Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[InflatablePie]

fair points on the Colossi and Rams. I'd swap the two Narsets for Realms then, and would probably still go with 2nds of Angel/Teferi over Bontu/Henge. Teferi also lets you cast Gates Ablaze on EOT; I kinda forget the +1 does stuff sometimes


maybe a third Teferi if you have them tbh but idk what I'd cut - aside from a 4th Colossus just because you have enough card draw and it recurs itself, I'd imagine resolving one maybe two can close out a game.


[edit] I also have no idea how to build a Gates manabase :x

[popsofctown]

I could maybe cut Tamiyo since I haven't generated edge off of the static abilities as much as I hoped. I wanted a 4 cost card that doesn't feel totally out of place in the deck, weirdly lots of the cards that cost 4 don't feel at home in Gates.
In previous metas I've done such jank as Sphinx of Foresight, Nicol Bolas the Ravager, and Carnival//Carnage.
But maybe just not having 4's is ok.

Teferi, Time Raveler is a 4 cost planeswalker with a misprint WotC refuses to acknowledge

[InflatablePie]

-3 Boros Guildgate
-1 (-2) Breeding Pool
+1 Stomping Ground
+3 (+4) Gateway Plaza (common)

idk how often the extra one mana hurts when the deck's already slow but I feel like the mana fixing on Plaza is better than four Boros Gates and also I don't have the motivation to check this list against Frank Karsten's thing for mana (+1 Stomping Ground is a guess so you can for-sure turn 3 Ablaze against aggro a nonzero amount of times).

[pedit] Plaza technically makes T3feri 4 mana in a roundabout way

if we're getting singleton janky, does Angel and Plaza give you enough life to run a miser Command the Dreadhorde? or Agent of Treachery (with T3feri bounce). idk if they're good; might be too slow.

Oko's +1 should be a -1 or 0 at best so maybe WotC doesn't have the best track record with 3cmc walkers lately. at least Chandra's gr8

[InflatablePie]

Spoiler: grixis fires, minor updates

7853 has the original list, update is here:



-1 Fires
-1 Cry
-1 Narset
-2 Angrath's Rampage
+2 Tyrant's Scorn
+2 Bedevil
+1 Bedeck//Bedazzle

-1 Island // +1 Castle Vantress (yay pulled a 3rd - this is probably better than the 3rd Fabled Passage I was considering tbh)

Angrath's Rampage isn't as good as I'd hoped, although it

is

useful in some matchups. Tyrant's Scorn is worse against control but I've been seeing less of that and am confident enough in my winrate to hedge there. Overall just added more spot removal - including a spicy tech in Bedazzle against FotD game 1 (and casting Bedeck at other times, fairly often). I kinda want a second instead of Scorn #2 but don't feel like crafting it in case FotD gets banhammered. Also running a Bedevil/Rider split because the life loss sucks against some decks and bedevil hits random Henges and Ovens.

Drawing multiple Fires sucks ass and Grixis works fine without it if you don't draw it or if it gets removed. Narset, while also great, is also iffy in multiples against creature decks (and it's not always castable t3 anyway). And then I found that 5 boardwipes main was unnecessary, but I still like Cry so I'm running a single main.

SB:
-1 Legion's End
-1 Aether Gust
-2 Negate
+1 Cry
+2 Lava Coil
+1 Ashiok

Negate and Aether Gust weren't doing enough and I haven't missed Legion's End since I have enough spot removal, can handle FotD zombies, and have rarely ever procced the extra effect. Lava Coil is great against G/R Aggro and such, exiles random Arclight Phoenixes, generally comes in when I need even more interaction. Ashiok is great as a backup plan in the control mirror and dunks on Golos. And another Cry (from the main) to further shore up aggro.

Deck still folds to Simic Flash tho.

I also think Fae of Wishes is overrated and unnecessary but maybe that's why I'm still only in Platinum
/shrug

[popsofctown]

I played a bunch of Fae of Wishes Grixis Fires last week until I got mad enough at Simic Flash that I started playing that instead.
I started with your list and came to some of those changes in parallel 2 Bedeck instead of Angrath's rampage, shaved some Cry of the Carnarium.

I don't care if Fae of Wishes is correct, it's sooooo fun.
Wishing for Role Reversal and trading 1 loyalty Narsets for real planeswalkers is hilarious.
Planewide Celebration against red decks is hilarious.

[InflatablePie]

oh I'll definitely give it a spin once I get another Fae or two on Arena, Planewide Celebration can also win with Bolas out of nowhere

I imagine it's better in Bo1, depends how much space you dedicate to a wishboard in Bo3 though.

[PJ.]

Anyone have any ideas for throne constructed on mtga?

[McMenno]

bg adventures seems good since it already uses mostly eld cards

[popsofctown]

bg adventures is probably good.

The format having no dual lands would push you towards monocolor, and then monocolor pushes you towards aggro, I think, but white is the only color with a two power one-drop in Throne of Eldraine (that monster is kind of a one mana 3/2, actually). So I would speculate that monowhite would be one of the better decks in the format. I haven't done any kind of testing to support that.

[DrDolittle]

wow oko is oppressive in standard
i am not happy about it

hope your big tournament goes well pops

[popsofctown]

make it cautious hope, went 1-3 at FNM

[hasdgfas]

make it cautious hope, went 1-3 at FNM

Then you're fine. I went 0-3 at the last FNM before my most recent GP, where I got top 100 and cashed.

[InflatablePie]

and there's the Field ban

also Astrolabe in Pauper

[Inferno390]

and there's the Field ban

Thank god

[InflatablePie]

still tweaking Fires a bit, probably dropping my Bedeck//Bedazzle and Cry mainboard, then the sideboard needs work. Ego and Ashiok are less necessary, probably replacing with a Cry and Noxious Grasp, another Duress, then idk. could also use ~5 slots for a Wishboard and try two Fae of Wishes main. Angrath's Rampage gets slightly better main now too I suppose.


meanwhile til the ban goes through on Arena I'm pivoting to the other deck I was working on upgrading - Flash

as no Simic Flash player seems to jam the same 75, here's my take:

Spoiler: Simic Flash

one Unsummon over two because I've rarely found it to be ultra useful (but is nice to have), three Sailors/Borrowers because in some matchups you really don't need to draw or cast 2-3, and only two Preservers due to the previous creature cuts. 2 Opt/2 OUaT feels right, and I've always played with 3 Frilled Mystic and been fine.

counterspell suite is a meta call - Gruul Aggro/Simic Midrange/Fires Control (and the mirror tbh) are what I'm expecting to see a lot of after the MC. two Negate for Oko/3cmc Domri/Teferi, and only running three Quench to make room for two MB Mystical Dispute (for the same, minus Domri). full four sabotage, and then two Essence Scatter main to hedge against Cavalcade/Knights/mono-Black/Stompy and such.

for lands I'm getting greedy and trying a Vantress over the 8th Island. I don't want a third Fabled Passage (2 is great for hitting your fourth land - as I've learned from Grixis Fires) but haven't run into enough long games where I need a Vantress to risk

that

coming into play tapped in other matchups from bad draws. plus Passage has marginal value with resetting Opt/Temple/OUaT scrys.

sideboard's pretty straightforward, access to four Negate/Capture/Dispute in the 75, Veil for counterspells/removal protection, Aether Gust for mono-Red and Oko decks alike, and Shifting Ceratops which is key in the mirror.

I'm also gonna try out dropping the Essence Scatters main for the 4th Quench and 3rd UOaT if the meta pans out that way. then swap a Negate for a 3rd Scatter in the board I think - you have cheaper protection in Dispute and Veil for counters etc, and color hate for noncreature threats, but aggressive creature matchups suck a little more when you've shaved off 3-4 creatures from your stock '9x4+24 land' list.

These swaps are probably better for Best of 3 and I'll probably switch over that way, but I think the main 60 is great for Bo1/Standard Events where you need to hedge against Cavalcade etc.

[popsofctown]

In practicing online it has been really hard to pick things to take out so I think I am going to buy 4 Leyline of the Void and put the full four in the sideboard.

If I mess with the original 60 I want it to be a 0 mana unconditional coalition victory for a certain matchup

[InflatablePie]

is it the cat oven matchup

because that one irrationally annoys me

[popsofctown]

Oh lol I am talking about Modern XD.

That might end up being a perk to owning 4 copies!

I'm going to pick a Standard deck to buy after I'm done with this Modern tournament. I might be the bad guy and play cat oven because Priest of the Forgotten Gods is such a beautiful card.

[InflatablePie]

oh whoops <_< I was thinking Grixis Fires and that it dodges Cry and I don't see the deck enough to really sideboard for it but it's a pain in the ass

[popsofctown]

Yuck.
New format "Pioneer", announced the same day as a ban update.
It's meant to "fill the gap between Modern and Standard" and "provide a format where you can play your recently rotated out Standard cards".

Yeah, right, no. Modern is already that format, you can play a standard deck with T3feri and when T3feri rotates he'll be a good fit in your modern binder. Will you be able to use 20 of the cards from your Standard deck in Modern, no.

You can play a standard deck with T3feri and when T3feri rotates he'll be a good fit in your pioneer binder. Will you be able to use 20 of the cards from your Standard deck in Pioneer? The format includes flipping Kaladesh man. Kaladesh. Do you remember that format where things were so unstable and sketchy WotC pre-emptively banned a glorified Man of War?

The point of this format is to add reprint equity to mythics that wouldn't otherwise have any reprint equity, like Chandra, Torch of Defiance or whatever. I don't think they actually have an accurate prediction of which cards will get the reprint equity. But it doesn't matter. The point of this format is to tax grinders, I don't think they genuinely believe this will be an FNM format that will fire and benefit players.

If they actually wanted to do what they're pretending they want to do they'd redo extended. By their own logic, they will have to create a new eternal format after X years to fill the gap between Pioneer and Standard. Then what will be the point of Pioneer? Modern is "as old as it gets without needing Reserved List", Pioneer won't have any special qualities. And like, do they think magic is growing so rapidly that it'll be easy to support that many formats at that point?

[panthaleon]

My favorite thing about magic players is that no matter what happens, they will complain about how evil wotc is and how X is the final death knell of the game.

[hasdgfas]

Pioneer's great. Modern was getting way too unwieldy, and I'm looking forward to being able to play with some of my favorite cards from previous Standards.

Meanwhile, I heard something about a B&R announcement today? The problem is that when I went to look at it, all I saw was a 3/3 Elk with no abilities.

[popsofctown]

Pioneer's great. Modern was getting way too unwieldy, and I'm looking forward to being able to play with some of my favorite cards from previous Standards.

I may turn out to be objectively wrong about this when the meta develops but I'm not optimistic that you'll be able to play favorite cards form previous Standards to the extent that that's different from "play previous cards from Kaladesh standards".
Gatecrash-RTR-Dragon's Maze- M14 - Theros - Born of the Gods - Journey Into Nyx - M15 : Famously weak sets
Khans of Tarkir - Fate Reforged - Dragons of Tarkir : Sets dependent on good mana for their more interesting cards, and with fetches banned we don't quite have that good mana. If you play 12 shocks.dec some combination of Taylor Swiftspear, Ranumap Ruins, Goblin Chainwhirler, Exquisite Fire Craft, Searing Blood, and Eidolon of the Great Revel is going to keep you very very honest I think, and none of these sets feature painfree ways to get ETB untapped color fixing such as filterlands or fastlands. Except for that Kaladesh block has enemy fastlands which kind of speaks to me feeling like this format is a Kaladeshy format.
Battle For Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch : Famously weak sets
Shadows over Innistrad, Rise of the Eldrazi: These are stronger but adjacent to Kaladesh so not lots of breadth there.
Kaladesh, Aether Revolt: Mirrodin 2.0 winter
Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, Ixalan, Rivals over Ixalan, Dominaria, Core Set 2019: weak sets for power resetting from the craziness of Kaladesh. The memorable cards, aside from Ranumap Ruins, are largely slow drops that you don't expect to survive in a large format, like The Scarab God and Glorybringer. TBF. Glorybringer maybe is just barely good enough to be playable in this eternal format and if he is that's so beautiful because he's such an honest magic card. But I am pretty worried he won't actually be playable.
Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, Core set 2019: Weak sets with the memorable cards being red-deck-wins cards that won't let interesting sets like Fate Reforged or Rise of Eldrazi do cool slow stuff and not offering cool stuff of their own.
Everything after that: is standard right now.

I will say, aside from the qualifier I might be totally wrong- "a format where we can jam broken kaladesh standard cards" isn't necessarily bad in and of itself. Like I enjoyed broken Kaladesh gameplay. What I -didn't- enjoy was the iterative process of "preorder this card" "WotC banned the card you preordered haha" which kind of seems like it might be around the alley for this format, starting with the question of whether Saheeli/Felidar is going to be considered a pillar of the format or an early ban from it, and then possibly several iterations after that. If I'm supposed to be the excited about the format four banlists from now and fours steps of "the next most broken thing" well, maybe, we'll see, it might be cool. Some formats have trouble finding an equilibrium point where they ban the most broken thing and BAM everything left is diverse. Some don't. I don't know why I should be excited immediately. But since -ptqs- are being -scheduled- -immediately- that's what makes me have a grievance. If the announcement was "we're going to figure this format out for a year on mtgo, then start doing ptqs for it" I would have been cool with it. As it stands it looks really rushed.

Meanwhile, I heard something about a B&R announcement today? The problem is that when I went to look at it, all I saw was a 3/3 Elk with no abilities.

Lol
Man. I respect pushing with the pongify design space. Because Pongify hasn't ever been tier 1.
But why does Oko's loyalty read like someone threw three d6's and locked in the result as the loyalty of the planeswalker?

[Micc]

I think there’s a lot to be excited about from the premise of pioneer. Modern is long past being a format where the fundamental turn is turn 4, but pioneer has the potential to fill in that gap. I agree that the early months are going to be rocky. I’m not especially excited to pick up paper cards for the PTQ season only to have them banned. But I’m sure there are deck builders out there who will absolutely thrive on trying to get as many things banned as possible. If when things are all said and done we end up with a recreation of the ~5 year period than made modern insanely popular, this will have been a huge success.

[popsofctown]

A format with a fundamental turn of four sounds rather Marvelous