I also think this argument is kind of poor and people want to make Modern look more diverse than it already is. A few couple of pages ago, we were saying Astrolabe creates 7 different decks, and when it would come down to only two, this would be a problem. Now I see people saying this is fine. Gree...

That does not really work out if 70% or more of the decks are packing green. If green is in most decks, there is an issue. They may be diverse, but if they all run forests, it won't feel diverse to me. I'm not 100% disagreeing with you and do think there are issues with this, but to play devil's ad...

Anyways, take a look at this amulet/tron show in the latest Super Q. Good news: - Strategic diversity among decks(although a little bit virtual one, big mana looks to be a serious problem). The bad news: - 24/32 Green decks, not even counting Dredge in those number. 13/32 decks also running veil of...

Sooo...... What's everyone's opinion on this Tarmogoyf/Pod card? 451898.jpg Sooo...... What's everyone's opinion on this Tarmogoyf/Pod card? 451898.jpg I think it's either gonna be a more balanced pod or an unplayable one, not exactly sure where I stand on it yet. On one hand it pretty much costs t...

Shark Typhoon seems playable in Ux decks. Per my quick card search, there has never before been an uncounterable flash/flyer of any kind in Modern, let alone one that scales P/T, let alone again one that cantrips. Typhoon is also decent against T3feri, producing a 1/1 flyer to kill a 1 loyalty T3fe...

IKO preview season starts with a thunderous stomp today, and we're already seeing some zany new mechanics that are sure to please the Timmy in all of us. One card instabanned in EDH/Brawl and we're seeing concepts never before executed in black-bordered Magic. Also, GODZILLA!! Here's the official MN...

So, is Modern finally crystallizing around two big Astrolabe decks? That should be super worrying and it would be what several people were telling at this forum(@Foodchains, me, etc). I'm not sure why this is super worrisome on its own. Most top Modern cards just have a few top-tier decks that use ...

Your explanation makes sense if and only if someone already has some trust in WotC. There are many reasons for someone NOT trusting in WotC - Twin, numerous bans in Standard, recent design philosophy, shoving Secret Lairs down our throats (no, not everyone receiving them, but many people paying for...

Wizards doing whatever they want, whenever they want is a "fake news" story in my opinion. Time after time, they have showed they are doing what they are doing, because of specific reasons and their line of thinking is consistent and well argumentated(most of the times). 1) Win rates/numb...

But that's the thing, who knows if a deck is breaking rules during multiple "No Changes" announcements? Phoenix and Dredge were ravaging the competitive scene for a year and a half before being acted upon, and it took an insanely MORE broken card to get the community uproar strong enough ...

And since we have no access to meaingful data ourselves (especially that precious MTGO win rate), we have no idea what decks are breaking that rule and what are not. It's Schrodinger's Ban at that point. We don't know a deck is breaking a rule or not until WOTC tells us (either by banning it, or by...

ktkenshinx You say wotc use numbers on all ban decisions in the format. I am not sure they do. I think they do mostly, but I also think they look at other data they don't share to do with popularity-unpopularity of strategies and cards. Lattice would be an obvious one. No data I have seen convinces...

I think it fits the Mycosynth Lattice ban nearly perfectly, except that Lattice saw a LOT more play. Karn, TGC with Lattice was played in almost any deck that could fit that in. It gave help to decks that were previously trash, like Ponza and Skred, but more importantly, it pushed E Tron a bit too ...

ktkenshinx , just to clear the clouds here. I think a T3feri ban is absurd and laughable. It is also not being played that much to warrant a ban. Opinions on that? T3feri is a badly designed card that both invalidates one of Magic's fundamentals that makes the game great, instant-speed interaction,...

I am not sure if pure usage would be a good metric to decide whether Astrolabe needs a ban. The comparison to Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile is a bit odd, but I think a comparison to fetchlands is valid; fetchlands are an admitted design mistake by WotC, they are incredibly powerful manafixing wit...

Opinions about what is and is not good for Modern come with the unspoken caveat that they are subjective opinions, that cannot be proven/unproven any more than you can disprove sombody's favourite colour is the wrong or right choice. Numbers about a card being played are meaningless by themselves u...

There has been a lot of theoretical argument about Astrolabe's impact on Modern, as well as some half-formed comparisons to OUaT. Specifically, and especially on Reddit, I've seen a lot of players complain that Astrolabe is getting an unfair pass when OUaT got banned for similar prevalence. We know ...

Challenge isn't up yet but here's the Super Qualifier: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-super-qualifier-2020-03-22 Might do the Reddit breakdown later, but here's the T16 for now: 1. Humans 2. Amulet Titan 3. Dredge 4. Burn 5. Dredge 6. Bant Snow Control 7. Temur F...

Which isn't acceptable to many of us. I guess we should all be all right and overjoyed to 3-2 FNM? :thinking: I just don't understand what you, CFP, and anyone else in this camp actually want from a competitive deck. What are your competitive goals? Are you truly trying to T8 Modern GP events? Mayb...

Too bad we don't have meaningful data to support any of that. But I guess as long as you don't need to be competitively successful, you can play anything you want. Including trash decks like UR Control. Define "competitively successful." This gets back to an old topic we've discussed in t...

I'm really not sure why people are negative about Bant Snow Control being the best control game in town. This really isn't any different from Azorius Control (snowless) being the best control game in town prior to Astrolabe. The only difference is Astrolabe allows the tested UW shell, which we alrea...

I mean, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see that Oko was broken and free cantrips are on their #1 hit list. Opal has been a target for years, and Lattice was an easy "get out of jail" card for the atrocious design failure that was Karn, The Repeatable Tutor. As I said in the quoted po...

I wrote that I got blown out by double Veil of Summer protecting a JtmS a few posts back. The exact same thing just happened with Veil of Summer forcing through a Teferi. I will reiterate: %$#% THIS FORMAT as long as Veil is legal. %$#% IT. How %$#% stupid can WotC be????? they already had 2 opport...

So just to confirm, I think we can basically all agree to if nothing else, meta talks and complaints are completely moot at this point with the virus in it's current state. We can potentially debate MTGO data, but our access to it is extremely limited and at Wotc's discretion. Adding to that, the c...

*The interesting part is that the Astrolabe decks have a lot of play to them. They make Modern not so stale, as there are tons, yes, TONS of different lines and deck lists that you can throw together. The issue, if there is one, is that Astrolabe is becoming way to prevalent. I think that Astrolabe...