth even we are not finished testing. Most of us get away now from karn. By the way, it was last set. This time 0 cards. You hear me crying? It's OK. Compare this to blue mage. Even 2 great cards after half spoiler, they come and say it is not enough and not good. Even they get in last 4 sets 6-8 great cards, most maindeck. OK not all of them do this. Some are happy like it should be
What is the source for that? I normally don't request a specific citation, but if we're discussing objective MWP stats in a tournament for which 100% of the matchups are known, I need to see a source. The source is particularly important because Henke calculated the GDS vs. UWx matchup at 9/24 or 37.5% at the MCII. When we combine that with my GP sample from last year, where GDS was 43.6% vs UW Control (24/55), we get a combined sample of 33/79 or 42% MWP. The confidence interval on this is 30.8%-53.4%. This does not support the assertion that it is secretly a favorable matchup. There's a small chance that the matchup is truly 50% and our GP/MC sample is just estimating low, about an 8.5% chance, but that's fairly unlikely. It's statistically very unlikely that the matchup is favorable at 55%+ (1.4% chance).
Blue on its own is definitely fine. It just got Narset, little Teferi, Ashiok, and Veto in WAR alone. It's about to get FoN and Charm assuming there are no other hits in the set. There's a popular, or at least vocal, opinion that blue is struggling and needs some support in Modern. UW Control is consistently a top 5 deck at most events with significant recent performance in both paper and MTGO venues. Blue doesn't need more help. I know that folks like CFP will point out that URx is doing much worse than UWx, but that's not a plausible indictment of blue's viability. That's just a complaint about a specific pairing.
Remember when diversity of blue reactive decks used to matter? And how a deck was banned over such a view? I guess that doesn't matter anymore right? Just "shut up, take UW and like it"?
Hopefully these new tools will give some help to decks that are not UW, and I know damn sure that I will be pushing that myself. But it is absolutely justified to complain about that considering all of the past actions and explanations given to us over several years, as well as their desire to push blue reactive decks in general and promote the diversity within those decks. Instead, they let them flounder for 2+ years and then exclusively make UW the only playable control color. So much for "diversity." I guess it wasn't really that important to suppress and supplant similar decks.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
With GDS pilots starting to figure that out, and UW moving towards Terminus and Oust, the matchup improved. I think it's still very unlikely to be an even matchup, though. If UW moves back towards Verdict, it'll make it bad again.
UBR Grixis Shadow UBR
UR Izzet Phoenix UR
UW UW Control UW
GB GB Rock GB
Commander
BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG
BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
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
Yep, you have an aggro/combo deck, which is basically just replacing Storm, you have black-based "Jund with Negate", and then you have the only reasonable U-based reactive deck, as well as a variant of the same deck that plays Bolt and is considerably worse. Sure, I guess UW isn't "reducing diversity by supplanting similar decks"?
Phoenix supplanted Storm, GDS supplanted Jund, and UW supplanted every other reactive blue deck.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I think you'll enjoy the format more if you move past the Twin ban. I've already agreed it didn't meet its stated goals on diversity and merely reshuffled blue diversity at a GP/PT/MC level. The failure of the Twin ban to accomplish this goal does not indict the format as heavily as you often frame it. If you want to play a top-tier blue deck that is viable at the GP level, you can do so with GDS, Phoenix, UW Control, or Storm. Each of these decks will fulfill different Ux experiences. If you want to play a blue deck that is viable at more local levels, as I can't imagine you play exclusively GP, there are many more options out there.
Several interviews throughout the past two years, during GPs and such. I heard once LSV talking about the matter, in the same terms I used, more or less one year ago. Then another Pro basically reiterated the same a pair of months later, but I'm ashamed I didn't know him and I can't remember the name.
Anyway, I said "secretly quite good", which I translate "more or less 50/50, definitely not unfavourable". For the completeness of the argument (I may have been misleading, English obviously isn't my native language).
Again, I'll state that most people don't know how to play the matchup (being on the GDS side). At first players tended to make it a grindfest, while UW is obviously better positioned at doing that. I remember the times when I was suggesting to bring Surgical in after sideboard, cause you have to take their removals and race them instead of procrastinating the game, and people told me something along the lines "whut, they run Rest in Peace, this is just stupid". That's just an example, obviously, in order to make you understand what was the "post sb ideal gameplan" for most of them. Then, when I decided to race UWx Control(s) instead of grinding them out, my win ratio went from around 30% to around 55%. I'm talking about more than 100-120 matches, which isn't a small sample. And players I know that took the same approach had similar results.
So, yeah, I'm quite confident in what I said.
HOWEVER, at this point, the format DOES have a variety of U decks. Whether you choose to describe them in weird ways to fit your narrative is a different matter.
Phoenix did not supplant Storm, Storm is still a relevant Tier 1 strategy.
GDS description of Jund with negate I think is rather unfair. It's like describing 8-rack Jund with 1 color. Just because both decks are midrange it doesn't mean that they are the same. The deck plays 12-14 U cards maindeck, and 4-6 on the SB.
Regarding UW control, yes it is the best control deck you can play atm, although Esper and Jeskai have a lot to show, whether you choose to see it or not.
So what is it EXACTLY that you expect, besides a Twin unban?
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
It has nothing to do with the Twin ban, it has everything to do with play patterns. I have greatly enjoyed Modern once I stopped caring about winning and just played my trashy blue decks (usually Blue Moon variants) and humbly 3-2 and 4-1 most FNMs, usually getting stomped by obnoxious nonsense like Dredge and Hollow One that's still around.
The point I am getting at is more on principle. If the idea that a deck supplanting others actually matters, than UW is supplanting other reactive blue decks. As mentioned, this was enough of a reason to cite within a ban announcement. If they want to come out and say that reason was a load of horses**t, then fine. But if they accept that was a reasonable justification, then why do they continue to force UW, thus supplanting all other reactive blue decks? Could it be that they simply just didn't like Twin? And just came up with a bunch of thinly-veiled, nonsensical BS to justify removing it? Yeah, I wonder why that would leave a lasting impression... especially after more than a handful of stints in which the format was the worst it has ever been.
I guess it's just inevitable that, as a result of my Snap Bolt deck supplanting too many other reactive Snap Bolt decks, and whose removal resulted in no Snap Bolt reactive decks being actually any good, that would frustrate someone who just wants to play a damn Snap Bolt deck. Hopefully one that doesn't get utterly steamrolled by pretty much all the top decks in the format, and whose life is limited to beating up on janky brews and bad budget FNM decks.
Once you stop caring about winning, it's almost enjoyable! I look forward to playing bad Mentor decks with the new free protection spell.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I mean, did the twin ban fail? Yup. Does blue have a bunch of good, viable tier 1 and tier 2 decks? Yeah. You're making this hard, man.
It's more a matter of I don't want someone misquoting or misrepresenting, to me, what my beliefs or views are or should be. Especially when I have explained them thoroughly multiple times. Honestly, I don't care as much as it probably seems like online, but online discussions usually trend toward extremes fairly quickly (I'm also only teaching part time this year to spend time with my newborn, and have WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME to sit in front of a computer). For me personally, my tie is mostly because I spent thousands of dollars and years of my life playing Snap Bolt decks and loving every minute of it. All I want in Magic is to play a competitive Snap Bolt deck, which is what I'd spent the last 3 and a half years searching for (and found a few before Probe and Push took away Delver, Geist became irrelevant, and Moon ain't what it used to be, no matter what wincon you shove in, etc). All the while, having people tell me to play these other things that are nothing like it, and to shut up and enjoy it because it plays islands. Whatevs. I play bad decks and no longer care about winning.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
You said it yourself, you're doing 3 and 1 or 4 and 0 a lot. Its competitive enough with where you play.
UW Control/Midrange (more Tap Out Control) could easily be the formats best deck.
UR Phoenix is still the best xerox deck.
Esper Control can still snipe a tournament if the meta warps.
GDS is still a Grixis deck, and is therefore Blue.
I'm actually getting concerned that outside of fringe decks that beat up on UW, that UW is potentially going to be the best deck in the format, and people will hate it.
Spirits
I think you are the person who is best able to explain your views. I also don't think anyone in this thread would be able to explain those views beyond "Want to play Twin," "Want to play Snap/Bolt URx," "Don't like Modern decks perceived as too linear," and "Haven't liked many Modern metagames/top tier decks in the past few years." And honestly, I think it would be significantly less generous than that. If you feel like your beliefs are misrepresented, you should explain them.
This is a relatively specific desire. Wanting a top-tier, GP-viable Ux reactive deck is not; Wizards does have an obligation to make such decks viable in Modern. They have fulfilled that obligation. Such a Snap/Bolt/URx deck, however, is not a Modern or Wizards obligation. It is especially not something Wizards owes the format when such decks are viable in all but the largest events. As most of us don't play those regularly, if at all, any of our needs should be relatively met when it comes to viable (at the level we typically play) URx 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
Spirits
It's different when your deck was banned for "suppressing" all these other decks that were supposed to flourish, compared to a deck just always being bad or falling out of favor over time through natural evolution.
Either way, I have no desire to discuss this further. New cards look interesting and I will put them in all sorts of bad decks that I don't expect to win with.
Carry on.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
You got Karn.
Spirits
Its like...I dont know, asking for 8rack to get cards every set.
Spirits