Death's Shadow is good for the format, but it seems like an easy target for bans. Not only is it 12%+ of the metagame, it has "supplanted" other black strategies (traditional Jund, etc). It's too easy to take the Splinter Twin ban explanation and just replace it with Death's Shadow.
But Death's Shadow was just printed in Modern Masters. Banning it a month after release looks really bad, so I think Street Wraith is a more likely target. It's similar to Gitaxian Probe, and there's an argument for just banning all zero mana cantrips.
I'm closely watching Amonkhet spoilers. The set was designed before the rise of Death's Shadow. Another card similar to Street Wraith could make the deck even better and cause Wizards to act preemptively.
The same thing happened with Twin though. Twin was printed in MM15 and then banned 3 months later - so don't lean too much on that. I'm hoping that WoTC went down the 'control route' with cycling this time around so that nothing busted gets printed for Death's Shadow. I also advocate for unbanning BBE - unbanning BBE would give people a serious reason to consider traditional Jund builds over Death's Shadow builds. BBE by no means deserves to be on that banlist.
I also think that unbanning SFM might incentivize Abzan/Esper players to move away from the Abzan/Esper DS builds. It's all about providing options for people, not eliminating them.
Modern Masters 2015 was released May 2015. Splinter Twin was banned January 2016, 8 months later. I agree it isn't a long time, but it's still a lot longer than just a month.
Death's Shadow is good for the format, but it seems like an easy target for bans. Not only is it 12%+ of the metagame, it has "supplanted" other black strategies (traditional Jund, etc). It's too easy to take the Splinter Twin ban explanation and just replace it with Death's Shadow.
But Death's Shadow was just printed in Modern Masters. Banning it a month after release looks really bad, so I think Street Wraith is a more likely target. It's similar to Gitaxian Probe, and there's an argument for just banning all zero mana cantrips.
I'm closely watching Amonkhet spoilers. The set was designed before the rise of Death's Shadow. Another card similar to Street Wraith could make the deck even better and cause Wizards to act preemptively.
It seems quite a risk considering Aetherworks Marvel is the only artifact card and you are taking a huge risk from life loss, and Marvel's activation also does not serve as an auto win. Averagely about 7-10 life loss but if Marvel somehow stacked at the bottom, you lose the game out of nothing.
But if Aetherworks Marvel is at the bottom, is there any real chance of winning anyway? The deck just folds without it.
I actually like Searing Light in the board as an option for the small-ball creature decks and in the mirror. It's not the best card in the world of course, but it's only one mana and kills many relevant cards without sacrificing too much tempo. It's kind of the same reason why one mana counterspells can be so back-breaking; the opponent always thinks "what can he possibly do for one mana?" and then they get wrecked.
But it's basically a dead card again W Humans if they have either Always Watching or Anointer of Champions. I haven't tested it, but both Blessed Alliance and Collective Effort seem good.
I've been playing a UR Twin variant with ONLY Kikis pre-ban (on purpose) which IMO is actually better than the normal one ever was (can't divulge it yet, more testing needed to perfect it)
You have our attention.
He does.
Allright, here it is! I genuinely thought that I was the only one currently playing this tech, but someone pointed me to a Starcity Games deck which played it although in a more minor way. Still, I definitely thing this is the future for the deck, the synergies are just ridiculously strong.
Basically it all started as a hybrid between Griselshoal and Twin, and after many, many hours of testing I realized that the true strength of the deck is Jace, Vryn's Prodigy + Goryo's Vengeance (Jace doesn't go away EOT if it flips) plus obviously Exarch/Twin + Goryos on Kiki. Its ridiculous how strong a T2 flipped Jace is, and it even lets you loop Jaces and do other disgusting stuff by flashing back Goryo's again with Jace, etc.
The deck plays like a normal Twin deck following a tempo plan and threatening the combo, which can be a typical T5 Kiki, or much earlier by Goryos-ing a Kiki.
In fact, it even has a nut draw which involves binning a Kiki with either Scour or Looting T1, Goryos-ing the Kiki at EOT of T2, and T3 on your turn cast Exarch and win. Exarch doesn't need to have haste, so you can inmediately start making copies T3 and win a turn earlier than normal Twin ever did. This is not the main plan as you can play tempo/control, but it's an option to have.
Basically, you can see Goryo's Vengeance as a value card by letting you insta-flip dead Jaces, and also as an insta-win card with Kiki (which also makes you much more resilient to discard disruption), but you don't actually need it to win, it's just that you want to draw it every game. It's also excellent with Cliques as a pseudo "deal 3 damage, disrupt the opponent and check the coast is clear" instant effect if you have excess Goryo's. It's only decent with Tasigut as a suprise blocker, but it's usually ok if you do it EOT and you can even use his ability once.
Overall, I think the magic hive mind could make the deck even better, so I'm looking forward to discussion.
I've also been extensively testing the version with actual Griselbrands and I STILL don't know which one is better. This one is more streamlined, and the other one can get you clogged up on Grisels (it has many more discard outlets though) sometimes, but the thing is when you resolve a Grisel you usually always draw into the combo just by paying 7-14 life, and can discard a Kiki EOT for a next turn win with Exarch and multiple disruption spells.
Still have to test more. Cheers
I really want to like this deck, but I am really concerned about how vulnerable it is to graveyard hate. Does it just fold completely?
Moving on to the other points, I think MTG is on the verge of a serious problem. The game is moving faster than Wizards can handle and it's got a chance of leading to a 1929-style crash if they don't do something. I guess what's even scarier is considering what will happen if there is no fast crash to stabilize things - the game might price itself out of popularity and have an actual depression. I think Wizards needs a federal reserve style printing operation that anonymously feeds expensive cards to vendors at low rates to keep prices in line with targets.
This is one of the most bizarre metaphors I've seen in years.
Standard and Limited ensure that the game can't price itself into an economic collapse since Wizards will print current sets to demand. That's also why Modern cards have to go through Standard. The value of a Tarmogofy is only going to rise for the forseeable future but that's certainly not enough to kill modern, let alone the entire game.
Legacy and Vintage are in a long, slow (very slow) slide toward collapse but Wizards has basically severed all ties with those formats.
I assume he is talking about Modern, and I do find it a bit worrisome. Multiple cards have seen dramatic spikes, and it just doesn't seem sustainable.
Remand
Snapcaster Mage
Liliana of the Veil
Blinkmoth Nexus
Fauna Shaman
Demigod of Revenge
Mystical Teachings
City of Brass
Griselbrand
Damnnation
Unburial rites
We'll talk again soon.
Innistrad and later are not included in MM2015, so some of those are obviously not included.
Wait just to clarify....Thunderbreak Regent is the Game Day rare? Doesn't that usually signify an unplayable rare? I really dont think its the case with this card...
There was Utter End before.
But utter end is like 2 bucks now. Thunderbreak Regent is good. Like good good.
It used to be $5 like Thunderbreak Regent is now. Almost all the cards from KTK have seen significant drops in price over time. The same will happen to DTK cards.
Wait just to clarify....Thunderbreak Regent is the Game Day rare? Doesn't that usually signify an unplayable rare? I really dont think its the case with this card...
In Jeskai, I'm not convinced she's better than just playing Outpost Siege. They fill a similar role of providing more gas at the same CMC. And Narset has the same problem as Chandra, it can be hard keeping her on the board.
I agree she may not be better than Outpost Siege, but she does play /much/ better with countermagic (making her better post board). Her -2 does things in terms of boardstate and tempo that outpost doesn't quite do. And there is an argument that diversity at the 'card draw engine' slot in token-less Jeskai is advantageous since Dragon mode Siege isn't so great for that version of the deck.
How is Narset much better with countermagic? Her -2 does not interact favorably with it.
He's saying its better since you can actually draw it into your hand rather than being forced to cast it on your own turn.
So, it's a bit better for the narrow case of counterspells with her +1. But no advantage is gained with creatures or lands (unlike Outpost Siege). And no advantage is gained using counterspells with her -2 (what looks to me as her most important ability).
In Jeskai, I'm not convinced she's better than just playing Outpost Siege. They fill a similar role of providing more gas at the same CMC. And Narset has the same problem as Chandra, it can be hard keeping her on the board.
I agree she may not be better than Outpost Siege, but she does play /much/ better with countermagic (making her better post board). Her -2 does things in terms of boardstate and tempo that outpost doesn't quite do. And there is an argument that diversity at the 'card draw engine' slot in token-less Jeskai is advantageous since Dragon mode Siege isn't so great for that version of the deck.
How is Narset much better with countermagic? Her -2 does not interact favorably with it.
Modern Masters 2015 was released May 2015. Splinter Twin was banned January 2016, 8 months later. I agree it isn't a long time, but it's still a lot longer than just a month.
But Death's Shadow was just printed in Modern Masters. Banning it a month after release looks really bad, so I think Street Wraith is a more likely target. It's similar to Gitaxian Probe, and there's an argument for just banning all zero mana cantrips.
I'm closely watching Amonkhet spoilers. The set was designed before the rise of Death's Shadow. Another card similar to Street Wraith could make the deck even better and cause Wizards to act preemptively.
But if Aetherworks Marvel is at the bottom, is there any real chance of winning anyway? The deck just folds without it.
But it's basically a dead card again W Humans if they have either Always Watching or Anointer of Champions. I haven't tested it, but both Blessed Alliance and Collective Effort seem good.
I really want to like this deck, but I am really concerned about how vulnerable it is to graveyard hate. Does it just fold completely?
And just so others can see, here are some other variants of a similar strategy:
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/31557_Modern-Decks-For-SCG-Milwaukee.html
https://twitter.com/Gemmanite/status/653024629573992448
I assume he is talking about Modern, and I do find it a bit worrisome. Multiple cards have seen dramatic spikes, and it just doesn't seem sustainable.
Innistrad and later are not included in MM2015, so some of those are obviously not included.
It used to be $5 like Thunderbreak Regent is now. Almost all the cards from KTK have seen significant drops in price over time. The same will happen to DTK cards.
There was Utter End before.
So, it's a bit better for the narrow case of counterspells with her +1. But no advantage is gained with creatures or lands (unlike Outpost Siege). And no advantage is gained using counterspells with her -2 (what looks to me as her most important ability).
How is Narset much better with countermagic? Her -2 does not interact favorably with it.