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View Full Version : No Modern PT's next year at all. 8 GP's.



YamiJoey
08-02-2014, 07:04 PM
What? I have no comments. Someone comfort me.

Higgs
08-02-2014, 07:27 PM
Legacy has 3 GPs next year. Feeling better :)?

Phoenix Ignition
08-02-2014, 08:23 PM
Sounds awesome. PTs were a travesty of terrible deck picking anyway.

lyracian
08-03-2014, 12:10 AM
What? I have no comments. Someone comfort me.
You have to win a Prelim to even play at a PTQ to try and get to a PT now so does it really matter?
Pro Tour is now just Wizards baby (standard). All other formats are just for fun. :frown:


Legacy has 3 GPs next year. Feeling better :)?
Instead of getting an American and European Legacy GP we get an American, European and APAC Legacy GP. I really do not seeming that many more players making it to two Legacy GP's...

YamiJoey
08-03-2014, 04:09 AM
Oh yeah, let's not forget that 90% of PPTQ's will be Standard now too!

HOW EXCELLENT! See you guy's in Lille. Also wherever the MMA2 GP is.

Phoenix Ignition
08-03-2014, 03:38 PM
I'm honestly curious, did you want more modern PTs? I guess I can see that, although I don't really care about PTs, especially after their new PTQQs switch. 8 Modern GPs is awesome, though, that's a heck of a lot and I expect some real development in decks and metagame to go on because of it. GPs are much more manageable for me anyway, since I don't need to grind like 3 tournaments to go to one of those. Bigger return on investment overall for most people if you don't have that much time to spend traveling for tournaments.

YamiJoey
08-04-2014, 07:07 AM
I would have liked a continued pro level support, yes. 1 PT a year isn't much to ask for.

Tormod
08-04-2014, 12:51 PM
Makes no difference to me. I'm not a pro and I have no aspirations to be.

I'm happy for 3 Legacy GPs

In a busy metropolis and with lots of shops we have a locally based Modern invitational series series I've been battling in April. Three weekly Legacy events, Modems weeklies, Month Legacy for power...

Modern is pretty stale, after 3 years we still have affinity, pod, twin and Jund ruling the top tables with an occasional meta call like scapeshift winning.

Phoenix Ignition
08-04-2014, 03:02 PM
In smallish metagames modern is actually pretty awesome. You can metagame people with GW hatebears or random stuff like Deathcloud. But on the large scale I agree GPs will be really nice for pushing new archetypes and decks. I agree with you the PT has nothing to do with what I care about so I'm fine they went with standard only.

Barook
08-07-2014, 07:24 AM
They cut Modern as a PT format because it sucks - no, really. (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/567422-i-just-personally-spoke-with-aaron-forsythe-at-pro)

Modern feels too stale for them, so they cut it from the PT. They also think that the Promotional part (https://twitter.com/mtgaaron/status/495746645733015553) of a Modern Pro Tour isn't ideal to promote their latest product.

Arsenal
08-07-2014, 09:22 AM
Meh, that was just one guy's personal interpretation of his interview with Aaron, which isn't quite the same as Aaron speaking the words "Modern is a stale format". But if we are going to take what this guy is saying as gospel, then I expect fairly big changes to occur in Modern. Likely will see an unbanning or banning to shake up the format.

Lord Seth
08-07-2014, 06:16 PM
They cut Modern as a PT format because it sucks - no, really. (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/567422-i-just-personally-spoke-with-aaron-forsythe-at-pro)

Modern feels too stale for them, so they cut it from the PT. They also think that the Promotional part (https://twitter.com/mtgaaron/status/495746645733015553) of a Modern Pro Tour isn't ideal to promote their latest product.Maybe if Theros was a less stale block, Modern would be a less (according to them) stale format?

Aggro_zombies
08-07-2014, 06:36 PM
They cut Modern as a PT format because it sucks - no, really. (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/567422-i-just-personally-spoke-with-aaron-forsythe-at-pro)

Modern feels too stale for them, so they cut it from the PT. They also think that the Promotional part (https://twitter.com/mtgaaron/status/495746645733015553) of a Modern Pro Tour isn't ideal to promote their latest product.
Amusing, then, that the deck that won the M15 ProTour had no M15 cards in it.

Standard is stale as shit too right now, mostly because Theros block was a huge dud overall.

I'm not sure why they think aggro decks would be viable in a metagame that's, what, midrange, combo, and a smattering of control? I couldn't imagine a metagame more hostile to non-all-in aggro decks if I tried. Affinity is pretty much only viable because it can race combo and punish midrange decks that durdle for too long. Zoo didn't pan out after the Nacatl unban because it can't beat midrange, can't race combo reliably, and can't fight through the avalanche of 1-for-1s out of WUR. It also doesn't have the tools to morph into a successful midrange deck itself - it probably needs Punishing Fire to come off the list for that.

As long as Modern continues to be defined by its midrange and combo decks it's not clear to me what sort of innovation is available. I mean, the last Modern GP had, what, two BGx decks in the Top 8 that are literally just all the best unbanned cards in their colors? How do you build a fair deck to beat "good stuff" without also resorting to good stuff? Or building an unfair deck like combo that can go over the top?

I guess the easiest way to make another aggro deck viable would be to port some of the Legacy Goblins into the format: Matron, Ringleader, Warchief, and probably Piledriver too. The tribal synergies would give you a boost against midrange and the card advantage from Matron and Ringleader would give you some leeway to fight Anger of the Gods.

Phoenix Ignition
08-07-2014, 08:46 PM
Like you said, aggro that doesn't easily keep up with a turn 4 format can't possibly be competitive. The main reasons are Lightning Bolt, Snapcaster, and then pyroclasm/Anger of the gods that are EASILY packed into Twin, Scapeshift, UWr decks, and at least pyroclasm is in GR tron. Some URx Young pyromancers have gotten around it by running some amount of spell piercing, but haven't seen much in terms of big results.

Pod gets around that with stupid levels of card advantage through a resolved pod (often on their turn 2), affinity and infect race it, and BGx is bigger than it. There isn't really any design space for a zoo style deck. Wild Nacatl dies to everything and you're hurting yourself by going GWR against board sweepers, there just really isn't an upside.

I see the format a little differently, though, as I think potential new cards can have a huge impact on it. Twin, Tron, and Scapeshift can barely use any new cards that get printed, regardless of power level. BGx goodstuff decks can't use things with heavy synergy (tribal or otherwise), and I doubt they'll ever print another card to go in affinity's maindeck. Look at Delver, for example, the bane of Legacy. It's the most efficient and aggressive creature ever printed and it can't find a popular deck to fit into. There are a lot of potential new cards that would enable new decks if they would just stop printing stupid shit like bestow and other overcosted terribleness. Strategies like Merfolk, GW hatebears, and tezzeret are all potentially 1 card away from being actual forces to be reckoned with.

It's just up to R&D to push through a card that doesn't fit into the GBx decks that doesn't help the blue/red combos. That could honestly be a lot of things.

The Dead Weatherman
08-08-2014, 09:41 PM
I'm not even mad.

Fry
08-09-2014, 09:55 AM
I'm not happy, nor am I mad. I mean I dislike Standard and have for a while now, and Modern is a poor substitute for Legacy (at least in my book), and that's why I am not happy that there is a switch to all Standard PT's. I probably won't ever watch any PT now because it doesn't matter to me, even as a curiosity. Modern at least was a PT I could watch a little when I had some free time.

Barook
08-10-2014, 06:34 PM
And they brought a Modern PT back:

Twitter statement (https://twitter.com/magicprotour/status/498586194553208834)

Phoenix Ignition
08-10-2014, 06:44 PM
I think it's interesting there was enough outcry from the Modern community that WotC actually changed one of their terrible decisions. This has got to be a first.

AggroControl
08-10-2014, 09:42 PM
I think it's interesting there was enough outcry from the Modern community that WotC actually changed one of their terrible decisions. This has got to be a first.

Affinity banned out of existence in Standard in 2005 and Modern at creation. CawBlade banned out of existence in Standard in 2011 and Modern at creation. If the crowd gets loud WotC will react.

Lord Seth
08-11-2014, 12:49 AM
Affinity banned out of existence in Standard in 2005 and Modern at creation. CawBlade banned out of existence in Standard in 2011 and Modern at creation. If the crowd gets loud WotC will react.Neither Affinity nor Caw-Blade was banned out of existence in Modern, as shown by the fact they were still being played after the bannings (admittedly, Caw-Blade eventually fell off the map, but it wasn't because of bannings). Also, while Affinity was legitimately banned out of existence in Standard, Caw-Blade was not, and remained a prominent part of the format even after the bannings.

DragoFireheart
09-08-2014, 11:42 AM
They cut Modern as a PT format because it sucks - no, really. (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/567422-i-just-personally-spoke-with-aaron-forsythe-at-pro)

Modern feels too stale for them,

And guess whose fault that is?

BBG|Scott-Spain
09-10-2014, 12:37 PM
Neither Affinity nor Caw-Blade was banned out of existence in Modern, as shown by the fact they were still being played after the bannings (admittedly, Caw-Blade eventually fell off the map, but it wasn't because of bannings). Also, while Affinity was legitimately banned out of existence in Standard, Caw-Blade was not, and remained a prominent part of the format even after the bannings.

I totally played Affinity after the banning. Pretty funny reactions. :laugh:


And guess whose fault that is?

^This. Says a lot about their priorities when they're concerned with Standard's staleness instead of depth.