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.
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link
also valakut and tron should be banned or they should give us a better ghost quarter
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 17:47 (seven years ago) link
no you can't take my valakuts away from me again...
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 17:56 (seven years ago) link
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.
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:00 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link
how do the Shadow decks reduce their life total so quickly? just saclands and Wraiths or is there something more to this deck?
― frogbs, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:10 (seven years ago) link
those plus shocklands and thoughtseize. doesn't take much.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:13 (seven years ago) link
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.
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:20 (seven years ago) link
RIP and cage great against storm too. possibly worth throwing in a cage vs any deck with snapcaster.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
yep good point. what do you play in modern rs?
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:29 (seven years ago) link
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.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:31 (seven years ago) link
is modern burn playable right now? i'm in serious rdw withdrawal from it being gone from standard for so long
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
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.
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
brutality is a beating for sure and blessed alliance is in a lot of sideboards now because of shadow.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:39 (seven years ago) link
i picked up eldrazi taxes (fun & relatively cheap) online after i decided i was done with amonkhet
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:42 (seven years ago) link
Burn drops some creatures vs brutality as a response.
― Moodles, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:43 (seven years ago) link
yeah im pretty sure you should only be playing goblin guide, swiftspear, and eidolon
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
Probably so, although I'm still stubbornly on Nacatls.
However, vs brutality at least Goblin Guide should be sided out, maybe more.
― Moodles, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 19:12 (seven years ago) link
i think i disagree
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 20:02 (seven years ago) link
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.
― iatee, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 21:32 (seven years ago) link
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
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 21:45 (seven years ago) link
hate to be the clueless dude here but what makes collective brutality so good
― frogbs, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 21:47 (seven years ago) link
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.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 21:54 (seven years ago) link
meanwhile it fills up the graveyard for delve and snapcaster
― Moodles, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 21:55 (seven years ago) link
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.
― iatee, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 01:50 (seven years ago) link
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
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 02:00 (seven years ago) link
probably a lot more favorable to ppl without teams
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 02:02 (seven years ago) link
oh that's great actually
― iatee, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 02:06 (seven years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/rLEI9Yv.png
very...interesting cards.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link
announcements are up
Fall and Winter - Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan - jungle world w/ pirates and dinosaurs, vraska is a main character for some reasonSpring 2018 - Dominaria - standalone large set, they brought back richard garfield for the design teamSummer 2018 is a core set as previously announced, no details yetthey finally let Maro make a 3rd Un-set, its called Unstable and is out in decemberthere'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
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:25 (seven years ago) link
oh wow, as an old-school player I'm really excited for the Dominaria set
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:27 (seven years ago) link
don't especially care for pirates and dinosaurs in particular but ixalan does sound like it is going to be a fun setting
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:34 (seven years ago) link
there's also a from the vault: double faced cards, for all the people who were waiting for fancy delvers and such
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
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.
― iatee, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:47 (seven years ago) link
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
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:51 (seven years ago) link
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
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 16:04 (seven years ago) link
this one is totally stupid but I love it
http://magiccards.info/uh/en/43.html
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
I also dig how they use the opportunity to make all sorts of legitimately interesting cards that just couldn't be done in "real" Magic due to all the rules nightmares. Reminds me of the ol' "if you disagree on rules, just flip a coin" days
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
none of those gotcha type cards are actually fun though because the optimal thing to do is just not talk ever
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 16:22 (seven years ago) link
yeah I think even Maro admitted those were a mistake
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
i didn't see that the Dominaria set is actually called Dominaria. that in itself is kind of interesting
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:19 (seven years ago) link
I'm curious if it'll have a Time Spiral vibe to it
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:22 (seven years ago) link
i wonder. that could've been a p cool alternative tack for a masters set
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:24 (seven years ago) link
most really old cards suck so it'd be hard to make an exciting masters set out of just dominaria sets
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:32 (seven years ago) link
that would for sure be an obstacle. there've got to be a few thousand cards tho.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:37 (seven years ago) link
i guess bad creatures alone might be enough to kill it
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 18:38 (seven years ago) link
dinosaur set - coolDominaria - YESUn-set - never expected this to happen, surprised it is buried at the end of the article
did a Unglued draft back in college and it wasn't that fun, actually. heard similar about Unhinged. some of the cards in both sets crack me up though. very curious what a modern Un-set would look like, after 13 years of lessons learned. I think they'll make it play a lot better than the last two, certainly
― Vinnie, Thursday, 15 June 2017 01:35 (seven years ago) link
unsets are the sort of corny non-humor that makes me hate nerds so much. them existing makes magic a worse game
happy abt a return to dominaria
― ( ^_^) (Lamp), Thursday, 15 June 2017 06:14 (seven years ago) link
3rd Un-set already exists, it's called Future Sight
still pretty curious as to what an Un-walker will look like. can't believe Unhinged was really that long ago, wow
― frogbs, Thursday, 15 June 2017 13:26 (seven years ago) link
i had a couple akh packs sitting on my account so i decided to do a draft for the first time in weeks. looking at the first pack i just wanted to turn my computer off and go for a walk.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 15 June 2017 14:28 (seven years ago) link