Onslaught Fetches are back !!!!!

Onslaught Fetches are back!!!



By now you probably know. Fetches are back.



Really back.



Why do I say that?



Well fetches have been in Modern forever (for as long as forever is to Modern :p)
However the fetches in there are from Zendikar circa Oct 2009, that is almost 5 years ago.


Yet modern is being pushed at the CURRENT batch of Standard players... who you know cannot go back in time 5 years ago.

Now for sure, a counter argument would be that Modern is not targetting the current/present players
but at the older veterens. Good luck in validating and substantiating that notion.


Current masses are in Standard. It might be because it is the easiest entry point, the most hyped,
the easiest?, the most available, the most whatever.

But it is the biggest cash cow.


And they see Modern and they cannot get in. Now if I were a new player and see no future in the game for me, I would quit right there hehe


But now with the Onslaught fetches being in CURRENT Standard. As with the shock lands from RTR block, players will now have actual access to fetches!



This opens up the entry into Modern by HEAPS.


Not just practically, since fetches were the most expensive part.

But also psychologically, for so long you will hear that player cannot compete for lack of fetches. There is some truth to that, but only a half truth I feel.


But all that discourse is now moot as fetches are now here! Innovation is ... well ... sparkly I guess =)


Since the onslaught fetches are allied colours, so the colour combies would be slanted as such (something previously not available).



Now will 10 fetches in Modern break it? I seriously doubt. Since even in Legacy, few decks play all possible fetches for their colours. In fact decks only vary the fetches to ensure capping or pithing effects do not utterly invalidate all their fetches.


Now will fetches have an impact in Standard?

Fetches in legacy are more used for deck manipulation, since it is the ability to change the top card of your deck that makes it so valuable. In that regard, yes it is nice with scrye, and yes it is nuts with Courser of Kruphix.

However in terms of colour fixing, fetches are less stellar in Standard. In legacy and modern, fetches can fetch duals and shocks respectively. This is what makes the colour fixing effect pretty. In Standard? Not so much. Without the RTR shocks, the colour fixing of fetches is actually pretty bad if you need heavy colour liquidity. If you are predominantly one colour or most of your cards are single coloured, it might not be so bad. But you have many colours and lots of double, triple coloured mana requirement... then fetches are less effectual than say mana confluence or even the pain lands.



Oh and no. Fetches, they no ramp =)

So in short, fetches are not going revolutionise Standard. But they are going to be a good enabler for entry to Modern. Something that WOTC should have done a long long time ago. And this is what I mean by WOTC printing Modern playable stuff in Standard. It is really the only way to get Modern on its feet. Else you will just have speculators who do not play, and players with no cards. A very strange predicament indeed.

Printing fetches is the "do reprints in Standard" way of stuffing Modern quality cards in players hands. On that count, kudos to WOTC for not listening to the inane calls of collectors and speculators to "hold the value of cards" a la Modern Masters or to a lesser extent Conspiracy. It is the reason for the existence of the bullshit that is the reserve list, and I am glad to see the non-perpetuation of that mistake. This opens the gates of Modern to Standard players. May the horde run free. Knock yourselves out. Please build new decks.


Now on the other count. Printing Modern quality cards without actually doing reprints. Thats something I would like to see more. Eidolon of pain pain (Eidolon of the Great Revel) seemed to have given burn some life in Legacy and Modern (I actually did try to build something with that for Standard .. glad to see it work out in Modern and Legacy ;)). So thats some encouragement. Something like that. More of that would be good. Birthing Pod was good too. More things like that please.


later!