If anyone has matchup data for Arclight Phoenix, Dredge, Grixis Shadow, Humans, etc, then please post.
Also, I feel like BW Tokens might actually be decent against the present meta. Dredge and those types of matchups were decent. Humans might be a problem. Merfolk isn't really a problem with Fatal Push around. Tron always has sucked (but you can't win them all).
I think it might be time to Add hidden stockpile to the Primer, one big advantage it has over BB and Legions landing is that you actually benefit form drawing more than one and the scry effect come handy late in the game.
As for the matchups:
Dredge.- This a very good match up if you are running Auriok champion in the main board. they can't deal with it, she block amalgam or bloodgast for days and gets you out of range, they basically need a super fast start to race us with an Auriok on the board.I have won all my match ups against it and all of them without drawing GY hate.
GDS.- With Auriok you block all their stuff, which isn't that much and all our removal takes care, just take out their temur battle rage and you are safe.
Humans/Spirits.- these are close matches that play similar, the difference is that Spirits has in Spell queller a way to disrupt our removal. Humans is easier if you can get your tokens maker going, just block them and prevent them from racing and in the long game we just out value them.
Spirits is trickier, their creatures get bigger faster and some of our tokens can't block their fliers. Discard against Collective company, Spell queller and Captain is key. In both matches bring the sweepers from the sideboard, they are key to stabilize.
Izzet Phoenix.- the version with Pyromancer Ascension is very hard to beat for us, it eventually combos and kills us with lighting bolt. The version without it is much more manageable if they don't have a crazy start. Kill Thing on the ice with fatal Push as soon as it comes down and Path Phoenix, and we can chump block crackling drake for days. Their removal isn't great against us. I am sideabording lost legacy (for pyromancer ascension) and runned halo vs lighting bolt. Definitely the match is on their favor but we can beat them with our hate. I am also considering Chalice of the void and damping sphere as SB vs them, since it is the high number of cantrips that really makes them explosive.
Breaking news: MTG has a lot of variance. Sometimes you go X-0 because you have nut draws, opponents have bad draws, you play against your best matches and so on. Sometimes you draw your sideboard, sometimes you don't.
If you wanna play a game with little to no variance play chess, where skill is much more important.
That being said cantrips help reduce variance, that's why lots of combo decks use blue and why WotC has nerfed them and banned them, why black no longer gets good draw engines and so on.
Looting and Stirrings reduce variance, that's what everyone wants to do in order to win. Your options are to either build a deck that can be as consistent or play the same deck as everyone else.
Hello guys! Looking at the current modern meta I am thinking to give tokens a new try! I took a look at the SCG list in the previous page but I am surprised not to see Fatal Push! Any ideas why it has not been included?
There is one inn the sideboard I think, buut mostly because we have Path to exile and you sideboard in Wrath of god or similar vs creature decks.
Nevertheless be aware that even in a deck full of token generators as BW tokens (check the primer in Modern-Established-midrange) playing diving visistation might prove difficult.
I personally think that this set will have quite a few cards that were7 given errata when they changed the 'redirection rule' and made Planeswalkers Legendary that are not Modern legal right now.
Tezzeret is missing, my guess is that from the stained glass pictures there are 5 that already have PW in GRN and RNA and wont get new cards, so maybe 5 are missing?
Legacy can't grow because of the reserved list. So modern is and will continue to be the non rotating format of choice for the great majority of players. And making sets as Horizon will only invigorate it. My guess is they don't want to repeat the fate of legacy (with the reserved list) and they will keep it healthy with reprints from time to time and making the pool larger with the horizons sets.
Also looking forward for Standard+ which would be the old extended (4 to 7 years of cards).
I think our perspective is also influenced by past experiences. I am a returning player, left the game 14 years ago. I have been playing modern since November of last year, first with a budget white weenie humans deck and now with tokens.
My experience with the format is positive, but again this must be very meta dependent, the only deck I truly hate is Tron, but definitely modern is a much more interactive format that what I was familiar with from old extended circa 2005 and before. Cards are much less broken, and you don't have blue dominating everywhere.
My guess is this very meta dependent. If my LGS was full of storm, titan and other combo decks I would feel bad about playing, but I play mostly jund, rock, spirits, humans, burn, dredge, jeskai control and GDS so for me is quite interactive.
One card that could work is Battle Screech discarding it to Collective brutality and them using the flashback next turn.
As for the match ups, dredge, jund, rock, burn are quite good for BW tokens (if you pack auriok champion mainboard), humans is also good, spirits a little more even.
I am side-boarding lost legacy which is great vs combo, also runned halo. We have access to lots of good sideboard cards, the problem is selecting 15 for such an open format.
I think it might be time to Add hidden stockpile to the Primer, one big advantage it has over BB and Legions landing is that you actually benefit form drawing more than one and the scry effect come handy late in the game.
As for the matchups:
Dredge.- This a very good match up if you are running Auriok champion in the main board. they can't deal with it, she block amalgam or bloodgast for days and gets you out of range, they basically need a super fast start to race us with an Auriok on the board.I have won all my match ups against it and all of them without drawing GY hate.
GDS.- With Auriok you block all their stuff, which isn't that much and all our removal takes care, just take out their temur battle rage and you are safe.
Humans/Spirits.- these are close matches that play similar, the difference is that Spirits has in Spell queller a way to disrupt our removal. Humans is easier if you can get your tokens maker going, just block them and prevent them from racing and in the long game we just out value them.
Spirits is trickier, their creatures get bigger faster and some of our tokens can't block their fliers. Discard against Collective company, Spell queller and Captain is key. In both matches bring the sweepers from the sideboard, they are key to stabilize.
Izzet Phoenix.- the version with Pyromancer Ascension is very hard to beat for us, it eventually combos and kills us with lighting bolt. The version without it is much more manageable if they don't have a crazy start. Kill Thing on the ice with fatal Push as soon as it comes down and Path Phoenix, and we can chump block crackling drake for days. Their removal isn't great against us. I am sideabording lost legacy (for pyromancer ascension) and runned halo vs lighting bolt. Definitely the match is on their favor but we can beat them with our hate. I am also considering Chalice of the void and damping sphere as SB vs them, since it is the high number of cantrips that really makes them explosive.
Surely they will print some answers on Horizons.
If you wanna play a game with little to no variance play chess, where skill is much more important.
That being said cantrips help reduce variance, that's why lots of combo decks use blue and why WotC has nerfed them and banned them, why black no longer gets good draw engines and so on.
Looting and Stirrings reduce variance, that's what everyone wants to do in order to win. Your options are to either build a deck that can be as consistent or play the same deck as everyone else.
Personally I think the Izzet one will also be the one with more staying power going forward.
There is one inn the sideboard I think, buut mostly because we have Path to exile and you sideboard in Wrath of god or similar vs creature decks.
Nevertheless be aware that even in a deck full of token generators as BW tokens (check the primer in Modern-Established-midrange) playing diving visistation might prove difficult.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer in modern? that would be cool.
Will be cool to start thinking about which abilities they could have.
Or Bolas killed Tezzeret before the war?
Also looking forward for Standard+ which would be the old extended (4 to 7 years of cards).
My experience with the format is positive, but again this must be very meta dependent, the only deck I truly hate is Tron, but definitely modern is a much more interactive format that what I was familiar with from old extended circa 2005 and before. Cards are much less broken, and you don't have blue dominating everywhere.
As for the match ups, dredge, jund, rock, burn are quite good for BW tokens (if you pack auriok champion mainboard), humans is also good, spirits a little more even.
I am side-boarding lost legacy which is great vs combo, also runned halo. We have access to lots of good sideboard cards, the problem is selecting 15 for such an open format.