Tier 1 decks post ban?
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 6, 2014, 6:21 p.m. by Turn_Soonest
After the the recent banning/unbannings, what decks are now Tier 1? Especially decks that play Dark Confidant , because I have a playset and I want to play him. Jund may be pretty bad now, but is the Rock still fine? Is Pox awesome now?
Servo_Token says... #3
Jund is still ok, Pox may or may not have gotten better (Personally, I prefer 8rack over pox, but others may disagree), but that's about it for decks that play bob at tier 1.
Honestly, I don't believe that this banning was too big a deal for the decks that were already at the top. It's not like Lili was banned...
But definitely listen to what others have to say on this as well. I'm definitely no top-tier modern player.
February 6, 2014 6:27 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #4
Pox is strong. Bitterblossom makes it that much stronger. I hope it can achieve that top tier deck.
Zombiepox wasn't too weakened by the lack of DRS.
February 6, 2014 7:12 p.m.
To be quite honest, Deathrite Shaman didn't do much to remove Jund from being king of the format. Sure, it took another hit, but the trio of Dark Confidant , Tarmogoyf , and Liliana of the Veil is still one of the strongest interactions of the format. Adding Bitterblossom to the deck just makes it silly. It can still grind out games and win wars of attrition, just like it's always done.
As far as what other tier-one decks are still out there, I believe it's much of the same. Splinter Twin , B/G/x Midrange, Affinity, R/G Tron, and Birthing Pod . People are overreacting a bit in regards to Faeries. The deck is good, but it's still going to run into the same problems most aggro and tempo decks of the format run into, which is Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolt three-for-one'ing them all day.
Unlike U/R Delver or Fish, however, Faeries lacks some serious tools for disrupting people's plans. I think Modern will continue seeing a lot of tier 1.5 and tier 2 decks, Faeries falling into that category.
February 6, 2014 9:34 p.m.
i disagree on faeries....
U/B Faeries is not at all taking the shape of an aggro/tempo deck. It is a pseudo control deck running 4x Cryptic Command , 4x Mana Leak and 5/6 hand disruption cards. The whole deck, now that we have Bitterblossom , is a synergy machine and I think it will find a place in tier 1.
Everyone keeps mentioning Abrupt Decay for weakening Bitterblossom , but both Mistbind Clique and Scion of Oona save that.
Lightning bolt is a potential issue, but we have access to good graveyard hate as well: Relic of Progenitus , Faerie Macabre that will help. Along with a 4 of Scion of Oona
The worst matchup for us is zoo. And cards like Deathmark and maybe Damnation will help with that
February 7, 2014 10:12 a.m.
...you just described a Tempo deck lol.
But seriously, let's look at what Faeries does that, say, Delver doesn't do:
You get black for hand disruption via Thoughtseize , Inquisition of Kozilek , and Duress .
Your creature removal is less conditional with Dismember , Go for the Throat , Disfigure , etc.
Your manlands are better since you can play Faerie Conclave , Creeping Tar Pit , and Mutavault to their full extent.
Things that overlap with Delver:
Countermagic. Both Delver and Faeries can play Mana Leak , Cryptic Command , etc.
Snapcaster Mage fits well into both decks, even though it's not a Faerie.
But what are you losing?
You have to free up more slots for Scion of Oona , Bitterblossom , Mistbind Clique , and possibly Glen Elendra Archmage . This means dipping into your countermagic and disruption. Or you're cutting cards like Serum Visions and Gitaxian Probe .
Red gives Lightning Bolt , Grim Lavamancer , and Young Pyromancer . That last one is important. Not only can it attack, unlike Bitterblossom , it can also pump out more creatures per turn. Lightning Bolt and Snapcaster Mage is arguably one of the strongest interactions available to blue players. Creature removal is dead vs. control and combo, but Lightning Bolt means shooting them in the face for six.
I just don't see how Faeries is going to bring anything new to the table to make it tier one along with Affinity, Splinter Twin , Tron, Jund, and Pod. It doesn't do anything to these decks that existing archetypes can't already do, with the exception of Splinter Twin (which gets shit on due to flash). Pod, Jund, and Tron are all nightmares for Faeries because of how effective their removal is. Affinity is just faster.
Not to mention, some of these decks will play Bitterblossom themselves, so it's not like Faeries is going to one-up them on anything.
It's definitely not a bad deck, don't get me wrong. It's just not going to be as consistent as what's already being played.
February 7, 2014 11:17 a.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #8
@ wnorris17 how would U/B Faeries stack up against something like U/W/R Control?
As for the OP Jund is fine. It's probably more than fine actually. Sure it's been slowed down a little, maybe, but it still has access to its key components.
February 7, 2014 11:17 a.m.
Turn_Soonest says... #9
I feel like Faeries isn't gonna be as great as everyone thinks. I mean, I love Spellstutter Sprite , Mistbind Clique , and Vendilion Clique as much as the next guy, I just don't see it. On the other hand, I think Jund just comes back at Tier 1.5 aggro midrange.
February 7, 2014 3:38 p.m.
I'm thinking Bitterblossom is going to make b/w tokens something great and some lists are adding in Polymorph to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn with it. I'm thinking this will be the next 'gotta beat me' deck that pod currently is.
February 7, 2014 3:40 p.m.
Metroid_Hybrid says... #11
The more I look around, the more I believe that "Dark Zoo" is going to shoot up to tier1 status in nothing flat..
February 7, 2014 7:44 p.m.
@CanadianSamurai, the u/w/r matchup is quite good. Usually you end up trading one for one, removal for token, but Bitterblossom does a good job keeping up the pressure. Also; a flashed in Scion of Oona takes care of a lot of problems. When he tries to kill your oona, you often times you have access to counters, but if not it's usually not a big deal. This deck keeps up pressure very well.
I've done a lot of play testing, as have others over at mtg salv, and faeries is putting up good numbers against everything but zoo.
Affinity: easily hated out
U/W/R: not hard (with or without gheists))
Jund: not bad. It's a race and it usually comes down to abrupt decays, you want to be able to scion or mistbind in response -- unless you have another Bitterblossom
Twin: HARD. But totally doable. Engineered Explosives may be needed main board.
gufymike says... #2
how is jund going to be pretty bad nowJund survived and thrived before drs.
February 6, 2014 6:24 p.m.