The Magic: The Gathering Thread

General Discussion
7411

(Yeah, this wording issue is exactly the one I was talking about in last post of last page. There was probably some better way to word it, but the X = 0 = no triggers things seemed obvious to me until I saw confused people debating otherwise.)

Speaking of Black cards from this upcoming set, I’ve heard it said that Claim to Fame may well end up seeing Death’s Shadow getting banned from Modern and I can’t say that I would be surprised if that was the case. Honestly, good riddance if so:

Beyond that, I will admit that I am surprised that God-Pharaoh’s Gift is far more usable than I was expecting it to be given that cards that search for other cards have tended to be underwhelming, especially when split up between sets in-block:

That said, I have to roll my eyes at idiots saying that it’s as good as busted as Aetherworks Marvel despite that card’s fundamentally flawed design, even if God-Pharaoh’s Gift is definitely a nice Refurbish target. This especially true since the Ulamog 2.0 example I keep seeing is far more vulnerable and able to be interacted with than just randomly plucking Ulamog 2.0 out of your library and getting its cast trigger for free as well, especially now that graveyard hate finally exists again in Standard. Fools.

Right. I had immediately ascertained that was point of the creatures in question, though as much as I like Knight of the White Orchard and realize that it serves as ramp and pseudo-card-draw, it strikes me as a bit odd if you want creatures that are all hard to kill. Hand of Honor, Knight of Glory, (main-deck) Kor Firewalker, or even the original White Knight might be better choices overall along those lines, especially with the aforementioned Death’s Shadow so popular now and likely to only get more popular. Still, it’s not as if Knight of the White Orchard is completely useless for reasons already mentioned, so I could see it working well enough if everything else is so difficult to kill.

Otherwise, yeah, the deck itself seems like it would be rather well-positioned right now from what relatively little I know about Modern, especially since Auriok Champion only really die to Path to Exile and Liliana of the Veil of the non-wrath cards (of which I am including Ugin’s stupid ass) used in Modern to off creatures; I guess she and even Worship get destroyed by Beast within, but I’m not even sure if Lantern still plays that given how little I’ve seen Lantern as of late.

Regardless, I hope the deck works if you end up actually using it.

7412

I have a weakness to Infect but I can sideboard 4 Solidarity and can sideboard for Lantern type decks as well with stuff like Stony Silence.

I’ll need to test it but basically White Orchid is like a cantrip to stop you getting stuck on 2 mana. It’s also White Devotion again being WW.

Claim to Fame is already being discussed as the missing piece to make Death’s Shadow over the top since the GProbe ban. It’s arguably a lot better than Kolaghan’s.

7413

(So far nothing all that interesting revealed today, though Endless Sands looks nice both visually and mechanically, Hour of Promise looks like it’s probably at least really good in EDH, and Imminent Doom looks like it may have even worse wording issues than Torment of Hailfire. Sekhmet Christ.)

Right. Infect is basically the only tiered deck you would lose to if Worship is online and unable to be interacted with short of some of the Ad Nausem lists that run Laboratory Maniac in the main-deck; I’m not sure how common that is. Other than that, I guess you can also still lose to life drain effects, like the one on Collective Brutality, given how Worship is worded to only stop damage and not general life loss. Beyond that I can’t really think of any commonly played cards in Modern that I am aware of that cause life loss save for Countersquall I guess.

Regardless, that’s another reason that the deck seems well-positioned: Infect has mercifully fallen off ever since obnoxious-ass Gitaxian Probe got banned.

7414

Siege Rhino

7415

(Damn bots.)

Ah, right. Siege Rhino would also get past Worship. Good catch. Not sure how I forgot about it given how obnoxiously prevalent it was before Khans fell out of Standard, which was right around the time when I started to get back into this game again. I think may just be because, horrible memory aside, I just haven’t seen since it in the Modern Abzan lists that used to play since they’re all focused around that insipid Devoted Druid & Vizier of Remedies combo. Only Black creatures I’ve been seeing in those decks have been Viscera Seer and maybe Madcap Murderous Redcap.

Still, my bad. Thanks.

7416

Rhino isn’t that commonly played and a lot of targeted player effects don’t work because of Leyline.

7417

I think most Modern players just stick with whatever deck they own, and even though the “standard” abzan builds don’t have Rhino there’s a pretty decent chance of encountering one just because it’s a cheap, strong card that was recently in print.

7418

It’s a $1.50 rare. It’s not played at all looking at numbers. There is a hell of a lot of stuff you’ll run into on average before Rhino.

7419

According to MTG top 8 junk and the rock combined are 5%. Rhino isn’t common in either it’s mostly Jund with Path over terminate and Lingering Souls. Abzan Company is 7% and as a combo deck with CoCo has no room for Rhino. You’d have to be unlucky to encounter it.

Infect would be a huge issue for Worship. Some other fringe stuff like Black Devotion.

7420

(The cards revealed today are looking rather nice so far, especially Kefnet’s Last Word. That said, I do find it funny that this plane has already introduced more Zombies than Innistrad 2.0 did.)

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Siege Rhino fell off as soon as Amonkhet came out given that the majority of decks that played it in Modern, the Abzan Company decks, asked themselves en masse “why bother pretending to play a fair game via an overpowered creature when we can just become even more of an instant-win combo deck?” as soon as they saw Vizier of Remedies and looked at her making out with Devoted Druid.

So, at this point, you probably are more likely to get murdered out of nowhere by a Gray Merchant of Asphodel than you are by a Siege Rhino.

7421

I guess my meta is just weird. A decent number of guys here play Siege Rhino to counter the Worships from Bant El Drazi.

7422

Been playing a little Modern and have ran into rhino more than I would think. Also run into Rhino in legacy nic fit but thats expected.

Wizards was like lets make this “last” cycle and make really strong OP cards but it takes 2 turns… gets to red and says how about RRR for 7 damage… Nah thats dumb lets make the other 4 somewhat playable and this one pure ass cause we can.

7423

(Yeah, Hazoret’s “last” card is easily the worst card of the cycle and the worst one revealed today. Even the random Horse tribal mythic creature is far better despite there being so few (playable) horses. Only good thing about Hazoret’s card is that the name hints she survives unlike the other Gods.)

Siege Rhino is still a grossly effective card. It’s just the decks that were playing having been shifting towards even more unfair things. I wouldn’t be surprised there if was a resurgence towards playing it relatively soon now that Solemnity exists, especially if Vizier of Remedies gets banned from Modern. I’m unsure how likely that is though; it just seems more likely than Devoted Druid getting banned. I could also see becoming more common against if Death’s Shadow gets the boot, which seems increasingly likely.

7424

Even without Devoted Druid Vizier is another Melira for Finks combo. Plus you’ve got Wall of Roots. Company is definitely one of the best decks in Modern right now along with Death’s Shadow

7425

I think Vizier+druid combo is overated. It’s not like Coco needed another melira - they weren’t playing the full set of meliras anyway. Druid is also worse by himself than wall of roots.
The potential of making infinite mana is cute, but you require 2 2cmc creatures that are both boltable, you need to untap with them, and even then you aren’t winning - you need somethign else to win the game, usually a duskwatch which is yet another 2cmc boltable creature. Worth noting that in GP Vegas there was 0 coco decks in top 16 and only 1 in top 32. I’m more interested in exploring Vizier+ druid combo in a green devotion shell.

Also, Siege Rhino was never played in coco decks, but in regular abzan midrange. And Rhino made an appearance at Gp Vegas - there was an abzan deck with rhinos in top 16.

7426

Infinite mana with Walking Ballista has been a thing recently but likely it’s more flavour of the month than anything because of its weaknesses.

7427

While not the best set it does have a lot of flavor and since the GP here in PHX is limited I will be playing this set a lot and it looks good for limited.

My guess for best 4 cards for anything not standard.

Ammit Eternal
Bontu’s Last Reckoning
Nimble Obstructionist
Ramunap Excavator

7428

(It’s weird that arguably the best card revealed today is a Common given Tragic Lesson’s “drawback” isn’t really that much of a drawback. Hell, a lot of the time it’s an outright advantage.)

Uh…that seems a bit early to call it given there are still about 70 cards left to be revealed even if they’ll mostly be Uncommons and Commons, even if it’s rather likely that a large amount of them are going to be mediocre-at-best cards.

7429

I feel super vindicated about the Rhino now, thanks.

7430

When’s GP Phoenix?