Once I read that paying in tix would actually have issues with gambling laws but I have no idea if that's true or not.
One way to get around that would be to make constructed tournaments that cost 6 tix accept 6 tix or 2 tix + 1 pack that is currently sold in the store.
Making Release events accept 6 packs + tix would also help delay the decrease (it used to be like that in Zendikar and before).
And there is another way to help with this. Right now DEs pay 6 packs to 3-1s and 11 packs to 4-0s. Replace one of those packs (and one only) with something that could would be worth 4 tix. A special thicket or something like that, that could be used to enter tournaments, replacing 4 tix of the cost. By giving out just one, it makes sure no one can ever get more of those than they can spend and it decreases the number of packs being paid out.
The old 4 boosters sealed was also a very good booster dumper and it going away also contributed to this problem.
I agree with you that the main cause is probably all the Cube drafts plus MMA, VMA and other old draft sets but obviously those need to stay. I don't think it's the only cause, though. I have no way of knowing but maybe V4 is also affecting one side more than the other. We also had some time without Daily Events after the Kibler/MOCS incident which caused massive decreases in the overall value of cards and caused discomfort to many players. And we were without MOCS and PTQs for a long time. All that matters.
Before the Kibler/MOCS incident I used to be able to sell tix in my country for €0.90 each. This is because when buying in the store, we pay taxes making them much more expensive. People could probably find them a bit cheaper but they bought from me or another grinder because they knew us. After the incident the price of tix also crashed. People started buying for 0.80, 0.75 even going to 0.70 maybe 0.65. I didn't sell any for less than 0.75 but that was because I held on. Now I can easily sell for 0.80 so it's getting back up and it means people are becoming more confidant in MTGO again but it's still a long way from what it used to be.
Before I start, I do want to say that I always encourage people to try new cards and new ideas. I also realize that some of these cards could operate better in specific shells. I'm not doing this to tear down ideas, just to help cut away some of the less desirable ones. If folks want to try them out, they absolutely should.
I'm also going to treat this as "Twin has the nuts" because we are seeing our "trump cards", so let's expect "the worst".
I'll try to give quick explanations, but it's mostly cards either being more narrow than they appear, or because they actually aren't as useful in enough match ups.
Scour - only hits enchantments, costs four (prohibitive in the Bogle matchup)
Midnight Charm - minimal true flexibility in the format
Silence - Are you blind throwing it at them during the upkeep after they have cast a mite/exarch? Quite the gamble...
Unsummon - only if I need Vapor Snag 5+, but who needs that?
Harvest Pyre - less decks now pitch 4 cards to the yard fast enough to be reliable
Logic Knot - Similar problem as above with a little more wiggle room
Spell Burst - takes 4 or 5 mana, so only useful on the play, if you don't miss land drops
Veil of Secrecy - Nice find, but less flexible than almost every bounce or counter spell.
The Fog variants - You live a turn, but now you are relying on a second card to get the business done or you lose 1 turn later. Pointless without a very good clock of your own.
Surgical Extraction/Extirpate - These are "win more". You had to strip away or kill a piece in the first place, otherwise these do nothing.
Blustersquall/Dreams Grip - more temporary fixes
Curse of Death's Hold - 5 mana is much too slow
Platinum Angel/O-stone - TRON ONLY narrowness
I want to make special mention of Pithing Needle/Runed Halo/Phyrexian Revoker (not shown) - These cards seem great on the surface, BUT, a good Twin player shouldn't reveal the kill creature until it's too late for you to react. You can't afford to hold them and you only have a 50/50 chance at naming the right card. Flexible? YES. Great against Twin? Sadly, no. (Now, if they sb things like Lavamancer, Jace or Shackles...)
Some of the other cards are certainly not optimal choices, but like I said, I enjoy the spirit of the piece.
Do I wish that everybody could afford flexible 35 credit Spellskite? Sure. On the other hand, I'm glad that if Twin is our main concern, that the Pennybot has strong answers like Combust to help us at the very least.
The current client sucks to such a degree I have no idea how it was ever implemented. Turning it on and trying to go from collection to trading or play room makes me feel like I'm trying to run a marathon in mud. It is just this slow and clunky program that I must restart constantly. If you watch my pauper videos that I post in my articles you can see my computer freezing all the time, especially when there is a triggered ability or a library is being searched via terramorphic expanse. The current client is irredeamabley bad and should have been scrapped before it ever went public. The fact that it was pushed and still is virtually unplayable shows that there is some bad management going on at WOTC but if I quit MTGO it means I'm quitting magic because I have no interest in actual paper cards and I do like the interactions and theory of the game.
Please tell me you were streaming my Semi-Finals match with ztrman? That last game was really great and teaches a lesson about how careless life total mistakes early can cost you the game many turns later!
Glad you found something new to re-kindle some fire. Now bring back WAFTT please. (I really miss a weekend PRE for Modern) :)
I thoughtseized and surgical extractioned a dude's infernal tutor the other day, while after beating with goyf and stifling as many fetches as I could. I didn't need my force. but i do board in flusterstorm as well.
Some guy had a grixis omnitell deck that had discard in it. So it's a thing I suppose.
I don't play anything else anymore, so I'm usually referring to legacy, yes.
Are you referring to Storm decks? Storm can only really be beaten by things like Mindbreak Trap or Flusterstorm or something like Chalice/Prisonish effects. Regular counterspells dont do much against it. Plus the Storm decks in Modern arent the same in Legacy, the Modern versions have to lean on Pyromancers Ascension most of the time while the Legacy versions have tons of cantrips and rituals to get going.
Force of Will would just be one piece of the puzzle to fixing Modern. There has to be way more interactive spells to allow combo in Modern. The only other route to balance Modern would be to kill combo all together, which is something that many people would not be in favor of.
I agree man the state of MTGO's prize support is strange. Especially for Eternal formats to where there is little to no incentive to spend lots of money on more expensive decks if your main goal is to gain as much EV as possible.
Also I had a question about the writing on this site. I just started submitting articles and cant upload decklists. How do you do that? Also where is the contact info for the editor or the people who run this site? I cant find that anywhere.
what about a combo deck that plays: Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Gitaxian Probe to look for a clear path, Spell Pierce to counter the Force, Daze, the list is huge.
I have exactly four Force in my Shardless Bug deck, and I still worry about combo decks.
BTW, I HATED Leyline of Sanctity in the sideboard. Yeah, it's sweet if you hit one in your opening hand, and Burn is possibly your worst match up. but it's very narrow, and what if you mulligan an otherwise awesome hand trying to look for one? Do you keep a terrible hand with a leyline? Then your opponent runs you over with goblin guide. If you don't mulligan, it feels terrible when you lose a draw step drawing a leyline that you can't cast.
I much preferred Thragtusk. The life gain is key, and they don't think they need to hold up skullcrack until you're attacking with wurmcoil engine.
How am I supposed to play BUG Delver if I sell my wastelands? I understand your sentiment, but I knew what I was getting into when I bought them. Luckily, I didn't spend much out of pocket, I was able to trade and otherwise earn my way into owning them.
Thanks for looking out for me though :) and thanks for reading!
Force of Will beats every combo in Legacy except in two scenarios.
A) the combo doesnt care about Force of Will (ex; storm and dredge)
B) The combo plays force of will itself (Reanimator, Show and Tell, etc.)
It doesnt really take a genius to know what to Force of Will in Legacy. Your obviously not going to Force of Will a Deathrite Shaman since thats not going to flat out kill you, but a Natural Order probably will.
Force of Will keeps things nice and fair. Do you see Twin played in Legacy? No you don't, since theres too many ways of disrupting the combo in that format. Modern needs something like that unless you want a format to where your going to have an annual banning every year. There obviously cant just be force of will either. The format would need things like Daze, Flusterstorm, and better cantrips so we can find all these counters (like Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain).
Something just has to give. People cant have their cake and eat it. You cant have a format to where you dont want all of these cards, but at the same time expect there to be some balance with the current card pool since every banning Modern has had so far has lead to nowhere. Banning something every single year is also another terrible idea since at that point Modern is just a glorified Standard with hidden rotation.
Great article about Shardless Agent deck in Legacy!
On a somewhat related note, I am sad that you purchased 4 x Wastelands rather than to take my advice in a recent thread, namely to wait until the price of Wasteland tanks (which will, as it turns out, happen with Tempest Remastered).
My purpose is not to say "Told you so!", but to give you my friendly advice which is: Sell your 4 x Wastelands before it's too late!
Thanks Blippy for this article. I missed the good old days when you hosted a tonne of PREs.
I hope that Version 5 of the client (when it arrives in several years time) will be to your liking. I am happy that Wizards have suggested that by the end of 2015 there will be DOUBLE the amount of Magic Online staff employed. I am happy about this (although I would prefer them to spend this money on professional third party consultants).
I certainly considered the Titans as potential options. My main concern is that the deck is already a bit slow at times so adding more expensive creatures is a bit of a risk. That said I would probably be cool with it if we added in more mana ramp, such as Wall of Roots as I mentioned in the article. Sun Titan seems good but potentially suffers the same problem as Reveillark in that sometimes there just aren't good targets in the card. Primeval Titan is also good but we might want to add some exciting lands, such Kessig Wolf Run to make it more than just a 6/6 Trampler that ramps your mana (not that that isn't good - it's just not as exciting as Primeval Titan can be).
"Twin does force you to play certain kinds of removal since if not you automatically lose the game on the spot. Again other decks you can use creatures to defend your life total, while against twin you cant."
Well first of all, the Twin player has to have it. Sometimes they don't have it. Sometimes they have 1 card but not both, or sometimes they have both, or sometimes they don't have it at all! Twin doesn't make you play any maindeck removal spell that you wouldn't play anyway. You might sideboard a narrow card just for Twin, but generally your removal suite should be flexible enough that it's not completely dead in most creature based matchups.
Twin is a deck with a creature card and an enchantment card. Both die to removal. If you destroy one or the other, they don't have the combo. I'm fine with Twin as a combo deck because I know I have outs to it. I can put Abrupt Decay or Path to Exile in my deck and those cards are just fine outside the Twin matchup. I can counter the EOT Exarch/Pestermite. I can just win before they do. I can win on turn 1 with Amulet Bloom. I can storm for lethal on turn 4 on the play. I can Thoughtseize/Inquisition them and take the combo away.
"Experienced players obviously know how to deal with Twin, but if your new to Modern and dont know about Twin, you opponent will win with next to no effort. At least in Legacy most decks are equipped to deal with anything due to Force of Will"
But..if you're new to Legacy how would you know what to counter? If you're new to Legacy what good is Force of Will if you don't know what the key combo pieces are? I remember playing against Legacy Elves knowing very little about the format and having removal spells in my hand but not knowing what creature I needed to kill. Do I kill the Deathrite Shaman? Or the Nettle Sentinel? What about that Elvish Visionary? That card doesn't even see play in Standard!
You can't make the argument that Twin wins against new players because any combo deck will win against new players, and you certainly can't say Force is the answer because you can't counter what you don't know will win!
And NO, Force doesn't just beat combo in Legacy. It can beat some very linear, all-in combo decks, but not every deck folds to Force. If every combo folded to Force, why would anybody play those decks?
Force isn't the answer to Modern. Twin decks will always Probe/Peek you before going for it, and will only go for it if they can beat counters/removal, Storm will still beat you with Past in Flames even if you counter Ascension, Infect will still kill you with Inkmoth Nexus beats, Abzan will just take your Force, and Affinity will still force you to have a Wrath as opposed to a counterspell.
While I understand your consternation over the combo there are plenty of unfair combos to go around. What sets twin apart is its consistency. And it may be the case that with Pod out of the picture to keep these kinds of decks from auto winning, Twin is in a better position than most to take advantage because it is a quickish combo that can go off more than once.
Storm is slow now (right?)...
Amulet is faster but fragile (god I love the combo but am sad it went from being something I played in Tribal Wars Legacy to a REAL modern deck. And honestly it probably is the most broken of the bunch since it can end the game turn 1-2 fairly well if you get the nut draw.)
I agree that Twin warps the format but so does scapeshift, afinity, amulet, storm (though very little now I suppose), and a dozen other unfair decks. That was Paolo's point in his article. The premise of which I don't agree with. That Modern needs changing. I don't feel it does.
Also, back to the new player syndrome for a second because a thought occurs that should not be ignored. Players entering a non-rotating format such as Modern have to know what's in store.
And it is an assumption I'll just go ahead and make that anyone entering a tournament format that doesn't do their research has no business in that format.
Honestly it takes a few hours at most to get a pretty complete picture of what modern is like by reviewing past grand prix and pro tours.
And a few hours watching others play the format will give you details you might miss in the overarching picture.
As the author suggests there are a myriad of methods of defending against Twin that also work nicely against any number of other popular decks. You don't need to guess to know that Abrupt Decay hits most of the vilest cards in the format. Path takes out most creatures and what Path doesn't there are a dozen or so playable sweepers to choose from.
The only question is what kind of deck are you playing? Are you going to be playing something "fair"? Surely even the fairest of decks run removal and of great variety.
Hehe I remember the first time I played a Kikimite deck (the original combo) in Cas Play Cas Decks the 2nd or 3rd match (it was old extended format I think) the fellow I was playing hit my board with a hail storm after I finished making a bunch of pestermites copies and attacked with them. I was a little mad because he had that in his deck not for my combo (it was not played at all at the time) Just to deal with weenies in general.
But that is the nature of magic. Sometimes you lose to something and then you learn from it. THAT isn't a reason to ban stuff. Though I imagine the anger generated by losing so unexpectedly could very well make one wish for an instaban.
My point is, the answers already exist in the format. I am very wrathful that they banned pod since as a casual player, that wiped out a dozen weird variations on the theme for me, in the format. Decks totally nonviable for tourneys but fun ideas nonetheless. Bad WotC bad! Bansticks should be used sparingly!
I don't agree that the format needs a big blue answer in the form of FoW in order to keep it sane.
I agree - its true that Combust, Celestial Purge and other colour specific cards have creeped up in relatvie value in the current meta. I run a Combust or 2 in the sideboard of my Twin deck too - mainly for the mirror match, but it comes in for many other matches too.
The main reason why it is relegated to the sideboard is that in the matchups where you *need* creature removal early on, Combust is often a dead card in hand - Infect, Affinity, Burn etc, where a less powerful but more flexible card like (Izzet Charm) is much more welcome.
There may be a case to to mainboard your sideboard cards if the meta warrants it, as I have stated in this article.
The sideboard cards that the pros are complaining about are cards like Stony Silence that are really narrow in their application, but are practically required against Affinity, Eggs etc.
Which cards have I mentioned that you think are more narrow?
Combust also kills Siege Rhino, Restoration Angel, Blighted Agent, smallish Master of Etherium, most of the Merfolk, most of W/x D&T, Celestial Colonnade, Snapcaster, Clique, the other faeries and more.
In the matchups where it's useful, it's a "better" Flame Slash.
Also, in a format that is being crowded with Liliana of the Veil, Tasigur, Splinter Twin, Blood Moon and others, is Celestial Purge really that narrow?
I didn't get to read the particular articles, but are these more flexible sideboard cards the ones the Pro's are complaining about? I assumed they were talking about cards specifically for the extremely Linear Strategies, such as Affinity or Storm, not cards that can actually be used in multiple match ups?
Honestly, several of the other cards you mentioned are much more narrow then either of those two cards. I think you need to clearly define what narrow means with some additional context.
Thanks for the link and the response. I knew I had seen it on a mother site article, but navigating the mothership is like trying to beat game 1 Splinter Twin with RG Tron
Thank you for the feedback. I had tested the article with lists and thumbs, and found that the actual cards were better as an encyclopedia of answers for people who wanted a suggestion for a solution. Filling space wasn't really a concern of mine - I just wanted to get my thoughts down on paper, even though this article is a fair bit shorter than my others.
The reason why I didn't include Combust is not because it isn't the best anti-twin card, but because it is exactly the sort of narrow sideboard card that is complained about, and that I was trying to avoid. All of the other cards listed are broad enough to be useful the main board in a majority of matches in the right deck archetype.
Other fine sideboard cards like Celestial Purge were also not included for the same reason.
Once I read that paying in tix would actually have issues with gambling laws but I have no idea if that's true or not.
One way to get around that would be to make constructed tournaments that cost 6 tix accept 6 tix or 2 tix + 1 pack that is currently sold in the store.
Making Release events accept 6 packs + tix would also help delay the decrease (it used to be like that in Zendikar and before).
And there is another way to help with this. Right now DEs pay 6 packs to 3-1s and 11 packs to 4-0s. Replace one of those packs (and one only) with something that could would be worth 4 tix. A special thicket or something like that, that could be used to enter tournaments, replacing 4 tix of the cost. By giving out just one, it makes sure no one can ever get more of those than they can spend and it decreases the number of packs being paid out.
The old 4 boosters sealed was also a very good booster dumper and it going away also contributed to this problem.
I agree with you that the main cause is probably all the Cube drafts plus MMA, VMA and other old draft sets but obviously those need to stay. I don't think it's the only cause, though. I have no way of knowing but maybe V4 is also affecting one side more than the other. We also had some time without Daily Events after the Kibler/MOCS incident which caused massive decreases in the overall value of cards and caused discomfort to many players. And we were without MOCS and PTQs for a long time. All that matters.
Before the Kibler/MOCS incident I used to be able to sell tix in my country for €0.90 each. This is because when buying in the store, we pay taxes making them much more expensive. People could probably find them a bit cheaper but they bought from me or another grinder because they knew us. After the incident the price of tix also crashed. People started buying for 0.80, 0.75 even going to 0.70 maybe 0.65. I didn't sell any for less than 0.75 but that was because I held on. Now I can easily sell for 0.80 so it's getting back up and it means people are becoming more confidant in MTGO again but it's still a long way from what it used to be.
Before I start, I do want to say that I always encourage people to try new cards and new ideas. I also realize that some of these cards could operate better in specific shells. I'm not doing this to tear down ideas, just to help cut away some of the less desirable ones. If folks want to try them out, they absolutely should.
I'm also going to treat this as "Twin has the nuts" because we are seeing our "trump cards", so let's expect "the worst".
I'll try to give quick explanations, but it's mostly cards either being more narrow than they appear, or because they actually aren't as useful in enough match ups.
Scour - only hits enchantments, costs four (prohibitive in the Bogle matchup)
Midnight Charm - minimal true flexibility in the format
Silence - Are you blind throwing it at them during the upkeep after they have cast a mite/exarch? Quite the gamble...
Unsummon - only if I need Vapor Snag 5+, but who needs that?
Harvest Pyre - less decks now pitch 4 cards to the yard fast enough to be reliable
Logic Knot - Similar problem as above with a little more wiggle room
Spell Burst - takes 4 or 5 mana, so only useful on the play, if you don't miss land drops
Veil of Secrecy - Nice find, but less flexible than almost every bounce or counter spell.
The Fog variants - You live a turn, but now you are relying on a second card to get the business done or you lose 1 turn later. Pointless without a very good clock of your own.
Surgical Extraction/Extirpate - These are "win more". You had to strip away or kill a piece in the first place, otherwise these do nothing.
Blustersquall/Dreams Grip - more temporary fixes
Curse of Death's Hold - 5 mana is much too slow
Platinum Angel/O-stone - TRON ONLY narrowness
I want to make special mention of Pithing Needle/Runed Halo/Phyrexian Revoker (not shown) - These cards seem great on the surface, BUT, a good Twin player shouldn't reveal the kill creature until it's too late for you to react. You can't afford to hold them and you only have a 50/50 chance at naming the right card. Flexible? YES. Great against Twin? Sadly, no. (Now, if they sb things like Lavamancer, Jace or Shackles...)
Some of the other cards are certainly not optimal choices, but like I said, I enjoy the spirit of the piece.
Do I wish that everybody could afford flexible 35 credit Spellskite? Sure. On the other hand, I'm glad that if Twin is our main concern, that the Pennybot has strong answers like Combust to help us at the very least.
- Gio
The current client sucks to such a degree I have no idea how it was ever implemented. Turning it on and trying to go from collection to trading or play room makes me feel like I'm trying to run a marathon in mud. It is just this slow and clunky program that I must restart constantly. If you watch my pauper videos that I post in my articles you can see my computer freezing all the time, especially when there is a triggered ability or a library is being searched via terramorphic expanse. The current client is irredeamabley bad and should have been scrapped before it ever went public. The fact that it was pushed and still is virtually unplayable shows that there is some bad management going on at WOTC but if I quit MTGO it means I'm quitting magic because I have no interest in actual paper cards and I do like the interactions and theory of the game.
Indeed we did. :)
Please tell me you were streaming my Semi-Finals match with ztrman? That last game was really great and teaches a lesson about how careless life total mistakes early can cost you the game many turns later!
Glad you found something new to re-kindle some fire. Now bring back WAFTT please. (I really miss a weekend PRE for Modern) :)
Greatly appreciated. I should remind that person to put that in the write for mtgovideo since its nowhere to be found on this site.
I thoughtseized and surgical extractioned a dude's infernal tutor the other day, while after beating with goyf and stifling as many fetches as I could. I didn't need my force. but i do board in flusterstorm as well.
Some guy had a grixis omnitell deck that had discard in it. So it's a thing I suppose.
I don't play anything else anymore, so I'm usually referring to legacy, yes.
Thx for the comment. http://jamuraa.com/pure/deck_new.php and puremtgoeditor@gmail.com are what you are looking for.
Are you referring to Storm decks? Storm can only really be beaten by things like Mindbreak Trap or Flusterstorm or something like Chalice/Prisonish effects. Regular counterspells dont do much against it. Plus the Storm decks in Modern arent the same in Legacy, the Modern versions have to lean on Pyromancers Ascension most of the time while the Legacy versions have tons of cantrips and rituals to get going.
Force of Will would just be one piece of the puzzle to fixing Modern. There has to be way more interactive spells to allow combo in Modern. The only other route to balance Modern would be to kill combo all together, which is something that many people would not be in favor of.
I agree man the state of MTGO's prize support is strange. Especially for Eternal formats to where there is little to no incentive to spend lots of money on more expensive decks if your main goal is to gain as much EV as possible.
Also I had a question about the writing on this site. I just started submitting articles and cant upload decklists. How do you do that? Also where is the contact info for the editor or the people who run this site? I cant find that anywhere.
what about a combo deck that plays: Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Gitaxian Probe to look for a clear path, Spell Pierce to counter the Force, Daze, the list is huge.
I have exactly four Force in my Shardless Bug deck, and I still worry about combo decks.
It's a good card though for sure.
BTW, I HATED Leyline of Sanctity in the sideboard. Yeah, it's sweet if you hit one in your opening hand, and Burn is possibly your worst match up. but it's very narrow, and what if you mulligan an otherwise awesome hand trying to look for one? Do you keep a terrible hand with a leyline? Then your opponent runs you over with goblin guide. If you don't mulligan, it feels terrible when you lose a draw step drawing a leyline that you can't cast.
I much preferred Thragtusk. The life gain is key, and they don't think they need to hold up skullcrack until you're attacking with wurmcoil engine.
I love TRON!!! Seriously, Mono Blue Tron, then R/G Tron were my first (and some of my favorite) modern decks. Nice article man! Keep it up.
How am I supposed to play BUG Delver if I sell my wastelands? I understand your sentiment, but I knew what I was getting into when I bought them. Luckily, I didn't spend much out of pocket, I was able to trade and otherwise earn my way into owning them.
Thanks for looking out for me though :) and thanks for reading!
Force of Will beats every combo in Legacy except in two scenarios.
A) the combo doesnt care about Force of Will (ex; storm and dredge)
B) The combo plays force of will itself (Reanimator, Show and Tell, etc.)
It doesnt really take a genius to know what to Force of Will in Legacy. Your obviously not going to Force of Will a Deathrite Shaman since thats not going to flat out kill you, but a Natural Order probably will.
Force of Will keeps things nice and fair. Do you see Twin played in Legacy? No you don't, since theres too many ways of disrupting the combo in that format. Modern needs something like that unless you want a format to where your going to have an annual banning every year. There obviously cant just be force of will either. The format would need things like Daze, Flusterstorm, and better cantrips so we can find all these counters (like Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain).
Something just has to give. People cant have their cake and eat it. You cant have a format to where you dont want all of these cards, but at the same time expect there to be some balance with the current card pool since every banning Modern has had so far has lead to nowhere. Banning something every single year is also another terrible idea since at that point Modern is just a glorified Standard with hidden rotation.
Great article about Shardless Agent deck in Legacy!
On a somewhat related note, I am sad that you purchased 4 x Wastelands rather than to take my advice in a recent thread, namely to wait until the price of Wasteland tanks (which will, as it turns out, happen with Tempest Remastered).
My purpose is not to say "Told you so!", but to give you my friendly advice which is: Sell your 4 x Wastelands before it's too late!
Thanks Blippy for this article. I missed the good old days when you hosted a tonne of PREs.
I hope that Version 5 of the client (when it arrives in several years time) will be to your liking. I am happy that Wizards have suggested that by the end of 2015 there will be DOUBLE the amount of Magic Online staff employed. I am happy about this (although I would prefer them to spend this money on professional third party consultants).
I certainly considered the Titans as potential options. My main concern is that the deck is already a bit slow at times so adding more expensive creatures is a bit of a risk. That said I would probably be cool with it if we added in more mana ramp, such as Wall of Roots as I mentioned in the article. Sun Titan seems good but potentially suffers the same problem as Reveillark in that sometimes there just aren't good targets in the card. Primeval Titan is also good but we might want to add some exciting lands, such Kessig Wolf Run to make it more than just a 6/6 Trampler that ramps your mana (not that that isn't good - it's just not as exciting as Primeval Titan can be).
"Twin does force you to play certain kinds of removal since if not you automatically lose the game on the spot. Again other decks you can use creatures to defend your life total, while against twin you cant."
Well first of all, the Twin player has to have it. Sometimes they don't have it. Sometimes they have 1 card but not both, or sometimes they have both, or sometimes they don't have it at all! Twin doesn't make you play any maindeck removal spell that you wouldn't play anyway. You might sideboard a narrow card just for Twin, but generally your removal suite should be flexible enough that it's not completely dead in most creature based matchups.
Twin is a deck with a creature card and an enchantment card. Both die to removal. If you destroy one or the other, they don't have the combo. I'm fine with Twin as a combo deck because I know I have outs to it. I can put Abrupt Decay or Path to Exile in my deck and those cards are just fine outside the Twin matchup. I can counter the EOT Exarch/Pestermite. I can just win before they do. I can win on turn 1 with Amulet Bloom. I can storm for lethal on turn 4 on the play. I can Thoughtseize/Inquisition them and take the combo away.
"Experienced players obviously know how to deal with Twin, but if your new to Modern and dont know about Twin, you opponent will win with next to no effort. At least in Legacy most decks are equipped to deal with anything due to Force of Will"
But..if you're new to Legacy how would you know what to counter? If you're new to Legacy what good is Force of Will if you don't know what the key combo pieces are? I remember playing against Legacy Elves knowing very little about the format and having removal spells in my hand but not knowing what creature I needed to kill. Do I kill the Deathrite Shaman? Or the Nettle Sentinel? What about that Elvish Visionary? That card doesn't even see play in Standard!
You can't make the argument that Twin wins against new players because any combo deck will win against new players, and you certainly can't say Force is the answer because you can't counter what you don't know will win!
And NO, Force doesn't just beat combo in Legacy. It can beat some very linear, all-in combo decks, but not every deck folds to Force. If every combo folded to Force, why would anybody play those decks?
Force isn't the answer to Modern. Twin decks will always Probe/Peek you before going for it, and will only go for it if they can beat counters/removal, Storm will still beat you with Past in Flames even if you counter Ascension, Infect will still kill you with Inkmoth Nexus beats, Abzan will just take your Force, and Affinity will still force you to have a Wrath as opposed to a counterspell.
While I understand your consternation over the combo there are plenty of unfair combos to go around. What sets twin apart is its consistency. And it may be the case that with Pod out of the picture to keep these kinds of decks from auto winning, Twin is in a better position than most to take advantage because it is a quickish combo that can go off more than once.
Storm is slow now (right?)...
Amulet is faster but fragile (god I love the combo but am sad it went from being something I played in Tribal Wars Legacy to a REAL modern deck. And honestly it probably is the most broken of the bunch since it can end the game turn 1-2 fairly well if you get the nut draw.)
I agree that Twin warps the format but so does scapeshift, afinity, amulet, storm (though very little now I suppose), and a dozen other unfair decks. That was Paolo's point in his article. The premise of which I don't agree with. That Modern needs changing. I don't feel it does.
Also, back to the new player syndrome for a second because a thought occurs that should not be ignored. Players entering a non-rotating format such as Modern have to know what's in store.
And it is an assumption I'll just go ahead and make that anyone entering a tournament format that doesn't do their research has no business in that format.
Honestly it takes a few hours at most to get a pretty complete picture of what modern is like by reviewing past grand prix and pro tours.
And a few hours watching others play the format will give you details you might miss in the overarching picture.
As the author suggests there are a myriad of methods of defending against Twin that also work nicely against any number of other popular decks. You don't need to guess to know that Abrupt Decay hits most of the vilest cards in the format. Path takes out most creatures and what Path doesn't there are a dozen or so playable sweepers to choose from.
The only question is what kind of deck are you playing? Are you going to be playing something "fair"? Surely even the fairest of decks run removal and of great variety.
Hehe I remember the first time I played a Kikimite deck (the original combo) in Cas Play Cas Decks the 2nd or 3rd match (it was old extended format I think) the fellow I was playing hit my board with a hail storm after I finished making a bunch of pestermites copies and attacked with them. I was a little mad because he had that in his deck not for my combo (it was not played at all at the time) Just to deal with weenies in general.
But that is the nature of magic. Sometimes you lose to something and then you learn from it. THAT isn't a reason to ban stuff. Though I imagine the anger generated by losing so unexpectedly could very well make one wish for an instaban.
My point is, the answers already exist in the format. I am very wrathful that they banned pod since as a casual player, that wiped out a dozen weird variations on the theme for me, in the format. Decks totally nonviable for tourneys but fun ideas nonetheless. Bad WotC bad! Bansticks should be used sparingly!
I don't agree that the format needs a big blue answer in the form of FoW in order to keep it sane.
Given the difficulty they have with just one server, I find that unlikely. I hope we get some answers on the matter.
I agree - its true that Combust, Celestial Purge and other colour specific cards have creeped up in relatvie value in the current meta. I run a Combust or 2 in the sideboard of my Twin deck too - mainly for the mirror match, but it comes in for many other matches too.
The main reason why it is relegated to the sideboard is that in the matchups where you *need* creature removal early on, Combust is often a dead card in hand - Infect, Affinity, Burn etc, where a less powerful but more flexible card like (Izzet Charm) is much more welcome.
There may be a case to to mainboard your sideboard cards if the meta warrants it, as I have stated in this article.
The sideboard cards that the pros are complaining about are cards like Stony Silence that are really narrow in their application, but are practically required against Affinity, Eggs etc.
Which cards have I mentioned that you think are more narrow?
Combust also kills Siege Rhino, Restoration Angel, Blighted Agent, smallish Master of Etherium, most of the Merfolk, most of W/x D&T, Celestial Colonnade, Snapcaster, Clique, the other faeries and more.
In the matchups where it's useful, it's a "better" Flame Slash.
Also, in a format that is being crowded with Liliana of the Veil, Tasigur, Splinter Twin, Blood Moon and others, is Celestial Purge really that narrow?
I didn't get to read the particular articles, but are these more flexible sideboard cards the ones the Pro's are complaining about? I assumed they were talking about cards specifically for the extremely Linear Strategies, such as Affinity or Storm, not cards that can actually be used in multiple match ups?
Honestly, several of the other cards you mentioned are much more narrow then either of those two cards. I think you need to clearly define what narrow means with some additional context.
Thanks for the link and the response. I knew I had seen it on a mother site article, but navigating the mothership is like trying to beat game 1 Splinter Twin with RG Tron
Thank you for the feedback. I had tested the article with lists and thumbs, and found that the actual cards were better as an encyclopedia of answers for people who wanted a suggestion for a solution. Filling space wasn't really a concern of mine - I just wanted to get my thoughts down on paper, even though this article is a fair bit shorter than my others.
The reason why I didn't include Combust is not because it isn't the best anti-twin card, but because it is exactly the sort of narrow sideboard card that is complained about, and that I was trying to avoid. All of the other cards listed are broad enough to be useful the main board in a majority of matches in the right deck archetype.
Other fine sideboard cards like Celestial Purge were also not included for the same reason.