Community

Nov 3, 2011 -- 9:09PM, tnodz wrote:

For the love of God, just unban some cards, and I promise people will play the format.  The biggest complaint that people have is "everything's banned"  Maybe it's time to unban things..... 

You realize this doesn't actually help in the long run...right?

Think of it this way...let's unban and add Jace and Stoneforge to Standard.  A quick surge of excited players! ... and then attendance drops again.

As a player who loves combo decks, I naturally love modern as a format! However, the bannings of ponder and preordain were...disheartening. I played standard pyromancer ascension for long enough to enjoy casting those spells, and not having any format where I can do that any more (legacy doesn't count. ****ing manabases & force) makes me a little sad. However, I do have a potential solution: unban both of those cards plus mental misstep.

Yes, yes, people will scream that mental misstep was horrendously overpowered in Legacy, that it killed entire archetypes and created a monotonous stream of boring hive-mind decks, and they'd be right. However, Modern is not Legacy, and I don't think the card would be quite as format-bending there for these reasons:

1. Shocklands. The best mana fixing in the format is in the form of Zenfetch + Ravshock. In Legacy, the original duals don't have this problem, and fetches/city of brass are the only widely-played painful lands. To achieve the same effect in Modern, you must lightning bolt yourself on turn one. For this reason, having a turn one wild nacatl, goblin guide, thoughtsieze, etc. mistepped isn't quite as crushing, as then if they don't want to do nothing turn one, they must lava axe/flame javelin themselves. For most aggressive decks, trading a card out of hand for a card and two damage isn't nearly as crushing when their opponent essentially starts at 14-17.
2. Ponder/Preordain. Both of these spells are easy prey to the trip spell, and adding something combo AND control can use, while adding a new toy for control, could allow control decks to flourish. Though I agree that ancestral visions certainly too good for control, giving them their best buds from standard can't be that bad.
3. Force of Will. Or, more specifically, lack therof. The card that does the best imitation in Modern is denying shoal, and it will, very often, not do the trick. Have a 2 drop to pitch? Too bad! I'm playing zoo, where I play nacatl, get my tarmogoyf countered by the far-superior at the job spell snare, and then murder your face with a 4/4 + knight of the reliquary! Also, most of the reliable turn 1 win combos have been eliminated by banning chrome mox and rite of flame, so the format doesn't need something nearly as powerful as force in order to be playable. However, control decks will still need an answer for turn 1 nacatl, goblin guide, lavamancer, etc, on the play, as aggro decks just have too much good stuff for a couple doom blades to be adequate. Even then, as stated before, 2 life is a nontrivial cost in this format.
4. Brainstorm. Yes, this is another card for which there is no substitute in Modern. However, it is THE defining card of Legacy, considered by many the best card in blue, or even in the entire format, allowing pitifully small mana bases in control decks, evasion from discard spells, shuffling in of combo pieces, and just generally enabling most of the decks in the format. Right now, Modern has...Serum Visions? Sleight of Hand? While these are certainly ok, they lack the power of other cantrip sorceries.

Essentially, I'm asking for the inclusion of some certainly weaker versions of cards already considered format-defining in Legacy which, by interesting coincidence, also serve as both perfect accompaniment and perfect foils to each other. Eternal formats need cards with these powerful effects in order to be interesting, and as it stands, Modern just doesn't have any. Aggro players are certainly happy: the only toy they've lost is green sun's zenith. Combo is even still playable (I've proxied up an interesting take on BOaB's Second Sunrise deck which replaces Ponder with...Ior Ruin Expedition! (Ghost Quarter + Sunrise. Think about it). But control is still pretty much useless. The only six drop in the format that could be good (primeval titan), is only good in ramp/combo decks, and though some sort of blue control splashing tarmogoyf and maybe dark confidant may be ok, it won't consistantly beat nacatl.dec. Consider it...

www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/metagame.php?f... This is why we don't play Modern.

For God's sake, did wizards even playtested enough before picking up the banhammer? And I'm not talking about the latest bannings, even the initial bannings are irrational. Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary are legal while Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic are not? Come on. This just happened to keep calm the Type 2 lovers that hated cawblade decks. Anyone thinks cawblade would *THE* dominating deck in modern? Really?

"It Takes Time for a Format to Grow"

Maybe you should remember that yourself. The banhammer is a final answer, not a first answer (much like the way you did the bannings in Standard). You should've waited to see if the metagame solved itself before using the hammer like this.

And it seems to me like Wizards seriously thinks the world loves aggro or something. Don't you get it? We're talking Spikes here. They hate losing. Losing to aggro is no more fun than losing to control or combo.