Magic: The Gathering C/D

i'm still really sad grapeshot/empty got banned in pauper, that was the most fun storm deck. modern version is solid but i don't like playing it as much as other combo decks in the format.

i'm back to playing melira pod and i really don't know why i ever stopped, there's really no reason to switch decks until they ban pod or the format somehow becomes 30%+ scapeshift and tron

modern deck has the added benefit of being a pretty fun solitaire deck

I doubt they'll ban pod, it's not degenerate

deathrite shaman wasn't degenerate either though, it was just pushing out too many other strategies. the same could be argued for pod in that it crushes non-pod creature decks. i'd rather see them address this by providing alternative good options though - bloodbraid elf is one such one that is sadly still banned, vengevine is another that's probably underexplored currently now that DRS is gone.

deathrite was pushing out other strategies from its place in *lots* of decks though. the fact that it was a no-brainer in basically any deck that could cast it made it a lot more oppressive than pod currently is (at less than 10% of the online meta)

Heading to GP Richmond in a couple hours, locked into Robots since it's the only deck I have. Thinking about running the old version with Galvanic Blasts since I'm expecting Twin and Zoo to be big. Or do you guys think the U Thoughtcast version is still better without Jund being a big player?

http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/attachments/127/265/635297957122844079.jpg

yeah i guessed that it was gonna be WB tokens a while back when the announcement for it mentioned double sided tokens included.

Vinnie can't you play both thoughtcast and galv blast? i'm not super familiar with affinity builds in modern but i feel like when i play vs it they often have both, though maybe the galv blasts are partially in the sideboard

since i found out earlier this week i couldn't make gp richmond for work reasons i stopped paying attention to the attendance figures but gd 4300+ seems fucking insane

all the modern cards are going to be worth like a million dollars arent they :/

Lost the mirror match round 9 to just miss day 2. :-\ The number of people here is just insane, a third of us got put in a separate flight across the street. Even with a third of us, the room was the size of a regular GP,, though I don't think anyone in our flight ended up getting a feature match, because it wasn't physically possible.

Cider I did end up trying to run both blasts and thoughtcast like you suggested, but ended up switching the thoughtcasts for maindeck Spellskite. Thoughtcast might have been better but Spellskite was excellent in a couple matches. I played against eight archetypes in nine rounds, and overall had a really good time. Modern seems healthy.

who saw the dickmann match? dude is so good

missed all the coverage but was amused to hear that the mocs crashed again today

so 5/8 pod top 8 in a tournament of that size seems like it suggests that the deck is the new jund. can/will the meta shift in reaction? more tron? more maindeck shadow of doubts?

I feel like sideboard h8 is less effective against pod than other top decks because outside of an unexpected blood moon there's very little that just destroys the deck immediately, esp melira. shutting down pod itself means they have to do more work, but they still have a deck filled w/ value creatures and ramp.

whereas affinity, while maybe equally good g1, can have miserable games 2 and 3 if the field dedicates enough sideboard space.

feel like if it weren't for the phyrexian mana (if it were just 3G and 1G) the card/deck would still be quite playable but wouldn't be at risk of a ban. t2 resolved pod feels like t2 liliana to me. too strong a threat that doesn't have many maindeck responses and just takes over the game.

looking at the day 2 breakdown pod doesn't seem as oppressive as it does in the t8

Archetype % of Field
Affinity 13.54%
Melira Pod 10.38%
Storm 5.64%
Jund 5.19%
Merfolk 4.74%
WUR Control 4.29%
GB Obliterator Rock 4.06%
UR Twin 4.06%
Tarmo-Twin 4.06%
WUR Midrange 3.61%
Hexproof Auras 3.39%
Big Zoo 3.16%
GB Rock 3.16%
Burn 2.93%
RG Tron 2.93%
Kiki Pod 2.26%
WUR Twin 2.26%
Ad Nauseam 2.03%
Living End 2.03%
Little Zoo 1.81%
Scapeshift 1.58%
8 Rax 1.35%
Infect 1.35%
WB Tokens 1.13%
4-Color Gifts 0.90%
UB Faeries 0.90%
Death and Taxes 0.68%
Soul Sisters 0.68%
UR Delver 0.68%
WG Aggro 0.68%
Blue Moon 0.45%
Junk 0.45%
Mono-Black 0.90%
Tin Fins (Reanimator) 0.45%
4-Color Zoo 0.23%
Dedgevine 0.23%
Domain Zoo 0.23%
Egg-Tron 0.23%
Elves 0.23%
Esper Mill 0.23%
Goblins 0.23%
Grixis Control 0.23%
Mono-Red Control0.23%
WUR Delver 0.23%

sup y'all
http://imgur.com/gallery/SjcgE

i'll be sad if pod gets banned since it's the only modern deck i own and due to the insane price inflation going on i'm probably priced out of getting another non-awful deck. i already am short 3 noble hierarchs for it due to the DRS ban which is $200 that i have to drop if i want to play the worcester GP this summer.

I hope the meta can adjust. I do think it's the best deck right now if you can pilot it well (which not everyone can), but not by much, and the thing I hated most about DRS was that it incidentally hosed graveyard-based decks. Pod doesn't casually invalidate archetypes.

Still not sure why Noble Hierarch didn't get a MM reprint. Damnation seems like a good candidate to be in FTV: Annihilation, and Remand would be very strong for Standard but could see a printing in a new set. But Hierarch seems unlikely to get reprinted any time soon because of Exalted.

I'm guessing we see fetchlands soon too. Without dual-typed lands I don't think they'd be all that strong in Standard!

pod invalidates fair creature decks ie anything kibler wants to play

Yeah frog, I agree. It's been so long since fetches could only get basics, I've kind of forgotten what it's like

Kibler can play hate bears!

has hate bears ever done particularly well in a large modern tournament?

Possibly not but lack of proven success with a deck has rarely stopped Kibler before

I like the idea of hatebears, and it almost seems like wizards prints cards specifically because it wants it to be a deck, but a strategy that's so dependent on what your opponent is playing gets worse and worse as the # of opponents you'll face increases

Still not sure why Noble Hierarch didn't get a MM reprint.

it really should've been in M13, instead it got a judge foil

hatebears seems like a terrible deck, just in general

yeah it's like a control deck where any relevant deck-hoser you have can be bolted

mother of runes is on the reserved list, right? that would be a pretty good addition

hmm apparently not on the list

I played against hatebears one round at the GP, and in game 2 my opponent played 3 Qasali Pridemage and still lost, haha. It's kind of a flawed deck concept. Half of the bears do nothing in a given matchup, and the other half hurt but aren't crippling. Leonin Arbiter and Thalia can delay your opponent, but for the same cost, you could have a Goyf. You slow them down but can't capitalize because your creature is so much worse than it could be. Why not just play a Goyf?? And game 1 you have no idea what cards are worth keeping. Pod's gameplan of finding the right hoser when you need it seems like the right way to implement the deck

That said, I wish the deck did work because I think it's fun

uncommons cant be on the reserved list

turns out my turning down going to gps has been a real boon to my friends gp results

ha did you know the winner again??

wait is it even over

i miss dominaria

doing some super flashback urza/mishra type set would probably be huge

i do think they will reboot dominaria at some point but they might save it until the next time they have a bad year or 2 and need a bounceback

i hope there's a more traditional swords&sorcery fantasy set in the pipeline though since they've been skirting around that for so long now that i think it'd be refreshing again. the core sets are kind of supposed to be that but they feel super generic these days and lack any sort of the world-building effort that goes into block sets.

i think i hate born of the gods. when i do btt draft i just hate that first booster. i hardly ever come out of it with a good bunch of cards or any idea of what i'll get passed in pack 3.

yeah born limited is just worse theros w/ terrible chase rares and lots of unplayable commons

and theros wasn't particularly exciting to begin w/

I tend to do fairly well with Born, though I do like Theros draft more than you guys it seems. Lots of great and fun uncommons and I feel a lot of the core Theros archetypes don't get messed with a whole lot since most of the important commons have analogues in Born. That said i'm not too sold on Inspired (if you do triple Born it's cool, but it doesn't mesh as well as you'd think with the Theros cards), and also I wish they'd have slotted in more stuff to help the G/B graveyard recursion deck with Nemesis of Mortals - Satyr Wayfinder is nice but I wish we'd gotten a good "graveyard matters" type card.

Graverobber Spider? I don't have much experience with it, but it seems very build-around

Second sets are usually a little disappointing to me, so BOTG isn't a big letdown as much as a usual letdown. Plays fine, but it's a weaker set than Theros and doesn't have much of its own identity. I was initially excited by tribute, but it has turned out to be just like every other punisher mechanic, an easy choice 90% of the time so ultimately not that interesting. Inspired is fun, but yeah, doesn't mesh as well with Theros as I'd like.

yeah this format is a bit light on the 'challenge cards' for limited, like pyroconvergence, burning vengeance, thrill of the hunt, intangible virtue, etc. those types of cards help the replay value of a format a bit by seeding decks that are only available in like 1 in 20 drafts. spellheart chimera counts, i guess, but not sure what else there is outside of rare that isn't already just playable as a normal card.

err not thrill of the hunt, i meant whatever the 1GU enchantment in dragons maze was called. bred for the hunt? idk

never wound up with much of the Graverobber but yeah I suppose that counts. I dunno, I still feel like they were going for some kind of G/B grave theme but there doesn't seem to be the card that cider is alluding to, something that would be great in that deck but mediocre in anything else. Graverobber and Nemesis of Mortals are decent in any green deck.

that said I do think Tribute mostly plays well. yes it is often an easy choice though I'm often stumped on how to handle the Phaganx Giant.

presumably they're slowrolling some of the GB dredgey stuff for the last set to go alongside the GB god

Interesting, I hadn't thought much about the idea of challenge cards extending the life of the format, but now that I think about it, my favorite draft formats (ROE, Innistrad) have a lot of those that I can remember. Floodtide Serpent, Graverobber Spider, Ragemonger are the only cards at common/uncommon I see fitting that category in BOTG.

btt is really boring idk if its because there arent any gimmick cards at uncommmon or because of the very low power level or how unbalanced the colors are but it hasnt been interesting to draft. its also not actively bad to draft either