MTG Salvation

I think stoneforge is cool, and don't mind if fair decks get access to an "unfair" package.
So anyway is hogaak eating a ban in the future? Does looting or gravecrawler get banned?

Ross Merriam makes a good argument for never unbanning stoneforge mystic. Stoneforge isn't exactly strong but also doesn't warp the way a deck is constructed. "The opportunity cost to run twin or stoneforge packages is almost zero." I personally feel that stoneforge would make tempo decks too strong.

Also, I've watched some unban videos on youtube where they pit twin against current day decks and twin still has legs. It was especially good against humans, where cryptic command could tap attackers and stall until they top decked the combo.

I'll check out the video in a minute. I was impressed by Hogaak because the mill effects let it beat ensnaring bridge type of effects.
In paper tournaments, I still find arclight phoenix decks to be more of a problem but I've also gotten lucky drawing relic of progenitus against dredge decks. One thing I've noticed about dredge is that anger of the gods has lost a lot of value as they can just chip down your life total with creeping chills and conflagarate.

What I really wanted to say, is that the leylines don't really solve the problem of staples being unobtainable.

Twin has a high degree of consistency and was topping multiple gp's. You can't really go under it because it would stall you out with bolts, remands, and cryptic commands. Going over it was hard because it would just combo out. I miss it though because it promoted a heavy midrange environment. I want it unbanned but you can't really say wotc is exactly incompetent. You have to be willng to admit the deck was at least strong.

Some pros who play no ban list modern say birthing pod feels very underwhelming, maybe that could be unbanned.

I feel terrible saying this but I'm kinda mad they reprinted leyline of sanctity, given that it was previously in a masters set. On the flip side, Leyline of the Void definitly needed a reprint.

Haven't played modern since war of the spark came out but "blast zone" looks like bad news for bogles players or decks that rely on arbor elf + utopia sprawl. Does this card push out some of the budget friendly fringe decks? This is true of many competitive decks but this card looks strong.

The game has always been this way. You either play something degenerate or lock out the opponent. Even jund midrange just wants to kill everything until you're left with nothing in hand and a pile of lands. It's just a different flavor of prison.

The fun is in trying to poke holes in the metagame, or craft sideboards that give you an edge. Or just take a break and play more casual with decks that revolve around junk rares.

But yeah, I did enjoy the format more when there was less graveyard decks running around.

I thought nissa world waker from core set 2015 was a good standard card. This seems much better, it's probably underplayed/undervalued right now. Different standard environment of course. I think she's worth buying at $5 or less.

Horizon lands remind me of filter lands from masters 25. will probably average around $10 each

London mulligan is gonna be great. People are vastly overestimating the consistency it will add to decks.

If you already have a large collection and just want to round it out with these karns, I guess you could go for it. I could go either way on that.

Somewhat related, I don't know why wizards created arclight phoenix, prized amalgam, or hollow one, cards that enable recursive graveyard strategies. Dredge was already problematic.

Feel like modern deck prices jumped a good $250 because of war of the spark and modern horizons. New karn has warped sideboards to a degree, at least in the short term. I know things will settle into place but not liking all of the changes right now.