Having read so many of your posts over the past year FCG, along with being a poster I really respect my comments boils down to this
A: You seem torn as a player when it comes to your identity. You want to win but you want to do it with sneaky Tier 2 decks that can maximize you're experience and skill. Unfortunately, these seem to be at cross purposes. Tier 2 decks are that for a reason and sometimes, even with superior play you're going to lose to the "better" deck. You need to decide if you're ok with that.
Playing decks that prey on others is all well and good, but if ones prey isn't a high enough percentage of the meta, that won't help you much. You can hunt Delver in Legacy and whatever is the Deck of the day in Standard. In Modern, I don't think it's that easy since nothing will have the same sort of play percentages as those referenced above.
B: Sometimes mate, you just seem burnt out. I wonder if a format change for a couple of weeks or taking your mind off Modern for a bit by diving into something else expansive like Witcher 3 would recharge your batteries.
C: Stuff what other people think about your deck. If you want to play Bogles and enjoy playing Bogles, Giver.
D: Combo decks sometimes beat themselves. If that's not on your happy list, I'd keep Grishoalbrand/Knightfall as decks that you play for fun rather then when you want to win gas money.
Doesn't standard demand usually raise the prices of in demand lands? Also when these hit, the cycle lands that seem popular will be rotating out thus giving Standard players another reason to want Shocks.
3 torpor orbs? dunno what fantasy land you hail from, but aint nobody got space for that
If one considers Human's that much of a boogey man they should. No one thinks twice about 3+ pieces for artifact hate or Graveyard hate or Storm hate so why not Human's hate if there's so much of it out there?
Whilst you're playing one the best shell for it I believe (Jeskai right?), I generally don't see the point. I haven't heard a single person talk about how it's shut down Tron and on it's own it isn't enough to stop Storm. So far, in all my matches it's been nothing but a mild irritation to play against. The sole exception being Bogles where Sphere + Leyline of Sanctity + Teeg is a right pain to play through.
Tom Ross tests for Modern as a part of his main job also. It's not that he is testing every card pre-design, but rather that he is checking out post-design to make sure nothing broken enters Modern via Standard.
So it's kind of unfair to say that they are not testing for Modern at all.
Well, they really weren't testing for Modern up until DOM. But starting with DOM, we are seeing Play Design's (and Ross's) influence, which will mean more Modern goodies to come. Also, as said before, we weren't that poorly off even before Play Design came along. So overall, I'm optimistic about our direction.
Are we?
I might be misremembering but I thought the comment from Maro on his blog is that the set code named Spaghetti was the first set we'd see Play Design's influence on and it's the set after Dominaria.
The other point there is that Dredge is basically seen as a bad Hollow One deck right now. So if you want to joint team linear and put the reps in, I'd pickup whatever you don't have for Hollow One and run that.
Tron is Lantern's worst matchup. It's not amazing vs Affinity but with OStone's and the like there's a fightning chance. Affinity really doesn't like Jeskai but that's a no-go with Lantern usually.
Humans has a reasonable chance against both. There's nothing like winning via Noble hierarch through a Hellbent Bridge.
Yes, Repeal and Unsub are there for annoying permaments and give us a main board option. Unsub also gives you the cute trick of building up the storm count and bouncing Grapeshot back to your hand so you can go again (Remand also lets you do it). No, I don't believe it makes Echoing Truth something that can go. There's a lot of irritating cards out there where bouncing is the easiest way for us to deal with them.
Gigadrowse is for control and quasi-control like any kind of Death Shadow deck. Cutting them off from all or even part of there resources for a turn is massive.
Wipe Away is important due to the Split Second clause. It lets you get around things like Valakut triggers or bounce a lethal Death Shadow when you know you're opponent is holding a Stubborn Denail. It's also an alternative mana cost should you run into Chalice.
Pieces is for any game where you know your opponent is going to have graveyard hate. Suspect Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, Relic of Progenitus etc? Straight up swap Gifts for Pieces. You can also add in Pieces alongside Gifts in matchups where you want extra cards as fast as possible. This is typically against other combo decks. A good example right now would be UR Breach. You want as many cards as fast as you can so you'd keep 2 Gifts in but also stack in all 4 Pieces. IMO Pieces is the main can't touch spot of the sideboard. Going under 4 is straight up whack-a-doodles IMO.
Search for Azcanta and Chandra are cards people have been trying out for the grindy matchups. Same with Pyromancer's Ascension. Pyro's isn't bad, but it's another card that doesn't like all the graveyard hate floating about so tends to be the lesser played option right now.
Both Search and Chandra function as extra card draw when you have to grind, and cards are our most precious resource. People have also tried out things like Treasure Map there. The latest that's being tried out is Precognition Field which is showing favorable results. But it's not sideboarded in that much at the moment as it's for the control games and things are so heavily slanted towards Aggro right now.
Sorry, not nitpicking, just wanting to give someone their due. Caleb was playing Storm in legacy. The modern Storm player was Paul Mueller, another excellent Storm pilot.
When you're on the Empty plan the only really annoying thing they typically have is Maelstrom Pulse. If it's at all possible, post Warren's I try to have a Bolt in hand and a red mana to use. If you Bolt the Token they're trying to Pulse, the spell will fail.
If you don't hit any Pieces in the early game that will definately be a problem with all the discard. Any game I've been able to stick even a medium Warrens earlyish has been a win. The longer the game drags on, if they're able to consistently attack your hand, bad things happen quickly.
I hear tell that you've been testing Karn, Scion in the Master of Etherium spot. In such builds I was wondering if you were still playing Glint-Nest Crane? If so, I was wondering whether that's still the choice or if Karn is game deciding enough to swap the Crane for Board the Weatherlight.
That silly bird from Dominaria is going to break the Cheeri0s deck into a billion pieces and if that holds up (it won't), it'll get Mox Opal banned. Which would be amazingly funny that Affinity couldn't get it banned but a tiny bird could.
Seriously though, the old reason not to play Affinity is you don't like Aggro or all your opponents play 4 Stony's every single game.
And despite the influx coming in, I think he's only going up from there for a bit. Hard to keep the cost down on a thing that will see Modern and Legacy play (limited though it may be). Hopefully after a while the Chandra effect will kick in.
Yeah one of the reasons I dont like Storm, it always has a target on it, Wizards hates it, and so do most players.
I've played a lot of Vine lists, not sure I saw her's though. It's always fun for a few laughs, one of my most cherished win's is with that card actually against Tron, in an 8whack-Vine list.
Either way, yeah I'm mostly just bitter, I'm just going to take another extended break, as I did when ETron was everywhere. If the meta is no fun, no point in playing it.
If you're not feeling it, there's no point forcing it.
I think her list went something like:
4 Flamekin Harbinger
3 Bushwhacker
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Ballista
4 Hollow One
4 Noose Constrictor
4 Street Wraith
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Vengevine
4 Faithless Looting
4 Bridge from Below
17 Lands
The goal being to chuck things in the graveyard AND having them count as being cast at the same time with the X's so that you get your Vengevine back and make Zombie tokens via Bridge at the same time (I've seen another version with Endless One's to help that plan). I've only mucked about with it a few times online but it's pretty amusing. I'm not sure if I would enjoy it longer term though.
But as you're not usually on the aggro train, this might not be up your alley despite Vengevine.
A: You seem torn as a player when it comes to your identity. You want to win but you want to do it with sneaky Tier 2 decks that can maximize you're experience and skill. Unfortunately, these seem to be at cross purposes. Tier 2 decks are that for a reason and sometimes, even with superior play you're going to lose to the "better" deck. You need to decide if you're ok with that.
Playing decks that prey on others is all well and good, but if ones prey isn't a high enough percentage of the meta, that won't help you much. You can hunt Delver in Legacy and whatever is the Deck of the day in Standard. In Modern, I don't think it's that easy since nothing will have the same sort of play percentages as those referenced above.
B: Sometimes mate, you just seem burnt out. I wonder if a format change for a couple of weeks or taking your mind off Modern for a bit by diving into something else expansive like Witcher 3 would recharge your batteries.
C: Stuff what other people think about your deck. If you want to play Bogles and enjoy playing Bogles, Giver.
D: Combo decks sometimes beat themselves. If that's not on your happy list, I'd keep Grishoalbrand/Knightfall as decks that you play for fun rather then when you want to win gas money.
If one considers Human's that much of a boogey man they should. No one thinks twice about 3+ pieces for artifact hate or Graveyard hate or Storm hate so why not Human's hate if there's so much of it out there?
Whilst you're playing one the best shell for it I believe (Jeskai right?), I generally don't see the point. I haven't heard a single person talk about how it's shut down Tron and on it's own it isn't enough to stop Storm. So far, in all my matches it's been nothing but a mild irritation to play against. The sole exception being Bogles where Sphere + Leyline of Sanctity + Teeg is a right pain to play through.
Are we?
I might be misremembering but I thought the comment from Maro on his blog is that the set code named Spaghetti was the first set we'd see Play Design's influence on and it's the set after Dominaria.
The other point there is that Dredge is basically seen as a bad Hollow One deck right now. So if you want to joint team linear and put the reps in, I'd pickup whatever you don't have for Hollow One and run that.
Tron is Lantern's worst matchup. It's not amazing vs Affinity but with OStone's and the like there's a fightning chance. Affinity really doesn't like Jeskai but that's a no-go with Lantern usually.
Humans has a reasonable chance against both. There's nothing like winning via Noble hierarch through a Hellbent Bridge.
Yes, Repeal and Unsub are there for annoying permaments and give us a main board option. Unsub also gives you the cute trick of building up the storm count and bouncing Grapeshot back to your hand so you can go again (Remand also lets you do it). No, I don't believe it makes Echoing Truth something that can go. There's a lot of irritating cards out there where bouncing is the easiest way for us to deal with them.
Gigadrowse is for control and quasi-control like any kind of Death Shadow deck. Cutting them off from all or even part of there resources for a turn is massive.
Wipe Away is important due to the Split Second clause. It lets you get around things like Valakut triggers or bounce a lethal Death Shadow when you know you're opponent is holding a Stubborn Denail. It's also an alternative mana cost should you run into Chalice.
Pieces is for any game where you know your opponent is going to have graveyard hate. Suspect Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, Relic of Progenitus etc? Straight up swap Gifts for Pieces. You can also add in Pieces alongside Gifts in matchups where you want extra cards as fast as possible. This is typically against other combo decks. A good example right now would be UR Breach. You want as many cards as fast as you can so you'd keep 2 Gifts in but also stack in all 4 Pieces. IMO Pieces is the main can't touch spot of the sideboard. Going under 4 is straight up whack-a-doodles IMO.
Search for Azcanta and Chandra are cards people have been trying out for the grindy matchups. Same with Pyromancer's Ascension. Pyro's isn't bad, but it's another card that doesn't like all the graveyard hate floating about so tends to be the lesser played option right now.
Both Search and Chandra function as extra card draw when you have to grind, and cards are our most precious resource. People have also tried out things like Treasure Map there. The latest that's being tried out is Precognition Field which is showing favorable results. But it's not sideboarded in that much at the moment as it's for the control games and things are so heavily slanted towards Aggro right now.
Hope that helps a bit!
Indeed.
Since I text with friends about Bayern all the time, my phone refuses to believe he's not German as well.
Sorry, not nitpicking, just wanting to give someone their due. Caleb was playing Storm in legacy. The modern Storm player was Paul Mueller, another excellent Storm pilot.
When you're on the Empty plan the only really annoying thing they typically have is Maelstrom Pulse. If it's at all possible, post Warren's I try to have a Bolt in hand and a red mana to use. If you Bolt the Token they're trying to Pulse, the spell will fail.
If you don't hit any Pieces in the early game that will definately be a problem with all the discard. Any game I've been able to stick even a medium Warrens earlyish has been a win. The longer the game drags on, if they're able to consistently attack your hand, bad things happen quickly.
I hear tell that you've been testing Karn, Scion in the Master of Etherium spot. In such builds I was wondering if you were still playing Glint-Nest Crane? If so, I was wondering whether that's still the choice or if Karn is game deciding enough to swap the Crane for Board the Weatherlight.
Cheers!
Who knows.
It's a super small set of cards with low stock, thus very easy to manipulate prices. I imagine they'll also be long term collector pieces.
That silly bird from Dominaria is going to break the Cheeri0s deck into a billion pieces and if that holds up (it won't), it'll get Mox Opal banned. Which would be amazingly funny that Affinity couldn't get it banned but a tiny bird could.
Seriously though, the old reason not to play Affinity is you don't like Aggro or all your opponents play 4 Stony's every single game.
It's not dead, it was just resting as everyone went to play Jund. As people hop off the bandwagon, Shadow's going to come back.
Indeed.
And despite the influx coming in, I think he's only going up from there for a bit. Hard to keep the cost down on a thing that will see Modern and Legacy play (limited though it may be). Hopefully after a while the Chandra effect will kick in.
If you're not feeling it, there's no point forcing it.
I think her list went something like:
4 Flamekin Harbinger
3 Bushwhacker
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Ballista
4 Hollow One
4 Noose Constrictor
4 Street Wraith
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Vengevine
4 Faithless Looting
4 Bridge from Below
17 Lands
The goal being to chuck things in the graveyard AND having them count as being cast at the same time with the X's so that you get your Vengevine back and make Zombie tokens via Bridge at the same time (I've seen another version with Endless One's to help that plan). I've only mucked about with it a few times online but it's pretty amusing. I'm not sure if I would enjoy it longer term though.
But as you're not usually on the aggro train, this might not be up your alley despite Vengevine.