I also think that the best interaction of the format is:
Turn 1 thoughtseize, turn 2/3 fatal push+lightning Bolt, play a fast threat, hold up stubborn denial.
Also, if you want interaction there is UWx Control, Jund, and other midrange/control strategies.
1 Jund and 2 BG Rock decks in the top 32, one faeries deck in the top 32, another faerie and some midrange decks in the previous GP.
Modern being uninteractive is a myth. Modern is an interactive format and I think it's at it's best at the moment. Surely, it's not 10/10 interactive but I have a hunch that Modern Horizons will make it more interactive for sure.
Considering how much Wizards hates the dredge mechanic, I am surprised they are allowing the archetype to not only be alive and well but to currently be the #2 most played deck according to MTGO Goldfish.
We'll see though - maybe it will die down again after people load up on graveyard hate again. I am more worried about Arclight Phoenix decks, as they can shrug off graveyard hate pretty easily with Crackling Drake and Thing in the Ice.
After playing the legacy open in Syracuse this past weekend, I really have no desire to play this format right now. Legacy is just so much more interactive and rewarding of decision making. It's amazing how much of a difference Force of Will, Brainstorm, Daze, and Wasteland make.
Hopefully this changes with Modern Horizons shaking up the format and giving us better interactive tools. Stoneforge still being banned is a joke.
Would be real neat if this is the set that completes the cycle Horizon Canopy started. Could we imagine four more "Horizon ______" named cards for the other four allied pairs?
We don't even know yet if this set will have actual reprints of currently modern eligible cards. It's entirely possible the entire set is cards that have never been modern eligible before (either new cards or cards from pre-modern or supp products that have to date not been modern legal)
That would be nice to drive down the price of Horizon Canopy. It would certainly make for an interesting and powerful land cycle
Purge the Coffers, is actually quite strong. Unfortunately its strong in such a way that makes it difficult to balance without completely ruining the card. At 1 CMC it is by far the strongest graveyard hate available, however being a sorcery makes its uses significantly more limited than its currently used counterparts. However as an instant it would necessitate a cost of at least 3 with the cantrip attached, which makes it nearly useless. I don't think this card could be printed because at 1 and cantripping its too strong but any higher and it just isn't good enough.
Dismissive Swipe, I feel there is a strong reason that such a card doesn't currently exist. The numbers all look fine but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that through testing it was found to be too good.
Come out to Play, out of curiosity why did you make this blue? The effect is solidly green and would have been acceptable at 2GG as a sorcery.
Purge the Coffers is just adding a cantrip to Tormod's Crypt, so I don't see why it is too strong.
Come out to Play is blue because I was thinking about Show and Tell when I made it. You're right it should probably just be mono green.
Purge the CoffersB
Sorcery
Exile all cards from target's player's graeyard.
Draw a card.
Dismissive Swipe1UU
Instant
Counter target spell
Cycling U
Come out to Play2UG
Sorcery
Target opponent names a creature card. You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield that is not of the chosen name.
Better Evolving Wilds
Land T, Sacrifice Better Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Evolving Wilds sucks and I wish wizards would stop printing it. Better Evolving Wilds would be a fetch land that is standard and modern playable without being strictly better or worse than the existing fetches, as it cannot fetch duals.
I heartily agree about Evolving Wilds and the need to make a playable version of it.
Better Evolving Wilds is a rather over powered card. It's essentially just a fast land that also feeds Delve strategies. Like a dual land is good because it gives you the color you want when you want it. BEW does the same thing. Shock Lands alter this power by dealing you 2 damage to have the color you want when you need it.
I don't understand you comparison with fast lands. You only get a basic land so you pick one mana color and stick with it for all following turns.
Apart from the possible interaction with graveyard strategies it doesn't look specially powerful to me.
Think of it this way. Modern design says that any non-basic land should never be strictly-better than a basic land. Consider the shocklands. Sure, you can have access to two colors of mana, but either you wait a turn or you pay two life. Fetchlands are also in line with this rule; technically you can just fetch for basics, but because you need to pay 1 life, a fetchland is not strictly-better than a basic. (Of course, there are breaks to this design paragon, most obvious being the ABU duals, and I'd argue the Mirrodin Artifact lands.)
Your proposed land is always a strictly-better basic. In any deck that has more than 1 type of basic, there is no significant downside to running 4 of these. So even though it might not be ridiculously "overpowered," per se, it is certainly just a better basic in any deck that runs two or more colors, and basics.
That's modern design meaning cards for standard legal products. There is no reason it can't be printed in a non-standard legal set meant for modern and other eternal formats.
The first 3 would fit well with Selesnya and Azorius guilds.
Flash Rest in PeaceGW Enchantment
Flash.
When Rest in Peace enters the battlefield, exile all cards from all graveyards.
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
I don't see what is green about this card.
Insert name1WU Legendary creature : Human
Flash.
Permanents entering the battlefield don't cause abilities to trigger.
1/4
I like this one. Quite a bit better than Tocatli Honor Guard
Containment priest 2.0WU Creature : Vedalken Wizard
Flash.
If a nontoken creature or artifact would enter the battlefield and it wasn't cast, exile it instead.
2/1
Slightly better than the original. How often are artifacts entering battlefield without being cast though? Not in modern. Maybe for EDH?
Very nice design. Surprised it hasn't been printed yet.
Wrath of Elesh1WWW Sorcery
Exile all creatures and artifacts with converted mana cost 3 or less.
Quite a bit better than Ritual of Soot as it exiles and hits artifacts. A bit odd for white to be removing small things as it usually takes out big creatures with its selective wrath effects when given the choice
Shock or SlashR Instant
Choose one:
-Shock or Slash deals 2 damage to target non-artifact creature or player.
-Shock or Slash deals 4 damage to target artifact creature or planeswalker.
This seems a bit complicated. I do think Flame Slash should be an instant though
Graveyard fencesB Enchantment
Cards in your graveyard have hexproof.
I'm not really a fan of anti-graveyard hate, since graveyard decks are powerful enough in this format. I'm not entirely sure who would play this card either. Sure it stops surgical, but not Tormod's Crypt, RIP, Leyline, or Relic. So it's probably too narrow.
Abrupt counterspellUB Instant
Counter target spell with converted mana cost 3 or less.
Zen fetches really need a reprint again. $80 is absurd for a card that sees play in many top tier strategies as a 4-of. I expect them to be in the Innovation product, which I expect to be a combination of reprints and new cards.
The format looks alright except maybe for Faithless Looting decks still being a bit too strong.
I'm hoping whatever the Innovation set does, it shakes up modern in a good way and not a bad one. Containment Priest would be an example of making things much better, for instance. But if they inject too many new cards into the format there is also the possibility of making things much worse.
Teenage Wasteland
Land T: Add 1 to your mana pool T, sacrifice Teenage Wasteland: destroy target nonbasic land. Activate this ability only if an opponent controls more lands than you.
I wanted to make a wasteland variant that specifically helps to combat ramp strategies.
Better Evolving Wilds
Land T, Sacrifice Better Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Evolving Wilds sucks and I wish wizards would stop printing it. Better Evolving Wilds would be a fetch land that is standard and modern playable without being strictly better or worse than the existing fetches, as it cannot fetch duals.
The "fix" is probably switching over to Standard+/Origins format.
If you look at the modern banned list, the vast majority of cards on it are from the first half of sets that comprise the format's history:
Ancient Den Birthing Pod Blazing Shoal Chrome Mox
Cloudpost Dark Depths
Deathrite Shaman
Dig Through Time Dread Return
Eye of Ugin Gitaxian Probe Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll Great Furnace Green Sun's Zenith Hypergenesis Mental Misstep Ponder
Preordain Punishing Fire Rite of Flame Seat of the Synod
Second Sunrise
Seething Song
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Splinter Twin Stoneforge Mystic Summer Bloom
Treasure Cruise Tree of Tales
Umezawa's Jitte
Vault of Whispers
The cards in bold are all from sets that were released from the 1st half of modern sets (8th edition through Scars of Mirrodin), while the remaining few are from the second half (Innistrad through Guilds of Ravnica)
From the original Mirrodin block alone? Almost 1/3rd of the entire list. Add KCI to this list and there's another card from Mirrodin block.
From innistrad onward, they have been much more careful when designing cards. Yes there have been slip-ups now and then but for the most part its the older sets that have contained the most number of bannables. Through this, one could almost argue that Modern was an awful idea from the start, at least starting it where it did at one of the most broken Magic sets of all time.
Planar Void would be a wonderful addition to the format, acting as an alternative to Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace.
I still think it is possible though that Faithless Looting is not much longer for this world, especially now that Arclight Phoenix and Creeping Chill exist.
We'll see though - maybe it will die down again after people load up on graveyard hate again. I am more worried about Arclight Phoenix decks, as they can shrug off graveyard hate pretty easily with Crackling Drake and Thing in the Ice.
Hopefully this changes with Modern Horizons shaking up the format and giving us better interactive tools. Stoneforge still being banned is a joke.
That would be nice to drive down the price of Horizon Canopy. It would certainly make for an interesting and powerful land cycle
Purge the Coffers is just adding a cantrip to Tormod's Crypt, so I don't see why it is too strong.
Come out to Play is blue because I was thinking about Show and Tell when I made it. You're right it should probably just be mono green.
Sorcery
Exile all cards from target's player's graeyard.
Draw a card.
Dismissive Swipe 1UU
Instant
Counter target spell
Cycling U
Come out to Play 2UG
Sorcery
Target opponent names a creature card. You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield that is not of the chosen name.
As far as I know, there is no intention of making Arena modern.
That's modern design meaning cards for standard legal products. There is no reason it can't be printed in a non-standard legal set meant for modern and other eternal formats.
Not sure why I can't use italics within a quote, but my responses are below each card.
I'm hoping whatever the Innovation set does, it shakes up modern in a good way and not a bad one. Containment Priest would be an example of making things much better, for instance. But if they inject too many new cards into the format there is also the possibility of making things much worse.
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool
T, sacrifice Teenage Wasteland: destroy target nonbasic land. Activate this ability only if an opponent controls more lands than you.
I wanted to make a wasteland variant that specifically helps to combat ramp strategies.
Better Evolving Wilds
Land
T, Sacrifice Better Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.
Evolving Wilds sucks and I wish wizards would stop printing it. Better Evolving Wilds would be a fetch land that is standard and modern playable without being strictly better or worse than the existing fetches, as it cannot fetch duals.
Well you can always play standard if you hate shuffling. They have worked hard to do away with shuffling effects in this format.
Sadly it is not
If you look at the modern banned list, the vast majority of cards on it are from the first half of sets that comprise the format's history:
Ancient Den
Birthing Pod
Blazing Shoal
Chrome Mox
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Deathrite Shaman
Dig Through Time
Dread Return
Eye of Ugin
Gitaxian Probe
Glimpse of Nature
Golgari Grave-Troll
Great Furnace
Green Sun's Zenith
Hypergenesis
Mental Misstep
Ponder
Preordain
Punishing Fire
Rite of Flame
Seat of the Synod
Second Sunrise
Seething Song
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Splinter Twin
Stoneforge Mystic
Summer Bloom
Treasure Cruise
Tree of Tales
Umezawa's Jitte
Vault of Whispers
The cards in bold are all from sets that were released from the 1st half of modern sets (8th edition through Scars of Mirrodin), while the remaining few are from the second half (Innistrad through Guilds of Ravnica)
From the original Mirrodin block alone? Almost 1/3rd of the entire list. Add KCI to this list and there's another card from Mirrodin block.
From innistrad onward, they have been much more careful when designing cards. Yes there have been slip-ups now and then but for the most part its the older sets that have contained the most number of bannables. Through this, one could almost argue that Modern was an awful idea from the start, at least starting it where it did at one of the most broken Magic sets of all time.