MTG Modern General

what do you guys think of RG Tron in a blind meta right now?

It's bad_

there are also some spooky dark tendrils in the water

i'm a big fan of mountains where the sun looks like a ball of fire

kind of a solid pick
people are running a lot of midrangey stuff to try to counteract stuff like infect and tron preys on the midrange stuff. Ad nauseam is pretty weak right now so odds are you wont have to deal with it
if you do, run a lot of clears maindeck, like 6

Those are my favorite forests, from Zendikar.

Wiw so nice i might run them as my two basics in my boros burn deck

I like those too, sad I only got one full art.

This is my favorite plains. Can't wait for Amonkhet for more desert lands. Tarkir Abzan was okay for them, not great.

I love Swamps that have buildings.

More Swamps.

But my favorite is probably Jung Park's.
Feels so...explorable.

Kaladesh.

1 million hours in paint.net

hahahahaha I love you mate

Put Stinkweed Imp and Bloodghast on the skateboard.

What's your shit deck, user?

You know the one, the brew you play at FNM because you like it rather than because it's tier one?
I'm loving every laugh with Owl-less Mine, it's so fucking good bouncing people's shocklands several times. 14x pieces of bounce removal tends to deal with most on-board threats and this deck for sure has the draw power.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/owling-mine-sans-owls/

I really just play Blood Moon decks. This deck also loses to burn immediately, and against Dredge you have to switch gears into mill and hope they get greedy with the GGT

I like martyr proc. It's way worse now that everyone has graveyard hate in the sideboard though.

whats the deck lax is playing against? anyone has a list or anything similar?

youtube.com/watch?v=msj647yI8Gs

it's elves, he even says it
there's a few lists up

Looks like bog standard GW Elves mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-elves-27599#online

wait i'm mistaken, this is something far funnier
>tfw allosaurus rider is a legit card now

its obviously elves, yes, but he uses eldritch evolution, allosaurus, curio and ranger of eos. I find that unconventional but pretty cool.

I was thinking the same just with Evolution instead of Company and then the guy played Summoner's Pact and everything went completely tits up.

It seems like more of a legit deck than real elves, with it's ability to fetch and Evo
>and people say modern is dead

I'm actually kinda hyped for this deck

So we all know that Spell Queller is a legit card.

has anyone seen Selfless spirit do good work? I am thinking of running two in my coco deck and I don't know how it may perform.

yes, it works very well there
get it while it's cheap

the ability to block, then coco into spirit is crazy nuts tempo

>He waits all that time because he could draw Anger and wipe out the tokens
>His opponent ends by playing Forge-Tender and passes
>Then he does draw Anger

Beautiful.

It's like poetry
It rhymes

can't someone go on modo and ask the guy? it honestly is a really cool deck

lmao, that's insane

exile for allosaurus, evo into craterhoof takes game 1
infinite combo with cloudstone curio & two elves with evo into sweeper protection takes game 2

poetry

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/modern-gruul-stax/

I've been watching legacy videos since Eternal Masters came out, and hit a nostalgia wave. That led to me day dreaming about Mike Flores's Bests 2k7 and thinking, "Modern doesn't really have a stax variant, maybe turn 2 Trinisphere could do well in a field of infect, dredge, and burn"
feedback plz

How's Fish doing? Still playable but not quite T1?

it's tier 1 but nobody plays it

>tappedout.net/mtg-decks/owling-mine-sans-owls/
I assume you tried Ivory Crane Netsuke and it's shit against affinity and burn?
I also assume Nahiri's Wrath is terrible against creature-dude decks?

Why not? I have a perfectly good fish deck, just don't have the time.

It's not degenerate enough
It still makes top 8, I think people are just bored of it
If you want to ship it to me, I'll pay the shipping costs

>mfw
Should I make affinity now?

Nah, I will be using it in Legacy once I get Wasteland/Chalice/Fluster.

Do they still go 1000% agro game 1 and side control game 2/3?

sell it and make affinity

You can sell it and make most of affinity

Keeping it and buying the rest of affinity would be autistic

Seems like the smartest move.

Bad against Titanshift, jund, abzan, burn, zooicide

Reasonable matchup against infect, tron (8seas), esper anything, affinity, coco, D&T

Merfolk is just fine, just like every deck that rolls out in a tournament. If you have it, it probably won't be bad. Play it.

user, the tier list is usage based

niceme.me

Owl-less Mine actually spends a lot of cards. I'll have to test Nahiri's, but you tend to play a lot of cards each turn with the Mine. Everything is cmc2 except for Cryptic and Sudden Impact and the enchantments.
I will test it though. Might put 2-3 in the side next Modern event.
Ivory Crane Netsuke is shit. shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

>TFW competitive Modern is so unsupported we end up talking about basic land art instead.
WotC really doesn't seem to care or even want to keep a healthy competitive scene anymore. It's all begginers and cardboard crack nowadays.

I love this deck.
I'd go up to 4x Chalice with the last in the side because it's pretty well placed at the moment. Chalice on 1 eats all the scary fast decks.

It'd be 8Rack but 8Rack's been winning me more store credit than Burn and Jund nowadays so I don't know.

did you not see the crazy GW combo deck above? it's up to the community to have some creativity & inspiration as well

lick a dick, it's a slow thread without tournaments and its late in the US
and tg is usually pretty bad at magic

Yeah, they don't really care much, and while thats a good thing for the format as a whole (less meddling, fewer banlist changes) its also terrible (fee, if any reprints, fewer new players entering the format).

Eventually, Modern will go the way of Vintage and be "supported" but WotC would rather it disappear entirely. And they'll usher in a new format (probably M15 forward) to assist Jew City Games and other secondary market retailers.

>You can sell it and make most of affinity

Seems to be worth about $100.
That won't even pay for your Ravagers.

Still better than keeping it

We've known about Curiousaur for a while now. Saurus was $11 a pop at its highest. If you watch the video, the guy was saying "Don't you usually need nettle for the infinite?" It's fairly consistent with Pact, Evo, Ranger and probably Chord + CoCo

>guy spends several minutes going infinite game 2
>ari lax spends the entire time hoping to top deck anger of the gods to keep him in the game
>guy finally makes enough tokens to kill ari in one attack next turn
>taps elves for 3 more mana
>evolution for forge-tender
>ari actually draws the fucking anger

that was fucking hilarious

But resellers are who profit off of ridiculous prices on Modern staples and reserve list cards?

>without tournaments
That's the point.

First attempt at a modern brew, always loved human tribal and aggressive decks. Thought token generating, cheap humans that pump, and the assorted goodies would be fun. R8 h8 oblitr8 me please. I need all the help I can get. Going for a mardu humans type deck.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/04-10-16-mardu-humans/

What's Modern night at a local store like?
Will I get blown out for not spending a month's pay on a generic 3-turn-win-or-bust meta deck or is it more casual?

it really depends on the lgs meta. the lgs from my hometown is pretty relaxed with mostly homebrews and some proven to work decks here and there like bw tokens or scapeshift. over here its mostly tier 1 and 2 decks. jund, affinity, tron, all that jazz.

that said you dont need to spend 2 grand to build jund to have a chance at winning. get to know the meta first and look for decks that are good in it that you'd like to play. there might be something that is relatively decent that doesnt cost an arm and a leg

You still better build Tier 1 because if the store is Spike heavy you'll need it, and if the store is rogue-heavy you'll get demolished by the ever prevalent bitch playing RGTron.

Got a local Modern tournament coming up on Friday. Ive got 3 gimmicky modern decks, what should I take.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/16-09-16-assisted-suicide/

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/questionable-choices/

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cranial-flush/

Modern is by far the most accessible format in my opinion, im not sure why it isn't more popular outside of kitchen table magic.

>Doesn't rotate out, only subjected to bans
>dont have to feel 'late' to a set like with standard
>more balanced than legacy, less completely broken cards
>still a significantly large library of cards

only real downside is cost is stupidly high for competitive. I traded for most of my cards but ive got modern decks worth 1600 now which is pretty extreme for a childrens card game.

I only really play standard because my roommates only do booster drafts and budget gimmicky standard decks

Competitive Modern is so inaccessible the japs made post-modern because despite being loaded and spending indiscriminatedly in their hobbies, they're tired of having to scour europe for cards.

And it is not at all more balanced than Legacy. Legacy is the only format where homebrews can beat Tier 1s because the pool allows for a variety of different strategies in each archetype and even different approaches to some combo and aggro configurations. On the other hand competitive Modern is a sideboard matchup lottery.

Last time I watched competitive Legacy, in the finals a storm deck won turn two both rounds.

isn't miracles like 15% of the meta in legacy?

to be fair Modern aims for a turn 4 win
Legacy expect a turn 2-3 win

found a list similar to that one

starcitygames.com/article/33537_Video-Allosaurus-Elves-In-Modern.html

I knew about the Allosaurus price spike but I didn't know they did made a deck work out the Allosaurus + Eldritch Evolution combo.

Relevance?

It shows up a lot in top 8, but it's not some unbeatable thing. The trick is that since mana is very tight, you have a variety of cmc to use, usually 0,1,2, or 3, so you force them to waste top activations. So Miracles tends to win some matches and grind out in others. It's very much a deck that requires you to slow your roll. Some decks are okay with that, others fall apart to it.

I've seen so many different decks in t8, it's an insane format. I've even seen Manaless Dredge (a version of dredge that's far weaker to the sideboard than normal dredge) win a big one recently.

It's pretty clutch in Death and Taxes. Check out this list: mtgtop8.com/event?e=13119&d=276758&f=MO

50/50, Dredge gets countered by midrange and hate or Infect/Burn/Suicide that goes under and you know which you'd like to face. Living End shouldn't be a player and Ad Nauseam is rare, all other MUs should be positive.

Hi there, let me welcome you to the Mardu master race. You won't get much help here, mostly you'll get told to go and play jund. Which is a viable option, if you have the money to spare and you don't mind playing the same deck as most scrubs in your store. But obviously you're not that kind of person. I like your deck, it's pretty neat but it does look like you're trying to force a few standard cards into modern which is a no go my friend. Also I don't think you've made the most of the colours you have dipped into. Where's the path? Lightning helix? Zealous persecution? ZP is fucking amazing with tokens. Kills mana dorks and gives you lethal. Heck I have used it as a form of removal in so many games. Anyway I like what you're trying to do but here's my Mardu list.

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/10-07-16-rw-tokens/

There are some key changes I need to make
1 more mentor
1 more brimraz
And another form of removal at instant speed would be nice. It also started off pretty budget and has spiraled into a 500 dollar deck. It's a similar strategy to yours, fill the board with tokens, deal with threats and hit for lethal.

I welcome chan to let me know what they think and what changes I could/should make.

Inb4 jund. I have actually beaten most jund games I've played as well as all forms of aggro in the meta currently. My only problem is tron but that's easy g2 when I I side in crumble to dust.

Can we talk about this card and why everyone hates it even though you can lock out an opponent from playing certain mana costs cards using scry. in a format where average converted mana cost is often less than 2 ive had amazing success locking opponents out for multiple turns at a time

But while you're diddling with your library your opponent's turn 1 and 2 threats are killing you. Without brainstorm, top and ponder to find answers you can't deal with threats well enough.

That's why i prefer it as a turn 3-4 drop after your general cantrips and setups like Serum visions, and just before you drop your win condition.

If you go first, assuming you really want to, you play a serum visions turn 1 if there's a 1 or 2 mana cost card there play the counter balance turn 2 and your opponent might potentially waste a turn or even pass due to the scry. I've scryed two lands, played the counterbalance and had someone skip rather than risk playing on a setup.

It's a fun card, needs to see more play. I ran it with a winter orb control deck with telepathy, that with a bunch of cantrips and discards made for some interesting games

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/10-07-16-rw-tokens/

Come at me bros

>RW tokens
>clearly mardu

What difference does it make nigga. Black is just splashed. Tell me why my deck sucks

for the same reason mardu never works

you're trying to play goodstuff but abzan and jund have better goodstuff. You play a bunch of cards to go wide but the whole point of playing discard and goodstuff is to win the topdeck war in exchange for tempo but then you play mentor and yung peezy which are awfully shit cards that do not fit in a topdeck strat

you will still win games with it because it is a pile of random good cards but there is no reason to play this particular pile of good cards when there are two objectively better piles of good cards

I'd love to see counterbalance work but what would be your engine? With top you can guarantee a 1 on top on turn 2 but in modern you either have to blindflip or play some kind of engine the turn after counterbalance so by the time you have it online your opponent has probably played half their hand if not just have lethal on board

Ok good. This somewhat constructive. I'll admit I hate seeing mentor late in the game. (unless I have some souls in the graveyard)

How to fix this top deck issue then?
Add some more draw like bob? Or a decent beater like goyf?
Looking at jund/abzan lists I'm not missing much of what they have in terms of "a pile of good cards"

>all opponents modern decks win turn 2
The game isnt fun to talk about if you assume your opponent has already won.

I've recently tried counterbalance in my mill + control deck after a long time of being told its shit. While i dont like using this word to validate my card choices, the main reason I take it is because it's a fun card.

I run two just for the entertaining fuck you factor, ive got 4x Serum visions for general momentum and I guess setup turn 1 for the turn 2 counterbalance (top is banned in modern). Even if I can't get the 2 mana lockout on turn 2, getting it turn 3/4/5 still work really well for me, people have had their spell countered, played another and Ive managed to scry a counter to both. It disrupts a fair amount of plays for a 2 mana enchantment even without deck manipulation (considering the 1-3 mana cost meta) or make them waste an permanent/enchant removal.

There is not really a way to make mardu on par with abzan in jund; green just has the biggest and dumbest beaters. Not only Tarmogoyf but Scooze too is just so devastating on a nearly empty board with both players topdecking

There is also the fact that abzan and jund have better lategame valuelands, mostly raging ravine and gavony township that can just win games on their own. Vault of the Archangel and Shambling Vent share similar roles but aren't even close in how devastating they are.

If you just want to play mardu because of pet deck and/or budget reasons I think you should form a more concise gameplan; why are you running Raise the Alarms for example? You can go the jundy route with card advantage with Bob and Kolaghan's Command or triple down on the value plan like abzan, Either way I think Brimaz is a good card in such a strat, and you should look for more creatures that don't die to lightning bolt

>all opponents modern decks win turn 2
don't make things up, I never said anything like that

If you want to play something becuse you think it's fun well good job enjoy, there is nothing to discuss. I once played oops all bears at a GP legacy side event and had a blast, want to discuss how to improve that strategy?

Here's the issue with counterbalance in modern, imagining the better one of two scenarios where you're on the play

>turn 1 you play some cantrip
>opponent does turn 1 thing
>turn 2 you play counterbalance
>opponent does turn 2 things
>turn 3 you play the other half of your engine
you are now ready to start interacting

Assuming the tip top perfect scenario of being on the play with engine in hand and having an engine that is relevant the moment it hits the field (so not crystal ball for example as it would take another untap before you can start scrying). In this christmas land scenario, you are two turns behind on your opponent. That does not immediately mean you lose turn 4, but you do have to find a way to catch up with that lost ground whilst also using mana on your counterbalance engine card(s).

Comparing that high end of a strategy to the high end of other decks which can be turn 3 Karn or just straight up killing you and the payoff of such a flimsy donothing combo is just really low.

Holly shit you are so fucking stupid just get out.

Raise the alarm pings off with young p and mentor pretty well imo and can make some chump blockers early game.

I'm going be adding another brimraz and mentor which might mean getting rid of the raise the alarm.

Hero of the blade hold is pretty rad but just feels a bit slow for 4 mana.

Bob is a but pricey for me and I kind of like phyrexian arena as it doesn't die to bolt etc.

I completely agree about the man lands. I only ever lose to jund because of the lands and I have no idea how to work around it save pack more removal.

I'm playing mostly for pet deck reasons, my love of midrange and I'm pretty keen to shit on infect and affinity.

I dislike peezy and mentor in topdeck strats, I'd recommend more creatures that are good on their own and don't need additional cards

maybe try kitchen finks and/or two painful truths for card advantage, or some walker that draws cards like chandra pyromaster

Mystic Speculation.

>legacy expects a turn 2-3 win
>expects
>this fucking meme
>again

I think some amount of bitterblossom and kalitas Armin in order for your deck.
Bitterblossom gives your deck consistent stream of flying bodies, yeah the ping sucks, but that is a non-issue with spring giving them lifeline
Mentor needs to be put to 4, prowess is insane and he is easier to cast than brimaz
Kalitas would really benefit this deck, it rewards years of for playing your strategy but also for playing your colours. Mardu has access to the best removal. He seems like,ea better fit than hero, and in a graveyard deck filled format he will help a lot