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Magic: the Gathering |OT10| Aether Revolt - That shit that make your Soul Burn slow

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OnPoint

Member
Let me tell you about turning all their Ancient Tombs into White Boardered Mountains
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I regularly beat Blood Moon with my Tron deck. It's often just a speed bump until I can get Karn or O Stone online.
 

Santiako

Member
I regularly beat Blood Moon with my Tron deck. It's often just a speed bump until I can get Karn or O Stone online.

Against regular (GR/GW/GB) Tron, Blood Moon is only good if it's coupled with pressure on the board. Against Eldrazi Tron it's much better since they need colourless mana for most of their creatures.
 

Supast4r

Junior Member
The problem with the combo isn't that its simply too good to exist in a Constructed environment, its that it actively leads to a poor gameplay experience and warps the entire metagame around it. The combo's existence will continue to warp the meta around it until goes away, even if its not the best deck at any given time.



Pushing Standard is fine, but I think they're making some highly questionable timing decisions. You need to make sure Standard is in a good, healthy place before you start scaling back other events in favor of that format.

Modern is fun to play with, but I kind of agree with the pros that I think its almost always worse than Standard and Limited. It's fun to do nutty shit, but its probably literally impossible to craft a format with that many sets in it and have it be anything close to reasonably balanced.
What pro says that standard is better to play than modern right now? Modern is in a great spot right now tbh. Standard comes down to: Mardu vehicles, 50 shades of GB, or Saheeli. There are some minor control decks/SUPER small varaints within those archetypes at the highest level. I really don't see how that's better than modern.
 

MoxManiac

Member
Man, I'll never get over blood moon's current price. I remember getting that thing in chronicles packs in the 90s and thinking it was 5 cent chaff.
 

Supast4r

Junior Member
Man, I'll never get over blood moon's current price. I remember getting that thing in chronicles packs in the 90s and thinking it was 5 cent chaff.

You could say the same about so many cards. Liliana was a $20ish dollar card for awhile until people thought it was good, Goyf was thought to be a bargain bin rare until people realized it's power, Collected company was a $2 dollar rare until people thought it was good, etc. Sometimes it takes awhile for people to realize that a card is good.
 

OnPoint

Member
Against regular (GR/GW/GB) Tron, Blood Moon is only good if it's coupled with pressure on the board. Against Eldrazi Tron it's much better since they need colourless mana for most of their creatures.

This is fair. I didn't consider how important it would be in the Eldrazi variant. They play some number of Wastes though, right?
 
Against regular (GR/GW/GB) Tron, Blood Moon is only good if it's coupled with pressure on the board. Against Eldrazi Tron it's much better since they need colourless mana for most of their creatures.

For what it's worth though, Eldrazi Tron also runs Expedition Maps, and every card minus Kozilek only needs one waste.

Blood Moon does better against them than regular Tron, but it's still not this end all. It's Stony Silence against Affinity, where it only delays them winning.

Still kind of wish we had gotten an Eldritch Moon Card.
 

bigkrev

Member
This is fair. I didn't consider how important it would be in the Eldrazi variant. They play some number of Wastes though, right?

They can also use Drowner of Sorrow tokens to make colorless mana, but usually a turn 2 or 3 Blood Moon just locks them out of the game. It's the one card i've never cut from my Affinity SB at any point
 

Santiako

Member
They can also use Drowner of Sorrow tokens to make colorless mana, but usually a turn 2 or 3 Blood Moon just locks them out of the game. It's the one card i've never cut from my Affinity SB at any point

We were talking about Eldrazi Tron, and that doesn't play Drowners :p Blood Moon is even better against Bant Eldrazi, usually almost locks them out of the game.
 

traveler

Not Wario
After spending most of my free time testing this week, I'm down to two decks: Ad Nauseam, which is every bit as strong in the matchups I anticipated that I imagined, and, surprisingly, that random BR Pack Rats list that top 8'd a regionals last weekend. Decklist is here: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/565596#online

Blood Moon, Chalice, pressure, and hand disruption is exactly where I've wanted to be in these matchups. While I enjoyed WR Prison, Blood Moon and Chalice backed up a Goblin Rabblemaster is just brutal against tron, and the deck has the removal/hand destruction necessary to put in work against midrange and control as well.

AN feels like the better pick, but the Pack Rat list is pretty tempting.

Re: Above discussion- better Eldrazi Tron players will get a Ghost Quarter down early against Blood Moon decks and shoot one of their own lands if need be if a moon is played to fetch a Waste. Yeah, that still sucks, but they can continue their midrange-ish game fairly unhindered, dropping TKS and Smashers not too far behind. Having that midgame to transition into a stronger late game ultimately makes blood moon feel weaker against them to me than the standard lists which don't do anything till 7, unless they hit a wurmcoil on 6.
 

y2dvd

Member
I'm fortunate enough to live in a large player base, so Modern is alive and kicking. You can probably find a lgs to play it every night if you wanted to.

It appeals especially to players that can't afford to keep up with the Standard rotation. It's expensive, but it's seen more as an investment. The deck, for the most part, will stay good for as long as Modern is a format.
 

Santiako

Member
After spending most of my free time testing this week, I'm down to two decks: Ad Nauseam, which is every bit as strong in the matchups I anticipated that I imagined, and, surprisingly, that random BR Pack Rats list that top 8'd a regionals last weekend. Decklist is here: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/565596#online

Blood Moon, Chalice, pressure, and hand disruption is exactly where I've wanted to be in these matchups. While I enjoyed WR Prison, Blood Moon and Chalice backed up a Goblin Rabblemaster is just brutal against tron, and the deck has the removal/hand destruction necessary to put in work against midrange and control as well.

AN feels like the better pick, but the Pack Rat list is pretty tempting.

I feel like Ad Nauseam is probably the best deck in Modern right now, but I'd be wary to buy into it since a Simian ban renders the deck unplayable and it's always at risk of a ban. The BR Pack Rat deck looks great, Todd Stevens was playing it quite a bit on stream so you might be interested in watching that.
 

OnPoint

Member
Modern cheerios. It's one of the better answers people have for it now and there are some bigger modern events coming up soon. It's also still now a good answer to the deck.

Is the deck tracking to be so good you need hate for it? I guess Chalice is sort of good in multiple spots too.
 

Lucario

Member
Aether Meltdown and Deadlock Trap have been impressing me a lot in testing. Being able to play a sweeper without letting my opponent bash in with vehicles or activate planeswalkers the next turn has been a gamechanger.

Meltdown blanks heart of Kiran and allows you to completely shut down a Scrapheap Scrounger without letting it recur. Trap answers everything, and even lets you shut down Walking Ballista on your own turn to combo off.

I'm definitely playing the wrong deck for this meta (4-color aetherworks saheeli), but I think I'm getting closer to a good shell. Just need to find the right sweepers for both B/G and Mardu vehicles.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Is the deck tracking to be so good you need hate for it? I guess Chalice is sort of good in multiple spots too.

It's a 0 mana spell that instantly wins a new match and is useful in other matchups.
 

bigkrev

Member
Is the deck tracking to be so good you need hate for it? I guess Chalice is sort of good in multiple spots too.

No, but it's a new deck that didn't really exist beforehand that was dirt cheap to put together if you owned Mox Opals (I got my Retracts for $2 and Paladins for $5 less than a month ago)
 

OnPoint

Member
Is there anything in the rules about "giving information away" at the start of a match, even if that info is false? Like, say you accidentally let it slip you're playing Cheerios, but you're really playing Eldrazi Tron. Is that against the rules? I mean, it's fucked up, and you shouldn't because you'd be a dick, but there isn't a rule against it, right? Not going to do this, just curious.
No, but it's a new deck that didn't really exist beforehand that was dirt cheap to put together if you owned Mox Opals (I got my Retracts for $2 and Paladins for $5 less than a month ago)
I put a build of it together over a year ago. Love that I got those cards for so little and now they're more valuable. Such a good feeling to occasionally get out ahead of something.
 

bigkrev

Member
Is there anything in the rules about "giving information away" at the start of a match, even if that info is false? Like, say you accidentally let it slip you're playing Cheerios, but you're really playing Eldrazi Tron. Is that against the rules? I mean, it's fucked up, and you shouldn't because you'd be a dick, but there isn't a rule against it, right? Not going to do this, just curious.

I put a build of it together over a year ago. Love that I got those cards for so little and now they're more valuable. Such a good feeling to occasionally get out ahead of something.

I'm pretty sure you can say whatever you want- like sit down to a round and say "yeah, had a long break because I went off on Turn 3 in both games last round" or something even if you are playing Jund, but you aren't allowed to put your deckbox on the table, open it with something like Scapeshift as the front-facing card, and then pull out of the box and shuffle up your Affinity deck with no Scapeshift in it's 75
 

OnPoint

Member
I'm pretty sure you can say whatever you want- like sit down to a round and say "yeah, had a long break because I went off on Turn 3 in both games last round" or something even if you are playing Jund, but you aren't allowed to put your deckbox on the table, open it with something like Scapeshift as the front-facing card, and then pull out of the box and shuffle up your Affinity deck with no Scapeshift in it's 75

Hah, ok. Just thinking about how easy it would be to bait someone into mulliganing for answers to a deck you aren't actually on with one small comment kind of makes me mad. I appreciate that every match I've played against folks in a competitive sense, people stay quiet until they're playing.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
The reason why Chalice is spiking to such a high level is that Chalice is a reasonable card to play in the sideboard of almost every non-aggressive Modern deck anyways.

It's like if Null Rod were legal (and not Reserved) - its completely reasonable for a deck that isn't hurt by that effect would want to play it. There's actually a ton of completely reasonable effects people don't really play that often but nobody would say anything if you did, e.g. Pithing Needle.
 
I don't understand how modern remains popular at these prices and constant spikes. On the other hand Standard sucks and EDH is a casual format so there's nothing really out there competing with it.
 

bigkrev

Member
What the heck was it at previoiusly? (I'm so glad I have playsets of pretty much everything already)

MTGPrice has the card at 45, but it's sold out everywhere.

I don't understand how modern remains popular at these prices and constant spikes. On the other hand Standard sucks and EDH is a casual format so there's nothing really out there competing with it.
.
Most Modern players have 1 deck that they spent time and money building, and aren't switching off of it unless it gets banned. Sometimes they transition when the next deck has a lot of the cards they already owned- like a Jund player switching to Abzan, a Zoo player switching to Burn, ect. It's rare for someone who has spent a lot of time and money building Jund to go and say "Alright.... i'm playing Bant Eldrazi from now on!", because none of their cards overlap
 
But look at the last year or two. The modern meta has shifted dramatically, many decks have gone in and out of favour. You still had to invest a bunch for your 1 deck to keep up if it's not something like fish or burn and even those might have to invest in powerful sideboard cards.
 

Wulfric

Member
I don't understand how modern remains popular at these prices and constant spikes. On the other hand Standard sucks and EDH is a casual format so there's nothing really out there competing with it.

People who play modern already have most of these cards, I think. Anyone who buys in at the current price is insane. Just look at the average price of these colorless artifacts:

Mox Opal ($55)
Engineered Explosives ($45)
Chalice of the Void ($68)
Aether Vial ($35)
 

Hero

Member
With non-foil Chalices that high I'm tempted to sell mine off. It has a fair shot of being reprinted in Modern Masters next month. But if it's not.....gonna shoot through the roof.
 

Wulfric

Member
With non-foil Chalices that high I'm tempted to sell mine off. It has a fair shot of being reprinted in Modern Masters next month. But if it's not.....gonna shoot through the roof.

It's on par with Scalding Tarn lol.

Spoilers start in a few weeks; I think people will be doing math with the set numbers and deducing what isn't making the cut. If you stay on top of it, you might be able to sell them for the peak price.
 

ElyrionX

Member
I don't understand how modern remains popular at these prices and constant spikes. On the other hand Standard sucks and EDH is a casual format so there's nothing really out there competing with it.

The problem with the format is not the damn prices. Prices were there right from day one. It's the fear of buying a new deck and then seeing the deck get taken apart by bans shortly after.
 
It's not like Chalice of the Void or whatever was this bad obscure card that nobody ever had a reason to have a playset of before.

Does modern live on a playerbase that has been playing for long enough to just have all the cards lying around until they become relevant again? It was also obscure enough of a card that it caught people off guard at the Eldrazi PT.
 

Jhriad

Member
Why is Chalice of the Void spiking so hard?

  • Printed in two relatively low supply sets and at ultra rare in a third.
  • Flexible, colorless answer to a number of "problem" decks in the format.
  • Previous price spikes tend to concentrate even more supply among vendors which in turn makes subsequent spikes steeper and stickier.
  • Main deck play in multiple archetypes that are seeing increased usage.

Points two and four meant that supply was already getting progressively lower due to natural demand and point three means that there aren't as many copies in "closets and binders" as there would be to help cushion the market in the event of a large spike in demand (or buyout). Funnily enough the Masterpiece version might actually have some bounding effect on the upper limits of the price. In addition to the deleterious nature of crazy high prices of course.
 
Does modern live on a playerbase that has been playing for long enough to just have all the cards lying around until they become relevant again?

That's one explicit purpose of the format and enough of the playerbase to keep the format alive, at least. That's basically the key difference between Modern and Legacy: effectively nobody has Legacy cards "lying around," while enough people have the Modern equivalent to help keep the format running.

It was also obscure enough of a card that it caught people off guard at the Eldrazi PT.

For Modern yes, but it was played many times in many formats in the preceding decade, well before the price spiked.
 

GoutPatrol

Forgotten in his cell
That's one explicit purpose of the format and enough of the playerbase to keep the format alive, at least. That's basically the key difference between Modern and Legacy: effectively nobody has Legacy cards "lying around," while enough people have the Modern equivalent to help keep the format running.



For Modern yes, but it was played many times in many formats in the preceding decade, well before the price spiked.

Yeah, Chalice was sub-10 for the first MM1 printing. It really exploded just this year.
 
Finally listened to the Magic Story podcast interviewing Doug Beyer
* They came up with Tezzeret as the villain of Kaladesh before the rest of the story.
* After deciding to do story articles as serial episodes, they couldn't find many similar examples from other companies, so they could only look at TV as a reference. Thus, they planned out the general narrative in a writer's room and assigned story moments to different writers. This process started with Khans of Tarkir and got refined as they went on.
* A lot of it is just about the story cards, making sure they're interesting but balanced, etc.
* Kari Zev was originally a concept illustration that they liked enough to make a card for.
* Rishkar was in the world guide, but they didn't have a design for him.
* Yahenni had more prominence than originally intended, as the writers grew to incorporate them more.
* Responses to the story by fans affect future ones, but it can take years for us to see the effect.
* The writers removed time for certain other characters to have more room for Yahenni.
* Pia also got a larger role than originally planned. She appears to have just been a MacGuffin for Chandra. Pia becoming part of the new government appears to not have been originally planned.
* Doug Beyer has most recently been working on the Winter 2019 set, approving some card art descriptions.
 
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