Too long to be as horrible a player as I am....Revised/Dark
A couple of friends of mine have started an MTG Podcast that will begin this Saturday. It is called the SnapCast and I will be a third host and MTGO correspondent. The focus is on the Modern format, cause we love it so much....Wanna do a plug for me in the future?
Jund is one of the better decks in the format and Fae won quite a few PTQs. Little technicality since I don't think these are pushing people away from the format, perse, but the decks exist...
Stoneblade doesn't exist if only because Stoneforge Mystic is banned...
Otherwise I agree with Tyler's assessment of this format.
I might have some free time this summer to write some more, and Modern is my format soooo..
Good work, Tyler. I think If you do another one, you should mention UW Tron because it is still very much a deck, and based on SE data lately, is well positioned again. Also, Melira Pod is a deck that should be highlighted. So powerful in the right hands (ie not mine. I hate the deck, but I know it is good)
I have won with black, I have seen a few draft vids of black winning. I think it is much easier to draft the other colors if they are open and make a solid deck. However black is viable if you get the right cards, and you usually do since no one is drafting black right now. The best combo for black I have seen seem to be either Black/Blue or Black/Green. Black blue uses tempo to get the job done, drawing cards and bouncing creatures as need be. Homicidal seclusion works really well here. Black green uses the beefy creatures in black and the removal paired with greens own creatures.
I enjoyed a fairly rare look into the format that intrigues me the most. I think the overall age of modern is partly the reason for it's lack of coverage and possibly its "wide openess". I imagine after a year perhaps two we will start seeing 3-4 very key decks that typically win, still a good number in my opinion, as there is no Fae, Jund, Stoneblade that causes so many people to avoid formats. Thanks again for the research and stats.
**small note...when referring to a set of cards it's "suite" not sweet ex.
""burn already; giving opponents a chance to squirm away from the damage may be a worse than you'd expect.
The burn sweet is smokin'. As I alluded to above, Bump, Shard Volley, Rift Bolt, Lightning Bolt, and Lava Spike give the deck 19 1-casting cost burn spells doing three damage""
Glad to see the change of pace. And I wionder if we could just *snip* that Negate from MD and put in the 4th Vapor Snag....seems a bit more legit than having a more narrow card MD.
@KaraZorEl- 6/20- probably no changes to Modern though, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
@Blippy- Don't you actually have to be a senior to use the "senior moment" excuse?
I haven't been to one of these in a while because I have been trying to Q IRL for PT Return to Ravnica. Been playing more standard than I care to admit.
I started Mid 1994, though a friend purchased some packs and a starter for me before that (in 93) so that I had some Unlimited cards (mox sapphire, time walk, birds of paradise, shivan dragon, and 2 demonic attorneys were the rares if I remember right.) Had the cards for quite a while, then learned how to play while attending a Dex Con where people were playing this game like crazy.
I attended Dex Con each year (from year 1) to run a Champions module (written for the event by me each year) and I totally did not see the MTG craze coming. When I got home with my newly minted knowledge I started playing and collecting in earnest. Soon I found places to buy packs and singles and then I met some people who really played the game and had all the cards I missed from Arabian Nights, Antiquities and Legends.
Was a weird time. One guy (who went on to become one of NYC's Finest) traded me Urza's Tron (all 12 urza's lands) + some cool AN cards (commons) for my Time Walk. I had no clue what it was worth even at the time, so I was happy with that trade for a few months until I picked up my first Scrye and turned red. Since then I have paid a lot more attention to card values.
I am glad that I at least recognized the general value of the mox and didn't end up trading THAT for a bunch of junk. (Though I did sell it years later for $125 to Neutral Ground.)
The Modern PE starts when I usually send out my spam for Tribal Apocalypse (1600 GMT). I'm not sure where you get 2300, unless that's possibly the ENDING time.
The modern special event is really interesting, but is a one hour unfavorable for European players. The 16:00 UTC are 23:00 GMT approximately in Europe, do 4 rounds of swiss plus top 8 means to end at the morning of Sunday. I hope Wizard put a second event with more favorable star time for European players.
the list I used last night to play Overdrive! is not the same list I used Saturday to play Eurodrive!
Also, I don't think GabrielVS made both semifinals at Overdrive! ;)
It's a shame I won't be able to play the discounted PE June 9. I'll try some SEs, must check the new calendar...
Welcome back, Eibon! Glad to see decklists from you again. Still looking forward to the moment you'll decide to actually play tribal online!
I have to say, Prismatic Omen/Scapeshift was kinda huge online couple years ago, when Extended was still a thing. So it sounds a bit overdone. But I feel Scouts as a tribe really own the rights to do any possible Valakut/special land combo.
Anyway, I'd like to see stuff we're not playing from you. C'mon, I know you have a good Spellshaper deck to share! :)
Hi somebody miss me last week. Im still reading this forum, and i have alot of ideas and decks to show in future, if peopole want new ideas. In week 68-69 there was scout deck named mountain trek, and I became interested in it. So i think few days how to make it my budjet, cause i dont own 4 primeval titans. I found two VERY sick combos what fit in it perfectly. Gameplan is put prismatic omen onto table and after that use Scapeshift or Last Stand to win. Dimir infiltrator can search prismatic omen or spawning pit. Spawning pit is good way to get rid of Veteran Explorer or Viridian Emissary. And just try to sac them when you have attacker equiped with adventuring gear going through. Dimir infiltrator is ofcourse best paper (of digital image) to do that.
If you have ravnica lands (UG) and (BG) you can change Borderland rangers to Wood elves, to get this deck more fast. But i dont have them to put every deck so here is my deck as it is.
Ok and you mentioned Insects so here is my bug deck as it is. Its very strait forward style attack deck with alot of synergy with sacrificing creatures. Build is solid and deck can answer any kinds of threats. I have won 2/3 of games what i have played with this (yes i keep track of my tribal games and decks) you can show this list also your next article, if you like.
Slime eating Bugs:
3 Scute Mob
4 Mortician Beetle
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Nantuko Husk
2 Bane of the Living
1 Nantuko Vigilante
2 Cleancrawler
3 Mitotic Slime
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Geth´s Verdict
4 Chainer´s edict
1 Diabolic edict
3 Life // Death
1 Maelstrom Pulse
I'd say things are pretty wide open, at least at the minute, with a Combo deck, a Control deck, an Aggro deck and a Mid-range deck in the finals of the last tournament.
Never played because of the highly mutable legality list, but now that it is static (though, I guess its been this way awhile?) this seems worth a look. What does the Heirloom meta look like?
While Tron is the #2 deck in terms of number of appearances, it is one of the "poorest performing" decks in the T1 meta. Tron, as a whole, goes 4-0 only ~12% of the time it shows up. And all of these 4-0 appearances are GR Thin Tron (once with a U splash). No other Tron has gone 4-0 this quarter. GR Thin Tron on it's own only takes 4-0 ~17% of the time. An archetype taking 4-0 more than 20% of the time is doing very well indeed.
Also, Tron is not that expensive. The money cards are the 4x Karn. Everything else in the deck is relatively cheap.
Too long to be as horrible a player as I am....Revised/Dark
A couple of friends of mine have started an MTG Podcast that will begin this Saturday. It is called the SnapCast and I will be a third host and MTGO correspondent. The focus is on the Modern format, cause we love it so much....Wanna do a plug for me in the future?
Scratch my back and I will scratch yours!!!
Jund is one of the better decks in the format and Fae won quite a few PTQs. Little technicality since I don't think these are pushing people away from the format, perse, but the decks exist...
Stoneblade doesn't exist if only because Stoneforge Mystic is banned...
Otherwise I agree with Tyler's assessment of this format.
I might have some free time this summer to write some more, and Modern is my format soooo..
Good work, Tyler. I think If you do another one, you should mention UW Tron because it is still very much a deck, and based on SE data lately, is well positioned again. Also, Melira Pod is a deck that should be highlighted. So powerful in the right hands (ie not mine. I hate the deck, but I know it is good)
I have won with black, I have seen a few draft vids of black winning. I think it is much easier to draft the other colors if they are open and make a solid deck. However black is viable if you get the right cards, and you usually do since no one is drafting black right now. The best combo for black I have seen seem to be either Black/Blue or Black/Green. Black blue uses tempo to get the job done, drawing cards and bouncing creatures as need be. Homicidal seclusion works really well here. Black green uses the beefy creatures in black and the removal paired with greens own creatures.
Yep, dunno how I missed Sweet over Suite (except that it is a sweet suite!) or the may be worse (not A worse). Good catches.
I enjoyed a fairly rare look into the format that intrigues me the most. I think the overall age of modern is partly the reason for it's lack of coverage and possibly its "wide openess". I imagine after a year perhaps two we will start seeing 3-4 very key decks that typically win, still a good number in my opinion, as there is no Fae, Jund, Stoneblade that causes so many people to avoid formats. Thanks again for the research and stats.
**small note...when referring to a set of cards it's "suite" not sweet ex.
""burn already; giving opponents a chance to squirm away from the damage may be a worse than you'd expect.
The burn sweet is smokin'. As I alluded to above, Bump, Shard Volley, Rift Bolt, Lightning Bolt, and Lava Spike give the deck 19 1-casting cost burn spells doing three damage""
@Senior moments - usually but Blippy is getting a head start. :p
I like it, Mikey.
Glad to see the change of pace. And I wionder if we could just *snip* that Negate from MD and put in the 4th Vapor Snag....seems a bit more legit than having a more narrow card MD.
But as always, I love the content.
@KaraZorEl- 6/20- probably no changes to Modern though, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
@Blippy- Don't you actually have to be a senior to use the "senior moment" excuse?
I haven't been to one of these in a while because I have been trying to Q IRL for PT Return to Ravnica. Been playing more standard than I care to admit.
Glad that phoque is there to do my dirty work.
I started Mid 1994, though a friend purchased some packs and a starter for me before that (in 93) so that I had some Unlimited cards (mox sapphire, time walk, birds of paradise, shivan dragon, and 2 demonic attorneys were the rares if I remember right.) Had the cards for quite a while, then learned how to play while attending a Dex Con where people were playing this game like crazy.
I attended Dex Con each year (from year 1) to run a Champions module (written for the event by me each year) and I totally did not see the MTG craze coming. When I got home with my newly minted knowledge I started playing and collecting in earnest. Soon I found places to buy packs and singles and then I met some people who really played the game and had all the cards I missed from Arabian Nights, Antiquities and Legends.
Was a weird time. One guy (who went on to become one of NYC's Finest) traded me Urza's Tron (all 12 urza's lands) + some cool AN cards (commons) for my Time Walk. I had no clue what it was worth even at the time, so I was happy with that trade for a few months until I picked up my first Scrye and turned red. Since then I have paid a lot more attention to card values.
I am glad that I at least recognized the general value of the mox and didn't end up trading THAT for a bunch of junk. (Though I did sell it years later for $125 to Neutral Ground.)
Still no ban changes on Modern? :(
Right, I messed up as usual with time zones, thanks
The Modern PE starts when I usually send out my spam for Tribal Apocalypse (1600 GMT). I'm not sure where you get 2300, unless that's possibly the ENDING time.
The modern special event is really interesting, but is a one hour unfavorable for European players. The 16:00 UTC are 23:00 GMT approximately in Europe, do 4 rounds of swiss plus top 8 means to end at the morning of Sunday. I hope Wizard put a second event with more favorable star time for European players.
KensanOni was the Enchantress deck player.
I thought I edited your decklist for Overdrive!, but I must not have saved it.
A lovely pair of senior moments. :(
Hi Blippy,
the list I used last night to play Overdrive! is not the same list I used Saturday to play Eurodrive!
Also, I don't think GabrielVS made both semifinals at Overdrive! ;)
It's a shame I won't be able to play the discounted PE June 9. I'll try some SEs, must check the new calendar...
Great article, as usual!
Welcome back, Eibon! Glad to see decklists from you again. Still looking forward to the moment you'll decide to actually play tribal online!
I have to say, Prismatic Omen/Scapeshift was kinda huge online couple years ago, when Extended was still a thing. So it sounds a bit overdone. But I feel Scouts as a tribe really own the rights to do any possible Valakut/special land combo.
Anyway, I'd like to see stuff we're not playing from you. C'mon, I know you have a good Spellshaper deck to share! :)
What Blippy said. Or you can just click at the link I put at the beginning of every article: you can access everything from that page.
Hi somebody miss me last week. Im still reading this forum, and i have alot of ideas and decks to show in future, if peopole want new ideas. In week 68-69 there was scout deck named mountain trek, and I became interested in it. So i think few days how to make it my budjet, cause i dont own 4 primeval titans. I found two VERY sick combos what fit in it perfectly. Gameplan is put prismatic omen onto table and after that use Scapeshift or Last Stand to win. Dimir infiltrator can search prismatic omen or spawning pit. Spawning pit is good way to get rid of Veteran Explorer or Viridian Emissary. And just try to sac them when you have attacker equiped with adventuring gear going through. Dimir infiltrator is ofcourse best paper (of digital image) to do that.
If you have ravnica lands (UG) and (BG) you can change Borderland rangers to Wood elves, to get this deck more fast. But i dont have them to put every deck so here is my deck as it is.
4 Veteran Exlorer
4 Sylvan Ranger
4 Viridian Emissary
4 Safehold elite
4 Borderland ranger
4 Dimir infiltrator
4 Prismatic omen
4 Scapeshift
4 Last stand
1 Spawning pit
2 Adventuring gear
1 island
1 swamp
3 Valakutt, the molten pinnacle
16 forest
and you can put this list onto your next article if you like to.
Ok and you mentioned Insects so here is my bug deck as it is. Its very strait forward style attack deck with alot of synergy with sacrificing creatures. Build is solid and deck can answer any kinds of threats. I have won 2/3 of games what i have played with this (yes i keep track of my tribal games and decks) you can show this list also your next article, if you like.
Slime eating Bugs:
3 Scute Mob
4 Mortician Beetle
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Nantuko Husk
2 Bane of the Living
1 Nantuko Vigilante
2 Cleancrawler
3 Mitotic Slime
1 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Geth´s Verdict
4 Chainer´s edict
1 Diabolic edict
3 Life // Death
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Forest
2 Swarmyard
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Tainted Wood
12 Swamp
The events are now being stored at Gatherling.com so you can look at past events and see what got played.
http://www.gatherling.com/eventreport.php
Also, my last article discussed some of the main decks within each archetype though some of the lists can be updated with the updated legailty list.
http://puremtgo.com/articles/reintroducing-heirloom
I'd say things are pretty wide open, at least at the minute, with a Combo deck, a Control deck, an Aggro deck and a Mid-range deck in the finals of the last tournament.
Hope you can come play some time.
The list has been static since 2010.
Never played because of the highly mutable legality list, but now that it is static (though, I guess its been this way awhile?) this seems worth a look. What does the Heirloom meta look like?
While Tron is the #2 deck in terms of number of appearances, it is one of the "poorest performing" decks in the T1 meta. Tron, as a whole, goes 4-0 only ~12% of the time it shows up. And all of these 4-0 appearances are GR Thin Tron (once with a U splash). No other Tron has gone 4-0 this quarter. GR Thin Tron on it's own only takes 4-0 ~17% of the time. An archetype taking 4-0 more than 20% of the time is doing very well indeed.
Also, Tron is not that expensive. The money cards are the 4x Karn. Everything else in the deck is relatively cheap.
*EVERY SINGLE DECK* in the "big boys" chart of the meta performs better than Tron.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0AhLez4zEwHkIdFYxc0tpSHA5Qk...
Barrow Ghoul is awesome
The main thing to keep in mind is that arbitrage only works when there is a spike or dip that someone does not respond quickly to.