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

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Arkmer
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Post by Arkmer » 2 years ago

I really think only time will tell at this point and I am not exactly optimistic. Truthfully, I am more worried about LotR than the Neon Dynasty. While they both feel like a dilution of MtG's identity, I think LotR is more intrusive because it injects an actual entire franchise into the game. Dynasty is at least going to fit its story to the MtG theme in some way. Don't mistake me now, it's not just LotR that makes me feel this way, it's all Universe Beyond; LotR is just the one that's breaching into Modern.

It's weird though, I'm not really a story person, I play entirely for the mechanics and gameplay, but I have to admit that UB does frustrate me quite a bit.

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EonAon
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Post by EonAon » 2 years ago

I, reasonably, am waiting for more details than one or two artist shots and a descriptive blurb before making my final opinion. The story from Kamigawa was pretty decent overall and seeing how the plane is both different and the same after such a long time will be interesting. While some people just are going to outright hate the direction its going I always reserve final judgement for after experiencing the whole of whats given rather than the hype or blurbs that only tease what might or might not be final product.

Who says that spirits cant evolve over time by how a world develops spiritually. I mean take slenderman, a ghost story that was created in the 20th century that may be derived off of classic blank face horrors but is refined in THIS time.

I mean should we hate Innistrad Crimson Vow because WOTC didnt finish the Thailia story about how her and St. Traft were fighting the eldrich Horrors of the plane when they sealed Emrakrul in the previous set?

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Simto
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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

Arkmer wrote:
2 years ago
I really think only time will tell at this point and I am not exactly optimistic. Truthfully, I am more worried about LotR than the Neon Dynasty. While they both feel like a dilution of MtG's identity, I think LotR is more intrusive because it injects an actual entire franchise into the game. Dynasty is at least going to fit its story to the MtG theme in some way. Don't mistake me now, it's not just LotR that makes me feel this way, it's all Universe Beyond; LotR is just the one that's breaching into Modern.

It's weird though, I'm not really a story person, I play entirely for the mechanics and gameplay, but I have to admit that UB does frustrate me quite a bit.
I liked how they did the Godzilla cards. They were just different artworks.

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AvalonAurora
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Post by AvalonAurora » 2 years ago

EonAon wrote:
2 years ago
I, reasonably, am waiting for more details than one or two artist shots and a descriptive blurb before making my final opinion. The story from Kamigawa was pretty decent overall and seeing how the plane is both different and the same after such a long time will be interesting. While some people just are going to outright hate the direction its going I always reserve final judgement for after experiencing the whole of whats given rather than the hype or blurbs that only tease what might or might not be final product.

Who says that spirits cant evolve over time by how a world develops spiritually. I mean take slenderman, a ghost story that was created in the 20th century that may be derived off of classic blank face horrors but is refined in THIS time.
Part of the problem I potentially see with it is if they make it a timeline incompatible retcon situation, Like they don't leave enough low-tech areas and have even the traditional groups of ratfolk carrying around beam-swords or something that would create issues with Agents of Artifice due to Jace's visit to the special swamp there not having anything like that kind of magi-tech. They haven't left the setting quite alone enough to be too free with how present the new magi-tech stuff is.

There is also the issue of unless a lot of the stuff sucks, you get questions like 'why isn't Tezzeret (who knows about Kamigawa) already using stuff related to it for X-purpose, and why didn't we already have a story there with the gatewatch when he inevitably did similar innovation encouragement and trying to get his hold on stuff there as he did on Kaladesh unless their stuff is utter %$#% and just looks nice'. Agents of Artifice means he definitely knows about the place, and it isn't like the locals are organized and unified enough to properly defend it from him, especially if he used some kind of disguise, nor do they have some kind of good widespread planeswalker tracking, because, again, Agents of Artifice, not to mention Tamiyo's story circle members coming and going relatively freely.

So that means either the artifacts in the block basically have to be universally inferior to Kaladesh in magi-tech kind of stuff and utility and just look cool, or you have to break the story or introduce a ton of retcons.

It wouldn't be a problem if we didn't already know that Tezzeret knows about the plane, but since he does know, it means there has to be some reason why he isn't using stuff with their noticeable aesthetic, and if they are advanced enough, why he didn't do the same as he did over on Kaladesh BEFORE War of the Spark, or at least already have story bits about Tamiyo and her story circle getting warned by Ajani or someone and driving him off the plane and setting up a system to monitor incoming planeswalkers there.

So that means either the story is broken, full of retcons, or we've got a magi-cyber-punk setting with bleh artifacts. I'm not sure which option or combination is worse, so I have a bad feeling about this set.

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pierreb
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Post by pierreb » 2 years ago

I think you are over-simplifying. IRL we got nuclear weapons, but people are not walking around with them in their pocket. Similarly, despite our more technological world, we don't have flying ships, giant mechs and inter-planar portal.

IOW, I think Kaladesh can have more advance tech than Kamigawa, because it's the inventors' plane. I think Neon Dynasty will probably just be magic with neons.

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Bearscape
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Post by Bearscape » 2 years ago

I really dislike crossovers, it cheapens the experience for both involved brands for me. I'm no longer enjoying a fictional world, I'm being shaken down for every penny I have because obviously I'm stupid enough to clap when I recognise the thing. I thought the Godzilla cards were ugly, and was honestly disgusted when they did the first walking dead crossover in black border. I begrudgingly settled on just ignoring it since the cards aren't legal in formats I play, and my EDH group unanimously agreed with immediately housebanning them. In the same vein, I was set on just ignoring the other secret lair crossovers, and I actually think the new sets look very interesting, including Kamigawapunk 2077.

Now however I'm being told the Lord of the Rings set will be Modern legal, a format I've played for over a decade. Not only that, but there will be more to come. Ironically enough I actually love LotR, but this announcement basically set an end date for my enjoyment of magic. It's still two years away, and I can see myself getting over LotR cards in Modern because at least the setting somewhat fits, but there is guaranteed some other Modern legal crossover coming up that will make me stop playing. That's very far in the future and who knows what will happen in that time so I'm not that distraught over it, but it is frustrating to hear people saying "the product just isn't for you" as the end all be all justification of these crossovers. I've spent so much time and have gotten so much enjoyment out of Modern, I feel like I have every reason to be upset when they announce it will drastically change.

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Simto
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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

I'm sure I'll be dead around the time any of this will make it's way into modern so lol.

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drmarkb
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Post by drmarkb » 2 years ago

If the product is not for me, my answer is what the @#%% is it doing in my !@#$%^%$ formats?

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Simto
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Post by Simto » 2 years ago

This werewolf set is looking extremely weak when it comes to cards that would be good in modern. But what cards would modern like to see right now anyway?

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AvalonAurora
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Post by AvalonAurora » 2 years ago

Simto wrote:
2 years ago
This werewolf set is looking extremely weak when it comes to cards that would be good in modern. But what cards would modern like to see right now anyway?
More common and uncommon options that are close enough to rare or mythic staples to help players build budget decks that are still relatively competitive?

Cards that help various tribes that aren't yet modern viable become modern viable?

Some new combo decks that work well in the current meta that aren't at all graveyard or big mana related?

Enough mono-color focused stuff to start encouraging more viable nykthos type stuff?

More modal spells along the lines of Abrade and Light of Hope that help avoid sideboard type effects ending up dead cards in hand when they aren't needed for their primary sideboard related purposes?

Better non-artifact grave hate for decks that don't include black or white (such as blue putting things back in the library, other/better green Ground Seal like stuff, or red 'burn the graveyard as well' exile the current graveyard or part of it attached to a burn spell)?

More stronger sorcery speed stuff that can better compete with instant speed stuff in various areas?

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Post by drmarkb » 2 years ago

Humility, Stasis, Sinkhole, Pyroblast, Winter Orb, Karakas, Wasteland, Force of Will, Swords to plowshares, Land Tax, Smokestack. I could go on.
Am I joking? Actually not really, I love those cards. Now of course, I will never get any of them, but I really don't want to play combat heavy magic, I respect those that do, but would like to play decks that don't.


In the end I was grateful to get cursed totem when we did. I would like one for walkers, but I would settle for not printing any more broken cards like Oko or Uro. Anything else is a bonus.

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Albegas
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Post by Albegas » 2 years ago

Simto wrote:
2 years ago
This werewolf set is looking extremely weak when it comes to cards that would be good in modern. But what cards would modern like to see right now anyway?
Honestly, a good Standard set has maybe a handful of cards that either slightly improve weaker Modern decks or provide interesting cards that can find their way into sideboards and maybe a 1-2 of in the main deck. We already get 1 set devoted to Modern every 2 years, so I prefer that Standard not rock the boat too much so that when they design the next MH set, they more or less know what the meta will look like going into the design phase. Whatever Modern needs, I'd rather see it introduced in MH rather than WotC try and force Modern playable cards into Standard just to end up with more Okos and more Once Upon a Time level cards

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Bearscape
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Post by Bearscape » 2 years ago

Honestly excited to see people on reddit discuss whether the utterly unplayable Teferi could fit in Modern. I'm good on metagame defining sets for quite a bit

Also, we got Faithless Looting back, but now it costs twice as much and is an instant. I'm curious to see whether that will do anything

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AvalonAurora
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Post by AvalonAurora » 2 years ago

Secrets of the Key caught my attention as a potential enabler for a janky Shape Anew deck.

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Post by motleyslayer » 2 years ago

Bearscape wrote:
2 years ago
Honestly excited to see people on reddit discuss whether the utterly unplayable Teferi could fit in Modern. I'm good on metagame defining sets for quite a bit

Also, we got Faithless Looting back, but now it costs twice as much and is an instant. I'm curious to see whether that will do anything
the new UW looting is interesting, especially because it's 2 colours. Not sure what decks will add it or if it'll enable anything new

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pierreb
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Post by pierreb » 2 years ago

I saw plenty of new humans that are strong maybes for the deck. I agree that the new Teferi is more likely to affect eternal formats than standard. I agree there were no Eldraine-level cards in the set though. Thankfully?

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Ulka
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Post by Ulka » 2 years ago

I'm just sad that the new werewolves don't flip via Moonmist because one of my favorite janky modern decks was a RUG werewolf delver deck and I would have loved for more cards for it but alas.

The one positive is that if I wanted to build it as BUG delver i could use Jerren, Corrupted Bishop // Ormendahl, the Corrupter instead. random thoughts on the new set for my janky fnm modern deck
Modern: Goryo's Gifts | Heartless Architect | Soul Sisters | MonoGreen Devotion
Pauper: Blackened Eggs | Zombies | Domain Zoo | Sultai Teachings | Jund Gardens

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Post by iTaLenTZ » 2 years ago

It seems Endurance was underestimated by a lot of people. I still don't get why it sees so much play. What makes Endurance so good? Is it always worth running in a green deck?

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Post by motleyslayer » 2 years ago

I feel that Endurance is so good because it's gy hate that can be cast for "free" at instant speed. So it can get people at instant speed instead of just sitting around on board

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Post by Bearscape » 2 years ago

iTaLenTZ wrote:
2 years ago
It seems Endurance was underestimated by a lot of people. I still don't get why it sees so much play. What makes Endurance so good? Is it always worth running in a green deck?
Endurance has a lot of text on it that secretly bumps it powerlevel. Of course it being powerful gravehate is obvious, but on top of that

-it's an elemental, which comes with a ton of synergies
-it has a cmc of 3, which is relevant for CoCo decks
-it has Flash, giving a flexible option against controlling decks
-has that magical fourth point of toughness making it bolt proof
-has Reach, which is a very relevant keyword that you won't find on that many Modern playable creatures

All those things combined are just all very powerful against what is good in Modern. Lots of counterspells, lots of red, lots of grave usage, and most of all lots of DRCs

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Post by iTaLenTZ » 2 years ago

You convinced me. I bought 2.

Which cards are good vs the cycle ability of Shark Typhoon?

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Post by Ed06288 » 2 years ago

Does Veil of Summer block the card draw effect of thought scour? Assuming the mill player targeted me?

@bearscape, nimble obstructionist?

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pierreb
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Post by pierreb » 2 years ago

Since Veil of Summer grants you hexproof from blue and Thought Scour has a single target targeting you, it fizzles and the caster does not draw a card. You, though, draw a card via veil.

Edit: and I think you meant to reply to talentz with that Nimble Obstructionist vsShark Typhoon

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Post by Mapccu » 2 years ago

Took a long break since dec 2019 but getting back into poking around. Trying to find recent modern articles and the formats are so fragmented now that there is much less going on for me to get up to speed with regarding content. Specifically looking for an updated elves list with the new additions. Anyone have any leads to share?

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drmarkb
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Post by drmarkb » 2 years ago

mtg decks .net will have a lot of lists, more than mtg top 8 anyway...........

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