Now that the list is out of the way here is how the rounds shook out for me.
R1: Lantern 0-2
This was a fairly standard affair of a dozen plus turns of not doing anything of significance until they are dead on board with a bridge protecting them. Unfortunately for me on the critical turn both games I was a single mana short of being able to play a final draw spell such as Clique on myself or scour on them to clear the bridge for a single turn to attack for lethal. Regardless, both games were very enjoyable to play and it's hard to say if I played correctly each game.
R2: Abzan Counters Company 2-0
Game one they assemble a formidible board with finks, vizier, shalai, birds, noble, and E.witt while my hand was choked with cryptics and Kommands. I struggled in the early turns to convert the various commands into a meaningful point of interaction and their board kept developing each turn. Luckily a tasigur next to Jace, AoT were able to hold the ground and prevent some massive attacks while they were gaining 2 life a turn with chump attacks from the finks. They soon hit six mana to start activating shalai in combat and turn everything sideways. I flash in a Clique to block shalai, flash in a snap to trade with vizier, and trade tasigur with half of the finks. Snappy flashes back a bolt to finish off shalai which lets me untap and dump my hand of Kommand, terminate, and push to clear their board and re-buy tasigur and start the Jace minus train to an easy victory.
Game two they have a very long game oriented hand with finks, ballista, double E.witt chord and coco. I Iok and Snap IoK early on the witness and chord, logic knot the second witness and snap knot their coco then clean up with terminate plus Kommand on the finks. They rebuild with a noble and ballista on 2 which I anger away and follow up with a tasigur. They main phase a coco with some solid hits and I draw a damnation. I decide to slow play it and start activating tasigur to get some goodies back until they commit a bit more and then blow everything up. I stick an azcanta shortly after and the game is academic from there as I walk in the victory with a tarpit and a lone snapcaster.
Game two they have a very long game oriented hand with finks, ballista, double E.witt chord and coco. I Iok and Snap IoK early on the witness and chord, logic knot the second witness and snap knot their coco then clean up with terminate plus Kommand on the finks. They rebuild with a noble and ballista on 2 which I anger away and follow up with a tasigur. They main phase a coco with some solid hits and I draw a damnation. I decide to slow play it and start activating tasigur to get some goodies back until they commit a bit more and then blow everything up. I stick an azcanta shortly after and the game is academic from there as I walk in the victory with a tarpit and a lone snapcaster.
R3: Burn 2-1
Another match where every game goes exactly according to the script that has been written throughout history. First game I get clowned by double swiftspear on the play with double lava spike into eidolon. I am vaporized in a mere two minutes. Game two I'm on the play with a turn 2 tasigur and on turn 3 I fully escalate brutality killing a guide and snagging a helix. They don't have a path for the grixis goyf and I take it down with ease due to my "nut draw." Game 3 they mull to 6 and I get to IoK a charm and snap IoK another burn spell and brick wall a goblin guide. Clique and tasigur show up shortly after to team up with my tarpit and they weren't able to draw enough charms to race me.
R4: RG Ponza 2-1
Oh look. The 0% victory 100% misery match up. Huzzah. Game one they have the play and double stone rain me on turns 2 and 3 with moon on 4 followed up with a couple random 4 drop monsters. I luckily drew my basic swamp and was able to fight back a little with terminates and snap bolts, but a thragtusk shuts the door right in my face the moment I get hopeful about a comeback.
Next game they get a turn 3 trinisphere and I have a bit of an internal giggle at how ineffective the card is. They deploy some midrange threats that I 1-for-1 with removal and a logic knot and stick a Clique to start pecking away at their life total. They get off a pair of mid game stone rain effects, but by then I have enough lands to operate and without a moon to break me it isn't enough and the 3/1 flyer takes it down.
Final game they snap keep their opening 7 on the play. I mull to 6. I mull to 5. I see a hand of island, island, steam vents, logic knot, and explosives. I have to keep and scry seeing a blood crypt on the top and start to think about how I can possibly win this game. What sequence of events needs to happen for me to beat a stellar 7 cards from the opponent on the play, no matter how unlikely. Crypt gives me black for the EE to clear a moon, but on the draw I'm not going to get there before blood moon "interacts with me" and stops me from taking a game action. I decide that the only way I can win is if I find threats and can use the EE and knot to keep myself alive and pray that the 2 islands are all I need to function and that they don't get destroyed.
I bottom the crypt and they open with sprawl into stone rain your steam vents. I draw a tar pit and get blood mooned the next turn. They BBE into ooze and I use EE to clear the ooze and knot their follow up chameleon colossus. They follow up with a tracker into forest while I draw a click and a terminate over this time. I decide that I can't click them because there is no way I can beat anything good without a swamp for the terminate. Since there is only 1 swamp in the deck my best chance to win is to click myself and not trade my clique with the tracker.
I cycle my terminate into a watery grave and start racing. I clear the tracker with a bolt and they BBE into another ooze and I draw the one card I knew I had to find since turn 0 of this game to have a shot at the win, Pia and Kiran Nalaar. I smile as I see the blood moon on the other side of the table and tap 2 islands and 2 UB duals to cast mom and dad with a pair of tarns next to them. As I put my tokens into play my opponent also looks at their moon and slumps into their chair.
They know full well that the blood moon is what caused this situation to turn from a win for them into a loss. Life totals being what they are, their only out was a resolved tragtusk. We take turns attacking past each other and on the final turn I throw my thopters at them to put them to -1 with me being dead to their attack on the following turn. I was so very tempted to mimic the 'Cloudthresher beats faeries' story by spouting off "...and they say blood moon beats grixis control. Lul. LUL!"
Play to your outs, get rewarded. FeelsGreatMan!
Next game they get a turn 3 trinisphere and I have a bit of an internal giggle at how ineffective the card is. They deploy some midrange threats that I 1-for-1 with removal and a logic knot and stick a Clique to start pecking away at their life total. They get off a pair of mid game stone rain effects, but by then I have enough lands to operate and without a moon to break me it isn't enough and the 3/1 flyer takes it down.
Final game they snap keep their opening 7 on the play. I mull to 6. I mull to 5. I see a hand of island, island, steam vents, logic knot, and explosives. I have to keep and scry seeing a blood crypt on the top and start to think about how I can possibly win this game. What sequence of events needs to happen for me to beat a stellar 7 cards from the opponent on the play, no matter how unlikely. Crypt gives me black for the EE to clear a moon, but on the draw I'm not going to get there before blood moon "interacts with me" and stops me from taking a game action. I decide that the only way I can win is if I find threats and can use the EE and knot to keep myself alive and pray that the 2 islands are all I need to function and that they don't get destroyed.
I bottom the crypt and they open with sprawl into stone rain your steam vents. I draw a tar pit and get blood mooned the next turn. They BBE into ooze and I use EE to clear the ooze and knot their follow up chameleon colossus. They follow up with a tracker into forest while I draw a click and a terminate over this time. I decide that I can't click them because there is no way I can beat anything good without a swamp for the terminate. Since there is only 1 swamp in the deck my best chance to win is to click myself and not trade my clique with the tracker.
I cycle my terminate into a watery grave and start racing. I clear the tracker with a bolt and they BBE into another ooze and I draw the one card I knew I had to find since turn 0 of this game to have a shot at the win, Pia and Kiran Nalaar. I smile as I see the blood moon on the other side of the table and tap 2 islands and 2 UB duals to cast mom and dad with a pair of tarns next to them. As I put my tokens into play my opponent also looks at their moon and slumps into their chair.
They know full well that the blood moon is what caused this situation to turn from a win for them into a loss. Life totals being what they are, their only out was a resolved tragtusk. We take turns attacking past each other and on the final turn I throw my thopters at them to put them to -1 with me being dead to their attack on the following turn. I was so very tempted to mimic the 'Cloudthresher beats faeries' story by spouting off "...and they say blood moon beats grixis control. Lul. LUL!"
Play to your outs, get rewarded. FeelsGreatMan!
R5: Mardu Pyro 2-0
Apparently this player drove to the event with the lantern opponent I had in round 1, but they thought I was on grixis death's shadow and not control. They keep a 1 land have stuffed to the gills with pushes, dreadbores, and an IoK. I get the play and IoK theirs and they miss a land drop for 3 turns and they were never really in it with zero live cards in hand. Game 2 I stick a jace and minus which eats a Kommand shock/discard and then they fire off another shock/discard at my face. This screams to me that they have a reveler which I have a knot for so I play accordingly.
I start using snaps on thought scours to incentivize them to start committing to the board and tag the reveler with my counterspell. Several turns pass with them durdling with looting and me doing my thing of land go and flashing back think twice while chipping away. I eventually Kommand back a scoured tasigur and start to really pressure them. I counter their first 2 removal spells and they stick a reveler this time pitching a souls which I get to surgical. But with them being so low on life I'm able to take down the last few points of life with a tar pit and a cryptic tap draw.
I start using snaps on thought scours to incentivize them to start committing to the board and tag the reveler with my counterspell. Several turns pass with them durdling with looting and me doing my thing of land go and flashing back think twice while chipping away. I eventually Kommand back a scoured tasigur and start to really pressure them. I counter their first 2 removal spells and they stick a reveler this time pitching a souls which I get to surgical. But with them being so low on life I'm able to take down the last few points of life with a tar pit and a cryptic tap draw.
R6: GW Value Town 2-0
Another game where the extra card draw of jace and think twice helped push me across the finish line. Things start off relatively scripted with noble into bolt, knight into terminate, coco into cryptic and courser plus tracker into Kommand plus snap terminate. Uneventful first several turns of the game and we continue the threat/answer dance for several turns while I start to flood out. I scour into a think twice and manage to keep pace but they keep drawing gas and I struggle to find a threat or an engine. Finally I stick a jace and go to town by finding a Kommand and emptying their hand to clear a path for tasigur to bring it home. I win the first game on turn 20-something with only 3 cards remaining in my library.
The next game is similar to the first but ends up much more nerve wracking. They open with a flood of value dorks and start getting ahead while I start to take a bunch of hits before managing to clear the board at a meager 6 life. They have been pecking away with a single lotus cobra and cast a noble. We both share a laugh as it is a very relevant card on turn 15 as it takes a full turn off the clock. I have only a single logic knot in hand and I have to spend it here to give myself an extra draw step and I delve an enormous amount of spells from my yard in anticipation of finding a tasigur. I pick up a jace and plus to slow the beats further while they horizon canopy into a courser and get a free land off the top. I minus into a think twice that finds a bolt and flash back think twice which peels a terminate.
They end step a coco into knight plus a naked renegade rallier to clear the jace and take the last terminate from my hand leaving me at a precarious life total. I top deck a snapcaster and snap Kommand in the draw step to rebuy another snap. I do this for a second time and get back a tasigur which quickly refills my hand with action thanks to my 13 lands in play. With a grip full of known answers, they scoop when I cryptic their top deck'd coco.
The next game is similar to the first but ends up much more nerve wracking. They open with a flood of value dorks and start getting ahead while I start to take a bunch of hits before managing to clear the board at a meager 6 life. They have been pecking away with a single lotus cobra and cast a noble. We both share a laugh as it is a very relevant card on turn 15 as it takes a full turn off the clock. I have only a single logic knot in hand and I have to spend it here to give myself an extra draw step and I delve an enormous amount of spells from my yard in anticipation of finding a tasigur. I pick up a jace and plus to slow the beats further while they horizon canopy into a courser and get a free land off the top. I minus into a think twice that finds a bolt and flash back think twice which peels a terminate.
They end step a coco into knight plus a naked renegade rallier to clear the jace and take the last terminate from my hand leaving me at a precarious life total. I top deck a snapcaster and snap Kommand in the draw step to rebuy another snap. I do this for a second time and get back a tasigur which quickly refills my hand with action thanks to my 13 lands in play. With a grip full of known answers, they scoop when I cryptic their top deck'd coco.
R7: Hallow One 0-2
By far the most disappointing match of the day. Game one they're on the play and I die on turn 3 before Kommand could clear a hollow one and an adept. Game two I clear their giant monsters and anger away 4 of their sticky threats just before they blood moon me and hard cast a hollow one. I never drew a basic or a fetch land and I just fall over dead for top 8.
Had I not been gibbed by hollow one and managed to win that round instead, I could have ID'd the last round into the top 8 which was a big letdown considering how much of a nongame it was. After that depressing loss I decided to drop from the event to try and beat rush hour traffic on the highway I was taking home to shorten my drive by two hours. Found out when I got home there was a wreck on the road that happened shortly before I got back so I sure dodged a bullet with that decision. In any case, here are some thoughts for you to mull over with the non-standard choices I've made and how they preformed both in the event itself and in testing.
2 Vendilion Clique MD - Clique was great all day and has been for some time. There have been many games that I needed a threat to close out because I had fallen behind or needed the extra bit of hand disruption early on or perhaps drew the wrong half of my deck in the match. They're abysmal against mardu pyro for sure, but everywhere else they always do something and that "something" tends to be important.
2 Inquisition of Kozilek MD - These are replacing the typical countersquall and extra spell snare slots and I have been very happy with them. They aren't as good as snare against snapcaster decks, but they are still good there and we are already a favorite so the slight percentage loss isn't very pronounced. They act mostly as a way to clear early value spells that demand a counterspell like tireless tracker, blood moon, pyromancer, and the information itself is invaluable.
It also gives you the IoK-Snap-IoK-Cryptic openers which are absolutely amazing and makes it incredibly difficult for most decks to enforce their will before your mana and draw engines have been set up. Even though they're not that great on turn 19, they can still clear the way for a tasigur to end the game so they are still useful once we get to where we want to be. I highly recommend running some number of discard right now, but thoughtseize I found to be much too painful to be included as much as I wish I could register them.
2 Think Twice MD - I've always said that you can't rely on just 2 search for azcanta as your draw engine and I still stand by that claim. People run field of ruin, they blood moon, they molten rain, they cast rest in peace and so on. These mopey draw spells really help push you over the line in a resource battle when search isn't able to stick around and I was very happy to have them paired with thought scours to occasionally get some added value. Obviously they're embarrassing against burn, but so is every draw spell when your opponent doesn't care about going past turn 5. In the past I have run Glimmer of Genius and was very impressed with how well it performed, but I wanted something that I could do earlier on and didn't want to have even more 4 drops in the deck. It works with snapcaster and is a very powerful play considering what you are drawing into, but currently I'm leaning towards cheaper spells for my raw card draw.
0 Serum Visions MD - I'll always miss serum because of the great consistency it adds, but I don't feel like we can afford the full on Turbo XeroX play style in modern right now. This meant I had to choose one cantrip or the other and scour had more value when you add in think twice. I tried playing just 2 copies in addition to some number of scours, but there wasn't enough card advantage to keep me ahead once I stabilize to warrant the inclusion.
3 Cryptic Command and 3 Kolaghan's Command - I've tried the 8 command version of grixis in the past and every time I hated it. There are just far too many games and entire match ups where they are too clunky for you to convert into a meaningful advantage. You don't always have worthwhile targets for Kommand and aren't always able to hold open 4 mana to drop a cryptic in a meaningful fashion. Because of that I trimmed down a copy of each in favor of other forms of advantage that are easier to translate into a favorable position and have been extremely satisfied with the change.
1 Anger of the Gods MD - Without path to exile we need some kind of exile effect, especially with hollow one being such a high variance match. I've enjoyed having a sweeper in the main before, and today the creature decks tend to be going very wide and this is a great tool to have in the first game. For a while I was running two copies main and zero in the side, but I wanted to diversify my spells a bit more to make the snaps and scours a little bit better. I can easily see two main being the correct route to take due to us lacking Path to Exile, but am unsure of which swap is the best to make it happen.
Jace, Architect of Thought MD - This one partially fills the role of sweeper against go-wide decks and threat plus card draw against slower fair decks. I've been very impressed with how it performs and he colds early lingering souls spam from mardu cleanly while being able to be a draw engine in its own right. Right now I am certain on the inclusion, but in two weeks that could easily change based on how the meta continues to develop.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar SB - A fairly simple and generic mid game threat for when that is desired. It has the upside of being castable through a blood moon and very good against decks that would play it while not being answered cleanly by a lone celestial purge like keranos against jeskai. This slot changes from week to week depending on what fair deck you expect the most and currently I want the promised value from mom and dad.
Alpine Moon SB - This has been a fine "no button" to hit against tron and valakut. I like the one because it shuts them down even when on the draw and can buy enough time for us to set up so that tron either doesn't matter or has been blown up with fields and fulmns. I could take it or leave it to be honest, but as a one of I don't have much data to make any strong claims.
0 Dispel SB - I chose to go with more versatile counters that are always good against the big mana decks as I feel that the matches where dispel is good so are negate/stroke (aside from burn) where I don't need the extra help. This is a point I feel strongly about as half the decks where you want to load up on permission are heavily in our favor and the other half are very bad for us so I want to ensure that 100% my permission is live when I need the help.
2 Damnation + 1 Anger of the Gods SB - My list is far more heavy on wrath effects than ones I have seen for a while. Much like my comments on Jace, AoT, the creature decks tend to be going quite wide and you can't always keep pace in the early turns with spot removal. Post board the mantra has always been "make sure your hate cards are Powerful" and a playset of wraths is exactly that. With a large portion of the field being decks that dump a handful of dorks into play for one reason or another, being able to ensure that you find an early sweeper is how you should be boarding. It also lets you ensure that you won't have to leave in any permission against the vial/cavern decks or other creature decks where permission is embarrassing and just pray you get a target for them.
3 Field of ruin + 1 Spirebluff Canal - Another uncommon choice for the lands and this one I found to be partially incorrect. It was a calculated risk on my part and a conscious choice to do so which was a less tested (or less noticed) aspect of my list going into the event. I'll be sticking with 24 total lands however and change the third field back into a UR dual to help facilitate anger of the gods on curve ever so slightly. I do like the fast land to help alleviate your fetch/shock tendencies early on, but I'm not sure how many fast lands I would be comfortable having in total.
2 Inquisition of Kozilek MD - These are replacing the typical countersquall and extra spell snare slots and I have been very happy with them. They aren't as good as snare against snapcaster decks, but they are still good there and we are already a favorite so the slight percentage loss isn't very pronounced. They act mostly as a way to clear early value spells that demand a counterspell like tireless tracker, blood moon, pyromancer, and the information itself is invaluable.
It also gives you the IoK-Snap-IoK-Cryptic openers which are absolutely amazing and makes it incredibly difficult for most decks to enforce their will before your mana and draw engines have been set up. Even though they're not that great on turn 19, they can still clear the way for a tasigur to end the game so they are still useful once we get to where we want to be. I highly recommend running some number of discard right now, but thoughtseize I found to be much too painful to be included as much as I wish I could register them.
2 Think Twice MD - I've always said that you can't rely on just 2 search for azcanta as your draw engine and I still stand by that claim. People run field of ruin, they blood moon, they molten rain, they cast rest in peace and so on. These mopey draw spells really help push you over the line in a resource battle when search isn't able to stick around and I was very happy to have them paired with thought scours to occasionally get some added value. Obviously they're embarrassing against burn, but so is every draw spell when your opponent doesn't care about going past turn 5. In the past I have run Glimmer of Genius and was very impressed with how well it performed, but I wanted something that I could do earlier on and didn't want to have even more 4 drops in the deck. It works with snapcaster and is a very powerful play considering what you are drawing into, but currently I'm leaning towards cheaper spells for my raw card draw.
0 Serum Visions MD - I'll always miss serum because of the great consistency it adds, but I don't feel like we can afford the full on Turbo XeroX play style in modern right now. This meant I had to choose one cantrip or the other and scour had more value when you add in think twice. I tried playing just 2 copies in addition to some number of scours, but there wasn't enough card advantage to keep me ahead once I stabilize to warrant the inclusion.
3 Cryptic Command and 3 Kolaghan's Command - I've tried the 8 command version of grixis in the past and every time I hated it. There are just far too many games and entire match ups where they are too clunky for you to convert into a meaningful advantage. You don't always have worthwhile targets for Kommand and aren't always able to hold open 4 mana to drop a cryptic in a meaningful fashion. Because of that I trimmed down a copy of each in favor of other forms of advantage that are easier to translate into a favorable position and have been extremely satisfied with the change.
1 Anger of the Gods MD - Without path to exile we need some kind of exile effect, especially with hollow one being such a high variance match. I've enjoyed having a sweeper in the main before, and today the creature decks tend to be going very wide and this is a great tool to have in the first game. For a while I was running two copies main and zero in the side, but I wanted to diversify my spells a bit more to make the snaps and scours a little bit better. I can easily see two main being the correct route to take due to us lacking Path to Exile, but am unsure of which swap is the best to make it happen.
Jace, Architect of Thought MD - This one partially fills the role of sweeper against go-wide decks and threat plus card draw against slower fair decks. I've been very impressed with how it performs and he colds early lingering souls spam from mardu cleanly while being able to be a draw engine in its own right. Right now I am certain on the inclusion, but in two weeks that could easily change based on how the meta continues to develop.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar SB - A fairly simple and generic mid game threat for when that is desired. It has the upside of being castable through a blood moon and very good against decks that would play it while not being answered cleanly by a lone celestial purge like keranos against jeskai. This slot changes from week to week depending on what fair deck you expect the most and currently I want the promised value from mom and dad.
Alpine Moon SB - This has been a fine "no button" to hit against tron and valakut. I like the one because it shuts them down even when on the draw and can buy enough time for us to set up so that tron either doesn't matter or has been blown up with fields and fulmns. I could take it or leave it to be honest, but as a one of I don't have much data to make any strong claims.
0 Dispel SB - I chose to go with more versatile counters that are always good against the big mana decks as I feel that the matches where dispel is good so are negate/stroke (aside from burn) where I don't need the extra help. This is a point I feel strongly about as half the decks where you want to load up on permission are heavily in our favor and the other half are very bad for us so I want to ensure that 100% my permission is live when I need the help.
2 Damnation + 1 Anger of the Gods SB - My list is far more heavy on wrath effects than ones I have seen for a while. Much like my comments on Jace, AoT, the creature decks tend to be going quite wide and you can't always keep pace in the early turns with spot removal. Post board the mantra has always been "make sure your hate cards are Powerful" and a playset of wraths is exactly that. With a large portion of the field being decks that dump a handful of dorks into play for one reason or another, being able to ensure that you find an early sweeper is how you should be boarding. It also lets you ensure that you won't have to leave in any permission against the vial/cavern decks or other creature decks where permission is embarrassing and just pray you get a target for them.
3 Field of ruin + 1 Spirebluff Canal - Another uncommon choice for the lands and this one I found to be partially incorrect. It was a calculated risk on my part and a conscious choice to do so which was a less tested (or less noticed) aspect of my list going into the event. I'll be sticking with 24 total lands however and change the third field back into a UR dual to help facilitate anger of the gods on curve ever so slightly. I do like the fast land to help alleviate your fetch/shock tendencies early on, but I'm not sure how many fast lands I would be comfortable having in total.
Moving forward I'm going to be running the following list and trying to find room for an extra think twice to total 2 copies in the deck or consider a third search for azcanta over the one think twice I currently have. Here is what I am currently fiddling with:
I absolutely want 2 cliques in the 75 somewhere and prefer some in the main because of their perpetual usefulness and flexibility. I'm also happy with the total number of draw spells, but the configuration does determine the amount that I want. I'm back on 3 tasigur because the games where you have one before the late game and when you don't are like night and day when you compare how easily you can leverage your commands and close out the game. He also fills the role of a draw engine which the deck wants, especially with knots to help curate the yard.
I have played a number of games with Nicol Bolas, the Ravager and I have been impressed with him, especially with a pair of IoK in the deck. He really helps you do a number on your opponents hand and whittle them down to nothing. It is also a late game "I Win" card that also helps by blocking early beats in fair matches and brick walls lingering souls tokens. Unfortunately I don't own any and the price tag is why I haven't tried them in a competitive setting. I'll be fooling around more with him in the list and I am hopeful, but I really can't say for sure if he is a worthy inclusion or not. What I can say on that subject however is that it is a strong enough card that it is worth thoroughly testing as opposed to just speculating on paper without a good amount of games being played.
The creature split that I am most interested in testing to include bloas is as follows:
I hope you enjoyed reading through my thoughts on the archetype and am curious what your thoughts are on bolas for those who have actually played a number of games with him. How does everyone feel about the heavy cantrip versions of grixis against the field? Do you just yolo against blood moon decks and hope to dodge it resolving? Has anybody else enjoyed some amount of discard in the main deck? Are there any players that have liked Alpine Moon as a sideboard card that have in game experience with it?
1
damn... it looks broken enough on its own. 3 mana for a 7/6, and discarding isnt exactly that bad, just play w/e you draw....
1
combined with the premium price tag slashed on MH1, it is highly likely to be marked as a failure financial wise, and that may hinder any efforts to make another MH set in the near future.
1
Yes, I meant that none of those seem maindeckable in today's modern metagame.
I may be wrong, as some of them seem borderline playable (maybe as a 1-2 of), but that's my initial assessment.
1
1
they should've just reprinted undermine... 4 undermine + 4 countersquall + snapcaster mage = counter till you die
1
2
Getting cards like Baleful Strix is a great idea, but if you get an upgrade of baleful strix every year and your new toy sits there useless after 6 months, it defeats the purpose of a non rotating format. Another channel of introducing cards into the format is absolutely wonderful, as long as they get the balance right, and don't take it too far.
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I'm afraid accessibility isn't fully in WOTC's hands, and maybe not even in their interest. Their target is to make profit, profit comes from revenue which is always a function of price and quantity. It's not always the best for WOTC to increase accessibility, aka quantity. They printed noble heirarch and snapcaster on mythic not because of flavor, but because of secondary market interests. In fact, introducing mythic rarity basically meant that they sided with secondary market players, such as SCG, CFB and other big card stores. In economics, that's text book price discrimination, and as a for profit company, they should by all means do so. By siding with the secondary players though, WOTC relinquishes control of the secondary market price to an extend, in exchange of liquidity, or volume. That's what made the game prosperous for the players, and lucrative for WOTC. TBH it worked, at least on the financial statements. But short term monetary gain could come at a long term cost, i.e. their printing quality sucked for the past few years, their questionable arrangements of product line also kinda hurted.
Following that logic, even if they introduce a modern specific booster product, what they really wanted to do is to milk cash out of modern players' pockets, which is perfectly reasonable. What's WOTC's most lucrative product line? Booster boxes, always. Everyone knows that the best way to sell packs is through limited, but the dilemma is that constructed has been the primary selling point of MTG for at least the first 20 years (correct me if I'm wrong), and will continue to remain that way. Out of all constructed formats, which one is the most lucrative? Standard, because cards become obsolete every 2 years. Non rotating formats are nice to keep players happy with the game, but what happens when more and more players start sitting on their "modern staple" cards and don't buy booster packs? What's the best way to get these modern players to buy packs? If you ask me, I'd say shake up the format, make it "rotate" through power level shifts. from Jund to Twin to Pod to Scapeshift to Tron etc. If these metagame shifts are due to new prints, the new boosters will be highly sought after, just imagine modern specific booster set #1 prints baleful strix engineered plague counterspell, boosting the power lvl of UB color combination. Then set #2 prints swords to plowshares astral slide etc. intentionally shifting power lvls across different colors/archetypes and increasing the power level of modern. Eventually one day you'll be sitting there with a bunch of tarmogoyfs dark confidant worth $20, because the new prints are so powerful that these don't even see play anymore, and you'll have to keep buy new booster packs to keep up.
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But I am skeptic as to which direction they are going into. Let's think for a sec, if they introduce such a booster set, it needs to differ from modern masters, which is modern legal reprints only. So there are two kind of cards it needs to introduce, in addition to modern legal reprints, those are 1. non-modern legal reprints, and 2. newly designed modern specific cards. If neither of those cards printed are more powerful than the current modern available card pool, the product simply won't move. However, if they start introducing increasingly powerful cards through modern legal booster sets that effectively power creep modern, it'll turn modern into a non-rotating standard, which is very very dangerous.
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disenchanthas been there since alpha....