MTG Salvation

Seems like MTGNexus is the new place to discuss modern. Might be going there now

I don't think modern has the cantrips to compliment FoN as a main deck inclusion. I only see this being played against spell based combo decks. The cost of Negate is 2 mana, not an extra card alongside it

I'd say Infect and Bogels are Aggro/ Combo

I think diversity is over exaggerated when it comes to the spikiest of spikes. It always seems that if you want to totally maximize you chances of winning then theres usually just 3 or 4 decks that you should be playing and thats it.

Not saying its a good or bad thing. Modern is diverse because you can win with almost anything. But if you are grinding every tournament to win then usually you are limited to just a few if you are being totally serious

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

Archetype Diversity Now.

Maybe this top 8, but hardly the story of the format. Aggro is king and has been for a while. If you count Dedge as aggro and not combo, then well combo hardly exists at all, with Titanshift, Amulet and I guess Ad Naus or Storm as the best combo decks. Storm is garbage now though. According to MTG Goldfish, combo is way down. According to MTGtop8, they consider Dredge combo. But since its really much more of an aggro deck, then Combo would be like not even half of the other archtypes.

As for Control, there really is only two classic Control Archtypes, Jesaki and UW and UW is looking just to be so much better. Tron is also a control deck I guess, but its kind of its own thing.

Here's my summation of the format:
Tron and GDS create non games of magic. GDS and Burn push out any semblance of combo. Dredge creates a mini game of drawing you hate piece or be run over. Humans I personally like as a police deck, but it isnt as good as it was a few months ago. I don't have a problem with Phoenix besides just how good it is, and it begs the question, "why play any other deck?." UW control is Terminus Lottery: the deck.

I agree, i think Containment Priest is a great fair magic card that could benefit modern a lot

Twin is not the answer. A "I win" button is not he answer, and I'm going to leave it at that.

Good answers to threats is the solution to make Modern great.

Control is totally fine, as it has always been, you are 100% correct. It has a high conversion rate, good win rates, etc.

I think the important thing when discussing modern control is how the answers line up with the treats in Modern, which is what I think people really are complaining about when they complain about control being bad.

There was a great post on reddit:

"There's nothing unfair about fast mana inherently...The issue is when your accelerated threats can't be effectively.If you gain too much speed, then card advantage is irrelevant because you've won the game. This why Faithless Looting initially started to creep up in GDS. Card advantage became much less important than card quality..."

Faithless Looting is not an inherently overpowered Magic card. Faithless Looting being SO good right now is a symptom of Modern's problems, not the cause.

Answers to threats need to line up with threats themselves. When we are forces to play something like Anger of the Gods or Terminus, cards that are not easy to fit into decks, of course its going to heavily affect deck building, and in turn the meta itself.

Side note: i kind of find it funny that Looting is so good now. When I first joined mtg, people would try and fit in looting into some red decks. I would call it a noob trap card and laugh. Nowadays it is at the forefront of the meta game lmao

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I don't think Twin talk should be off limits, but it needs to be stifled some tbh. Theres many times we begin talking about something on this thread and someone mentions Twin, and the same points come up over and over and warps the whole conversation. Things like KCI ban discussion, "winners meta" discussion, data points about Stirrings, etc, gets drowned out once Twin gets mentioned because a lot of people see it as The Solution to "fix Modern. I think it should be moved to a separate topic because it really has become its own topic that is outside the current meta and future of Modern discussion

Quote from MrTzoulis »

Quote from cfusionpm »

[quote from="MrTzoulis »" url="/forums/the-game/modern/801804-the-state-of-modern-thread-b-r-26-11-2018?comment=1888"]BGx also has that T1 threat and we know the numbers on that matchup as being even.

Other than that, Twin was hiding Blue's (and the format's as a whole) woes with a mask of "interactivity" that was toxic to better cards entering the format via either unbannings or new printings and you people keep ignoring that.

This was a super important thing to happen from the Twin Ban. Blue just was so bad if you exclude the Twin decks at the time, and removing Twin showed Wotc it needed help. If Twin sacrificed itself for the color BLue, then tbh I'm fine with it being resurrected by Wotc

Your definition of the top decks in Legacy is accurate, but Legacy still has a lot of diversity. Nic Fit, Maverick, Sneak Attack, and many more. Those decks might not be tier 1, but they're still competitive in the metagame and the reason they can function is because Legacy has extremely strong answers, and almost every color has access to relevant answers. So, as long as you play the cards you need to play to interact with the metagame, you can fill the rest of your deck with whatever you find to be fun or interesting.

Modern is in a similar spot these days, except our answers aren't as widely available, or as powerful. In Modern, you need to answer your opponent, but you also need to be running only the most efficient threats, because we're still very much a threat vs threat format rather than a threat vs answer format, though things are gradually moving in that direction. Especially now that Wizards has fixed their development philosophy and started actually printing answers again (Standard primarily, but some of that naturally comes to us), which is something that was ignored for all of Moderns life until very recently.

Quote from gkourou »

Matt Nass is streaming at twitch right now. He is talking a lot about KCI. I asked him what does he think about a potential banning, and he said that "it's natural that the deck is going to be banned. I am not certain, but I assume that's what's going to happen".
Some folks asked him about Opal or Stirrings and he said "Diversity is why you are playing modern. if you ban one of those cards, you are deleting this aspect of the game."
He also thinks Trawler and Wellspring are interesting bannings and that's the right ban. All in all, he is admitting a ban needs to happen. Given that he is a pro who is earning money from the deck, it takes a lot of courage to admit that on camera.

Source: https://www.twitch.tv/matthewlnass

tbh i think its the opposite. nass is a pro, and its about giving yourself the best chance to win with what is out there. stuff like 'fun' or what is 'good gameplay' become less important.

what really takes courage is for someone who loves playing the deck, cares about their investment in it, and doesnt have easy access to another similarly powerful deck admitting that what they are playing is probably too good, or at least harmful to the format as a whole.

as they say; the first step is acceptance. much like many twin proponents (not any here like cfp or idsurge from what ive seen) being unwilling to accept that what they really loved about the deck was that it was powerful, enough so to cover their inadequacies as a player. it took me a while, but i had one foot in that camp. the deck was real fun to play, but the knowledge that i could walk into a room, know i had one of if not THE best deck in the format, and have game against anything and everything without putting in much effort; it skewed my ability to look at the deck objectively.

Quote from Pistallion »

Quote from ktkenshinx »

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

Quote from cfusionpm »

Modern is a format so wide that literally 50+ decks have the potential to be competitively viable, but let's ban out a dozen decks and alienate thousands of players so we can have a "brewer's paradise"? Thanks, but no thanks.

Saying Modern isn't a brewer's paradise (or that it hasn't been for nearly the entirety of its existence) is an insult to the format.

Yes but what percentage of the meta does each archtype occupy. I argue the meta is far too tilted towards Aggro/Tempo. WOTC does its best to cripple and keep Combo, Control and Big Mana down...Midrange was collateral damage but Aggro when is the last time an aggro hoser got printed?

I don't understand how anyone could look at the last 12 months of results and call for a ban.

I do. People just hate combo. That's it

Then they aren't looking at the actual GP results and they are just looking at the popular (and wrong) perceptions of those results. Here are the combined GP/PT #s for all GP/PT this year.

1. Humans: 12 (10%)
2. Gx Tron: 11 (9%)
3. KCI: 10 (8%)
4. Jeskai Control: 8 (7%)
5. UW Control: 8 (7%)
6. Bant Spirits: 6 (5%)
7. Burn: 5 (4%)
8. Hollow One: 5 (4%)
9. Abzan: 4 (3%)
10. Mardu: 4 (3%)
11. Affinity: 3 (3%)
12. Bogles: 3 (3%)
13. Elves: 3 (3%)
14. GDS: 3 (3%)
15. Hardened Scales: 3 (3%)
16. Infect: 3 (3%)
17. RG Eldrazi: 3 (3%)
18. Amulet Titan: 2 (2%)
19. Bridgevine: 2 (2%)
20. Jund: 2 (2%)
21. Storm: 2 (2%)
22. Traverse Shadow: 2 (2%)
23. UR Phoenix: 2 (2%)
24. Abzan Evolution: 1 (1%)
25. Bant Company: 1 (1%)
26. Bant Knightfall: 1 (1%)
27. BG Rock: 1 (1%)
28. BtL Scapeshift: 1 (1%)
29. Death and Taxes: 1 (1%)
30. Dredge: 1 (1%)
31. Faeries: 1 (1%)
32. Grishoalbrand: 1 (1%)
33. Jeskai Tempo: 1 (1%)
34. Lantern: 1 (1%)
35. Martyr Proc: 1 (1%)
36. Titanshift: 1 (1%)
37. UR Pyromancer: 1 (1%)

And here are the numbers if we exclude PTs and the Team events:

1. Gx Tron: 10 (10%)
2. KCI: 9 (9%)
3. Jeskai Control: 7 (7%)
4. Humans: 6 (6%)
5. UW Control: 6 (6%)
6. Bant Spirits: 5 (5%)
7. Burn: 5 (5%)
8. Abzan: 3 (3%)
9. Affinity: 3 (3%)
10. Bogles: 3 (3%)
11. Elves: 3 (3%)
12. GDS: 3 (3%)
13. RG Eldrazi: 3 (3%)
14. Hollow One: 2 (2%)
15. Mardu: 2 (2%)
16. Hardened Scales: 2 (2%)
17. Infect: 2 (2%)
18. Amulet Titan: 2 (2%)
19. Bridgevine: 2 (2%)
20. Jund: 2 (2%)
21. Storm: 2 (2%)
22. UR Phoenix: 2 (2%)
23. Traverse Shadow: 1 (1%)
24. Abzan Evolution: 1 (1%)
25. Bant Company: 1 (1%)
26. Bant Knightfall: 1 (1%)
27. BG Rock: 1 (1%)
28. BtL Scapeshift: 1 (1%)
29. Death and Taxes: 1 (1%)
30. Dredge: 1 (1%)
31. Faeries: 1 (1%)
32. Grishoalbrand: 1 (1%)
33. Jeskai Tempo: 1 (1%)
34. Martyr Proc: 1 (1%)

And finally, here are the numbers for the last three months (September through present, 4 GP total):

1. UW Control: 3 (9%)
2. Bant Spirits: 3 (9%)
3. Humans: 2 (6%)
4. Gx Tron: 2 (6%)
5. KCI: 2 (6%)
6. Jeskai Control: 2 (6%)
7. Bridgevine: 2 (6%)
8. Storm: 2 (6%)
9. UR Phoenix: 2 (6%)
10. Burn: 1 (3%)
11. Hollow One: 1 (3%)
12. Elves: 1 (3%)
13. GDS: 1 (3%)
14. Hardened Scales: 1 (3%)
15. Infect: 1 (3%)
16. Jund: 1 (3%)
17. Abzan Evolution: 1 (3%)
18. BG Rock: 1 (3%)
19. Faeries: 1 (3%)
20. Jeskai Tempo: 1 (3%)
21. Martyr Proc: 1 (3%)

These GP/PT numbers show extensive diversity with no single deck or supertype having a clear plurality. It is completely unreasonable to request bans if this is the dataset we are working with. The sole exception to this is a Dredge-focused ban, because GGT got banned in Dredge for violations that occurred outside of GP/PT T8s. Every other ban, however, was played out in the T8s.

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

It does not see that much Modern play come on now. Its too slow. Its Marginal Play at best and does not compare. Supreme Verdict still sees more play.

And WOTC printed a hoser to the best 4 CMC boardwipe in ages. So I am not quite buying your argument that WOTC is out to help Control.

I did not claim it saw "much Modern play." I simply said it sees Modern play and also Standard play. As to your other claim, Standard has Teferi, Search, Settle, Niv, Sabotage, and multiple top-tier versions of Ux Control strategies. Wizards is CLEARLY helping control be viable in Standard.

Quote from Galerion »

I have been on here for 6 years now and it's funny to see that still nothing has changed in this thread.

The problem with ban speculation isn't isolated or unique to this thread. It's the same problem perpetuated by pro articles, the Twitter sound bite storm, Twitch chat, Reddit, and continued Wizards opaqueness around ban decisions. As long as those echo chambers continue, and as long as there aren't significant shifts in how we talk about issues like bans, this won't change anytime soon.

Well, Aaron did respond to my tweet! Thanks all for the likes/comments that brought the tweet to his attention!

Original tweet: I know you probably can't respond (and that you've been asked probably 100 times) but I'll give it a shot: are there plans for Modern in the Mythic Championship format?

Aaron quoted the tweet saying: Yes. Modern is a big part of Magic!

Link to the tweet is here: https://twitter.com/mtgaaron/status/1071082279227731968

So there you have it, Modern will remain and be part of the Mythic Championship system so we should stay tuned!

http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38040_Can-We-Just-Unban-These-Cards-Already.html

When one of the most notorious control players tells you splinter twin is miserable to play against and should stay banned, pay attention.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Quote from BlueTronFTW »

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

To be honest, "No Changes" comes off as horribly lazy, especially for a format that has proven itself to be one of the most popular, if not the most popular, in all of Magic.

The format being as popular as it is is literally evidence to NOT screw with it to satisfy a small vocal minority.

So if the format was good and Rite of Replication was banned, then it should stay banned? "No changes?"

We see it differently then. Just because a format is deemed good or I should say popular as you put it, that doesn't mean that cards that won't hurt that popularity shouldn't be unbanned. I personally felt that every single Modern format was good outside of Eye of Eldrazi. Does that mean that I can't see the sensibility of other bans? Nope. Admittedly I hated most of them at the moment, but I can understand most of the bans that happened. And Modern has been popular since it started. I only remember 2 times when it became not so popular on a local level - Eye of Eldrazi and Treasure Cruise/Birthing Pod.

Also I somehow doubt that IdSurge, CfusionPM, and myself are the only Modern players that believe Stoneforge Mystic should have been unbanned a while ago. Please correct me if I'm wrong here. Maybe we are the only 3?

Some people think about it like "why mess with a good thing?" I think about it like why not make a good thing "even better."

We already know that Wizards eyes unbans in periods of stability. See BBE and JTMS. It's just a matter of time and monitoring format evolutions. They also unban when the format is unstable, often paired with a ban (see Eye and AV plus Sword). It has been only 9 months since BBR and JTMS were unbanned. The format has undergone a few changes in that time as decks have risen and fallen in popularity and viability. Wizards likely wants to monitor those evolutions before acting. In fact, this period of natural evolution was explicitly cited in the BBE and JTMS unban rationale:

"Compared to other B&R windows, this one has the maximum amount of time before another Modern Pro Tour. This will allow the format to breathe and evolve without immediately undergoing the pressures of the world's top competition."

By that logic, I expect a similarly timed unban, likely SFM and maybe something else, when the timing window is comparable in 2019. As I said before, this will likely be after the early 2019 Modern PT. Wizards doing nothing until then is responsible format management, if they are waiting for the same reasons they waited with BBE and JTMS. We have no reason to believe otherwise except for the frustrated and largely unsupportable conspiracy theories I've seen floated in this thread and other sensationalist outlets. There have been dozens of outrageous ban claims over the years and misassessments of Modern health. The format has proved incredibly stable and cyclical despite those claims. Given that track record, there is little to no cost to waiting until the 2019 timing window I am predicting.

Quote from genini2 »

Modern has been the same amount of linear every since Deathrite Shaman was banned and Jund took a dive. The only difference is which decks are doing it.

Not completely right.

Modern was rather "stale" till the release of "Khans of Takir", which basically opened the floodgates for every set.

Before you had a very stable and pillar centric format, BGx , UWR, Twin, Pod, Affinity and (starting with Born of the Gods) Burn (Note: Tron rotated in and out, depending on how much Twin, Pod and Affinity there was). And with Khans, basically everything changed:

- TC and DTT pushed Delver/hyper Aggro and Scapeshift back into relevance (as some other different combo decks), combined with the big boon Pod gained (Angle Pod) UWR and also BGx took a nose dive, since they simply couldn't keep up (even with DTT for UWR)
- Than Pod, TC and DTT got banned, Fate Reforged got released, UWR never recovered since the meta shift was to fundamental. Infect started to rise as the premier aggro/combo deck (combined with early showings of Bloom) thanks to Become Immense, Grixis started to emerge due to the printing of the Delve creatures. Suicide Zoo made the first few steps due to the printing of Become Immense and Battle Rage. The meta was still in a turmoil, cause the old rules were broken (of the 5-6 pillar decks in modern). Tron made got a boost due to the printing of Ugin, Spirit Dragon and cause of the huge metagame share of Abzan (although again, very short lived) Metagame update 2-3.2015
- Than Dragons of Takir happened, which granted us with Collected Company but more important: Atarkas Command. Burn rose to be one of THE Tier 1 decks and not leaving with burn hate in your SB was basically a death sentence. Furthermore, Grixis established itself as the Tier 1 value/control deck due to K-Command (although for a relatively short period of time). Amulet Bloom finally established itself and also showed insane MTGO win rates. Metagame update 4-5.2015
- Magic Origins was a more "calm" set, since it only added baby Jace (very short stint), Aethergrid (still sees play in Lantern and co) and Hangerback Walker (different decks). Thus this was the first real time period since Journey into Nyx where the metagame had time to breath. Jund also finally recovered while Abzan got demoted (hard). Also, Meerfolk saw more play due to the printing of Harbinger of the Tides. metagame update 6-7.2015
- While in Battle of Zendrika the omen was already foreseeable what might happen with the Eldrazi creatures (pritning of Ulamog pushed again Tron), it was not yet quite clear what will exactly happen. Hence, the metagame had overall 6 months a rather chill time period, which can be seen here: 10-11.2015. Oh btw. Bloom was finally a permanent Tier 1 deck

Also, before we go the the real breaking phase, I just want to point out which decks where Tier 1 at that point in time (in the correct order given the metagame share):
- Affinity 9,3%
- Jund 8,7%
- Burn 7,8%
- RG Tron 5,5%
- Merfolk 5,3%
- Infect 5,3%
- UR Twin 4,5%
- Grixis Twin 4,2%
- Amulet Bloom 4,1%

Hence, within only a year the metagame shifted so drastically, from a clear 5-6 pillar format towards a very broad format where the more "unfair" (aka doing actually things which required an answer from the opponent in some way or another or you will lose) decks became the majority of the Tier 1. That Amulet Bloom got a lot of flag and rose even harder as the premier combo deck in the format, was quite interesting to observe.

- Oath of the Gatewatch happened. TKS and Smasher say hi and Eldrazi "Winter" happened. HEven after their respective bans the set still offered a lot of goodies for Modern: Reckless Bushwhacker, Reflector Mage, Kalitas, World Breaker and Kozeliks Return have or had a major influence in the metagame at one point or the other. Here is the ugly breakdown: 5-6.2016. And why did it never recover and went back to status quo (or something similar)? Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin got banned when Oath got released. Suddenly another pillar bit the dust (after UWR)

- At that point in time Modern was broken and would never truly recover from that. The unbanning of Sword and AV, while having an initial hype, did nothing for the format. Keep in mind that Suicide Zoo became rolling in that time period, it slowly saw more and more play, but it was still more a niche deck than anything else. This can be seen here: 4-5.2016. Only Jund and Affinity were left from the "old guard", while Tron established itself as one since then.

- With Shadows over Inistrad nothing really "important" happened, but that Prized Amalgam and Neonate got printed (yeah yeah, I know, there were lots of good cards in that set: Traverse, Thraben Inspector, Titi, Tracker, Thalia's Lieutenant, Pieces of the Puzzel, Duskwatch Recruiter, Nahiri (OMG UWR IS BACK?!?!? ), Rattlechains and some other goodies). This started the Dredge hype. Looking at the metagame, 6-7.2016, there are three things to be aware of:
1) Return of Jeskai cause of Nahiri only to die down 2-3 months later
2) Dredge as a Tier 1 deck
3) Death's Shadow Zoo (aka Suizide Zoo) finally being a Tier 1 deck (and gaining a lot of ban talk)

Jund was king, Affinity on his side, Tron was gone (again), UWR returned, 3 ancient pillars in the Tier 1, while one will crumble soon (UWR). Also, the metagame looks vastly different than what it used to, mostly due to new tech (e.g. the whole shell of Suizide Zoo was legal since Fate Reforged, so more than a year ago) and especially new printings. Oh btw, RG Titanshift so a rise of popularity (not yet tier 1) but steadily climbing since Eldrazi Winter.

- Eldricht Moon aka Eldricht Hug saw overall 4 important cards printed: Collective Brutality, Bedlam Reveler, Spell Queller and Liliana the Last Hope. This resulted into again, lots of brewing and hyping of different decks, but in the end, everything stayed the same: Aug 2016. Also, something I forgot to mention: Midrange Elrazies (be it Bant or RG) still were considered quite good.

- The Release of Kaladesh meant one thing: Printing of Cathartic Reunion (aka Hugs) which pushed Dredge a notch up which also resulted into a huge uptick of Infect, cause Infect was just darn good in that time and especially in that metagame. This can be seen here: Dec 2016. Only two decks Infect had really problems with in the Tier 1: Jund and Burn. The rest was either a race or a rather easy match-up.

- Aether Revolt granted us with Fatal Push, Walking Balista and Baral. It also meant, that GGT and Probe got axed. Probe due to Suizide Zoo and Infect (mainly) GGT cause of the sideboard problematic (see B&R update for more infos). Feb 2017. Classic Jund ceased to exist, Shadow Jund was born and this meant, only one of the classic pillars, Affinity survived till now. However, overall the metagame was quite nice (see link), lots of fair "unfair" decks running around compared to previous times.

- The remaining two years can be summarised quite easy (since then there are hardly metagame data out there, due to the change of Wizards policy in this regard):
1) Death Shadow (be it Jund or Grixis) stayed relevant for more than a year, before dropping out of favour
2) Jund never came back, which has mainly to do with a broadening of the metagame and being rather inflexible to adapt
3) Storm rose to be a Tier 1 or at least Tier 1 contender for the majority of the time (due to the printing of Baral and the adoption from the Ritual Gifts version to include Gifts Ungiven)
4) Humans happened
5) Spirits emerged as a great deck (this year)
6) BBE and Jace got unbanned, both having close to zero impact for the longest time
7) True Control only revived due to the printing of Opt, Teferi and the adaptation of removing AV and including Terminus.
8) Hollow One got "discovered"
9) Affinity dropped down in favour of Hardening Scales

So, shor trip down memory-lane, but why do this recap over the last 4 years?

Basically, since the release of Khans of Takir, the old pillars (all of them) are gone. Only Tron and Burn (which were in the crowd back than but not pillars) have survived. And this alone made the metagame so much more wide, where the question is now: "Who can do the most "unfair" thing at the time" (again, "unfair" in: If you cannot deal with it you will have a serious problem). So if you played since the beginning (as did I), there is a reason why we feel, that the metagame became more "linear" to say it this way, cause as it shows, it became so BUT some very specific time frames (Midrange Shadow time period and the one pre Kaladesh). Before that, you could always bang on the big 5-6 pillars (aka police decks) to keep the metagame check. Since those are now long gone, the metagame overall became more volatile (as can be seen at the recent GPs, which are usually extreme in one case or another).

Greetings,
Kathal

Two years ago I made a post about what I thought was the proper card to ban from Dredge, back when it still had Golgari Grave-Troll. They banned GGT and not Bloodghast, which haunts me to this day, but I still believe in two points I made in that post:

1) Dredge is not a busted mechanic, it's actually
2) Stuff that you can cast, trigger or activate from your graveyard for free are busted

What's happened since GGT got banned?
- GGT-less Dredge continues to T8 GPs (Brisbane, Kobe, Copenhagen, Oklahoma City, and a win at Barcelona).
- Hollow One and Bridgevine became real decks. Both decks use Bloodghast (and Faithless Looting, but that's a topic for another time). Both decks are capable of creating insurmountable board states on turn 1-2. Neither deck has dredge cards other than occasional Darkblasts in Bridgevine's SB. (Side note, I made a mention of the Bridge from Below + Greater Gargadon + Bloodghast engine in my 2016 post, and as it turns out, Bridgevine plays all three cards. Though I am aware that Bridgevine can't recur lands, so Gravecrawler instead of Bloodghast as the third card and paying mana to recur Crawler ends up being more stable.)
- Creeping Chill has been printed and has put Dredge in the forefront again. Like all of Dredge's greatest hits (Bloodghast, Narcomoeba, Prized Amalgam), it doesn't cost mana to trigger.
- Dredge plays 4x dredge 5 (Stinkweed Imp), but not a full playset of the next highest dredger (Golgari Thug at 4). 4x dredge 5, 2x dredge 4, 4x dredge 3 (Life from the Loam/Darkblast) is closer to the truth. This can be quite a shocker for people who assume that "dredge is a busted mechanic", ergo, building Dredge starts with simply applying the greedy algorithm to all dredge cards in the format.
Why does Dredge play dredge 3s over dredge 4s? Bloodghast, of course. Those lands in your graveyard aren't going to put themselves back into your hand without Loam, other than Dakmor Salvage.

I believe Bloodghast was a mistake and Golgari Grave-Troll died for its sins, in line with points 1 and 2 above (much like Bloodbraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman, which I'm glad to see has been corrected). The synergy between Bloodghast and Faithless Looting is extremely strong, even without dredgers - Bloodghast gives you the opportunity to turn Looting's discard into a positive, which at least three distinct decks have sought to abuse. It warps UW into playing 4 Terminus because that's the cleanest answer to it before reaching for Rest in Peace from the SB - cheap enough to cast before getting overrun (with some luck or library manipulation), and puts it into the library instead of the graveyard so it can't be revived.

I personally believe it's an economic mistake to not include Modern Legal sets in Arena. How do you not want the hottest constructed format on your newest platform?