[Official] State of Modern Thread (B&R 07/13/2020)

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Simto
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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

Ed06288 wrote:
2 years ago
There's still not any "normal" modern tournaments firing anywhere. Sometimes we get 6 people together with a $5 entry, but it's largely dead everywhere. Obviously we need a little more time until things get back to normal, but I'm worried competitive magic has taken a backseat to commander and casual games.
I wouldn't be too worried about that. I think people are itching to get back to playing tournaments/fnm and other more competitive stuff as soon as it's safe/responsible to do so again.

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Albegas
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Post by Albegas » 2 years ago

I know where I live in California my local game store's already scheduled regular tournaments starting May 28th after WotC's announcement. Still on the fence about whether to jump when that happens or wait until Counterspell's legal (so I can flaunt mine :D), but I would imagine that the store could use the support and Counterspell probably won't singlehandedly save me from getting blown out after a year of not really playing Modern anyways

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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

Ed06288 wrote:
2 years ago
There's still not any "normal" modern tournaments firing anywhere. Sometimes we get 6 people together with a $5 entry, but it's largely dead everywhere. Obviously we need a little more time until things get back to normal, but I'm worried competitive magic has taken a backseat to commander and casual games.
Well it kinda HAS to. I really miss going to my LGS on weekends and having a go at commander with folks in my area, and I also miss going to FNM for the modern parts. But until covid is wrangled, inoculations, and state legislature finally say its ok, hasbro will NOT open themselves up to a lawsuit by reinstating gatherings with prizes that are counter intuitive to keeping people safe. No LGS will want the stigma that some either unintentional, unwise, or unaware person, that has a public job, created a mass outbreak of a epidemic.

I work retail at one of the big places and what you see come in the door and the stubborn resistance people live in is fairly frightening. The amount of arguments about masks alone is huge and I live in one of the more saner cities. The shocking lack of hygiene on folks even to this day is disturbing. Unless your LGS is one of the bigger brand ones or was lucky enough to gain alot of square footage cheaply they just dont have the space for multiple gamers and games to be running at the same time. Heck I think only the DnD folks and the Games Workshop crowds are allowed in mine since you can space them far enough apart or go back and forth from the tables and even then they have to schedule their times.

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Post by iTaLenTZ » 2 years ago

Sanctum Prelate is a mistake. It is going straight into my deck as a one-off but have fun casting anything vs Humans running 4 Meddling Mage and 3 Sanctum Prelate.

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Post by drmarkb » 2 years ago

Competitive mtg will take a back seat in terms of *design*.
That does not mean people won't flock to play. They will.
Wotc may well.kerp the format on the back seat in terms if massive events, but other operators may not.
Long term Modern has huge issues- it is doomed to be ban heavy and split in terms of audience expectation, and subject to huge reprints that crush the price, which is great for those buying in, but also massive churn which is awful for those with modern collections. In short it will be a standardesque money pit, but people will still play for sure post pandemic. Whether they are playing in those numbers in 2026, not so certain.

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Simto
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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

drmarkb wrote:
2 years ago
Competitive mtg will take a back seat in terms of *design*.
That does not mean people won't flock to play. They will.
Wotc may well.kerp the format on the back seat in terms if massive events, but other operators may not.
Long term Modern has huge issues- it is doomed to be ban heavy and split in terms of audience expectation, and subject to huge reprints that crush the price, which is great for those buying in, but also massive churn which is awful for those with modern collections. In short it will be a standardesque money pit, but people will still play for sure post pandemic. Whether they are playing in those numbers in 2026, not so certain.
I don't expect to be alive in 2026, so let the good times roll :)

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Post by FoodChainGoblins » 2 years ago

So I played Trollementals at my first FNM in over a year. This was at playlive in Fullerton, CA. The turnout was okay, around 16 people.
Standard - Will pick up what's good when paper starts
Pre Modern - Do not own anymore
Pioneer - DEAD
Modern - Jund Sacrifice, Amulet, Elementals, Trollementals, BR Asmo/Goryo's, Yawmoth Chord
Legacy - No more cards, will rebuy Sneak Show when I can
Limited - Will start when paper starts
Commander - Nope

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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

That's awesome! I didn't even know California had opened up to that extent of allowing events like that. Hope you had fun.
(Fullerton, the home of Fender :) )

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Ed06288
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Post by Ed06288 » 2 years ago

I'll never understand this scalper dilemma going on at walmarts. The product is already above msrp price. And sealed product takes a long time to appreciate. Even when good product sells out, its frequently available for cheap on tcgplayer and amazon. So how are these scalpers even making money? And why are buyers buying from the scalpers? It doesn't add up.

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Post by Albegas » 2 years ago

As far as I can tell, MtG isn't the concern of the dilemma. It's primarily Pokemon, Digimon, and sports trading cards. Digimon in particular is in severely short supply; boxes are being sold for as much as 1.5-2x the MSRP even on shops devoted to TCGs.

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Post by The Fluff » 2 years ago

seeing Modern Horizons 2 makes me a bit sad that there isn't even a Pioneer Horizons 1...
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Post by Albegas » 2 years ago

I mean, it took about 7 years before WotC decided that Modern needed non-Standard sets directly injected into the format, so I doubt Pioneer's going to get anything like that for a long time. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if by the time that happens, Modern will have been replaced by a format that's essentially Legacy without the reserved list and with Modern's 4 Turn rule

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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

The Fluff wrote:
2 years ago
seeing Modern Horizons 2 makes me a bit sad that there isn't even a Pioneer Horizons 1...
I really liked Pioneer when it was first introduced, but I think Wizards want to kill it in favour of Historic. My guess is they're going to make that the in-between format when things are really open again.
It's such a weird format though. I don't like it at all and I don't like the random card injections they do.

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Post by FoodChainGoblins » 2 years ago

Simto wrote:
2 years ago
The Fluff wrote:
2 years ago
seeing Modern Horizons 2 makes me a bit sad that there isn't even a Pioneer Horizons 1...
I really liked Pioneer when it was first introduced, but I think Wizards want to kill it in favour of Historic. My guess is they're going to make that the in-between format when things are really open again.
It's such a weird format though. I don't like it at all and I don't like the random card injections they do.
I don't really know Historic, as I don't play online at all. But a lot of my friends seem to like it. They like the mix of the new broken cards being able to be played with old broken stuff, like Moxes.
Standard - Will pick up what's good when paper starts
Pre Modern - Do not own anymore
Pioneer - DEAD
Modern - Jund Sacrifice, Amulet, Elementals, Trollementals, BR Asmo/Goryo's, Yawmoth Chord
Legacy - No more cards, will rebuy Sneak Show when I can
Limited - Will start when paper starts
Commander - Nope

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Ed06288
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Post by Ed06288 » 2 years ago

I have more interest in historic than pioneer. The metagame has decks that i actually want to play. I'll probably stick to modern and edh though

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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

Today's the day lads. Spoilers are due.

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Post by motleyslayer » 2 years ago

I think put of all the spoilers I've seen so far, Void Mirror , Grief and Rishadan Dockhand are what I'm interested in the most. I don't even know if the dockhand is too good though. The mirror is good vs tron and free spells though

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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

And in one fell swoop, Tron decks (and artifact decks) were killed.
Void Mirror.
I guess it was a good thing I never did commit to buying the last couple of expensive cards I needed.
This was exactly the kind of card I was hoping not to see. Don't want to sound like a pessimist, but if this kills green Tron then I don't really have anything left for Magic. I barely even want to play commander anymore.

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Post by The Fluff » 2 years ago

looks like more toys are coming for Stoneforge decks. The gw allied sword fetches lands with each hit. :)
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Post by Bearscape » 2 years ago

Simto wrote:
2 years ago
And in one fell swoop, Tron decks (and artifact decks) were killed.
Void Mirror.
I guess it was a good thing I never did commit to buying the last couple of expensive cards I needed.
This was exactly the kind of card I was hoping not to see. Don't want to sound like a pessimist, but if this kills green Tron then I don't really have anything left for Magic. I barely even want to play commander anymore.
You know that "this will be the death of tron" is straight up a meme by this point right?

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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

The Fluff wrote:
2 years ago
looks like more toys are coming for Stoneforge decks. The gw allied sword fetches lands with each hit. :)
And bounces a creature. Strong synergies with that sword.

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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

Bearscape wrote:
2 years ago
Simto wrote:
2 years ago
And in one fell swoop, Tron decks (and artifact decks) were killed.
Void Mirror.
I guess it was a good thing I never did commit to buying the last couple of expensive cards I needed.
This was exactly the kind of card I was hoping not to see. Don't want to sound like a pessimist, but if this kills green Tron then I don't really have anything left for Magic. I barely even want to play commander anymore.
You know that "this will be the death of tron" is straight up a meme by this point right?
Yeah I know, but I want to tear my eyes out just looking at the text on that card. I may be a pessimist, but I don't have much reason not to be lel.

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Post by Albegas » 2 years ago

I don't play any form of Tron in general, but Green Tron does have decent options to deal with it. They already have cheap colored artifact removal options for the SB, and if the meta shifts in a way where Thragtusk becomes less favorable, they can swap that for World Breaker for a recursive main deck option. In a tight pinch there's also Blast Zone and Ulamog, though I'd probably cry if I had to use up an Ulamog just to deal with a 2 CMC artifact.

I also doubt that this will kill artifact decks, well at least no more so than they already are. MH2 is probably the best chance for any artifact deck to reemerge, and so far it's looking like whatever emerges will still need to run at least 3 colors either for setting up Thopter Blade or (potentially) for Dakkon, Shadow Slayer. I'd be surprised if Void Mirror was even worth siding in against any artifact deck running 2+ colors.

E-Tron seems to be the only deck with incredibly few options against Void Mirror. As far as I can tell, they have Blast Zone, Ulamog, and arguably Cavern of Souls. As far as I can tell, E-Tron doesn't really want more than 1 Ulamog, so it seems like the only reasonable option would be to put more Caverns and/or Blast Zones in the board

Like I said, I don't really play any form of Tron in general, but I'd really only be worried about Void Mirror if I was on E-Tron. G Tron still has multiple ways to deal with it post-board, and I doubt we'll see an artifact deck running fewer than 2 colors barring some sort of game-changing MH2 reveal.

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Post by The Fluff » 2 years ago

Simto wrote:
2 years ago
And in one fell swoop, Tron decks (and artifact decks) were killed.
Void Mirror.
I guess it was a good thing I never did commit to buying the last couple of expensive cards I needed.
This was exactly the kind of card I was hoping not to see. Don't want to sound like a pessimist, but if this kills green Tron then I don't really have anything left for Magic. I barely even want to play commander anymore.
going to use this to destroy my friend's Tron deck. /evil laugh

joking aside, it's not an auto win button. Probably won't help if drawn late or mid game where the tron player already has a strong board presence.
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want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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Post by Bearscape » 2 years ago

One of my favourite tidbits about Modern Magic is back in the day when Frank Karsten consistently refused to have an out to Stony Silence in his affinity sideboard. His reasoning was that, not only do they have to draw it, they have to draw it at a moment where they aren't already miles behind affinity's explosiveness, and then you had to draw your anti-hate that is now hard to cast due to most your colored mana sources being artifacts. And that is only post-sideboard, they had to win a game without sideboarding too.

Tron is comparable to affinity in that way in that it just has such a powerful, immensely consistent gameplan. Yea, sometimes you'll get hosed, but sometimes your opponent is a game down and sadly looks at the hate piece they just topdecked staring down a resolved T3 Karn. We've seen so many card that were "the end of tron" and it never stuck. Just get hosed sometimes, it's fine, you'll crush them otherwise. And if you're really REALLY afraid of losing to it, just play a few more natural green sources (which is likely to happen anyways with Abundant Harvest becoming legal) and side a playset of Nature's Claim.

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