Quote from Teia Rabishu »There's a lot about the pro scene that really trickles some bad values down through the playerbase when you get right down to it. Problem is I can only antagonize so many people in one article, you know?
True that.
There's only so many times I can handle people questioning why I mainboard Duress instead of Thoughtseize or inquisition of Kozilek, when those cards are outrageously priced and someone would have to have either gotten lucky with their drafts or have a lot of disposable income devoted to magic just to have them. But yeah, it goes back to the whole deal of Wizards needing to print something like Vingolf Engage Knights each rotation that contains all the dominant main deck cards found in top pro-tour decks that are rotating out. Just slap two of each in there and sell them at msrp 35 usd to all major retailers.
Temur Conspiracy: The Kraken murdered Tasigur and now sits upon it's frozen throne, glaring menacingly.
In the land of the flowering fields and mulberry wine, where Angels sing them a mighty chorus as they march endlessly, heroically, into the sunset. Soon Eldrazi will be joining them.
Why do we all play Modern, again?
That's what I've been saying. He might be super popular in standard and have a price around 8-10 usd, but I wouldn't pay out the nose for a preorder right now. The cards I'd pre-order are things flying under the radar like Bygone Bishop, Declaration in stone, etc.
I'm not falling for undergrowth champion 2.0 either with Relentless Dead either. Avacyn will keep her price because she is an iconic angel and a heck of a lot more playable than her previous forms, but a zombie reanimator at 2 cmc? Alone it doesn't make modern zombies any more competitive and there's a ton of graveyard hate right now in modern, leaving it strictly up to standard to hold it's price. If we get a lot of good ETB zombies I might combo him with Liliana, heretical Healer and double sacrifice someone with a Fleshbag marauder or other card, though.
It depends if the deck can fit Bygone Bishop or not. That card along with a ton of critters coming down would make a lot of clue stones. Right now I was thinking of running America artifact shrapnel blast and wasn't even thinking about affinity until you mentioned it. Considering that affinity would have to hold a lot of drops up to get the most out of the bishop I'm not sure clue stones are going to break affinity. I think clue stones help non-blue decks get card draw, such as abzan coco.
Um... What were we talking about before we talked about eldrazi stuff? (looks back and sees twin ban) Rainbows and sunshine for everyone!
I like the idea of unbanning it. Not sure what would happen in the long run though unless thopter foundry was taken out in exchange.
The best answer? Wait for April. Until then, if anyone is playing eldrazi and wants to just brew around to see what they can do with their current investment minus what might be banned, now is the time to do it. I'm in the "Ban eye" camp since I really don't like how eye just becomes the eldrazi equivalent of a mox opal, and all you want to do is try to get it in your starting hand no matter what so the board can get swarmed right off the bat.
Temple makes eldrazi more mid-range, which is where they should be given the fact even the lowliest of true eldrazi has a bit of weight to their casting cost.
All this talk about the format being unhealthy with Eldrazi fails to mention the format was unhealthy to begin with in a lot of ways. The fact a cheap and effective tier 1 strategy emerged from standard is a miracle, shattered a lot of peoples misconceptions about investing thousands of dollars into a deck because rare printings and demand forcing the prices too high, and demonstrated how fragile the format really is. No one should be invested in a "single" deck. That's a horrible idea and the only reason that entire idea exists is due to the tripe distribution model being used by Wizards and their anti-consumer bubble maintenance with the secondary market, which is rampant with scalping. To play modern right now the way wizards advertises via pro-tour events, someone would have to be swinging around an account of 1000 usd minimum to invest strictly in MTG cards. If someone is adjusting for meta, they are not saving any money over standard given some adjustments may cost upwards of 200 usd.
Then people wonder why Twin players are ticked they lost their deck of choice? Really? Is wizards so detatched from reality they can't see that people will be incredibly angry with them when a ban they put up just invalidated potentially months of incremental investments?
Yes, Eldrazi is a problem, but it is a short lived one and a problem that highlighted some other issues with the format.
The interesting part about it is that you basically tick down the timer while protecting it (unless said protection is from spellskite or some other non-spell source.) So Vines of Vastwood, Mizzium Skin, glint, etc, all work towards getting him out and stopping removal.
The only downsides I can see to it at the moment is that it is an 0/4 that just sits out there with no hexproof or anything. In the kinds of decks that would play it there wouldn't be a lot of creatures, so it's likely going to be the favorite removal target and it gets hit by Abrupt Decay, Dismember, Go for the Throat, etc. In standard it's a lot more solid since there aren't as many ways to just strait out remove it, though there are a few options.
I like the card and definitely can see it seeing play, just that I wish it had hexproof or some kind of way to keep it from getting shot out of the sky. I can see it pairing well with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Archangel Avacyn, though. Both survive the purging from Avacyn's transformation.
That's the ugly truth of competitive modern. The guys at the top don't care about the game, they care about winning the game. The game isn't just about winning, it's about how you interact with the other people you play against and how you adapt to make sure everyone is having a good time. Anyone can take a well honed deck, learn how to play it, and win against casual players / FNM goers, but what is the point if everyone just hates you at the end of the day?
Yeah, honestly this is a historic moment in Magic: The Gathering. Maybe not something people really enjoy being a part of, but this has been one heck of a roller coaster ride and it's hard to believe it all started back in February. I really want to see what WoTC does to keep Eldrazi playable competitively in Modern coming pre-release Shadows over Innistrad. Will it be both lands? One land and a creature? And why can I not get Melanie Martinez's Carousel out of my head right now?
She is good as a cap to a mid-range deck as she can be flashed into play at the opponents end step. She's likely better than she looks.