Magic: The Gathering C/D

but anyway, i am pretty unmoved by the changes, seems like fixing a problem that didn't exist but we'll see what they do with it.

It feels a bit like they are continuing to flail from one fix to another, trying to find something that sticks. I'd be relieved to see fewer changes at some point.

I appreciate them being proactive at least instead of waiting for sales to drop off before making changes. I think their massive effort on focus testing has paid off, and might be the reason why the game is still alive today.

That said I'm curious as to what this'll do to design. One thing I really liked about small sets is how they'd expand upon the mechanics in new and interesting ways that would influence Limited in neat ways (for example, introducing non-mana morph costs).

yeah I am losing faith in them recently Moodles. doesn't the idea of regimenting all sets to be drafted alone go against what Maro is saying, that they want the flexibility to suit the design ideas they have? it precludes the possibility of unique draft formats like 3xRTR vs RTR-GTC-DGM. but whatever, I'm sure that two more years down the line they will break this rule too

I'm not sure why they need to announce a structure at all - they were happy enough to break the large-large-small model as needed since Lorwyn. maybe just say, hey we're gonna have four sets a year

I am also for them being proactive btw, but this change feels like a walkback for the most part

oops should be large-small-small. WotC is making me confused, obv

marvel naturalized

I'm glad, way overdue. I actually think Marvel was the real problem card way back when they did the initial banning. Now can we unban copter and mage, pretty please?

Was kind of hoping Dredge and Death's Shadow would be hit, but I guess not today.

i don't think standard unbans are a thing that will ever happen. mayyyybe theres a chance they unban copter at rotation if there's enough removal for it in the format by then.

I'm not sure why they need to announce a structure at all

Exactly. I really dug the period where there were a few blocks in a row that were structured in unique ways. I don't know why they can't just wing it according to the needs of the set. I don't think it's controversial to say some worlds deserve multiple sets and some don't.

Was kind of hoping Dredge and Death's Shadow would be hit

do you think either of these is actually too powerful? seems like modern is in an ok spot right now. on a related note, i spotted our resident professional tourist iatee hanging out in the 5-0s for the mtgo modern competitive league with dredge.

dredge is really powerful and somewhat problematic in that it often turns matches into the question "did you draw your sideboard card in your opening hand" - it has less ability to play around dedicated hate than other decks and ignores a much higher % of maindeckable/non-dedicated hate than other decks

i doubt it has the numbers to justify a ban right now though.

i'm also not yet convinced that death's shadow has ban-worthy performance, we've seen time and time again these thoughtseize decks secretly struggling to crack 50% winrate below the highest levels of play, while being upheld as the Best Deck because pro players love them for the balanced matchup profile.

haha I have another 5-0 they didn't put up. dredge and death's shadow are both fine I think, dredge is soft to unfair decks and can always be hated out - I've found it very easy to get 3-2s and 4-1s but hard to get 5-0s because somebody out there is prepared. death's shadow...I think it's a cool card - I think it opens up a lot of different builds, it's kinda the delver of secrets in legacy. there are lots of ways to interact with a one mana creature, most people should be playing them anyway.

the decks I think are problematic are counters company and storm, both of which can win on t3 pretty frequently. the old company decks were more interesting than a fast infinite mana combo, and the old storm deck didn't have easy deterministic kills. overall modern does seem to be in a better place than it has been for a while though, like death's shadow is the fair deck that needed to exist to go toe-to-toe with all the busted crap everywhere.

also valakut and tron should be banned or they should give us a better ghost quarter

no you can't take my valakuts away from me again...

dredge also serves as a good check on the death's shadow decks, especially grixis, which is a super lopsided match-up. I dunno, maybe I'm biased and dredge should be banned since it eats up so much sideboard space, but I'm generally cool w/ busted decks as long as they are hard to play and have interesting decisions.

as for valakut, I am generally pro-banning all good decks that could reasonably be played by some simple computer program. I think modern's lack of good land disruption is a long-term problem that they are gonna have to solve in one way or another.

there's a new thalia and friends human aggro deck going around that I've lost to a few times...I think it's pretty solid. maybe not tier 1 but not far from it.

the board hate vs dredge is good against a bunch of other decks rn tho right? including shadow. doesn't seem like it has to unbalance sideboarding.

the gw humans deck seems to be a real beater, can accumulate very quickly, often quick enough to get around the 1/2 toughness sweepers.

how do the Shadow decks reduce their life total so quickly? just saclands and Wraiths or is there something more to this deck?

those plus shocklands and thoughtseize. doesn't take much.

the other way they reduce their life total is you-trying-to-beat-them. I think the dynamic is pretty interesting overall, since whether or not you help them reduce their life total is rarely straightforward.

and most board hate vs dredge is also solid vs grixis shadow, and cages are okay vs the chord decks - so at this very moment it's not terrible to force peoples' hands and make them play it. during periods where there are a wider range of linear oppressive decks it can be more annoying.

RIP and cage great against storm too. possibly worth throwing in a cage vs any deck with snapcaster.

yep good point. what do you play in modern rs?

Reminds me of a Standard deck I had that abused the "Fateful Hour" mechanic that would give your dudes a special boost if you were at 5 or less life. I would use Hex Parasite to take myself down to 4 life and swing in with a massive army. It was pretty fun (mostly for the bewildered look on my opponents' faces) but most matches were over in like five minutes.

is modern burn playable right now? i'm in serious rdw withdrawal from it being gone from standard for so long

I don't think it's tier 1 after the printing of collected brutality and the fast lands but it's not unplayable or anything.

brutality is a beating for sure and blessed alliance is in a lot of sideboards now because of shadow.

i picked up eldrazi taxes (fun & relatively cheap) online after i decided i was done with amonkhet

Burn drops some creatures vs brutality as a response.

yeah im pretty sure you should only be playing goblin guide, swiftspear, and eidolon

Probably so, although I'm still stubbornly on Nacatls.

However, vs brutality at least Goblin Guide should be sided out, maybe more.

i think i disagree

yeah goblin guide is still your best turn 1 play and best shot at getting 6-8 damage out of one card. I think swiftspear would be a better thing to side out (especially on the draw) because a t1 swiftspear that gets brutalitied means you traded a card + a mana for 1 damage. dunno how burn usually boards though, I've never played it.

keldon marauders and hellspark elemental are old phased-out burn cards that don't care about collective brutality, i wonder if we'll ever see them again

hate to be the clueless dude here but what makes collective brutality so good

burn needs a critical mass of spells to deal 20 damage, and has no real defenses so its on a strict clock to put that together vs any non-control deck. all 3 modes on collective brutality can be worth a card vs burn, so it lets you 2 for 2 or 3 for 3 them for just 2 mana which slows the game down enough that they usually can't draw into the win in time.

meanwhile it fills up the graveyard for delve and snapcaster

wizards got back to me and is cool w/ me deferring the invite if need be which is great cause even if I didn't have the work stuff, this whole thing was a little too last minute. so I am actually more excited now than I was before since before it was like "wow this might be a huge pain in the ass / I might not get to go at all."

I'll probably try to get into standard now, not that it's thattt useful since it's going to be an unsolved format, but I have played literally 0 competitive REL games of standard in my life.

if you're doing the fall one in albuquerque, it'll actually be like a month and a half into the format since they're running worlds as the set release tournament instead of the PT

probably a lot more favorable to ppl without teams

oh that's great actually

http://i.imgur.com/rLEI9Yv.png

very...interesting cards.

announcements are up

Fall and Winter - Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan - jungle world w/ pirates and dinosaurs, vraska is a main character for some reason
Spring 2018 - Dominaria - standalone large set, they brought back richard garfield for the design team
Summer 2018 is a core set as previously announced, no details yet
they finally let Maro make a 3rd Un-set, its called Unstable and is out in december
there's a 25th anniversary masters set out next spring that's not the same thing as 'iconic masters' - sounds like iconic masters is more of a casual set whereas this one will be more like a modern masters set

oh wow, as an old-school player I'm really excited for the Dominaria set

don't especially care for pirates and dinosaurs in particular but ixalan does sound like it is going to be a fun setting

there's also a from the vault: double faced cards, for all the people who were waiting for fancy delvers and such

I generally don't care about flavor but dominaria is pretty much the only plane that I'm ever gonna look forward to

I don't get un-sets. why do people buy them? what do you do with the pack when you open it? it's like paying $3.50 for a comic strip.

un-sets are really fun to draft, plus the lands inside are generally worth a buck or two

I agree they're a tough sell but I did think the last one was really funny

i don't like un-sets so i can't help you there. the only card from the last one i think is funny is http://magiccards.info/uh/en/29.html and i'm not even sure why

this one is totally stupid but I love it

http://magiccards.info/uh/en/43.html