Eternal formats are theoretically diverse given their card pool. That's why I don't mind that decks be linear in pre-SB games. They can't possibly predict what they will be against. When they can it's a symptom of a skewed meta. So it's normal that they optimize their pre-SB deck to be as efficient ...

This really drives home how bland and uniform the usual card arts are. Too expensive for me, but teh kind of crowd that foils their decks will like them. There's already the problem of the cost of a play set of regular cards, getting enough of those snow lands to play though...

I am have been trying to sell out of Modern the passed 2 weeks but prices keep dropping and nobody is buying. ... So for the first time ever I am all in favor of unbanning 90% of the cards. It won't get worse than it already is. Just because you wan to quit modern should not be reason to advocate p...

Mox and bird are different because: Creature removal is played in the main. 0 mana is a lot less than one and has been behind combos multiple times. Free spells in general are almost always design mistakes in the end.* * The card does not simply has to be crappy to not see play (ornithopter is awful...

Well, oko is good in modern, is good in the urza deck which is near the top in modern and Wizards, by taking no action and not saying a single word on modern (and promoting the competing pioneer format) sends a signal that it's fine to buy to play in modern.

.... and nothing done in pioneer. As a modern player, I guess I'm glad if they fumble pioneer as it competes with modern as the go-to eternal format.

They dont seem to grasp where their failures actually are. Its beyond 'we pushed oko' and its more telling if you read between the lines that Planeswalkers are busted. If you read on the line instead, you will find that they explicitly state that pushed, high-loyalty, 3-mana planeswalkers are busted.

I wish they'd ban OuaT or oko in modern, but oh well. If I'm honest, they're not as bad as in std and pioneer and GDS is doing just fine.

Let's see the pioneer announcement later.

Pioneer invitational at SCG this week-end was over-run with green decks plus some aggro. Sprinkle a few combos (hardened scale, jeskai ascendancy) Again. that's the format everyone is excited about? I'm no Pioneer expert, but from what I see, these cards look problematic: once upon a time smuggler's...

Although it's possible those Urza decks need some kind of nerf, it is a Modern offseason until April. I expect no changes for many months to come. That sounds awfully like saying Wizards would ban only to shake up the format. I really do hope they would take actions if they think action should be t...

But I have learned to realize that when Jund is a major player in Modern, then the format is more reactive. This is the gist and the right way to put it. Jund is not a police deck, it's a canary deck. When Jund is good enough to put up results, it's an indication that the format allows and rewards ...

1st. If Twin policed nothing, then it REALLY didnt need a ban. 2nd. Twin absolutely did have a limiting impact on Tron. Seems to me you say policing when you really means the deck was dominant and you liked it. (You also entirely avoided explaining how twin would have changed anything to anything v...

Prevent degenerate decks from dominating. Prevent linear decks from dominating. Prevent any one deck, from dominating. Provide a core to the format, or pillars, around which the other archetypes can still find space to leverage the meta. BGx (Jund/Junk) and URx (Twin, Grixis Control) did this. Part...

OK, then I don't understand what decks policing a format means.

Burn, human, GDS and UW police modern very well. (The first makes sure you're not allowed to durdle. The second goes wide and fast but is entirely creature-based. The third is mid-rangy (its creatures are big but only come down turn 3+, if even that), disrupt the hand and has some soft counters and ...

Because once something gets banned, there is then another boogeyman. Then after that boogeyman is banned, then another one is too good. And so on and so on. We've seen this in Modern, but it is much more devastating when it happens on a WEEK to WEEK basis. That's the problem all formats essentially...

PIoneer will be a more powerful format than any non-broken standard format. So, I don't think people will be able to use their standard cards too weak for modern. These post-rotation cards will be played casual decks that get beaten by the staple pioneer decks that will emerge shortly. You won't get...

People are hyped about Pioneer because its ban list is not set. Once it is, 49% will be pissed off by cards they like and deemed OK getting banned. The other 49% will be pissed by cards they failed to ban and deemed busted. Then people will moan about how deck X is obviously degenerate. IOW, I fail ...

I'm pretty sure cfusionpm was talking about UR TiTi decks and not GDS when he said the deck was awful. If I'm correct, it's kinda ironic to read everyone dumping on him while complaining about how people have awful mentalities, wouldn't it? PS: and GDS is pretty consistent, and made even more consis...

Maelstrom pulse has a lot of alternatives, between abrupt decay, assassin's trophy and fatal push. (Also putrefy, as the poor man's version of these.)

Again, you can literally look at your opponent's hand to see if he does or does not have it or if he has more urgent issues going on that you can nail. I fail to see how this is "bad always", although you could've saved me this post if you just RTFC, The point is, if they don't have it, y...

I agree with bearscape, except I think Urza is also a mistake. Basically, anything that turns artifacts into moxes is a mistake given the number of zero-costs artifacts ans how easy it is to recur them from the GY. Sure, Emry is the most efficient one, but other wise we'd see scrap trawler and the l...

Grixis Shadow won SCG vs 4 Urzas. The games were so beautiful, extremely well played by the grixis player. Such a boon to see it beat Urza repeatedly. Nice change to GDS: - mystical dispute . Not a veil of summer , but still really good as it counters oko, urza and the fish girl and whirr. - the roy...

They don't need pioneer to make an affordable eternal format. They just need to be true to the fact that modern has no restricted list and reprint without: Upping uncommons to rares and rares to mythics. Making premium products that cost too much per booster. Making limited-run products that have li...

If you want to know how modern will go just look at legacy. We've already proven there isn't enough demand for eternal formats to properly support the EXISTING ones in the large scale tourneys. As long as we ignore SCG running modern constantly or GP featuring modern.... (4 modern GP in 2020 announ...