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FWIW WotC has already said there will probably be no changes.

> Speaking of which, we do not anticipate making any changes to Modern with the January 15 announcement. We're sensitive to the timing of that announcement relative to the Pro Tour, and only would make a change if it were very clearly needed. Given the current state of the format, we believe that will be extremely unlikely.

Source

This is actually a very diverse top 8. Everyone's distracted by the 2 KCI decks, but besides those there were:

• Jeskai Control
• GDS
• 2 Green Tron
• Bant Company
• Humans

That's a fantastic spread of decks. Compared to the GP Hartford, which was almost entirely linear, this had more "interactive" decks. I hate Tron as much as anyone with a soul, but it's a decent indicator of meta health for it to make it to the top tables, alongside control (Jeskai), midrange (GDS), and aggro/taxes (Humans).

Also, Bant Company made top 8. It's basically GW Company splashing blue for Reflector Mage and 4 counters in the side. (As an aside, this does speak to the surprising power of Reflector Mage in Modern.)

The only unfortunate thing is that there will likely be an uptick in KCI everywhere now. The third top 8 seems like what was needed to convince a lot of people to pick up the deck.

And most people will be slow with the deck for a few months, which could be painful to play against in paper.

> he format is too wide and really hard to do consistent with when you have to face this match up lottery with all these fairly powerful decks

This is crap and a cop out from people who don't know the format well / invest enough time in it.

You aren't always going to have good matchups but that is true of every constructed format in Magic.

I've played over 250 sanctioned modern matches in the last two and a half years (almost all of which are at competitive REL events) and I am just over a 70% win rate because I put my time into learning the format.

http://www.enlightenment.org/ss/e-55fb1b824eb167.91540465.jpg

Wizards bans it partly because of diversity, partly because a Pro Tour was on the horizon and they wanted to shake up the metagame. You can read their reasoning here.

It was a popular deck that wasn't busted but very very good. As such, a lot of players got hit with the ban and felt it was fine. It also led to blue being out of the format for a few years.

As for the meme, I dunno, man. Why is anything a meme?

People love to overreact. Remember when GDS spiked GP vancouver and then manhandled modern until it got banned? Oh wait... that didn't happen. It stuck around as a top tier deck, but the meta adjusted around it.

Hey, this seems like a really sweet gesture. I'm sure your husband will love it!

I would caution against white sleeves. They tend to get dirty more easily, and they don't always do a good job of fully blocking out the back of the card.

My personal recommendation for sleeves would be Dragon Shield Matte sleeves in a dark color. Here is an amazon listing for the Black version (which are generally the cheapest): https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Shield-Matte-Protective-Sleeves/dp/B00WX57O7M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500663177&sr=8-1&keywords=dragon+shield+matte

GGT was on the initial banlist, so it arguably never got a chance in modern. Turns out its position on the banlist was probably deserved, so it got the axe and isn't likely to come back. I'm not a big fan unbanning stuff just to "give it a chance" so to speak, but that argument doesn't even work for twin.

Twin was banned because it warped the modern metagame around it to a degree that was deemed unhealthy. It required everyone to run answers specific to it, but it also had a very strong bolt-snap-bolt value game even if you did remember to pack your abrupt decays. It also meant that there was very little reason to play any other kind of UR(x) deck. If you were playing a deck like delver or grixis control, you might as well just cut down some of your more mediocre threats and dedicate those slots to the combo.

Twin made metagame all about twin and had no real safety valve to stop it from staying on top. Nothing about that has changed since it was banned. I see no reason to unban it, and I doubt WotC does either.

EDIT: Since the opinion is apparently unpopular, I'd encourage people to read the original ban announcement and ask themselves what about modern has changed since then to make twin a good addition to the metagame. It seems to me if you unbanned twin, it would be highly likely to go right back to being the dominant deck it was.

EDIT II ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: People seem to think I have some axe to grind with GGT. I don't have any particular beef with that card (I've even played dredge on occasion), and a discussion of whether it's worth banning is a whole other thread. I was just pointing out that the rationale for unbanning GGT (it's never gotten a chance in modern) doesn't apply to twin. Twin did get a chance, and it was the format top dog for years.

It's difficult to find a reason not to play GDS or a Blue Moon variant.

GDS better fulfils the "play a big creature, protect it and clear the way while tempoing out your opponent" plan, and Blue Moon covers the "UR spells" plan.

That said, I and several others on the Delver discord play it a fair amount, and the deck is a lot of fun.

Here's my decklist if you want an idea of what a Delver deck could look like in 2018. Some people go more aggressive with more burn, like this deck (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Therabbins is Reid Duke's cousin who played in the recent MOCS)

Keep in mind that this variety is forced by wizards post decklist changes : https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/magic-online-posted-decklist-changes-2017-07-05

Wizards explains each of their banning/unbanning decisions when they announce them.

>Over the past year, Birthing Pod decks have won significantly more Grand Prix than any other Modern decks and compose the largest percentage of the field. Each year, new powerful options are printed, most recently Siege Rhino. Over time, this creates a growing gap between the strength of the Pod deck and other creature decks. Pod won five of the twelve Grand Prix over the past year, including winning the last two. The high percentage of the field playing Pod suppresses decks, especially other creature decks, that have an unfavorable matchup. In the interest of supporting a diverse format, Birthing Pod is banned.

Mmmm, bad news I'm afraid...

But how the combo worked, use [[Splinter twin]]/[[Kiki jiki, mirror breaker]] on a [[pestermite]]/[[deceiver exarch]]. When the token enters the battlefield, untap the Kiki or twin creature and repeat until you can swing for lethal, or double lethal, or infinite lethal...

Blue and red made it exceptionally good at digging for the combo, protecting the combo, as well as stopping any other shenanigan combo decks/ hate pieces that could fight it.

You're looking at the 60 vs 61 argument wrong, dead wrong.

First, you're right: http://www.gatheringmagic.com/the-extra-card-fallacy-2/

Second, you're wrong: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/beyond-basics/61-2017-02-09

Take out a card.

You only have to play with one Dryad Arbor. That is significantly less of an issue than playing with 4x Noble/Birds and having a high chance of drawing a blank.

Costing 1 extra mana to get any green creature is also far too efficient. Compare GSZ to Chord of Calling. Chord allows you to get any creature at instant speed, and even has convoke to help with casting it, but Chord requires triple the base mana required before you start sinking X into the mana cost. Chord is a much more fair creature tutor than GSZ is because there are real opportunity costs to having to use the card compared to GSZ.

Here is the official explanation for why GSZ was banned in the first place. Most of the arguments still hold true to this day.

> On turn one, this can give the acceleration of a Llanowar Elves by getting a Dryad Arbor. On later turns, it can get a large creature or a one-of "toolbox" creature such as Gaddock Teeg. While this is interesting, it is also too efficient. If one intends to build a deck that has turn-one accelerants, Green Sun's Zenith is a great choice. If one wants to more access to utility green creatures, Green Sun's Zenith is a great choice. If one wants to more reliably get a large green creature, such as a Primeval Titan, onto the battlefield, Green Sun's Zenith is a great choice. However, this ends up with fewer different decks being played in practice, as Green Sun's Zenith is such a good choice that there are fewer green decks that do anything else. The DCI hopes that banning Green Sun's Zenith increases diversity among Modern green decks.

20 Card difference now I believe. Post was around February from Wizards about this change.

Edit. First bullet point. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/improving-our-approach-magic-online-data-2018-02-12

There isn't enough need to get that granular. If you understand the deck type each falls under you can infer what the good options are from a combination of the matchup philosophy between the five basic types, aggro - tempo - midrange - control - combo, and concepts like fundamental turn and specific deck weaknesses. For instance, Dredge is weak to grave hate so even if it is faster than anything else in a metagame it will put up poor results if everyone was already packing heavy grave hate.

Slightly off topic but I think still useful as a resource, here's a link that has a couple excellent strategy articles:

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/shoulders-giants-2013-08-06

The oldest articles going back to the days of the Dojo cover some of the most important strategic concepts in Magic, although their examples may be confusing due to how ancient some of those decks are now.

Ponder, Preordain, Rite of Flame and Seething Song are all banned because of storm. As we all know, Storm is the mechanic WOTC deemed to be the most broken but instead of banning the storm cards they ban the cards that break the storm mechanic which I think is the wrong approach. Pauper had the right idea in banning the three most power storm cards outright.

> UR Pyro/TiTi - Spice Level: ★★★★★ - A non-mardu pyro build that also leans on TiTi and Snappy for their "spellslinger" theme. Other interesting choices include mainboard 1-of Mana Leak, Electrolyze and Abrade, 2 Roast and 3 Ancestral Vision.

I feel like you're overrating the spice level a bit here, the maindeck is like 1 or 2 cards off from a Pro Tour Top 8 list. https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptrix/deck-tech-ur-pyromancer-vierens-2018-02-03

> Jeskai Midrange/Tempo - Spice Level: ★★☆☆☆ - 3 x mainboard copies of Lightning Angel.

I guess Mantis Riders have gotten too expensive?

Got a source? Because WotC pretty clearly stated in the format announcement that the 8th Edition frame was the dividing line because everything else felt arbitrary and the visual cue was at least a little useful.

I think one issue that Jund players are facing is they are barely tuning their lists. Just slamming 4 BBE and 25 lands in a deck is not a way to perform in modern.

I really appreciated the choices in deckbuilding that the winner of the last Modern Challenge made. Lower land count, more fatal pushes, more wraths. Less reliance on BBE variance.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-04-18

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpvan17/9-32-decklists-2017-02-19 11th place list. Apparently if you run small pox you don't run Bridges. So for budget delirium skeins over Lili, and smallpox over Bridges. Lili is irreplaceable though, buy that first. And Bridges are optional.

> The only one I recall is Twin itself. Gitaxian Probe happened later, and Preordain + Ponder were banned waaay earlier, a lot before Twin ever became a pillar of the format.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/pro-tour-philadelphia-2011

The first Modern Pro Tour winning deck was Twin with 4x Preordain, 4x Ponder...

Also, the discussion is about Kiki combo, the deck that Twin evolved into, and how it's still at thing, so Git Probe definitely still counts.

I was one of the people that responded that Grishoalbrand is better; but better isnt the right word, its most consistent.

If you want the big turn 2 kills and are willing to accept the risk, run the [[Fury of the Horde]] version; it gets there and does it in a super fun/high risk way.

Another version that was just discussed here (https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/8cx6v4/competitive_modern_constructed_league_april_17th/ ) is a more all-in version by /u/spooly a little ways down (deck list is here https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2018-04-17 ).

[[Jace, Vryn's Prodigy]] is interesting; going 3 colours has its down side, you want as much life as possible to dig for Furys to go off, so fetch/shocks hurt quite a bit. He will help even-out the draws a bit but at the sacrifice of explosiveness/life. Test out both and see what you like.

I know him a little since he's local to the LA area, we talked about the deck a little bit in between rounds. They posted his list here, he placed 23rd. He lost his win and in for top 8 to Matt Nass iirc. Two of his last 3 matches were losses to KCI, the other loss was to Eli Kassis. I asked him how he beats stony silence and he said, "Guess how many times I saw stony silence this weekend?" And then proceeded to make a giant 0 with his hand.

For Pro Tour "Meatballs" (First Pro Tour of 2019):

PPTQ Round (Modern/Sealed): July 21, 2018–September 23, 2018 RPTQ Weekends (Modern): December 1–2, 2018, and December 8–9, 2018

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/organized-play/2018s-pro-tours-and-2017s-worlds-2017-07-19

I'm currently on the jund shadow list very similar to the one played by ALBIMTG here

I played a lot of the 4 and 5 color builds and they often had mana problems - you were usually functioning on 3 lands most games and it's REALLY hard to have 3 lands that cast 5 colors of spells while still having BB for liliana or thoughtseize + shadow double spell turns. Lingering souls and ranger of eos are probably better than bloodbraid, but streamlining the colors and reintroducing K-command has made it reasonably resilient. I haven't played any pptq's or anything, but the deck has treated me well so far on MTGO and at FNM.

This build is a little lighter on removal, so humans can be an awkward matchup (though your creatures are usually still bigger). And you're still a little soft to decks running lots of [[Fatal Push]], but hand disruption into a quick clock is still a recipe for success.

DRS was played in Pod. Pod was one of the best decks still with DRS in the format cause Pod was basically a midrange deck that just had a combo in it.

Here's GP Chicago, which was the first modern GP with DRS. That was a fun GP, saw Kibler rip a Loxodon Smiter off of a Horizon Canopy draw in response to Lilly +1. I personally underestimated the impact DRS would have during it though. My jund matchup went from like 55-45 to 40-60 because of DRS.

Here's GP Detroit, which I think was the last modern GP with DRS. Last one I attended with it legal anyways. Pod won, with a lot of jund/jund knock offs in top 8 still.

Playing and getting reps in will help you improve and watching streamers on twitch will help you see different lines of play. Also, Reid Duke wrote up a whole guide for getting better Reid Duke's Level One

There's the Comprehansive Rules.

It's not very useful for learning the game, it's more of a 'here are all the rules' and exactly how everything works.
But, it'll tell you how everything works, so that might work, given you already know the general gist of how to play.

If it had different routes to victory I would be inclined to agree. Just because the creature cards have a text box doesn’t mean the deck isn’t linear. It is a grey area but Humans is more linear than non-linear in my opinion.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/level-one/linear-strategies-2014-12-29

Earlier this year Pascal Vieren made top 8 with u/R Pyromancer showcasing 3 TiTI. Mardu Pyromancer has ended up being the better Young Pyromancer deck since then but if you want to play TiTi, I think it's a great option.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptrix/deck-tech-ur-pyromancer-vierens-2018-02-03

Cifka's deck didn't but many ran 2. Sebastian Denno and Noah Long used them in the same Pro Tour (RtR). I'm pretty sure Nathan Holiday did, too, but I may be wrong. (Edit: I am.)

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/top-modern-decks-2012-10-21

It refers to decks that run a low land count and lots of cantrips. Mana dorks sort of fit the theme.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ub-trippin%E2%80%99-2005-04-21

I think it's called Xerox because you run as many 'copies' of cantrips as you can. Or something about finding your 'copies' of good cards. Either way it's something to do with the deck being like a copy machine because of all the redundant card draw.

I would read this article.

It's not his original Philosophy of Fire article from 2004, but this is a little more abridged and gets to the point quicker (and doesn't reference cards/decks that are over a decade old.)

Essentially, the philosophy of fire looks at the life-to-card relationship from the opposite direction, saying each card should be worth N of your opponent's life total. It doesn't care about card advantage, it doesn't care about value, it just cares about converting what resources it has into killing the opponent.

For modern day burn, N=3, so the deck wants each of its cards to deal a minimum of 3 damage, thus only requiring 7 nonland cards to kill your opponent. Burn spells are much harder to interact with for this purpose, and the creatures that it does play can usually guarantee a minimum of 3 damage, allowing them to function like a burn spell.

Because of all the efficient removal in Modern, a creature heavy deck can't guarantee that kind of card-to-damage ratio.

EDIT: If you want to read the original Philosophy of Fire article, you can find it here.

You can NOT show up and just sign up.

Regional Pro Tour Qualifiers are invitation-only tournaments. You can qualify for a RPTQ by winning a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier (pptq). Source

Apparently the original comment was about mana drain.

"Why do people keep bringing up you being hit by a bus?

Long, long ago I was asked what it would take for R&D to reprint a powerful card from Legends called Mana Drain. I said all of R&D would have to be hit by a bus. That quote has for some reason never died and is the source of the bus jokes."

http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/faq https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/magic-goes-eleven-2010-06-28

> I think the real issue with your article is that more than half the cards you want to unban would creat one sided/broken games of magic.

I genuinely don't understand how anyone can tell me with a straight face that cards like Pod / Twin create one sided games of Magic, while they also tell me they think the current iteration of Storm is OK.

Speaking for experience of having logged hundreds of sanctioned matches and thousands of testing games in Modern while Twin and Pod were legal - they killed me on turn 3 far less often than Storm does. Heck - storm as it is in Modern now can actually kill on turn 2 with the absolute nuts.

> Right now the format is so open

Why would these changes make this any different? Did you ever play when Twin, Pod, and TC/Dig were legal? There were tons of viable decks! Here is one of the last GPs before Pod / TC were banned and Twin was still legal. There are 7 archetypes in the top 8.

I finished 4th with an esper gifts list last summer at a local thing. (got blood moon'd turn 2 by the affinity guy, so close to winning it with this pile)

http://manadeprived.com/sunday-showdown-results/

the deck feels really strong, I would def change my list to fit into this current meta but it might be a helpful reference point for you.

I also finished 2nd yesterday at a modern challenge with this esper list, not gifts but I think it's better for the current meta.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2017-10-08

lots of people are running tons of grave hate cause of storm so make sure to have good backup plans, and try to add a good reanimation target vs eldrazi if there even is one.

• Follow shoktroopa around and imitate his every move (https://www.twitch.tv/kharniverous)
• Do not rush to get Tron! This is not RG Tron, you will not have Turn 4 Tron any significant percentage of the time.
• Always mulligan hands without 2 lands + 1 blue source
• Avoid spells with double blue in their mana cost, you want to function off one Island (this is why Snapcaster isn't great in the deck too)
• Seriously, just don't screw with the mana base
• Karn isn't that great in this deck. He's great on Turn 4, but has limited board impact by the time you'll be able to cast him.
• Always keep the artifact count above 12 postboard to enable Thirst for Knowledge
• Play/Draw makes a big difference in sideboarding. Spell Snare/Pierce are good on the draw, Chalice is great on the play

Yes there was! Last Wednesday I believe. I should be able to get a list from the player. I'll see what I can do.

I believe he was planning on playing it for us again sometime soon.

Shameful plug to the stream if anyone is interested

List for you I'm sure you can just updated with current meta changes. E-leap might be more consistant. Im not too sure. My friend ran the deck, and it was gain infinite life, make infinite mana, create infinite creatures

I would take the maindeck from the GO vegas top8 list. There isn’t really much variance in top lists lately, except for Fabiano and Davis, and I don’t buy into their lists as much - https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gplv18-modern/top-8-decklists-2018-06-16

The sideboard is a little more in the air, but the maindeck list is tight as hell and shouldn’t be messed with.

Here's the top 9-16

And the top 17-32

I also play EnT and his list really is different in execution

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-05-27

He is the 3rd place list but the "standings" say he got 1st? Idk how the placements work haha.

The list focuses on getting a chalice, thalia, or arbiter on turn 1. It also has Thicc Thalia to slam on turn 2.

It has gemstone caverns and 4 SSG, no vials.

It was notable for being one of the first decks to really keep a mana curve in mind. Great article on it here.

The Patxi list has become the more 'standard' list being run, but I am trying the Displacer / Pilgrim plan put forth by Mullen recently - not a lot of play time with it though.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-04-08 <-- Patxi list

> https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-04-18

I like this approach, and it works for some players. Wescoe and Burkhart come to mind, and Reid Duke only really plays one archetype, dips into Elves notwithstanding.

GW Company interacts with its opponents by mana and land denial and it is another non-linear way of how it puts its game plan forward. Devoted Company plays similarly to how Birthing Pod played out. Often featuring silver bullets that often made the deck take a controlling position against many decks in the format. It also packs alot of direct interaction spells like Path to Exile and similar. Meanwhile a deck like Humans, similarly to Elves, Hollow One and Burn, doesn't take different roles in different matchups. It wants to make sure their game plan always stays the same.

Read this piece by Reid Duke and see how perfectly Humans apply: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/level-one/linear-strategies-2014-12-29

Top 16 is out: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gphar18/9-16-decklists-2018-04-15

• Titanshift
• Blue Moon
• living end
• Ub taking turns
• Humans
• mardu pyromancer
• BR hollow one
• Jund

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/team-modern-super-league-decklists ChannelFireball week 9.

It is sort of a +1/+1 counters affinity deck with modular creatures and hardened scales.

> if you let all those cards back into modern its would push more decks out than it would create.

Why do you think this? The last time Pod, Twin, and TC/Dig were legal the format was really diverse. Had a lot of archetype diversity and not just deck name diversity like we have now.

Example - here is a GP top 8 from when Pod, TC, and Twin were all legal: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpoma15/top-8-decklists-2015-01-11

> When twin or colorless eldrazi were at their peaks

Twin only had this peak because WOTC banned Pod, TC and other powerful cards. When you remove all the competition yes Twin is too good. When you give lots of decks powerful tools, you get lots of powerful different decks.

You should look into more in depth articles on the topic, but theres a basic trick to it.

>A) First add up all of the colored mana symbols in the top right corner of all of your cards. This will help you determine the proportion of lands for each color that you will need to run. ... C) Divide your colored lands equally to the proportion of mana symbols in your deck, but err slightly towards the middle when one color is heavy and the other is very light.

Example:

What I mean by this is that our deck right now shows 38 green and 12 red mana symbols, for approximately a 3 to 1 ratio. We also know that we will want to cast our removal spells early, so we will need to have one red mana on the board to do this. Therefore, instead of playing 18 Forests and 6 Mountains, I would actually run 16 Forests and 8 Mountains (a 2 to 1 ratio), thus erring towards the middle and playing slightly more of the underrepresented color.

From this article. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-academy/building-your-first-deck-2006-10-28

Obviously things become a lot harder when you throw in fetch and dual colored lands, but what you should do it look at the stock lists of archtypes and see how they are building the list

It was on the Iconic Masters release notes regarding Magus of the Moon (effective on Ixalan's release).

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptsoi/where-modern-goes-from-here-2016-04-24

Here Aaron mentions that the modern banlist should be as little as possible. Since there is no reason to ban SFM: its not powerfull, consistant or oppressive enough, it should be unbanned.

While I don't think we have a day 2 conversion rate, they did release a breakdown of the players going into the tournament with 3 byes.

It looks like the spike-grinder type players were heavily in on grixis deaths shadow. So that's evidence that it could be underperforming given the number of people playing it.

Since you already have a friend to play with: I'd go with a Duel Deck. It's 2 fully ready decks for y'all to battle each other for under $20. They can found at any magic shop, but more importantly Walmart and other big stores etc.

This is how me and friends started out. Eventually you buy boosters and start to customize those 2 decks with new and better cards and it's all up/down hill from there. Speaking as a 4 year addict.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/duel-decks-nissa-vs-ob-nixilis-2016-08-01

Geez that article is very very unreadable because of the font.
Please only use a serif font for select parts of text, preferably a slightly bigger preface.
Check out this page for a good companion font for the rest of your article. (Like Open Sans, or Lato) https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Fanwood+Text?selection.family=Open+Sans

No, it's not.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptsoi/where-modern-goes-from-here-2016-04-24

This is where a lot of those expectations from players come from.

A different person came in first with it in a modern challenge. It's interesting to see how fast the halls are spiking. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-05-20

Huh so I was wrong. I was thinking of GP RICH but it only had 5 pod decks. 4 abzan, 1 kiki, and than 2 affinity and 1 twin.

Funny how memory will do that to ya.

I might try more bridges, but I think you're wrong about the type of deck. There's a 5-0 Tezzerator deck in the same week as the Thopter Combo deck here. Tezzerator is a control deck that uses Tezz for value. This is a combo deck that goes all-in on the cantrips and tutors. Sometimes you need to tutor for a bridge, but most of the time you'd rather get closer to the combo.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-01-08

I won the modern challenge on mtgo with the linked list Jaysim: got 2nd two weeks later with a tweaked version

This was last year gp van so the evolution to the changing format

http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=14763&amp;d=288878&amp;f=MO

Oh yeah, displacer is nuts in some match ups.if i dropped the temples id bump up a 3rd field of ruin, a 4th mutavault and a plains. Ive also changed out selfless spirits for threben inspectors due to all the 1 for 1 removal. I just feel with the rise of removal in the format, thoughtknot isnt nearly as resilient. I was thinking to drop the displacers but you got me thinking they may be worth it.

Eldrazi was a moumental f*** up.

Well beyond the blue delve card draw spells - from the khans block.

[[eldrazi mimic]] & [[eye of ugin]] simply cannot coexist if we want modern intact. It can be argued that even [[thought-knot seer]] & [[eye of ugin]] is ban worthy. The only question if this was intentional or not.

I tend to place my bets on incompetence, when its a choice of either gross incompetence or gross malevolence. And considering the company - the same company who managed to print [[snapcaster mage]] for 1 cheaper by [accident], i would not say its unreasonable.

Did you even play Modern back then? Shaun McLaren won a frickin Pro Tour with Jeskai Control, there were times when it was one of the most played decks in online leagues (before wotc started hiding data)

You play normal best-of-three matches, but as teams of three (so individual W-L records don't matter, just how the team does overall). The deck-building challenge (like you mention with Bolt) is that except for Basic lands, only one person on the team can have a particular card.

Wizards' write-up is here.

Per https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/magic-online-format-challenges-2017-05-04 it's swiss rounds based on attendance. Since we know there were 6 rounds, that means there were only 33-64 players (per https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/products/magic-online/swiss-pairings)

Wizards admitting to banning twin to shake up the modern meta (referencing pro tour and large tournament relsults)

>We also look for decks that hold a large enough percentage of the competitive field to reduce the diversity of the format.

>...Decks that are this strong can hurt diversity by pushing the decks that it defeats out of competition. They can also reduce diversity by supplanting similar decks.

>...In the interest of competitive diversity, Splinter Twin is banned from Modern.

I can't find an article on them saying shake up bans were a mistake, though I distinctly remember a twitter or article saying this in reference to the fears behind the modern PT return. Considering the absurd backlash they got and the secondary market's overall fear, I can't imagine they shake up an again for a year and a half. Confidence in being able to play your deck is key and bans should come in minimally. I'm confident wizards agrees with that ATM. Even if they won't admit it publically.

I agree with the idea that you could easily go RW fetch-less. Check out the list from the top 8 of GP Vancouver: https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpvan17/top-8-decklists-2017-02-19

Literally the only green cards are the 4 Destructive Revelry in the sideboard. Ultimately that is a great sideboard card, but you could use Wear//Tear instead. The main deck is completely Boros, so she'll have a GP Top 8 deck in her hands for the most part.

It's all relative, right? But the absolute most satisfied I've ever been with a backpack is Nike SB Courthouse. Really great size for every day commuting, some compartments but not too many pockets. Straps for my board. I bought it 18 months ago and it's been my most-used bag ever since. https://www.amazon.com/Nike-SB-Courthouse-Backpack/dp/B07F37P67T

MTG Competitive is a new app with an interesting new way of life counter to tracks your games better. You can also save photos of your decks and search cards, It has timers ando multiplayers screens, and you can share a detail of your game as PDF with time register and life register with ids (fetch, shock, combat damage, gain life, etc) MTG Competitive

KMC Perfect Hards

Katana Sleeves

Huh. Is the official Wotc site not a reliable way to find information on PPTQs? I don't play on the local scene much (GPs and MTGO) so I'm not even sure what stores are nearby beyond one or two.

Yeah Abrade is a fantastic card. My list is pretty much the list from GP Hartford that top 10'd. https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gphar18/9-16-decklists-2018-04-15

My only changes are no Pyromancers in SB and I drop a 4th emrakul for a Wurmcoil Engine

oh wow, thoughtseize was in the very next block. There must have been a rock deck in FS/Lorwyn standard

haha yep https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/event-coverage/top-standard-decks-2007-07-28

Thing in the Ice plus Young Pizzy sounds like UR Pyromancer to me

Edit: there are other versions that run Blood Moon

>Apparently, WotC is not making these easy to find.

BTW you can just keep a bookmark to https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/deck-lists-magic-online-products-game-info and they're all sorted by date. (Just don't use any of the search or filtering options because they're broken...)

Another mono white deck to add to the list is monument sisters. It made day 2 of a gp recently (decklist can be found here https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gphar18/top-moments-2018-04-15) Is pretty budget friendly, it's really just the archangels, but they are the cheapest they have been for a while

Okay then, here is some more data:

https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/full-modern-matchup-matrix-from-dallas-and-what-it-means-for-the-mythic-championship/

Again, this is a small sample size but when you take 2 small simple size datasets and they are telling you nearly the exact same matchup percentage, that has to start meaning something at some point.

Not a data guy? Understandable, all magic data is gonna be limited to a certain extent. Here is Gerry T, someone who's opinion should almost certainly be trusted, talking about Jund for an entire podcast. In this podcast, he goes over how the Burn and Mono R Phoenix matchups both feel pretty bad (sorry I don't have a timestamp, listened to this last week).

https://player.fm/series/1073671/238686697

Also, your Dark Confidant comment saying how this data should be disregarded because some people play Bob? That is exactly what I was talking about when I said "if you really want to beat something with Jund, it can be done." You and I are playing 0 Bob, and that is a decision we made partially to improve the Burn matchup. But also, taking a look at recent Jund builds, most people are playing 0-2 Bob basically since W6 came out so I don't know how much Bob is muddying that data.

Brutality Main, Bitterblossom side and that's it. 2 black shocks in the main. It was great. This is my list I took to GP Portland this weekend. I wrote this tournament report for anyone interested. I mainly made it for the Phoenix discord group as we are brewing this deck but hope you enjoy.

This list is OLD. However this guy is easily one of the top 5 best deck builders magic has ever had.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpkob14/deck-tech-shota-yasooka-2014-08-23

Uparade the removal to pushes and cut the torpor orbs for more grave hate.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gphar18/top-moments-2018-04-15

Try out Lucas O'keefe-Sommers Monument Sisters deck.

Burn and Humans have a hard time against this deck. It takes a bit to get used to but the deck is so fucking fun to play. The sisters pretty much take burn off their shit quickly.

You can try something like this:

2 Blooming Marsh 2 Forest 1 Hashep Oasis 4 Inkmoth Nexus 3 Overgrown Tomb 1 Pendelhaven 1 Swamp 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Windswept Heath 4 Glistener Elf 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Phyrexian Crusader 4 Plague Stinger 3 Become Immense 4 Blossoming Defense 3 Fatal Push 4 Mutagenic Growth 3 Vines of Vastwood 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Thoughtseize 2 Rancor

Sideboard: 2 Corpse Cur 1 Viridian Corrupter 1 Fatal Push 3 Nature's Claim 3 Duress 1 Shapers' Sanctuary 1 Vampiric Link 3 Nihil Spellbomb

Source: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2018-04-10

Burn does well on MTGO and normally shows up on these 5-0 competitive modern lists.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2018-04-17

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2018-04-13

If you like the soulflayer deck you might like this article on a rather succesful soulflayer deck at the GP in Lyon (halfway down the page): link.

As a counterpoint to the idea of 2015 being a Lost Golden Age, this is a podcast from shortly after Pro Tour Fate Reforged where they discuss various problems with Modern at the time. After talking for a long time about how impossible it is to sideboard against the variety of linear decks (so much for Twin being the format police!) they talk about how warping Twin itself is, by making 3-drops like [[Geist of Saint Traft]] essentially unplayable and making GBx the only viable fair deck because it has the best 2-drops and [[Abrupt Decay]].

Incidentally, the field at PT FRF included 28% (!) Abzan, 12% Burn, 7% Twin (if you combine all variations), 7% Affinity and 7% Infect. The top 8 at that PT had two Twin decks (including the winner), one Amulet Bloom, three Abzan and two Burn.

I'm also trying to figure out where to fit Zealous Persecution and Hero in this deck. I've already decided to swap Torpor orb with Hushwing. I'll probably pass on Spirit Bonds though.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Magicdeckbuilding/comments/2alath/modern_updating_bw_tokens_with_m15/

This is WotC's official stance on &quot;playtest cards&quot;, as far as i can tell.

"A playtest card is most commonly a basic land with the name of a different card written on it with a marker. Playtest cards aren't trying to be reproductions of real Magic cards; they don't have official art and they wouldn't pass even as the real thing under the most cursory glance. Fans use playtest cards to test out new deck ideas before building out a deck for real and bringing it to a sanctioned tournament. And that's perfectly fine with us. Wizards of the Coast has no desire to police playtest cards made for personal, non-commercial use, even if that usage takes place in a store."

as long as you're not participating in bracket, or they're unsanctioned events, you should be okay.

here's a link to the super league decklists the deck is by team play design. the two versions they submitted have minor differences, but are mostly the same. You can see the deck in action here

• Masters sets only include reprints.
• Masters sets do not change the legality of cards in formats, other than rarity shifts e.g. Pauper.
• Cards only enter Modern through being printed in a Standard-legal set, starting from Eighth Edition.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/masters-25-release-notes-2018-03-08

>Format Legality
>Inclusion in the Masters 25 set doesn't change what other formats a card is legal in. The majority of its cards are not legal in the Standard format, and many are not legal in the Modern format.

Here's the link. There's one in Tennessee and Florida, but not Georgia. You can also enter the online RPTQ instead if you've qualified for a paper one.

I just built a UW delver tempo deck based off of the mono U tempo deck popular a bit over a year ago.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpind16/mono-blue-delver-snapdelverthing-with-arthur-fusco-2016-08-28

I personally think disrupting shoal is the best tempo card in modern. No one is prepared for a counterspell when you’re tapped out. I added spell quellers and failure//comply, took out Things and Psionic Blasts, among other things.

Still a work in progress but it’s got legs.

the last constructed GP I went to had Jund with BBE & DRS & Lingering Souls as the two decks in the final (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/grand-prix-chicago-winner-2012-11-12) because you can discard your own lingering souls to liliana and flash it back, or hope to hit lingering souls off of BBE

Frank Karsten actually took a singleton Mono-red singleton deck to a pro tour. He ended up going 9-7 (not sure how many of those wins were in Modern though). It's been 5 years since he made the deck so there's plenty of stuff you can upgrade if you do wish to build this but I think there's a reason why he's switched to affinity since then. If you want a good, gaff and a laugh feel free to update this and let us know how it goes.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/event-coverage/feature-who-wants-live-forever-2012-10-19

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/april-24-2017-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2017-04-24

The specific quote is: In Modern, Death's Shadow continues to be the best deck, but technology like Condemn is starting to emerge, and the format appears to be in a safe spot at the moment. While deck diversity is good, we're keeping an eye on color balance. If there's an easy change to the banned list that could open up more decks in the future, we will examine it when other formats have less pressing needs.

I'm not trying to prove you wrong here, but just giving some context. I think Nerezzar was referring to how much of each color is being played right now. At the moment, some colors are being overrepresented while others are being underrepresented. Unbanning SFM will give people a reason to play more white in general.

As soon as I get home I'll edit this post with some links! Not this exact list, but a Zombie Loam deck which is very similar.

Edit: https://www.twitch.tv/raphaellevy/v/49458262 Here is Raphael Levy's last stream where he plays a similar list for 3.5 hours. While the deck he plays isn't exactly the same at the one I posted here, this is a great stream to watch to get a good idea about the matchups/lines of play.

That already exists. Check out Traditional format if you don't want a closed format. All Modern sets are available; and Planeswalkers, mythic rares and the companion mechanic are banned.

Furthermore, we've had three tournaments so far and with good results. Soon, our Discord server will have a bot that will organize tournaments and validate decklists automatically!

https://traditionalmtg.github.io/ https://discord.com/invite/DGBwDRq

It’s not Modern (in any sense of the word) but early Magic author Jamie Wakefield wrote a book about his quest to make the Pro Tour with his mono-green Secret Force deck.

He was one of the most entertaining writers in the early days of Magic, with great stories of love, loss, joy, and adventure. You won’t get much in the way of relevant modern content but it’s a great read — especially for the Craw Wurm loving crowd.

Secret Force: Quest for the Pro Tour II https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B004AM5E9Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_ZuI5FbFDXC9TG

On Amazon individual packs are going for $16. I know people don't buy individual packs and Amazon isn't a very good Magic seller, but I am just using it as a standard.

1) My favorite card is the card that I played in the most decks in Magic Duels back when it was still current and never stopped loving; [[Nissa, Vastwood Seer]]. She helms my one and only commander deck (which needs updating), and I'm trying to make her work in Pioneer, where she's just barely above the bar. I also have a shirt with her image.

2) My second favorite card - that I'm sad is not good enough for Modern and will never be in Pioneer - is [[Abyssal Persecutor]]. It's such a glorious Timmy/Johnny/Spike mix-up; I love every part of it. I've used the art as my desktop background multiple times. It is a masterful example of extremely complex game-play from (relatively) simple design.

3) My third favorite card is harder, since it's a long drop past the first two. I think I have to go with [[Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger]]. I loved the Eldrazi ever since I first saw Legacy Twelve-Post decks trying to cast them off Candelabra of Tawnos back in 2012-2014. I'm a fan of Eldritch Horror, and I like being able to go absurdly over the top of people; the idea of hard casting Emrakul seemed delightful. Unfortunately, I'm also a Spike, and that's not really a viable thing in most formats. Cheating it into play just doesn't feel the same. But Ulamog was an Eldrazi that you could reasonably hardcast, still felt absurdly huge, and came around in a set while I was playing in paper. In fact, in my very first pre-release (after having played online for a few years) I went 3-1 with BW Fliers (on the back of a Drana, Liberator of Malakir who easily won every game I cast her in). Rather than draft with my three reward packs, I decided to open them, because they felt special to me. One of them had an Ulamog, and I'm pretty sure it's still the most valuable card in my (tiny) paper collection.

Hi guys. It's hard to accept that even the greatest things, sooner or later have to come to an end, like... ice cream in the freezer, and my holidays. But MTG Life Counter+ didn't at all! ;)

THE UPDATE

In the past weeks, I continued its development by working on a major feature update as promised. It isn't ready yet, but I really wanted to leave you with something new before September begins, so I decided to give you a taste of it by releasing a new update. It introduces a handy way to look for card definitions, quotations and anything you may want to know about cards through the best Magic card databases you already know, without requiring you to leave the app during the game. Chek it out.

A BIG THANK

Since its first step in the world, MTG Life Counter+ had about 300 downloads in only 3 months. I remember that when searching for "mtg life counter", originally I had to scroll around 60 similar apps before finding it. Now it plays a role in the first TOP10 results, next to much more famous apps in this field.

For just a hobby project developed without any external support, this is an absolutely awesome result I never imagined about. Since this app is spreading thank to word-of-mouth, I feel like this success is also your merit, so thank you all for your precious support.

Everyone else has been saying Ultimate Guard or the Satin Towers, and I have to say I agree with u/sarithe. I recently switched to the ultra pro dual box they're referencing, and I just love it. One half perfectly holds 60 double-sleeved (with room to pull it out), and the other half keeps my sideboard separate (which I like) and also leaves room for dice etc.

Link.