I'd really love to hear from Pete what he thinks the causes of the decline in vintage prices are. I mean this has been happening almost from the beginning, with a few spikes here and there. There was a brief 2-3mo period around the end of last year/beginning of this one where the prices rose a bit back towards their old positions but then they dramatically fell again. So much so that I felt no qualms about trading off my Black Lotus on Pucatrade. (at the time it was around $80 and now it's under $60.) Any thoughts Pete?
Commander (multi and 1v1) is indisputably played more than vintage online. You should name the third chart True Dual Formats or Wasteland/FoW Formats and then include Fiery+Mystic Confluence.
I just had an increased amount of negativity recently. I am happy to have the quiet most times. I like your idea about responding with positive comments. I have found some people will keep on pestering you so most times I end up ignoring them. Magic online is a peaceful time for me.. (most times)
From my experience, I actually think angry comments from the opponent are very infrequent on MTGO and when they do happen, they're really mild, at least compared to the incredibly low bar that some other online games have set *cough* MOBAs *cough* Xbox Live *cough cough*. For a game where people have potentially invested a lot of money, there can be money riding on the outcome of the match and the games can range from 30 minute slogs to being over in 2 minutes with no chance for one side to win, I would expect to encounter a lot more salt than I actually see. And when it does happen it's usually in the vein of accusing me of playing a "noob" deck or winning via luck rather than incoherent tirades littered with racial- and/or sexual preference-based slurs. I know some people don't like how quiet MTGO tends to be but I certainly think it's better than the other potential extreme.
Generally, I like to respond to angry comments with agreement. So a "Nice top deck moron" receives a "It sure was" and a "Your deck sucks" gets an "OK then". I don't actually know whether that's a better reaction than just silence but if the point of their comment is to try to rile you up then indicating how ineffective it was seems like the best way of discouraging them from continuing.
I like the idea of the singleton CoCo, it allows you to EoT drop a couple of threats, or use as a combat trick.
As for the lands in the affinity list, Spire is not hurt by a Hurkyl's recall, yet unlike Mana Confluence (City of Brass), can tap for C painlessly.
The Devour Flesh seems, to me, to be a meta-game call (meta gaming the meta). It would be able to take out multiple Death's Shadows on the field at the same time. Yet, being an edict, still has play against anything hexproof.
'If you play Baral Polymorph on MTGO, make sure to set Baral "to exile" if you cast Mass Polymorph or Synthetic Destiny.' Use this as a workaround till it gets fixed.
Aetherwork Marvel is in some ways like Stoneforge Mystic. The problem isn't that it just circumvents mana costs, but that it actually allows the player to search for the card they want to cheat into play without any discernible drawback.
It's one of the most frustrating cards I've ever seen in standard, and the uncertain nature of each activation's outcome is absolutely miserable, whether you're the one playing with the deck or against it. It feels like they might as well print tournament-level coin-flip cards at this point.
Might be. Of course the moxen are there to accelerate primarily, and they don't have a replacement (if not another kind of moxen), so I don't find their presence surprising.
Plus, I guess once you need a 22nd land, Spire of Industry is just fine, it does its job of generating colorless mana right away. Although Tomb of the Spirit Dragon or Buried Ruin both do the same and have a more useful secondary ability.
Agreed, but not without purpose since the opponent won't know that and being 5 color the moxes and land serve to bluff all kinds of "answers". Seems a worthwhile if minor strategy if he needs the mana rocks anyway.
I am a huge fan of Crucible of Worlds in a deck like this (1 main, and 1 in board for extra hate against decks like Tron and other control decks), instead of Ojutai's Command. The Crucible is very potent in conjunction with Ghost Quarters and Flooded Strand and Colonnades, and synergizes well with Sphinx's Revelation because the Crucible will generate tonnes of mana over time in addition to gaining back all those lives lost from the repeated fetches.
Pure control seems to only really shine when there is a well known meta. In Modern that is often very hard. So I understand your thought. This version does indeed look very fun though.
I've never been a huge fan of pure control in modern. It has a hard time in my opinion. But with that said, I like this build. Seems like something I could play for fun.
I guess the feeling about this comes from paper play. I loved to participate in bigger events with higher prizes (not that prizes would be that relevant to me). Being able to play 7+ rounds of Swiss was always a great way to gain experience and have some fun. I found those events more enjoyable than smaller events. That's also why I preferred old PTQs for example. Going to an event with 20 people several days a week does not really make sense to me, but going to a 80+ event each week does for me.
Not really sure why I was always drawn to such events though. More people, more fun?
I concur, it has too much redundancy. Demonic, Vampiric, Cruel tutors, plus Imperial seal and diabolic intent off the top of my head. What matters more are the resultant endgames.
I'd really love to hear from Pete what he thinks the causes of the decline in vintage prices are. I mean this has been happening almost from the beginning, with a few spikes here and there. There was a brief 2-3mo period around the end of last year/beginning of this one where the prices rose a bit back towards their old positions but then they dramatically fell again. So much so that I felt no qualms about trading off my Black Lotus on Pucatrade. (at the time it was around $80 and now it's under $60.) Any thoughts Pete?
Commander (multi and 1v1) is indisputably played more than vintage online. You should name the third chart True Dual Formats or Wasteland/FoW Formats and then include Fiery+Mystic Confluence.
I just had an increased amount of negativity recently. I am happy to have the quiet most times. I like your idea about responding with positive comments. I have found some people will keep on pestering you so most times I end up ignoring them. Magic online is a peaceful time for me.. (most times)
From my experience, I actually think angry comments from the opponent are very infrequent on MTGO and when they do happen, they're really mild, at least compared to the incredibly low bar that some other online games have set *cough* MOBAs *cough* Xbox Live *cough cough*. For a game where people have potentially invested a lot of money, there can be money riding on the outcome of the match and the games can range from 30 minute slogs to being over in 2 minutes with no chance for one side to win, I would expect to encounter a lot more salt than I actually see. And when it does happen it's usually in the vein of accusing me of playing a "noob" deck or winning via luck rather than incoherent tirades littered with racial- and/or sexual preference-based slurs. I know some people don't like how quiet MTGO tends to be but I certainly think it's better than the other potential extreme.
Generally, I like to respond to angry comments with agreement. So a "Nice top deck moron" receives a "It sure was" and a "Your deck sucks" gets an "OK then". I don't actually know whether that's a better reaction than just silence but if the point of their comment is to try to rile you up then indicating how ineffective it was seems like the best way of discouraging them from continuing.
I like the idea of the singleton CoCo, it allows you to EoT drop a couple of threats, or use as a combat trick.
As for the lands in the affinity list, Spire is not hurt by a Hurkyl's recall, yet unlike Mana Confluence (City of Brass), can tap for C painlessly.
The Devour Flesh seems, to me, to be a meta-game call (meta gaming the meta). It would be able to take out multiple Death's Shadows on the field at the same time. Yet, being an edict, still has play against anything hexproof.
'If you play Baral Polymorph on MTGO, make sure to set Baral "to exile" if you cast Mass Polymorph or Synthetic Destiny.' Use this as a workaround till it gets fixed.
Always glad to be a help for AJ or Paul!
Nice podcast, thanks for joining Joshua!
Aetherwork Marvel is in some ways like Stoneforge Mystic. The problem isn't that it just circumvents mana costs, but that it actually allows the player to search for the card they want to cheat into play without any discernible drawback.
It's one of the most frustrating cards I've ever seen in standard, and the uncertain nature of each activation's outcome is absolutely miserable, whether you're the one playing with the deck or against it. It feels like they might as well print tournament-level coin-flip cards at this point.
Might be. Of course the moxen are there to accelerate primarily, and they don't have a replacement (if not another kind of moxen), so I don't find their presence surprising.
Plus, I guess once you need a 22nd land, Spire of Industry is just fine, it does its job of generating colorless mana right away. Although Tomb of the Spirit Dragon or Buried Ruin both do the same and have a more useful secondary ability.
Stop scouting, ban concessions, rebuild the rules and get the old level 4/5 judges from pre approx 2002 back.
Agreed, but not without purpose since the opponent won't know that and being 5 color the moxes and land serve to bluff all kinds of "answers". Seems a worthwhile if minor strategy if he needs the mana rocks anyway.
It's possible he took an existing modern deck, added more constructs removed the colored sideboard and didn't change the lands.
Good point Michelle. I have personally never tried it but it sounds like a huge advantage especially in control mirrors!
Nice article, thanks.
I am a huge fan of Crucible of Worlds in a deck like this (1 main, and 1 in board for extra hate against decks like Tron and other control decks), instead of Ojutai's Command. The Crucible is very potent in conjunction with Ghost Quarters and Flooded Strand and Colonnades, and synergizes well with Sphinx's Revelation because the Crucible will generate tonnes of mana over time in addition to gaining back all those lives lost from the repeated fetches.
I haven't gotten a chance to mess with it yet. I need to slowly piece the deck together. It does look interesting though!
Pure control seems to only really shine when there is a well known meta. In Modern that is often very hard. So I understand your thought. This version does indeed look very fun though.
Have you considered the As Foretold package Marcus?
I've never been a huge fan of pure control in modern. It has a hard time in my opinion. But with that said, I like this build. Seems like something I could play for fun.
I guess the feeling about this comes from paper play. I loved to participate in bigger events with higher prizes (not that prizes would be that relevant to me). Being able to play 7+ rounds of Swiss was always a great way to gain experience and have some fun. I found those events more enjoyable than smaller events. That's also why I preferred old PTQs for example. Going to an event with 20 people several days a week does not really make sense to me, but going to a 80+ event each week does for me.
Not really sure why I was always drawn to such events though. More people, more fun?
I liked a "higher stake" event that mirrors paper play. The challenges do that for me.
May I ask: What is the attraction to the Challenge events? Anyone can help me understand? Thanks.
We must look for the right things to say about mtg and wotc.
I concur, it has too much redundancy. Demonic, Vampiric, Cruel tutors, plus Imperial seal and diabolic intent off the top of my head. What matters more are the resultant endgames.