Does not seem like there is a whole lot of hype about The Locust God for UR focused Control decks, and I am honestly not entirely sure why. The deck has access to Fevered Visions out of the board and cards like Glimmer of Genius and Hieroglyphic Illumination. The card can really start closing out a stable board and sometimes more efficiently than Torrential Gearhulk.
I am curious why people seem to be so hard on for Censor. I get that it can cycle mid to late game, but splashing for something like Failure // Comply seems like it is just better at buying time throughout the course of an entire game. Splashing W or B can really give the deck some legs when it comes to flexing. I am not entirely sold on the idea of Grixis and Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh though, and suspect Jeskai is just a better way to go. Bolas is nutty strong, but I question the overall value of B over W when you can have extra tempo swinging cards like Spell Queller and Gideon of the Trials. I also think Cast Out is another strong talking point here.
Something I have also been working with was Reduce // Rubble. This card has continued to buy me a pretty incredible amount of time, especially when paired with Failure // Comply. Against most midrange and control decks, these two can make for really strong Fevered Visions plays to help you set up for The Locust God. The card has been shockingly powerful as a midgame play when you are looking to get out that 1 extra land or get into your next turn to untap a land that may have entered tapped. My list has been running both Reduce // Rubble and Supreme Will and I have found the aftermath option to be preferred over the digging option, the majority of the time. I do however, think a split is probably correct to a degree.
So far, I have been running a Grixis list and a Jeskai list and I tend to favor the Jeskai list over the Grixis list, despite really trying to force Nicol Bolas... because I am a sucker for him.
I think the problem with Locust God, Spell Queller and Gideon of the Trials is that none of them really play nice with Hour of Devastation which is just so good. Plus, unlike the minor black splash for Bolas (it's not really a Grixis deck at this point), having lots of taplands to play Jeskai really can make some games awkward, especially if Temur decks and their zillion cantrips are still popular. I am probably gonna try out 1x Locust God in URb though cuz he really does look nice in theory.
Also regarding Reduce // Rubble (and more specifically Rubble) it's nice midgame but it's only truly potent if it's backed up with either a drawspell or threat. Otherwise it just seems like a tempo play in a deck that's fine going to the late game, and is a terrible draw at that point too compared to Supreme Will. I think it might be better in Jeskai variants that run more tempo cards than UR or URb ones. I like it a lot as a sideboard card against ramp decks though, since generally speaking control decks actually try to become more aggressive against them.
The main problem with R&D at wizards and modern is that while some of the designers may see that a card can go through standard, the issue is the company itself has really bad management and the final say is still going to be in the hands of whatever project lead is currently in charge. That and the fact control is almost universally despised in standard due to how long the rounds end up going I doubt we will see something like Aether Revolt again for a very long time, let alone any possible chance for Counterspell to become modern legal via the traditional means.
Can someone remind me what trollish universal law there is that prevents the modern community to just say "yeah, this card may not have gone through standard but it seriously is okay for the format. Lets just call it modern legal and move on."? Wizards doesn't even run the majority of the events for modern and they want to be the ones that control the rules for the modern format? Does anyone else find this odd?
They control the rules for legacy and vintage too buddy, that's why they're sanctioned tournament formats while Frontier and Commander are not. Not to mention that it's not a good thing for TO's and communities just to randomly and arbitrarily say "uh yeah this card's legal just because".
I have to disagree with that. Even when a Uxx control deck achieves a positive twin matchup, they will be worse against the field. This is the reason it is oppressive. Arguing that Twin does not oppress other blue control decks is absolutely false - as is your statement that the last year offers evidence that Uxx needs twin.
I've said this a number of times, but I'll argue this as clearly as I can:
Let's say 100 people have 3 options for something. Option A is awesome and really good, option B is pretty mediocre, and option C is worthless garbage. If I remove option A, I am left with options B and C. Option B is now the defacto "best" option, but both options B and C are just as mediocre and worthless as they used to be. Nothing is actually gained in this transaction, other than some number of people who used to choose option A now choose option B or C. In reality, there are tons of other options like X, Y, Z, etc; all of which are still better than options B and C.
I'll repeat the most important part: Removing option A does nothing to make options B and C any better. In order for options B and C to be better, there needs to be accompanying support dedicated to actually making B and C better. The pathetic support given last April was laughably ineffective in doing anything, and any other support has been looked over for the following three announcements and multiple set releases.
You can try and argue that Ancestral Vision has helped them, but all it has really done is brought decks from totally irrelevant up to passably mediocre. The most successful Uxx deck (Delver) often doesn't even run any copies of AV.
Option A has been shown to be too oppressive to the format. The fix for that is to improve option B with new cards, not demand an immediate return to option A. I also don't buy that you need an immediate win condition to make a blue deck good, even in Modern, at least not to the combo-able level of Twin. The issue with AV is that a turn 4 draw spell doesn't help the early game, which better cantrips could help with.
Whole lot of panic over nothing. The bans they just did (dredge and probe) HELPED. They obviously are both paying attention, and doing the right things for the meta health.
People freaking out...I do not understand at this point. Freak out a year ago, but not now.
It's not the bannings getting people riled up and worried about the future of Modern it's the dropping of 'Grand Prixs' (Moderns main competitive events) in favor of Standard 'Nationals'.
They shifted from the WMCQs back to Nationals, and have Standard as the main event of nationals over Modern (according to their announcement, supposedly due to pricing and accessibility concerns). Modern Grand Prixs are still going to exist, unless I missed something.
Arguably the only reason why Twin got banned was the PT to "shake things up".
Twin would be a safe unban, and I strongly believe it will happen at some point.
To their credit, they gave a specific reason why they banned Twin
We also look for decks that hold a large enough percentage of the competitive field to reduce the diversity of the format.
Antonio Del Moral León won Pro Tour Fate Reforged playing Splinter Twin, and Jelger Wiegersma finished third; Splinter Twin has won two of the four Modern Pro Tours. Splinter Twin reached the Top 8 of the last six Modern Grand Prix. The last Modern Grand Prix in Pittsburgh had three Splinter Twin decks in the Top 8, including Alex Bianchi's winning deck.
Decks that are this strong can hurt diversity by pushing the decks that it defeats out of competition. They can also reduce diversity by supplanting similar decks. For instance, Shaun McLaren won Pro Tour Born of the Gods playing this Jeskai control deck. Alex Bianchi won our most recent Modern Grand Prix playing a similar deck but adding the Splinter Twin combination. Similarly, Temur Tempo used to see play at high-level events but has been supplanted by Temur Twin.
We considered what one would do with the cards from a Splinter Twin deck with Splinter Twin banned. In the case of some Jeskai or Temur, there are very similar decks to build. In other cases, there is Kiki-Jiki as a replacement.
In the interest of competitive diversity, Splinter Twin is banned from Modern.
Of course, Wizards has certainly proven they're capable of getting things way wrong, but it's pretty much what I said, and think about it: if Twin is unbanned, could any blue deck conceivably run anything but URx? There'd be no Esper or Sultai control. Twin addresses the symptom but not the cause.
Also, Sheridan, even though MTGO's shares say Junk is higher than Jund's, it's notably been shrinking and underperformed in the regionals, everyone was playing Jund and most people agree Jund is better, I'm not sure Abzan is being very pushed right now, I don't think SFM is an unreasonable ban. You said it yourself, white is absolute crap in modern, and blue's not far behind. SFM is literally the definition of blue and white packaged into one card.
This isn't accurate at all. SFM slots into any Wxx deck that can also host an equipment package, not any white/blue deck. For example, DnT and Maverick are both more than happy to run SFM without running blue, whereas UWr Miracles doesn't have any need for her. I'm guessing you're referring to Caw-blade when you say she's white and blue, but in legacy that (Stoneblade) is just one of three prominent decks that actually run her. I'm thoroughly of the opinion that she shouldn't be unbanned in modern, even with Jitte still on the banlist. Or if you do unban her, then Batterskull needs the axe.
I no longer feel the talk of unbanning Splinger Twin is unreasonable anymore, and I can't defend that ban now, WOTC's goal of empowering blue has been an absolute failure
Either take the chance and unban a very huge blue card or just bring Twin again.
Now, if blue gains preordain, maybe Jace, doesn't it seem dangerous to unban Twin then? Just a question for the more seasoned blue players
The issue with Splinter Twin wasn't that it made blue too powerful, but rather that it was deemed too oppressive on the format. Which was, in a way, correct, since we saw a proliferation of many different archetypes after Twin fell (albeit most of them being linear decks). Twin gave URx decks an oops-I-win switch, but it was also the only viable way to run blue. Preordain and counterspell would help blue much more (and also keep it more diverse so that you don't always have to run URx).
My specific point is that such decks don't really exist in modern, and god help us if they do. There are very few non-combo decks in Legacy that don't run blue, specifically Death and Taxes (which wouldn't survive without a Stoneforge Mystic package that includes Jitte), Maverick (again, SFM package), Eldrazi (which has a whole host of sol-lands, Chalice, and is seriously struggling to stay competitive as is), and Lands/4 Color Loam (that wins at a crawl through Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows, although Lands does use Dark Depths as another wincon). Other decks do exist, like Burn, but they're not exactly tiered decks. Outside of that, every deck that isn't a combo deck runs blue, for two simple reasons: card draw and not simply losing to turn 1 kill. Furthermore, the tools that a lot of those decks use to succeed in Legacy simply don't exist in Modern (for example, even if you removed the ban list, D&T struggles mightily without Mother of Runes and Rishadan Port), whereas turn 1 kills are certainly possible in Modern.
I disagree with this. I don't think Force of Will is the reason Blue is so popular; it's just run a ton because Blue is so popular. If you look several years back, you'll see that while Blue was still the most popular color, it wasn't as dominant in the format as it is now. And all those "turn 1 kill" decks existed back then also. They didn't stop decks like Maverick or Goblins from being Tier 1 in their day.
The real reason for Blue's dominance in Legacy is all the other crazy good cards in Blue, most notably Brainstorm. Sure, Brainstorm was always around but then they keep printing cards that go great into decks with Brainstorm. Meanwhile, the creature power creep has overwhelmingly favored non-aggro creatures, so previously competitive decks like Zoo fell by the wayside.
I probably should have been more specific with what I meant by card draw because Brainstorm isn't exactly draw, but yeah that and Ponder are what I meant to refer to when I said "blue card draw." Force alone is a very good reason to run blue, but it's no coincidence that every blue deck in Legacy runs Brainstorm with very few (if any) exception.
I think blue should have its shortage of counterspells and card advantage addressed before something as extreme as a Jace unbanning should happen. Jace is a form of card advantage himself with his 0 and he just *****s on control and midrange decks and can keep aggro decks from re-establishing itself, but he doesn't directly solve any of the two issues and is an example of way too much power where it isn't really needed.
What on earth is with this fetish for Force of Will?
Force is:
A catch-all against turn-1 combo.
A safety valve if you need to tap out.
Force is not:
A completely free counterspell. You need a blue card in hand to lose for the rest of the game.
Better than Counterspell after turn 3.
The hero that Weissman control decks need in Modern.
The reason Force is so important in Legacy and Vintage is because without it, Turn 1 combo decks just win on the play the majority of the time, and there's no reason ever to play anything that ISN'T Turn 1 kill. The only deck presently in modern that has even a slightest chance of winning Turn 1 is Cheerios, and even then that's insanely rare and so risky that most players just don't go for it even if they could. If for whatever (non-realistic) reason, those combo decks ceased to exist in legacy or vintage, I guarantee you'd see a significant drop in the number of Force of Will.
Counterspell and Preordain are probably the two cards I'd most like to see reprinted/unbanned, especially given that there's no reason we can't have Counterspell in a format where we have Lightning Bolt. But Force isn't the answer you're looking for, and don't try to make it something it isn't.
I think your list of "Force is/Force isn't" is exactly the reason for the fetishism for FoW - although personally I wouldn't say it's fetishism. A large chunk of the forumgoers here would like to see a spell that keeps all-in, on-the-stack combos in check, so that those decks can be powered up (with new cards or unbans) without breaking the format, while at the same time giving a new role to Blue-based control. That, IMO, is the ideal scenario, and Force or a Force-like card would accomplish that pretty cleanly.
Counterspell and Preordain are very different cards from Force that would help the format in very different ways. Those are all viable ways of encouraging ways of format self-regulation through a robust Blue-based control shell.
All that being said, I agree that the role of Force in Legacy is often misunderstood/misstated in these forums.
My specific point is that such decks don't really exist in modern, and god help us if they do. There are very few non-combo decks in Legacy that don't run blue, specifically Death and Taxes (which wouldn't survive without a Stoneforge Mystic package that includes Jitte), Maverick (again, SFM package), Eldrazi (which has a whole host of sol-lands, Chalice, and is seriously struggling to stay competitive as is), and Lands/4 Color Loam (that wins at a crawl through Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows, although Lands does use Dark Depths as another wincon). Other decks do exist, like Burn, but they're not exactly tiered decks. Outside of that, every deck that isn't a combo deck runs blue, for two simple reasons: card draw and not simply losing to turn 1 kill. Furthermore, the tools that a lot of those decks use to succeed in Legacy simply don't exist in Modern (for example, even if you removed the ban list, D&T struggles mightily without Mother of Runes and Rishadan Port), whereas turn 1 kills are certainly possible in Modern.
The format you're suggesting, to me, looks like a really bad version of legacy, where the only way you can really hope to run anything but combo is to run blue. That means Jund, Junk, Affinity, Elves (unlike the combo-ish version in Legacy, there's no Natural Order in Modern), Gx Tron, 8-Rack, Death and Taxes and a whole host of Tier 2/3 decks just cannot stay viable since the non-blue cards would simply not be strong enough to support those archetypes (as an example, try running Junk in Legacy, even with adding a set of Deathrite Shaman). I personally love Legacy but I already play Legacy, so why would I play a bad knock-off of the real thing? (Price is indeed a factor, but D&T and Eldrazi are $500 cheaper than an average Jund deck, and Miracles and Storm are $500 more expensive, so I don't fully buy that.) I couldn't begin to imagine any good scenario where Modern resembles Legacy to that extent.
What on earth is with this fetish for Force of Will?
Force is:
A catch-all against turn-1 combo.
A safety valve if you need to tap out.
Force is not:
A completely free counterspell. You need a blue card in hand to lose for the rest of the game.
Better than Counterspell after turn 3.
The hero that Weissman control decks need in Modern.
The reason Force is so important in Legacy and Vintage is because without it, Turn 1 combo decks just win on the play the majority of the time, and there's no reason ever to play anything that ISN'T Turn 1 kill. The only deck presently in modern that has even a slightest chance of winning Turn 1 is Cheerios, and even then that's insanely rare and so risky that most players just don't go for it even if they could. If for whatever (non-realistic) reason, those combo decks ceased to exist in legacy or vintage, I guarantee you'd see a significant drop in the number of Force of Will.
Counterspell and Preordain are probably the two cards I'd most like to see reprinted/unbanned, especially given that there's no reason we can't have Counterspell in a format where we have Lightning Bolt. But Force isn't the answer you're looking for, and don't try to make it something it isn't.
Fun is subjective and any attempt to claim that a deck is objectively unfun is a statement saying "My enjoyment matters more than the enjoyment of other people."
isnt: "fun for both sides" a criteria in what wizards wants?
"My enjoyment matters more than the enjoyment of other people."
yet this is exactly what a majority of modern decks do. this i find unhealthy
You love comparing Modern to Legacy but I sincerely doubt you have actually played much legacy. Is getting CounterTop'd really that fun for the opponent? Is watching your belcher opponent fire off turn 1 and you're caught with no Force in your opener (or god forbid are playing D&T or Eldrazi and have no way of stopping it) really fun? Is getting completely shut down by an Umezawa's Jitte really fun?
I won't even argue that Legacy on a whole is a more enjoyable format than Modern is for me. The power level of the cards and the lines of play are indeed much more enjoyable. But what you're asking for does not resemble any format presently, especially not Legacy. "Fun on both sides" has only been relevant when a deck is too unfair (Bloom Titan) or warping a format to the point that it reduces deck diversity (Twin, Dredge). What you're asking for is shutting down the entire prison archetype because it isn't always fun to play against.
The other 2 drops I run are lightning helix, blessed alliance, chalice of the void, and wall of omens.
The issue I've been having is I run no 1 drops because of chalice and often times have too many cards in hand that cost too much so I want to increase the amount of defensive 2 drops in my deck.
I think of the ones you listed, Declaration in Stone is probably the strongest, but if you're already running Helix and Blessed Alliance, I'm not sure you really need more 2 drops. If you don't run the PW version, Supression Field is quite strong. Spellskite is also a great choice depending on your meta.
Glad to hear about all the top-8's, the deck is taking off! the Raleigh list is interesting in that rather than running 4x Chandra he's running 2 Chandra and then 2 Elspeth, the rest of the list looks fairly stock except for Kor Firewalker in SB. I might test running MB Elspeth over a Chandra, as she is fantastic at controlling the board by either jamming up attackers with 3 blockers every turn or her -3 board wipe. She's also a fairly quick clock once she lands, after 4 turns you could have 9 3/3 fliers to swing with.
Most lists I've seen only run 2-3 Chandra though, my list runs 2.
I don't know the exact Day 1/Day 2 splits for Regionals, but the Top 8 among all the Regionals that have reported decklists were largely Burn, Affinity, Through the Breach, Grishoalbrand, Bant Eldrazi, Grixis Delver, and Abzan Company. I can provide more precise splits if people wanted.
I don't think you can summarize anything simply by looking at the Top 8's and it's still early since the bannings, but it seems that Burn and Affinity are going to be the aggro decks to beat. Combo decks are also going to be very powerful, even Ad Nauseam had a Top 8 finish (in Kansas City). Midrange is very wide open right now. Bant Eldrazi is also very well-positioned, perhaps moreso than Tron but we'll see.
If RW Prison hasn't established itself as a Modern mainstay, it's about to. Furthermore, the decklists have been different enough where I think there's still a lot more room to grow. Hearing about Broken Prophet's success with Landkill (congrats on that, btw!) means we're entering a very exciting time for this archetype, with so many avenues to explore.
Some thoughts on the Regionals-winning PW version:
The rest of the top 8 was, in order from 2nd to 8th: Naya Landfall, Elves, Jund, Affinity, Burn, Rakdos Pack Rat, and Merfolk (hooray fish did something!)
First interesting thing of note is Elspeth, Sun's Champion as a mainboard 2-of. To me, it's always been a bit awkward casting her due to her high mana cost, so I've preferred Gideon, Ally of Zendikar as a card that just takes the game over. However unlike Gideon she does have a very relevant removal ability, so I think it's a pretty cool choice, although I'd want to know if McNeil won because of it or regardless of it.
Interesting to see 2 Oblivion Rings and 0 Journey to Nowehere as the enchantment-based removal of choice. With creature-based aggro on a slight downtick however, I think this might be correct.
Inspiring Vantage is an odd land choice to me, because we do often need a fourth or fifth land drop and having a land that comes into play tapped can be jarring for tempo. It's a nice way to get a dual land down for no pain, so I'm gonna test it out myself.
If we start seeing a return of blue-based UWx control, Boil is going to be a very strong sideboard card. It also makes our matchup against Grixis Delver even better.
In general, this deck seems to want to go more over the top than past PW builds, particularly when compared to Todd Stevens' list last November. The meta might slow down enough where this isn't the first time we see this higher-ended deck variant at the Top 8 tables. Congrats Kristopher McNeil!
And some thoughts on the Top 8 Boros Bridge list:
The rest of the Top 8 was, from 1st to 8th (skipping RW Prison): Abzan Evolution, Affinity, Jund, Affinity, Elves, Ad Nauseum, Abzan Company.
I think mainboard Spellskite is fantastic in Bridge lists. Not only is it naturally strong against Burn and Infect, but it also redirects incidental artifact hate directed towards Bridge and Chalice. It blocks as well as Wall of Omens too!
Yet another Bridge list that includes Nahiri solely for her +2 and -2. I think she's good enough at that, and also bluffs the opponent into watching out for Emrakul (until a Bridge gets dropped, that is.)
Nice to see Assemble the Legion back as a wincon in comparison to the list from the classic. I think Ajani and Chandra are very strong, but AtL is just too good imo.
Probably my favorite sideboard I've seen from Boros Bridge lists, mostly because of the 2 Pithing Needles. Shutting down Tron wincons, Griselbrand, Tezzeret, opposing Nahiri, Liliana of the Veil, Aether Vial, manlands, and so many more is just so powerful. I'm already looking to shift my sideboard to incorporate them as a 2-of, and it's even better here because Spellskite protects it against anything but noncreature artifact removal (does that even exist in modern?) and artifact sweepers.
I hope this finally puts to rest any questions about Boros Bridge's viability. Congrats Jeffrey Kramer!
Chalice of the Void is normally a sideboard card, so Burn should have brought in some Destructive Revelries. But Chalice of the Void does require you to minimize your 1-drops, so it's not a hoser card someone gets to play for free.
I play R/W Prison and this assessment is pretty much accurate. In exchange for playing such a strong hoser I can't run Path or Bolt. That's not irrelevant if Affinity gets off to a very strong start, because maindeck chalice doesn't always cut it. I do think there's a case for a SSG ban, but that's not gonna fix the fact that there's no good blue draw spells/counterspells in Modern.
Kill those sets, remove those cards that make skill a tier 2 factor when playing.
All of those cards are legal in Legacy, which manages to (despite some of its own issues) be quite skill intensive. Perhaps the problem is not the cards that are in Modern, but the cards it lacks?
The most important card in Legacy, bar none (even though Force of Will is really close), is Brainstorm. There's the obvious synergy with decks like Miracles but beyond that, it's just a really good cantrip (especially in tandem with fetchlands). There's a reason almost every blue deck in Legacy runs it. Brainstorm is also a very tricky card to use right, given that you need to manage your fetches well (otherwise you can't always shuffle away useless cards) and even know what in your hand is the most important. A huge portion of skill in piloting blue Legacy decks comes from using Brainstorm properly more than anything else.
The second best cantrip is Ponder. The third best is Preordain, but Preordain is just so outclassed compared to Brainstorm and Ponder that it's not seen as often. Compare that to the best cantrip in Modern, which is Serum Visions. Now the point is not to say that blue decks are inherently more skill-intensive than other decks (the mono-white Death and Taxes is pretty tough to pilot as well, requiring a pretty deep knowledge of your opponent's deck) but simply to say the cards that require the most decision making simply don't exist in Modern. I think Brainstorm is probably too powerful to ever see modern play, and Ponder is pretty strong too, but is a Preordain banning really that much to ask for? I think that's what Modern lacks, even moreso than hard countermagic.
That's a pretty interesting suggestion. I don't have an issue with trying to shore up a Burn matchup (even though it's already good) but Trading Post seems a lot better against control, and I think we're gonna start seeing some more control going on in the future. Also, with a quick chalice on 1 I think burn is slowed down just enough for Trading Post to be relevant. Also, not requiring colored mana is very nice especially when Blood Moon is active.
For me, the advantage of the PW build has been the fact that it immediately put a lot of pressure on an opponent already struggling with lockdown pieces. This is especially useful against creature combo-aggro decks like Infect, Zoo, and Affinity, which can conceivably tank for a while until they try to grind you out late game (Infect was probably the best at doing this by far, and Affinity can do this with Etched Champion and a Cranial Plating). Disrupting their lines of play then dropping a Nahiri would suddenly put them on a two-turn clock 90% of the time, often with no outs within that timeframe. It's also really hard for decks like Jund to deal with Nahiri and Gideon, espeically with a Blood Moon online.
However, I think we're already pretty good against those decks thanks to maindeck Chalice, and with the Probe ban I'm starting to wonder if it is still the best build. Bridge, for example, does significantly better against Grishoalbrand and Merfolk, which PW can struggle against. I don't know if fish are on the rise or if it's just wishful thinking on my part, but Grishoalbrand might be a force to be reckoned with. Bridge isn't even terribly useless against Esper Control, whose wincons are Colonnades and Secure the Wastes tokens, and it's meaningful against Jeskai builds that also run Nahiri. It does feel a lot worse against Lantern Control, though, although Lantern still struggles against resolved planeswalkers.
I'll wait and see until after regionals before I buy a set of Bridge, but I'm not confident the PW build is the best at this current state in the meta, or even in the near future. It's gonna be interesting brewing up the best new wincon should Bridge or Landkill get a lot better.
I think the problem with Locust God, Spell Queller and Gideon of the Trials is that none of them really play nice with Hour of Devastation which is just so good. Plus, unlike the minor black splash for Bolas (it's not really a Grixis deck at this point), having lots of taplands to play Jeskai really can make some games awkward, especially if Temur decks and their zillion cantrips are still popular. I am probably gonna try out 1x Locust God in URb though cuz he really does look nice in theory.
Also regarding Reduce // Rubble (and more specifically Rubble) it's nice midgame but it's only truly potent if it's backed up with either a drawspell or threat. Otherwise it just seems like a tempo play in a deck that's fine going to the late game, and is a terrible draw at that point too compared to Supreme Will. I think it might be better in Jeskai variants that run more tempo cards than UR or URb ones. I like it a lot as a sideboard card against ramp decks though, since generally speaking control decks actually try to become more aggressive against them.
They control the rules for legacy and vintage too buddy, that's why they're sanctioned tournament formats while Frontier and Commander are not. Not to mention that it's not a good thing for TO's and communities just to randomly and arbitrarily say "uh yeah this card's legal just because".
Option A has been shown to be too oppressive to the format. The fix for that is to improve option B with new cards, not demand an immediate return to option A. I also don't buy that you need an immediate win condition to make a blue deck good, even in Modern, at least not to the combo-able level of Twin. The issue with AV is that a turn 4 draw spell doesn't help the early game, which better cantrips could help with.
They shifted from the WMCQs back to Nationals, and have Standard as the main event of nationals over Modern (according to their announcement, supposedly due to pricing and accessibility concerns). Modern Grand Prixs are still going to exist, unless I missed something.
To their credit, they gave a specific reason why they banned Twin
Of course, Wizards has certainly proven they're capable of getting things way wrong, but it's pretty much what I said, and think about it: if Twin is unbanned, could any blue deck conceivably run anything but URx? There'd be no Esper or Sultai control. Twin addresses the symptom but not the cause.
This isn't accurate at all. SFM slots into any Wxx deck that can also host an equipment package, not any white/blue deck. For example, DnT and Maverick are both more than happy to run SFM without running blue, whereas UWr Miracles doesn't have any need for her. I'm guessing you're referring to Caw-blade when you say she's white and blue, but in legacy that (Stoneblade) is just one of three prominent decks that actually run her. I'm thoroughly of the opinion that she shouldn't be unbanned in modern, even with Jitte still on the banlist. Or if you do unban her, then Batterskull needs the axe.
The issue with Splinter Twin wasn't that it made blue too powerful, but rather that it was deemed too oppressive on the format. Which was, in a way, correct, since we saw a proliferation of many different archetypes after Twin fell (albeit most of them being linear decks). Twin gave URx decks an oops-I-win switch, but it was also the only viable way to run blue. Preordain and counterspell would help blue much more (and also keep it more diverse so that you don't always have to run URx).
I probably should have been more specific with what I meant by card draw because Brainstorm isn't exactly draw, but yeah that and Ponder are what I meant to refer to when I said "blue card draw." Force alone is a very good reason to run blue, but it's no coincidence that every blue deck in Legacy runs Brainstorm with very few (if any) exception.
My specific point is that such decks don't really exist in modern, and god help us if they do. There are very few non-combo decks in Legacy that don't run blue, specifically Death and Taxes (which wouldn't survive without a Stoneforge Mystic package that includes Jitte), Maverick (again, SFM package), Eldrazi (which has a whole host of sol-lands, Chalice, and is seriously struggling to stay competitive as is), and Lands/4 Color Loam (that wins at a crawl through Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows, although Lands does use Dark Depths as another wincon). Other decks do exist, like Burn, but they're not exactly tiered decks. Outside of that, every deck that isn't a combo deck runs blue, for two simple reasons: card draw and not simply losing to turn 1 kill. Furthermore, the tools that a lot of those decks use to succeed in Legacy simply don't exist in Modern (for example, even if you removed the ban list, D&T struggles mightily without Mother of Runes and Rishadan Port), whereas turn 1 kills are certainly possible in Modern.
The format you're suggesting, to me, looks like a really bad version of legacy, where the only way you can really hope to run anything but combo is to run blue. That means Jund, Junk, Affinity, Elves (unlike the combo-ish version in Legacy, there's no Natural Order in Modern), Gx Tron, 8-Rack, Death and Taxes and a whole host of Tier 2/3 decks just cannot stay viable since the non-blue cards would simply not be strong enough to support those archetypes (as an example, try running Junk in Legacy, even with adding a set of Deathrite Shaman). I personally love Legacy but I already play Legacy, so why would I play a bad knock-off of the real thing? (Price is indeed a factor, but D&T and Eldrazi are $500 cheaper than an average Jund deck, and Miracles and Storm are $500 more expensive, so I don't fully buy that.) I couldn't begin to imagine any good scenario where Modern resembles Legacy to that extent.
Force is:
Force is not:
The reason Force is so important in Legacy and Vintage is because without it, Turn 1 combo decks just win on the play the majority of the time, and there's no reason ever to play anything that ISN'T Turn 1 kill. The only deck presently in modern that has even a slightest chance of winning Turn 1 is Cheerios, and even then that's insanely rare and so risky that most players just don't go for it even if they could. If for whatever (non-realistic) reason, those combo decks ceased to exist in legacy or vintage, I guarantee you'd see a significant drop in the number of Force of Will.
Counterspell and Preordain are probably the two cards I'd most like to see reprinted/unbanned, especially given that there's no reason we can't have Counterspell in a format where we have Lightning Bolt. But Force isn't the answer you're looking for, and don't try to make it something it isn't.
You love comparing Modern to Legacy but I sincerely doubt you have actually played much legacy. Is getting CounterTop'd really that fun for the opponent? Is watching your belcher opponent fire off turn 1 and you're caught with no Force in your opener (or god forbid are playing D&T or Eldrazi and have no way of stopping it) really fun? Is getting completely shut down by an Umezawa's Jitte really fun?
I won't even argue that Legacy on a whole is a more enjoyable format than Modern is for me. The power level of the cards and the lines of play are indeed much more enjoyable. But what you're asking for does not resemble any format presently, especially not Legacy. "Fun on both sides" has only been relevant when a deck is too unfair (Bloom Titan) or warping a format to the point that it reduces deck diversity (Twin, Dredge). What you're asking for is shutting down the entire prison archetype because it isn't always fun to play against.
Most lists I've seen only run 2-3 Chandra though, my list runs 2.
Here's the Raleigh-winning Planeswalker control decklist, piloted by Kristopher McNeil:
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Planeswalkers (11)
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Gideon Jura
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Artifacts (4)
4 Chalice of the Void
Enchantments (6)
4 Blood Moon
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Lightning Helix
Sorceries (5)
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Wrath of God
Lands (25)
9 Plains
4 Inspiring Vantage
2 Rugged Prairie
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Windswept Heath
2 Spellskite
1 Kor Firewalker
3 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Boil
2 Celestial Purge
1 Lightning Helix
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Wrath of God
And here's the Kansas City Boros Bridge Top 8 list, piloted by Jeffrey Kramer:
1 Spellskite
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Planeswalkers (7)
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Gideon Jura
2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Artifacts (8)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Ensnaring Bridge
Enchantments (5)
1 Assemble the Legion
4 Blood Moon
Instants (6)
2 Blessed Alliance
4 Lightning Helix
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Wrath of God
Lands (24)
1 Mountain
8 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Needle Spires
3 Rugged Prairie
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Pithing Needle
1 Spellskite
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Crumble to Dust
A few general takeaways:
Some thoughts on the Regionals-winning PW version:
And some thoughts on the Top 8 Boros Bridge list:
I play R/W Prison and this assessment is pretty much accurate. In exchange for playing such a strong hoser I can't run Path or Bolt. That's not irrelevant if Affinity gets off to a very strong start, because maindeck chalice doesn't always cut it. I do think there's a case for a SSG ban, but that's not gonna fix the fact that there's no good blue draw spells/counterspells in Modern.
The most important card in Legacy, bar none (even though Force of Will is really close), is Brainstorm. There's the obvious synergy with decks like Miracles but beyond that, it's just a really good cantrip (especially in tandem with fetchlands). There's a reason almost every blue deck in Legacy runs it. Brainstorm is also a very tricky card to use right, given that you need to manage your fetches well (otherwise you can't always shuffle away useless cards) and even know what in your hand is the most important. A huge portion of skill in piloting blue Legacy decks comes from using Brainstorm properly more than anything else.
The second best cantrip is Ponder. The third best is Preordain, but Preordain is just so outclassed compared to Brainstorm and Ponder that it's not seen as often. Compare that to the best cantrip in Modern, which is Serum Visions. Now the point is not to say that blue decks are inherently more skill-intensive than other decks (the mono-white Death and Taxes is pretty tough to pilot as well, requiring a pretty deep knowledge of your opponent's deck) but simply to say the cards that require the most decision making simply don't exist in Modern. I think Brainstorm is probably too powerful to ever see modern play, and Ponder is pretty strong too, but is a Preordain banning really that much to ask for? I think that's what Modern lacks, even moreso than hard countermagic.
For me, the advantage of the PW build has been the fact that it immediately put a lot of pressure on an opponent already struggling with lockdown pieces. This is especially useful against creature combo-aggro decks like Infect, Zoo, and Affinity, which can conceivably tank for a while until they try to grind you out late game (Infect was probably the best at doing this by far, and Affinity can do this with Etched Champion and a Cranial Plating). Disrupting their lines of play then dropping a Nahiri would suddenly put them on a two-turn clock 90% of the time, often with no outs within that timeframe. It's also really hard for decks like Jund to deal with Nahiri and Gideon, espeically with a Blood Moon online.
However, I think we're already pretty good against those decks thanks to maindeck Chalice, and with the Probe ban I'm starting to wonder if it is still the best build. Bridge, for example, does significantly better against Grishoalbrand and Merfolk, which PW can struggle against. I don't know if fish are on the rise or if it's just wishful thinking on my part, but Grishoalbrand might be a force to be reckoned with. Bridge isn't even terribly useless against Esper Control, whose wincons are Colonnades and Secure the Wastes tokens, and it's meaningful against Jeskai builds that also run Nahiri. It does feel a lot worse against Lantern Control, though, although Lantern still struggles against resolved planeswalkers.
I'll wait and see until after regionals before I buy a set of Bridge, but I'm not confident the PW build is the best at this current state in the meta, or even in the near future. It's gonna be interesting brewing up the best new wincon should Bridge or Landkill get a lot better.