Mana-burn, combat-dmg on the stack, banding and some other abilities, upkeep effects and effects in upkeep, interrupts, damage prevention pockets, land destruction, artifacts that shut off when tapped, sensible ipg/rules, more use of basic lands because less access to "dual-"lands, and more.
Wow, those figures are very interesting. Ancient Stirrings is safer than I thought.
Shaheen Soorani said this week that "KCI is by leaps and bounds the best deck in Modern". That statement seems false if the figures you quoted are representative.
Well, I can tell you that out of 893 decks that made Top 8 in competitive tournaments over the past two months, 39 were KCI (4% of the meta) and 65 were UrzaTron (7%, and some of these are even monoblue, so no Ancient Stirrings).
They're both on the rise (as silly as it is to say such a thing about Tron, which has been around and successful since the beginning of Modern history), but far from the most prominent presences in the meta. Teferi Control is more than the two of them combined.
Besides, I doubt they will touch Tron without a very good reason, as it's the one archetype that only exists in Modern, so sort of a protected species.
Great article, thanks. It was interesting to read through all those Top 8s.
It's difficult to see how Ancient Stirrings is going to get banned in the near future given the current diversity of competitive decks. Wizards has all the data points though, so only they know if Tron and KCI are over-performing overall (% wins wise).
Your data is all wrong. Its current price is 200% of what is in the table and MM15 Goyfs have never been $80 and MM17 has never been $60. So I guess if you want to call 14 not that long ago.
I think maybe the worst part is, the past couple of days I've tried to play some brawl, but can't get a game. I wait for like 10 minutes and then give up. I'm trying to play, but can't really do it in the small periods of time I carve out for it exclusively.
Obviously I'm not surprised that you've gone back to some old favorites. Luckily, there are some metas that SS completly crushes. The Tron hate in the board is certainly warranted. I do want to point out that Flagstones of Trokair really doesn't do anything other than make you "weaker" to Blood Moon. The only deck that it might be useful against is Todd Anderson's GW Value Town, otherwise, no other deck would really waste a Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter on it. I know you could Ghost Quarter your own lands, but is it really worth it?
I still owe you some feedback on how Mono-White devotion is going, but the short answer is "Mixed results. Run Tron Hate". :)
Yeah it would not be terrible. I am still testing out the deck and trying a new version now that I will show off soon. There can be a lot of options for this type of deck.
As someone who has been playing a lot of Arena lately, I still can't see that client taking over MTGO. I know it is not complete, there is still work to be done, but there is an underlying philosophy that just makes meaningful information difficult to retrieve across different zones. It works alright for a bunch of Standard decks, but even in Standard, you can feel some decks straining against the limits of the UI. The eternal format would just be unplayable.
Perhaps more to the point, Arena is not a platform meant to let players play whatever format they want. A free to play economy imposes its own constraints, and it shows in limited for example: prizes are given in packs, which can't be reused to reenter drafts but are only useful to be cracked, get wildcards, expand ones collection and pay constructed. And one has to play constructed to get the gold to enter drafts. Fitting in any eternal format in this equation, while not impossible, would require some heavy lifting. Even the announced "Arena Modern", a format merely meant to be able to reuse rotated Standard cards, is still not defined.
I too eagerly await Tuesday's announcement. My biggest worry is that Wizards gets over optimistic thanks to Arena's few successes and starts betting the bank on it. My biggest hope is that see what can be achieved by a team of professionals, realise that a subpar MTGO client is not a fatality, and decide to do something about it.
As mentioned in the article, I don't like counterspells in limited in general. Essence Scatter gets a pass, as leaving up 2 mana is okay. But leaving up four mana in the hope they cast a bomb is asking for trouble in my opinion.
Improvise: Metallic Rebuke and Whir of Invention (or Inspiring Statuary and any other instant)
I miss a lot of these effects, they added a lot of complexity to the game (and why WotC got rid of them).
With mana burn, Rishadan Port was attack as well as mana denial.
I really miss interrupts as they made control decks more skillful to pilot.
The one thing I wish WotC would do is restrict cards rather than outright ban them.
The game that got me hooked was against a fully powered Chains of Mephistopheles deck.
Mana-burn, combat-dmg on the stack, banding and some other abilities, upkeep effects and effects in upkeep, interrupts, damage prevention pockets, land destruction, artifacts that shut off when tapped, sensible ipg/rules, more use of basic lands because less access to "dual-"lands, and more.
Do you miss these ?
Wow, those figures are very interesting. Ancient Stirrings is safer than I thought.
Shaheen Soorani said this week that "KCI is by leaps and bounds the best deck in Modern". That statement seems false if the figures you quoted are representative.
I quite like the Standard Zombies deck. I have been running a version of it in Standard Friendly Leagues and am having a nice time with it.
Well, I can tell you that out of 893 decks that made Top 8 in competitive tournaments over the past two months, 39 were KCI (4% of the meta) and 65 were UrzaTron (7%, and some of these are even monoblue, so no Ancient Stirrings).
They're both on the rise (as silly as it is to say such a thing about Tron, which has been around and successful since the beginning of Modern history), but far from the most prominent presences in the meta. Teferi Control is more than the two of them combined.
Besides, I doubt they will touch Tron without a very good reason, as it's the one archetype that only exists in Modern, so sort of a protected species.
Great article, thanks. It was interesting to read through all those Top 8s.
It's difficult to see how Ancient Stirrings is going to get banned in the near future given the current diversity of competitive decks. Wizards has all the data points though, so only they know if Tron and KCI are over-performing overall (% wins wise).
The redacted cube - the information about what it is is out there as it was announced to the MTGO beta testers
Your data is all wrong. Its current price is 200% of what is in the table and MM15 Goyfs have never been $80 and MM17 has never been $60. So I guess if you want to call 14 not that long ago.
Ive had this experience as well. Anxiety + impatience gets the better of me.
I think maybe the worst part is, the past couple of days I've tried to play some brawl, but can't get a game. I wait for like 10 minutes and then give up. I'm trying to play, but can't really do it in the small periods of time I carve out for it exclusively.
I completely id with much of your intro Josh. Probably dead on analysis for my own reasons for not playing sometimes.
Thank you.
Flagstones is an interesting choice. It has anti-synergies with Emeria which pushes it off the radar for me.
What is your feedback about Flagstones?
Obviously I'm not surprised that you've gone back to some old favorites. Luckily, there are some metas that SS completly crushes. The Tron hate in the board is certainly warranted. I do want to point out that Flagstones of Trokair really doesn't do anything other than make you "weaker" to Blood Moon. The only deck that it might be useful against is Todd Anderson's GW Value Town, otherwise, no other deck would really waste a Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter on it. I know you could Ghost Quarter your own lands, but is it really worth it?
I still owe you some feedback on how Mono-White devotion is going, but the short answer is "Mixed results. Run Tron Hate". :)
Yeah it would not be terrible. I am still testing out the deck and trying a new version now that I will show off soon. There can be a lot of options for this type of deck.
Double post. Well, I'll take the opportunity to thank you for your post!
As someone who has been playing a lot of Arena lately, I still can't see that client taking over MTGO. I know it is not complete, there is still work to be done, but there is an underlying philosophy that just makes meaningful information difficult to retrieve across different zones. It works alright for a bunch of Standard decks, but even in Standard, you can feel some decks straining against the limits of the UI. The eternal format would just be unplayable.
Perhaps more to the point, Arena is not a platform meant to let players play whatever format they want. A free to play economy imposes its own constraints, and it shows in limited for example: prizes are given in packs, which can't be reused to reenter drafts but are only useful to be cracked, get wildcards, expand ones collection and pay constructed. And one has to play constructed to get the gold to enter drafts. Fitting in any eternal format in this equation, while not impossible, would require some heavy lifting. Even the announced "Arena Modern", a format merely meant to be able to reuse rotated Standard cards, is still not defined.
I too eagerly await Tuesday's announcement. My biggest worry is that Wizards gets over optimistic thanks to Arena's few successes and starts betting the bank on it. My biggest hope is that see what can be achieved by a team of professionals, realise that a subpar MTGO client is not a fatality, and decide to do something about it.
I am ready ;-P
Thanks for the great content!
Hello Peter,
if you still need a code for the Arena Beta hit me up on MTGO: Nagarjuna
Take that fake price off the table. Its not played in Standard much less a staple and other vendors sell at -60% of the joke of a price listed
Nice article, thanks for writing.
Would you consider an extra Proc in the board, just because it is so busted against any matchup packing removal.
Thanks for reading!
As mentioned in the article, I don't like counterspells in limited in general. Essence Scatter gets a pass, as leaving up 2 mana is okay. But leaving up four mana in the hope they cast a bomb is asking for trouble in my opinion.