PAX East 2015 news included double-faced planeswalkers in Magic Origins, Tarmogoyf and Karn Liberated in Modern Masters 2015, and a return to the plane of Zendikar in the fall.
I like the show. I haven't gotten into vintage yet though. I have several top-tier Legacy decks, so I'm well on my way towards having a vintage collection.
I don't think that there is too much that I'd like to hear that isn't there already. Sometimes, I wish that the show was longer, but that's just because I enjoy it so much.
I mean Invigorate and Berserk are the top 2 problematic cards at that deck. But, banning Berserk first, won't change much at its pace and efficiency. At least, this is my thought about this case.
The card I fear for the infect deck is Vines of Vastwood. Being able to remove the pumped creature is the surest path to beating the deck, and being able to counter your removal lends it the edge it needs.
I'm not sure. Invigorate doesn't win games by itself, Berserk does. And being forced to rely to red only for trampling effects (double strike alone is not enough) may be enough to discourage players. Scion had 4x Berserk and 2x Battle Rage. Were that 4x Battle Rage and 2x Fatal Frenzy instead, the deck would be way slower.
Last week, I have revised my infect deck after the event and I also tought about what should be truely banned from this deck. And my answer was: Invigorate
First, I have consider Berserk, but it is a redundant card that can be easily replaced for such doubling effect. Future version of such Infect deck can eaily splash for Red mana and use; Temur Battle Rage, Assault Strobe or even Fatal Frenzy. And among them, Temur Battle Rage is the optimum one as a following replacement.
Me and my overblown claims, haha. I guess that 'easily' should be an 'arguably'. I think I underestimate the impact that Khans has had on Modern. Siege Rhino is definitely a big deal.
The deck is fun and Kiln Fiend just loves being given Double Strike. As I say I think the deck is actually quite good but just not as good as Infect from a competitive standpoint.
I have been testing a similar 4c deck, but as a straight reanimator build with fatties such as titans, Iona, Elesh Norn and Terastodon. It puts more emphasis on the self-milling part by running cards like Faithess Looting and Life from the Loam, letting you go deep on the delve creatures (T2 Gurmag Angler is rather easy to achieve when Faithless Looting acts as a Dark Ritual). There's also a Raven's Crime / Tectonic Edge / Ghost Quarter package that is needed to combat control and tron decks.
It seems to me your build needlessly mashes together two decks (midrange blink value vs. Loam reanimator) that would work better as all-in builds. For example, Grisly Salvage should be Satyr Wayfinder because it can be blinked for value. I also don't think Lingering Souls is impactful enough and doesn't synergize with blinking. Birds of Paradise is a valuable ramp creature that lets you go for that T3 Rites for Elesh Norn or T4 Thragtusk, and helps a lot with the 4c manabase.
I saw some place online selling boxes of Fallen Empires for $130 a box.
I can remember that stuff selling for $25 bucks a box...and they STILL couldn't sell 'em! The way card prices had blown up on the older sets a lot of stores and speculators loaded up on Fallen Empires expecting big-money cards. Oh boy, they were disappointed!
I knew one guy who bought ten cases of Fallen Empires expecting to get rich.
By the way, Homelands was the most recent set out when I started playing and despite all the hate that Homelands receives I still remember it fondly.
"With Treasure Cruise banned, Monastery Swiftspear easily takes the crown for the most impactful card from Khans of Tarkir in Modern. Swiftspear is a very powerful one-drop and this deck is designed to maximise its abilities with lots of cheap spells and pumps to make it as big as possible."
I think Siege Rhino might disagree with that. Interesting deck though. Kiln Fiend gets huge fast. I Saw a deck sort of like this in a 2-player match one time.
I love fallen empires. If they revisited the flavor of all those old sets, but used modern set construction methods, they could make some awesome stuff. Revisiting Ulgrotha (Homelands) is something that they have thought about apparently.
The Tarkir Dragons are not epic enough to deserve the title of Elder Dragons.
Although, as to the original Elder Dragons from Legends, how could the original artist(s) of those Dragons been allowed to draw them as cuddly cartoon characters? It completely ruined the effect.
I haven't had a chance to listen yet but I'll give my 2 cents on type recycling: I am for it. Elder Dragon Legends may have been collectable in '94 but they have long since been reprinted (Chronicles, Italian Legends, etc) and otherwise superseded until they are mainly a vanity thing for those few who have surviving Legends copies.
I just wish the dragons themselves inspired the same sense of awe that the initial Elders did. I am not saying they suck because they don't but they don't make my Vorthos side (a small albeit vocal side of me) cheer either.
The Value Resto creates is just insane. I recently just added Elesh Norn as a way to keep opposing creatures down. It is not much better against tokens and aggro.
I thought about gifts but part of me just wants to keep it to 4 colors. I used to have search for tomorrow in here but after I cut the big Titans and such ramp became less important but I am still thinking about it.
Top 8s are a very small and unrepresentative sample of the overall metagame. The only full block format in recent time that has been completely broken was ISD block, and even that took until almost a month after the pro tour for people to discover the jund/splash white deck that ultimately dominated.
PAX East 2015 news included double-faced planeswalkers in Magic Origins, Tarmogoyf and Karn Liberated in Modern Masters 2015, and a return to the plane of Zendikar in the fall.
Gotta wonder how right I was with the rest of it.
Thanks Joe it's easier to make the show longer on weeks when delver doesn't make up 70% of the decks in the money.
I like the show. I haven't gotten into vintage yet though. I have several top-tier Legacy decks, so I'm well on my way towards having a vintage collection.
I don't think that there is too much that I'd like to hear that isn't there already. Sometimes, I wish that the show was longer, but that's just because I enjoy it so much.
Agreed. Taking out the counterspell that costs 1 mana is probably more to the point than disabling the combo itself.
I mean Invigorate and Berserk are the top 2 problematic cards at that deck. But, banning Berserk first, won't change much at its pace and efficiency. At least, this is my thought about this case.
The card I fear for the infect deck is Vines of Vastwood. Being able to remove the pumped creature is the surest path to beating the deck, and being able to counter your removal lends it the edge it needs.
I'm not sure. Invigorate doesn't win games by itself, Berserk does. And being forced to rely to red only for trampling effects (double strike alone is not enough) may be enough to discourage players. Scion had 4x Berserk and 2x Battle Rage. Were that 4x Battle Rage and 2x Fatal Frenzy instead, the deck would be way slower.
Last week, I have revised my infect deck after the event and I also tought about what should be truely banned from this deck. And my answer was: Invigorate
First, I have consider Berserk, but it is a redundant card that can be easily replaced for such doubling effect. Future version of such Infect deck can eaily splash for Red mana and use; Temur Battle Rage, Assault Strobe or even Fatal Frenzy. And among them, Temur Battle Rage is the optimum one as a following replacement.
Me and my overblown claims, haha. I guess that 'easily' should be an 'arguably'. I think I underestimate the impact that Khans has had on Modern. Siege Rhino is definitely a big deal.
The deck is fun and Kiln Fiend just loves being given Double Strike. As I say I think the deck is actually quite good but just not as good as Infect from a competitive standpoint.
I have very fond memories of fallen empires and homelands. Homelands was the first new set to be released when I started playing.
I thought baron sengir was the best card ever. I once triple dark ritualed out a Baron turn one. I thought that was insanely good.
I tried to like this comment, but then remembered it was not facebook :/
I've always loved the flavor text from Fallen Empires. It does a great job of telling the back story of the set.
How are the original elder dragons epic enough?
I have been testing a similar 4c deck, but as a straight reanimator build with fatties such as titans, Iona, Elesh Norn and Terastodon. It puts more emphasis on the self-milling part by running cards like Faithess Looting and Life from the Loam, letting you go deep on the delve creatures (T2 Gurmag Angler is rather easy to achieve when Faithless Looting acts as a Dark Ritual). There's also a Raven's Crime / Tectonic Edge / Ghost Quarter package that is needed to combat control and tron decks.
It seems to me your build needlessly mashes together two decks (midrange blink value vs. Loam reanimator) that would work better as all-in builds. For example, Grisly Salvage should be Satyr Wayfinder because it can be blinked for value. I also don't think Lingering Souls is impactful enough and doesn't synergize with blinking. Birds of Paradise is a valuable ramp creature that lets you go for that T3 Rites for Elesh Norn or T4 Thragtusk, and helps a lot with the 4c manabase.
I saw some place online selling boxes of Fallen Empires for $130 a box.
I can remember that stuff selling for $25 bucks a box...and they STILL couldn't sell 'em! The way card prices had blown up on the older sets a lot of stores and speculators loaded up on Fallen Empires expecting big-money cards. Oh boy, they were disappointed!
I knew one guy who bought ten cases of Fallen Empires expecting to get rich.
By the way, Homelands was the most recent set out when I started playing and despite all the hate that Homelands receives I still remember it fondly.
"With Treasure Cruise banned, Monastery Swiftspear easily takes the crown for the most impactful card from Khans of Tarkir in Modern. Swiftspear is a very powerful one-drop and this deck is designed to maximise its abilities with lots of cheap spells and pumps to make it as big as possible."
I think Siege Rhino might disagree with that. Interesting deck though. Kiln Fiend gets huge fast. I Saw a deck sort of like this in a 2-player match one time.
I love fallen empires. If they revisited the flavor of all those old sets, but used modern set construction methods, they could make some awesome stuff. Revisiting Ulgrotha (Homelands) is something that they have thought about apparently.
The Tarkir Dragons are not epic enough to deserve the title of Elder Dragons.
Although, as to the original Elder Dragons from Legends, how could the original artist(s) of those Dragons been allowed to draw them as cuddly cartoon characters? It completely ruined the effect.
Great poem! Loved it!! :)
I haven't had a chance to listen yet but I'll give my 2 cents on type recycling: I am for it. Elder Dragon Legends may have been collectable in '94 but they have long since been reprinted (Chronicles, Italian Legends, etc) and otherwise superseded until they are mainly a vanity thing for those few who have surviving Legends copies.
I just wish the dragons themselves inspired the same sense of awe that the initial Elders did. I am not saying they suck because they don't but they don't make my Vorthos side (a small albeit vocal side of me) cheer either.
The Value Resto creates is just insane. I recently just added Elesh Norn as a way to keep opposing creatures down. It is not much better against tokens and aggro.
That blue guy is a prisoner of the Rabbit and the demon. The Spy vs Spy guy is the Praetor.
I like to evoke a shreikmaw, then cast a restoration angel on it. so sweet :)
I thought about gifts but part of me just wants to keep it to 4 colors. I used to have search for tomorrow in here but after I cut the big Titans and such ramp became less important but I am still thinking about it.
Just for reference, stats on day 2 metagame for each of the past two block pro tours. No deck came close to 50% of the metagame:
http://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/16/47/60/92/ptjou510.jpg
http://i80.servimg.com/u/f80/16/47/60/92/pro_to11.jpg
Top 8s are a very small and unrepresentative sample of the overall metagame. The only full block format in recent time that has been completely broken was ISD block, and even that took until almost a month after the pro tour for people to discover the jund/splash white deck that ultimately dominated.