In the end we both know, 1000s of $ and 3 years later, that it doesn't matter. You'll still have to play against decks that don't care what you are doing, and force you to warp to them, instead of playing with/against you.
Honestly, that's really where I'm at. I could buy a new car with the value of my collection, so it's just so demoralizing to have it sit unused. But forcing myself to play miserable games doesn't feel any better. Sophie's choice, I guess.
But hey, at least Modern is "healthy," by whatever messed up standards people use these days... things that multiple decks have been banned for in the past are allowed free reign.
I just keep holding on to the hope that one day I will find a deck I enjoy enough to play, and will allow me to look past the utter misery of terrible gameplay being pushed by the top decks. And I don't want to sell all my cards just to see it happen "next time", so I'm stuck in a perpetual state of limbo. Playing *****ty deck after *****ty deck, awful experience after awful experience hoping that at least one of my matches will have game decisions beyond "do I have exactly the right cards in the top 10 of my library?"
By the way, that’s another reason why Force of Negation is a mainstay, and not running it in the maindeck is digging your own grave.
I've gone up to 2 now. Would have saved me both matches, hitting Breach and Plating. Doesn't change the utter *****show of experiences though. Luckily, some poor sap was on Jund that evening as well, and we had an amazing, long, back and forth game of resource trading and relevant game decisions. If only there were more of that, and less of the trash (or at least better, more reasonable means to deal with the trash. Force isn't enough). I guess that's what I get for changing stores to a place that actually represents the garbage fire of the actual Modern meta, instead of a bunch of stubborn people like me jamming BGx and bad blue decks all day.
For what it's worth, I took UW to FNM last week. Died on Turn 3 (while on the draw) to Breach Titan, then got Chalice'd for 1 turn 1 game 2 with Surgical, Field, and 2x Path in hand. Then I lost to regular old Galvanic Blast Affinity on turn 3, twice (game 1 and 3, each I was on the draw. Game 3 I had turn 2 Stony Silence).
The speed and ferocity of the format is not simply limited to Phoenix and Hogaak. It leads to miserable experiences with all sorts of decks!
Yep, it looks like Urza, Lord High Artificer is starting to go up a bit after SCG Brian Coval's deck tech and Justin Porches (a player local to me) top 8ing the Dallas Magic Fest.
Who would have thought turning a bunch of hate cards, mana rocks, and combo pieces into Mox Sapphires would be good?
Maybe I've just been watching Chernobyl too much (whole miniseries 3 times now...), but I have a feeling like Wizards is telling us with a straight face that we didn't see graphite on the ground when it comes to Modern and its health.
I don't disagree with you on that one. But is having to run grave-hate inherently wrong, or just a natural progression of the format? Why or why not?
I've just seen some people use the prevalence of grave-hate in decks as a sign that the format is unhealthy. But I often wonder if that's only because the format went for a long time with the graveyard as primarily as food for Tarmogoyf or potential targets for Snapcaster, as you mentioned a few pages back. Should we cling to the past, or just move forward and accept that interacting with the graveyard is just something you need to pack (akin to the Force of Will/Brainstorm package in Legacy fair decks)?
If that's the case, then there needs to be a massive reassessment of the banned and restricted list, because a LOT of things there are laughably underpowered if the current state of affairs is considered acceptable for Modern. Twin, SFM, even Pod would all likely be totally fine since it's OK to be dying on early turns to decks that require Leylines in your opening hand, and are nearly impossible to meaningfully interact with using normal Magic cards.
Here's hoping they make it right on 7/8. But my hopes are not high.
well if Albegas is correct with the subsequent b&r announcement only being a month afterwards its all the more reason not to expect any changes. as i mentioned in a previous post, for non-rotating formats 2 months is barely anything. i dislike the deck as much as anyone else since it sort of encompasses the worst aspects of modern by hitting basically every point of criticism over the years; also to be blunt id rather the deck go away even if it isn't 'too good' in whatever sense. however i can acknowledge that its just my opinion, and wizards might give it the appropriate benefit of the doubt until results provide confirmation.
being that close together if we DO see action taken on 7/8 id attribute it to one thing and one thing only: the mythic championship.
Who knows. Maybe they ban nothing and unban Twin and Stoneforge so we can watch how laughably mediocre they are these days? But it will cause people like me to flock to them anyway and take heat off the Hogaak nightmare for the short term.
I'm curious to see the reasoning on why we should have such opposition to having to run gravehate.
Because multiple previous decks have been banned for what Hogaak is doing. And the abuse of the graveyard was specifically cited (albeit ham fistedly, and in-line with my above criticism of their logic) as a justification for banning a deck. Nothing matters any more. Consistency is irrelevant.
It was nailed a while back about the homogenization of Hogaak decks. Dredge and Phoenix already kind of did this, but Hogaak is pushing it over the edge. Essentially any deck that uses the graveyard has to be doing it in a massively abusive way or else it's just not worth it. Value plays like Snapcaster, K Command, and the new (to Modern) Unearth are just so painfully mediocre and not worth it much of the time because of the massive levels of GY hate being seen.
Among the litany of other issues facing Hogaak (and GY decks in general), all of which center around the increased need to bring sideboard GY hate into the main in addition to several more slots in the side.
And to those looking for any reason or consistency within their ban logic, know this: they can ban (or not ban) anything at any time for any reason. They can just pick a card they don't like and ban it, then make up a reason afterwards. Whatcha gonna do about it?
They can also casually ignore any and all sense of reasoning or consistency with past statements, so long as there isn't a player uprising against them, or attendance drops.
THEY. DO. NOT. CARE.
As long as you keep showing up to play and there aren't enough people throwing a hissy fit, they have no obligation to do anything at any time, whether it makes sense or not.
Let's take a moment to thank Wizards for skewing data results to make us think that this slippery slope into GY abuse and "4 main deck surgical is correct" mindset is totally normal and absolutely OK.
Here's hoping they make it right on 7/8. But my hopes are not high.
Honestly, that's really where I'm at. I could buy a new car with the value of my collection, so it's just so demoralizing to have it sit unused. But forcing myself to play miserable games doesn't feel any better. Sophie's choice, I guess.
But hey, at least Modern is "healthy," by whatever messed up standards people use these days... things that multiple decks have been banned for in the past are allowed free reign.
I guess I didn't see graphite on the ground.
I've gone up to 2 now. Would have saved me both matches, hitting Breach and Plating. Doesn't change the utter *****show of experiences though. Luckily, some poor sap was on Jund that evening as well, and we had an amazing, long, back and forth game of resource trading and relevant game decisions. If only there were more of that, and less of the trash (or at least better, more reasonable means to deal with the trash. Force isn't enough). I guess that's what I get for changing stores to a place that actually represents the garbage fire of the actual Modern meta, instead of a bunch of stubborn people like me jamming BGx and bad blue decks all day.
For what it's worth, I took UW to FNM last week. Died on Turn 3 (while on the draw) to Breach Titan, then got Chalice'd for 1 turn 1 game 2 with Surgical, Field, and 2x Path in hand. Then I lost to regular old Galvanic Blast Affinity on turn 3, twice (game 1 and 3, each I was on the draw. Game 3 I had turn 2 Stony Silence).
The speed and ferocity of the format is not simply limited to Phoenix and Hogaak. It leads to miserable experiences with all sorts of decks!
I can't wait to see people use this to justify why Hogaak shouldn't be banned.
"But look at all the 5-0 list diversity!"
It's also not the unbeatable monolith people want to believe it was, or in any way would be today.
How? Is it any more than needed main deck Surgical Extraction, because GY decks are so wildly skewed?
I genuinely don't understand anyone's apprehension to things considerably less powerful and obnoxious than what is already in the format today.
Jitte, much like most of the banned list, was put there for a format that either hasn't existed for years, or never existed in the first place.
If that's the case, then there needs to be a massive reassessment of the banned and restricted list, because a LOT of things there are laughably underpowered if the current state of affairs is considered acceptable for Modern. Twin, SFM, even Pod would all likely be totally fine since it's OK to be dying on early turns to decks that require Leylines in your opening hand, and are nearly impossible to meaningfully interact with using normal Magic cards.
But of course they won't do that.
Who knows. Maybe they ban nothing and unban Twin and Stoneforge so we can watch how laughably mediocre they are these days? But it will cause people like me to flock to them anyway and take heat off the Hogaak nightmare for the short term.
Among the litany of other issues facing Hogaak (and GY decks in general), all of which center around the increased need to bring sideboard GY hate into the main in addition to several more slots in the side.
And to those looking for any reason or consistency within their ban logic, know this: they can ban (or not ban) anything at any time for any reason. They can just pick a card they don't like and ban it, then make up a reason afterwards. Whatcha gonna do about it?
They can also casually ignore any and all sense of reasoning or consistency with past statements, so long as there isn't a player uprising against them, or attendance drops.
THEY. DO. NOT. CARE.
As long as you keep showing up to play and there aren't enough people throwing a hissy fit, they have no obligation to do anything at any time, whether it makes sense or not.
Let's take a moment to thank Wizards for skewing data results to make us think that this slippery slope into GY abuse and "4 main deck surgical is correct" mindset is totally normal and absolutely OK.
Here's hoping they make it right on 7/8. But my hopes are not high.