I just thought of something. The B&R Announcement went out (probably automatically) around 8AM Pacific time. Which is before the start of business at Wizards. So the announcement was made basically before they could really process the results of the two tourneys over the weekend. I wonder if they would have changed their tune had they had time to fully realize those results? Of course, the only answer now would be an emergency ban; but with the "All is Fine" announcement they just made, an emergency ban would be even worse.
did you read the article? I think the first 1 or 2 sentences says "we meet earlier this month to discuss".
Glad they didn't ban anything. Stores would have ended up with a ton of product on their hands they wouldn't be able to move after consumer confidence plummeted if they did ban anything.
I'm not saying the cat combo is "fun" magic for both sides of the table, but the volume of mardu decks at the GPs top 32 rank this week was pretty high. The two decks commanded easily over 60-70% of the field combined.
Hopefully we get better answers in Amonkhet. I'd love to see something along the lines of solid red creature burn that can keep pace with the threats.
I can't even remember that last red creature that was any good. I guess Zurgo Bellstriker?
For me the biggest takeaway is that they aren't planning on making any changes to the format until after the next PT, so that means we will have another 3 (three) months of DirtyKitty and Mardu Vehicles at worst, or six weeks at best if anything at all relevant comes with the new set. Is anyone else simply excited?
Standard has become a bad joke.
that's what I don't get, usually they do bannings when a new set releases, but the article states they are waiting till after PT Amonkhet. Does that mean they already decided not to ban anything during the next ban announcement as well?
so Death's Shadow won the Grand Prix, was the winning Modern deck in the SCG Open team constructed event, and won this week's SCG Open.
That is a lot of success for a deck that is only about a month old.
It's probably still too early to ban the deck as I'd like to see the meta evolve more, but with so much discard spells I'm not sure what really beats it.
They'll probably wait till Amonhket release to ban if they decide to ban at all.
I've been at it since Theros, never agreed with the people saying the format is unfun. Until now. Cat combo is not fun to play against.
Why? Because playing magic is fun. Winning is fun. Losing is okay as long as you got to play magic. When your opponent goes Cat, GG, you didn't get to play magic. You had a choice:
Play nothing and losing a long game of playing nothing;
or play your spell and lose on the spot;
Or they don't have it, and yay you survive a turn to go through the same mental anguish next turn.
You can go through a long game of building up advantages, carefully crafting a position, and then oops, bolt your ballista, untap, combo gg. If it was a rare event, cool. If it's every game, I want a different game.
That's the main thing. If they have 1 piece of the combo out, you literally have to hold up mana and not progress your board. If you don't progress your board they don't go for the combo and play more value creatures and you lose the long game.
Also I wouldn't put it past them to ban something arbitrarily from Modern (possibly something from Death Shadow Jund) just in order to not make it look better than their sacred cash cow.
People are saying things about JTMS getting unbanned but I feel WoTC put this new ban period in just for Standard. I agree I could see them banning or atleast unbanning something in Modern so it doesn't look like the new period was just for Standard.
How crazy would a Thoughtseize ban be? Not advocating one. I don't expect any changes tomorrow. I'm just curious as the discard spells keep getting brought up here.
That's the thing with black, between Thoughtseize and Inquisition they are not only better at controlling the game than blue, they also have more removal as well. There is no reason to play blue when black can answer cards and discard better than blue can remove/counter.
I'm not sure the problem is Thoughtseize, it has more to do with blue just being weak. Jace won't even help cause it's just too slow or it would just be paired with Thoughtseize/IoK.
Unbanning Preordain would help the combo decks too much which I doubt WoTC wants.
I think the only real answer is to have Counterspell in Modern or some better counter. I just don't see that happening cause WoTC refuses to bring a card into Modern that hasn't passed through Standard first.
Company and Evolution?
Chord and Company?
Chord and Evolution?
And what value creatures can we play in just R/G that are good?
I like staying straight R/G as we can play 4 Ghost Quarter and really help our big mana matchups
1: Thoughts on Night's Whisper? Painful Truths is nice but sometimes 3 mana is too expensive(on Grixis Shadow so no Traverse)
2. Best way to deal with Elves and Merfolk (decks that go wide). EE isn't good enough a lot of the time and Damnation is 4cmc and sometimes too slow.
don't think split card has been confirmed, could be a fake
did you read the article? I think the first 1 or 2 sentences says "we meet earlier this month to discuss".
I can't even remember that last red creature that was any good. I guess Zurgo Bellstriker?
that's what I don't get, usually they do bannings when a new set releases, but the article states they are waiting till after PT Amonkhet. Does that mean they already decided not to ban anything during the next ban announcement as well?
Does that mean they didn't take into consideration the results of both GP's this week where Saheeli Combo dominated?
If not, that seems terrible and very shortsighted.
Seems like they already made up there mind, had this article a week ago, and just printed it today with no revisions.
That is a lot of success for a deck that is only about a month old.
It's probably still too early to ban the deck as I'd like to see the meta evolve more, but with so much discard spells I'm not sure what really beats it.
They'll probably wait till Amonhket release to ban if they decide to ban at all.
That's the main thing. If they have 1 piece of the combo out, you literally have to hold up mana and not progress your board. If you don't progress your board they don't go for the combo and play more value creatures and you lose the long game.
People are saying things about JTMS getting unbanned but I feel WoTC put this new ban period in just for Standard. I agree I could see them banning or atleast unbanning something in Modern so it doesn't look like the new period was just for Standard.
That's the thing with black, between Thoughtseize and Inquisition they are not only better at controlling the game than blue, they also have more removal as well. There is no reason to play blue when black can answer cards and discard better than blue can remove/counter.
I'm not sure the problem is Thoughtseize, it has more to do with blue just being weak. Jace won't even help cause it's just too slow or it would just be paired with Thoughtseize/IoK.
Unbanning Preordain would help the combo decks too much which I doubt WoTC wants.
I think the only real answer is to have Counterspell in Modern or some better counter. I just don't see that happening cause WoTC refuses to bring a card into Modern that hasn't passed through Standard first.