[Article] Unexplored Opportunities By Valeriy Shunkov

[ahg113]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/m...rtunities.html

The last thing to take note of is the usual whining about the lack of control decks in Modern. Personally, I'm fine with a format where combo is a good choice, but good control decks would be welcome. The problem is that Modern decks have no common weaknesses to attack; the most promising one is probably their mana bases. Modern has no Wasteland, Price of Progress, or other restriction cards to prey on complicated multicolored mana bases (life loss doesn't matter if you're doing it right). It's good and interesting and I always enjoy seeing another playable four-drop in the format (hello, Wilt-Leaf Liege!), but we've probably reached the point where mana bases have become too greedy to be left alone.

There are more words in this article than just this paragraph, but I think it neatly sums up the pro-Modern camp. Conceding (begrudgingly) there is room for improvement, disagreeing that the format is dull, boring, etc.

I enjoyed the article as a mental exercise of what's reported on, how to interact. Junk is beginning to replace Jund (props to Wilt-Leaf Liege, Obstinate Baloth and Loxodon Smiter for making Liliana of the Viel the slops); Affinity and Infect are real; Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are probably the best control elements to attack greedy land bases; blue is still not the best color in the format, and that's ok.

Cheers,

Modern still has a lot of unexplored areas. Many great cards are waiting for their days in the sun, and many great strategies went unnoticed from past tournaments.

[Anusien]

Jund put two people into the top 8 of the most recent Modern GP didn't it?

[TeenieBopper]

Jund put two people into the top 8 of the most recent Modern GP didn't it?

[Phoenix Ignition]

His article should have highlighted some of the GP decks instead of his own seemingly thrown-together ones.

Jund is still a good deck, but I believe the point you can make is that it isn't the boogeyman. 2 in the top 8 (that both got to top 2) isn't indicative of a format that is being overrun by an overpowered deck. Kibler's deck is a great example of another viable midrange aggro deck.

Overall I like the inclusion of Lingering Souls in everyone's deck lists. It slaps affinity decks in the face, and also gives you tons of time against Infect decks. It's a great answer for those creature-combo decks we've been seeing.

Format looks balanced to me.

For reference, here's Kibler's list he top 16ed with:

Creature [28]
2 Baneslayer Angel
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Instant [5]
4 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
Sorcery [4]
4 Lingering Souls
Land [23]
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Gavony Township
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stirring Wildwood
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb

Sideboard

2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Rule of Law
3 Stony Silence
1 Rest in Peace
2 Dismember
2 Creeping Corrosion

[dunk]

Jund is still a good deck, but I believe the point you can make is that it isn't the boogeyman. 2 in the top 8 (that both got to top 2) isn't indicative of a format that is being overrun by an overpowered deck.

Jund nearly won the Pro Tour and then proceeded to win the next 2 gp's... obv best deck is obv.

The junk deck looks sweet and can be a machine against jund with the right draws. The problem with it is that the maindeck is overall less flexible. Sure, Thalia Gaddock and Mindcensor are nice against some decks but they are overall worse than the discard couple with Deathrite and Liliana. There's no way Junk can get away without playing Deathrite shaman; hands down, it's one of the best cards in the format.

I agree that the format needs some change. I can also understand that Wotc is careful about what to unban, as it's really not easy to tell how big the impact of the card will be. The only card I could see getting unbanned is Ancestral Vision. Some people tell me to unban Bitterblossom and Jace, but I think both cards are too format warping.

[Phoenix Ignition]

Jund nearly won the Pro Tour and then proceeded to win the next 2 gp's... obv best deck is obv.

It's obviously the best deck now? I really disagree with your knee-jerk response. We could look at some charts provided by WotC to actually see.

The first data I can find of the day on the metagame, Round 5, which should be before any serious players drop out.

We see about 1/5 to 1/6 Jund decks. Definitely the most ubiquitous deck in the room.

This amounts to 2/8 of the top 8 being Jund. No specific numbers were given, but seeing as Jund was by far the most played deck, and the one chosen by the Channel Fireball team, doesn't it make sense that we would see this as the most represented in the top 8? And even then, it's only represented slightly more than the amount at which it started!

I don't think 2 of them being there is enough to say that it's obviously the best deck, and considering the number of pros who piloted the exact same copy of the deck, I'm willing to bet that it isn't obviously, or even by a noticeable amount the purported "best deck." If we had 4 or more I would be worried, but at this point it is not at all obvious that Modern is unbalanced.

[HorseshoeCrab]

Also note that Reid Duke made Top 16 with traditional, Lingering Souls-less Jund.

It looks like Jund is a dominant deck, but what we really saw last weekend was a field of Jund decks get pared down, while a couple of lists with new tech (Souls) broke through. Jund is very beatable and will be beatable again as players find ways to shift their decks to beat some flying 1/1s in addition to the usual suspects.

[hi-val]

This GP taught me that Deathrite Shaman is very, very good. Enough to qualify as "kill condition" in shockland-happy Modern. Depending on my decks, I'm putting either Deathmark or Sunlance on my sideboard if I'm soft to Shaman. The fact that it singlehandedly shuts down Gifts for Rites is potent.

[warfordium]

i'm taking the UR Moon Control deck to a small local modern event tonight—lets see if this theory has some merits...