I don't think anyone thinks Hypergenesis is a fair deck in Modern. :) So yep I agree.

Oh don't get me wrong, I think OE has some info, but OE players (somewhat rightfully to begin with now it's like just leave it alone) couldn't seem to quit emphasizing how important their (dead) format was to Modern and how all the brewing had been done in some PREs.

I think creatures will be a monstrously large part of Modern; apparently combo (if it's not T3 goldfishing) and fun aggro (a.e. no fully powered affinity) are okay, but control needs neutering still.

Merfolk Mesmerist is one of those deceiving cards. You think it'd be terrible, because it's associated with mill and all, but it's actually pretty decent. It's no Vedalken Entrancer, mind you, but if there's a board stall and you have a Mesmerist out, it's pretty good value to just start milling them out, and I've won several games that way.

I haven't gone all-in mill yet; the opportunity hasn't presented itself to me.

One moment you are playing and talking about sealed, then you are going on about Standard, and then quickly you touch on Pauper.

You are all over the place, sir. I am genuinely interested because I have some tix and am anticipating trying to grind for season 10.

I just have a hard time following what you are talking about here, which is frustrating because I want to know. It would help if when you begin talking about one thing that you finish the thought completely before moving on to the next topic.

Just some advice. Introductions and transitions are among of the hardest things to accomplish when writing. Your grammar needs a little work as well, but everyone could use work on their grammar.

Just a little feedback. I want more, but I want to understand too. :)

Keep it up.

Andrew

Interesting -- I definitely saw it quite a bit (it was even used it in the Community Cup) -- I was running Zoo splash blue for negate and meddling mage, so it probably was boarded in against me as well. But honestly the deck is just way too powerful, even if they "only" get to run 4 mana accelerants -- they get to run 10-12+ cards that read "3CC - I win the game".

Thanks for the thought processes behind some of the pics. I enjoy the draft format and my hardest time is picking the best possible card. From the 3 drafts you posted it looks like fliers are aplenty and a good way to go. I did a draft recently and the Merfolk Mesmerist was beast. I milled the guy down to about 10 cards but messed up and cast Time Reversal when the match was still slightly in my favor instead of holding on to it. The guy reloaded and finished me off. You would know better than I but the Mesmerist with a Jaces Erasure combo seems like it could do well.

Not gonna point out the mistakes you made cause i think you already know what you did wrong but wtg to bust threw it to make the finals not many people can make mistakes in classic and bust on threw and over come to make the finals. you played great other then the few mistakes you made and who thought a illusion deck would make a classic deck. great job to all Clan Eternal i am very proud to be a part of the clan.

WTG Clan Eternal.

Okay, then extrapolate Std to block. It's still comparable. The fact is that Overextended events are relevant, but they are not this massively useful resource that some O/E supporters rage that they are. They aren't "Basically Modern going forward" as I paraphrase from some other comments. Look, we get that Overextended mattered to some extent. Now it's basically dead and can we move on?

I disagree that the initial pws were overpowered. In fact Id say they were just right. Some of the newer ones are indeed overpowered as I said, but to my mind it isn't all about playing one and winning unless you just don't know how to deal with them. Yes, vs traditional magic strategies they can be hard to deal with but even without a single card that says target planeswalker, you can handily beat someone with them. Well I can and in a casual environment at that.

Certainly in the tougher Tourney environments people have adjusted and learned how to win vs a lucky Gideon, Koth etc. (I have both won and lost vs these.) Even JTMS was not invulnerable. Yes the deathblow to a pw does mean some damage not dealt to a player instead but so what? That is no different than a fog effect or lifegain. Please don't tell you find either of those to be offensive to the game?

I think you overrate the effect pws have on tourney play too. Before Koth, RDW was winning quite handily without much help from the likes of Chandra (1 or 2). MBC was also at times a contender without much support from the lovely yet costly Liliana, and Soren while interesting was equally left out of the party invites.

On the topic of Mythics. Well obviously they AREN'T bad for WOTC as the effect has been to increase sales not decrease them. I dislike the extra rarity on the one hand and then realize I am grateful for it on the other. Rares became much more affordable in general once the Mythic rarity was set. Even nominally gamebreaking rares were not too high to afford, because the top $ slots were taken by the admittedly overpowered mythics.

Yes it makes me frustrated to see a deck full of busted synergistic mythics when their opponent is playing only commons and uncommons and maybe a dirt cheap rare or two but this is the nature of the game. It has always had that disparity in some form. Thankfully in casual play, people can seek games more near to the level of competition they want.

When you extrapolate from Overextended to Modern you are extrapolating from a format with MORE cards to one with LESS, and the format with less is basically a pretty similar subset of the larger format. You should also notice that the top Overextended decks were often 90 to 100% Modern legal (apart from the new ban list).

The bans did not touch some decks (Zoo, 12 post, Cascade combos) when compared to Overextended. The archetypes most hit by the bans were combo and control, which are also the types of deck that would tend to benefit more from the older sets with cards like Counterspell (in contrast, there has been an obvious power creep in creatures, which is also proven by the fact that Overextended Zoo was 100% modern legal and in fact LEGACY Zoo is basically Modern legal after you replace true duals with Ravnica duals!).

So while there were a few high-impact cards in the extra sets that are actually playable in a format with so many sets in it, clearly there were not that many of them - the biggest difference between the formats really is the ban list. So the extrapolation turns out to be rather accurate and behold, the format so far is comprised of the Overextended decks that were unaffected by the bans! Which is why you can also make some very accurate extrapolation in judging the power level of a card like Jace (perfectly safe) and Stoneforge Mystic (safe, although close, but not more overpowered than Dark Confidant).

When you extrapolate from block into future standard format, you are extrapolating from a format with less cards to one with around the double the cards (not just the 1st set - the large one - of the new block, but also the cards in the core set(s)), many of which are similar in power level by design. WotC wants the new sets to matter in standard with whole new decks. They often do design one or two cards per set with an eye for larger formats, but it is not nearly comparable...

Ivo.

Daze = White Chancellor, as they're functionally the same, and I can never remember the name of the white chancellor.

@Alternate - Your comments on eternal formats (Classic, Legacy, Modern) sound uninformed and are frankly incorrect. You might not be interested in those formats - that's totally fine. But you don't need to belittle them and reduce them to "turn 2 wins" because that is not what those formats are about. It may look like it to an outsider because so much more of the game in eternal is played on the stack rather than the battlefield. So you watch a game, see some lands and tutors played, and then boom somebody wins. But that win came from careful planning, hand sculpting, anticipating the opponent's move, knowing the metagame, and knowing when to strike.

Yes Vault/Key exists. And Tinker into Blightsteel. And turn 1 Oath off a Lotus Petal. That's the fun of eternal is playing those broken combos. It's also fun to Nature's Claim your opponent's turn 1 Oath with Force of Will backup, putting them into topdeck mode on turn 2 while you carry out your plan. There are broken plays, but there are always ways to stop them.

You don't have to be interested in eternal - it's not for everybody. But I've got to stand up for my favorite type of Magic and tell you to not reduce it to total luck, because it it not that at all.