Reducing the pain of Electrolyze. I've saved plenty of creatures when 1 damage goes to Heritage Druid and then on to the face. +1/+1 from Bow and now I have a larger creature and they're out one removal spell.
I don't believe that this happened more than once, if ever. How often do you play against opponents that don't read your Bow?
You must've not watched Calcano (UB control) vs. Corvese (UB control). When you get the time, I'd recommend it. While Silumgar's Scorn has a high ceiling, also keep in mind that it also has a floor (and it's low).
I feel like a single matchup isn't representative of a card's worth with an entire meta taken into account. Unless your point is that 'sometimes good cards are bad', which is just such a non-point I don't know how to reply.
That was a fun match to watch though. I feel pretty strongly that while the long game implications of that sort of matchup made Silumgar's Scorn worse, so did Thoughtseize.
On my phone due to work, but go ahead and continue to be and pig-headed rude.
Pod certainly fits number 2 given its sustained meta percentages no matter how the meta shifted, and it's certainly concerning levels during the entirety of the delver period. Pod checked ALL aggro decks, we've seen an absolute explosion of diversity on that level with pod gone. And it's ALWAYS done this. This is totally ignoring its high potential for future problems. Face it, pods an extremely difficult deck to balance, and no deck should be good at all times the way pod was. It's actively against a cyclical meta which is what they should be trying to cultivate.
Pod has been 15% of the format at most when it wasn't exploding because of Delver. This is not in violation of number 2. It checked red deck, which was still present, and the other aggro deck, Affinity, was still tier 1 during Pod's presence.
If the explosion in diversity is a tier 1 consisting of 5 decks but mainly Junk and Twin, I'm not sold on this statement. Also remember that Pod's banning coincided with the banning of Cruise, which is the point I've been trying to make, and you've ignored now consistently post after post.
I haven't been rude, I've only stated facts. You made a statement based on your opinion, and I disagreed with it. You also haven't backed any of your posts with data, which is true, I don't see any numbers here. If anything, you've been the rude one, calling me pig-headed (?).
Well rather than restricting the player's rights based on your feelings on the deck, I think it's important to regulate cards based on the game's caretaker's criteria for banning decks. It's okay for decks to be good, as long as they are within this criteria as outlined here, and Pod's numbers and application within the format did comply to this criteria with the exception of the time during which Delver was prevalent, post Treasure Cruise's printing. Before this time, Pod's prevalence was around 15% of the format's decks in top 8s, which is the current prevalence for Junk. You can view all this data on mtgtop8.com
My initial post was stating that Pod was outside the bounds of this criteria at the time of banning, but only because of Cruise making Delver an oppressive deck in the format. Pod checked Delver, and its format share grew. What Wizards should have done is ban Cruise and then see Pod return to its original numbers. However, they banned both, which is akin to handing out pistols and then banning pistols and bulletproof vests at the same time.
Surely you follow this logic, regardless of your feelings (that I'll note, you backed with zero data)?
Yes, aside from the time where its format share skyrocketed because Delver was restricting the rest of the field, Pod met all the criteria for a healthy part of the format.
How exactly is Jace so overpowered though? a turn 4 sorcery? twin wouldn't want it, as a 4 drop it competes with twin, if anything it would be sideboarded, and even then, Jace starts at 3, and more often than not, the correct play is to immediately brainstorm, meaning he is very easy to kill, and at that point he's a 4 mana sorcery speed brainstorm, is that so bad? He doesn't slot into everything.
Control decks won't be oppressive with him since he'd very rarely be dropped turn 4, most of the time he'd be dropped on turn 6 or 7, when they have have conter magic to protect him, it feels like most of the hate is coming from his time in standard, where it was paired with stoneforge mystic.
This posts makes all the wrong arguments, assumptions, and lines of cognitive bias for unbanning Jace. I'll refer you to the any of the previous posts every few pages that discuss unbanning Jace.
I hate that Pod was banned for being a good guy and being the deck that checked WotC's actual mistake (Cruise). Delver's numbers go up, Pod checks Delver so its numbers go up, and then when time came to ban Cruise, Pod got the axe too. Talk about a thankless job.
Pod was a decent deck but its numbers were consistent with current Junk numbers, and it certainly wasn't a diversity issue because not every green deck wanted Pod. Pod was its own deck.
Unfortunately now with Rhino around, I feel like there would be even more friction against unbanning this obvious ban mistake. Perhaps it was for the best, now.
EDIT
Re: http://mastersofmodern.com/modern-banlist-predictions-for-march-23/ ,
I think this is an accurate assessment, but I think it's time to start viewing Modern as a format of specific deck archetypes and not the five overarching archetypes. Modern doesn't have a dedicated control deck right now not because there aren't control cards, and there are control decks, they just don't have the engines of the required power level or synergy to exist as a larger portion of the format. This reasoning is precisely why I think Sword of the Meek would be a good unban for the card advantage/value removal decks in the format; it gives them an engine, raising them above being "the control deck" to being "the Foundry deck" with all the power that gives them.
Can someone link to the BUG Control list you're discussing boarding against? I looked a bit and didn't see anything compelling.
Either way, from what I've read so far it definitely sounds like Souls should come out. If not all of them, some number.
If they're looking to have some form of advantage in their decks, I definitely want my mainboard hand disruption in. On top of that, if they're running Cryptics, I would go as far as to bring in a Duress. If they're running our cards in an advantage/control shell, and we're the staple value deck, we should be treating it as a control matchup. The only difference is, our Abrupt Decays are still fairly live versus them (and are more valuable, since they cannot be countered).
Well there's Shardless BUG, the advantage-based control deck that you've seen in the past several pages, and then there's the value-based BUG Walkers lists which are something like 3 or 4 jaces, 2 or 3 Liliana, and 0 or 1 Garruk Relentless, special guest star Pernicious Deed, music by Vendillion Clique.
The core seems to be Brainstorms, Abrupt Decays, Deathrite Shaman (!!!), and Jace/Lili in some number
BUG Walkers gets to run non-Force counter magic because it doesn't have to worry about cascading into Spell Pierce or whatever.
I feel like I sided my Jaces out too much. They came out versus combo as being too slow and Tempo decks for being too expensive. I wanted to keep him in versus Maverick and Death and Taxes but their Wastelands made it very difficult to get off the ground with Jace. He did work in control matchups but they were very few and far between. I was thinking of moving the Liliana from the side into the main, going for a 2/2 split on walkers. However, I think I'm playing Jace wrong versus tempo. Thoughts?
My sideboard is probably going to go -1 Deed +1 Deluge. I have K Grip for the non creature permanents I need dead. Deed was nice versus Stoneblade and such but I think I have a good enough matchup to just go Deluge for the spirit tokens.
The Dismember out of the side was to up my spot removal versus creature decks like Maverick. I would really like another point of spot removal for the board but I don't know if Dismember is right.
Post board versus combo I can go up to 4x Thoughtseize 2x Hymn 2x Inquisition 4x Force of Will. Am I oversiding versus Sneak & Show/Storm decks? That's where I'm comfortable versus them but I might be crutching myself too much. I find versus ANT especially, it's important to get in the early discard but also have a FoW for when they attempt Past in Flames/IGG/Ad Nauseum.
As much as you want that statement to refute their point, you should learn to consider other's advice
I hope something good happens to you
I don't believe that this happened more than once, if ever. How often do you play against opponents that don't read your Bow?
I feel like a single matchup isn't representative of a card's worth with an entire meta taken into account. Unless your point is that 'sometimes good cards are bad', which is just such a non-point I don't know how to reply.
That was a fun match to watch though. I feel pretty strongly that while the long game implications of that sort of matchup made Silumgar's Scorn worse, so did Thoughtseize.
I think it's a novelty account? Check out the name
He's so hostile it's hilarious
Pod has been 15% of the format at most when it wasn't exploding because of Delver. This is not in violation of number 2. It checked red deck, which was still present, and the other aggro deck, Affinity, was still tier 1 during Pod's presence.
If the explosion in diversity is a tier 1 consisting of 5 decks but mainly Junk and Twin, I'm not sold on this statement. Also remember that Pod's banning coincided with the banning of Cruise, which is the point I've been trying to make, and you've ignored now consistently post after post.
I haven't been rude, I've only stated facts. You made a statement based on your opinion, and I disagreed with it. You also haven't backed any of your posts with data, which is true, I don't see any numbers here. If anything, you've been the rude one, calling me pig-headed (?).
My initial post was stating that Pod was outside the bounds of this criteria at the time of banning, but only because of Cruise making Delver an oppressive deck in the format. Pod checked Delver, and its format share grew. What Wizards should have done is ban Cruise and then see Pod return to its original numbers. However, they banned both, which is akin to handing out pistols and then banning pistols and bulletproof vests at the same time.
Surely you follow this logic, regardless of your feelings (that I'll note, you backed with zero data)?
Yes, aside from the time where its format share skyrocketed because Delver was restricting the rest of the field, Pod met all the criteria for a healthy part of the format.
This posts makes all the wrong arguments, assumptions, and lines of cognitive bias for unbanning Jace. I'll refer you to the any of the previous posts every few pages that discuss unbanning Jace.
Pod was a decent deck but its numbers were consistent with current Junk numbers, and it certainly wasn't a diversity issue because not every green deck wanted Pod. Pod was its own deck.
Unfortunately now with Rhino around, I feel like there would be even more friction against unbanning this obvious ban mistake. Perhaps it was for the best, now.
EDIT
Re: http://mastersofmodern.com/modern-banlist-predictions-for-march-23/ ,
I think this is an accurate assessment, but I think it's time to start viewing Modern as a format of specific deck archetypes and not the five overarching archetypes. Modern doesn't have a dedicated control deck right now not because there aren't control cards, and there are control decks, they just don't have the engines of the required power level or synergy to exist as a larger portion of the format. This reasoning is precisely why I think Sword of the Meek would be a good unban for the card advantage/value removal decks in the format; it gives them an engine, raising them above being "the control deck" to being "the Foundry deck" with all the power that gives them.
Either way, from what I've read so far it definitely sounds like Souls should come out. If not all of them, some number.
If they're looking to have some form of advantage in their decks, I definitely want my mainboard hand disruption in. On top of that, if they're running Cryptics, I would go as far as to bring in a Duress. If they're running our cards in an advantage/control shell, and we're the staple value deck, we should be treating it as a control matchup. The only difference is, our Abrupt Decays are still fairly live versus them (and are more valuable, since they cannot be countered).
Well there's Shardless BUG, the advantage-based control deck that you've seen in the past several pages, and then there's the value-based BUG Walkers lists which are something like 3 or 4 jaces, 2 or 3 Liliana, and 0 or 1 Garruk Relentless, special guest star Pernicious Deed, music by Vendillion Clique.
The core seems to be Brainstorms, Abrupt Decays, Deathrite Shaman (!!!), and Jace/Lili in some number
BUG Walkers gets to run non-Force counter magic because it doesn't have to worry about cascading into Spell Pierce or whatever.
List from SCG:
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_bug_planeswalkers_wi.html
Eschewed Vendillion Clique for Loam+Raven's Crime.
List:
4x Shardless Agent
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Deathrite Shaman
2x Baleful Strix
20 Instants/Sorceries:
4x Ancestral Visions
4x Brainstorm
4x Abrupt Decay
3x Force of Will
2x Thoughtseize
2x Hymn to Tourach
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Jace, the Mindsculptor
1x Liliana of the Veil
22 Lands:
3x Underground Sea
2x Tropical Island
2x Bayou
4x Polluted Delta
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Wasteland
2x Creeping Tarpit
2x Thoughtseize
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Baleful Strix
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Toxic Deluge
1x Force of Will
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Krosan Grip
1x Dismember
I feel like I sided my Jaces out too much. They came out versus combo as being too slow and Tempo decks for being too expensive. I wanted to keep him in versus Maverick and Death and Taxes but their Wastelands made it very difficult to get off the ground with Jace. He did work in control matchups but they were very few and far between. I was thinking of moving the Liliana from the side into the main, going for a 2/2 split on walkers. However, I think I'm playing Jace wrong versus tempo. Thoughts?
My sideboard is probably going to go -1 Deed +1 Deluge. I have K Grip for the non creature permanents I need dead. Deed was nice versus Stoneblade and such but I think I have a good enough matchup to just go Deluge for the spirit tokens.
The Dismember out of the side was to up my spot removal versus creature decks like Maverick. I would really like another point of spot removal for the board but I don't know if Dismember is right.
Post board versus combo I can go up to 4x Thoughtseize 2x Hymn 2x Inquisition 4x Force of Will. Am I oversiding versus Sneak & Show/Storm decks? That's where I'm comfortable versus them but I might be crutching myself too much. I find versus ANT especially, it's important to get in the early discard but also have a FoW for when they attempt Past in Flames/IGG/Ad Nauseum.
Since you don't get value on its ETB I wouldn't use it. We have enough ways to win imo.