Quote from sisicat »That's what WOTC wants you to believe, their continuation of "managing the format as we have" according to AF will definitely bite someone. I also wouldn't be surprised if Rivals of Ixalan was such a broken set to start another Eldrazi Winter again because it lines up with the Modern Pro Tour. Remember, that's how they sold Oath of the Gatewatch last time. Knowing Hasbro shareholders, they are gonna want this set to be so busted that it will invalidate many decks. I look forward to a 1-2 deck Modern format should they walk this path again.
I don't know if there is enough tinfoil in the world to make you a proper hat.
Eldrazi Winter happened not because WotC decided to make the set super broken because "lol Modern Pro Tour guys!?!"
Eldrazi Winter happened because R&D pushed colourless as the main mechanic for Oath of the Gatewatch. Add to this that Wizards has said on multiple occassions that they don't test for Modern, and ta-da!
I am curious as to why you play a game you seem to think us run by maniacal greedy overlords who want nothing more than to ruin your fun and yet somehow still get you to give them money.
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Especial thanks to @gkourou and @cfusionpm for reaching out to him. At least we know they hear the voice of the people that plays their format almost exclusively.
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That's why we shouldn't be cheering for WOTC to unban Jace if we want the 'Reactive' spectrum to catch up with the rest of the format. I just think that if banlist is the topic, Dig Through Time is a much better card for test. There are a plenty of reasons to belive that DTT would empower blue reactive decks more than anything else, and not break the format in a haf.
Last but not least, Stoneforge Mystic doens't accomplish what we are trying to do. It fits into TWO Tier 1 strategies, and it isn't even a blue card, which leads into Mystic empowering a much shorter spectrum of blue decks as you take Sultai and Grixis out of the equation.
In conclusion, we all know blue pretty much sucks in contrast to BG/x. I would leave the banlist untouched and bring the heat with future sets, including Amonkhet.
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I've been thinking a lot about this too and i came up with this list:
-Grixis Delver
-Abzan Company
-Ad Nauseam*
-Lantern Control
-Merfolk
-UW Control
-Valakut
-Storm Gifts
-Elves
-Goryos Vengance
-Hatebears Vial
-Dredge
-Knightfall
This are all Tier 2 or less and are very much capable of winning a tournament just like a Tier 1. They have a lot of play in them. Nauseam and Lantern are a little bit more known because pro's already identified them as fine choices but nevertheless they are somewhat 'under the radar'.
Good article!
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The 'Blue Debate' is endless because frustrated blue players can't decide what is it they want fixed. They talk about Splinter Twin, Counterspell, Preordain, Jace, SFM, etc,etc. The issue here is that there are guys that clearly want Twin back no matter what. They really don't care about blue. They just want their overpowered super unfair combo-control deck again, and that's reasonable if you ask me. Every banned deck carries a lot of hurted players behind. Twin was an exceptional case because: 1)Not many people saw it comming(especially Twin players)
2)Many people belived Twin was a backbone of the Modern format that once removed, the entire body would fall apart(again, pretty much all Twin players).
The fact is that Twin will not come back no matter how factible may sound. It just doesn't fit R&D's agenda for the format. They don't want any deck being suppressed out of the metagame by one particular deck.(I know that it is an almost unachievable goal but still..).
So, what it's best for Modern?. That the whole point right? Play the best format ever?.
Do we think Modern needs a Top tier combo-control deck?. Draw-go maybe? Prison Control?.
Prison is pretty much out of the question since it is the best deck in another format(Legacy Miracles). Draw-go once existed in a more grindy metagame(back when Pod and Twin were a thing).
If you scratch the Combo, Draw-go and Prison elements for blue control, then you need bleu Midrange tools. Jace, Preordain, SFM+Preordain?, etc. Legacy doens't have Draw-go neither Combo-Control. It has Aggro-Control in Delver of Secrets, and Midrange in Esper,Sultai,Bant,etc. All of them good competitive decks.
Having said this, i confirm my believe that Forsythe's tweet about Jace wasn't trivial. I think WOTC is more likely to pull the Jace trigger than anything else, in an attempt to balance BG and U/x. If that ends in Sultai best shard, then we got what we wish for. A playable, top tier blue control deck. It might not be on the reactive end but still it is a control deck.
That's also why i don't see Counterspell variant happening anytime soon.
If you want to play Combo-Control, you have Saheeli+Cat. It's not Twin but i think it might be what Abzan Coco is to Pod.
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You can ask me to clarify if you want me to.
Toxic means: Oppresive of archetypes, not being able to tap out on T3 and on, being scared constantly of being comboed out or Mooned out of the game, having 50% matchups against all meta decks incuding some ridiculous lopsided matchups like Affinity, Tron and Valakut.
There could be more reasons too.
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Wotc just reprinted a lot of staples for us and new players.
We are at the point where we need to give blue just a little push so we can stop crying about splinter twin and forget all that crap.
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I think you are right here. The cardpool is so massive that you basically need to have something in your deck that, at one point, it will ingnore what the other person is doing(or locking them out) and finish the game. There are no cards that respond every card in the format with the exception of Thoughtseize which is a fantastic card.
I wonder if Jace could bring something new to the table. A mix between a lock, and card advantage pillar and a win-condition.
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Now, an unban of Preordain/DTT AND Jace i can get behind if your goal is to make reactive blue a thing.
The conversation which involves pros like Sam Black and Burkhart can be found on Aaron Forsythes Twitter.
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1)The Twin ban was supposed to diversify control decks and let them exist without the 'Oops i win' button. The ban made blue reactive(which was a clear Tier 1 for many years in UR/x Twin) basically unplayable as you have to jump through a lot of hoops to make it work.
2)It is natural and valid that ex Twin and Blue control players are crying about their decks since they got artificially knocked out of competition.
3)Blue has many issues that involve: A)Incapability of closing games in a timely fashion, B)No form of good and timely card advantage, C)Lack of generic answers to respond a diverse and fast metagame.
4)The cards that are on the banlist and COULD help: Preordain, Jace,the Mind Sculptor, Splinter Twin.
5)Cards that could enter the format via printing: Counterspell, Instant-Speed Compulsive Research, Force of Will variant, etc.
I hate this but the most efficient and quick way of preventing bans and give back the players what they had is to unban Splinter Twin. I really don't care if some archetypes can't be played. The fact is that the floodgates are open in Modern, and everything that is powerful, it's bascially broken. You NEED to have a police deck or card in eternal formats. If you don't things get out of control quickly.
I'm not saying that the bannings post-Twin were bad ones. They were ok between the Twinless context. When one powerful card gets banned, then another comes to take the place and so on.
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Ok, you say i'm going for opinionated nonsense and you clearly have bias towards Opal and Bridge/Moon. Seems legit.
First of all, i NEVER said i would ban Moon/Bridge. I said that i'm AGAINST adding expansions, and if anything, we should take expansions out. Bridge and Moon ARE unfun for most people. Make a poll if you don't believe me. You can continue to believe that being Mooned on T2 is so much fun.
Opal and SSG go in the same category as they push the barrier to far towards Fast mana-play. My initial guess of the banlist was to slow down the format to where WOTC wants and keep the nonsense out of the format.
Bloom and Song go in the same category as the departure of SSG would kill many combos. I don't want combo players to not have a home in Modern so naturally i figured that we could give them one of those. Song might be safer without Probe. The 'OR' clause has that magic, you can choose one or the other, it's very pretty much up for debate if you will.
Lastly, Aftifact lands would enable fast starts form Affinity and some random control decks. I think i prefer Lands than Opal since Opal is constatly being used to break the T4 rule, or being played in the ´SB hate Roulette' Affinity that it's explosiveness makes up for lopsided matchups if you don't have enough Stony Silence, Ancient Grudge and/or boatloads of removal.