Magic: The Gathering C/D

I used to think that constant bans/unbans were a bad thing for any format, but recently I have started thinking that having one format like that is a cool idea. Legacy bans can put you down a ton of money, while Standard bans are offputting to new players. Modern is in that sweet spot where it's mostly longtime players playing, players who are able to keep up with a changing metagame, but the cards aren't ridiculously expensive. Honestly, the willingness to play with the banned list makes me more interested in Modern.

But they better keep their damn government hands off my Arcbound Ravagers

the cards that are ridiculously expensive are kinda saved from being bannable by virtue of being ridiculously expensive

like you ban goyf and some kid who just finished his playset literally quits magic

yeah banning Deathpact only hurts the losers like me who were hording them thinking they'd hit Dark Confidant prices one day

well all investments come w/ risks and that was def the riskiest card to be investing in

I used to think that constant bans/unbans were a bad thing for any format, but recently I have started thinking that having one format like that is a cool idea.

essentially if you write off all the fall 2011 bans as early-format fixing (they all happened within 3 months of the format's introduction, and before they started running GPs and sanctioning it for FNMs) then there's only been 4 cards banned since then, and 3 unbanned.

Interesting, I thought there had been more. Definitely the perception I have is that nothing is off-limits in Modern, except maybe Goyf and Confidant.

i don't think those are off-limits, they're just very easy to interact with so they're unlikely to need benching

7 changes to the ban list in two years is a lot by any reasonable standard tho

'i mean at least they arent banning something every three months!' is kinda just

this feels like the first change since nacatl/fire that's actually going to affect the format significantly more than a new set release though

yeah fair, bloodbraid essentially did nothing and seething song and second sunrise were very targeted. hell storm decks still 4-0 dailies even w/o seething song

i will admit that, having poured a decent amount of money into modern staples over the last 8 months, i just don't love the idea that they're going to ban stuff that is really good but not degenerate for 'format health' reasons

and/or to make pt coverage less of a snooze

so first born draft I found the 1/3 heroic discard guy less impressive when I actually played him...it's always still a card for a card unless you're using the cantrip auras. I also had two of the draw card blue 2/2 heroic dude, and it always seemed better to target him.

retraction helix continued to be amazing and I basically won the draft w/ a janky deck + 2 helix, 2 griptide

yeah i had 1/3 heroic at prerelease and ended up cutting it

i think its a legit roleplayer in a specific deck but not something to get excited about

not that anyone thought this was fake, but the "Conspiracy" thing was sorta announced today:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1429

looks like its a 210 card set, 60 new cards, multiplayer/draft focused, released in June. cool ?

my first 3-0 BTT deck: http://i.imgur.com/MiEPzcw.jpg

i don't recommend trying to learn anything from this

did a prerelease sealed: opened a kiora that i couldn't play but i will take those 22 tix, tyvm. came 2nd overall, destroyed in the final.

i'm having a lot of trouble drafting the BNG pack so far, the cards are all so narrow/contextual that nothing really constitutes a signal and i end up flailing around until the theros packs ground me into something that may or may not be open

the same thing has been happening to me. i have a really mediocre record so far and a large part of that seems to be that i keep flailing pack one, trying to take 'the best card' (none of the cards are good) and not knowing what colors i am in or even what colors i should be in. i've also just been on a bit of a slump in general, i went 4-2 at a gpt today and cant really pinpoint what went wrong for me - i think i built my deck correctly but i had to mulligan in almost 50% of my matches, which makes me think i didnt have the proper # of lands or the right land mix or something.

yeah I'll third that...I always end up in the 'right colors' but it takes half of the born pack til I'm there

I think tons of strong uncommons is probably the source of this misery

also lamp don't discount the possibility that you just got unlucky w/ land, it's gonna happen

yeah lamp that sounds like a good description of what happens in my drafts

i've noticed there aren't that many creatures that play defense well in BNG so i think the first adjustment i'm going to try is forcing 'fast' or 'slow' based on my first couple picks even if i'm not sure what my colors are yet, since that will narrow the options.

new draft strategy - take no black cards pack one then only black cards packs two and three. since black is stone terrible in bng it keeps putting everyone into 'anything that isnt black' meaning that you get really solid black theros cards tabling. am now 7-0-2 (split two finals) with this powerful strategy

asphyxiate and that -3/-2 aura are both good. my draft strategy so far has been "first pick refraction helix over cards that might be better because I want to play with it"

i'm surprised, that -3/-2 aura really seems like it should be bad for the price. i haven't played it or seen it played yet to judge.

i went x-1 on all 4 prerelease events i entered. i got super lucky with money cards tho and came out even on tix and a bunch of packs for free.

awesome

kid (literally a kid, he's like 14) from my store got 10th place at gp Mexico City yesterday. undefeated d1.

the -3/-2 is not what you want out of 4 mana but I have never been unhappy to have it in my hand.

-3/-2 is not 'good' but its passable and so far has matched up well with the decks that other people have run against me

i thought there was something to the black strategy but awkwardly the black cards in BNG are mostly aggro-minded and the ones in theros are mostly control-minded so you have to be careful

i feel like the new green cards want you to attack too? for the couple drafts i did i followed the open colours into blue/green and both times it seemed more awkward a pairing than in THS, or at least it didn't play how i was used to.

it seems almost like certain color pairs between the two sets is the way to go, drafting a particular color in BNG and then going as much as possible for its ideal pair in THS. Some of the pairs I've seen work out reasonably well are:

BNG B + THS W
BNG U + THS B
BNG R + THS U

don't know how much truth there is to this, but it may be a way to manage disparities between mono colors across the two sets

the 1G enchantment that gives you a Birds of Paradise + draw a card seems really good too, you can trigger Inspired every turn while ramping

rg still pretty bad ime though red gets a great common w/ the one sided fight spell

feel like 'heroic' is more open to more colors now, both with more triggers and more dudes

the vanilla bestow guys are so boring to play with and against despite not being bad

I really like the red one, 2 mana bestow is neat. Seems like another neat turn 2 play for my beloved Akroan Crusader...

I'm still not sure what R/G is supposed to do besides some sort of big-mana Monstrosity deck. Most red cards seem aggressive and they play so much better with black or white. Usually when I play vs. a R/G deck I know to expect either a Polis Crusher or a Xenagos.

yeah GR is the big mana deck. it's awkward though because the red commons that are supposed to be for that deck like the monstrous cyclops and the oread are still playable in the aggro red decks, whereas the GR deck can't do anything with two-headed cerberus or deathbellow raider or minotaur skullcleaver or whatever.

and the one card it gets to itself is boulderfall which you can't really play more than 1 of with a straight face

gr can use auras on two headed and t strength on green heroic dudes but ultimately ends up with a voltron w/o evasion. the unblockable equipment is pretty good in that deck for that reason but you still have to invest so many cards into your only win condition.

yeah i don't think gr heroic/auras/etc is a good strategy at all outside of corner case decks with a very specific composition of card that makes it work (obv this exception applies to pretty much any fringe archetype in limited, and You'll Know It If You Have It)

though noble quarry is an example of a new card with the ability to make that one work

fun on sedge scorpion.

sedge scorpion plus noble quarry plus green emissary plus +2/0 first strike instant

11-1 in Theros block drafts so far. Part luck part skill and part due to some really bad players in the Swiss drafts right now. I 3-0'd a godawful B/W/G deck that had to splash green because I didn't draft enough playables in my other colors. Twice I've seen opponents cast Retraction Helix on the creature they wanted to bounce. I'm not immune either, I based my strategy one game on Bolt of Keranos being an instant.

Thus far I can't really say what's better or worse due to the new set. Things that give unblockable are obviously good with Inspired but I don't see a lot of gamebreaking Inspired stuff out there. Two cards in Theros whose stock went up are Vipers Kiss and Spark Jolt, due to an influx of 1/1 heroic boosters, Elite Skirmisher, Loyal Pegasus, Nyxborn Wolf, and a ton of good 1-toughness uncommons

Better than expected:
Asphyxiate - Initially disliked because it doesn't get the dude that's attacking you every turn, but it's proven really good both early and late game. Outside of Lightning Strike it may be the best common removal spell.
Glimpse the Sun God - Its just really flexible, does Fog, allows an Alpha Strike, and clear something obnoxious, plus it allows you to hit all your Heroic triggers. Always want to get one in a U/W heroic deck.
Karametra's Favor (and Springleaf Drum) - First one hits heroic, both hit inspired, and there's still lots of big mana Bestows to hit. An abundance of good uncommons makes you most likely to splash 3 colors, too.
Kiora's Follower - Instantly hitting inspired is awesome, plus it combos well with Retraction Helix
Retraction Helix - I think we already figured that it was the set's best common, but the ability to hit any permanent and not just creatures makes this one of the most flexible commons I've ever seen given the format.
Servant of Tyramet - I missed that Regenerating hits the Inspired.

Worse than expected:
Acolyte's Reward - This can be nasty and it's a neat heroic trigger but it's been rather clunky most times it's been in my hand. The best-case scenario just doesn't happen as often as I'd like (it's really really awesome with Phalanx Leader obviously)
Archetype of Imagination - Just so darn expensive for a 2-toughness creature, and in U/W and U/B a lot of your dudes are gonna have flying anyway. Not something I was ever glad to be playing.
Griffin Dreamfinder - Never liked it to start but even playing a lot of enchantments you don't get much with it. Bestow creatures have to die twice, after all...
Pinnacle of Rage - Double creature kill spells are usually always good but you generally don't need to kill 3-toughness dudes on turn 7 or 8. Maybe this would be good in a different format.

Will also add that I like the Tribute mechanic a lot. They put a lot of work into making both options unappealing in similar ways, as opposed to stuff like Breaking Point where one of the two options is relatively inconsequential.

any opinions on amulet of vigor in modern? cider i know cjlack has been playing that deck off and on what do you think?

yeah cj's my friend and he still endorses the deck, though it takes a bit of practice to get used to playing it since it does really weird things with extra land plays that don't really have parallels in other decks.

it has roughly the same matchups as the other big mana decks like scapeshift/tron (beats up on pod/midrange, loses to twin) but has more explosive draws and dodges sowing salt if that's the SB card people are running for those matchups. on the flip side it is even weaker to blood moon than scapeshift/tron, so if that card gets popular i'd avoid playing it. i'm kind of waiting for the PT results before i decide whether i'm all in on continuing to learn it, but with birthing pod expected to be a menace it seems like it could be good going forward.

I'm also very interested to see how the PT Modern portion shakes out. I'm gonna hit GP Richmond in a couple weeks and while I'm committed to Robots for monetary/time reasons (it's the only deck I have all the cards for and any real experience with), my SB is up in the air. Used to run 3 Blood Moons, but I found that they slowed my own deck down enough that it sometimes gave Tron decks enough time to drop a Wurmcoil anyway. So I'm likely cutting them.

feeling like an expert magic speculator after i picked up most of the key cards for amulet of vigor in modern this week and unloaded my promo bitterblossoms @ $120

next season (feb 26-march 26) mocs promo is Lion's Eye Diamond, maybe a good time to start grinding