My Thoughts About Modern as a Format

Alrighty, if you are perplexed? Means you dun play Magic the Gathering and are probably a Mousehunter *waves*

Well I'll try to update more on mouse hunting later.


For now my mind is on Modern.  Its mostly cos I read this post/blog on MTGSally where someone expressed why Legacy is unlikely to die off due to the reserved list, but at the same time perhaps bashing Modern too much.

Heres what I think:



I think the purpose of Modern is as what many have pointed out.

1) It is not a replacement for Legacy. It cannot, simply by virtue of balance and card pool.
2) It is a totally different animal!!




Now what do I mean?


See.


There has been so many bannings and always it was to take down the top dog (the last banning was due to time, but I don't buy that why? If you have infinite, the game ends there, your opponent cannot force you to go through the steps, he may force you to do it once to proof you have it but thats it, and did you see Cifka or Holiday play? Slow play, if any, is the player's problem not the deck - further more the deck is VERY resilent)

I am feeling a little miffed since I have invested in a 17USD japanese Second Sunrise. That upsets me, the card has now lost almost all its value.


Just like that. Luckily I already have a playset of  Second Sunrise so I did'nt have to buy more.


So thats Modern for you, where the top dogs get eliminated. What does that leave us?


Interestingly I guess that is what WOTC is trying to do. By shooting down the top dogs, prices are actually kept in control (as soon as silly boys like me wise up to the game). And most decks are affordable! The other side effect is that as the top dogs get shot down, the meta will ALWAYS be in flux. Because only two states can occur in a meta. Flux and resolution, with resolution, there is one or a few dominant decks (something like what Legacy was and to some extent still is), with flux, a deck able to compete at a certain bar would survive.

That is pretty interesting to me.


To hopefully make it clearer. I feel that FNM is a nice place to brew a deck and often times, goofy decks have half a shot of doing decent. The same deck might/will not survive in a more competitive environment like a GP where the meta is more advanced in resolution. By shooting down the top decks (at least those that have dominated for a while or look like they will dominate), the Modern Meta is kept in flux.


And that is what I think WOTC is gunning for. Balanced Meta, achieved through flux and as a side benefit lower prices hence lower barrier to entry (once people start getting wise to the game, prices will not get hyped up so easily, you can actually already see that for the Eggs deck, Lotus Bloom did go up yes, but not like Jace or the fetches and so on, people are more cautious now. I, myself will be more cautious now, having been burnt)


Its not too bad a format actually.  =)