Grixis control needs Baleful Strix. Pretty ok vs death's shadow/angler. It ain't happening, but I think modern would be better for it. Sweepers aren't getting better unless they give us deluge, or unban ponder/preordain making terminus the better-er sweeper.
Covered up women doesn't mean they can't be beautiful; if there's something off about the art, I would suggest blaming something other than modesty: this would be like blaming a lack of candy for causing a poorly cooked meal.
Now to actually express some of my own opinion: I love the new direction away from bikini armor and towards actual armor/clothing, some cards just looked awkward, whereas the new look is awesome. OTOH I've been disappointed with the general look of some recent sets, and in the realm of fantasy I see no particular reason to make mundane what could be (unrealistically) beautiful.
As a related train of thought, I play this game to celebrate the beauty of its art, and agree that it could serve to be more beautiful than it has been lately.
Re Pod: thanks to Felidar Guardian, it just wins if you have a finks already in play. The "it gets better over time" argument is very real with pod and probably kills it.
That said if you've never had the pleasure of using Pod with Guardian in your deck, it's super sweet and very fun. Broken, but fun.
On another thing. I noticed that Stone Rain... all copies from all sets have been literally bought out at SCG. Is this the work of some mad hoarder?
Well, Ponza is doing well these days so maybe. The urge to hoard is strong.
Also possible that SCG is pulling back some of their stock in anticipation of a price correction.
I always thought UWx midrange was a name for Jeskai that was labeled badly on mtgtop8 and stuck. Who knows.
Lantern is interesting, lots of people hate it but the remainder think it's really cool and interesting to play/play against. Talk about polarizing. Deck is really good and WotC hates it so, I'm not feeling good about it.
I dont think I agree here headminerve, but I've only seen a few of the games so far.
Burn, completely different in again, what I've seen.
Elves, may as well be a combo deck in many regards.
Coco Decks, similar, and I'm not a huge fan, but CoCo is a spell. A wall of lands that tap for anything, and Cavern...well, thats a pretty solid difference.
Storm? Not in the least bit similar.
To me, (again I've only watched a few games) its much closer to Merfolk than anything else no? Also I have to admit, I loathe Thalia, so that may be what tips me over from it being just another deck, to 'eww Thalia' range of emotions. :]
How could anyone hate Thalia? She's one of the most wonderful, pro-fair creatures ever printed!
That said, you'd be right to observe that Humans is basically Merfolk that happen to also be small Eldrazi (also worth noting that Eldrazi are basically big merfolk with actual abilities instead of lords).
Two-day No banlist Modern to be featured at the SCG open during SCGCON in june. I will be watching with great interest and great sympathy for those "playing".
EDIT: Lantern Control with Top is legal LOL.
Ever tried playing Lantern vs a deck with Jace and Top? Talk about a headache.
I expect people to rip out the Delvers and Chalices TBH, sounds sweet.
I'm curious what people think about how much to value future design space in ban/unbans. One of the largest problems I've heard with Birthing Pod was that it would only get better as you print more creatures and to that end people have said that Stoneforge Mystic limits future design space for equipment because it means high casting cost/ low equip or things like Living Weapon have to be designed around SFM. Green Sun's Zenith has the same issue of Birthing Pod in that green creatures are only going to be getting better so should that argument hold water?
Big differences between the two: GSZ doesn't create actual card advantage, and getting only Green Creatures is a pretty big safety on future cards, as green creatures have a tendency to be kinda boring, ie it would be hard for them to make something more useful than Teeg, Scooze and Rec Sage.
The green sun's zenith talk is interesting. I always thought this was one of the most overrated cards in Modern's banlist. I would be open to such unban,there is a serious chance it would be fine.
Even though I am not playing Green decks at all(played some abzan company in the past), I understand that Green creature based decks are hurt a lot from today's metagame for various reasons(Eldrazi, DS).
I wish they are testing the card and maybe unban it if they think they could to. I reserve some judgement as it could break Titanshift. If this is the case, then the card can not be unbanned.
Testing the card would be fairly strait-forward; if any deck is going to break the card, it would be elves. If a modern elves master could bring their weight to the topic it'd be valuable.
Although it's been covered already, GSZ turns singletons into 5-ofs. It's pretty clear how that adds consistency to a deck. CoCo is a crap shoot.
I'm aware of the power of the card; my point is that of the decks that could run it, not a whole lot would change (kinda like throwing ponder into GDS or something), ie I'm not sure how well the "homogenizing" argument holds up, they'd still be different decks running a lot of the same cards as before.
While I suspect GSZ to be to strong, I don't see how it homogenizes green decks in more significant ways than Collected Company. Elves would still run elves, counters would still run combo, value would still run value. Less 3 drops and E-wit, more dryad arbor and co. Rock decks have little use for the card (or more accurately, you end up with something pretty different like maverick, which I'm down for anyway).
Outside of a fairly short list of silver bullets (really teeg+RecSage+Scooze) I think it mostly just pick up what decks already happen to be running. Of import is that tron still takes a royal dump on these decks.
In the end, meh? I don't think wizards likes the card so I'm not exactly betting on an unban.
I'm not sure how the name "Big Mana" is in any way more descriptive than Ramp. Regardless, I feel happy calling Tron Ramp/Control (or Big Mana/Control if that pleases you), mostly because you do actually care about what your opponent is doing and have to answer it (even though that answer is often in the form of boot -> ant).
The definition of ramp I use:
Ramp: any deck that devotes a non-trivial amount of deck-space to the singleminded purpose of getting more permanent mana into play faster than its opponent.
Collected Company is a strong, tempo-positive play that is also card advantage ('tis why it be good). Collected company decks are not ramp however; nor is storm, which only has oodles of mana for one turn. Compare to tron, which devotes a full half of its non-land cards to getting tron online, that is dedication.
Now to actually express some of my own opinion: I love the new direction away from bikini armor and towards actual armor/clothing, some cards just looked awkward, whereas the new look is awesome. OTOH I've been disappointed with the general look of some recent sets, and in the realm of fantasy I see no particular reason to make mundane what could be (unrealistically) beautiful.
As a related train of thought, I play this game to celebrate the beauty of its art, and agree that it could serve to be more beautiful than it has been lately.
That said if you've never had the pleasure of using Pod with Guardian in your deck, it's super sweet and very fun. Broken, but fun.
Also possible that SCG is pulling back some of their stock in anticipation of a price correction.
Every time someone says this, I imagine playing lantern against an active SDT and my brain starts to hurt.
Through both games, we were like "this card is stupid, this is way too good for modern".
Well...
Lantern is interesting, lots of people hate it but the remainder think it's really cool and interesting to play/play against. Talk about polarizing. Deck is really good and WotC hates it so, I'm not feeling good about it.
Probably because they're sexy; that's usually the reason.
How could anyone hate Thalia? She's one of the most wonderful, pro-fair creatures ever printed!
That said, you'd be right to observe that Humans is basically Merfolk that happen to also be small Eldrazi (also worth noting that Eldrazi are basically big merfolk with actual abilities instead of lords).
Ever tried playing Lantern vs a deck with Jace and Top? Talk about a headache.
I expect people to rip out the Delvers and Chalices TBH, sounds sweet.
Big differences between the two: GSZ doesn't create actual card advantage, and getting only Green Creatures is a pretty big safety on future cards, as green creatures have a tendency to be kinda boring, ie it would be hard for them to make something more useful than Teeg, Scooze and Rec Sage.
Testing the card would be fairly strait-forward; if any deck is going to break the card, it would be elves. If a modern elves master could bring their weight to the topic it'd be valuable.
I'm aware of the power of the card; my point is that of the decks that could run it, not a whole lot would change (kinda like throwing ponder into GDS or something), ie I'm not sure how well the "homogenizing" argument holds up, they'd still be different decks running a lot of the same cards as before.
Outside of a fairly short list of silver bullets (really teeg+RecSage+Scooze) I think it mostly just pick up what decks already happen to be running. Of import is that tron still takes a royal dump on these decks.
In the end, meh? I don't think wizards likes the card so I'm not exactly betting on an unban.
The definition of ramp I use:
Ramp: any deck that devotes a non-trivial amount of deck-space to the singleminded purpose of getting more permanent mana into play faster than its opponent.
Collected Company is a strong, tempo-positive play that is also card advantage ('tis why it be good). Collected company decks are not ramp however; nor is storm, which only has oodles of mana for one turn. Compare to tron, which devotes a full half of its non-land cards to getting tron online, that is dedication.