That was Grindstone's first ever win in Regular (and 2nd overall, the other was Scarecrow Underdog) in the Gatherling era. Was it a problem beforehand? Not that I disagree necessarily with the ban, as it is probably overpowered and pretty off-spirit.
That was fun squeezing in three separate combos into that 60 with Enlightened Tutor powering them all.
1) PainterStone
2) DarkStage (with ET for Map, also Weathered Wayfarer)
3) Auriok Champion/Worship against the red decks (Mom is also decent in this role)
It's definitely arguable that Enlightened Tutor is way more overpowered than Grindstone.
I, for one, would have preferred to allow Grindstone to exist, but restrict Painter to its tribe. This at least lets Scarecrows try to win over the more famous tribes in Regular and Pure with the combo, and Pure can easily purify Grindstone if Scarecrows succeed. However, I do think PainterStone is simply the best deck in Underdog. But don't forget, Grindstone, much like Painter, can have some strategic application outside the combo so the ban feels unfortunate when lesser restrictions seemed possible.
All that aside, my list was bad, as the Swords to Plowshares copies should have been Path to Exile. I'm careless on details.
It's probably worth mentioning that Eternal Masters has just been announced, which will include reprints of both Wasteland and Force of Will, so, if people are considering getting into Legacy, it might be prudent to wait for that to be released and see if enough copies get opened to drop the price at all.
Again, I write these articles at a first glance of the set (and this one is weird since it's the second part of a two-part series where the first part is stuck in publishing hell) and I didn't know how reliably the UR Splice deck can work when your two most important cards are an uncommon and the best common in the set.
Now take out all the sideboard cards people bring against that deck in all their opponents decks. That deck is going to have a way easier time than it normally would.
The Eldrazi were in that position. Nobody expected the deck, nobody brought a plan to deal with it, it had an easy time.
None of that speaks to the fact that there aren't things that beat it already, all it proves is that people aren't already running lots of those things in existing decks.
:Eldrazi Temple is similar to Cloud Post, but Eye of Ugin is unique in the way it discounts mana costs. 7 x 2 power creature on turn 1 is possible. 2 x 3 cmc creatures on turn 2, 4 x 3 cmc creatures on turn 3 etc.
Am I missing something?
There is no way to play 2 3 mana creatures on turn 2 with an eye and another land, unless that other land happens to be Urborg or Temple. 4 3 mana creatures on turn 3 is only possible if land drop 2 and 3 were both Eldrazi Temple or Urborg.
Given the very specific combinations of multiple different lands and low drop creatures, these kind of fast starts are likely to be significantly less frequent than turn 2 Primal Titan in Summer Bloom. The ability of the eye to put out plenty of cheap creatures quick is significantly limited by the lack of cheap creatures you can pay for with it's mana.
Even more than the losses of money and effort/time is the constant heart break of finding a deck you love and then having it ripped out of your hands by an apparently (and not necessarily actually) greedy corporation controlling things solely for their own benefit. I do realize that characterization is more hyperbolic than actual but that is what some people feel. And I expect there is SOME amount of truth to the matter especially since WOTC has a terminal case of mums instead of being into the transparent and clearness seeking communications that they have in the past espoused somewhat ironically.
I think a lot of folks assume that everybody that is showing concern about the Eldrazi situation are people who are only freaking out about the Pro Tour results. The point I was trying to make in the article is that some people are not overly concerned about a single event, but are concerned about lands that give a particular strategy an advantage that makes it a superior deck design over other decks. Already we are seeing a reduction in Tron/Jund/non-Affinity Aggro decks because there is an Eldrazi shell that is as good, or better, to replace these decks. That's a growing concern. If it was just another "creature swarm aggro deck", the meta could find a way to adjust, but a meta that devolves into "Eldrazi Deck Choice Mini Game vs Specialized Decks that might beat Edlrazi" is certainly worse than the open field we had in November for GP Pittsburgh.
Keep an eye on the MTGO results for the next week or so; if things aren't righting themselves, then check on the results of the SCG event next weekend. If it still isn't looking great, then the GPs in March might be the only shot left for format correction.
@Kuma: I was going for a calm "The sky is most likely going to fall at some point". Like a Stark level "Winter is coming". :)
The DCI policing the format, is actually the opposite of what I was saying. I'd like the format to be looked over a little BEFORE the DCI has to get involved. I know that the DCI can and will take care of this situation if it really does spiral out of control, but I would have been a lot happier if the Design team hadn't ignored the interaction in the first place. The banning of Pod and Twin have shown just how angry and divisive the community has become in regards to banning to help regulate the format. Even if the banning of the Eldrazi lands winds up being extremely justified, there are still going to be people that will lose time, money and energy when the deck is removed. For their supported non-rotating format, Wizards should consider devoting more resources to stopping that from happening.
I suppose I want the government to step in more before the police force has to come in and start cracking skulls?
All right, overdramatic much?
Gio, this article feels like a deceptively calm version of the usual "the sky is falling!" outcry MTG players like so much for reasons I never actually understood (are they really the most insecure of the gaming communities?)
First of all, it's just ONE Pro Tour. It's the moment when the new brews catch everybody by surprise. Then the pros react, countermeasures are devised, and everything bounces back into balance, if it's able to (more on that later). That's how the meta always evolves, through action and reaction, it's never already formed from the get-go. You have to wait after at least a few other major events before launching into terroristic Mirrodin-era affinity comparisons.
But this isn't even the point. Let's assume Eldrazi.dek IS an affinity scenario. Let's assume there's nothing the pros can do about that. So what? Do you really expect WotC to not react immediately? R&D makes mistakes. They always have, they always will. It's actually for the best, because if they didn't, then it'd mean they're not taking risks, and this in turn would lead to the game growing stale with safe, boring set after safe, boring set.
But they do intervene. They have a police force for that, it's called DCI. I don't know how you can say Modern is not taken care of enough and is treated as a second-class citizen. If anything, Modern is never left alone! It's treated like the favorite child WotC runs to give a sweater to as soon as he sneezes, like an overbearing mother (and that's because it's been an engineered format, not one that sort of came into existence by necessity). We've never had a true Mirrodin-era dominance in Modern. Instead, we've seen top decks being mercilessly taken out of the meta just because they had started to raise their head and feel too prominent. Most recent case: Splinter Twin. Modern is well taken care of, you have just to trust what its history shows.
Some pros pointed out on Twitter that while it was a good idea for them to not include Lantern Control, it was probably a mistake to include Ari Lax's Abzan Company deck, which according to him he could not test with mtgo. Not due to being difficult, but because a main feature of the deck- the infinite life combo with Kitchen Finks, Viscera Seer, and Melira- is just not feasible to pull off online due to the time it takes. In paper you can just say "gain a million life" but online, every time you do the loop it costs you time, so the deck is just weaker online than in paper.
I tried playing the gauntlet. I spent 180 play points. Got a random non-eldrazi w/r/b deck with 'comes into play tapped lands'. You know how bad that is against temple+eye?! Lost terribly to 2 eldrazi decks and then got combo'd out by chord. Next got scapeshift. Lost to eldrazi, lost to affinity, beat goryo-reanimator. Got reanimator... lost to eldrazi's thought-knot seer, lost to eldrazi with relic of progenitus, beat someone who got mana screwed and just scooped out.
I thought I'd enjoy the gauntlet more. Turns out it just sucks if you don't randomly get the eldrazi deck. T2 thought-knot, t3 reality smasher is just way too consistent and hard to beat. Don't know how typical my experience was, but if you don't get the eldrazi, I don't think you'll have a fun time.
Yes and no on the gauntlet. The gauntlet is complex to a certain degree, but that's because Modern is a format where it rewards players that are experienced with their decks and know how to make decisions based on prior knowledge. It's also a format that rewards skill, so even if you're unfamiliar with Modern you can be a good player and do reasonably well. If you're a Modern aficionado then it shouldn't be too hard to play the decks at a reasonable level. However, if you're a Modern newbie then I imagine the games/decks would be too complex.
That's very weird, since this event was created before the Invitational was even held (I had to, since the Invitational was a different type of event). And I didn't change the settings after that.
New events are usually created with the pre-registration option already by Saturday, right after the end of that day's event. I never checked if they're immediately available, though, but I can't tell why it shouldn't be so.
I'm fairly confident that there is only 1 gauntlet queue because WotC doesn't know how popular it will be and doesn't want players to get frustrated waiting for a queue to fill. Next time around, I can see multiple queues with different payouts in order to separate the casual players from the serious players.
That was Grindstone's first ever win in Regular (and 2nd overall, the other was Scarecrow Underdog) in the Gatherling era. Was it a problem beforehand? Not that I disagree necessarily with the ban, as it is probably overpowered and pretty off-spirit.
That was fun squeezing in three separate combos into that 60 with Enlightened Tutor powering them all.
1) PainterStone
2) DarkStage (with ET for Map, also Weathered Wayfarer)
3) Auriok Champion/Worship against the red decks (Mom is also decent in this role)
It's definitely arguable that Enlightened Tutor is way more overpowered than Grindstone.
I, for one, would have preferred to allow Grindstone to exist, but restrict Painter to its tribe. This at least lets Scarecrows try to win over the more famous tribes in Regular and Pure with the combo, and Pure can easily purify Grindstone if Scarecrows succeed. However, I do think PainterStone is simply the best deck in Underdog. But don't forget, Grindstone, much like Painter, can have some strategic application outside the combo so the ban feels unfortunate when lesser restrictions seemed possible.
All that aside, my list was bad, as the Swords to Plowshares copies should have been Path to Exile. I'm careless on details.
Tim, indeed and my next article will detail the Toy Fair! Caner, one can hope!
Excellent! May the TA weep when you unleash your plan upon them! Wuhahahah.
Inspiring a creative deck builder such as yourself means this article is a success in my book. Thank you and you're welcome.
You have inspired some utter madness, for which I will be sure to tip my hat to you in next week's cast.
This was a fun article, it's neat to see the deckbuilding process that someone will take.
It's probably worth mentioning that Eternal Masters has just been announced, which will include reprints of both Wasteland and Force of Will, so, if people are considering getting into Legacy, it might be prudent to wait for that to be released and see if enough copies get opened to drop the price at all.
Precisely. Read this, got some ideas. Nasty, horrible ideas. Thankee!
Ah now I understand AJ's commentary to me after we wrapped up the show. Tainted Remedy inspirations. :D
Again, I write these articles at a first glance of the set (and this one is weird since it's the second part of a two-part series where the first part is stuck in publishing hell) and I didn't know how reliably the UR Splice deck can work when your two most important cards are an uncommon and the best common in the set.
Turn 1 Eye, 3 Eldrazi Mimic, 2 Endless One
Turn 2 Eldrazi Temple, 2 Matter Reshaper
Pick any reasonable modern deck you like.
Now take out all the sideboard cards people bring against that deck in all their opponents decks. That deck is going to have a way easier time than it normally would.
The Eldrazi were in that position. Nobody expected the deck, nobody brought a plan to deal with it, it had an easy time.
None of that speaks to the fact that there aren't things that beat it already, all it proves is that people aren't already running lots of those things in existing decks.
:Eldrazi Temple is similar to Cloud Post, but Eye of Ugin is unique in the way it discounts mana costs. 7 x 2 power creature on turn 1 is possible. 2 x 3 cmc creatures on turn 2, 4 x 3 cmc creatures on turn 3 etc.
Am I missing something?
There is no way to play 2 3 mana creatures on turn 2 with an eye and another land, unless that other land happens to be Urborg or Temple. 4 3 mana creatures on turn 3 is only possible if land drop 2 and 3 were both Eldrazi Temple or Urborg.
Given the very specific combinations of multiple different lands and low drop creatures, these kind of fast starts are likely to be significantly less frequent than turn 2 Primal Titan in Summer Bloom. The ability of the eye to put out plenty of cheap creatures quick is significantly limited by the lack of cheap creatures you can pay for with it's mana.
Even more than the losses of money and effort/time is the constant heart break of finding a deck you love and then having it ripped out of your hands by an apparently (and not necessarily actually) greedy corporation controlling things solely for their own benefit. I do realize that characterization is more hyperbolic than actual but that is what some people feel. And I expect there is SOME amount of truth to the matter especially since WOTC has a terminal case of mums instead of being into the transparent and clearness seeking communications that they have in the past espoused somewhat ironically.
Hey all, thanks for the comments!
I think a lot of folks assume that everybody that is showing concern about the Eldrazi situation are people who are only freaking out about the Pro Tour results. The point I was trying to make in the article is that some people are not overly concerned about a single event, but are concerned about lands that give a particular strategy an advantage that makes it a superior deck design over other decks. Already we are seeing a reduction in Tron/Jund/non-Affinity Aggro decks because there is an Eldrazi shell that is as good, or better, to replace these decks. That's a growing concern. If it was just another "creature swarm aggro deck", the meta could find a way to adjust, but a meta that devolves into "Eldrazi Deck Choice Mini Game vs Specialized Decks that might beat Edlrazi" is certainly worse than the open field we had in November for GP Pittsburgh.
Keep an eye on the MTGO results for the next week or so; if things aren't righting themselves, then check on the results of the SCG event next weekend. If it still isn't looking great, then the GPs in March might be the only shot left for format correction.
@Kuma: I was going for a calm "The sky is most likely going to fall at some point". Like a Stark level "Winter is coming". :)
The DCI policing the format, is actually the opposite of what I was saying. I'd like the format to be looked over a little BEFORE the DCI has to get involved. I know that the DCI can and will take care of this situation if it really does spiral out of control, but I would have been a lot happier if the Design team hadn't ignored the interaction in the first place. The banning of Pod and Twin have shown just how angry and divisive the community has become in regards to banning to help regulate the format. Even if the banning of the Eldrazi lands winds up being extremely justified, there are still going to be people that will lose time, money and energy when the deck is removed. For their supported non-rotating format, Wizards should consider devoting more resources to stopping that from happening.
I suppose I want the government to step in more before the police force has to come in and start cracking skulls?
I got the gw chord deck and the abzan chord deck.
Had a blast turn fouring people.
Don't forget Pod. And also preemptive Ancestral Visions.
All right, overdramatic much?
Gio, this article feels like a deceptively calm version of the usual "the sky is falling!" outcry MTG players like so much for reasons I never actually understood (are they really the most insecure of the gaming communities?)
First of all, it's just ONE Pro Tour. It's the moment when the new brews catch everybody by surprise. Then the pros react, countermeasures are devised, and everything bounces back into balance, if it's able to (more on that later). That's how the meta always evolves, through action and reaction, it's never already formed from the get-go. You have to wait after at least a few other major events before launching into terroristic Mirrodin-era affinity comparisons.
But this isn't even the point. Let's assume Eldrazi.dek IS an affinity scenario. Let's assume there's nothing the pros can do about that. So what? Do you really expect WotC to not react immediately? R&D makes mistakes. They always have, they always will. It's actually for the best, because if they didn't, then it'd mean they're not taking risks, and this in turn would lead to the game growing stale with safe, boring set after safe, boring set.
But they do intervene. They have a police force for that, it's called DCI. I don't know how you can say Modern is not taken care of enough and is treated as a second-class citizen. If anything, Modern is never left alone! It's treated like the favorite child WotC runs to give a sweater to as soon as he sneezes, like an overbearing mother (and that's because it's been an engineered format, not one that sort of came into existence by necessity). We've never had a true Mirrodin-era dominance in Modern. Instead, we've seen top decks being mercilessly taken out of the meta just because they had started to raise their head and feel too prominent. Most recent case: Splinter Twin. Modern is well taken care of, you have just to trust what its history shows.
Some pros pointed out on Twitter that while it was a good idea for them to not include Lantern Control, it was probably a mistake to include Ari Lax's Abzan Company deck, which according to him he could not test with mtgo. Not due to being difficult, but because a main feature of the deck- the infinite life combo with Kitchen Finks, Viscera Seer, and Melira- is just not feasible to pull off online due to the time it takes. In paper you can just say "gain a million life" but online, every time you do the loop it costs you time, so the deck is just weaker online than in paper.
The GoFundMe for Wayne England is now up as well and can be reached here.
https://www.gofundme.com/enrmjca4
I tried playing the gauntlet. I spent 180 play points. Got a random non-eldrazi w/r/b deck with 'comes into play tapped lands'. You know how bad that is against temple+eye?! Lost terribly to 2 eldrazi decks and then got combo'd out by chord. Next got scapeshift. Lost to eldrazi, lost to affinity, beat goryo-reanimator. Got reanimator... lost to eldrazi's thought-knot seer, lost to eldrazi with relic of progenitus, beat someone who got mana screwed and just scooped out.
I thought I'd enjoy the gauntlet more. Turns out it just sucks if you don't randomly get the eldrazi deck. T2 thought-knot, t3 reality smasher is just way too consistent and hard to beat. Don't know how typical my experience was, but if you don't get the eldrazi, I don't think you'll have a fun time.
Yes and no on the gauntlet. The gauntlet is complex to a certain degree, but that's because Modern is a format where it rewards players that are experienced with their decks and know how to make decisions based on prior knowledge. It's also a format that rewards skill, so even if you're unfamiliar with Modern you can be a good player and do reasonably well. If you're a Modern aficionado then it shouldn't be too hard to play the decks at a reasonable level. However, if you're a Modern newbie then I imagine the games/decks would be too complex.
That's very weird, since this event was created before the Invitational was even held (I had to, since the Invitational was a different type of event). And I didn't change the settings after that.
New events are usually created with the pre-registration option already by Saturday, right after the end of that day's event. I never checked if they're immediately available, though, but I can't tell why it shouldn't be so.
I'm fairly confident that there is only 1 gauntlet queue because WotC doesn't know how popular it will be and doesn't want players to get frustrated waiting for a queue to fill. Next time around, I can see multiple queues with different payouts in order to separate the casual players from the serious players.
In order to measure the participation of a pro, you have to define a pro.
Made $1000+ from WotC/SCG in the last 12 months?
Played 2+ PT in last 12 months?
Top 25 on MTGO QP leaderboard?
This may or may not have affected attendance but registration wasn't open until Thur. Usually it is open by Monday.