Comments on: The Last Stand at Grand Prix Weekend

By: Michael Plouviez

Michael Plouviez — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:35:40 +0000

Sheridan,

Would you be able to do a piece (perhaps even just a few paragraphs) analyzing Eldrazi’s recent performances in context of all the Modern Ban announcements? There are some interesting comparisons we can draw from past statements and present metrics. (Sounds almost like investigating some clues….)

By: Luke Burow

Luke Burow — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 01:24:23 +0000

In reply to Mariano Rubio. Any credible commentator would agree with this sentiment and I applaud Sheridan for his voice on this topic. Although I personally would have preferred the Eldrazi issue dealt with much earlier - hopefully we can all get back to modern after April 4..

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:46:24 +0000

In reply to Jesse Bammann. I totally agree with this and think you can expect us to ask something similar over the weekend. You can also expect to see some kind of article talking about these issues in the future.

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:45:24 +0000

In reply to David Maynard Moore.

Thanks for the props! We’ll eventually reexamine some of the banned cards, but I think we need to get out of this current Eldrazi situation before then. I’ll be doing a series of articles on addressing major Modern policy/management issues in the future, and you can expect to see lots of those after the GPs. We’ll try and intersperse this with our usual strategy, metagame, and tech pieces.

Interesting question about threats and answers. We’ll see what we can do with Mr. Forsythe at the GP!

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:43:45 +0000

In reply to Mariano Rubio. Thanks for this thoughtful and detailed response! I largely agree with your comments and think a dual Eye/Temple ban is likely in April. The GPs would have to be totally different Modern worlds for the bans to be less severe. Otherwise, it's Caw Blade and Affinity all over again, and we know when Wizards bans a deck they ban it decisively. This will also hopefully work to repair the trust and confidence issues player have with the format, like those you point to in your own post.

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:41:44 +0000

In reply to Roland F. Rivera Santiago. I'm hoping we at least see some interesting technology come out of the events. Maybe even technology and strategies that lasts beyond the Eldrazi! I'll watch as much of GP Detroit as I can and hope for a Day 2 that isn't completely ruined by Eldrazi, but I'm pessimistic enough to not be attending myself.

By: Jesse Bammann

Jesse Bammann — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 17:31:13 +0000

I would like to ask aaron Forsythe mainly if because of the recent eldrazi problem they will finally start in-house modern testing, I believe as their premier eternal format and a format with good chance of abusing overpowered cards they need to start testing it as to make sure things like this don’t happen as much. I understand the main focus being on standard but even marginal testing would have shown the eldrazi to be too pushed. I just can’t think of a good reason not to test this format if it’s important enough for them to support this way

By: David Maynard Moore

David Maynard Moore — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 00:03:12 +0000

It’s a tough time to be a website that that focuses on modern right now, but you guys still do a great job. Have you thought about doing anymore of the articles where you test out things like Stoneforge Mystic and see if they are safe for the format? Obviously, you would have to ignore the elephant(eldrazi?) in the room, but I would still be interested in the series.

As for questions for Mr. Forsythe, I would ask him, “Do you think that Modern should be a format where threats are better than answers?” I think his answer would tell us a lot about what direction Wizards wants to take the format in.

By: Mariano Rubio

Mariano Rubio — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 23:16:52 +0000

I believe Modern needs to ban both engine lands for Eldrazi. If you compare them to their Legacy counterparts you find that Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors have very decent drawbacks: The former deals 2 damage to you, while the latter forces you to sacrifice it if you want to develop your land board state. In other words: they punish you for wanting their speed. Now Eldrazi Temple’s drawback is that it only adds 2 for Eldrazi spells and Eye of Ugin doesn’t tap for mana, which was ‘drawback enough’ (not really, Modern has ALWAYS complained about Tron’s Eye lock), an it wasn’t a real problem until BFZ and OGW: Now there is a huge pool of Eldrazi to cast, and far chepear than 15/11/10 CMC. In other words, in Modern Sol lands REWARD you for playing them, instead of punishing you. The eye in particular gets even more broken with the addition of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to the deck. Many people claim that it works as a Mishra’s Workshop, but it gets worse: it’s better than the good old Workshop, as it can provide even 5 or 7 the same turn, and yet even more too, if you get to live to see that happening.
Eldrazi doesn’t need Ramp to be a successful FAIR deck, and Modern certainly doesn’t need an UNFAIR Eldrazi deck. Let’s just accept that everyone was happy without having an Eldrazi deck in Modern, so we can live without Eldrazi being a Tier 1 deck. Wizards isn’t supposed to ban/design to make Tiered decks, but to give us players fair deck-building tools. There is a lot people claiming that it wouldn’t be good to ‘kill’ the archetype by banning both lands, but guess what? Modern had always fair ramp decks that aren’t Tier 1 successful (Tier 2/2.5) and people aren’t asking for Green Sun’s Zenith, Deathrite Shaman, Seething Song, Rite of Flame, Cloudpost, Summer Bloom unbans. Why should we ask to keep an engine land in the format so the deck can still stand as the best Midrange deck? I mean, there are other decks that have been in the format for years, with thousands of supporters around the world and were never given a single card to make their decks Tier 1, because ‘it wouldn’t be a good thing for the format’, or it would become ‘too dominant’ or ‘too powerful’. If it’s not a good thing for the format for Elves, Mono G Devoton or Tooth and Nail, it is not a good thing even it says Eldrazi. The reason is that those kind of cards are banned because they make unfair things happen. Same goes for Eye and Temple in Modern. It is unfair that the cards see play alongside the new pool of ‘cheap’ Eldrazi cards printed. They make the format more than un-fun and unfair, and they have warped the metagame even harder than Treasure Cruise + Dig Through Time, and we all know what a dark era it was. We don’t need to wait 9 months or a year to realize that.
Ever since the realese of OGW, around 65% of all Top 8s of big events have been Eldrazi and/or Affinity decks. The Color Pie says hi, by the way.
The reality is that Eldrazi (all variants included) is the best Stompy deck, the best Midrange deck and the Best control deck. And that is a HUGE fail.
This is not hate/hatred for WOTC for failing like they did. But banning Birthing Pod and Splinter Twin (around 5 months after re-printing it in the Modern Masters 2015 set, really?) for being too consistent and popular (15/20% Metagame/25% of Top 8s) and then doing this is simply ridiculous, and we -the players- need to make our stand about this and openly tell Wizards that we don’t care if they fail by banning to ‘make the format more interesting’ -and sell more sealed product, I mean com on, you’re gonna sell anyway- or by printing ridiculously cards that make the formats go bonkers. We don’t care that those things happen, as long as they can shout out a mea culpa and make things right. We know they can do it.

Whoa, that was quite a lot more than I expected to write when I started.

Cheers guys, keep up the good work on the site!

By: Roland F. Rivera Santiago

Roland F. Rivera Santiago — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 19:31:10 +0000

Good luck to everyone participating. I don’t expect the metagame picture to change much, but hopefully enough decks are able to carve a significant niche for themselves, so that the tournament experience is at least somewhat pleasant.