[Community Discussion]: Modern Chat
Modern forum
Posted on April 25, 2015, 8:42 p.m. by Epochalyptik
This thread is dedicated entirely to Modern. Feel free to post your thoughts on the meta, ideas for your next decklist, and just chat generally about the format!
Of course, you can always start a new thread if you're interested in discussing one particular aspect of the format; this thread should be used for the quick thoughts and informal questions about the format.
This discussion will be ongoing; you are free to post here as long as you're on topic.
This is NOT a deck help thread. Please do not spam deck help requests.
You don't have to make swaps as a playset for a playset, especially when it comes to lands. You can do half and half or any combination in between if you feel those are your most unneeded lands currently. You also may not want a full playset of the land you are trying to move in, as the 3 life does add up quickly, and it is just a swamp in the early game.
Since the initial post says this is not a deck help thread, that is about all the detail I am willing to go into, and I tried to keep the advise as general as possible.
March 5, 2022 11 a.m.
Well, there’s lots of different lands that have lots of different uses in modern. Beyond certain utility lands that are limited to specific colors, there’s various cycles of lands with an equivalent version in most if not all color combinations. There’s some incomplete cycles like the triomes (name may change) which is going to be finished soon, and the draw painlands (not sure what they are called) which started with Horizon Canopy.
Certain cycles are suited to certain uses or needs better than others.
For example, the Horizon Canopy cycle is more suited to aggro decks that end up with more mana than they need as the game goes on.
The filter lands are one of the cycles where you want to limit the number of them in the deck, since they aren’t capable of producing colored mana on their own (I generally only run one for this reason). However, they are some of the best mana-fixing that modern has to offer for greedy manabases. You can take a white mana and make it into 2 blue mana with a Mystic Gate as an example. Reflecting Pool also works similarly to these lands, and is basically a match made in heaven for them, since it only cares about their capability to produce a colored mana source. So you can use a Reflecting Pool to feed a filter land even if those are your only two lands.
For decks that are more minimal colors, basics are better, since they get around a lot of hate. In fact I don’t suggest ever making a deck without at least 2 basics and some ways to find them.
Black and green also have access to urborg and yavimaya which let you tap things for colored mana you couldn’t normally. This helps with painlands and fetches, since you can now tap them without paying life.
There’s plenty of other lands with specific uses, and there isn’t really a right or wrong answer when making a manabase as long as you can consistently have access to the colors you need, and your manabase doesn’t end up killing you with painlands, shocks, fetches, etc. You also want to try to limit the number of lands you’ll have coming into play tapped for obvious reasons.
Also, when using fetches, I generally find that 7 ish fetches is ideal in a generic manabase. If you pick one main color you can basically make it so you can have access to all your color fixing shocks etc no matter what fetch you draw. You can also have two support colors to minimize the number of shocks you actually need to run. Combine with the aforementioned urborg or yavimaya tricks, and you can really minimize the number of shocks needed.
If your manabase isn’t heavily leaning towards a certain color and is basically a main color with a splash of a second you can run a lot more basics and a minimal amount of fetches with basically the same consistency and deck thinning, with less life loss.
There’s also things like Gemstone Caverns or Grove of the Burnwillows which have niche uses. You can’t really have a one answer cure all for what manabase is ideal for what deck, since most decks have different needs.
Also, if running legendary lands, I don’t generally suggest running more than 2 copies of each, unless you can do something with them in multiples like the channel lands.
March 5, 2022 10:20 p.m.
What happened to Yorion elementals? MtGGoldfish has it top of the meta, and everyone at my LGS talks about how good it is, but I literally never see it. MtGO leagues I play in, leagues I see streamers play in, my LGS... it's nowhere. Am I just happening to dodge it? Why is it the deck?
June 26, 2022 8:39 p.m.
Elementals/4C Blink/4C Control/Money Pile is kind of the deck because it's a pretty flexible value engine. You can lean more on Risen Reef and overloading your opponent's removal to stop you from running away with card draw. You can run Counterspell and Eternal Witness for more controlling meta calls.
But you may not see it all the time in paper because it's pretty expensive. Or people are just tired of playing the "best" deck and want to try something different. The 4C mirrors also tend to be pretty abominable and go to time, which isn't fun for a lot of people.
June 27, 2022 11:51 a.m.
To further on above, you see it in higher levels of competitive play, and it is a fairly consistent deck when piloted properly, so it gets a fairly high representation when it comes to high placing decks. There is a definite pricetag doorway, since a $50 stack of burn can win almost as much as the $1,500+ yorian deck, and is arguably far easier to pilot in some matches (burn does have some tricky matches where piloting it becomes very difficult, deciding to deal with threats or go face - by no means am I saying burn is an easy deck to pilot - I'm a terrible burn pilot, just using it as a budget example that is more than capable of winning).
4c Elementals is a very flexible stack of cards, where you can play it as a midrange, tempo, or control shell without sacrificing much. Just the fact that it is 80 cards instead of 60 cards makes it cost more, but if you also consider most of the cards are overpowered MH2 cards with a hefty pricetag, you've got yourself the "money pile" as the poster above so lovingly referred to the deck.
June 27, 2022 4:47 p.m.
Does anyone have any thoughts about the "New Teferi" being spoiled for the upcoming brother's war set?.... is this gonna be the new control finisher?
Mana Cost
Whenever you draw a card add a loyalty counter to teferi.
0: Draw a card
-2: create a spirit token with vigilance that gets a +1/+1 counter on it whenever you draw a card.
-12: target opponent returns a permanent they control to their hand and shuffles the rest into the library.
4
October 28, 2022 2:52 p.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #8
Here's the card image, Icbrgr!
I do think it's VERY strong. Might even have some kind of payoff in Dimir discard decks or something along those lines.
It is five mana, though, so I wouldn't see any deck running more than one or two of these.
Maybe some kind of Modern Spirits build with Mausoleum Wanderer?
October 28, 2022 3:07 p.m.
Currently Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Teferi, Time Raveler seem to be the planswalkers of choice for control in most cases... I'm honestly not sure if this one will be a viable replacement or split... from the hip he looks absolutely horrifying though... I tend to play janky control decks so he looks powerful to me; but idk if this one will find a home in an actual Modern meta or not.
October 28, 2022 3:18 p.m. Edited.
I see it being more useful in Izzet, since you can loot at reduced costs for extra loyalty.
I’m not sure how I feel about it though, because it lacks the removal and mana advantage turn over turn most planeswalkers need to make them really strong.
It does provide draw and the ability to create flying creatures that grow, so it isn’t bad, it’s just missing a little bit of versatility and that may be what holds it back from becoming a staple.
It’s pretty okay, but it may bring value back to what I consider “true” control, where they just deal with your threats and bring you into submission through sheer advantage, instead of the tempo control the meta has become.
GeminiSpartanX says... #1
Dragon's Rage Channeler, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
August 24, 2021 9:27 p.m.