Izzet thanks for the Revolt recap. Its always cool to see how peoples predictions are so often wrong. Clearly everyone caught push to be great, but not Walking Ballista to be the next played card. I see affinity's land. Unexiting, but stable, I always like that. Zoo and storm, and mel company did get a push too. and everything else more or less fell off.
Kari Zev's Expertise is clearly the best steal effect ever printed. I called that one a mile away. I tossed all my other steal effects from my storage when it was printed. 3 mana is too much for that effect to be "awesome" and 2 mana is broken. But that card in an aggro deck feels like its 2.5 mana, where it should be. Least for sideboards.
OK I made a mistake, Spire of Industry is actually more of a Lantern Control land. Using mtgtop8 data from 4/1/17 to 14/4/17, this is how much play Spire sees in the decks that it's been included in:
Affinity with Spire/Affinity without Spire: 41/90
KCI: 2/2
Lantern: 14/22
Hardened Scales: 1/6
Anyway, it's not a must-include in any deck, like Baral in Storm or Ballista in colorless Eldrazi. It's just another option you can use for artifact decks if the mood hits you.
Using the same time period, these are the stats for Kari Zev's Expertise:
Living End: 3/14
Revolt Zoo: 3/20
Fuse combo: 4/4
Goblins: 1/1
Given that Fuse combo is dead with the new split card CMC rule, I doubt it has much of a future.
To be honest, we also had a huge discussion about Traverse the Ulvenwald (like, pages long) and, as I predicted, it ended up being the best card in the set, widely played in a million Death Shadow variants and Traverse toolbox decks, heheheh
I don't think that Felidar Guardian is playable in Modern, it is a worse Restoration Angel and the combo is much worse than S.Twin and also a worse win-con than Nahiri+Emrakul or Kiki+Resto in Jeskai imho.
.
I'm curious why you say that, I haven't tried the combo at all yet, but in theory seems "not quite bad". It is definitely worse than Twin (nothing can replace that), but I don't think it's worse than Resto-Kiki or Nahiri:
-It kills instantly on T4, which is one turn sooner than Resto-Kiki and many times sooner than Nahiri (which is just a reliable win-con more than a combo).
-Saheeli is a bad PW, but it's still a PW and can do some neat stuff. You can copy Snapcasters in a much easier way and less prone to removal than putting a Twin in your Snap, so overall I think Saheeli is actually a "better card" alone than Splinter Twin. I played Twin many years and the deck was great, but sometimes you did have several Twins rotting in your hand and there was nothing to do.
-Felidar Guardian is a terrible card, yes, but Exarch also was. Flash is a great loss, but this one let's you (again) blink Snapcasters and even other PWs that you may have in the deck to do some cool stuff.
I think the deck has a promising powerlevel in the right shell.
Even with the reduction cost it's a vanilla and I can't image having 5 or 6 noncreature artifacts on my board in this
creaturecentric standard that WotC forces on us.
So in other words... It's a giant, colorless Tarmogoyf in the right deck?
Please don't dare compare it to Goyf which is THE best vanilla creature ever printed and doesn't make jump through any hoops (or have any deckbuilding restrictions, except a light G splash) just to always be a 4/5 or commonly a 5/6 for two mana. The Colossus is terrible and I doubt it will see any play outside Standard. Having a giant turd in hand which requires you to first cast some artifacts (meaning it wont come down until t4-t5) for a card that does absolutely nothing ETB and gets chumped by absolutely any token, Servos and whatever, is not worth it
Mana crypt is so broken. My first thought was affinity, but after thinking about it even more, it's going to enable so much potential combo in modern and probably even legacy.
lol, you can't be serious. You are implying that one of the most broken cards in Magic history, and one that is banned in all formats and restricted in Vintage, would "enable" Modern decks and be legal in Standard. A 0 mana artifact sol ring that enables t1 Jace Mind Sculptors. haha!!
Everyone realizes this is more for artifacts than any relevant eldrazi right? This doesn't stop Emrakul, Ulamog, Kozilek, TKS, or anything with emerge.
Excuse me, but this thing destroys TKS, Reality Smasher, Displacer, Reshaper, Chalice, Karn and Ugin among others. Say WHAT again??
i'm in Temur mood atm and i'm testing Bedlam Reveler a bit, having 6 spells after delving for mandrills is not easy, but i think he can make a solid 1-2 off as a late game refill, even if you do pay 1RR or 2RR it's fine if you have no hand anyway
sometimes he brings up TC memories,ofc he's alot harder to cast than TC so not really comparable, but still the card is definately viable
I'm glad he plays almost as good as he looks as a 1-2 of. I mean, an unboltable prowess dude that ancestral recalls for RR seems pretty busted, so i'm not surprised. I'm sure it sometimes is a bit clunky, costs more, makes you discard when you don't want, etc, but still seems very very solid for RUG.
I think this set is the best set since the original Innistrad, the power level is through the roof.
To be honest, the discussion here about Izzet's evaluations made me realize one thing.. in science (and other disciplines) we use something called P, which is basically the "chance that a finding is the product of luck". A P < 0.05 is usually the threshold of what's comsidered acceptable, which P < 0.01 even better, and so on (the lower the better).
So, taking into account that in Modern the ceiling is brutally high and only around 3 or 4 cards from each set are deemed playable after a few months, if you say that absolutely eveything is unplayable, you have a really, really high chance of actually being partially right, if for example only 2 are playable. The problem is the P would be incredibly high, at it was mainly luck. It similar to homeopathy, it may work by chance in some occassions, but it's a complete fraud otherwise scientifically and technically
Izzet's misses with things like Treasure Cruise, Dig, Kalitas, or Nahiri makes me think that his P is incredibly high, and thus he basically errs in almost every playable and is "right" with most of the unplayables, since everything is unplayable. So overall i think his evaluations are not much better than coin flipping just based on statistics. Just my 2 cents
On the other hand, I'm extremely optimistic with my evaluations (the sins of a brewer), so here they come
Amazing, potentially archetype-creating cards
Gnarlwood Dryad: perfect for the already good RUG Traverse, this could potentially push it to Tier 1
Bedlam Reveler: amazing card as a 1 oe 2-of, i can see it played in RUG or even some Jund decks.
Grim Flayer: could push BUG delirum to the top
Whispers of Emrakul: together with Flayer
Liliana: i think Liliana is great and it will see play in non-Jund archetypes where it has no business. It costs 3, it has decent loyalty, and good abilities like a better Jace +1
Spell Queller: this card is busted in tempo Spirits and even in normal aggrocontrol decks with flash creatures
Selfless Spirit: with Rattlechains and Queller this deck could be seriously good, you've good instant disruptio, resilient creatures and a whole lot of unpredictability, much like Faeries had.
Maybe playable?
Unsubstantiate: it's flexibility is astounding at it counters Decays and Verdicts, so it may push tempo high up
Mausoleum Wanderer: to be honest this is an almost strictly-better Judge's Familiar, if I don't remember it bad, so it may actually be a thing in tempo spirits.
Imprisoned in the Moon: a clean, simple answer in Blue for planeswalkers and giant dudes is not easy to come by, so it may see some play
Eldrich Evolution: i see potential with Delve cards into things like Iona
Noose Contrictor: is Wild Mongrel good enough after all this years to revive Madness? Who knows
So working on modern madness (which I actually finally got working with stromkirk... undervalued that card) Ive done a fair amount of online testing on cockatrice and ran into ALOT of Grim Flayer.
The only time I saw it shine was a deck that made use of delirium... as in it went out of its way to activate it. Grim Flayer is probably the only good delirium card printed to date for modern (Traverse the Ulvenwald hasnt put up results because stuff like collected company is better.) Because its the only one that turns on itself.
I didn't say it was a good card. If you are looking for beat stick... tarmogoyf is better. If you are looking to dredge, Satyr Wayfinder. I know that last one sounds like I'm pulling it outta my ass, but any dredge player will tell you its the best card to use in dredgevine.
You need to be in a spot where you can make use of its dredging and beat sticking, which isnt dredge since they will beat stick with bloodghasts and vengevines better, and it isnt jund, because tarmo is just light years better. Itd have to be deathcloud or something... and even then tarmo might just be better.
Traverse has nothing to do with Company, I feel like I'm repeating myself and this point Company requires deck building restrictions like 28+ creatures to work, Traverse allows you to chain Snaps, get huge Goyfs when needed, easily flip Erayo, Soratami Ascendant (GG against many decks), or fetch a random Clique against Ad Nauseam. You can also play with only 12 creatures with Traverse, in fact I'd recommend that. Again, completely and utterly different cards that to completely different things.
That being said, Flayer looks busted to me. Geez. I guess I'll be moving from RUG to BUG if this trend continues...
Winmore card is winmore card.
This card is nowhere near Tarmogoyf powerlevel. Seriously, we've had Delirium for a while now, it's impossible to consistently get, making this a 2/2 with upside, only if your opponent has an empty board, aka win more card, aka crap.
It's completely possible to consistently get Deli, As I've said a million times with my Modern RUG Traverse deck. Shell is always 4 Mishra's Bauble, 4 Tarfire, 4 Gitaxian Probe, from there you can modify it. It's very easy to get a consistent T2-3 delirum. Now, with this being BG it's more difficult as you cannot play this AND Tarfire AND blue cantrips, but maybe something can be done
You can choose BUG and play Architects of Will instead of Tarfire (wich, IMO, is not a good card). Architects are even playable if you have a winning position to prevent your opponent from drawing an answer.
Trust me, Tarfire is one of the best cards in my deck. Keep in mind that I've been playing with my brew for 3 months now, I've done a lot of testing. It is good because of one simple reason, you can turn 1 fetch serum visions, t2 tarfire, kill confidant, get delirum and trav erse for a bomb. It's nuts.
Although I admit, Architects is a great find that I had not thought about. I don't think it will be better than Tarfire, mainly because it does "nothing"; pay 1 mana cycle, but doesn't answer goblin guides, eidolons, confis, hatebear, etc. But I'll test it. thanks.
Stormkirk Mystic seems pretty busted if madnessed EOT. Two mana 3/2 trample with half the effect of a Prophetic Flamespeaker? Jeez
Maybe there's a viable Madness deck somewhere after Eldrich.
I'm not usually into Magic lore but I do find the Innistrad plane fascinating, so I have a question: I had the idea that Emrakul's influence is not unlike that of the Derelict Reaper in Mass Effect 2 (for those who have played that masterpiece), which contaminated the minds of all the tripulaction who lived inside him and make them go crazy. It was a long, insidious process.
But I see that Emrakul also makes people go all tentacly and alien (Emrakul's Evangel), much like the typical parasite tropes of films like The Faculty.
My question is, how does he also physically invade them and make people parasites similar to him, with her same appendages, and not only corrupts their minds?
I just read the 'New to Modern Primer' I guess since combo can go off turn 4 youre gunna need a fast deck
If you want to go straight aggro, absolutely. Your deck needs to be able to win as fast as combo decks or have the ability to stop those decks from winning (or possibly both). Thalia is definitely a way to fulfill the latter option, though I'm not sure how well she works with Lightning Helix or Boros Charm.
2
To be honest, we also had a huge discussion about Traverse the Ulvenwald (like, pages long) and, as I predicted, it ended up being the best card in the set, widely played in a million Death Shadow variants and Traverse toolbox decks, heheheh
1
I'm curious why you say that, I haven't tried the combo at all yet, but in theory seems "not quite bad". It is definitely worse than Twin (nothing can replace that), but I don't think it's worse than Resto-Kiki or Nahiri:
-It kills instantly on T4, which is one turn sooner than Resto-Kiki and many times sooner than Nahiri (which is just a reliable win-con more than a combo).
-Saheeli is a bad PW, but it's still a PW and can do some neat stuff. You can copy Snapcasters in a much easier way and less prone to removal than putting a Twin in your Snap, so overall I think Saheeli is actually a "better card" alone than Splinter Twin. I played Twin many years and the deck was great, but sometimes you did have several Twins rotting in your hand and there was nothing to do.
-Felidar Guardian is a terrible card, yes, but Exarch also was. Flash is a great loss, but this one let's you (again) blink Snapcasters and even other PWs that you may have in the deck to do some cool stuff.
I think the deck has a promising powerlevel in the right shell.
2
Please don't dare compare it to Goyf which is THE best vanilla creature ever printed and doesn't make jump through any hoops (or have any deckbuilding restrictions, except a light G splash) just to always be a 4/5 or commonly a 5/6 for two mana. The Colossus is terrible and I doubt it will see any play outside Standard. Having a giant turd in hand which requires you to first cast some artifacts (meaning it wont come down until t4-t5) for a card that does absolutely nothing ETB and gets chumped by absolutely any token, Servos and whatever, is not worth it
1
lol, you can't be serious. You are implying that one of the most broken cards in Magic history, and one that is banned in all formats and restricted in Vintage, would "enable" Modern decks and be legal in Standard. A 0 mana artifact sol ring that enables t1 Jace Mind Sculptors. haha!!
3
Excuse me, but this thing destroys TKS, Reality Smasher, Displacer, Reshaper, Chalice, Karn and Ugin among others. Say WHAT again??
1
I'm glad he plays almost as good as he looks as a 1-2 of. I mean, an unboltable prowess dude that ancestral recalls for RR seems pretty busted, so i'm not surprised. I'm sure it sometimes is a bit clunky, costs more, makes you discard when you don't want, etc, but still seems very very solid for RUG.
1
To be honest, the discussion here about Izzet's evaluations made me realize one thing.. in science (and other disciplines) we use something called P, which is basically the "chance that a finding is the product of luck". A P < 0.05 is usually the threshold of what's comsidered acceptable, which P < 0.01 even better, and so on (the lower the better).
So, taking into account that in Modern the ceiling is brutally high and only around 3 or 4 cards from each set are deemed playable after a few months, if you say that absolutely eveything is unplayable, you have a really, really high chance of actually being partially right, if for example only 2 are playable. The problem is the P would be incredibly high, at it was mainly luck. It similar to homeopathy, it may work by chance in some occassions, but it's a complete fraud otherwise scientifically and technically
Izzet's misses with things like Treasure Cruise, Dig, Kalitas, or Nahiri makes me think that his P is incredibly high, and thus he basically errs in almost every playable and is "right" with most of the unplayables, since everything is unplayable. So overall i think his evaluations are not much better than coin flipping just based on statistics. Just my 2 cents
On the other hand, I'm extremely optimistic with my evaluations (the sins of a brewer), so here they come
Amazing, potentially archetype-creating cards
Gnarlwood Dryad: perfect for the already good RUG Traverse, this could potentially push it to Tier 1
Bedlam Reveler: amazing card as a 1 oe 2-of, i can see it played in RUG or even some Jund decks.
Grim Flayer: could push BUG delirum to the top
Whispers of Emrakul: together with Flayer
Liliana: i think Liliana is great and it will see play in non-Jund archetypes where it has no business. It costs 3, it has decent loyalty, and good abilities like a better Jace +1
Spell Queller: this card is busted in tempo Spirits and even in normal aggrocontrol decks with flash creatures
Selfless Spirit: with Rattlechains and Queller this deck could be seriously good, you've good instant disruptio, resilient creatures and a whole lot of unpredictability, much like Faeries had.
Maybe playable?
Unsubstantiate: it's flexibility is astounding at it counters Decays and Verdicts, so it may push tempo high up
Mausoleum Wanderer: to be honest this is an almost strictly-better Judge's Familiar, if I don't remember it bad, so it may actually be a thing in tempo spirits.
Imprisoned in the Moon: a clean, simple answer in Blue for planeswalkers and giant dudes is not easy to come by, so it may see some play
Eldrich Evolution: i see potential with Delve cards into things like Iona
Noose Contrictor: is Wild Mongrel good enough after all this years to revive Madness? Who knows
1
Traverse has nothing to do with Company, I feel like I'm repeating myself and this point
That being said, Flayer looks busted to me. Geez. I guess I'll be moving from RUG to BUG if this trend continues...
Anyways, this deck seems very sweet to me:
4 Grim Flayer
4 Architects of Will
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Erayo, Sorarami Ascendant
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Whispers of Emrakul
3 Vapor Snag
2 Nameless Inversion
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Watery Grave
2 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1
Trust me, Tarfire is one of the best cards in my deck. Keep in mind that I've been playing with my brew for 3 months now, I've done a lot of testing. It is good because of one simple reason, you can turn 1 fetch serum visions, t2 tarfire, kill confidant, get delirum and trav erse for a bomb. It's nuts.
Although I admit, Architects is a great find that I had not thought about. I don't think it will be better than Tarfire, mainly because it does "nothing"; pay 1 mana cycle, but doesn't answer goblin guides, eidolons, confis, hatebear, etc. But I'll test it. thanks.
1
Maybe there's a viable Madness deck somewhere after Eldrich.
I'm not usually into Magic lore but I do find the Innistrad plane fascinating, so I have a question: I had the idea that Emrakul's influence is not unlike that of the Derelict Reaper in Mass Effect 2 (for those who have played that masterpiece), which contaminated the minds of all the tripulaction who lived inside him and make them go crazy. It was a long, insidious process.
But I see that Emrakul also makes people go all tentacly and alien (Emrakul's Evangel), much like the typical parasite tropes of films like The Faculty.
My question is, how does he also physically invade them and make people parasites similar to him, with her same appendages, and not only corrupts their minds?