For 6 months I'm buying modern staples - I already have a decent collection and I wanted to play some competetive magic - someday - but now Wizards really confuses and scares me...
I also read about standard plus - a new extended format.
Now I don't know if I should go on with my modern collection or leave (a sinking ship?) it alone and start something else - like full time modern.
Modern is fine. AF just Tweeted that it's an important part of their plans going forward. MTGO might be an economic mess, but Modern remains the most popular and played format by all the metrics I've seen.
Re: KCI
Unlike most of the Modern alarm, this weekend is rapidly proving that KCI alarm is justified. If we get 2+ copies in the GP Portland T8, I'm switching to red flag ban mode. 1 copy would be an orange flag and 0 would diminish my worries until at least GP Oakland. Even then, however, the writing is mostly on the wall for KCI as far as I'm concerned. It's the best deck in Modern. If you aren't playing it you are willfully playing a worse deck OR you know your local metagame enough to know it's too hated.
I think the conversation is beginning to loop back on itself. Any guess why we might see a resurgence of KCI after its most recent hiatus? Decks like Izzet/Monored Phoenix and Dredge have resulted in a meta that chased off the (at least more) midrange and control decks that were best equipped to deal with it. You can worry about the (potential) resurgence of KCI, but it's a symptom not the cause.
Just to be clear, I don't think Dredge or Phoenix are the problem either. The issue is a rock/paper/scissor meta where all three options are linear aggro/combo decks. Hopefully the meta shakes itself clear of this.
The fact that people are arguing that Twin decks got completely neutered and turned into a pile of worthless trash despite still having Kiki-Jiki (as bad as he is, he's clearly not Twin and will never be) while also arguing that Infect is still top tier and functioning after the Probe ban or that Dredge did anything relevant before multiple broken printings in Standard sets is laughable.
As I said before, Twinposting should be a banned topic again IMO. So sick of it already.
Go ahead and ban Twin talk in this thread, I've asked for it many times. You are plainly wrong if you think post GGT-Dredge was on the same level as Kiki-Mite, or that Infect NOW is worse than Kiki-Mite.
Like, not opinion based, you are simply WRONG.
Oh, and Amulet is also better.
No deck took as hard a hit as Twin. To claim otherwise is ignorant.
Infect now is on par with Kiki-mite. *snip*
I have no dog in this Twin fight, but...uh what now? While there are some itching to discuss Twin at the drop of a hat, it's more understandable when there are crazy, easily repudiated claims like this.
I just wanted to give my two cents after picking the deck back up. I went 2-1 with it and the game I lost too was a polymorph deck lol. The deck never really went off but I will say I enjoyed having one inventor's fair in the deck for the minor life gain and the search ability for an artifact.
I was laughing when I realized I actually own every single card needed to build the deck except for one: Phyrexia's Core. Does that card really help in some matches? It's just a one of so I'm kind of curious. I've been pondering if it is worth it to just add a second Inkmoth nexus.
Phyrexia's Core is about as optional as it gets. Inkmoth Nexus is probably the more conventional choice at this point.
If I have to play against Moderns field, they should have to play against Twin.
Somehow I doubt that "I'm having a bad time, therefore others should have a bad time" is the type of argument Wizards considers while entertaining a banlist update. The numbers are very clear: people love Modern. If you don't, I wish you luck and fun in Pauper and other formats!
A bit of a chuckle here that iDSurge's words ended up with my name on them. Perhaps I was always a supporter for the Twin unbanning but didn't know it? More confirmation, I suppose, that you shouldn't believe all the quotes you read on the internet. As first said by Abraham Lincoln.
His comment hardly seems like spitting on someone, no? You're neglecting the "e-" in e-Sports. Trying to maintain a physical product alongside an identical electronic one is a balancing act that League of Legends, etc. don't have to contend with.
That's not to say I think that WoTC is nailing their handling of products, but we have to at least acknowledge the difficulty of the task. You can't create a wildly successful cardboard game in the 90s and port it in the 2010s to a no-cost e-Sport without worrying about cannibalizing your own sales.
@cfusionpm: Terminus is definitely swingy. I think it's getting singled out because it's the card in UW Control that caps the "feel bads" for aggro decks that look like they're about to steal a game. But with all the tools to enable it (Opt, Jace, Azcanta) it's not what I'd call high variance unless your expectation is to cast it prior to T4/5.
@iDSurge: I know you're winking to the Twin impact, but are T2+ creature decks really that categorically hurt by Terminus? Swarm decks like Elves or Merfolk get shafted but I'd guess the more midrangish decks that ride fewer threats aren't punished nearly as badly.
Figured I'd chime in since I managed to 5-0 with a list heavily based on the contributions of this thread (here for anyone interested).
First off, thanks to those who shared their lists. Helped a lot when I started tinkering. The deck is a lot of fun and can do some powerful things. It plays like combo-control with a strong back-up plan (hardcast a big dumb creature).
I'm not sure I'd continue to play it heavily in a meta that's this fast. I'm by no means an expert, but in MTGO leagues I ran it to 3-2 (F), 3-2 (F), 0-5 (C), 4-1(C), 5-0(C), 1-4(C); not much better than 50% win rate with fairly polarized match-ups. Sometimes you need a two card combo on T3 to avoid certain death. If I were to evolve the deck further, I'd probably work a couple Terminus into the MB (for Settle and Crypt?) and maybe one SB.
Sidenote: Unmoored Ego is a real card against Tron and combo.
EDIT: Was responding to this comment from Zephyr Scarlet:
Quote from Zephyr Scarlet »
So give us a busted anti-Terminus tech.
Ignoring the tangle of logical inconsistencies your comment would lead us down... Even if you were given what you wanted, like a "Until end of turn, cards can't be cast for their miracle cost" for R, it would hardly see any play because it's too narrow to sideboard in any number. Sure, losing to Terminus is annoying; but so is losing to Conflagrate, Meddling Mage, Grapeshot, et al.
If one Terminus wrecks your deck, you're either playing something incredibly linear or not playing around it. You may just have a bad UW Control match-up, and that's part of life. I can sympathize, but that doesn't mean your aggro deck should be able to answer every answer.
Looks like a fun card to brew with, but it's not going to be efficient enough in Scales. You're unlikely to have more than 2-3 creatures in play at once and then it's still an expensive spell that makes you take your foot off the gas. Part of the beauty of this deck is how mana efficient it can be, and how able to grind out value.
I know I'm a broken record, but I repeat -- Hardened Scales is very good in this meta. 4 copies in the top 32 including 1 in the semis from less than a 5% Day 2 meta share.
Always hard to evaluate Hoogland's opinions objectively given that he presents his thoughts in the most cantankerous, dismissive way possible. A format with the "feel bads" removed would be interesting. Hard to say what effect that would have on Modern's player base if you push the format towards Standard. How much of Modern's appeal is being able to do something more powerful and Legacy is unapproachable because of the restricted list?
Bumping this for anyone still following. In the last week I've gone 3-2 once, 4-1 three times, and 5-0 twice. Roughly an 83% win rate. Very well positioned at the moment.
As I've mentioned before in many threads, this one included, Humans is good because all of its matchups are more favorable to Humans than any opponent believes. All of its matchups are about 5%+ closer to 50/50 (or 55/45 in Humans' favor) than everyone estimates. That's why my advice to anyone who says "My Humans matchup is X/Y" needs to subtract about 5% from X. This makes it a great choice in any field.
I've put off buying into Humans because it's not my style but man does it feel great to shut down various combo decks and still go toe to toe with the control/ midrange decks of the format. It's one Achilles's heel is Tron. The Tron vs Humans match ups favors tron, it's worse if the Tron deck has 3-4 Ballista's.
While I can't speak for Humans' percentages against the field, I can say that it's an absolute dog versus Hardened Scales. I'm winning just shy of 80% of my matches versus Humans in Competitive Leagues (with a decent sample size of almost 30). Too lazy to put a confidence interval around that, but suffice it to say I'd be very surprised if the "true" percentage wasn't at least 75-25.
I think the conversation is beginning to loop back on itself. Any guess why we might see a resurgence of KCI after its most recent hiatus? Decks like Izzet/Monored Phoenix and Dredge have resulted in a meta that chased off the (at least more) midrange and control decks that were best equipped to deal with it. You can worry about the (potential) resurgence of KCI, but it's a symptom not the cause.
Just to be clear, I don't think Dredge or Phoenix are the problem either. The issue is a rock/paper/scissor meta where all three options are linear aggro/combo decks. Hopefully the meta shakes itself clear of this.
I have no dog in this Twin fight, but...uh what now? While there are some itching to discuss Twin at the drop of a hat, it's more understandable when there are crazy, easily repudiated claims like this.
Phyrexia's Core is about as optional as it gets. Inkmoth Nexus is probably the more conventional choice at this point.
A bit of a chuckle here that iDSurge's words ended up with my name on them. Perhaps I was always a supporter for the Twin unbanning but didn't know it? More confirmation, I suppose, that you shouldn't believe all the quotes you read on the internet. As first said by Abraham Lincoln.
That's not to say I think that WoTC is nailing their handling of products, but we have to at least acknowledge the difficulty of the task. You can't create a wildly successful cardboard game in the 90s and port it in the 2010s to a no-cost e-Sport without worrying about cannibalizing your own sales.
@iDSurge: I know you're winking to the Twin impact, but are T2+ creature decks really that categorically hurt by Terminus? Swarm decks like Elves or Merfolk get shafted but I'd guess the more midrangish decks that ride fewer threats aren't punished nearly as badly.
First off, thanks to those who shared their lists. Helped a lot when I started tinkering. The deck is a lot of fun and can do some powerful things. It plays like combo-control with a strong back-up plan (hardcast a big dumb creature).
I'm not sure I'd continue to play it heavily in a meta that's this fast. I'm by no means an expert, but in MTGO leagues I ran it to 3-2 (F), 3-2 (F), 0-5 (C), 4-1(C), 5-0(C), 1-4(C); not much better than 50% win rate with fairly polarized match-ups. Sometimes you need a two card combo on T3 to avoid certain death. If I were to evolve the deck further, I'd probably work a couple Terminus into the MB (for Settle and Crypt?) and maybe one SB.
Sidenote: Unmoored Ego is a real card against Tron and combo.
Ignoring the tangle of logical inconsistencies your comment would lead us down... Even if you were given what you wanted, like a "Until end of turn, cards can't be cast for their miracle cost" for R, it would hardly see any play because it's too narrow to sideboard in any number. Sure, losing to Terminus is annoying; but so is losing to Conflagrate, Meddling Mage, Grapeshot, et al.
If one Terminus wrecks your deck, you're either playing something incredibly linear or not playing around it. You may just have a bad UW Control match-up, and that's part of life. I can sympathize, but that doesn't mean your aggro deck should be able to answer every answer.
While I can't speak for Humans' percentages against the field, I can say that it's an absolute dog versus Hardened Scales. I'm winning just shy of 80% of my matches versus Humans in Competitive Leagues (with a decent sample size of almost 30). Too lazy to put a confidence interval around that, but suffice it to say I'd be very surprised if the "true" percentage wasn't at least 75-25.