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

[Ed06288]

Pioneer doesn't interest me much either because of how pushed new standard sets are.

[The Fluff]

@EonAon

oh, nice to hear that Affinity is still alive.

[Simto]

White just got a better Remand from the lord of the rings set. That's the first card that's going to see play we've seen so far.

[drmarkb]

Wotc don't really want Modern to die. It means they can keep making by printing modern sets that avoid standard. They don't want to ban expensive cards like Ragavan though.
Modern's big issue is that it is expensive but vulnerable to reprints and bans. Its identity is all over the place and has been for years. Legacy is the Brainstorm/Sol land/0cc mana rock/wasteland format where all the archetypes exist and balance against each other- it is full of "no cards". Brainstorm is key to the format, and will never be banned. Modern isn't- it generally lacks prison and hardcore stax decks, and spell based combo is far weaker and they even banned lattice- because "it is not fun" (I would rather any muppet who thinks it not fun be removed from they format and go and play EDH but hey ho). Pioneer is about the board, end of, and combo decks will be pruned to 1-3 in a format where 20 aggro/midrange decks exist. Modern lacks financial stability of duals etc., but has a high buy in.



FWIW There is no real drop off in attendence here, it is low as it is for all constructed cf. EDH.

[motleyslayer]

I feel modern is way too popular of a format for them to let die. Even with the people who claim to not enjoy playing MH cards, there are people who love the impact MH sets have on modern. At least in my are, modern events easily get the best turnouts by far, to the point stores won't consider running anything else outside of prerelease.

Pioneer is becoming more popular but it's hard to touch modern in terms of popularity

[drmarkb]

Interestijng. Up the road from me they went to Thursday Modern to accomodate Friday Pioneer. Considering they have commander etc., and even Legacy on a Friday, that is saying something.
Personally I am Ok with modern horizons in Modern. I have more of an issue with it in Legacy, where its impact was too great.

[motleyslayer]

what card(s) from March of the Machine can people see making an impact in modern? I don't know what I should be picking up at prerelease (been playing rakdos scam as of late, but also have murktide and I believe most of rhinos. Also really hoping for shadow to be good again)

[Simto]

I don't know if I've just lost interest, didn't pay attention or just didn't notice anything with modern potential. Bit of a letdown given this set was the big "Avengers Endgame universe cataclysmic event", but at the same time, it's nice that a new set doesn't have a massive format twister too.
There's one green artifact that would be good in Hardened Scales deck. That's about all I noticed.

[AvalonAurora]

Cards that might see some sideboard use:
Phyrexian Censor
Surge of Salvation
Lithomantic Barrage

Possibly playable in some decks or theoretical decks:
Akki Scrapchomper
Bloodfeather Phoenix
Moment of Truth
Mirran Banesplitter
Wrenn's Resolve

[Ulka]

The one thing that I think might have modern potential is [Grafted Butcher]]. While there are currently no Phyrexian tribal decks in modern I could see one forming given some of the powerful phyrexians that have been printed in the past especially in black and especially when this provides a way to power up damage and provide evasion.

[motleyslayer]

Grafted Butcher seems really neat but I dunno if it'll have a home. I really like Bloodfeather Phoenix in modern

[Simto]

Looks like nothing except maybe one or two cards from the Lord of the Rings set will make any appearances in Modern. I'm honestly kinda relieved and tired of it all at the same time.
Palantir of Orthanc looks really cool as something Karn could get in the tron sideboard for grindy games.

[motleyslayer]

yeah I agree. LotR seems pretty underwhelming for modern, I can't see it making as much of an impact as the MH sets

[Ed06288]

I still feel like Tron is a very overrated deck in the format. I get that it gets a power boost from the one ring, so maybe it gains some ground here. But I'm surprised it has done as well as it has on mtgo over the past couple years. I still think the deck has consistency problems.

[Simto]

I still feel like Tron is a very overrated deck in the format. I get that it gets a power boost from the one ring, so maybe it gains some ground here. But I'm surprised it has done as well as it has on mtgo over the past couple years. I still think the deck has consistency problems.

It's pretty crazy seeing Karn Liberated being completely pushed out of Tron decks for The One Ring. I still don't get why people run Jegantha, the Wellspring too. It just ends up being a generic 5/5 the way people build their decks too. Surely there are better options than that, also to avoid the companion drawback.
Still crazy, not even Karn Liberated is good enough for modern.

[motleyslayer]

I definitely didn't think I'd see the day tron decks weren't running any copies of Karn Liberated but I guess it's pretty slow in this format. Which is weird because it used to be one of the main reasons to play tron

[Simto]

Pro Tour coming up this weekend. They're playing Modern. Could be an interesting watch if you ignore the barrage of constant commercials and annoying hosts and commentators constantly talking.

[motleyslayer]

3 tron decks and 3 rhinos decks in the top 8. single copy each of titan and scam. Interesting to see where the format goes

[Ulka]

Now that tron is 'back' as one of the kings, it makes me feel good about if I can start jamming green devotion again. That said I'm just excited to be able to play modern again

[Simto]

I wouldn't be surprised if they ban Creator Karn because "It's the best One Ring deck, so it doesn't need more power" or something like that. Or they ban Ragavan after people shouting about it for two years, now that orcish bowmasters are taking care of the monkey and isn't selling packs.
I fully expect Wizards to do something dumb and since it's only once a year, they will even do something just for the sake of doing it. Un-impactful unbans and bans of cards that don't sell packs, but with some dumb excuse like "it's part of the combo" or something.

I did like the coverage of the pro tour though. It was pretty much just constant games with very little time wasting in between matches. Lots of pretty wild games being played where you saw people stabilise after having a 99,9% chance of defeat. Even saw a stolen Ulamog being cast on turn 3 lol, multiple wurmcoil engines and creator karns being stolen.
I'm sad we didn't get to see the lone Merfolk deck that went 8-2 on the stream, but it was cool it did so well.
It made my group of friends want to play a bit more modern again when we get together.

Card of the tournament is almost by default the one ring, but Dauthi Voidwalker was the real mvp

[motleyslayer]

I definitely see ban coming on Monday or whenever it is. The only thing I'll predict is that they won't ban any LOTR cards as that won't sell packs. Good chance they'll bn something from tron and either ban something from scam or errata evoke

[TheAmericanSpirit]

The August 7th B&R announcement is a joke. No bans on tron or scam or crash. I really wonder how the metagame is going to adjust long term. The only answer I can think of is Leyline of Sanctity becoming a SB staple to answer scam, but it does nothing against the other top decks.

Not sure what the next year holds for modern. All I can say for certain is that affinity is decidedly NOT well-positioned. I may use my sagas to convert into hammertime or Amulet titan in the next few months, at least those decks have a chance.

[Simto]

It'll be like this until Modern Horizon 3 where things will get really wild

[motleyslayer]

tbh the b and r on Monday seems about as close to "no changes" as they could have while still pretending to make changes. I don't know how much of a change preordain will make, if any at all

[Simto]

Yeah hehe, if Kanye played magic he would have gone on live tv and said "Wizards don't care about Modern" with a baffled Mark Rosewater next to him lol