Well, I think our circumstances a similar but still different.
Our Legacy group still has about 10-12 of us. They get 8 pretty usually for Legacy FNM. If they miss, they play Round Robin with whoever shows. They do even drop in some proxy Vintage games, to spice things up. But none of them have any real interest in Modern.
I'm still interested in playing, I still go as much as I can, but I have 6 kids, 2 of which are quite young, a job that just extended my hours and am in the process of buying a new house and moving. So, it's a rough time for any time that could be considered "free." I still have all my cards, which helps because I could probably play a different deck weekly for the next year if I wanted to and I think that really keeps things fresh. If you only have the cards for a deck or two, I can understand how things get stale after a while.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
Some threads here have really gone to shit. Between Discord links being posted everywhere (why the hell does someone even want to be on Discord and have their info farmed and sold? Do they not know what the fuck IRC is?) and threads being ruined in other ways (TES thread is one of them, absolutely no discussion anymore. Just links to Bryants website /puke) I don't see The Source going a good way.
And that sucks. Forums are amazing. Communities are amazing. Reading your old posts, seeing how you used to think, or reading others old posts. All this is sacrificed for basically migrating to an AOL chatroom? Fuck me.
Who would want to read a chat log?
I don't understand how information on a deck can be usefull on discord.
Perhaps is it because i've never been on discord. and also perhaps because, i'm too old :)
I think if you have only 1 legacy deck it does tend to get stale. I have 2 legacy decks built at all times, 3 if I count a non-optimized burn list, 4 if you count mono-red storm. I switch back and forth from Dreadstill and Turbo Depths. Both are super fun decks for me. If I wanted to I could drop a little cash and play Punishing Maverick or Junk, but both of those decks just aren't that appealing to me. I do recognize that having more than 1 deck to play is definitely a luxury that helps me stay engaged in the format.
I play locally about once a month, twice if there is a 1K or other local tournament happening. This includes modern. I actually attend more actual tournaments for modern but I play Legacy more often at weekly events. If I had my choice it would be all legacy, all the time, but it's just not feasible. The local modern scene is pretty big, 30-40 players on Monday Modern. I just can't make it for Mondays, being a family man and all like you.
I think the real roadblock to productive Modern forums is the fact that card availability is quite a bit smaller than Legacy. Optimal lists show up much faster due to fewer options to test out. Once a deck makes a small 'breakout' it gets put through the grinding machine that is magic's most popular format and a defined list is established within a couple months. Legacy is much less definitive; you could clean house one week with your janky brew and get totally dumpstered the next week, depending on the matchups. But you won't have others jumping onto your brewed deck to collate it into a correct setup, and your options for genuine testing grounds are rare.
Modern is also much more linear than legacy; even the control decks are quite linear. 'Good Stuff' decks like Jund just don't cut it in that format anymore, you need a really defined plan that is powerful enough to keep up with the format. Look at Humans, Dredge, Hollow One, Affinity, and Death's Shadow variants. They play one game, and it's an aggressive one. KCI, Ad Nauseam, UR Storm, Titan Shift, all combo decks that just look to goldfish you. If you want something non-linear, you have to look at Jeskai Control and UW Control, which are making somewhat of a resurgence, but are still tier 2. When you can't sleeve up goodstuff.dec, have to play a linear agro or combo deck, or try grinding for hours with a tier 2 control deck, what's the point of a forum? Those are your options, and modern is an unforgiving format.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Don't get me wrong, I have the cards for Legacy, I just haven't enjoyed tournament play in it for a long time. Sitting across from Chalice when you're playing blue, Counterbalance when you're playing most decks, and TNN ever is just miserable for me. The only counterplay I see to things like TNN is "play miracles" if I don't want to play something that just flat out folds to the rest of the format.
I really enjoyed my 10ish years of competitive Legacy, but at some point the consistency of the decks and base of 4x Brainstorm + Ponders just got to me. I'd take 4 Brainstorms over Vintage's restricted cantrip list, it's that powerful. Vintage games at least don't try to pretend like they're balanced. It is actually insane to me how the cantrips have smoothed over everything to the point of games becoming so similar.
Modern, while succumbing to linear combos from time to time, has the diversity in tactics and playstyles that old Legacy once had. Back when I really loved magic (2005-2008 or so) the format had all sorts of interesting things that you never see anymore. Anyone remember Aggro Loam? Survival when it was really just a goodstuff deck with Flametongue Kavus? Pox that actually played a suicide strategy? How about the fear from a turn 1 Lackey? Psychatog? How the best aggro-control had to actually be good at control because it's primary threats were Werebear? At any given tournament you used to run into all of these decks, and your ability to pick a deck and tune it to the metagame was as important as good play. Compared to all the decks we used to have in Legacy, it just all feels the same to me.
It's possible I've just been around too long and should move on. I'm not actually old, I've just been playing magic for too long. I can feel it in my bones, "like butter scraped over too much bread". Modern is the closest thing to what I used to enjoy, even though it has its own flaws.
It seems like you had a Star Wars prequel kind of moment with Magic. I was a hardcore forcey before the prequels; after them I quickly lost interest. The new ones are ok, definitely going in a better direction, but still don't get the same reaction as the originals, that nostalgic warm-fuzzy feeling. They just don't capture my attention anymore.
Having a thriving LGS with plenty of legacy really saved Magic for me. My old LGS basically does *nothing* with magic anymore, just other games now. Standard got fucked up, people stopped coming, they didn't have good prize support, etc. Then another store opened up in another town and just took over, in a good way, where they left off. Modern weeklies 20-40 people regularly. Legacy FNM's 10-15 people regularly. Frequent 1K tournaments, PPTQ's, and even monthly Pauper events happen with attendance of around 20-30 people. If not for this store, I would have gotten out.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
That's pretty much exactly it. I even have 2 decks from the era I liked best made at all times to play against each other (UW landstill versus UG madness). They're my "training decks" for anyone who wants to get into magic and really start to learn how to make decisions. Back then it mattered whether or not you played a land before you attacked or after, with benefits to either. I guess that's the same thing as throwing in episode 4-6 and rewatching them. It's still quite fun, it's just hard to get other people as excited to do it as you... at least to the point of having tournaments or whatever.
The importance of a good local store can't be overstated. There is such a big difference between that and having to play MTGO for your Legacy fix. It just isn't the same when you can't go talk to friends after an amazing play or bad loss.
Yes, This is true.
@Phoenix Ignition: I would love to play UW Landstill against UG Madness all day long. I am attempting a similar project for teaching where I have 5 mono-colored decks to teach magic, a project I've been working on for about 2 years. They have 40 cards, 17 lands each, and have each card type represented in their colors (no artifacts.) I tried to embody the color's identity while still giving it a chance against the other colors. They still tilt out of balance depending on the matchup, but it's been a fun project. Black has stuff like Gravedigger to create loops and powerful sorceries like Corrupt, white has Serra Angel and Pacifism, Red has hasty creatures and Fireball, blue has Divination and Aether Adept, green has Llanowar Elves and Ivy Elemental. Just fun, traditional, fair magic to help them learn mana-curve and resource management (all of the decks play on a curve from 1-5, with the occasional outlier like a 6 mana spell or an X spell.) It's actually super fun to goldfish a round-robin tournament with the different decks and see which matchups are favored/unfavored and to adjust the lists based on glaring holes.
I've contemplated taking the decks to the LGS, having a group of 5 people grind out some matches and get their input on how balanced the decks are. Then I can adjust and we can have like a 'learning day' at the LGS. All of the decks are easily less than $15 to build, probably closer to $7-8.
Oh yeah, best modern forum...uh, there isn't one?
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
best modern forum = mtg top 8 :)
Seriously. I wasn't able to find a correct one, it's either not enough posts or too much crappy posts and unfortunately MTG salvation is the best that exists because of traffic.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Yep I remember. Good times indeed, but I kind of jumped ship on Legacy when Modern first came around because Legacy was already turning into the same few decks.
The worst part about Modern now is the damned mana base. Rav duals suck. At lest fast lands are okay; they just need to keep reprinting them 'cause $50 for Blackcleave Cliffs is just insulting (I got my Underground Seas for less that half of that).
When other people do not assert themselves, they may still have something to be proud of, something that they believe is unrivalled, but it is just that they have not got the same vulgarity of throwing their weight about and imposing themselves and their beliefs on other people. - Dunduzu Kalui Chisiza
If you think a topic is dumb, don't add to it. Pretty simple. - Bardo
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)