Yup. We're in for a price bump before we even get to MTGMM.
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Magic: The Gathering |OT|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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Yeah, modern staples will continue to go up. People who are attempting to dump any of the hot cards now are just going to lose out.
On an aside note, wound up doing a last-minute Standard tourney entry yesterday to have some fun and wound up splitting top four and received a 3-round bye at GP Chicago, which actually is a modern constructed tournament.
Thragtusks are everywhere, that card should've been double or triple green in the casting cost. I expect some people to have maindeck Slaughter Games or Rakdos Runekey to deal with it. Especially looking at the SCG Open coverage, Thragtusk is standing above the format much like Delver was for the past year.
On an aside note, wound up doing a last-minute Standard tourney entry yesterday to have some fun and wound up splitting top four and received a 3-round bye at GP Chicago, which actually is a modern constructed tournament.
Thragtusks are everywhere, that card should've been double or triple green in the casting cost. I expect some people to have maindeck Slaughter Games or Rakdos Runekey to deal with it. Especially looking at the SCG Open coverage, Thragtusk is standing above the format much like Delver was for the past year.
If he was Modern legal, maybe.
He was insinuating that at that point in time, JTMS would be Modern-legal. Which it won't be. Maybe after they take off every other card off the banlist, maybe then.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Ya, it's kind of disappointing. It makes me want to drop out of magic because the costs are just getting to high. I'm hoping it drops back down.
TerminalDogma
Member
Me and my friends have really calmed down on our magic playing, and the costs are def a huge part of it. We used to play a few times every week, and we'd always be cracking out buying packs, singles, boxes. Of course, we are all really busy with other things in life at the moment, but we also just don't have the money to throw around on single cards like that. We don't go to any tournaments but we still like to have competitive decks (especially our EDH decks, and yes I'm aware that doesn't make sense), but its just gotten so expensive, I can't justify it anymore. A few months ago I was pissed that the Commanders Arsenal was going to be 75 bucks (because I knew I'd be dropping the money on it anyway), now I'm glad its so much just so I know I won't feel compelled to buy it. Hmmm...Maybe I'm just getting burnt out on the game in general, not just the expensiveness of it. Kind of funny, last time I quit the game was right when Dissension, the second set in the original Ravnica block, was coming out. Seems like I might be leaving around the same time again.
It's essentially a second FTV.
He's nowhere near as bad as you think he is. (BBE is really good at blowing him up) The problem is that he's immediately a format staple, though.
Fuck you wizard, fuck you
I take back all the optimistic stuff I have been saying about MM. A 150 dollar card in a super limited, super expensive product?
Wow, what? What the fuck, Wizards? Way to erase all that awesome goodwill from the announcement of Modern Masters.
Lightning Bolt is good at blowing Jace up, that doesn't mean it's at an acceptable power level for the format.
Disagree all you want but he's going to be on the banned Modern list for years and like I said before, most of the other cards on the list would have to come off of it before they even considered taking JTMS off.
Oh, I agree - he'll double in price if unbanned. He has to get more supply for them to even consider it. $150 format staples is not where they want this format at.
FTV : Jace might actually just happen someday. (15 Jace-themed cards)
And they could also put Jace in new art for cards like Brainstorm or something. God, imagine how expensive an alt Jace art foil Brainstorm and Force of will would be.
narcosis219
Member
Fuck you wizard, fuck you
I take back all the optimistic stuff I have been saying about MM. A 150 dollar card in a super limited, super expensive product?
What is this I don't even.
That said, I'm taking advantage of my MSRP-only FLGS and buying the shit out of MM.
Hey guys, could anyone do me a favor and figure out a great strategy for Guan Yu, Sainted Warrior so Wizards will be forced to reprint it
pls
pls
divisionbyzorro
Member
So I hadn't really planned on getting into Modern, but after watching the Pro Tour and then looking at the shape Standard is in, now might be the right time for me to buy in. I have zero desire to play the "who can play more Thragtusk" game...
Play Slaughter Games maindeck to answer Thragtusk.
Then I hope you want to play the "who can play more Ghoyf and Bob game" .
Every format has cards that do it, standard Geist, Primeval Titan, Jace and Cawblade all the way back to things like Necropotence and even further back to the Juzam Djinn
divisionbyzorro
Member
But those cards do things. They bring the game towards a conclusion.
Thragtusk pretty much just says "We're going to extend this game for a few more turns."
Those sorts of effects have pretty much never been good main deck. Although Thragtusk's persistence is something of a special case I suppose.
It's shockingly effective.
narcosis219
Member
Main decking Slaughter Games is pretty good. By turn 4 you will know what type of deck you are playing.
Has green? Thragtusk
B/R Zombies/Rakdos Aggro? Falkenrath Aristocrat
Any control? Jace, Angel of Serenity, Tamiyo
Jund? Huntmaster, Olivia
Azorius Aggro? Geist of Saint Traft
Each Archetype has staples that are 99% going to be played. Standard is narrow enough to do this since only 1 set is in the RtR block.
The only downside to this is not being able to confirm your hits. Either way, naming a card guarantees you don't have to deal with the threat, which in itself opens up options.
EDIT: also, depending on how bad your opponent is at hiding information, you might get a smirk or snicker when you name a card they aren't playing. OR MAYBE THEY DO THAT BECAUSE THEY KNOW THAT YOU KNOW
EDIT2: I'm a complete idiot lol
Has green? Thragtusk
B/R Zombies/Rakdos Aggro? Falkenrath Aristocrat
Any control? Jace, Angel of Serenity, Tamiyo
Jund? Huntmaster, Olivia
Azorius Aggro? Geist of Saint Traft
Each Archetype has staples that are 99% going to be played. Standard is narrow enough to do this since only 1 set is in the RtR block.
The only downside to this is not being able to confirm your hits. Either way, naming a card guarantees you don't have to deal with the threat, which in itself opens up options.
EDIT: also, depending on how bad your opponent is at hiding information, you might get a smirk or snicker when you name a card they aren't playing. OR MAYBE THEY DO THAT BECAUSE THEY KNOW THAT YOU KNOW
EDIT2: I'm a complete idiot lol
narcosis219
Member
Oh, I completely forgot that you searched their library. Whooooopz I had Nevermore in mind
I should stop studying and start playing more
It's never been uncounterable before, which I think is worth something in this meta right now, with Thragtusk being so prominent. Even if they're not playing green, depending on color it's still really easy to nail them on at least one or two cards. Naming Jace, Architect of Thought for blue, Angel of Serenity in white, etc.
Yeah, I'm honestly surprised it doesn't seem to be popular tech yet. Not as a 4-of obviously but I think it's worth 4 mana to get rid of your opponents best cards and see their hand and deck as well.
Exactly.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Most threats can be dealt with in more effective ways without the risk of whiffing on pulling it from their hand (simply pulling it from their library isn't that great, since you just spent a turn doing nothing that affects the board). These effects are traditionally only good when you're pulling a threat that you simply can't deal with otherwise.
Trading one card from your hand with 1-4 cards in their library simply isn't a good trade in most cases. It's only good if you're pulling it out of their hand, your deck can't handle it once it's on the table, or it's the only real threat their deck has (like naming Entreat the Angels against Miracles).
I'll grant that Thragtusk is a special case because it has an immediate effect, persists, and comes down a turn later than Slaughter Games comes online. But Slaughter Games is straight up terrible against any sort of Aggro deck, which is why I can't ever justify running it main deck. Appetite for Brains is almost certainly a better maindeck choice.
From SCG Indy Standard open, in the top 4 there were a total of 16 Thragtusks being played out of a possible 16. If you extend that to the top 8, it's 24 out of a possible 32. The only two decks that didn't play Thragtusk don't have green at all. Those decks were UWR control and ran Geist of Saint Traft which is an equally powerful creature and much harder to get rid of and both were played at max 4 of in each list.
Right now the meta is shaping up to be slow and more about getting value, there are hardly any aggressive deck at all. In an average Jund list, it's not unlikely to have a turn two Farseek which opens up a turn three Slaughter Games. Even if you only played it on turn four, it's extremely unlikely that anything has hit the board that you can't solve the turn before or after with the removal suite, barring Geist of Saint Traft itself.
Aggro is not the top dog at the moment and I would rather be the guy playing Slaughter Games naming Thragtusk on my opponent than be on the receiving end of it as it skews the match-up horribly to one side. It's not the end all be all solution but it's the best option there is for dealing with Thragtusk.
One Thragtusk hitting the board is not an issue. It's the second time Thragtusk hits the table where it becomes problematic and with things like Unburial Rites, Angel of Serentiy, etc in the format it's quite easy for a player to gain 10-15 life over the course of a game with Thragtusk.
divisionbyzorro
Member
It's entirely possible that we're living in an era where the stars align and a Cranial Extraction effect is maindeckable. But I'm not seeing the evidence of that just yet.
The fact still remains that if you cast Slaughter Games and your opponent isn't holding one of those cards in his hands, you just paid 4 mana to 0-for-1 yourself when you strictly evaluate board position. That effect is only good if it's the only way that your deck can profitably deal with a particular threat and when your opponent can reliably fish that threat out of his library, or if the opponent is only running a single win-condition.
Slaughter Games is at its best when you play it turn four, which means you want it in multiples, but it also goes from decent to amazingly mediocre in so many matches when you draw the second and/or third. It's also simply terrible when you're behind on board state.
I'll buy it as sideboard tech, but I simply cannot justify running that card maindeck.
acheron_xl
Member
So, the Commander's Arsenal is fully spoiled now. Features not one, but two P3K reprints! Personally, I'd be the most excited for the foil Wake and Scroll Rack.
Still not getting it though.
Still not getting it though.
Don't worry, no one else is either.
We'll just have to see. Right now, outside of rogue decks, it's not hard to pin your opponent for at least one problematic card. You say it yourself when there are cards that are virtually impossible to deal with profitably right now, i.e. Thragtusk, Angel of Serenity and even Jace, Architect of Thought.
There are certainly downsides to playing the card, but there are also extremely few ways of dealing with the value creatures that exist right now. Come Gatecrash, there may be a better answer.
Two things, black was absolutely horrible in Mirrodin-Kamigawa standard. Secondly, it didn't take long for people to consider Cranial Extraction when making TaN decks to diversify their threat count. Even if you named Tooth and Nail, they could just hardcast the creatures anyway.
Worst supplementary product in a long time. Honestly not sure why they even bothered. 2/4 per store is down right insulting to me.
Owlowiscious
Member
I just want that life counter. Please make that easily and cheaply available I'd buy like 10.
THinking about building a deck around either
Invisible Stalker or Aven Squire Enchantment deck with Etheral Armor
I was thinking about fitting in a shitton of pseudo pacifisms these sets have like bonds of faith, Defang, and pacifism itself.
Seems like a cheap way to try and get past a thagtusk deck, just pacify him over and over again
anyone got some good ideas for this deck, with some deck tech?
Invisible Stalker or Aven Squire Enchantment deck with Etheral Armor
I was thinking about fitting in a shitton of pseudo pacifisms these sets have like bonds of faith, Defang, and pacifism itself.
Seems like a cheap way to try and get past a thagtusk deck, just pacify him over and over again
anyone got some good ideas for this deck, with some deck tech?
If you have the manabase, a Bant Hexproof deck is what I'm piloting right now.
While you could certainly go a super pacifism route, I wouldn't recommend more than a few of the effects.
With this list, the goal is to stick a few auras on your hexproof guys and ride it to victory. Aside from the visionaries, it completely shuts off their spot removal and makes them dead cards in hand. It's a very non-interactive deck but extremely aggressive. Worst card to see across the board is Liliana of the Veil, though.
divisionbyzorro
Member
It's an online-only format. Cards are only legal if they were printed with a common rarity on MTGO. Hymn to Tourach is an oft-cited example of why Pauper doesn't work in paper.
Keru_Shiri
Member
I'll need to find someone to in on the Commander Arsenal with me. I really want a Diaochan for my Ashling deck, but I can't justify even the MSRP for that.
Owlowiscious
Member
I just want that counter TvT
It's the most diverse format in Magic and I have no idea what you're talking about.
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