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  • Aegraen's avatar

    8

    May 24, 2019
    Aegraen posted a message on [MH1] Modern Horizons Discussion Thread
    Quote from Snowflakes »
    Quote from ktkenshinx »
    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.


    Most of the people *****ing are *****ing because the set has almost zero relevant answers to slow the format down or create a more interactive environment. There's more EDH non-sense than needed answers for the format. How many times have we heard "Wait for MH", they can't print XYZ needed answer in standard it's too powerful "Wait for MH", no need to look at the banlist "Wait for MH". Well, we've waited, and what we've gotten so far is a farce. No one asked for a white reprint of Beast Within (a not playable card outside of LE decks). A 2 mana Swords though...would be useful. Awful red burn spells that can't efficiently deal with X/5's? No one said sign me up for that. For a set called "Modern Horizons" and a player base chanting, "Wait for MH" for needed answers, the set has tremendously flopped so far.

    Maybe we're all wrong though and WoTC left all the answer cards to be spoiled in the second week...I doubt it though.
    Posted in: Modern
  • Aegraen's avatar

    5

    May 24, 2019
    Aegraen posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/05/2019)
    I know we're only 90 cards deep, but holy balls, the distinct lack of any playable answers outside the green force for artifact decks (in the SB) is a joke. No, prohibit/exclude is not modern playable. FoN is SB material at best (There are way too many creature decks to MB such a narrow card in this format...I know, the amount of games I've lost because I'm holding negate/countersquall is ludicrous), Firebolt is interesting in a deck like Phoenix, but it's not really playable as a catch-all answer. Where's Deed, Vindicate, Swords, Abrupt Decay/Assassin's Trophy, (RIP Counterspell), cheap red removal to deal with X/5's, Containment Priest/GY hate, Tribal hate (E-Plague, etc.), Port, more non-basic hate, etc. There's nothing.

    There is however, a ***** load of non-sense tribal/EDH cards and very low power level callbacks (bad bad preordain, 5 mana ponder, did we really need a white beast within?, etc.). The marketing of this set has been atrocious.

    Feels like the format is rewarding the linear decks even more with this set (the Canopy lands tend to be much better in decks like burn, bogles, etc., than mid-range/control decks), really good infect card, tribal aggro, etc.

    I'm really tired of WoTC designing premium sets primarily for limited. Most people aren't going to regularly draft your 7$+ booster set. Burns my britches. /rantover
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • Aegraen's avatar

    1

    Apr 15, 2019
    Aegraen posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 11/03/2019)
    Quote from gkourou »
    To be honest, I don't see UR Phoenix that way. CFB reported a 50% win rate of the deck. This is fine, if you ask me. It's just that lots of people wanted to play a UR deck, since it's fun and people seen to like playing it.


    The deck was 50% at the latest GP, with the deck warping itself to win in the mirror, and the format warping around itself to beat it...yet it still posted a greater than 50 win%. That's impressive. If you don't cherry pick your data Phoenix has been running between 53-58%. You can argue not to ban something without resorting to obviously ridiculous lies and half truths.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • Aegraen's avatar

    1

    Nov 8, 2018
    Aegraen posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 01/10/2018)
    Quote from genini2 »
    Quote from idSurge »
    I'm not convinced there is an answer for a Dredge, KCI, Tron meta.

    Is Spirits it? Maybe? Infect?

    Those 3 decks though are a real issue to me, in how polarizing they can be to play against.

    All of them simply say 'go under'.


    Infect or Burn would give you 50% or better against all of those.


    Burn is poop against Dredge, plus you're not really painting a rosy picture of the format if the answer to the all ready far over-representation of ships passing by each other in the night is another ship passing deck.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • Aegraen's avatar

    1

    Sep 23, 2018
    Aegraen posted a message on
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  • Aegraen's avatar

    5

    Sep 19, 2018
    Aegraen posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/08/2018)
    Quote from idSurge »
    Quote from Aegraen »
    UB Control destroys KCI, doubly so with the new card as well. Counter/Discard/Thought Scour > surgical your KCI and it's pretty much trivial to win from there assuming you had the foresight to board in such a way that you acknowledge that Sai is also a card. Now that we have 6+ Snap effect with Briefing and Unmoored Ego, I'm frothing at the mouth to just play KCI every round. In our local PPTQ I went 2-0, 2-0, against KCI in the Swiss. I've only lost against the deck once. Granted, you can say UB control is super niche, but I think it's probably one of the best meta decks right now. Crushing KCI, UW Control, and being fairly decent against Humans and other aggro strats (such as Spirits). As long as you can dodge having to play Tron/H1/HollowVine/Burn 2+ times in a long tournament then you should do very well (and burn is fairly close as well as long as you play 3+ Brutalities and some number of Kalitas).


    Whats a UB list look like, I'm only familiar with Faeries.


    I tightened up the list I won my PPTQ with and it looks like this right now:

    DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
    Creatures:
    4 Snapcaster Mage
    1 Torrential Gearhulk
    1 Vendillion Clique
    1 Nimble Obstructionist
    1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

    Removal:
    4 Fatal Push
    2 Cast Down
    1 Murderous Cut
    2 Damnation

    Counters:
    1 Spell Snare
    2 Countersquall
    3 Cryptic Command

    Discard:
    3 Thoughtseize

    Utility:
    3 Thought Scour
    1 Dimir Charm
    1 Collective Brutality
    2 Liliana, the Last Hope

    		CA:
    1 Search for Azcanta
    1 Hieroglyphic Illumination
    1 Glimmer of Genius

    Lands:
    4 Field of Ruin
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Scalding Tarn
    1 Bloodstained Mire
    3 Creeping Tar Pit
    1 River of Tears
    2 Drowned Catacomb
    2 Watery Grave
    4 Island
    2 Swamp

    		SB:
    1 Dispel
    2 Ceremonious Rejection
    1 Disdainful Stroke
    1 Disfigure
    1 Cast Down
    2 Collective Brutality
    1 Flaying Tendrils
    3 Surgical Extraction
    2 Kalitas Traitor of Ghet
    1 Vendillion Clique


    After Guilds of Ravnica comes out I intend to:
    -1 Gearhulk
    -1 Search for Azcanta
    -1 Glimmer
    -1 Field of Ruin

    for:
    +2 Mission Briefing
    +1 Chemister's Insight
    +1 River of Tears

    and SB:
    -1 Disdainful Stroke
    +1 Unmoored Ego

    Possible I want to try a second Ego out in the board, but not entirely sure what to replace.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • Aegraen's avatar

    1

    Sep 13, 2018
    Aegraen posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/08/2018)
    Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »
    I tend to agree with Jim Davis...Counters and Discard do not play well together, ie they are highly redundant without even going into Snapcaster vs Delve.


    I disagree. I think overloading on one or the other makes little sense, but playing Thoughtseize in UB Control is definitely underrepresented. I think it's a little too much life loss for a deck like Grixis to run though. Being able to get full information and strip their important card, and then hold up a counter for their other relevant card is really good. If this theorem held, decks like Grixis Control in Legacy wouldn't both play discard and counters, but it does, and it plays quite well. Personally, I play 3 Thoughtseize in my UB Control deck (that I won a 6 round + 3 top 8 matches PPTQ with) that has been performing quite well over the past month since I started playing it. Being able to grab Karn, KCI, Through the Breach, CoCo, etc. for 1 mana is quite nice. I view them as redundant pieces for the most part. IMHO Thoughtseize > Logic Knot. I'd rather my early interaction be Thoughtseize rather than Knot.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • Aegraen's avatar

    1

    Sep 12, 2018
    Aegraen posted a message on The State of Modern Thread (B&R 20/08/2018)
    Quote from idSurge »
    I'd cry hard, but then I would just move into RUG Control. :p


    Why RUG? BUG would be so much better getting both Counterspell and best removal ever printed. Finally would be a reason to play that color pair together.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
  • Aegraen's avatar

    1

    Sep 11, 2018
    Aegraen posted a message on [GRN] Guilds of Ravnica previews and spoilers: Modern edition
    Quote from ThinkingChimp »
    Last visit to Rav almost every guild got a modern staple. Hopefully AT means that’s happening again.


    UG and UB says Hello there. Let's just say I'm not optimistic. These color pairings are god awful when it comes to multi-color cards compared to everyone else.
    Posted in: Modern
  • Aegraen's avatar

    3

    Oct 23, 2017
    Aegraen posted a message on Temporary State of the Meta Thread (Rules Update 7/17/17)
    The problem with Modern is that the decision-trees are pretty small for a lot of decks which means the skill ceiling is lower and it isn't as interesting to watch as say Legacy or even Standard right now. Watching Jund vs Twin or UWR vs Pod was a lot more entertaining and generally the better player tended to win. That's not really the case in today's modern. Also, there are too many MU's that are disproportionate which also makes for less fun and less entertaining to watch. When a lot of MU's in the format tend to be 70/30 variety, it really diminishes the format. A lot of that has to do with an imbalanced meta where important archetypes like Control are pretty non-existent (as evidenced by meta share, and SB space that other decks in the format use for control which is extremely minimal). It's just not interesting. The Modern PT is going to suck so bad. Keep on parroting "diversity" uber alles though instead of quality of matches and significance of skill in-game.
    Posted in: Modern Archives
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