I'm deeply ambivalent about these SCG results. On the one hand, there are some sick decks that appear in the T16. Last week's event almost singlehandedly gave me hope for the format. RW LOCKDOWN? ZOMBIES?? This week isn't quite as novel, but UW Tron and Dredgevine are still quite cool.
Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
I'm deeply ambivalent about these SCG results. On the one hand, there are some sick decks that appear in the T16. Last week's event almost singlehandedly gave me hope for the format. RW LOCKDOWN? ZOMBIES?? This week isn't quite as novel, but UW Tron and Dredgevine are still quite cool.
Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
Agreed. I just hope that the meta can adapt to BGx and keep it down.
Sooo I guess I'm the only one who cared enough to look into the burn deck list.
This is a joke right? Your playing in a modern event... and you didnt upgrade to BOLT at least from shock.
Gross.
Well it was only 39th, which is still more than I would have guessed, so I don't even know why it got posted since they don't do coverage or deck techs. Although, it may have been a case of here look a standard deck made it this far.
I'm deeply ambivalent about these SCG results. On the one hand, there are some sick decks that appear in the T16. Last week's event almost singlehandedly gave me hope for the format. RW LOCKDOWN? ZOMBIES?? This week isn't quite as novel, but UW Tron and Dredgevine are still quite cool.
Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
Agreed. I just hope that the meta can adapt to BGx and keep it down.
Agreed as well. Tron needs to come back in force and the control decks need to go over the top with mkre revs battersulls, krenaos, and more answers to goyf to keep them down. The problem is that anything that is built to beat gbx will have a horrible combo matchup which the rest of the tier one decks except affinity are.
The more I get out and about to play Modern, I am noticing metas are very regional. In a format where playing what you are comfortable with, I can understand it to a point. But I think other things play into it. Such as what cards players can get their hands on for the short list of decks they wish to play, and what others are playing locally. SCG events are showing this a little now too. This week wasnt as innovative/experimental as last, but it can be a regional thing.
I'm deeply ambivalent about these SCG results. On the one hand, there are some sick decks that appear in the T16. Last week's event almost singlehandedly gave me hope for the format. RW LOCKDOWN? ZOMBIES?? This week isn't quite as novel, but UW Tron and Dredgevine are still quite cool.
Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
The other color combinations DO have the cards in print to put up a fight against BG/x more efficiently ... It's just that all those cards are banned.
I'm deeply ambivalent about these SCG results. On the one hand, there are some sick decks that appear in the T16. Last week's event almost singlehandedly gave me hope for the format. RW LOCKDOWN? ZOMBIES?? This week isn't quite as novel, but UW Tron and Dredgevine are still quite cool.
Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
The other color combinations DO have the cards in print to put up a fight against BG/x more efficiently ... It's just that all those cards are banned.
And a lot of those cards would go right into BGx if unbanned, causing nothing to change. Those cards include Sensei's Top, Stoneforge Mystic, Ponder, Preordain, Jace, possibly AV, and Umezawa's Jitte.
I think that the actual problem may come from the arbitrarily imposed lack of fast combo, and the relative low power of stack control. I mean Jund is basically playing a legacy-lite deck while all the other strategies are stuck playing modern.
Hopefully though the Jund is just a location thing and we will see more variety in other locations.
I'm deeply ambivalent about these SCG results. On the one hand, there are some sick decks that appear in the T16. Last week's event almost singlehandedly gave me hope for the format. RW LOCKDOWN? ZOMBIES?? This week isn't quite as novel, but UW Tron and Dredgevine are still quite cool.
Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
The other color combinations DO have the cards in print to put up a fight against BG/x more efficiently ... It's just that all those cards are banned.
And a lot of those cards would go right into BGx if unbanned, causing nothing to change. Those cards include Sensei's Top, Stoneforge Mystic, Ponder, Preordain, Jace, possibly AV, and Umezawa's Jitte.
I feel like the whole BG/x thing is a big arbitrary. There are only a certain amount of cards you can put into a deck. A card like AV would slow the deck down too much. Jitte will never be unbanned, that card can stay on the list forever for all I care.
If unbanning a few cards to power up other strategies would also create an offshoot BUG deck, that wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. I'm sure a deck like Modern miracles could make FAR better use of cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Preordain.
WoTC is probably going to have to print a few more powerful cards in the other color combinations in order to bring them up to par with BG/x, but unbanning cards would help other strategies far more than it would help some non-existant BUG deck come to fruition.
What you are missing is current BGx decks can just slide over to blue with no problem. That is not creating a new deck so much as just BGx decks shifting to a color(s) that give them more options. I wouldnt be surprised to see 4 color BGxx decks, and them still dominating.
The only way unbanning cards to help other color combinations would work, is if current strong builds could not or would not use said cards. Which has been pointed out, would not be the case.
If you raise the bar on the top decks by adding more cards for the lower tier decks, the lower tier decks will never catch up to the top tier decks. We would just have a hand full of top decks and a few dozen lower tier decks.
Plus how many would actually change decks completely once they are invested in a certain deck just because of a couple unbans? We might see a pro or two running a BGu build here and there, but would the masses be comfortable with jumping ship and moving into that build?
BG/x could slide into blue, but that doesn't mean Jund or Junk versions of BG/x stop being playable. That is at least 3 variations of the BG/x that are playable decks. But again, a card like top or SoTM would do far more to help other strategies than it would ever do for BG/x.
DRS was the card that enabled 4 color Jund. I seriously doubt we would see 4 color BG/x now that people have finally realized how good running tec edges are.
One last thing ... This forum has been notoriously horrible at judging the impact cards have on this format. Every time something is unbanned, the format apparently is going to be broken in 50 different ways, and it has not happened. The cards that have been unbanned haven't had any negative side-effects on the format. To the contrary, Faeries is now a deck, which is great. But I remember everyone going on and on about BG/x maindecking anywhere between 2 - 4 Bitterblossoms.
It didn't happen, and it won't happen if Top, SoTM or AV get unbanned.
BG/x could slide into blue, but that doesn't mean Jund or Junk versions of BG/x stop being playable. That is at least 3 variations of the BG/x that are playable decks. But again, a card like top or SoTM would do far more to help other strategies than it would ever do for BG/x.
DRS was the card that enabled 4 color Jund. I seriously doubt we would see 4 color BG/x now that people have finally realized how good running tec edges are.
One last thing ... This forum has been notoriously horrible at judging the impact cards have on this format. Every time something is unbanned, the format apparently is going to be broken in 50 different ways, and it has not happened. The cards that have been unbanned haven't had any negative side-effects on the format. To the contrary, Faeries is now a deck, which is great. But I remember everyone going on and on about BG/x maindecking anywhere between 2 - 4 Bitterblossoms.
This is really not a convo for here, but the ban list. Not to mention these exact cards have been talked about numerous times in the ban list.
It didn't happen, and it won't happen if Top, SoTM or AV get unbanned.
This is really not a convo for here, but the ban list. Not to mention these exact cards have been talked about numerous times in the ban list.
I would suggest re-reading the reasons why some of those cards are banned and then read AF interviews. He has made it pretty clear where they stand.
What you are missing is current BGx decks can just slide over to blue with no problem. That is not creating a new deck so much as just BGx decks shifting to a color(s) that give them more options. I wouldnt be surprised to see 4 color BGxx decks, and them still dominating.
The only way unbanning cards to help other color combinations would work, is if current strong builds could not or would not use said cards. Which has been pointed out, would not be the case.
If you raise the bar on the top decks by adding more cards for the lower tier decks, the lower tier decks will never catch up to the top tier decks. We would just have a hand full of top decks and a few dozen lower tier decks.
Plus how many would actually change decks completely once they are invested in a certain deck just because of a couple unbans? We might see a pro or two running a BGu build here and there, but would the masses be comfortable with jumping ship and moving into that build?
If they truly wanted to avoid that kind of situation, they need to print good cards that are outside of what the midrange playstyle wants to do. Also, while it may not make people that are already invested in the deck change, if there where more tier 1 options it decreases the odds that someone new to the format will build the deck and over time it will just filter through.
The more I get out and about to play Modern, I am noticing metas are very regional. In a format where playing what you are comfortable with, I can understand it to a point. But I think other things play into it. Such as what cards players can get their hands on for the short list of decks they wish to play, and what others are playing locally. SCG events are showing this a little now too. This week wasnt as innovative/experimental as last, but it can be a regional thing.
I believe this is true. I was ready for the "rise of BGx" at my local PTQ on Sat. I had a deck that is good against BGx, but poor against Pod and especially Twin. I played against 1 BGx and 2 UR Twin. The UR Twin gave me both of my losses, keeping me out of the top 8 (23rd since I ID'd the final round). I even had 4 Leyline of Sanctity. I really was ready for BGx and it didn't pay off.
One thing is that a lot of local CA players went to the Grand Prix in Portland and this skewed our meta a bit.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
The more I get out and about to play Modern, I am noticing metas are very regional. In a format where playing what you are comfortable with, I can understand it to a point. But I think other things play into it. Such as what cards players can get their hands on for the short list of decks they wish to play, and what others are playing locally. SCG events are showing this a little now too. This week wasnt as innovative/experimental as last, but it can be a regional thing.
I believe this is true. I was ready for the "rise of BGx" at my local PTQ on Sat. I had a deck that is good against BGx, but poor against Pod and especially Twin. I played against 1 BGx and 2 UR Twin. The UR Twin gave me both of my losses, keeping me out of the top 8 (23rd since I ID'd the final round). I even had 4 Leyline of Sanctity. I really was ready for BGx and it didn't pay off.
One thing is that a lot of local CA players went to the Grand Prix in Portland and this skewed our meta a bit.
I agree. At TCG States the other week I was expecting a ton of BGx, but instead about 60% of the field was on UWR control, then some Pod. Almost no Twin, 1 or 2 BGx, and then a bunch of Merfolk (which of course I got paired up against 2 rounds in a row and got slaughtered).
i'm surprised its taken this long for the GB shell vs the UW shell conversation to come up again. one's power level is significantly higher than the other's.
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I speak in sarcasm because calling people ******* ******** is not allowed.
I'm not sure why people think the rise of BG(x) is a bad thing. Yes, it's a good deck, but it's also exceedingly fair. It preys on some of the most unfair decks (Twin, mostly) while having decent matchups all around, with nothing being unwinnable (though Tron is bad). The format is exceedingly healthy right now.
I'm not sure why people think the rise of BG(x) is a bad thing. Yes, it's a good deck, but it's also exceedingly fair. It preys on some of the most unfair decks (Twin, mostly) while having decent matchups all around, with nothing being unwinnable (though Tron is bad). The format is exceedingly healthy right now.
Mostly because it's the only shell which was completely unmolested for a long time. The other shells whether they were uw or gw, or whatever else were severly cut.
Even bg has only really lost deathrite and it's still the most powerful of those goodstuff shells. The other shells aren't really unfair either, so why is bgn allowed to play with most of it's toys when no one else could?
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Currently Playing:
Modern: UWUW TronUW
Legacy: WDeath N TaxesW CEldrazi C
If you couldn't tell I hate greedy blue decks.
It's a bad thing when it takes 6/16 of the T16 slots. That usually leads to something getting banned if it happens at a GP. (See: GP Bilbao, GP Prague).
It's a bad thing when it takes 6/16 of the T16 slots. That usually leads to something getting banned if it happens at a GP. (See: GP Bilbao, GP Prague).
The thing is, the SCG events are localized. GPs are not. Thats why when a deck takes close to 50% of the top spots at a higher level events Wotc has to do something about it.
Dont know what the problem is either. BG/x is the only thing that is keeping Modern from devolving into a complete combo format.
If people are sick and tired of combo they play BG/x. What is the problem with that?
BG/x lost Punishing Fire and Bloodbraid Elf too by the way and not only Deathrite Shaman.
I'm not sure why people think the rise of BG(x) is a bad thing. Yes, it's a good deck, but it's also exceedingly fair. It preys on some of the most unfair decks (Twin, mostly) while having decent matchups all around, with nothing being unwinnable (though Tron is bad). The format is exceedingly healthy right now.
Mostly because it's the only shell which was completely unmolested for a long time. The other shells whether they were uw or gw, or whatever else were severly cut.
Even bg has only really lost deathrite and it's still the most powerful of those goodstuff shells. The other shells aren't really unfair either, so why is bgn allowed to play with most of it's toys when no one else could?
The shell has changed pretty drastically from the days of Deathrite Shaman (and Bloodbraid Elf), let's be honest. This isn't the Jund deck anymore. It's even more fair, boring, and midrangy. It doesn't have toys, just above the curve, efficient things. It's not broken, fast, etc. It's just grindy.
Modern is so far from being a complete combo format, I don't know how you could think that's even close to true.
Part of the reason it's true is because there are two decks (BGx and UWR) that have pretty good combo matchups, and they help keep things "fair". Tron preys on those decks though, but is pretty bad against combo (and to be fair, I'm including Affinity as a combo deck). What "toy" would you even want to take away from what is literally a boring midrange goodstuff deck? It's so fair! Nothing it does is more than "oh yeah, well, that seems kind of decent I guess".
I'll admit, I played it cold at a PTQ over the weekend to an 8th place finish, but I had to grind the hell out of every match. I played 8 rounds, ever single one of them going to 3 games, winning 3 in extra turns, drawing once, and generally just giving myself a headache every match, but never once did I feel like anything I was doing was banworthy.
I'm not sure why people think the rise of BG(x) is a bad thing. Yes, it's a good deck, but it's also exceedingly fair. It preys on some of the most unfair decks (Twin, mostly) while having decent matchups all around, with nothing being unwinnable (though Tron is bad). The format is exceedingly healthy right now.
Mostly because it's the only shell which was completely unmolested for a long time. The other shells whether they were uw or gw, or whatever else were severly cut.
Even bg has only really lost deathrite and it's still the most powerful of those goodstuff shells. The other shells aren't really unfair either, so why is bgn allowed to play with most of it's toys when no one else could?
The shell has changed pretty drastically from the days of Deathrite Shaman (and Bloodbraid Elf), let's be honest. This isn't the Jund deck anymore. It's even more fair, boring, and midrangy. It doesn't have toys, just above the curve, efficient things. It's not broken, fast, etc. It's just grindy.
It was always a bgX shell. It was only Jund for bolt and bbe. It's still the same shell. The deck hasn't changes that much.
My point wasn't that it's broken, but it gets to keep more of it's efficient toys than any other proven shell. Claw blade or the uw shell isn't broken, it's just grindy. Maverick isn't broken either it's a goodstuff midrangey toolbox deck but it's not allowed to have gsz.
My point pretty obviously went over your head. Bg isn't broken, but it gets to play with more of it's efficient toys where other midrangey decks don't.
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Legacy: WDeath N TaxesW CEldrazi C
If you couldn't tell I hate greedy blue decks.
Vintage WWhite Trash
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Then there's all this BGx *****. At least we didn't see any Jund added on top of the BG Rock and BG Souls lists this week.
The issue with BGx is the same today as it was in August of last year (but to a lesser extent with the death of DRS). BGx has the best cards in the format. These are cards that see regular play in Legacy alongside a much more broken assortment of decks, so it is pretty natural that they see play here. I'm looking at you, Goyf/Decay/Lilly/Thoughtseize/IoK/Bob. No other color combination has that kind of concentrated power, which is one reason we keep seeing these lists.
Another reason is that players know about the relative power level of this deck. Why risk going in with Ad Nauseam or Nykthos Green when you can play it safe and take a 50/50, 55/45 matchup across the board with your BGx deck? When your worst matchup is only slightly worse than even and your best matchups are decidedly in your favor, you just can't go wrong with the deck.
About the only good news to come out of these events is that they continue to suggest the "fairness" of Twin and Pod. When checked and respected, those decks don't dominate.
Sample size is still small, so it's not quite time for falling skies, but my eyes are definitely open.
4 Young Pyromancer
8 Mountain
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
3 Magma Jet
4 Shock
4 Skullcrack
2 Stoke the Flames
4 Warleader's Helix
3 Boros Reckoner
2 Banishing Light
2 Reprisal
2 Wear
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Mizzium Mortars
This is a joke right? Your playing in a modern event... and you didnt upgrade to BOLT at least from shock.
Gross.
Agreed. I just hope that the meta can adapt to BGx and keep it down.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Well it was only 39th, which is still more than I would have guessed, so I don't even know why it got posted since they don't do coverage or deck techs. Although, it may have been a case of here look a standard deck made it this far.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
Agreed as well. Tron needs to come back in force and the control decks need to go over the top with mkre revs battersulls, krenaos, and more answers to goyf to keep them down. The problem is that anything that is built to beat gbx will have a horrible combo matchup which the rest of the tier one decks except affinity are.
The other color combinations DO have the cards in print to put up a fight against BG/x more efficiently ... It's just that all those cards are banned.
And a lot of those cards would go right into BGx if unbanned, causing nothing to change. Those cards include Sensei's Top, Stoneforge Mystic, Ponder, Preordain, Jace, possibly AV, and Umezawa's Jitte.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Hopefully though the Jund is just a location thing and we will see more variety in other locations.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
I feel like the whole BG/x thing is a big arbitrary. There are only a certain amount of cards you can put into a deck. A card like AV would slow the deck down too much. Jitte will never be unbanned, that card can stay on the list forever for all I care.
If unbanning a few cards to power up other strategies would also create an offshoot BUG deck, that wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. I'm sure a deck like Modern miracles could make FAR better use of cards like Sensei's Divining Top and Preordain.
WoTC is probably going to have to print a few more powerful cards in the other color combinations in order to bring them up to par with BG/x, but unbanning cards would help other strategies far more than it would help some non-existant BUG deck come to fruition.
The only way unbanning cards to help other color combinations would work, is if current strong builds could not or would not use said cards. Which has been pointed out, would not be the case.
If you raise the bar on the top decks by adding more cards for the lower tier decks, the lower tier decks will never catch up to the top tier decks. We would just have a hand full of top decks and a few dozen lower tier decks.
Plus how many would actually change decks completely once they are invested in a certain deck just because of a couple unbans? We might see a pro or two running a BGu build here and there, but would the masses be comfortable with jumping ship and moving into that build?
DRS was the card that enabled 4 color Jund. I seriously doubt we would see 4 color BG/x now that people have finally realized how good running tec edges are.
One last thing ... This forum has been notoriously horrible at judging the impact cards have on this format. Every time something is unbanned, the format apparently is going to be broken in 50 different ways, and it has not happened. The cards that have been unbanned haven't had any negative side-effects on the format. To the contrary, Faeries is now a deck, which is great. But I remember everyone going on and on about BG/x maindecking anywhere between 2 - 4 Bitterblossoms.
It didn't happen, and it won't happen if Top, SoTM or AV get unbanned.
This is really not a convo for here, but the ban list. Not to mention these exact cards have been talked about numerous times in the ban list.
I would suggest re-reading the reasons why some of those cards are banned and then read AF interviews. He has made it pretty clear where they stand.
If they truly wanted to avoid that kind of situation, they need to print good cards that are outside of what the midrange playstyle wants to do. Also, while it may not make people that are already invested in the deck change, if there where more tier 1 options it decreases the odds that someone new to the format will build the deck and over time it will just filter through.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
I believe this is true. I was ready for the "rise of BGx" at my local PTQ on Sat. I had a deck that is good against BGx, but poor against Pod and especially Twin. I played against 1 BGx and 2 UR Twin. The UR Twin gave me both of my losses, keeping me out of the top 8 (23rd since I ID'd the final round). I even had 4 Leyline of Sanctity. I really was ready for BGx and it didn't pay off.
One thing is that a lot of local CA players went to the Grand Prix in Portland and this skewed our meta a bit.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I agree. At TCG States the other week I was expecting a ton of BGx, but instead about 60% of the field was on UWR control, then some Pod. Almost no Twin, 1 or 2 BGx, and then a bunch of Merfolk (which of course I got paired up against 2 rounds in a row and got slaughtered).
-Yavimaya Ranger
Mostly because it's the only shell which was completely unmolested for a long time. The other shells whether they were uw or gw, or whatever else were severly cut.
Even bg has only really lost deathrite and it's still the most powerful of those goodstuff shells. The other shells aren't really unfair either, so why is bgn allowed to play with most of it's toys when no one else could?
Modern:
UWUW TronUW
Legacy:
WDeath N TaxesW
CEldrazi C
If you couldn't tell I hate greedy blue decks.
Vintage
WWhite Trash
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
The thing is, the SCG events are localized. GPs are not. Thats why when a deck takes close to 50% of the top spots at a higher level events Wotc has to do something about it.
If people are sick and tired of combo they play BG/x. What is the problem with that?
BG/x lost Punishing Fire and Bloodbraid Elf too by the way and not only Deathrite Shaman.
The shell has changed pretty drastically from the days of Deathrite Shaman (and Bloodbraid Elf), let's be honest. This isn't the Jund deck anymore. It's even more fair, boring, and midrangy. It doesn't have toys, just above the curve, efficient things. It's not broken, fast, etc. It's just grindy.
Part of the reason it's true is because there are two decks (BGx and UWR) that have pretty good combo matchups, and they help keep things "fair". Tron preys on those decks though, but is pretty bad against combo (and to be fair, I'm including Affinity as a combo deck). What "toy" would you even want to take away from what is literally a boring midrange goodstuff deck? It's so fair! Nothing it does is more than "oh yeah, well, that seems kind of decent I guess".
I'll admit, I played it cold at a PTQ over the weekend to an 8th place finish, but I had to grind the hell out of every match. I played 8 rounds, ever single one of them going to 3 games, winning 3 in extra turns, drawing once, and generally just giving myself a headache every match, but never once did I feel like anything I was doing was banworthy.
-Yavimaya Ranger
It was always a bgX shell. It was only Jund for bolt and bbe. It's still the same shell. The deck hasn't changes that much.
My point wasn't that it's broken, but it gets to keep more of it's efficient toys than any other proven shell. Claw blade or the uw shell isn't broken, it's just grindy. Maverick isn't broken either it's a goodstuff midrangey toolbox deck but it's not allowed to have gsz.
My point pretty obviously went over your head. Bg isn't broken, but it gets to play with more of it's efficient toys where other midrangey decks don't.
Modern:
UWUW TronUW
Legacy:
WDeath N TaxesW
CEldrazi C
If you couldn't tell I hate greedy blue decks.
Vintage
WWhite Trash