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By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Feb 27 2014 1:00pm
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PT Valencia

Waking up to watch the coverage of this event, I had no idea what to expect.

I mean, I had a vague notion from what I'd seen in the dailies: Tron and Rock variants would not be a factor, there would be lots Pod, and lots of Zoo, but Zoo wouldn't do well, and we might see some Fae. In that regard I was not too far off.

I had also hoped we'd see some wild and innovative brews. I was not disappointed! One of the standout rogue builds is Blue Moon. Here's a Video Deck Tech from the mothership coverage. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of this deck online in the coming weeks. Oh yeah.

The Top 8 was pretty roguish, as well!  In addition to Blue Moon, we hade two "new" takes on an old standard (Tarmo Twin and Raka Twin). 

 

Throughout the event, there were some extremely cool plays, both on camera and off, and it was nice seeing so many people excited and enthusiastic about Modern. I hope to see that same level of excitement in just over a week at GP Richmond, our next Modern stop in the pro circuit.

Modern Renaissance

When I read the B&R announcement at the beginning of the month, the very first thing I did was splurge on a playset of alternate art Wild Nacatl. After weeks of waiting, they finally arrived as I was watching the coverage of PT Valencia!

 

It was also very cool to see so many MTGO regulars in the Top 8! I firmly believe that playing MTGO day in and day out leads to a high level of play, and that more future top players will be coming from the "online ranks". As you know, I'm all for breaking down the barriers between the paper and online worlds.

Looking at all the decks that went 6-x or better in the Modern portion, I find it interesting that Bitterblossom, the card that I, personally, was most worried about post ban, only shows up in two decks. I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

 

The coverage was very nice, except for some technical issues causing me to miss some important plays during the last Modern rounds on Saturday. It was frustrating to watch the last feature match go back and forth, have the stream go grey, reload, and come back to applause. Oh well. I was able to recatch them on archive. Still, it bit the big one when it happened. Sunday was much better.

I loved that we were able to watch all the matches for the Top 8. After some tense play in the Quarterfinals and Semifinals, we ended up with a double double for the finals!

If you're Canadian, you'll understand. If not, I can't explain, except to say Timmys. It's just one of those things. Anywho, I was rooting for Jacob Wilson, because he's a member of Team Face To Face Games, and Face To Face Games also happens to be my Modern sponsor. So I'm biased.

 Some of you might be saying "But Jacob Wilson is from USA, he's not Canadian! He's only going to school in Canada! You can't claim him as your own!"

 This is something people south of the border don't understand. This is Canada. We changed our liquor laws to accommodate the Olympic hockey finals; this is a matter of public record. Once you're here, you are one of us. Once you leave, you're still one of us. Every one of you that have ever visited us, you are one of us. One of us.
One of us.

But back to the finals. After the first two games I was getting ready to start the celebratory dances. ArsenalMunch had other plans. Staging a comeback from the jaws of death, he fought his way back and gave us a tense nail biter of a Game Five. And in the end...

 

Paper Cuts

Meanwhile, in my paper world, the first Chinese Bloodghast arrived! Woo hoo! A second one is on its way from France. I suppose this means the 血曲柄 deck will be part Conehead. We are from France! The bulk of the deck should be here by the time you're reading this. I've got some UltraPRO Dia de los Muertos sleeves (Blue Skull) waiting for it.

I"ve also started piecing together a BRW Tokens deck. At this point, it's looking more like RW with B for Lingering Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. We'll see how that goes.

Another project is a GRW Midrange. I have both it and the GBW Extreme Tokens in the same sleeves (Dia de los Muertos/Yellow Skull) to facilitate easier shuffling of Path to Exile and Beast Within, or any other W/G cards, between the two.

Meta Madness

With the PT just finished, and GP Richmond coming up quickly, I expect a lot of shifting in the online meta as people try out new brews, and players take the PT top decks out for their runs. Blue Moon is here.

Tron seems to be going quietly into that good night. Zoo is wafflestomping in numbers, but doing so-so in performance; Robots is outshining Zoo as the premiere quick aggro performer.

Rock is starting to rebuild, and threatens to come out snarling again as people realize that it's still viable. This may be overstating the case, but GB/x builds were a thing in Modern before Deathrite Shaman was a card, and GB/x builds will continue to be a thing now that DRS is no longer a card.

The Vial decks (Hate Bears, Death & Taxes, UW Vial) appear to be doing very well, as are other decks that don't interact too much with their opponent (Storm, Ad Nauseam, Summer Boom, etc).

I still wish I could fill these charts up faster, but you know how that goes.

Still no Tribal Wars. As stated in previous articles, that's gonna be a long time coming back, if ever. Way to go.  I'm not giving up the fight.

All results. All the time. Bring back Tribal Wars!

The Big Picture

 

Higher Education

Post Graduate

These charts will appear once an archetype has shown twenty 4-0 appearances.

 

College

 

High School

 

Primary School / The Sandbox

 

The Wall of Voodoo

 

 

 

 

 

I have consolidated Death &Taxes, Hate Bears, and UW Vial into one unified archetype/submeta. 

 

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It is so strange referring to a four color deck as "RDW", but here it is. Bump decks started out as , but now regularly run three or four colors.

Aggro and Burn are both "true" RDW variants, being mono . The main difference between the two is in the creature base. Aggro typically runs twelve to eighteen creatures, while Burn runs ten or less.

White Lightning is RDW Burn splashing for Boros Charm.

  

 

 

I'm using a dividing line of four Snapcaster Mages plus up to four more creatures to indicate Control, and more than eight creatures to signify Midrange. Keep in mind that "Midrange" in this submeta doesn't mean the same thing as it normally does. A Raka Midrange deck is still quite control heavy.

 

 

 

 

 

Rock

Even after the banning of Deathrite Shaman, Rock continues to be a force. It's taken a few days to recover, but Rock is once more making its face known. The basic core of the post-ban Modern Rock deck is:

Abrupt Decay
Dark Confidant
Inquisition of Kozilek  /  Thoughtseize
Liliana of the Veil
Scavenging Ooze / Tarmogoyf

Everything else is “accessories”, according to the builder’s preference. Jund and Junk are two appendages of the same beast. Ajundi and Junk'd happen when the appendages slap together. But it’s all the same slavering, rabid swampbeast hybrid that comes tearing into every Modern FNM, every Modern GP, every Modern PTQ, every Modern PT. And usually ends up King of the Hill. That beast is Rock.

 

 

 

"Dusty" Tron is simply GR/b Tron with three or four All is Dust. "Regular" GR/b Tron runs none, sometimes one, never two.

 

Breakfast at Urza's (if/when it shows) is an "eggs" style deck that uses Krark-Clan Ironworks and Open the Vaults to generate huge amounts of mana to either hardcast Emmy, deliver a fatal Banefire, or durdle up a fatal storm of Grapeshots.

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

Random Gibberish

I guess the Spank The Slug segment went over like a lead balloon. I mean the common concept thereof, not the actual lead balloon made by Mythbusters. So I'm going to use this space to throw random gibberish at you. Be it in the form of poetry (most likely), video composition (maybe), rambling pointless stories (also likely). If you want to see something else, ask me. So there. Here we go...

There Goes Another Brain Cell...

Let me sit here for a moment
See if anything comes out
Maybe something will ferment
Some glorious idle fragment
Will grow into a shout
But so far nothing comes to mind
So I just sit on my behind
Staring at the page
I try to peek behind
And find
Memoryphage

Eater of memories
A slow, insidious beast
Forgotten journeys
Wonders in the east
Dimly recalled
Fading ever quicker
Gone without a flicker
As I sit appalled
I can't remember
My third grade teacher

 

 

Overdrive!, which started on July 4th, 2011, is the original Modern format Player-Run Event! In fact, Overdrive! is even older than Modern, having started out as an event in the Overextended format. Overdrive! is a single elimination event: two men enter, one man leaves. Registration is done via Gatherling. You can find more information at the main event thread here.

 

 

 

Overdrive! #120
Players: 13
Champion: pelao28 / Soul Sisters
Runner up: Greystone / Bump
Decklists and results from all Overdrive! events can be found here.  

Soul Sisters
pelao28, 1st, Overdrive! 120 - 12x Champion!
Creatures
4 Ajani's Pridemate
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Soul Warden
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Soul's Attendant
2 Leonin Arbiter
24 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Spectral Procession
3 Honor of the Pure
3 Proclamation of Rebirth
2 Immortal Servitude
2 Path of Bravery
2 Path to Exile
16 Other Spells
Lands
17 Plains
3 Tectonic Edge
20 Lands

pelao28 set himself up even further in the record books by becoming our first twelve time champion!  

The sisters started out this time with a first round BYE. After that, they ran through a Storm, and almost got shrapneled in the artifact hell of Tezz Control, before rolling over a speed Bump in the finals. 

  

 


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