Competitive modern general

>competetive modern general

nothing wrong with trying new things user.

swear to fucking god im gonna make the next gen and take the competitive out of the OP

shits redonculous

The past few days have been filled with more bitching about non-competitive posts (and waifu posting) than actual modern diacussion.

It doesnt bother me. No general exists for people wanting to get into modern with brews or budget decks.

Its as if some anons want no one to post if the deck being diacussed isnt 99% the same as a tournament deck.

Is mono-black devotion a thing in modern? I figured it'd be good in something like that.

nah. black doesn't have the same degenerate play that green does, which is 'nykthos, untap nykthos, repeat, genesis wave my library onto the battlefield, trigger craterhoof behemoth, swing for 9001 trample'

Sort of, I think it hovers between T2-T3. No major tournament reaults but its fine for FNM.

how about a mono-black deaths shadow deck with phylactery lich?

If you can crypt ghast into Torment of Hailfire you should win on the spot

Is the B/R Hollow One deck playable or just a meme? It looks fun as hell but there's no way it's actually good right? It seems inconsistent. Anyone here played/played against it?

Hollowmeme is a piece of two away from being really good imo, the package of HollowOne/Vine/Cathartic/Looting/Neonate/Wraith can be explosive, but the deck needs some kind of glue to keep it all together, as of right now you kinda just add some filler and inconsistently jam out.

Modern is hard enough to play due to the price. I have difficulty believing that the majority of people playing the format have played it enough with the metagame decks to understand how to brew something useful.

And don't tell me to play with the free online clients. The moment you show up with a metagame deck to do some learning your opponent calls you a faggot before leaving.

You simply have to start playing Modern competitively, the cost of fucking around experimenting with budget not only teaches you nothing about the format but it will waste your money moreso than just starting with something good. I've watched so many people start the format with so-called budget like Soul Sisters or Boggles or Infect without the pricey cards like Thoughtseize or Hierarchs only to get their assholes blown out not only in a game but also after realizing that NONE of the cards they're holding go into any other decks. I'm pretty sure that there's a Soul Sisters deck that just gets sold around in the store to some poor fool who wants to try Modern and after 3 or so years it's now with some moron who insists on making it good. Everyone I've seen play that deck was told it's not that great, yet against all that advice they still drop whatever amount of money on it.

If you ask me there's only one "budget" deck in Modern worth sinking your time or money into and that's UWx Control. Because even if you don't feel like it performs you won't hate yourself for owning Bolt, Path, Remand, gravehate like Relics, Leylines, Inquisitions, Leak, Tec Edge, Sphinx's, Gifts, Manlands, Mardu Wraths, and walkers like Nahiri or Ajani.

I'm not trying to come off as some faggot with a superiority complex but that's the harsh fucking reality of Modern. There's 20+ solid decks; pick one and we can teach it. But if I see a decklist with black mana that doesn't run some combination of Inquisition, Thoughtseize or a Liliana I just can't honestly say you know what you're doing.

Speaking of which, is Living End worthwhile anymore? I'm having a blast with the new(ish) cards but I stopped seeing any kind of results/top8s with it. Is there some specific reason, or did people just realize the deck's still a meme whether your creatures are 3/4s or 6/4s

Then fuck off and make your own thread you stupid nigger, these threads obviously aren't for you. Make a casual general or something like that instead of having you and faggots like you shitting up these threads. fun fact: every time you people have made a seperate thread it usually does very well until you come back here and bitch about how the thread isn't for you.

There is something wrong with posting unrelated bullshit in this thread though. Read the title, COMPETITIVE MODERN GENERAL not casual modern general, not modern general but competitive. This simply isn't the place for your memebrews and I'm sorry if you can't handle that.

>mad

If you ask me Living End will eternally be playable in Modern, much like my opinion of UWx Control. Except if you learn that you dislike Control you won't be stuck with a pile of Fulminators or Living Ends you can't use elsewhere.

On an average day Living End drops 10+ power (sometimes with Haste) on T3 while Wrathing the board. There is no Modern situation in the history of Modern where that has ever been not good enough. People will often say your asshole gets blown out by countermagic or a prevalence of grave-hate but that's just like saying Affinity gets wrecked by Artifact-hate; it's not a problem Affinity cries about and Living End shouldn't cry about either. It's certainly worth anybody's time if you consider the cards have little application in other decks; I feel like it's the best deck to use to show off Modern.

Just because Living End (or Control) doesn't see play or Top 8 placements doesn't mean they're trash. Whereas I look at something like Boggles or Soul Sisters who also don't place but that's because they're both popular and ACTUAL trash - you might blow out your store once, but every deck carries so many built-in tools that hate of them that it will just be a one-off thing. Another "budget" deck that's come about recently that is also garbage is Sram/Puresteel - so many people jumped on that bandwagon only to realize that playing a deck that revolves around Grizzly Bear has some major consistency problems when everyone and their mother runs at LEAST 4 copies of 1-mana Instant-Bear-Killer in addition to cards like Inquisition.

I'm trying to make this shitpile work right now. Spoils of the vault and plunge into the darkness offer a ton of consistency and it has some nifty lines of play with rite of consumption.

I was thinking more midrange type of deal with gurmags, deaths shadows, and the lich for beats

See

>Meta
The meta seems fine, the only thing that I could see getting hit would be Storm in the next banlist update
>Favorite deck
Probably Eggs. Nothing is as satisfying as cycling though my whole deck as my opponent complains that they don't get to play
>Arbiter
I think Humility fits better

Can I play Death and Taxes without Vials?

FUCKING NO

Fuck no man. That's like asking if you can play Delver without spells.

Yeah, I know what you're feeling but those fuckers are worth $40-50 for a reason.

>>the meta
Extremely healthy, diverse and fun. Wizards should establish this format as the new standard of "What Modern should be like" and try to keep it in mind when balancing for the future.

>>your favorite aggro deck
Zoo.

>>is leonin arbiter the most aptly named card?
Yes

Doesn't address anything in my post. If you guys want to talk about memebrews and casual budget decks go make another thread. This thread isn't only for t1 decks but it is however for COMPETITIVE modern discussion. Whether that be tuning a reasonably competitive deck and sideboard, card discussion, deck construction, metagame and tournament related stuff and other things of that nature. I honestly have no idea why you people are so insistent on posting in a thread that very obviously isn't for you and the topics you want to discuss, especially when you could make your own threads. Not to mention that every time there is a more casual MtG thread they always do very well and have better atmosphere due to not pissing off people by posting off topic shite like you faggots have been doing for the past couple of threads.

Also to add to this; Iconic drops in like 2 weeks. Just wait that out and buy them when they tank in price.

How do I get enough mana or survive long enough so that this thing snowballs completely out of control and getting tons of 1/1 tokens?

I can't speak for buying things on eBay but monitoring historical store prices or TCG I really don't think Vials are going to tank. Vials are the new hot-shit backing up Eldrazi Taxes, that is an entirely new deck separate from the previous Eldrazi deck that Ancient Tomb-ed a pile of bastards out. Everyone has known Vials are coming back for a while and everyone else has the same idea that they're going to get Vials on the cheap.

I feel like Vials are going to get sold out immediately. Then when they restock, which might take a long while, they're just going to be slightly higher to the degree that they're hardly a deal. You might as well should've bought them a year ago when they randomly went on sale on some site. It's going to be that card in a Masters set that makes you wonder why the fuck it's never in stock.

If you can get a set of them for $100 great. If you can get a set for $120-150 that's still pretty good. I don't like where Modern prices have gone and have difficulty condoning those prices but I just feel that from now on and forever we should just expect Vials to cost $200 for a playset. In combination with this Eldrazi impact on the price all it's going to take is for one fucking playable Merfolk card, especially if it's a Green one, to get printed in the next Ixalan set and I will guarantee Vials will hit that $200-forever mark, like Blood Moon has. Iconic has a depressing number of shit cards inside it and many good cards are one-deck one-of ponies, the stores will find a card/price that will pull up the price tag of the box. I think Vial (and Ancestral Vision) is going to be that card(s).

You don't.
Maybe a soul sister package?

The good news is that mishra's are dirty cheap now and I'd suggest getting even two playsets of those.
Good art thoughtseize is also a very good pick.

Play Marytr of Sands to get a big boost of life against aggro, hope your tokens can stop mid range, and hope wizards bans combo.

Is there any reason not to run a 1 of bananaman or angler in any creature based deck that splashes black?
I've noticed quite a few lists don't use them but it's pretty much an auto include for me as long as I don't have confidants or something.

sure. there was a gp list with no vials a little bit ago. it isn't what i consider optimal, but if it can dunk on nerdz at a gp it's fine for fnm (depending on your ability as a pilot).

I want to just win an FNM. What deck?

UW control if youre good at the game

>Eldrazi Taxes, that is an entirely new deck
It's not exactly new, it's been around for awhile now. it's just gotten popular recently, kind of like Knightfall was not too long ago.

I've played against it a few times. It has some crazy draws but it can also just dump its whole hand and then get BTFO by a removal spell or two. It's probably fun to play but it's definitely on the "absolute madman" side of the format.

I don't understand how anybody at this point doesn't have Thoughtseizes yet. I really feel like the card is as much a staple as any one of the Fetchlands just like Path to Exile.

People are always talking about getting staples (and often all they do is horde instead of building actual decks) but people giving advice to horde people never are specific; maybe that's how they get rid of fringe "staples" like Cryptic Commands. It's almost a yearly occurrence that I'll run into a few people who don't have Thoughtseizes or Path to Exile and I just don't understand it. They'll have all this dogshit they aren't using but they never bothered to get Paths or Thoughtseizes and occasionally I'll run into someone who doesn't have Bolts. I'm not talking about new players here.

I really feel like something is really fucking wrong with the communities priorities if they can't muster the force of will to just outright buy Bolts, Thoughtseizes, and Paths. Each of them are like 30% of the fucking metagame. Like when I learn someone doesn't have those cards I just look at them and recall that I've seen them open loose packs; like at least 5-10 packs. You've spent money on loose packs and you can't buy some goddamn Paths.

I want to say that the only way my faith can be shaken further is if someone reveals they don't have Delvers or Mana Leaks. I know one day I'm going to meet someone like that who isn't new to the format.

>I want to say that the only way my faith can be shaken further is if someone reveals they don't have Delvers or Mana Leaks. I know one day I'm going to meet someone like that who isn't new to the format.
But unlike Path, Bolt, and Seize, Delver and Leak are trash. Fucking Logic Knot sees more play than Mana Leak now.

Well, those aren't auto include in every blue deck as much as the others enter almost every red, white or black one.

It's not about "now" it's about the card's history. Logic Knot is the new hotness but Delver and Leak are just always there. There is so much history associated with those cards they're almost as ubiquitous as Jace.

A card that has been talked about as much as Delver in the past five years should spur some amount of demand in everyone's mind. Anybody who doesn't think they're EVER going to play with Delver at some point in their careers clearly isn't thinking ahead at all. Just like someone who says to themselves they're never going to play with Bolt.

I met a guy who said he has been playing for like 15 years mostly Kitchen Table and he didn't have Bolts or Birds and was complaining that they're never available for trade or in the store. And I couldn't wrap my head around it. Especially for Birds. I know in the past five years Birds isn't a thing but the 10 years before that Birds was one of THE cards; everyone knew it; it was as well known as something like Lotus. Nobody has them for trade because anybody with a brain got theirs.

And I feel the same way about Delver. If you're playing Modern how could've you missed the discussion or impact of a card like Delver? There's only been one Logic Knot train and I understand if you missed it because it was recent; you'd have to miss the train a hundred fucking times for Delver to not have them right now. They saw play in Standard, Modern, Pauper, and Legacy; how blind would you have to be?

Eh... I do fine when I don't draw vials but the instant speed, especially on 3 drops is very game changing.

The thing about Delver now is that there's tons of Delver copies. NOne of them can attack on turn 2 but they're starting to come. Bone Picker and Heir of Falkenrath are 2 of them.

And I always liked Heir, I hope one day I can use it.

Is Dredge still playable?

nothing is playable but deaths shadow, storm, eldrazi, and humans

theres a huge power gap between those top decks and then the next tier that anything that ISNT tier 2 is literally just as good as bringing a standard deck to play modern

Yup. It's just not popular, which shouldn't concern you.

I mean it depends on your meta, but it's not in a great spot right now. Too much grave yard hate around.

uhh...

So is there grave hate? None of those decks have grave hate. I guess humans, and meddling mage can stop conflagrate, but i don't see how humans beat the zombies I would think there's more artifact hate with affinity around.

affinitys also a top deck forgot that
but no there is WAY too much grave hate in the format just for storm that a dredge deck doesnt even get a surprise factor in

grafdiggers, relic, rest in peace, nihil spellbomb and countless others

Every deck has grave hate in the sb because it's effective against death's shadow and storm as well as some others.

>What decks do you have for modern?
>What are you planning to build/brew?

>Decks I have
Lantern, Eggs, and mono-W Death and Taxes
>Brewing
As soon as I get some more money I'm gonna buy an Esper Gifts list I've seen a couple times that looks pretty spicy

>What decks do you have for modern?
B/W tokens so far
>What are you planning to build/brew?
I'm looking into creating Ad Nauseam, it looks hella fun

Blue steel is sooo fucking fun lads. Shitting on storm players all day long. Hangarback walker + academy ruins against shadow decks feels soo good. Anyone else still playing this stale meme?

I've been experimenting with cutting signal pests for other 1 drops that can crew copter and dropping masters for myr superion. I've kicked around the idea of glint nest cranes or a swords+trophy mage package but that seems too janky even for me.

>I've been experimenting with cutting signal pests for other 1 drops that can crew copter and dropping masters for myr superion

myr superion is cool and all but master of etherium is one of the main reasons in my mind to play the deck

>it looks hella fun
Just like Storm and Living End, it'll get old real fast

Master has been less than impressive after cutting the signal pests. The lower artifact count hurts, but superion can end up stranded in your hand sometimes too so I might be wrong.

I haven't played the deck, but that's interesting to hear, as at a glace it seems trimable or cutable even.
It's a 3 mana lord that only pumps Ballista, Lodestone, Etherium Sculptor, Signal Pest, Wurmcoil.. there's a lot admitedly, but there's also a lot it doesn't pump, and a lot of starts that don't pump it too much. I guess it depends on if being an X/X and buffing X% of your guys is worth the cost, and could be a yes; i always assumed the perceived lack of synergy, at least in a total sense, made it a good cut, but maybe it's still nuts?

anyone running affinity? i'm a noob to the archetyp and recnetly bought the components. When do i run 4x gal blast or 4 x thoughtcast

And just like your opinion you're a cutie

>4 galv blast
Always
Gee bill why do you get 4 damage bolts?
>thoughtcast
If you want, maybe best in the sideboard, idk man. I've seen a singleton CoCo in Affinity so why does anybody know anything

>CoCo
But why. do you really need your thopters that badly?

Flipping Master of Etherium or Etched Champion off CoCo sounds gross.

>have
grishoalbrand, skred red. spent the past year playing mostly shoal only, so every time i rock skred, i don't know how to play midrange anymore

>buildan
i've wanted to play some manner of delver for a while. still super hesitant to take the plunge on tarns and snaps

why would you play sorcery thoughtcast when haste 1/1 artifact creature thoughtcast exists?

I don't play Affinity but I thought that the hard rule of the deck is that you never ever board out the explosive start.

Pest, Opal, Ravager, 0-drops, Plating, Skirge - none of those can go as that would defeat the most powerful advantage the deck can leverage.

He's not playing Affinity

should i play elves without cavern or mono-U tron

Wow. Okay. Yeah that's a deck.

Lodestone Golem is always good for laughs.

Just looked up prices. I play UW control and the deck ranges anywhere from 680-1100. Tron is about 700 on the nose. And you can build a consistent Valakut list for about 560-600. Affinity is around 1100 an Grixis too.

I think it is shitty that "budget friendly" tiered decks start at about 700 usually. But if you are in the market for that level you have a few options that have stayed tier 1 or 2 over the years. (I get what you mean about being able to use those cards in otehr builds though, Valakut and Tron are in the soul sisters camp of not being very interchangeable into other deck types.)

elves

While I have sets or more of all the cards you listed, I will probably never play Delver ever. I would not fault someone for not having them either. It's a build around me aggro/temp card. If you prefer combo or control styles, there is no need to ever have it. Bolt/Thoughtsieze/Path are played in various aggro, combo, and control builds. You can't get away from them.

>I think it is shitty that "budget friendly" tiered decks start at about 700 usually
It's the world we've built for ourselves. On some silent level everyone playing Magic at my store realizes how exceptionally unsustainable Modern is. If 10 people quit Modern it would take years until another 10 people emerge to replace them and that's considering the movement of college people and the number of kids growing up and earning incomes. We've all grown so fucking tired of hating on Wizards that we just don't even bother talking about it anymore. Modern Masters still flies off the shelves because morons love their $10-$15 scratch tickets.

The people on the Internet who seems so happy about Modern and engaged in it seem to be utterly delusional or they're just ignoring everything because they got theirs.

I'm certain Wizards knows the continued survival of the sanctionable non-Standard formats is unsustainable. When it all falls apart probably around the time retail also dies they'll be ready with an online product that everyone will be happy to dip their feet into Modern/Legacy/Vintage with while the people who supported the paper are going to be told to rebuy their collections or fuck off and die. And it's too bad because I really feel like paper Magic could have gone forever given that it is just paper. But the only future for paper Magic is going to be EDH and maybe Cube.

I respect that you've put in the foresight and decided to never explore the hard-tempo archetype that is Delver, but the point I was trying to make is that most people haven't put in that thought, and when their laxity catches up with them they bitch.

Lower tier Modern will set you free. a 60 dollar deck will have the same things as a top deck, but at a lower power. My group plays Modern by just regarding it as a banlist and don't play the decks that go over 100 dollar and it's the most fun I've had in years.

It's nice that you have your own community organized to play in. But even if you don't engage in the greater community your cloistered community exists as a splinter of the larger community; even your cards exist as a result of a larger global system. And the issue is that the larger community is or will have difficulties maintaining itself in the foreseeable future.

Like you have moved from LGS into your living room, Magic is going to move entirely from the LGS for everyone to the computer/phone just like how casinos have moved to the computer/phone. And when that happens, the casualty will be all the social benefits that come with having an actual face-to-face community.

I'm not trying to be super grim and pessimistic about it but I find it idiotic that a community revolving around a paper product and tables and chairs cannot maintain itself due to artificial scarcity by the administrators of the product. Once stores die they're never coming back. I know corporations don't give a shit but I figure that of all industries, board games, card games, and tabletop manufacturers would be interested in sustaining the games store through the sheer allure of social interaction instead of following the soulless path many other social places have gone like casinos, coffee shops, restaurants, and sport clubs.

You do know that that's how Commander and Pauper came to be right?

>but I figure that of all industries, board games, card games, and tabletop manufacturers would be interested in sustaining the games store through the sheer allure of social interaction instead of following the soulless path many other social places have gone like casinos, coffee shops, restaurants, and sport clubs
If people have a choice between earning a lot of money right now and making money in the long run, they will almost always pick the short term option. That's basic economics.
Also, as long as there are 100 people who are still willing to shell out loads of cash for their cardboard, other people will sell them for that price. It's just how it is and you can't change that by yourself. WotC can do something, but tey're too hands off with the secondary market because that makes them the most money in the short term.

It's been a while since I've played modern, and an old buddy wants to play some. Are there any decent semi-budget/budget decks that are effective?

Burn is the hishest tiered thing you can make on a budget.

Shouldn't have sold my goblin guides, I loved those little guys.

How do you people feel about calling a judge over minor easily fixed errors at competitive REL? I'm talking shit like trying to crack a fetchland under a Blood Moon then your opponent pointing it out and you taking it back. Should he have called a judge?

Were you that strapped for 80 dollar?

It was years ago. I traded them for a profit, since I got them before they spiked up to $20+. I just haven't had anyone to play modern with since.

Don't be an autist over it, though if it might net you some good prizes, makes sense to do it.
It's why you never talk if your opponent tries to say things unrelated to the current game since there's a ton of rules you won'f remember that can remove you from the game.

I'm mainly asking because there's an article on ChannelFireball by Ondrej Strasky where he's taking it to the level of autism because "you owe it to the game" to call a judge over every single tiny little infraction.

Literally any deck that has a name (As in, any established deck up to Tier 3).

People overstate the importance of top tier decks at the FNM level. If you're a good player you can win with everything.

Are you the same retard from a few threads ago? Added Humans to your list of "only playable decks" after being utterly BTFO by me?

>theres a huge power gap between those top decks and then the next tier that anything that ISNT tier 2 is literally just as good as bringing a standard deck to play modern

1 - There isn't.

2 - There are around 10 Tier 1 decks right now.

3 - ANYTHING up to T3 decks can win at the FNM level.

Vexing Devil is a decent budget option, but there's really no actual replacement for Gob Guide.

The only reason you don't see T3 decks winning big events is because nobody brings them in large enough numbers. Someone could bring a brew that had a 60-40 matchup against every deck in Modern, but the chances of their deck making top 8 are still slim if they're the only one on it.

Yeah, the little Gob is too good. Vexing Devil is a decent replacement though, forgot about that guy.

>On the internet, nobody knows you're a Vexing Devil