Both of these swords are objectively worse than at least 3 of the existing swords (Feast/Famine, Fire/Ice, Light/Shadow). They will never see play in Modern without Stoneforge. And probably wouldn't see play with her either, in favor of Batterskull, and one or two of the others listed above.
I kind of just think Shadow & Light is better for their protections.. Like Fatal Push Protection and Path to Exile, and on a x/2 body it survives bolt. Sure they could double bolt or something but I'll trade that easily enough.
Shinobi would see play if Baleful Strix was in modern. Baleful would be excellent already in UBx, and would often go unblocked if attacked with. Would allow Shinobi to swing in, get you extra value, and return Baleful Stix back to hand to replay. Snapcaster is not bad, but more prone to getting blocked, hence leaving Shinobi lose some of its value.
I'm going to brew with the coatl as a replacement, and the ninja. Maybe too cute cause the requirements of the snow permanent, especially in 3 colour, and the lack of other useful snow permanents. If we get snow duals or something though maybe there's some potential.
I understand that many of you will disagree, but I have yet to see a single main deck playable level card spoiled from MH1, excluding the slivers and the canopy land cycle.
What am I missing with Mox Tantalite? That is one of the few cards so far that seems unplayable.
It's got some synergy with the new welder and a few other ways. But I do agree, it's just eh. And probably way too cute. But some people seem hyped about this card.
I imagine there's something more broken to be doing with fixed goblin welder but there is potential for the swords in there no? I do agree that this sword is on the level of Body & Mind (if that) but I think there's a few possible swords that could see play, the new goblin with things like the wellsprings, pentad prism could be good fodder to get the swords onto the battlefield.
I'm going to fiddle with a decklists at least as cawgo was my fav standard deck(it was the first one I was drawn to as I only started in that block)
The last mode seems a lot stronger than it sounds at first, just looking through established decks. There's obvious stuff like stealing a Death's Shadow, but even stealing something like a mana dork can be very strong.
Flipped thing in the ice.
edit: it's been awhile since I played and I missed that rule change! so my bad
If you have little teferi there's a lot of potentially busted things you can do enabling stuff like martial coup, some of the finales etc.
I was inspired from mtg arena and spamming finale of glory on t6 for 10 angels 10 soldiers originally but never got around to testing some of this stuff against people in modern. Also logic knot with this card, blue sun's, any banefire style.
I love these style of ramp control decks so I'm definitely going to play around with it.
The negativity towards this set, whether in this thread or the Reddit comment sections, is just unwarranted.
1. Less than half of the set has been spoiled. Wizards obviously started with some big ones like FoN, but it's been much slower since then. It is like this every preview season as the previews are a curated experience that need to appeal to various players. Wizards intersperses exciting cards to keep hype high.
2. All Magic communities frequently miss powerful cards. Powerhouses like WAR Narset were under-appreciated by most evaluators until people started playing the set. LSV, Joel Larsson, MTG Goldfish, Dylan Donegan, Emma Handy, and a half dozen other writers barely mentioned Search for Azcanta in their Modern reviews (or didn't mention it at all). I don't remember reading a single Modern review of Rivals that included Arclight Phoenix. Card evaluation is hard and people need to play cards to figure out if they are actually good or bad.
3. There are numerous eternal staples that Wizards has not yet referenced or remade for Modern. Some, like FoN and FoW are clearly on-mark. Others, like Mom and Giver, are more open. Still others, like Pondering Mage, are clearly just references and probably not as powerful. But any number of the remaining throwbacks, most of which are obviously absent right now, could be very strong. Examples include Daze, Wasteland, Brainstorm, Hymn, Port, and others. I am excited to see these cards, and it will only take 1 to have a huge impact.
It just seems like basic entitlement and assumption that what they want is all that matters. I've seen a few people say the total opposite of things that have been mentioned here, modern is it's own format and is vastly different from legacy and should be, it being a less powerful legacy is just not a good idea.
I'm glad they went about it this way, there's some pretty good cards, and even some potentially broken or format warping cards included in the first half alone. What this set has done for just random theorycrafting is awesome and there's some interesting new decks potentially to come out of this set and some new cards for older decks already of various power levels.
Instead of complaining about what isn't there yet with still half a set to come out start theorycrafting and testing with what we've got.
I for one am pretty happy with some of these cards, albeit I feel some colours have gotten a lot less, probably cause I think blue seems to have gotten so much so far and I would like to see some additions for other colours.
I actually really like Force of Virtue. It could be very powerful in some variety of White devotion / Token deck. I get that's very niche, but it could also be worthwhile in White aggro as well.
From a devotion perspective, it works really well because you can maindeck this, Leyline of Sanctity, and Leyline of the Meek, giving you 12 cards that can basically be cast turn 1 at no cost, provide 2 white devotion, and fit within a maindeck-worthy shell. This makes for fairly easy and consistent 6 mana turn 3 plays.
Instantly what I thought of as well. And any extra leylines you just pitch to the force. It's definitely interesting to me. Never really worked with tokens.but it definitely seems to fit in that shell. I threw it into a BW variant but think there's room to go elsewhere as well.
Most Loam decks I've played are heavier in red for T1 Faithless Looting, so Seismic Assault seems better than Ayula's Influence.
I've played assault loam awhile ago and found a few filter and stomping grounds/blood crypts etc. And it worked fairly easily for the t1 faithless and seismic and still Ravens crime etc. But I do agree that 1 red t1 and 3g turn 3 is a little strenuous for very little upgrade if one at all.
Is there a loam deck that can make use of this in interesting ways I like this design.
Also Empty the Bears of your Neoform/Combo wins
Honestly if I ever get T1'd by Neoform one day and their wincon is OCEAN OF BEARS then all is forgiven
Name checks out as a bear lover.
I'm gonna see how well it'll fit in the assault loam decks, not sure if 6 damage or 3 2/2 bears is preferable. Also maybe the goal should be to abuse ETB effects?
Either way I love this card, and it just keeps adding to cards I actually want to build around coming out of this set which is incredible
So do we see a pyroblast but for blue white?
I kind of just think Shadow & Light is better for their protections.. Like Fatal Push Protection and Path to Exile, and on a x/2 body it survives bolt. Sure they could double bolt or something but I'll trade that easily enough.
I'm going to brew with the coatl as a replacement, and the ninja. Maybe too cute cause the requirements of the snow permanent, especially in 3 colour, and the lack of other useful snow permanents. If we get snow duals or something though maybe there's some potential.
It's got some synergy with the new welder and a few other ways. But I do agree, it's just eh. And probably way too cute. But some people seem hyped about this card.
I'm going to fiddle with a decklists at least as cawgo was my fav standard deck(it was the first one I was drawn to as I only started in that block)
Flipped thing in the ice.edit: it's been awhile since I played and I missed that rule change! so my bad
I was inspired from mtg arena and spamming finale of glory on t6 for 10 angels 10 soldiers originally but never got around to testing some of this stuff against people in modern. Also logic knot with this card, blue sun's, any banefire style.
I love these style of ramp control decks so I'm definitely going to play around with it.
It just seems like basic entitlement and assumption that what they want is all that matters. I've seen a few people say the total opposite of things that have been mentioned here, modern is it's own format and is vastly different from legacy and should be, it being a less powerful legacy is just not a good idea.
I'm glad they went about it this way, there's some pretty good cards, and even some potentially broken or format warping cards included in the first half alone. What this set has done for just random theorycrafting is awesome and there's some interesting new decks potentially to come out of this set and some new cards for older decks already of various power levels.
Instead of complaining about what isn't there yet with still half a set to come out start theorycrafting and testing with what we've got.
I for one am pretty happy with some of these cards, albeit I feel some colours have gotten a lot less, probably cause I think blue seems to have gotten so much so far and I would like to see some additions for other colours.
Instantly what I thought of as well. And any extra leylines you just pitch to the force. It's definitely interesting to me. Never really worked with tokens.but it definitely seems to fit in that shell. I threw it into a BW variant but think there's room to go elsewhere as well.
I've played assault loam awhile ago and found a few filter and stomping grounds/blood crypts etc. And it worked fairly easily for the t1 faithless and seismic and still Ravens crime etc. But I do agree that 1 red t1 and 3g turn 3 is a little strenuous for very little upgrade if one at all.
Name checks out as a bear lover.
I'm gonna see how well it'll fit in the assault loam decks, not sure if 6 damage or 3 2/2 bears is preferable. Also maybe the goal should be to abuse ETB effects?
Either way I love this card, and it just keeps adding to cards I actually want to build around coming out of this set which is incredible