Support NeoGAF

[Angry Grimace]

I mean, you don't have to state facts. Twin is a combo deck. By any and all metrics. And there have been people beating the drum for its banning. None of whom have done a single bit of showing why. Plenty of telling, but no facts to support its banning. Ultimately, the feelbads were too great and WotC moved on it. So be it. Again, more Tron is good for me.

If Grixis Control proves to be as good as Twin I have no problem with any of this. All of the concerns I have about this ban are totally external to some kind of love of the actual Splinter Twin combo.

I also think they need to keep at least some rate of unbans if they're going to ban the top decks out of the format. The fact that they banned the best blue deck out of existence without even apparently considering Ancestral Vision (which might or might not get played) is just....I don't know. Can we unban Jace, the Mind Sculptor yet? I mean it's a standalone good card that loses to all sorts of combos now.

 

[ElyrionX]

If Grixis Control proves to be as good as Twin I have no problem with any of this. All of the concerns I have about this ban are totally external to some kind of love of the actual Splinter Twin combo.

I also think they need to keep at least some rate of unbans if they're going to ban the top decks out of the format. The fact that they banned the best blue deck out of existence without even apparently considering Ancestral Vision (which might or might not get played) is just....I don't know. Can we unban Jace, the Mind Sculptor yet? I mean it's a standalone good card that loses to all sorts of combos now.

They have been way too cautious with the unbannings.

 

[kirblar]

They have been way too cautious with the unbannings.

Agreed. Vision isn't an issue- it's so damn slow and there's no Cascade enablers.

Well, ok, Goblin Dark-Dwellers is goddamn good with it.

 

[blindrocket]

They have been way too cautious with the unbannings.

I agree.

Also, I guess Twin could just switch to Kiki, if they realllly wanted to. lol

That Kiki-Chord deck is pretty cool though.

 

[Magic Pancake]

Agreed. Vision isn't an issue- it's so damn slow and there's no Cascade enablers.

Well, ok, Goblin Dark-Dwellers is goddamn good with it.

Would a 4/4 for 5 that drew 3 even be that great in the format? While I get that it would be better, I think mulldrifter is a good comparison. Is losing flying and the flexibility of evoke (not to mention all of the Kolaghan's Command shenanigans) worth the extra card and 2 points of power? Again, I think it's closer than it would appear on the first blush.

 

[kirblar]

GDD has flexibility in that it doesn't have to hit AV (aka it can hit Kologhan's Command if it wants)

Reddit guy posted- he said he f'd up and that it should be the Spring/Summer slot (if he's not bullshitting)

 

[blindrocket]

I almost bought a FOIL Kolaghan's Command for $25 yesterday but I decided to pull it from the sleeve and check the condition. It wasn't anywhere near mint, and I admit I'm a little picky at grading. I decided to pass.

Also of note, Voice of Resurgence is $60 TCG mid, now. I hung on to my play set from Standard since it is used in Modern.

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, not surprised at that one.

 

[red13th]

wtf Voice is $60?? I just cut it from my cube for Qasali Pridemage.

Maybe they still haven't unbanned AV because they want to see how the Modern meta will look like after the Counterspell reprint in SoI!
/wishfulthinking

 

[blindrocket]

I'm considering buying a pre-release pack but not actually playing the pre-release just to play the lotto.

What do you think?

 

[ElyrionX]

I agree.

Also, I guess Twin could just switch to Kiki, if they realllly wanted to. lol

That Kiki-Chord deck is pretty cool though.

5 mana. Color intensive. Dies to Bolt. It's not even anywhere close.

 

[blindrocket]

5 mana. Color intensive. Dies to Bolt. It's not even anywhere close.

Hence the lol.

I sort of wish there were two Modern formats, which includes a format with a much more relaxed ban list.

 

[LaserBuddha]

I'm considering buying a pre-release pack but not actually playing the pre-release just to play the lotto.

What do you think?

Lots of people do that.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Voice is on a spike, yeah. It's good in the hatebears deck that's good against the current format boogeyman (Tron)

 

[Magic Pancake]

Voice is on a spike, yeah. It's good in the hatebears deck that's good against the current format boogeyman (Tron)

Is Voice itself good against tron? Sure, you are left with the token following their pyroclasm, but I'd think that I'd be wanting Leonin Arbiters and Aven Mindsensor (are those even the trumps against tron for WW? I don't know the deck very well).

Is there any deck it's even great against anymore? I'd think if anything it would be less valuable due to the downsurge in blue decks.

 

[WanderingWind]

If Grixis Control proves to be as good as Twin I have no problem with any of this. All of the concerns I have about this ban are totally external to some kind of love of the actual Splinter Twin combo.

I also think they need to keep at least some rate of unbans if they're going to ban the top decks out of the format. The fact that they banned the best blue deck out of existence without even apparently considering Ancestral Vision (which might or might not get played) is just....I don't know. Can we unban Jace, the Mind Sculptor yet? I mean it's a standalone good card that loses to all sorts of combos now.

Yeah, I definitely don't care about Splinter Twin in and of itself. I don't own a single copy of the card. The fact that they're quick to ban and glacial with unbans is part of the problem I have. Vision is a fine card to unban. I have reservations about Jace, but fuck it, if they're going to ban things to see how the format shakes out, then they can unban stuff for the same reason. Same with SFM.

As a modern player though, the heavy bans are very worrisome. As an infect modern player, the fact that they killed the two combo decks in one swoop is extremely telling of their mindset when it comes to combo decks. It's not an accident. Infect isn't well liked by the peoples either.

..thankfully, I have Grixis Control and most of Zoo waiting in the wings, just in case. Well, until they ban Snapcaster.

 

[kirblar]

If Infect gets hit it's likely just Glistener Elf.

 

[WanderingWind]

If Infect gets hit it's likely just Glistener Elf.

Sort of like saying if burn gets hit it'll just be Bolt. But we've had this debate before. Nobody wants to read it again.

 

[ThLunarian]

Just picked up play sets of Tron lands. They were pretty cheap and havent been printed ina while, and plus it looks like a fun time. Any other good spec targets, since the deck looks to be on the rise?

 

["God's Beard!"]

Also, BFZ has no synergy and I really think it's gonna be a lot of 3x Oath drafts.

I disagree with this. A lot of the ally synergy comes from BFZ. A lot of the BW lifelink as well. A lot of the new devoid cards play really well with the BFZ colorless matters cards. Support plays well with the green token makers in BFZ. The only green removal spell at common is in BFZ. Ramp payoffs are more heavily represented in BFZ. There's a lot more fixing in Oath that makes some of the Converge cards easier to play.

This is one of the block drafts that I think actually gains a lot from the differences between the sets. 3x Oath will get boring really quick, there's a lot of vanilla aggro going on and the card pool is small.

I'm focusing on limited for this format exclusively, so I've already done a ton of practice drafts and sealed. I'm enjoying the limited environment a lot.

 

[red13th]

Wait Eternal Masters??
Dude if they do release a Eternal Masters I'm expanding my Cube and making it eternal, too many potential goodies in beautiful new frames. Come at me non-foil Hymn to Tourach and Animate Dead!

 

[Lucario]

Kept getting frustrated at not having colorless mana for Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher (and not being able to beat Tron before they cast a Karn), so I made a 0-color eldrazi deck.

4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Radiant Fountain
2 Swamp
1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
1 Cavern of Souls

4 Expedition Map
4 Relic of Progenitus

4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Mind Stone

4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Reality Smasher
4 Blight Herder

4 Oblivion Sower

1 Ruin Processor

2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion


SB:
2 Memoricide
1 Cranial Extraction
4 Spatial Contortion
3 Dismember
2 Warping Wail
2 All is Dust

 

[kirblar]

I don't think Smasher is where you want to be in Modern.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Speaking of practice drafts, I've been deliberately trying different combinations to see what comes up. UR tempo is really fun. I've loved these low creature count aggro decks ever since KTK started the prowess train.

It's not quite as fun as KTK, but it's definitely fun.

 

[WanderingWind]

If Eternal Masters is a thing, I'll be happy. But what differentiates it from MM? Is this just a rebrand of MM to combat the low-power complaints? Otherwise, it's a pretty big shift from the company's general stance on legacy as a format. I mean, of course it could also be the thing MaRo was hinting at with the "we needed to rethink some things." Whatever those things were, we haven't heard a peep about.

Hmmmm....

 

[kirblar]

If Eternal Masters is a thing, I'll be happy. But what differentiates it from MM? Is this just a rebrand of MM to combat the low-power complaints? Otherwise, it's a pretty big shift from the company's general stance on legacy as a format. I mean, of course it could also be the thing MaRo was hinting at with the "we needed to rethink some things." Whatever those things were, we haven't heard a peep about.

Hmmmm....

There should be enough splashover to help Modern in there too (hi Grove/Canopy.)

 

[Lucario]

I don't think Smasher is where you want to be in Modern.

It doesn't do anything against Affinity, which sucks, but it seems necessary to even up the Tron matchup. Maybe better in the sideboard? I'm very sick of losing to turn 3 Karns, and that deck is only getting more popular.

... also, thanks again for the Exarch advice.

 

[darkside31337]

I hope one of the top groups like Pantheon shows up to the PT with Lantern decks. Folks at Wizards would be ripping their hair out having those "matches" of Magic on camera.

 

[WanderingWind]

There should be enough splashover to help Modern in there too (hi Grove/Canopy.)

Time will tell if it's an actual insider or a guy with a lucky guess on Twin. Everybody knew Bloom was gone, so he only had to luck sack one thing. And plenty of people were saying it was getting banned.

Also, the Souls in Eldrazi wasn't working out. Path is goddamn genius though. I also much prefer 2 Ulamogs over just one. Also, 2 Cave of Koilos split with Fountains.

 

[red13th]

The amount of things they can reprint in an Eternal Masters is huge. Even non-pricy cards due to their reprint equity could be amazing reprints, such as EDH/Cube/casual cards banned in Legacy such as Strip Mine or Channel. Heck I just found out Natural Order is reprintable. An inordinate amount of Cube staples can.
I'm excited by this rumour but not too much so I won't be disappointed if it's fake.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I hope one of the top groups like Pantheon shows up to the PT with Lantern decks. Folks at Wizards would be ripping their hair out having those "matches" of Magic on camera.

I think Sam Black has been showing up with Lantern lately.

Also, the guy that tried to steal my Force of Will finally shipped my cards after I publicly shamed him to his local playgroup and LGS's facebooks(on top of informing the police and the regional coordinator for MTG in his area), so I'll finally have a 100% complete Lantern deck soon.

 

[WanderingWind]

You know Lantern is next on the chopping block.

 

[ultron87]

The random Equipment guys in Red/White are bizarre. Most of the equipment is real bad, so why does this tiny sub theme even exist?

 

[kirblar]

Time will tell if it's an actual insider or a guy with a lucky guess on Twin. Everybody knew Bloom was gone, so he only had to luck sack one thing. And plenty of people were saying it was getting banned.

Also, the Souls in Eldrazi wasn't working out. Path is goddamn genius though. I also much prefer 2 Ulamogs over just one. Also, 2 Cave of Koilos split with Fountains.

Once Thought Knot showed up Souls really didn't have a point.

 

[El Topo]

The random Equipment guys in Red/White are bizarre. Most of the equipment is real bad, so why does this tiny sub theme even exist?

Flavor? Some of it was in Zendikar, so they wanted to do some callback I guess.

 

[kirblar]

R/W is def more a constructed thing.

 

[darkside31337]

The random Equipment guys in Red/White are bizarre. Most of the equipment is real bad, so why does this tiny sub theme even exist?

I seriously want to know why Bone Saw and Strider Harness out of all equipment ever made were the ones that got reprinted. Its just bizarre, maybe its some internal joke or something. They aren't even good in limited. At least I can kind of get Bone Saw thanks to surge (its still unplayable, dont do it) but the latter is just random as hell.

 

[Angry Grimace]

3 Oath of Jace prerelease pool. 2 Nissa muahahhaa

 

[Emerson]

This was my first pre-release today. It was definitely fun.

Didn't get any particularly great cards in my pool sadly though. Got Linvala mythic which is kinda cool. Promo was a trash rare and the rest of my rares were nothing too good.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I'm considering trading my dust bowl for a JTMS both for kitchentable purposes as well as the Ojutai and Keranos commander decks I want to build.

Seems good

so buy now?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Seems good

 

[shrapnelmagnet]

I know it's not super pricey, but I hope Amulet of Vigor takes a bit of a tumble... I'd like to play it casually and missed the opportunity to buy them before the deck took off. It was actually on a list of cards I wanted to buy and mess around with, but then it started jumping and I just gave up. Was hoping that it would be the card to get banned, selfishly.

 

[Daedardus]

The amount of things they can reprint in an Eternal Masters is huge. Even non-pricy cards due to their reprint equity could be amazing reprints, such as EDH/Cube/casual cards banned in Legacy such as Strip Mine or Channel. Heck I just found out Natural Order is reprintable. An inordinate amount of Cube staples can.
I'm excited by this rumour but not too much so I won't be disappointed if it's fake.

It's Wizards. They will make all powerful cards Mythic, put ten interesting cards at rare and make all commons shit. Then they'll ask $15 for a booster because 'increased value of the cards'.

 

["God's Beard!"]

FTV Duals and Moxen when

 

[GregLombardi]

Can't complain about the prerelease. Went Green / Blue tempo with an Endbringer and went undefeated. Opened a chandra, but in my pool opened this beauty!!!!

 

[Keru_Shiri]

Went 2-2 with U/B Eldrazi, but got a Gideon in my pool, so I'm happy.

 

[Neoweee]

4-0 Prerelease. The 3RR Menace dudes are super dope. Amazing.

Blue has a whole bunch of really solid commons in this set. Maybe none are Clutch or Skyspawner quality, but there are quite a few good ones.

My URbg + colorless activations were super consistent.

 

[Crocodile]

Bad pool + bad draws + a misplay or two = miserable PR time :/

What is this Reddit post about Eternal Masters or what not? Anyone have a link?

 

[Haines]

I did poorly but i learned a lot. I undertsand the game actually pretty well, but i am always learning while i play bc i dont play rarely ever right now.

Do you guys know a method of game playing i could do with either my lady or a friend with the cards i have? Which are sime bfz and now oath

What i did before was build archetype decks out of the cards i have and just slammed them against each other, but i dismantled them to organize my collection.

Also, how do you guys handle jack asses at prerelease. I had one guy who fast played? Me today when he knew he was going to lose unless he agrod me down for two more games, and it was actually ambarassimg how he was acting and another slow play a game 1 for the entire duration so that he had a lesser chance to lose.

Thanks for answering the questions, in advance. I really like magic but im finding these 2 humos are really holding me back. That being a way to play more and dealing with the odd baffoon takiing teh fun out of teh game

 

[Firemind]

I'm considering trading my dust bowl for a JTMS both for kitchentable purposes as well as the Ojutai and Keranos commander decks I want to build.



so buy now?

You can trade Dust Bowl for JTMS now?