Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[Klazam]

Worried about a tron ban- im playing a uw tron list i find real fun

[PeregrineV]

Went 2-2, but even that wasn't the full story. I made a black red Argo with plenty of removal and only a few cards with cc4. But the first game, his RW aggro was more aggro than mine. He won the first and third, and almost the second.

Next match he was running WG and I took him out pretty quickly. He got a Kolziek though, so tho was cool.

Played another early finished and beat his BU deck. Boulder Salvo can hate perfectly well on fliers.

Third match, all of the games were tight. He was running WU aggro, and I was taking him down pretty well until I hit a pocket of 5 lands in a row. When I had the Tunneling Geopede, it was great. When I didn't, I took him to 5 and he stalled me out. They were all three fun tough games, fun Except for the losing.

Last round my opponent noShowed, and I played EDH instead.

I did pull a Nisssa, but not enough green support to play her, and not enough mana fixers.

One combo I liked was the 1/4 vampire that gains you a life when it taps, along with the 3/3 vampire that gets a counter when you gain life. Ones an ally, and the holdout land lets you tap the vamp for mana.
Need to find a way to use that.

Another prerelease at 3!

[DeathNote]

I did my midnight prerelease last night and had a pretty good time! Lots of people but only 3 rounds cause late.

I pulled a mirrorpool which I am in love with. I really wanted one so glad it was my release card. I made a WB stall deck that did pretty well. The pilgrim is pretty sweet for a 2 mana 2/3 deathtouch and the life gain is super legit with stuff like Ramparts and other big but walls.

The MVP was probably Endbringer though as he won me the most games. I screwed up really bad with him one game and pinged instead of just attacking. I was terrified that the dude might have had a removal if I swung so I figured I'll just ping him as he was low anyways. It was a pretty big error on my part and mostly just because I wasn't too familiar with what the new set had.

[PeregrineV]

Won our 60+ person prerelease tournament on Saturday. Came in first at 5-1, and won by .05 points (so I was informed). Will post deck list later to request feedback.

Today did 2HG. We went 3-1 but still came in 5th because pair-down and tiebreakers. But still a lot of fun.

[Thestatusquo]

Twin was an archetypical fair combo deck. Couldn't win before turn 4. Highly interactive.

The reality is that in any metagame there will always be a top deck that "warps the meta" in the sense that it is the best deck and you have to take it into account when you choose what you are sleeving up, but it only represented 11% of the metagame, as opposed to miracles which represents 17% of the metagame in legacy and abzan which represents 25% of the metagame in standard. You can not make the argument that twin was making modern undiverse. This is because modern was by far the most diverse metagame around and had been for a very long time.

So the deck was successful? So what? So it was (slightly) more successful than other tier one decks. So what? Is your goal to make every tier 1 deck have exactly the same level of success? That's stupid and impossible. 11% of the format is not format warping. Consistently top 8ing is not format warping.

It's by far the dumbest ban they've made since seething song.

[Klazam]

i agree with the above post.

Twin was a pretty damn fair deck to play against. sure, it can just win if you have your pants down, but turn 1-2 will make it obvious its a twin deck, just play smart and its winnable. not to mention theres oodles of relevant sideboard cards aganist it

[Natirasha]

I'm not going to say Twin made modern undiverse, but I am going to stay strong to my statement that a deck that is a good tempo/control deck that also happened to have an easy 'Oops I win' button that you have to consistently hold up cards for is on a much higher level than every other deck in the format. Twin didn't have any easy answers--you can put Seas or Blood Moon in for Tron, you can put in Stony Silence for Affinity, you can put in any number of anti-storm cards for storm, you can even put in huge grindy lategame threats for BGx. You can't do that for Twin, the deck's plan is just so incidental.

And for the record, I would support a Rhino ban in standard and a Brainstorm ban in Legacy soooo yeah. I'd also ban fetchlands in every format if I had my way.

[bv310]

I actually have no problem with the bans. The timing is what bothers me. I get that they're keeping bans to make sure every Modern PT has a new meta, but I wish they'd just show the damn format as it is. Bloom was a reasonable ban (and overdue imo), as was Twin, but I wish they didn't do it JUST for the PT. Unban shit for the PT, ban stuff at other times to remove problematic cards/decks.

[Thestatusquo]

You're kidding right? It was a combo that was answerable by removal spells which other decks already played???

Like, its not like you need some special cards to beat twin. Just abrupt decay, path to exile, etc. You know, cards that are already maindecked in modern.

That's like the least convincing argument I've ever heard.

[Sudo_Nym]

I think its more that Wizards is harsher on combo decks than other decks for reasons I don't understand.

[Thestatusquo]

I think wizards is banning decks because they want to change up the format for the pro tour.

And its fucking stupid. Modern was an absurdly healthy format. The whole point of eternal formats is that they don't change that much and decks are consistently good for a long time.

[Sudo_Nym]

I keep thinking about getting back into magic by ignoring standard and just going straight to Modern or Legacy. Figure that instead of spending a couple hundred on a deck that'll be gone after rotation, I could instead spend a couple hundred on a deck that'll be good for years. But this is worrying me if a deck can just get the boot after such an investment because Wizards wants to shake things up.

[Thestatusquo]

In legacy that doesn't really happen, but yeah, that's part of why I am so upset about this stuff.

Like, UWR control is literally the only pro tour winning modern deck to not have a card banned from it in the next year. That is deeply unhealthy for people who are thinking about plunking down a large amount of money to get into the format.

Say you were a standard player and you finally took the plunge and bought into modern with pod, a good deck that was very skill intensive to play. That got banned, I guess they're right that it is a LITTLE bit too good, so you were like ok I guess I'll just build twin instead since its literally the definition of what they say is ok for the format and its the best tier one deck (though only by a little bit). Welp, now you're fucked again. Even though the format was incredibly diverse. Even though it was incredibly healthy. Even though twin was having literally no negative effects on the format.

I'm pretty close to saying fuck modern and just sticking to legacy.

[InflatablePie]

I'm thinking the Twin ban was part showcasing Tron and Eldrazi at the PT (ehhhh) and, hopefully, part preemptive banning due to planned unbans or new cantrips or something that would've made Twin OP. Overcompensating for Rhino-Pod maybe? Better ban the deck before printing good cards instead of after?

I'm not saying those are GOOD explanations, but I like them better than Wizards claiming Twin was a problem currently. Shrug.

[bv310]

Honestly, buying in to Modern with something Tier 1.5 seems about the safest way to go. I just built Storm and I'm slowly building Mono-B Eldrazi for exactly that reason. Aaron Forsythe has been talking on Twitter about a possible Ancestral Visions unbanning if the Twin-less meta is safe for it, and I'm hoping they'd look similarly at Sword of the Meek.

Sidenote: If you haven't had a chance to try the mono-B Eldrazi list, I recommend it. It's really fun, and Thought-Knot Seer is a big deal for it.

[Natirasha]

Eye of Ugin is gonna be the next big ban probably, so have fun for now.

[Thestatusquo]

what the actual fuck.

[Natirasha]

kek

[Thestatusquo]

I think a lot of the problems modern as a format has would be ameliorated by banning all fetchlands.

Thoughts?

[Natirasha]

I'd also ban fetchlands in every format if I had my way.

I've come to think that Fetchlands are the single worst development mistake that R&D has

ever

made(and been forced to propogate--shit like Jitte and JTMS are obv worse, but they've acknowledged it). They're god-awful for logistical reasons, they're the reason mana bases 'don't matter', they're the reason Brainstorm has like a 97% penetration rate in Legacy, they're just the best lands you could possibly make and it's so dumb.

[Thestatusquo]

I think hexproof is a worse development mistake that they keep propagating.

[Klazam]

I think hexproof is a worse development mistake that they keep propagating.

i absolutely hate bogles as a deck.

[bv310]

Eye of Ugin is gonna be the next big ban probably, so have fun for now.

I doubt it. The deck had a big burst of popularity because it was new and unknown. It'll settle around the same level as Bogles once people get used to it.

[Natirasha]

I think hexproof is a worse development mistake that they keep propagating.

They've mostly 'fixed' Hexproof, though. The way they've used Hexproof since Theros is solid and really hasn't hurt anything. They've already said we'll never get anything on the level of Invisible Stalker or Geist ever again.

I doubt it. The deck had a big burst of popularity because it was new and unknown. It'll settle around the same level as Bogles once people get used to it.

The reason it'll eat the ban is that it hurts Tron too.

[Thestatusquo]

A deck that wouldn't need a banning if they had just left twin in the format...