RtR standard didnt feature any 4 color decks if i remember correctly
I remember most of the decks being 2 or 3 colors, with 2 colors being more common after Burning Earth was printed. Still, a few prominent 4-color decks come to mind immediately: Wolf Run Bant, Dark Naya, and Nightshade Peddler-Izzet Staticaster combo.
I've been playing an Abzan Pod list for the past 2 weeks, revising it along the way, and have been doing fairly well with it. I've yet to play against what I imagine would be some of the worst matchups, Lands and Death and Taxes.
My initial version had no infinite combo at all, and one finding that surprised me from playing the deck is that there were quite a few times where I did wish I had a combo, specifically grindy matchups where players are in topdeck mode and the board is stalled with no good attacks. I think Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Spike Feeder and are too situational to be worth including, but having the option of comboing with Archangel of Thune, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, Kitchen Finks, and optionally Murderous Redcap is very reasonable since each card is quite good its own. Death by Jace, the Mind Sculptor ultimate is quite common so infinite life is often not enough to win. Besides resetting persist creatures and enabling the combos, Varolz, the Scar-Striped also serves the purpose of breaking board stalls the fair way by scavenging onto a hexproof threat like Sigarda, Host of Herons, or Carnage Tyrant. The trample on Carnage Tyrant is noticeably relevant since a Sigarda, Host of Herons can be completely held back by a single Baleful Strix.
Gaddock Teeg is an obvious nombo, but I have found him too important to have against combo matchups to cut him from the maindeck. Sanctum Prelate was originally in the maindeck but I moved it to the board because it is difficult to cast with the mana base, although I'm still not sure if moving it to the sideboard is correct.
I think when playing a control deck, tempo is more important and I end up using removal spells an mana-efficently as possible. When I see control decks lose to Humans, for example, I usually find it is because the control deck ran out of time instead of being out-valued by the Humans deck.
When playing a combo deck with limited removal, it makes more sense to save removal for creatures that matter the most, like Meddling Mage.
The possibility of a turn 2 Kitesail Freebooter taking one's only removal is very real, but I feel like playing around that possibility just increases the chance of losing to a different set of plays/cards by the opponent.
I would almost always remove the mana dork over casting a discard spell. I tend to think of modern as a format where tempo is generally more important than card selection or card advantage. If I am facing down a resolved mana dork on turn 1, it means that I'm already behind on tempo because I am going second, and discard spells are usually tempo disadvantageous (unless of course I happen to get lucky and take their only on-curve play for the next turn).
Against infect, ignoring the Noble Hierarch and saving removal for threats with infect means that I could very well lose to a counter or pump spell that I enabled them to cast with the extra mana.
Against humans, ignoring Noble Hierach allows them to play a 2-drop and a 1-drop the next turn.
There are exceptions to these rules, of course, but in the vast majority of cases I would go by the logic I stated.
It is does completely shut off Eye of Ugin but only makes Eldrazi Temple slightly worse. It is also vulnerable to Dismember and comes down on turn 2, where often a lot of tempo has already been gained from sol lands. Doesn't sound like it does nearly enough.
Floating Path to Exile against TKS works as well.
Ramping a deck that can very well make use of the land seems awful.
Pathing a Reality Smasher is 3-for-1 card disadvantage. Seems like a losing strategy.
Has anyone tried Comparative Analysis? Without access to Esper Charm in these colors, I had already been thinking about running a card like Inspiration, but actual Inspiration itself felt too inefficient. (Yes, I very much know about Think Twice but 5 mana for 2 cards and vulnerability to graveyard hate has kept me away from it.)
For that brief moment cards that die to Lightning Bolt but not to Abrupt Decay saw play due to the prevalence of Abzan. Now that Lightning Bolt and Terminate are commonly played, playing 4+ CMC creatures are no longer as great.
Comparing the practices of a private business, to a public court of law is pretty much the dumbest thing you can do in this situation.
Wizards doesnt have to let you play in their tournaments, and they are well within their right to ban whoever they want from doing so for whatever reason they want to do it. Playing in a sanctioned tournament is not a right.
I don't think many people are arguing what WoTC can do but rather what they should have done.
They can do whatever they want in terms of DCI bannings, but doing so is not without consequences (e.g. the existence of their business).
I find they way they handled the situation be illogical and heavy-handed, and I'm willing to let my wallet do the talking about how I feel about it.
Lightning Bolt is one of the only reasonable answers in Modern to a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman. It is part of the reason why the Modern metagame was so drenched in red while Deathrite Shaman was legal. Even when a player has a Lightning Bolt to answer a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman right away, the player casting the Lighting Bolt is merely breaking parity and not getting ahead on tempo.
Played another legacy tournament today with the same UW deck, going 2-1.
Round 1: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 2: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 3: 1-2 vs Merfolk
From my limited experience from this tournament and the last, I have found foregoing a third color to not be worth the slightly more stable mana base. Because there are only 4 fetches that can fetch both basics for any given color pair, I found the mana base to only be slightly better than a 3-color one.
Compared to Esper, relying solely on counterspells and no discard for interaction turned out to be problematic at several points, considering all of the counterspell hate in the metagame. I also sorely missed being able to fly over True-Name Nemesis with Lingering Souls and the incidental land destruction afforded by Vindicate. I will be going back to Esper next week and will be trying out a single maindeck Esper Charm. Besides the obvious efficiency of the draw and discard modes, the Demystify effect on a 3-mana spell is very relevant vs Counterbalance.
Bring to Light seems like a great card selection engine for a control decks. It is quite a bit more flexible and potentially more mana efficient than Mystical Teachings. Just need the right shell to put it in. I could see the possibility of a 5 color/domain control deck with Worldly Counsel.
I remember most of the decks being 2 or 3 colors, with 2 colors being more common after Burning Earth was printed. Still, a few prominent 4-color decks come to mind immediately: Wolf Run Bant, Dark Naya, and Nightshade Peddler-Izzet Staticaster combo.
Also, I just saw a list on Twitch stream at SCG Indianapolis day 1.
My initial version had no infinite combo at all, and one finding that surprised me from playing the deck is that there were quite a few times where I did wish I had a combo, specifically grindy matchups where players are in topdeck mode and the board is stalled with no good attacks. I think Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Spike Feeder and are too situational to be worth including, but having the option of comboing with Archangel of Thune, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, Kitchen Finks, and optionally Murderous Redcap is very reasonable since each card is quite good its own. Death by Jace, the Mind Sculptor ultimate is quite common so infinite life is often not enough to win. Besides resetting persist creatures and enabling the combos, Varolz, the Scar-Striped also serves the purpose of breaking board stalls the fair way by scavenging onto a hexproof threat like Sigarda, Host of Herons, or Carnage Tyrant. The trample on Carnage Tyrant is noticeably relevant since a Sigarda, Host of Herons can be completely held back by a single Baleful Strix.
Gaddock Teeg is an obvious nombo, but I have found him too important to have against combo matchups to cut him from the maindeck. Sanctum Prelate was originally in the maindeck but I moved it to the board because it is difficult to cast with the mana base, although I'm still not sure if moving it to the sideboard is correct.
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Deathrite Shaman
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Restoration Angel
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Siege Rhino
1 Sin Collector
1 Thragtusk
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1 Archangel of Thune
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
Artifacts:
4 Birthing Pod
Lands:
2 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
1 Marsh Flats
1 Phyrexian Tower
2 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Acidic Slime
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Surgical Extraction
When playing a combo deck with limited removal, it makes more sense to save removal for creatures that matter the most, like Meddling Mage.
The possibility of a turn 2 Kitesail Freebooter taking one's only removal is very real, but I feel like playing around that possibility just increases the chance of losing to a different set of plays/cards by the opponent.
Against infect, ignoring the Noble Hierarch and saving removal for threats with infect means that I could very well lose to a counter or pump spell that I enabled them to cast with the extra mana.
Against humans, ignoring Noble Hierach allows them to play a 2-drop and a 1-drop the next turn.
There are exceptions to these rules, of course, but in the vast majority of cases I would go by the logic I stated.
It is does completely shut off Eye of Ugin but only makes Eldrazi Temple slightly worse. It is also vulnerable to Dismember and comes down on turn 2, where often a lot of tempo has already been gained from sol lands. Doesn't sound like it does nearly enough.
Ramping a deck that can very well make use of the land seems awful.
Pathing a Reality Smasher is 3-for-1 card disadvantage. Seems like a losing strategy.
Even smaller event than the Classic in Atlanta, but interesting nonetheless. Jeskai Control in 1st, Grixis Control with Mystical Teachings in 2nd.
My understanding is that Blue Moon isn't even particularly good against Tron.
I don't think many people are arguing what WoTC can do but rather what they should have done.
They can do whatever they want in terms of DCI bannings, but doing so is not without consequences (e.g. the existence of their business).
I find they way they handled the situation be illogical and heavy-handed, and I'm willing to let my wallet do the talking about how I feel about it.
Spending 2-3 mana to answer a 1 mana dire threat seems like a losing proposition most of the time. The 4 life lost from Dismember is very relevant.
Path to Exile is very bad to cast on Deathrite Shaman early game.
Lightning Bolt is one of the only reasonable answers in Modern to a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman. It is part of the reason why the Modern metagame was so drenched in red while Deathrite Shaman was legal. Even when a player has a Lightning Bolt to answer a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman right away, the player casting the Lighting Bolt is merely breaking parity and not getting ahead on tempo.
Round 1: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 2: 2-1 vs 12-post
Round 3: 1-2 vs Merfolk
From my limited experience from this tournament and the last, I have found foregoing a third color to not be worth the slightly more stable mana base. Because there are only 4 fetches that can fetch both basics for any given color pair, I found the mana base to only be slightly better than a 3-color one.
Compared to Esper, relying solely on counterspells and no discard for interaction turned out to be problematic at several points, considering all of the counterspell hate in the metagame. I also sorely missed being able to fly over True-Name Nemesis with Lingering Souls and the incidental land destruction afforded by Vindicate. I will be going back to Esper next week and will be trying out a single maindeck Esper Charm. Besides the obvious efficiency of the draw and discard modes, the Demystify effect on a 3-mana spell is very relevant vs Counterbalance.