I said from the moment MH1 was announced that the end goal is to turn Modern into quasi-Legacy. All of the cards they keep printing that circumvent the RL through meaningless differences all but confirms that.
They are now also gonna do the same with Vintage and Timeless.
Either way it will never be exact. Modern is almost assuredly never going to get Brainstorm/Daze/FoW/Wasteland. Timeless is almost assuredly never going to get the Power 9.
Those will be the only lasting format distinctions.
Vintage is the place for P9, Shops, and other stuff too busted for any other format.
Legacy is the format for Xerox tempo (so they will never ban Brainstorm, Daze, or fetchlands - they'll ban everything else first).
It's already been like that for years, but these reprints are making the distinction even clearer, putting other "fun" interactions into Modern.
I don't particularly agree. When is the last time you played?
As someone who has been on Omnitell in high ranked Mythic for the last few months, I'll agree Omnitell warped the format. There were about 2-3 weeks when Show and Tell was first made available and everyone was unprepared. During that brief period, you could just farm the entire format but the meta adapted months ago. There are plenty of answers and everyone is packing at a minimum Roiling Vortex / Rule of Law effects in the sideboard. Omnitell play rate has plummeted which I kind of miss because the mirror usually becomes a super complicated game of chicken.
I personally adapted to all the hate by going off the Approach win and instead playing a lot more disruption, Pick Your Poison, and Hullbreaker Horror but I've yet to encounter another Omnitell list playing this. If anything, but for Mana Drain the deck would already been below Tier 1. Which is another thing I like about this format: there is literally zero even halfway decent data out there so netdecking is really not a thing.
The various Grixis-type (BR; BU; BUR) decks give it a lot of trouble and are now taking over a larger portion of the meta. Ritual ->Thoughtseize -> Cycle/Reanimate Troll is not a beatable hand for Omnitell especially when its followed up by DS with Spell Pierce protection. Even assuming they don't have the nuts, they have a good clock and tons of disruption both in the form of counter spells and discard. Post side-board Roiling Vortex is annoying AF since it shuts off Atraxa lifelink and Omniscience.
I also find Rakdos burn to be an unfavorable matchup because they are combining a super fast clock with Vortex. Zoo is about 50/50 but people stopped playing that this month for some reason. Sorin/Ripper is a toss up mostly based on whether they can turn one a Ripper. Titan got completely pushed out of the format. Necro is surprisingly straight trash. I would much rather face a turn 1 Necro than a turn 1 Sorin.
Once MH3 comes out the whole meta will completely change and Omnitell is likely to become a Tier 2 strategy due to Vexing Bauble and Grief/Scam.
I expect Raxdos Scam to be Tier 0 or 1 at a minimum: Deathrite Shaman, Ragavan, Reanimate, Troll, Grief, Bowmaster, Dark Ritual, Thoughseize, and Scam card just seems overwhelmingly good and the deck will be buildable in a variety of ways (i.e. Sorin package; Necro package; Lurrus package; Reanimate Package).
Overall, I find Timeless to easily be the best format on Arena and its not even close albeit that's not saying much. Super interactive games that require a lot of decision making, punish you for small mistakes, a meta that is self-correcting given the breath of answers available, and the lack of online information leading to players actually having to play games and adjust based on their own judgment all makes for a fun experience.
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
Are you doing a bit?
I spent 4 cards, and have 4 left in hand. (Seven opener minus: land, Reanimate, Grief, Black card. gain: draw step)
You spent 2 cards, lost one, and have 4 left in hand. (Seven opener minus: land, bauble, card removed by grief)
Or do you just not think the scam archetype is playable as a whole?
Scaming vs bauble: the situation 4 dogs described is that OTP you have full scam, OTD you do the equivalent of unmask + delver if the opponent had the bauble, and spent his T1 to cast it. You then know and can opt not to do it.
So in about 20% of the cases (OTP + bauble in hand), you would reduce scam from full power to delver + unmask, which is not great but not immediate game loss either. You end up with the same amount of cards but a better board presence.
I guess you would still side out scam OTD vs known 4x baubles, but bauble is hardly the end of scam.
Does this ability copy itself? If it does, there's a silly combo with Spawn-Gang Commander.
Whenever you cast an Eldrazi spell, spell, you may pay {C}{C}. If you do, copy all spells you control, then copy all other activated and triggered abilities you control. You may choose new targets for the copies. (Mana abilities can’t be copied.)
Like just to state the real obvious point, the issue with Bauble will be whether it does enough, not whether playing lots of spells into it to get countered is actually a good strategy
For my confessions, they burned me with fire/
And found I was for endurance made
Known 3/2 with menace, thoughtseize.
I had to re-read the last two pages and gee...let's be real...no one is going to pitch cast Grief into a Bauble just so they can reanimate unless they think they will be losing the next turn if they don't.
But hey, if my opponent wants to do that, I am all for it! That puts me on 6 cards (really 7 since I can cash in Bauble) with them at 4 (with likely at least one of those cards also being a dead pitch card).
Do you think Bauble counters reanimate?
If you are 2-0ing yourself so you can then 2-1 me, I am happy with that. First, you are down cards on that exchange. Second, you used a Reanimate on a lesser target rather than something that actually threatens to end the game. A 3/2 dies to everything body is not concerning. Besides that, you wasted 3 cards to Thoughtseize me.
Let's be real, no one would ever FoW a spell unless they are losing next turn, that would be 1 for 2.
If you can grief reanimate T1 OTD vs bauble, I am sure there are situations (hand & MU) where you should, and some where you shouldn't.
The outcome is to have cast the equivalent unmask + pseudo delver (3/2 evasion for 1 mana) vs a T1 don't do much. Not great, but not really behind either.
If that is the only reasonable thing to do with your cards, you will cast grief + reanimate. I assume the only ones to bring this bauble are combo to counter FoW/FoN/surgical. Then it might be smart to have T1 threat + disrupt.
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