White does still need something. I am also not convinced blue needs anything. Twin is red.
I am not convinced anything needs anything until we get both the Grand Prix results from this weekend, and then we get results from the August triple GP weekend. If those five Grand Prix cannot produce a viable Tier 1 blue strategy, or if they all see Jund sucking, then we can return to our discussion of unbanning JTMS/insert-blue-card-here and unbanning BBE. Similarly, if some other Modern deck is a problem and dominates in those five events (winning them all, sending 3 players to the T8 of all of them, etc.) then we can talk about metagame diversity bans. Or, if a turn four violator consistently performs even if it isn't making Tier 1, then we can talk about banning that too.
For now, we don't have enough information to claim anything needs to be banned or unbanned. We still have people believing RG Tron is dead when it just got 2nd at the SCG Open and got 10th at the same event. This kind of uncertainty needs to settle before we can figure out what is fair and what is not, as well as what needs help and what needs to be left alone.
How does this weekend affect the Modern meta? Is there a big event at the GPs?
Legacy is doing better at my local level because it doesn't require you build a Tier 1 deck to compete and stores have altogether removed all Modern support save for a single FNM, while Legacy has a community driven bi-montly League. Modern had a league too but the organizers dropped it because "that ***** is casual now".
Modern players didn't want their format to be casual, we were browbeat into chosing between losing our time and money investments through bans, or shuting the **** up and letting the pros have one more big event to play babby magic at.
This doesn't make any sense. I haven't met a single pro team dedicated to modern anyway but a bunch of casual players suddenly drop the format because it won't be at an event they'll never go to?
Bant CoCo barely made the top 8 (came in 7th), so I don't think it's as overpowered as people are making it out to be. I think the results we saw at the SCG are going to be limited to there. A lot of people jumped on Bant and Mono White Humans and I think they hopped on the wrong bus. A good control deck shuts both of them down and we're seeing 3 out of the top 4 being control decks. With Control ascending, you're going to see a lot of shifting in the meta. Control is the great equalizer. ;-)
This line of thinking is extremely flawed. Here is a breakdown of the decks that got at least 7 wins at the PT.
Bant CoCo isnt even NEAR the only deck to play. My LGS had a pretty big turnout for its Wednesday Night Standard and of 34 people, only 3 Bant CoCo decks. Only 1 Top 8'd. There is plenty of hate for it, if you dont like it, play the hate, if you dont like the hate, develop a new hate.
There are TONS of cards and deck combos that can beat CoCo, use them, find them, build them. Just because the deck you want to play gets hosed by CoCo doesnt mean it needs a ban.
I sincerely doubt what happens at an LGS means anything. We should see how the Leagues and PT shape up to really see if the format needs fixing. Bant Company is doing well on day 1 with gigantic numbers, but we are really far from the threshold of banning.
So been playing a lot of Junk, Jund and Titanshift on MTGO.
Seriously, **** this AV unban. All it's done is help hurt non AV fair decks. I'm finding players keep sloppy hands with AV, and aggro and combo decks slip right through it. Jund? God no. I don't even like Liliana of the Veil in the matchups anymore. Jund and Junk are grindy decks, it's not uncommon whatsoever to be able to cast AV twice in a game with real issues. The card advantage is unreal now, to the point where I almost don't want to keep Lillies in games 2 and 3 anymore.
I'm sure someone's going to go, "HERP DERP, DISCARD THEIR AV TURN 1 AND THEN LAND GOYF! IT'S TOO EASY" No, it's not. Seriously, Liliana is awful as I go hellbent on myself and my opponent draws 3 cards and then chains AV's together as I just sit there with Lilly watching her get crapped on. I'm honestly not sure how Jund is reaching these top 8s, my assumption is that these aggro and combo decks are crapping on the AV decks and those particular Jund players are dodging the decks, because I honestly feel anything running AV has a 65-35 matchup against Jund now.
Definitely frustrated that all AV has done is hurt fair decks, it hasn't solved the issue of combo or aggro whatsoever, and some people like Bill called that way long ago
So play different cards? It's not like black is lacking in good draw 3s is it? Or that Lingering Souls or Rhinos are pretty powerful on their own.
Ummm, isn't that what he said it would be though? Just his thoughts on what healthy should be?
Authors can write opinion pieces while also drawing on external evidence. The best op-eds in non-Magic content do just that. That should be just as true for Magic content producers, especially for premium SCG writers and pros. He doesn't need to go nuts with it. Just needs to cite any of the abundant sources which play into his arguments.
I'll also add that we just had a banlist update about two weeks ago. Do we really need this kind of article 15 days later?
I disagree. He cites enough info to make a case for why he thinks Goryo, SSG, and Opal would be on the block, and certainly more than what WotC says for some bans and unbans. I like pieces where I can see the unfiltered thoughts and intuitions from some of the best players in the game, especially in a dead time when people are still thinking of bans and unbans. Your work's great, but I don't think everything needs to be like it at all.
I think that when the pro is advocating for the unban of the second most powerful piece of equipment ever printed, the pro can safely be disregarded. Jitte is one of the most powerful cards in Legacy, and entirely warps the game around itself. Every game with Jitte becomes "Did you remove Jitte immediately or counter it? If not, you lose."
For the Modern banlist, I would trust the unban of every other card except the affinity lands, Mental Misstep, Skullclamp and Glimpse of Nature before I would trust a Jitte unbanning.
Jitte is indeed the most powerful equipment, but let's not get into hyperbole with "it's one of the most powerful cards in Legacy." SFM is nestled in tier 2 decks and Jitte isn't the end all be all it used to be. Still probably too strong for Modern, but getting thoughts on it in the format is interesting.
Ummm, isn't that what he said it would be though? Just his thoughts on what healthy should be?
Authors can write opinion pieces while also drawing on external evidence. The best op-eds in non-Magic content do just that. That should be just as true for Magic content producers, especially for premium SCG writers and pros. He doesn't need to go nuts with it. Just needs to cite any of the abundant sources which play into his arguments.
I'll also add that we just had a banlist update about two weeks ago. Do we really need this kind of article 15 days later?
I disagree. He cites enough info to make a case for why he thinks Goryo, SSG, and Opal would be on the block, and certainly more than what WotC says for some bans and unbans. I like pieces where I can see the unfiltered thoughts and intuitions from some of the best players in the game, especially in a dead time when people are still thinking of bans and unbans. Your work's great, but I don't think everything needs to be like it at all.
can someone tell me what cards ari lax has referred to? I dont have access to this
Don't double-post. Use the Edit feature.
Really not a fan of Lax's article. He separates cards into tiers of bannability and unbannability from most to least likely. Here are the tiers for bannings.
Tier 1 Bans
SSG
Goryo's Vengeance or Griselbrand
Tier 2 Bans
Mox Opal
Gitaxian Probe
Tier 3 Bans
Amulet of Vigor
Become Immense
Ancient Stirrings
Spoils of the Vault
Urza's Mine
Blood Moon
And here are the tiers for the unbans, starting with the most likely and ending with the ones we shouldn't even talk about.
Tier 1 Unbans
Jitte
Tier 2 Unbans
BBE
Twin
Bloom
Artifact lands
Punishing Fire
Tier 3 Unbans (i.e. never going to happen)
Ponder/Preordain
Pod
Cloudpost
Dread Return
GSZ
JTMS
SFM
Overall, not one of Lax's stronger pieces. It's just a scattershot grab bag of opinions with basically no Wizards quotes, banlist decision citations, tournament data, or test results.
Ummm, isn't that what he said it would be though? Just his thoughts on what healthy should be?
I think we'll find out at the PT but it's put up dazzling numbers the past two weeks with multiple variants. Company+Mage+Recruiter and hyper efficient cards is an extremely strong formula for success.
Watching coverage and reading some analysis it looks like Company decks might be a bigger player in the meta with less Tron. It has a its own robust combo, lots of resilience and plenty of disruption to deal with Thopter decks.
I wonder if it means that his power was permanently diminished by creating Avacyn or if it was temporary? Nahiri's power post mending is also quite interesting.
How does this weekend affect the Modern meta? Is there a big event at the GPs?
This doesn't make any sense. I haven't met a single pro team dedicated to modern anyway but a bunch of casual players suddenly drop the format because it won't be at an event they'll never go to?
This line of thinking is extremely flawed. Here is a breakdown of the decks that got at least 7 wins at the PT.
No Modern PTs going forward
Small banlist
Less non-interactive decks
Be at a power level so some new cards can break in
You mean like when they scoop to CoCo getting countered? It's essentially the same thing.
I sincerely doubt what happens at an LGS means anything. We should see how the Leagues and PT shape up to really see if the format needs fixing. Bant Company is doing well on day 1 with gigantic numbers, but we are really far from the threshold of banning.
So play different cards? It's not like black is lacking in good draw 3s is it? Or that Lingering Souls or Rhinos are pretty powerful on their own.
Jitte is indeed the most powerful equipment, but let's not get into hyperbole with "it's one of the most powerful cards in Legacy." SFM is nestled in tier 2 decks and Jitte isn't the end all be all it used to be. Still probably too strong for Modern, but getting thoughts on it in the format is interesting.
I disagree. He cites enough info to make a case for why he thinks Goryo, SSG, and Opal would be on the block, and certainly more than what WotC says for some bans and unbans. I like pieces where I can see the unfiltered thoughts and intuitions from some of the best players in the game, especially in a dead time when people are still thinking of bans and unbans. Your work's great, but I don't think everything needs to be like it at all.
Ummm, isn't that what he said it would be though? Just his thoughts on what healthy should be?