Quote from cfusionpm »Home from work and re-reading the ban announcement in detail, this line caught me by surprise:
"In watching the format evolve, we've observed that decks seeking to control the game have struggled against the speed and variety of threats present in the format. Often these decks have been forced to adopt an explosive win condition of their own. Our hope is that Jace, the Mind Sculptor will provide yet another option in an already diverse format, giving controlling decks an alternative way to close out prolonged games."
I'm not sure how I feel about this statement. It seems they are saying that blue-based control decks have slow or unreliable win conditions (which I agree with) and that somehow Jace fixes that?? They also imply that previous decks (like Twin) or current decks (like Breach/Emrakul) are clearly NOT what they want in terms of reactive decks. I'm curious to see how things pan out. Maybe Jace will be the savior of blue reactive decks, or maybe it will be just another option of mediocrity, and they use the same justification here to release SFM or Twin in another 6mo-1yr (giving control decks another option to close out games). Who knows. Either way, I will definitely be brewing with my foils.
I read it differently. I think Wizards is hoping JTMS gives slower decks the OPTION of a viable, slower win con. Currently, those decks basically NEED to resort to faster ones, which isn't as diversified as it could be if slower options were better. They aren't saying explosive win cons are bad. They just want slow decks to have a slow option if they want to run one.
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This unban is ultimately good for us. Zoo has always preyed on control and tempo decks... Tempo has popped up and disappeared in modern often but control has never really been good. This will solve alot of their problems, so ironically, alot of ours. Ive been saying for years that Zoo's biggest weakness is control sucks.
All of our cards are all good vs Jace. Literally all of them.
The meat of it. Bloodbraid is good. Very good. But don't be fooled, she isn't absolutely disgusting in our deck. When she is hitting 3-2 drops and absurd swingy spells she is... which means shes better in jund. BB into bolt is aggressive for us, but BB into lillina is #broke. BBE is an aggressive card, who is best played late game when both players have run low on resources. Often we run low, play her and the Opponent can still 2 for 1 us fine because they haven't and she didnt do much at all. But she does help make closing out the game better for us.
My main point is... dont overestimate Bloodbraid Elf. Its a very good card, but isn't absolutely broken for us. Her role should (and always should be) to close the game. Those times she recovers our board after a wipe, or is the perfect blocker nabs us a perfect combo piece, are few and far between. But she does do that one job, closing the game, better than any card aside from maybe elspeth and siege rhino.
Now lets get to the good stuff about her since we can be a little realistic now we know her limitations. As Ive said, she closes the game on turn 4 and is broken on turn 3. You should be playing her in all versions of zoo now as a top ender... but not always a 4 of. In some of the lower curved lists that number should be 2. In some of the zoo lists that have only around 4-5 3 drops, she should be a 3 of. In any list running 4 Noble Hierarchs, she should be a 4 of, as turn 3ing her is absurd.
Zoo also can go back to some value creatures unless you are balls to the walls blitz. Pridemage, Thalia, voice, ooze all get better because of her. As do all sideboard cards. She increases the chance you will hit them. So Id change our sides to be more narrow but powerful answers. Run stuff like blood moon over edge or ghost quarter. You have more "draw power" and more pressure now, you just need to patch bad match ups, not prep for overall weakness now that just attacking can win you the game.
Id also tend to add more burn when I have elf. Helix for example is great. Bloodbraid really removes the reactiveness zoo can sometimes pack. You arent going to be casting stuff that wont have a target. Which is why burn is preferred over path. You wont be running counter spells either if you were doing that, or even stuff like Boros charm. I have my doubts about renegade rallier as well. Main decks cards should have cards that are "always on" because thats the only way to really turn blood braid to max.
This card should be absolutely gone from our lists. At best, this card is worth 6 mana (2 3dudes) and at worst gives you 0 if you flop. Bloodbraid will always give you 4 worth of value (3/2 haste is worth 3 and cascade will always hit at least 1 mana) which is 4 more mana than company's worst case. Its best case is 6 (3 mana dude plus bloodbraid) so its the same.
The only place company is better is being better vs control (meh, were fine vs that, plus agrueable since bbe is 2 spells) board wipes/ removal, and finding silver bullets. But we arent a silver bullet deck. Sometimes we pack em, but we pack em fairly. So Company was always worse in our deck. BBE is better.
I'm not sure BBE replaces this in domain. Both cards do the same thing, and might be around the same level in power. BBelf might be slightly higher since it can hit flames. In domain sometimes you play discard and counters though, in which case Id play rhino over it. This is the only spot I cant for sure say Elf is better. I dunno. Up to the hive mind. My suggestion is to swap it and really be critical about its abilities.
Jund is going to be better now, so its useage and power level just went up, which is bad for us. Keep that in mind.
So blitz zoo, bigger zoo, 4-5 color zoo or small zoo? My bet is on bigger zoo. Blitz likes the speed, but 4 mana is a tall ask. I'm sure they adopt the card as a 2 of for games that go longer, but I wouldnt call that a huge upgrade. 4-5 color zoo, the issue has been mana as always. Its painful. this makes it better, forsure, but its not like deathrite shaman got unbanned, the card that WOULD fix their problems. As Ive said, rhino is comparable... so I think the deck has more options and power now, but not fixing the main issue.
Small zoo sucks. Its uninteractive, 2/3s for 1 mana are terrible since gurmag angler. Bbelfing into a kird ape feels bad. No.
Bigger zoo checks all the ways to make an aggressive bbelf at peak opimization. Mana dorks to turn 3 it, more 3 and 2 drops to make better value out of it, reliably hit it turn 4. I actually would cut 5 drops out of the deck for better 3 drops now because bbelf into a 3 drop (or burn) is much stronger and faster and impact the game.
heres a short list of cards that all got better with BBElf
Doesnt work anymore. Sorry you guys can't live the dream like the old days.
So I'm not sure if this makes zoo better than humans. I've been out of the loop for a while but came back on pro tour to watch it... And humans kinda acts like a tribal version small zoo. Its a weird blend of hatebears and small zoo. Basically everything in the deck interacts with the opponent, or beats down, and it does that job really well. Honestly... if they wanted too they could run elf. It worries me a bit, because if humans does what zoo does but better, you get into an out classed situation, which isnt good.
Overall... Look, BBELF helps zoo compete. We can actually abuse it. We dont use it like jund does, we use it much more aggressively. But I'm not sure this is the card to save the zoo decks. I'm still full on about how zoo needs another 1 3/3. Right now, you can go faster and lose the long game, or go slower and lose the early game. A 3/3 at 1 lets us win the short game and still compete into the long game. BBElf in my opinion certainly raises the power level of zoo, but doesn't fix the core issue as to why we arent top tier.
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So our deck is faultering. Currently the meta is unkind to us too. Games are fast, we cant exactly interact, and the prime control and combo deck of the format use the yard so grave hate is high. Its basically a 2 punch KO for us.
That BR hallowone deck is basically all in dredge that isnt super weak to grave hate. I don't believe its as amazing of a deck as people think it is, its diff less consistent than us. But its faster and it doesnt roll over to hate...
We need new cards, something that makes us less soft to side hate, and something that helps us interact a bit more. Or if the meta shifts back to grind, well do just find.
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maybe Dire Fleet Daredevil, Azor, the Lawbringer, and reckless rage.
Thats pretty much it. I think this set is a new low in overall power (for us) Blood Sun is being overblown. Its not moon 5-8. Comparing the moon to the sun is like... well comparing the moon and the sun! they totally different. Moon is an unfair card that fair decks like to side in that shut down greedy strategies. Sun, to me at least, looks like a card greedy decks will use to be more greedy. It enables bounce lands to just be sol lands, it turns off fetches, and still lets dumb lands like tron and temple do their thing.
I have no reason to believe sun will destroy any format. Its an unfair card unfair decks play maybe. We have a billion of those types of cards.
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So with that formal announcement out of the way I get my 15 minutes of being sappy and sentimental. I'm sure some have you have noticed that I've been much less active lately on the forums. It has everything to do with jobs. I've been at MTGsal for 7 years and I've loved every second of it. I started here in college, and really did a lot of growing up.
So much so if you dive into the code... you'll find my user name is actually KidLantern... but I dropped the Kid part because I started to joke about becoming an all grown up Lantern. I've watched my user name go from Green Lantern jokes, to pumpkin, to a completely new archetype that people think I play now. Also.. I don't play Lantern.
I'm getting off track, but I am really attached to this place, so saying my semi goodbye got me a little emotional. The point I want to make is, ya'll helped me grow. In really real life I'm a movie and television producer, so no joke, even trying to manage uncooperative users has helped me in gain the tools to advance in my career.
And thats why I've had to step down. Its hard to move on from something so rooted in me as a person. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be around sometimes. And in a weird way, ya'll are likely still going to see my work a lot more now that I've been promoted to Executive Producer. I know the staff I've helped make here are the best people to help grow the modern community to reach ever greater heights. I'm thankful for them too, because I can rest assured that my leaving won't cause major disruptions.
At the end of the day, the community was the main draw for me. When I started, if you can believe it or not, Modern wasn't even what the format was called, and most of the player base thought it would die. It actually had quite a small following AND most stores refused to run the format. I started out here running tournaments online for Modern because people who wanted to play the format didn't have a store. I was genuinely worried the format would die.
But wow! Its an FMN format, has pros playing, and is one of the most popular things to do in magic. With huge scores of you all talking about it. I don't really think anything I did was that impressive. A drop in the bucket, but I still couldn't be prouder of the format, and the people who made it possible. So this is just a huge thank you to all of you for giving me a place to play and talk about the thing I love, and helping me get to where I am as a person.
Well... I guess thats really it! Anyone who reads my posts knows I'm always wordy as hell. So this isn't goodbye, Its just a see ya later and a thank you.
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This isnt the place.