The best way to defeat GB/x Rock is to race it. Aggro has a hard time racing Rock because Rock has better removal, bigger creatures, and generates lots of 2-for-1's to help it stabilize. That leaves a combo deck to do it.
Very few of the combo decks we have now can reliably race the Rock, or do so after its hand has been picked apart by IoK/Thoughtseize/Lili, or its crucial permanents are destroyed by Abrupt Decay, or its graveyard removed by
Jund/Rock is obviously very good in Modern and excels consistently in tournaments, without many glaring weaknesses. So lets look at Legacy as a better point of comparison to see what kinds of weaknesses it has there to better understand what weaknesses it might have in Modern...in hopes of figuring out the best way to attack it.
In its more potent Legacy form, Jund has a reasonably difficult time against "unfair" fast combo decks like Storm, Belcher, and Griselbrand Reanimator. Also Legacy Jund has a poor matchup with decks that can go bigger than it, such as 12Post and NicFit, and decks that can reliably pressure early and attack its lines of play with Wasteland and disruption, like RUG Delver. (Source: Caleb Durward, Beating Jund)
We can try to translate that into Modern and it becomes apparent why Jund is doing very well. Ramp and Combo both have much lower velocity in Modern than they do in Legacy, mostly as a result of the banned list. That said, Griselbrand Reanimator and Tron still exist. Modern Tempo has most of the same aggressive creatures, but lacks the tempo spells and mana disruption to press its advantage against Jund, nor can it flip Delvers as easily. I do not think that NicFit has a suitable analogue in Modern.
Bottom line: How to stop the Jund menace? Play more Tron and Griselbrand in the near term.
If that doesn't work, then relax the Turn 4 rule a bit by unbanning/printing something for Storm, and/or print some solid mana disruption to help Tempo press its advantage.
Then if that's not enough, consider cutting off one of Jund's line of attacks, such as banning its graveyard-hate (DRS and Ooze) or sheer utility (Lily, DRS, Decay) OR open up the other comparably powerful lines of play in other colors with new printings, SFM or Jace.
I am excited to see if Thassa can enable a Miracles style deck. Its not as good as Top, but the fact that you don't have to sink as much mana into it might make up for it.
I'm having fun playing around with Grixis Control. Cruel Ultimatum is like Sphinx's Revelation and Rakdos's Return for 3, plus a Sorin's Thirst, an edict, and an unearth all rolled into one. Cruel's UUBBBRR is cheap compared to the UUWBBBBBR7 all those cards would cost separately. And the mana problems all go away with Chromatic Lantern, which is the hot tech. All the matchups feel about the same as UWR, except I'd say there's a very slight advantage against UWR.
As expected, predicting the needs that the 75 will need to meet and avoiding misplays are the two most important skills with control.
That said, I'm still not sure how the control decks are able to be competitive right now between GB/x Rock being able to outgrind you, Bogle and Affinity running you over, and Scapeshift and Tron having more inevitability than you. My best guess is that more people are forcing into control because they like it rather than it being good in the metagame per se, so I suppose its becoming similar to Legacy in that personal taste for 'your deck' is a factor in the metagame.
On the positive side it looks like Storm (using Burning Vengeance) and Eggs (using Open the Vaults) might be coming back...so at least there are some lopsided matchups in favor of control that I wouldn't have expected a few months ago, and Anger of the Gods feels like it might go a long way to helping the poor Affinity/Boggles/BGx matchup.
Now, on the subject of how to make control better? The newly printed hate for combo combined with a largely anti-combo banned list means control has to work really hard for its wins because the midrange decks don't really have any natural predators at the moment, so enabling a good combo deck or a way to keep up with midrange (BB? JtMS? AV?) would be fantastic. And I'm not really sold on Mana Leak as a good counter for now. I'd like to see Memory Lapse or a UU or UB costed counterspell variant that mirrors Abrupt Decay or Thoughtseize.
I'm going to try it out in place of Pyroclasm in the sideboard of my Grixis control deck. If it seems good enough, I might put one in the mainboard. Its a brew, so I might as well take chances and experiment.
Ancient Den (The Artifact lands make Affinity too powerful, they need to stay banned.) Batterskull (I still maintain that SFM is not too broken without Batterskull, it would also help Thopter Sword out.) Blazing Shoal (Too fast, and there is nothing else that would stop the deck.) Chrome Mox (Free acceleration is too good and Chrome Mox would enable too many turn 3 wins with decks such as Splinter Twin) Deathrite Shaman (With Scavenging Ooze in the format, we have no need of another maindeck graveyard-hater. It is pushing graveyard-based decks out of the format, it allows 4 color manabases (Ajundi) to be made too easily, and it is what pushed Jund over the top in the first place.) Dread Return (It makes Dredge a little too fast.) Glimpse of Nature (It makes Combo Elves too fast.) Grapeshot (It would help slow down Storm to a reasonable level and make it much more vulnerable to removal.) Great Furnace (See Ancient Den.) Green Sun's Zenith? (I'm on the fence on this one.) Hypergenesis (Too fast, too powerful, too broken.) Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Too powerful.) Mental Misstep (Would warp the format horribly and it would be run in almost every deck.) Ponder (While both Ponder and Preordain shouldn't have been banned, one of them needed to be and Ponder is more powerful than Preordain.) Punishing Fire (Ruins small creatures.) Rite of Flame (One ritual from Storm needed to be banned, and this one was played in the least amount of other decks.) Seat of the Synod (See Ancient Den.) Skullclamp (Broken as can be.) Thespian's Stage (Dark Depths would be inconsistent without Thespian's Stage, and it would help keep 8-Post at reasonable levels.) Tree of Tales (See Ancient Den.) Umezawa's Jitte (Would hurt aggro and would be too powerful with Stoneforge Mystic.) Vault of Whispers (See Ancient Den.) Vesuva (12-Post was too powerful, 8-Post was fine. If Vesuva was banned, Cloudpost could come off.)
I love this list as a long term term plan, except for some minor tweaks. I'd swap Cloudpost for Vesuva and unban JTMS and Batterskull.
8-post's mana is comparable or superior to Tron, plus it has the additional benefit of making Glimmerpost a no-cost bonus. The lifegain would make it too difficult to race as aggro, while the massive ramp would be too hard for control to keep up with. Its rise to power and subsequent banning in Pauper was inevitable, and Modern would be the same way unless Wasteland or a functionally similar card is (re)printed.
Jace and Batterskull (even with SFM) are fine for a format that will inevitably creep towards Turn 3.5 in pace. Game-changing plays are supposed to come down on Turn 4. In many respects, Modern is the format where such powerful plays should be expected and defining.
...Then again, this entire future depends heavily on WotC (1) relaxing the Turn 4 rule to Turn 3.5 in a deliberate move away from what Modern currently is, (2) purposefully printing cards that act as strong foils to the more powerful strategies, and (3) continuing to print powerful cards that encourage competitive new strategies without Breaking standard in half. And I'm not holding my breath on all 3 of those.
(And yes, I realize that would leave some externalities to address. It would require changes to the slow-play rules at competitive REL for SDT and Second Sunrise, as well a new 'tweener format like a return to Extended to bridge the widening gap between Standard and Modern...which would be planned as part of Maro's 7-year cycles etc)
The reason we're even in this state to begin with is because of bull**** arguments about interaction and fun that had no business influencing the design of the game. Here's an idea: if your midrange deck is folding to combo because it's uninteractive, the problem is not just the combo deck being uninteractive, it's also your deck being uninteractive with combo. You made a choice not to interact by not including cards that can fight that strategy in your deck. If you're playing aggro, your strategy is equally as uninteractive as any combo deck, because your goal is to kill your opponent before they get to play magic. The distinction between creature-based interactions and spell-based interactions is an arbitrary preference that players and Wizards have bought into, and it needs to stop, because it's affecting the long term health of the game.
I guess my real point is this: fun is subjective, and interaction is a strategic choice that all decks make. By focusing on only one type of interaction (the combat step), WotC have essentially pushed the game in this direction, and the result is what we saw this weekend. At this stage, I don't see how modern can ever have a balanced metagame without a change in design policy, and even assuming such a policy were implemented tomorrow, it would take years for it to come into effect. The turn four rule is a joke, and anyone who can't see or realise the effect it has on the balance of this game has no business designing games in the first place.
my $0.02
So from that:
Step 1: Relax the Turn 4 rule. Unban Seething Song, GGT, and maybe Dread Return. See what happens. If not enough, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Unban Bitterblossom to enable Faeries. Unban a filtering cantrip to enable Delver. See what happens. If not enough, proceed to Step 3.
Step 3: Unban Ancestral Vision, Stoneforge Mystic, and/or JTMS. If not enough, proceed to Step 4.
Step 4: Start banning components of the GB/x Rock shell. DRS, Lily and/or Bob. Repeat Step 4 as needed.
Would that course of action rectify the problem as you see it?
I'm disappointed in the lack of unbans. I feel like a few cards on the banlist for power reasons are less powerful than what we have in the format already, and that the decks that could be opened up with unbans would contribute new options in the metagame without stifling the pleasant diversity we usually see (or at very least, stifling diversity less than B/G/x already does.) GGT, Sword of the Meek, Bitterblossom, Ancestral Vision, and one of the cantrips, in particular.
But I'm glad there wasn't a knee-jerk reaction ban after DRS appeared 27 times in the Top 8 at Detroit. It might have to go eventually, but I'd rather see WotC try to unban some stuff to make non-B/G/x strategies more compelling first.
Scry isn't a very interesting mechanic on its own unless paired with top-down designs (e.g. Oracle of Delphi) but it is at least very powerful when costed aggressively. Then again, it takes something that cares about the top card (like Delver or Miracle) to really make it compelling from a gameplay standpoint. Anything less just doesn't really show off the mechanic to make it feel like more than just a free tag along affect.
There's probably enough design space left in Scry to squeeze out another set or two, but that'll probably be the last we see of it for a while. Not my first choice for a returning mechanic, but it fits the top-down flavor well enough to be justified.
The good news is it enables a few solid reprints that are needed for Modern and maybe this means there's a chance Preordain could be unbanned in Modern at the Theros B&R update, but that's neither here nor there.
On topic, as [Fargsby] said, the new legend rule actually makes it much safer for the format for jitte to come off the list.
I'm not really sure the changes to the legend rule really matter with Jitte. Sure, getting into Jitte wars won't be as annoying as it once was, but Jitte is still such a potent anti-creature card that it will likely have a very negative effect on creature based strategies. Whoever sticks the Jitte first will still probably win...its just that the mechanism for killing the opponent's Jitte would need to be a bit more creative now than just matching it with your own copy.
That's not to say I wouldn't eventually think the format might maybe be okay with it...just that I'd rather see a whole bunch of other cards pulled off the list instead. An active Jitte is way harder to deal with than a SFM, GGT, BB, Thopter/Sword, suspended AV, Seething Song, Nacatl, BBE, etc.
Personally i wish they'd pull the trigger and let Modern be their cut-throat competitive format that gets stepped up to from Standard rather than a policed version of Standard and Extended's past. That's what people ultimately like about Legacy, i think. And what a lot of people were hoping to get out of Modern. Either way, i think the format is fun and the meta is healthy. It could be cooler, but WotC isn't doing poorly with the format by any means.
The format probably *could* handle a lot more power and I think we'll see that in the coming years. The format feels weird and a bit disjointed right now because the bans have been aggressive, but on the other hand, the sets from Innistrad to M14 introduced good cards that really creeped the format's power level forward, and I expect that trend to continue with Theros, as it was the first block 'designed with Modern in mind.'
Personally, I'm hoping for a decently maindeckable UU hardcounter, a Modern-defining goldilocks cantrip between Ponder and Sleight of Hand, and an viable aggro or tempo strategy that encourages divergent deckbuilding rather than just getting crammed into an existing 'good-stuff' deck (e.g. Legends Matter aggo?).
Edit: Good to be back...internet in rural locations is hard sometimes.
So there you have a 3/4 on the second turn for 1G that will more or less only get bigger as the game goes on. 4/5 is common in Modern, and Gruul Zoo can sometimes see goyfs as big as 8/9 because of Seal of Fire or Tarfire.
Compare that to say...Quirion Dryad. Starts out smaller, *could* get bigger than 'goyf but its not likely, and if you topdeck one in the late game, it will start smaller than 'goyf in the same situation.
So, its safe to say that Tarmogoyf has previously been more or less unchallenged as the go-to two drop of the format for a majority of decks. Scavenging Ooze may change that a little bit by offering a little bit more on the utility front for stopping 'Pod or UR Storm mid-combo or reducing a 'goyf to the point it can be bolted, pre-empting Snapcaster Mage's flashback granting ability, etc.
But make no mistake, 'Goyf is still going to be very good and will likely be here to stay as a staple of the format even if he's not going to be as good as he has been up to this point. He's almost always going to be at least a 3/4 for 1G, and that's still better than most any other option at that cost.
Does this [UWR's larger role online than paper] have to do with Pods overperformance?
Probably. MTGO seems to adapt faster to metagame pressures because (relatively) big Modern tournaments happen daily rather than once ever month or so. Then again, the paper vs. online metagames are always a little bit divergent because relatively inexpensive decks always take a larger portion of the field online than they would in paper, so its not necessarily fair to draw conclusions from MTGO alone. UWR control is good against 'pod, which is more prevalent online, but its also a dog to Gruul Zoo, which is also over-represented compared to paper due to its relatively low cost of entry.
This is sort of a random question, but when legacy debuted how long was it until the banlist finally stabilized?
Legacy's banned list had minimal changes for a couple years after it and Vintage were created from the divorce of T1 and T1.5 in 2004. Here's the highlights:
2005 was the first change for Legacy with Imperial Seal being banned, because its functionally similar to other banned cards.
2007 saw Flash-Hulk rip the format apart with Turn 1 and Turn 0 combo kills; but Mind over Matter and Replenish were unbanned in the same announcement. This is the era that Legacy got its terrible reputation as an unfair, stupid-fast, coin-flip based combo format. Shaharazad was banned a few months later for logistic considerations.
2008 saw a spree of erratas being reversed in an effort to simplify the rules of the game. Time Vault is a casualty of the change and deservedly earns a ban for being bonkers as printed.
2009 saw the second major wave of unbannings as Metalworker, Dream Halls, and Entomb came off the list.
2010 saw Mystical Tutor banned after Entomb's unban the previous year helped to make reanimator ridiculously consistent. Grim Monolith and Illusionary Mask were unbanned. At the end of the year, Survival of the Fittest, which had slowly but steadily improving since the format's inception, finally reached a critical mass of dominance that had to be addressed with a banning. Time Spiral was unbanned at the same time though.
2011 saw Mental Misstep banned for format warping
*Also worthy of note, Skullclamp is missing from the Timeline of DCI Bans and Restrictions list on the salvation Wiki I looked at to confirm my memory.
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So, what parallels can we draw to Modern? Realistically, very little. Legacy's banned list at introduction was based on Type 1.5, so there was no reason for pre-emptive bans like we saw in Modern. But its fun to speculate so here goes:
IF (and that's a big IF) Modern follows in Legacy's footsteps, then we can speculate there will be....
(Early 2014) - an insane combo deck pops up and breaks the Turn 4 rule in half around year 3, similar to Flash-Hulk in 2007 ((this likely already occurred ahead of schedule with the series of bans related to UR Storm)). Someday, we'll get back a card or two that didn't deserve to be on the list in the first place. I'll speculate GGT, BB, and AV.
(Late 2014) - a deck that takes too long will get a piece banned just like Shaharazad was banned for logistic reasons. ((This likely already happened with Second Sunrise))
(2016) - A few cards long thought to be too powerful to ever be reintroduced are successfully unbanned. I'll guess this is SFM, JTMS, Sword of the Meek, BBE, Nacatl etc to mirror Legacy powerhouses Dream Halls, Entomb, and Metalworker.
(Early 2017) - A card related to the 2016 unbans proves to bee too much to handle. Turns out SFM into Batterskull (or whatever you want to pick) is just too good, so Batterskull is banned rather than re-banning SFM, just as Entomb combined with Mystical Tutor to make reanimator insane before Mystical Tutor was banned to correct the mistake.
(Late 2017) - Birthing Pod finally reaches a critical mass of dominance to be considered 'too consistent' and eats a ban just as Survival of the Fittest did 6 years into Legacy.
(2018) - WotC tries to be cheeky and print a spell they fully understand will have a huge impact on Modern, just for the lols of it because its needed in Standard to counteract some stupid card no one will play anyways, like Mental Misstep. Chaos ensues until the card can be banned at the first update following its release.
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Yeah. Sounds just as stupid and baseless as I thought it would as a comparison, but it is kinda funny to play with the parallels. If anything, it seems like Modern is teething faster than Legacy did, probably because its a high-interest PTQ format from the get-go rather than a rare and celebrated oddity at the highest level. Modern has already arguably gone through its 'too fast combo phase' (UR Storm vs. Flash Hulk), its 'we're banning this because it takes too long' card (Second Sunrise vs. Shaharazad), and are quickly approaching the point where its format defining engine transforms from 'too cute and unique to this format to too consistent and winning lots of events' (Birthing Pod vs. Survival of the Fittest). That said, unbans have been surprisingly sluggish in Modern given how quickly Modern has paralleled some of the banning phases that we've seen in Legacy before.
At the very least, looking at Legacy is a reminder that lots of the 'Ban Everything anyways!' pro-active perspective we see can largely be written off as unprecedented. Also critics of the banned list have good reason to be hopeful that WotC will someday reverse some of the more controversial banning decisions....but it'll take time and continued pressure to get it done.
Also, as an aside, if Modern was introduced as a 'tweener alternative format 7 years into Legacy's existence, then it bodes well for the idea of WotC reintroducing Old Extended as a 'tweener format between Standard and Modern someday when the card pool is much larger and the transition is more daunting than today. So that way as power level continues to creep forward, eventually there will be a place for some of the more vocal members of this discussion that want a larger card pool with a lower power level.
Anyone else notice a new-to-Modern reprinting that I missed?
Scavenging Ooze is the notable one here. I'm sure many people expect it to be a staple of the format
Spell blast seems like it might be a versatile tool, but I'm not sure if it'll see much play. Better than Syncopate with Modern's tendency towards cards low on the curve, but not very useful if you're on the draw unfortunately.
Opportunity seems like an interesting way to draw a lot of cards. Then again, if Concentrate and Jace's Ingenuity are already in the format and don't see play, I doubt this will. Maybe as a budget minded alternative to Sphinx's Revelation...but even that's a stretch.
So post-GP, have any opinions on the banned list changed? For me, no...but I realize my opinions are probably no the norm.
Bans?
Birthing Pod - put up good numbers all day, and took the event, as well as the largest metagame share. It has comparable numbers to Jund and Zoo at their respective heights for metagame share. On the other hand, it hasn't racked up enough top finishes and overall wins yet to be in the same league, but its well on track to do so. Its a powerful engine worth watching, and even though I personally don't think it should be banned, there are enough similarities to other notable bans in Modern that I wouldn't be surprised. Its saving grace might be that Kiki-pod and Melira-Pod have very different play styles, so even though its hitting metagame saturations in the 20-25% range, it doesn't feel like its that dominant.
Plus, we have to consider that if 20%+ for 'pod is an acceptable metagame saturation, then bans that occurred with similar metagame saturations from archetypes like UR combo (ponder), Zoo (Nacatl) and Jund (BBE) should be held to the same standard and reversed...if we're working with the presumption that 'Pod shouldn't be banned...but that's a whole different discussion.
Goryo's Vengeance - This deck can be fast, as the deck tech interview can attest to. It really depends on how WotC defines consistent. Time and numbers will tell the rational story, but I wouldn't put it past WotC to ban earlier rather than later and to ask us to take their word on faith instead of with transparency and understanding by the player-base.
Unbans?
Ponder - the control decks, while present in small numbers (~7% total) are making a showing and competing, but still haven't outright won an event despite getting close. The tempo decks take an even smaller percentage than control; Delver - an ex-mainstay of the format pre-RTR - has been all but squeezed out with just two players piloting it to day 2...it could use the boost. Meanwhile, Storm is a now 'consistently' a turn 4 deck that earned four Day-2 spots but didn't put a single player into Top 16, so it could use a boost. UR/x Twin and Scapeshift, two decks that are currently performing well and might gain from a Ponder unban, won't improve dramatically (UR Twin is running both Serum Vision and Sleight, so it would probably replace the weaker of the two for marginal improvement, and Scapeshift and UWR Twin both play no filtering cantrips in the top lists so they're of little risk). The balance of the evidence seems to suggest the rest of the format would benefit more than the top archetypes so this still seems like a good idea to me. New hate in the form of Blind obedience, Imposing sovereign, etc also helps to mitigate Twin a bit.
Bitterblossom and/or Ancestral Vision- with UR Twin and UWR Twin (in addition to the 'pod-based creature combos) making a strong showing by percentage (3rd in the archetype breakdown) which will only get better if 'pod or Goryo's Vengeance are hit, there is little to no risk of putting BB or AV (and therefore the former-Extended bogeyman, Faeries) back in the mix. Faeries can provide a check on those decks, as well as curb the frequency of early Goryo's Vengeance reanimator wins. The control we've seen hasn't been black-based, BW Tokens, Jund/junk midrange, etc didn't challenge so any fringe improvement BB could give to archetypes other than faeries by tack-on could use the ancillary help if they decide to play BB. The archetypes that stand the most to benefit from AV are Tier 1.5* at best, so why not.
Sword of the Meek - If a deck with loads of infinite token creature inevitability like Twin or Melira Pod can exist in this format, then surely a deck built around a token engine you actually have to pay mana for is fair. WotC really seems to not like this one, but its fine when you consider that everything else going on in this format is crazier by comparison.
Golgari Grave-troll- there was some Vengevine action, but not on Day 2. That makes it Tier 2.5* at best. Hopefully at very least this one happens next announcement. Even though the others would probably also be a good change, this one is more a token of trust rather than something that would actually designed to shake up the format for the better (because it wouldn't.)
Tier 1 is proven decks that have won at top level events like GPs or PTs this cycle (e.g. only Melira pod)
Tier 1.5 decks have a proven Top 8 pedigree at major events - GPs or PTs - and/or are PTQ/MOCS winners but haven't outright won a major event yet (UWR Control, Scapeshift, Living End, etc)
Tier 2 is tournament decks that are usually represented at Day 2, but have failed to make Top 8 at a major event (Jund as of late)
Tier 2.5 decks are regularly appearing tournament or MTGO Daily decks that players like but generally don't make day-2 with at top level events (right now, Mono-U Tron, faeries, Teachings, Caw-Go etc)
Tier 3 is anything else you might see sometimes at FNM or fun "budget" decks or whatever but not major tournaments (pila-pala combo, "My sweet birds tribal deck," Freed from the Real, etc)
EDIT: Pity about the "no changes"...GGT being on the list is still a joke.
So it seems to me that the past several pages of discussion has encompassed the following points:
1.) Pod and Midrange strategies in general are very good right now
2.) Control is better now than it has been historically because it can focus on creature removal to win the Pod/Midrange matchups
3.) Unbans for any card that would help control or midrange right now - e.g. AV/BB/etc - seem untenable because they are already the decks to beat.
I believe this is all a symptom of WotC's aggressive bans for fast combo decks, specifically banning Seething Song instead of any number of other bans (or reprints) that would have made more sense to combat it without nerfing its viability.
First, let me preface my argument with this: I don't think WotC's intention with the Seething Song ban was to kill Storm as a Tier 1.5/2 archetype at the competitive level. Banning Seething Song sure as hell didn't push it closer to Tier 1, that much is for sure.
Yes. Finkel played UR pyro-storm and Top16'd at the last GP. But one of the best players in history doing well at one event mostly because everyone dropped the hate from sideboards because they thought the deck was dead does not mean Storm is still Tier 1.5 or anywhere close to Tier 1.
Storm had a strong matchup against both Pod and most Midrange strategies in general. It killed them quickly because most of the time they couldn't interact with the stack. Now that Storm is more or less dead, control can focus 100% on creature kill because getting combo'd out early is no longer a significant threat.
Lets look at the circumstances in which Seething Song was banned. WotC's requirement for banning a component of a deck on grounds of combo speed are as follows (as paraphrased from the Jan 28, 2013 announcement:
1. The deck must be Tier 1 at the competitive level
I disagree strongly with Lauer that Storm was a Tier 1 deck at the competitive level. A Tier 1 deck is a deck that has a proven track record of winning top level tournaments. Storm does not have that pedigree. The best finish it had in the post-Rite of Flame/Ponder/Preordain format was a Top 8 at GP Lyon. He also cited 4 players on Storm finishing on 18 points or better at the PT. This figure, while it sounds impressive, represents around 3-4% of the field that made it to that many points. Instead of using paper magic, Lauer cites MTGO results as justification for considering Storm to be Tier 1. MTGO is very competitive to be sure, but its not the highest competitive level - WotC only runs the Pro Tour with cardboard. And MTGO also biases towards less expensive decks and away from control strategies because of the presence of a match clock, so at times the metagames can be markedly different.
2. The deck must consistently demonstrate an ability to win before turn 4
We don't know how WotC defines consistently. But we do know that WotC justified their claim by examining game 1 results of all games in which Storm was played across all Modern events. Game 1, to me, doesn't matter as much because many decks (Affinity for example) have terrible game 1 matchups and much improved game 2 and 3 matchups with access to Spell Pierce, Ethersworn Canonist, etc. I don't have WotC's data, but I would be inclined to think that looking at match data instead of just game 1 data paints a very different story about exactly how dominant Storm was. If game 1 is all that WotC cares about when considering bans, then they need to come out and say that. Considering Sam Stoddard's recent article didn't mention that as a focus, I doubt its something WotC is 100% committed to so we should be highly skeptical of its usage in this particular case.
3. The card that is banned should be played as a 4-of in the offending deck, but ideally is less played in other top decks.
This is the one that nobody should accept. Seething Song was crucial to so many other combo decks. Hive Mind, Through the Breach, Ad-Naseum, All-in-Red, you name it. Seething Song is absolutely not unique to Storm in the way Bloodbraid was unique to Jund. The precedent of Rite of Flame seems to suggest that WotC is more apt to go after the least costing ritual effect (e.g. Desperate Ritual or Pyretic Ritual) to delay it from consistently hitting a critical mass of early rituals to force it to be less consistent and win later. Or they could have hit Goblin Electromancer (which is much less widely played across other archetypes and contributes greatly to Storm's speed). Or they could have hit Grapeshot (which would force Empty the Warrens to slow down the deck by a turn and open up avenues for more decks to fight it). Or they could have hit Past in Flames (which has many superficial parallels to Yawgmoth's Will and increases resilience). Or they could have hit Pyromancer's Ascension (which gives the deck its explosiveness and resilience in the late game). Taking almost any other card from the deck would have been better for other decks (and Storm too) than losing Seething Song.
The regulatory role Storm played with its speed on decks that can't interact meaningfully with the opponent was an invaluable check on the format's balance. Fast combo decks need to be in the metagame as a speed check against aggro, midrange, and control. Infect can take the mantle for 'checks for creature removal or kills you before T4' and Storm should have the mantle for 'checks for hand/stack/Silence/Ethersworn Canonist effects or kills you before T4'.
Personally, I'd like to see Seething Song get unbanned and Grapeshot get banned instead. That should go pretty far to undo the metagame imbalance we see towards pod, control, and midrange right now. (Props to KtKenshinX for coming up with and being vocal about the same conclusion).
Then if control decks are having trouble reigning in Infect/Storm/etc, unban some combination of Ancestral Vision, Ponder and/or Preordain to help bolster the control and tempo strategies that try to contain them.
I'm very excited to see what M14 and Theros brings considering they've been designed with Modern partially in mind, especially if RTR and Innistrad brought some awesome playables and checks without being purposefully pushed to do so. Print a playable UU counterspellvariant, a creature-phobic version of Spell Pierce, and reprint of Envelop and the metagame will be able to adapt quickly to just about anything, including GGT, BB, SotMeek, and possibly up to and including BBE, Jace and SFM someday.
Edit: If M14 has 2R, add RRRR, it might not be so bad.
Very few of the combo decks we have now can reliably race the Rock, or do so after its hand has been picked apart by IoK/Thoughtseize/Lili, or its crucial permanents are destroyed by Abrupt Decay, or its graveyard removed by
Jund/Rock is obviously very good in Modern and excels consistently in tournaments, without many glaring weaknesses. So lets look at Legacy as a better point of comparison to see what kinds of weaknesses it has there to better understand what weaknesses it might have in Modern...in hopes of figuring out the best way to attack it.
In its more potent Legacy form, Jund has a reasonably difficult time against "unfair" fast combo decks like Storm, Belcher, and Griselbrand Reanimator. Also Legacy Jund has a poor matchup with decks that can go bigger than it, such as 12Post and NicFit, and decks that can reliably pressure early and attack its lines of play with Wasteland and disruption, like RUG Delver. (Source: Caleb Durward, Beating Jund)
We can try to translate that into Modern and it becomes apparent why Jund is doing very well. Ramp and Combo both have much lower velocity in Modern than they do in Legacy, mostly as a result of the banned list. That said, Griselbrand Reanimator and Tron still exist. Modern Tempo has most of the same aggressive creatures, but lacks the tempo spells and mana disruption to press its advantage against Jund, nor can it flip Delvers as easily. I do not think that NicFit has a suitable analogue in Modern.
Bottom line: How to stop the Jund menace? Play more Tron and Griselbrand in the near term.
If that doesn't work, then relax the Turn 4 rule a bit by unbanning/printing something for Storm, and/or print some solid mana disruption to help Tempo press its advantage.
Then if that's not enough, consider cutting off one of Jund's line of attacks, such as banning its graveyard-hate (DRS and Ooze) or sheer utility (Lily, DRS, Decay) OR open up the other comparably powerful lines of play in other colors with new printings, SFM or Jace.
I'm having fun playing around with Grixis Control. Cruel Ultimatum is like Sphinx's Revelation and Rakdos's Return for 3, plus a Sorin's Thirst, an edict, and an unearth all rolled into one. Cruel's UUBBBRR is cheap compared to the UUWBBBBBR7 all those cards would cost separately. And the mana problems all go away with Chromatic Lantern, which is the hot tech. All the matchups feel about the same as UWR, except I'd say there's a very slight advantage against UWR.
As expected, predicting the needs that the 75 will need to meet and avoiding misplays are the two most important skills with control.
That said, I'm still not sure how the control decks are able to be competitive right now between GB/x Rock being able to outgrind you, Bogle and Affinity running you over, and Scapeshift and Tron having more inevitability than you. My best guess is that more people are forcing into control because they like it rather than it being good in the metagame per se, so I suppose its becoming similar to Legacy in that personal taste for 'your deck' is a factor in the metagame.
On the positive side it looks like Storm (using Burning Vengeance) and Eggs (using Open the Vaults) might be coming back...so at least there are some lopsided matchups in favor of control that I wouldn't have expected a few months ago, and Anger of the Gods feels like it might go a long way to helping the poor Affinity/Boggles/BGx matchup.
Now, on the subject of how to make control better? The newly printed hate for combo combined with a largely anti-combo banned list means control has to work really hard for its wins because the midrange decks don't really have any natural predators at the moment, so enabling a good combo deck or a way to keep up with midrange (BB? JtMS? AV?) would be fantastic. And I'm not really sold on Mana Leak as a good counter for now. I'd like to see Memory Lapse or a UU or UB costed counterspell variant that mirrors Abrupt Decay or Thoughtseize.
I love this list as a long term term plan, except for some minor tweaks. I'd swap Cloudpost for Vesuva and unban JTMS and Batterskull.
8-post's mana is comparable or superior to Tron, plus it has the additional benefit of making Glimmerpost a no-cost bonus. The lifegain would make it too difficult to race as aggro, while the massive ramp would be too hard for control to keep up with. Its rise to power and subsequent banning in Pauper was inevitable, and Modern would be the same way unless Wasteland or a functionally similar card is (re)printed.
Jace and Batterskull (even with SFM) are fine for a format that will inevitably creep towards Turn 3.5 in pace. Game-changing plays are supposed to come down on Turn 4. In many respects, Modern is the format where such powerful plays should be expected and defining.
...Then again, this entire future depends heavily on WotC (1) relaxing the Turn 4 rule to Turn 3.5 in a deliberate move away from what Modern currently is, (2) purposefully printing cards that act as strong foils to the more powerful strategies, and (3) continuing to print powerful cards that encourage competitive new strategies without Breaking standard in half. And I'm not holding my breath on all 3 of those.
(And yes, I realize that would leave some externalities to address. It would require changes to the slow-play rules at competitive REL for SDT and Second Sunrise, as well a new 'tweener format like a return to Extended to bridge the widening gap between Standard and Modern...which would be planned as part of Maro's 7-year cycles etc)
So from that:
Step 1: Relax the Turn 4 rule. Unban Seething Song, GGT, and maybe Dread Return. See what happens. If not enough, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Unban Bitterblossom to enable Faeries. Unban a filtering cantrip to enable Delver. See what happens. If not enough, proceed to Step 3.
Step 3: Unban Ancestral Vision, Stoneforge Mystic, and/or JTMS. If not enough, proceed to Step 4.
Step 4: Start banning components of the GB/x Rock shell. DRS, Lily and/or Bob. Repeat Step 4 as needed.
Would that course of action rectify the problem as you see it?
But I'm glad there wasn't a knee-jerk reaction ban after DRS appeared 27 times in the Top 8 at Detroit. It might have to go eventually, but I'd rather see WotC try to unban some stuff to make non-B/G/x strategies more compelling first.
There's probably enough design space left in Scry to squeeze out another set or two, but that'll probably be the last we see of it for a while. Not my first choice for a returning mechanic, but it fits the top-down flavor well enough to be justified.
The good news is it enables a few solid reprints that are needed for Modern and maybe this means there's a chance Preordain could be unbanned in Modern at the Theros B&R update, but that's neither here nor there.
I'm not really sure the changes to the legend rule really matter with Jitte. Sure, getting into Jitte wars won't be as annoying as it once was, but Jitte is still such a potent anti-creature card that it will likely have a very negative effect on creature based strategies. Whoever sticks the Jitte first will still probably win...its just that the mechanism for killing the opponent's Jitte would need to be a bit more creative now than just matching it with your own copy.
That's not to say I wouldn't eventually think the format might maybe be okay with it...just that I'd rather see a whole bunch of other cards pulled off the list instead. An active Jitte is way harder to deal with than a SFM, GGT, BB, Thopter/Sword, suspended AV, Seething Song, Nacatl, BBE, etc.
The format probably *could* handle a lot more power and I think we'll see that in the coming years. The format feels weird and a bit disjointed right now because the bans have been aggressive, but on the other hand, the sets from Innistrad to M14 introduced good cards that really creeped the format's power level forward, and I expect that trend to continue with Theros, as it was the first block 'designed with Modern in mind.'
Personally, I'm hoping for a decently maindeckable UU hardcounter, a Modern-defining goldilocks cantrip between Ponder and Sleight of Hand, and an viable aggro or tempo strategy that encourages divergent deckbuilding rather than just getting crammed into an existing 'good-stuff' deck (e.g. Legends Matter aggo?).
Edit: Good to be back...internet in rural locations is hard sometimes.
T1: Fetchland, Thoughtseize a creature.
T2: Land, 3/4 Tarmogoyf (land, sorcery, creature in graveyard)
So there you have a 3/4 on the second turn for 1G that will more or less only get bigger as the game goes on. 4/5 is common in Modern, and Gruul Zoo can sometimes see goyfs as big as 8/9 because of Seal of Fire or Tarfire.
Compare that to say...Quirion Dryad. Starts out smaller, *could* get bigger than 'goyf but its not likely, and if you topdeck one in the late game, it will start smaller than 'goyf in the same situation.
So, its safe to say that Tarmogoyf has previously been more or less unchallenged as the go-to two drop of the format for a majority of decks. Scavenging Ooze may change that a little bit by offering a little bit more on the utility front for stopping 'Pod or UR Storm mid-combo or reducing a 'goyf to the point it can be bolted, pre-empting Snapcaster Mage's flashback granting ability, etc.
But make no mistake, 'Goyf is still going to be very good and will likely be here to stay as a staple of the format even if he's not going to be as good as he has been up to this point. He's almost always going to be at least a 3/4 for 1G, and that's still better than most any other option at that cost.
Probably. MTGO seems to adapt faster to metagame pressures because (relatively) big Modern tournaments happen daily rather than once ever month or so. Then again, the paper vs. online metagames are always a little bit divergent because relatively inexpensive decks always take a larger portion of the field online than they would in paper, so its not necessarily fair to draw conclusions from MTGO alone. UWR control is good against 'pod, which is more prevalent online, but its also a dog to Gruul Zoo, which is also over-represented compared to paper due to its relatively low cost of entry.
Legacy's banned list had minimal changes for a couple years after it and Vintage were created from the divorce of T1 and T1.5 in 2004. Here's the highlights:
2005 was the first change for Legacy with Imperial Seal being banned, because its functionally similar to other banned cards.
2007 saw Flash-Hulk rip the format apart with Turn 1 and Turn 0 combo kills; but Mind over Matter and Replenish were unbanned in the same announcement. This is the era that Legacy got its terrible reputation as an unfair, stupid-fast, coin-flip based combo format. Shaharazad was banned a few months later for logistic considerations.
2008 saw a spree of erratas being reversed in an effort to simplify the rules of the game. Time Vault is a casualty of the change and deservedly earns a ban for being bonkers as printed.
2009 saw the second major wave of unbannings as Metalworker, Dream Halls, and Entomb came off the list.
2010 saw Mystical Tutor banned after Entomb's unban the previous year helped to make reanimator ridiculously consistent. Grim Monolith and Illusionary Mask were unbanned. At the end of the year, Survival of the Fittest, which had slowly but steadily improving since the format's inception, finally reached a critical mass of dominance that had to be addressed with a banning. Time Spiral was unbanned at the same time though.
2011 saw Mental Misstep banned for format warping
*Also worthy of note, Skullclamp is missing from the Timeline of DCI Bans and Restrictions list on the salvation Wiki I looked at to confirm my memory.
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So, what parallels can we draw to Modern? Realistically, very little. Legacy's banned list at introduction was based on Type 1.5, so there was no reason for pre-emptive bans like we saw in Modern. But its fun to speculate so here goes:
IF (and that's a big IF) Modern follows in Legacy's footsteps, then we can speculate there will be....
(Early 2014) - an insane combo deck pops up and breaks the Turn 4 rule in half around year 3, similar to Flash-Hulk in 2007 ((this likely already occurred ahead of schedule with the series of bans related to UR Storm)). Someday, we'll get back a card or two that didn't deserve to be on the list in the first place. I'll speculate GGT, BB, and AV.
(Late 2014) - a deck that takes too long will get a piece banned just like Shaharazad was banned for logistic reasons. ((This likely already happened with Second Sunrise))
(2016) - A few cards long thought to be too powerful to ever be reintroduced are successfully unbanned. I'll guess this is SFM, JTMS, Sword of the Meek, BBE, Nacatl etc to mirror Legacy powerhouses Dream Halls, Entomb, and Metalworker.
(Early 2017) - A card related to the 2016 unbans proves to bee too much to handle. Turns out SFM into Batterskull (or whatever you want to pick) is just too good, so Batterskull is banned rather than re-banning SFM, just as Entomb combined with Mystical Tutor to make reanimator insane before Mystical Tutor was banned to correct the mistake.
(Late 2017) - Birthing Pod finally reaches a critical mass of dominance to be considered 'too consistent' and eats a ban just as Survival of the Fittest did 6 years into Legacy.
(2018) - WotC tries to be cheeky and print a spell they fully understand will have a huge impact on Modern, just for the lols of it because its needed in Standard to counteract some stupid card no one will play anyways, like Mental Misstep. Chaos ensues until the card can be banned at the first update following its release.
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Yeah. Sounds just as stupid and baseless as I thought it would as a comparison, but it is kinda funny to play with the parallels. If anything, it seems like Modern is teething faster than Legacy did, probably because its a high-interest PTQ format from the get-go rather than a rare and celebrated oddity at the highest level. Modern has already arguably gone through its 'too fast combo phase' (UR Storm vs. Flash Hulk), its 'we're banning this because it takes too long' card (Second Sunrise vs. Shaharazad), and are quickly approaching the point where its format defining engine transforms from 'too cute and unique to this format to too consistent and winning lots of events' (Birthing Pod vs. Survival of the Fittest). That said, unbans have been surprisingly sluggish in Modern given how quickly Modern has paralleled some of the banning phases that we've seen in Legacy before.
At the very least, looking at Legacy is a reminder that lots of the 'Ban Everything anyways!' pro-active perspective we see can largely be written off as unprecedented. Also critics of the banned list have good reason to be hopeful that WotC will someday reverse some of the more controversial banning decisions....but it'll take time and continued pressure to get it done.
Also, as an aside, if Modern was introduced as a 'tweener alternative format 7 years into Legacy's existence, then it bodes well for the idea of WotC reintroducing Old Extended as a 'tweener format between Standard and Modern someday when the card pool is much larger and the transition is more daunting than today. So that way as power level continues to creep forward, eventually there will be a place for some of the more vocal members of this discussion that want a larger card pool with a lower power level.
Anyone else notice a new-to-Modern reprinting that I missed?
Scavenging Ooze is the notable one here. I'm sure many people expect it to be a staple of the format
Spell blast seems like it might be a versatile tool, but I'm not sure if it'll see much play. Better than Syncopate with Modern's tendency towards cards low on the curve, but not very useful if you're on the draw unfortunately.
Opportunity seems like an interesting way to draw a lot of cards. Then again, if Concentrate and Jace's Ingenuity are already in the format and don't see play, I doubt this will. Maybe as a budget minded alternative to Sphinx's Revelation...but even that's a stretch.
Bans?
Birthing Pod - put up good numbers all day, and took the event, as well as the largest metagame share. It has comparable numbers to Jund and Zoo at their respective heights for metagame share. On the other hand, it hasn't racked up enough top finishes and overall wins yet to be in the same league, but its well on track to do so. Its a powerful engine worth watching, and even though I personally don't think it should be banned, there are enough similarities to other notable bans in Modern that I wouldn't be surprised. Its saving grace might be that Kiki-pod and Melira-Pod have very different play styles, so even though its hitting metagame saturations in the 20-25% range, it doesn't feel like its that dominant.
Goryo's Vengeance - This deck can be fast, as the deck tech interview can attest to. It really depends on how WotC defines consistent. Time and numbers will tell the rational story, but I wouldn't put it past WotC to ban earlier rather than later and to ask us to take their word on faith instead of with transparency and understanding by the player-base.
Unbans?
Ponder - the control decks, while present in small numbers (~7% total) are making a showing and competing, but still haven't outright won an event despite getting close. The tempo decks take an even smaller percentage than control; Delver - an ex-mainstay of the format pre-RTR - has been all but squeezed out with just two players piloting it to day 2...it could use the boost. Meanwhile, Storm is a now 'consistently' a turn 4 deck that earned four Day-2 spots but didn't put a single player into Top 16, so it could use a boost. UR/x Twin and Scapeshift, two decks that are currently performing well and might gain from a Ponder unban, won't improve dramatically (UR Twin is running both Serum Vision and Sleight, so it would probably replace the weaker of the two for marginal improvement, and Scapeshift and UWR Twin both play no filtering cantrips in the top lists so they're of little risk). The balance of the evidence seems to suggest the rest of the format would benefit more than the top archetypes so this still seems like a good idea to me. New hate in the form of Blind obedience, Imposing sovereign, etc also helps to mitigate Twin a bit.
Bitterblossom and/or Ancestral Vision- with UR Twin and UWR Twin (in addition to the 'pod-based creature combos) making a strong showing by percentage (3rd in the archetype breakdown) which will only get better if 'pod or Goryo's Vengeance are hit, there is little to no risk of putting BB or AV (and therefore the former-Extended bogeyman, Faeries) back in the mix. Faeries can provide a check on those decks, as well as curb the frequency of early Goryo's Vengeance reanimator wins. The control we've seen hasn't been black-based, BW Tokens, Jund/junk midrange, etc didn't challenge so any fringe improvement BB could give to archetypes other than faeries by tack-on could use the ancillary help if they decide to play BB. The archetypes that stand the most to benefit from AV are Tier 1.5* at best, so why not.
Sword of the Meek - If a deck with loads of infinite token creature inevitability like Twin or Melira Pod can exist in this format, then surely a deck built around a token engine you actually have to pay mana for is fair. WotC really seems to not like this one, but its fine when you consider that everything else going on in this format is crazier by comparison.
Golgari Grave-troll- there was some Vengevine action, but not on Day 2. That makes it Tier 2.5* at best. Hopefully at very least this one happens next announcement. Even though the others would probably also be a good change, this one is more a token of trust rather than something that would actually designed to shake up the format for the better (because it wouldn't.)
Tier 1 is proven decks that have won at top level events like GPs or PTs this cycle (e.g. only Melira pod)
Tier 1.5 decks have a proven Top 8 pedigree at major events - GPs or PTs - and/or are PTQ/MOCS winners but haven't outright won a major event yet (UWR Control, Scapeshift, Living End, etc)
Tier 2 is tournament decks that are usually represented at Day 2, but have failed to make Top 8 at a major event (Jund as of late)
Tier 2.5 decks are regularly appearing tournament or MTGO Daily decks that players like but generally don't make day-2 with at top level events (right now, Mono-U Tron, faeries, Teachings, Caw-Go etc)
Tier 3 is anything else you might see sometimes at FNM or fun "budget" decks or whatever but not major tournaments (pila-pala combo, "My sweet birds tribal deck," Freed from the Real, etc)
EDIT: Pity about the "no changes"...GGT being on the list is still a joke.
1.) Pod and Midrange strategies in general are very good right now
2.) Control is better now than it has been historically because it can focus on creature removal to win the Pod/Midrange matchups
3.) Unbans for any card that would help control or midrange right now - e.g. AV/BB/etc - seem untenable because they are already the decks to beat.
I believe this is all a symptom of WotC's aggressive bans for fast combo decks, specifically banning Seething Song instead of any number of other bans (or reprints) that would have made more sense to combat it without nerfing its viability.
First, let me preface my argument with this: I don't think WotC's intention with the Seething Song ban was to kill Storm as a Tier 1.5/2 archetype at the competitive level. Banning Seething Song sure as hell didn't push it closer to Tier 1, that much is for sure.
Yes. Finkel played UR pyro-storm and Top16'd at the last GP. But one of the best players in history doing well at one event mostly because everyone dropped the hate from sideboards because they thought the deck was dead does not mean Storm is still Tier 1.5 or anywhere close to Tier 1.
Storm had a strong matchup against both Pod and most Midrange strategies in general. It killed them quickly because most of the time they couldn't interact with the stack. Now that Storm is more or less dead, control can focus 100% on creature kill because getting combo'd out early is no longer a significant threat.
Lets look at the circumstances in which Seething Song was banned. WotC's requirement for banning a component of a deck on grounds of combo speed are as follows (as paraphrased from the Jan 28, 2013 announcement:
1. The deck must be Tier 1 at the competitive level
I disagree strongly with Lauer that Storm was a Tier 1 deck at the competitive level. A Tier 1 deck is a deck that has a proven track record of winning top level tournaments. Storm does not have that pedigree. The best finish it had in the post-Rite of Flame/Ponder/Preordain format was a Top 8 at GP Lyon. He also cited 4 players on Storm finishing on 18 points or better at the PT. This figure, while it sounds impressive, represents around 3-4% of the field that made it to that many points. Instead of using paper magic, Lauer cites MTGO results as justification for considering Storm to be Tier 1. MTGO is very competitive to be sure, but its not the highest competitive level - WotC only runs the Pro Tour with cardboard. And MTGO also biases towards less expensive decks and away from control strategies because of the presence of a match clock, so at times the metagames can be markedly different.
2. The deck must consistently demonstrate an ability to win before turn 4
We don't know how WotC defines consistently. But we do know that WotC justified their claim by examining game 1 results of all games in which Storm was played across all Modern events. Game 1, to me, doesn't matter as much because many decks (Affinity for example) have terrible game 1 matchups and much improved game 2 and 3 matchups with access to Spell Pierce, Ethersworn Canonist, etc. I don't have WotC's data, but I would be inclined to think that looking at match data instead of just game 1 data paints a very different story about exactly how dominant Storm was. If game 1 is all that WotC cares about when considering bans, then they need to come out and say that. Considering Sam Stoddard's recent article didn't mention that as a focus, I doubt its something WotC is 100% committed to so we should be highly skeptical of its usage in this particular case.
3. The card that is banned should be played as a 4-of in the offending deck, but ideally is less played in other top decks.
This is the one that nobody should accept. Seething Song was crucial to so many other combo decks. Hive Mind, Through the Breach, Ad-Naseum, All-in-Red, you name it. Seething Song is absolutely not unique to Storm in the way Bloodbraid was unique to Jund. The precedent of Rite of Flame seems to suggest that WotC is more apt to go after the least costing ritual effect (e.g. Desperate Ritual or Pyretic Ritual) to delay it from consistently hitting a critical mass of early rituals to force it to be less consistent and win later. Or they could have hit Goblin Electromancer (which is much less widely played across other archetypes and contributes greatly to Storm's speed). Or they could have hit Grapeshot (which would force Empty the Warrens to slow down the deck by a turn and open up avenues for more decks to fight it). Or they could have hit Past in Flames (which has many superficial parallels to Yawgmoth's Will and increases resilience). Or they could have hit Pyromancer's Ascension (which gives the deck its explosiveness and resilience in the late game). Taking almost any other card from the deck would have been better for other decks (and Storm too) than losing Seething Song.
The regulatory role Storm played with its speed on decks that can't interact meaningfully with the opponent was an invaluable check on the format's balance. Fast combo decks need to be in the metagame as a speed check against aggro, midrange, and control. Infect can take the mantle for 'checks for creature removal or kills you before T4' and Storm should have the mantle for 'checks for hand/stack/Silence/Ethersworn Canonist effects or kills you before T4'.
Personally, I'd like to see Seething Song get unbanned and Grapeshot get banned instead. That should go pretty far to undo the metagame imbalance we see towards pod, control, and midrange right now. (Props to KtKenshinX for coming up with and being vocal about the same conclusion).
Then if control decks are having trouble reigning in Infect/Storm/etc, unban some combination of Ancestral Vision, Ponder and/or Preordain to help bolster the control and tempo strategies that try to contain them.
I'm very excited to see what M14 and Theros brings considering they've been designed with Modern partially in mind, especially if RTR and Innistrad brought some awesome playables and checks without being purposefully pushed to do so. Print a playable UU counterspell variant, a creature-phobic version of Spell Pierce, and reprint of Envelop and the metagame will be able to adapt quickly to just about anything, including GGT, BB, SotMeek, and possibly up to and including BBE, Jace and SFM someday.
Edit: If M14 has 2R, add RRRR, it might not be so bad.