You may want to change your Rishadan Port prices. While the Masques version is still at the ~144, the promo version--which is given out in Treasure Chests--sits at ~75, with MTGOTraders having 8 in stock as I write this.
I run a Standard league at my Local game store. That is the main reason I play Standard. I do look forward to the days when Standard is a bit less broken :)
I was actually in the middle of writing an article on this very topic HAH!
It's a shame that there are no real big standard events to play in coming up but at least we have MODO.
so the fizzle rate is near zero as long as your opponent does not interact.
We all know that magic is a two player game though so if they have an interaction is just like the old Abzan company decks fizzle rate. This is why I really like the backup KOTR plan that the 4 color deck ran. I'll be honest with you guys. I have not played the deck enough to claim to be an expert on it. I have just played it enough to get familiar with it and know how to beat it and how to play it.
the thing is that you need to actually survive to be able to play well timed Hurkyl's Recall. Often this does not need to happen (happens more often than not though). Anyway sometimes it does happen, that you can't do anything. No matter what deck you play and what you play against. The cards themselves are so powerful that sometimes it just means a very one sided game that doesn't last long. That's also one of the aspects of Vintage.
We don't know what tier 1 is right now. There many decks around, yes, many are powered by Paradoxical Outcome engine but they are also very different. Some are faster, some are slower. Faster often means being more prone to hate but if you go to the extreme you end up with Paradoxical Storm that is very difficult to stop and can win on turn 1. If you go slow, you can control the game and then win on the spot later.
We'll have to wait and see how the metagame will settle. So far we just need to be aware of what can make our decks crumble and have cards that allow us to fight that (in our 75).
By the way, Ballista does work with Chord because you can Chord to find Duskwatch Recruiter and then use it to find the Ballista. But Collected Company is another story, if the Company hits a Ballista and no Duskwatch Recruiter then you have to hope to also hit something like an Eternal Witness or Rhonas or Renegade Rallier etc
Good to see I'm not the only one who sees Mirrodin so far ahead of the other planes. I do think you're underrating Ravnica though, mostly because of how well it fights Mirrodin. I also think the non-Mirrodin planes are slower than I thought since they don't have as many synergies, so you might have time to make your mana work.
Interesting article. I don't get to play Modern much but saw some of these lists and thought it was interesting.
I was curious as to how often the deck fizzles - in the sense that you have infinite mana but nothing useful to do with it. I also thought Ballista was a slightly weird kill given that it doesn't work with Company or Chord (at least as I understand).
You said that to me about Sphere effects but then I watched you demolish shops with many sphere effects out via well timed Hurkyl's recall. I feel like there is no good answer sometimes to the tier 1 vintage decks.
I forgot to change the title to reflect the fact I deleted a decklist from the article.
The final list was the two Knightfall lists that did well. Personally, I do not think that Knightfall benefits much from the druid combo.
Give it a few hours, let the rage percolate and then let WOTC have it in the politest open letter as to why 1v1 needs a better ban list. I am not super hot about it myself but I totally see a lot of things wrong with the format. Go get em tiger!
They do very different things. Oracle's Vault gives you the option of playing a card according to the usual rules of playing a card (or playing a card for free but otherwise according to the usual rules). It doesn't impact timing. Miracle is like Madness: There's a trigger which lets you cast the card right there and then but not at any other time. If you pass the trigger, you miss the opportunity.
You can activate an Oracle's Vault in your opponent's upkeep to reveal an instant or card with flash and play it in your opponent's end step. If your opponent forces you to draw in their upkeep, if there's a miracle card as the first draw, it triggers and that's your opportunity for the turn. (Example edge case where this might be a thing: Say there's an Obzedat, Ghost Council you intend to Terminus, but opponent knows the top card of your library and targets you with an Esper Charm with the Obzedat trigger on the stack.)
I cracked open an Oracle of the Vault in a PPTQ and I called over a judge to ask him this question. He stated that I can play any card on my opponent's turn with Oracle, except lands. He was wrong I see now, which is quite funny because I then proceeded to abuse Oracle on my opponent's turn many times throughout the tournament!
Can anyone help me understand why Divining Top + Terminus combo did work on the opponent's turn, but Oracle's Vault + Council's Judgment doesn't? Is it because one card says "you may play" and the other says "you may cast"? Or is it because there's a specific Oracle ruling on Oracle's Vault which overrides normal rules? Thanks.
Great article. As an aggro player, I would love the life totals to change. Having played exclusively with Zurgo so far, I can tell you that sometimes (not often) you can get to 30 damage; most often, I find myself getting to 23-28 damage before running out of steam. So 25 seems perfect.
Excellent as usual. A note on the Myr: Their name is a nod all the way back to the Iliad, where the Myrmidons were warriors created from an ant colony by Zeus (Hence the name, from the greek Myrmex, 'Ant') who fought under the command of Achilles. Later reference works defined Myrmidon as a "loyal follower, especially one who executes orders without question, protest, or pity – unquestioning followers." You can definitely see that in some of the original Myr flavortext.
Hey Michelle. Sadly MTGO disagreed with you on Council's Judgment, it was unclickable on AJ's turn. And OV was working normally on my own turn so I can only conclude that a) OV is buggy or b) the rules gurus that tinker with the engine know better than us.
Thanks very much for listening and for providing your own insight. You're right that the perspective you look at the alt-art for Iona matters. Also I think seeing it full view (as painted) rather than its digital view would shed some light on the subject.
This art for Iona can play tricks on your mind (like the famous Maid/Hag optical illusion). You can see the floating object on the left as an open book as Paul seems to do initially, or you can see it as a Zendikari hedron if you adjust your perspective (or vice versa if you saw the hedron first).
Also you can cast Council's Judgment with an Oracle's Vault activation on the opponent's turn. It doesn't matter that it's a sorcery. (if I misunderstood the scenario or context, apologies in advance).
no idea why this is downrated.
You may want to change your Rishadan Port prices. While the Masques version is still at the ~144, the promo version--which is given out in Treasure Chests--sits at ~75, with MTGOTraders having 8 in stock as I write this.
Agreed
I don't mind having powerful decks in a format. But I want answers existing. Timespirial Ravnica is a perfect example of this.
I run a Standard league at my Local game store. That is the main reason I play Standard. I do look forward to the days when Standard is a bit less broken :)
I was actually in the middle of writing an article on this very topic HAH!
It's a shame that there are no real big standard events to play in coming up but at least we have MODO.
so the fizzle rate is near zero as long as your opponent does not interact.
We all know that magic is a two player game though so if they have an interaction is just like the old Abzan company decks fizzle rate. This is why I really like the backup KOTR plan that the 4 color deck ran. I'll be honest with you guys. I have not played the deck enough to claim to be an expert on it. I have just played it enough to get familiar with it and know how to beat it and how to play it.
the thing is that you need to actually survive to be able to play well timed Hurkyl's Recall. Often this does not need to happen (happens more often than not though). Anyway sometimes it does happen, that you can't do anything. No matter what deck you play and what you play against. The cards themselves are so powerful that sometimes it just means a very one sided game that doesn't last long. That's also one of the aspects of Vintage.
We don't know what tier 1 is right now. There many decks around, yes, many are powered by Paradoxical Outcome engine but they are also very different. Some are faster, some are slower. Faster often means being more prone to hate but if you go to the extreme you end up with Paradoxical Storm that is very difficult to stop and can win on turn 1. If you go slow, you can control the game and then win on the spot later.
We'll have to wait and see how the metagame will settle. So far we just need to be aware of what can make our decks crumble and have cards that allow us to fight that (in our 75).
Also interested to know how often it fizzles.
By the way, Ballista does work with Chord because you can Chord to find Duskwatch Recruiter and then use it to find the Ballista. But Collected Company is another story, if the Company hits a Ballista and no Duskwatch Recruiter then you have to hope to also hit something like an Eternal Witness or Rhonas or Renegade Rallier etc
Good to see I'm not the only one who sees Mirrodin so far ahead of the other planes. I do think you're underrating Ravnica though, mostly because of how well it fights Mirrodin. I also think the non-Mirrodin planes are slower than I thought since they don't have as many synergies, so you might have time to make your mana work.
Interesting article. I don't get to play Modern much but saw some of these lists and thought it was interesting.
I was curious as to how often the deck fizzles - in the sense that you have infinite mana but nothing useful to do with it. I also thought Ballista was a slightly weird kill given that it doesn't work with Company or Chord (at least as I understand).
You said that to me about Sphere effects but then I watched you demolish shops with many sphere effects out via well timed Hurkyl's recall. I feel like there is no good answer sometimes to the tier 1 vintage decks.
I forgot to change the title to reflect the fact I deleted a decklist from the article.
The final list was the two Knightfall lists that did well. Personally, I do not think that Knightfall benefits much from the druid combo.
Give it a few hours, let the rage percolate and then let WOTC have it in the politest open letter as to why 1v1 needs a better ban list. I am not super hot about it myself but I totally see a lot of things wrong with the format. Go get em tiger!
Thanks AJ, I see. I learn something new, glad for that.
They do very different things. Oracle's Vault gives you the option of playing a card according to the usual rules of playing a card (or playing a card for free but otherwise according to the usual rules). It doesn't impact timing. Miracle is like Madness: There's a trigger which lets you cast the card right there and then but not at any other time. If you pass the trigger, you miss the opportunity.
You can activate an Oracle's Vault in your opponent's upkeep to reveal an instant or card with flash and play it in your opponent's end step. If your opponent forces you to draw in their upkeep, if there's a miracle card as the first draw, it triggers and that's your opportunity for the turn. (Example edge case where this might be a thing: Say there's an Obzedat, Ghost Council you intend to Terminus, but opponent knows the top card of your library and targets you with an Esper Charm with the Obzedat trigger on the stack.)
Thanks for clarifying.
I cracked open an Oracle of the Vault in a PPTQ and I called over a judge to ask him this question. He stated that I can play any card on my opponent's turn with Oracle, except lands. He was wrong I see now, which is quite funny because I then proceeded to abuse Oracle on my opponent's turn many times throughout the tournament!
Can anyone help me understand why Divining Top + Terminus combo did work on the opponent's turn, but Oracle's Vault + Council's Judgment doesn't? Is it because one card says "you may play" and the other says "you may cast"? Or is it because there's a specific Oracle ruling on Oracle's Vault which overrides normal rules? Thanks.
Great article. As an aggro player, I would love the life totals to change. Having played exclusively with Zurgo so far, I can tell you that sometimes (not often) you can get to 30 damage; most often, I find myself getting to 23-28 damage before running out of steam. So 25 seems perfect.
Yep my point exactly.
I am hoping for action, because if there is none, it will be super hard to write 1500 words on the list for next week :D
Good stuff. Looking forward to see if things get tweaked on Tuesday.
Can't blame MTGO on that one. Gatherer ruling for Oracle's Vault says the card still has to follow timing restrictions.
Excellent as usual. A note on the Myr: Their name is a nod all the way back to the Iliad, where the Myrmidons were warriors created from an ant colony by Zeus (Hence the name, from the greek Myrmex, 'Ant') who fought under the command of Achilles. Later reference works defined Myrmidon as a "loyal follower, especially one who executes orders without question, protest, or pity – unquestioning followers." You can definitely see that in some of the original Myr flavortext.
Hey Michelle. Sadly MTGO disagreed with you on Council's Judgment, it was unclickable on AJ's turn. And OV was working normally on my own turn so I can only conclude that a) OV is buggy or b) the rules gurus that tinker with the engine know better than us.
Thanks very much for listening and for providing your own insight. You're right that the perspective you look at the alt-art for Iona matters. Also I think seeing it full view (as painted) rather than its digital view would shed some light on the subject.
Nice podcast this week, thanks.
This art for Iona can play tricks on your mind (like the famous Maid/Hag optical illusion). You can see the floating object on the left as an open book as Paul seems to do initially, or you can see it as a Zendikari hedron if you adjust your perspective (or vice versa if you saw the hedron first).
Also you can cast Council's Judgment with an Oracle's Vault activation on the opponent's turn. It doesn't matter that it's a sorcery. (if I misunderstood the scenario or context, apologies in advance).