I wanted to pin a comment here and clarify a few things. I want this video to age poorly, if modern comes back because of this ban and the format has many diverse decks and it stabilizes I will be happy! My issue is I don't think that is going to happen. I can't "just be happy about the bans" because every store near me quit playing modern years ago. Even if I spent $600+ on a new modern deck I would not have a place to play it. The ban is targeting a symptom it's not the cure. The increased monetary cost of modern is something I should have talked about more here, but that's why it will struggle to return after these bans. Mox opals are now $100+ each. If I spend that much on 4 one rings only to have them banned and the price cut in half, then why would I spend money on opals or any new broken card if it might just get banned or "rotate" out. Games stores near me for years have struggled to get 4 players for modern I don't see how this fixes that at all.
Hopefully wotc listens and stops with mhx after the glaringly clear survey response yes we wanted powerful cards, but they could have been injected through modern masters as well. Bring back those kind of sets, call them modern reincarnation or something, and allow some new cards, and needed reprints for modern BOTH, not just one or the other.
replace every instance of "Modern" with "EDH" in your video and this comment and your entire point falls flat on its face; the difference is that commander is not allowed to be competitive, so of course it's easy to get 4 Timmys who want to not interact and cast their Colossal Dreadmaws. its larping a competitive TCG.
I think this video will age well purely because Competitive Magic as a whole is dying. MTG arena is doing for Standard what the locals used to do: run weird stuff, get top 4-8 in a tournament, and walk away with some packs. Competitive Paper Magic is on a downward spiral because Arena is cheaper to run, cheaper to play, and arguably "promises" a better chance to make the Pro Tour.
I was confused and thought Standard was Modern and Modern was Standard for exactly this reason. Ie "Why would anyone play modern when it rotates so quickly?"
does it really man? 2 months ago UW Oculus was a beast in standard, a solid tier 1 deck, now it is a joke of a deck with 40% wr or less Gruul midrange was amazing in Worlds, now? it sucks as well
Admittedly, I’m pretty new to Magic in the scheme of things, I started playing after MH2 existed. I’ve never once heard a Modern player say they enjoy Modern. It’s that simple, I watch a lot of Magic content, I talk to a lot of Magic players and I’ve never once heard a Modern player say they enjoy Modern. Commander players love Commander, Legacy players love Legacy, Pauper players love Pauper, Canlander players love Canlander. Hell, even Standard players will tell you they’re having a lot of fun and the meta’s pretty good right now. Those formats all have their own issues and gripes but people still play them because they enjoy them. Modern players all seem to goddamn hate playing Modern. I’m going to get a reply from someone who is the exception, and congratulations to them, they’ll literally be the first person in two-ish years of playing this game that I’ve heard it from.
I feel this, I'm extra annoyed there's not pioneer this year cuz its in a good place, but all it took was one modern rcq for me to never want to try the format again
You're not wrong. Modern had such promise when it was announced, and even though it turned out to be so much less than the Wild West we were promised. It was quickly defined, but it was good. And then someone at a corporation had an idea...
Most of my playgroup play modern and they seem to love it. No I never heard them say they love it but they must if its all they play mostly 😂😂😂 I'm new to magic like 1 month new and I love commander. I do want to venture into other formats and learn more deck building.
This was not the case before modern horizons, and in fact was the opposite, but only old heads remember counter top legacy and pauper with gush daze and foil (and when people could just PLAY g probe, delver always knew if you had the out lol). But when everything other format got better, modern got milked because it was the most marketable set of enfranchised players and went to the gutter. Peak modern was casting siege rhino or splinter twin or birthing pod, or tarmogoyf, or when the synergy of bolt snap bolt was so powerful it was the only wincon control decks needed, or when a deck like a mono red control deck with skred and blood moon could spike a GP vs the top meta. But the line has to go up, and it's gotta go up faster every year or shareholders get angry
Most Modern players generally stopped enjoying Modern after the Twin ban. My brother straight up quit playing magic when they banned Twin and refuses to come back now even though its legal again.
The bans did matter, this means that one ring price will probably go down a bit, meaning even more people at my store will be willing to play it in commander, yay…
I don't really care about it in commander that much, it's strong, yes, and there's no reason to not run it if you have it, but it's easy enough to deal with if you have a good deck
I couldn't agree more. What annoys me is that they didn't have to push the power level of Modern with MH because they were already pushing the power level with FIRE design in Standard. Without HM and LOTR, Modern would still be full of cards printed since War of the Spark. They pushed a push that was already being pushed... off a cliff.
I came to the prerelease draft of MH3 at my local store. One person I faced got pretty much a full play set of boros energy and stomped me. It just feels sad that it's even possible to pull a full, highly competitive deck (minus sideboard) by opening the one set.
WotC is aware of how their choices have damaged 60 card constructed. But instead of fixing this problem, they're just gonna put all their eggs in the Commander basket.
Yeah but commander is suffering as well. The format hat lost a lot of its creativity and its appeal because there no more puzzles to solve as every commaner ist just the complete solution in a box. Boring, at least to me.
@@TuesdaySFDhow? The Foundations cards have had absolutely no impact on standard which is still dominated by exploding mice. Most the cards in foundations are completely unplayable.
@@tquenched3210did you understand the comment or not. He is implying that bans and new sets change the format of Yugioh massively similarly to a rotation.
Noticed your comment as I was typing the exact same thing. Even the nature of MTG's power creep is very similar to Yugioh's, where cards slowly increase in power and flexibility. One big difference though is that Yugioh's new archetypes are often very clearly the best thing out, and then the power is reined in by a few targeted bans when the next big strategy releases. I feel Magic is a bit different, because new cards usually push existing strategies to new levels of playability rather than entirely replace them, but this leads to much longer lasting change, since one or two bans does very little to effect the playability of the rest of the pushed cards they print. Like, Amped Raptor may be banned, but I suspect Ocelot Pride, Ajani Nacatl Pariah, and Phlage could all very easily still see play.
I was also about to make this comment, lol. I was a Yu-Gi-Oh player before I was a Magic player, and I've felt for a few years that Magic is starting to resemble the things I didn't like about Yu-Gi-Oh.
I half agree. The ban announcement does not “matter” because they did what they were supposed to do. They didn’t solve any foundational problems with the format, and mostly just slapped a new coat of paint on it and called it repaired. But this was, if nothing else, the best we could’ve hoped for in a bnr announcement. That being said, my inner Joker kinda wanted no changes to all formats just to watch the game continue to burn and descend further into chaos. But I guess we gotta wait a little longer for the next greedy, drama-inducing decision wotc wants to make
@ my opinion is not just modern, but magic is unsaveable. I came from yugioh a long time ago and I see the same writing on the wall. Magic is no longer a game, it is a product. This is a trend that’s been getting worse in all of gaming since maybe 2013, but magic especially so since like 2019/FIRE/UB. I had your crisis a few months back, I practically grew up with this game in my 15+ years playing. And at this point I am content to enjoy the game until the wheels fall off, but I’m under no illusion that the same people who crafted and maintained this masterpiece for decades are the same ones running the show today. It is a true ship of Theseus situation. I came to the reality that this chapter in my life will inevitably close and it truly is sad, but it is what it is.
@ with a WOTC that overtakes the RC because they disagreed with the bannings? And with UB, including delaying the return to Lorwyn to fit in another UB release? And Modern Horizons? The problem is systemic, you would need a new ceo at hasbro who loves magic and would put their life on the line for it and risk fiduciary responsibility infringement. If the game is fun to play I will play it but I’m not going to pretend the emperor is wearing clothes.
@@Lazydino59 All UB is Standard now so that's no longer a problem, and the RC asked Hasbro to take it because the reality is Commander is no longer a casual little side thing, it is the thing. Magic is alive and well, with or without you, but what is struggling is the 60 card constructed formats (as this video addresses), as well as draft. And, Magic was ALWAYS a product. A great product, or perhaps extremely effective? Addictive for sure, with a great formula for business success.
Your "Do the exact thing that destroyed Modern to Commander" suggestion is..................short sighted. There are already plenty of people who thing edh was better before it was specifically designed for. How much rampant power creep can Commander take before everyone gets mad and stops playing? Commander needs to same thing Modern needs. For wotc to just design for standard and have cards naturally flow into it.
Commander is a non-competitve format, I don’t care in the slightest about the power creep in commander because I can play whatever I want and am not constrained by trying to win
yep, every typal deck has a hyper efficient commander for it (looking at you, edgar markov), and every niche set-specific mechanic has a signpost 5 color sludge value creature as well to make it work (Marina Vendrell, Go-shintai)
You are the first online mtg content creator with whom I agree 100% about modern. I'm so glad you said this. It does really make me sad to reminiscence on old modern.
naah those days too needed changes. Always changes. Right now changes has gone from being just"changes" to actually destroying the modern fomant and actually creating a new 'fresh' one with little to none brewing element involved.
A few things. 1: Aaron Forsythe at MC Vegas eluded to printing directly into Modern being a mistake, and we won't see another Horizons set for a long while. 2: Standard is great right now. Your local stores should support it. Especially on Fridays. There are plenty of promos WotC can provide to drive interest, and stores should run leagues to bring folks out. That's what my LGS did and it's working. 3: Of the cards you showed on screen at the beginning Counterspell is a fair card. It went through Standard, and is not a part of the problems in Modern.
Counters spell represent power creep in the format. It pushed out logic knot and mana leak. Saying it’s just “fair” and fine without having effects in the format is wrong. Yes stores should do standard but for other reasons I haven’t gotten into in this short video stores don’t care about running standard events. Considering how well it sold I will be shocked if we don’t see MH4
Second on LGS running standard. I run an LGS and it’s so nice to have standard firing again. We got it firing every Friday now. And with 3 of the next 4 RCQ seasons being standard there’s no reason for good stores to sleep on the format. Grinders are going to be traveling to as many local events as they can
You're never going to attract a large player base into a format where the cards constantly rotate. Most people just aren't that into things period, and certainly not when it requires money to do so. Commander succeeds because it's social, it's cheap, and your cards will probably still be good 5-10 years from now unless you play against a cEDH deck or get targeted by some pubstomper. That's just the reality of the hobby now. Formats that aren't Commander just won't attract the same size of player base.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Every format is now a rotating format. They’ve only banned the One Ring (almost 2 years after its release, mind you) so that they could make room for the next One Ring. WotC is destroying the integrity of their formats for the quick cash grab and players will likely learn that lesson the hard way.
isn't pauper still hanging by ? like it still moves faster than it should but it doesn't feel as rotaty as Modern haven't played it for a long time tho so I might be biased
The cycle of printing the most powerful cards into the format, everyone plays them, the crads get banned, more get printed etc. Is how konami operates yugioh as a former player of that game. Horrible for the players and health of the game but people keep buying the product so they keep doing it.
I feel like part of the problem is that with the other formats is that Modern is way more easy to hurt Legacy and Vintage have a lot of control pieces that help keep the format in check Standard and Limited players are just used to rotation And Pauper players are basically addicted to Adderall, we seriously don't get upset at bans and new cards coming into the format are super welcome
Lurrus remains the only card banned in vintage for power level reasons. Lurrus broke Vintage in half. Modern is a sensitive format that does require a delicate touch for balance, I'll agree. But some stuff from the modern horizons sets is great. Getting meltdown and the artifact taplands was really nice. And I don't think either of those would have been printable in standard.
@@Mischievous_Moth I had this issue, so I basically just started showing up at the store offering to teach the game to anyone who wanted. It's now gotten to the point that the store is getting it's second RCQ equivalent event. The game sells itself
As someone whose favorite format is legacy it's sad to see that modern is dying the same death legacy did although seemingly even faster.. at least legacy had a slow death...
having cards in the format that are like $200+, that are required to play, is honestly ridiculous and I think if those cards were more accessible, people might actually play more Legacy…
@@UnicornLupus I mean yes and no, cuz most legacy players I've met don't really have a problem with people coming in with a full proxy deck, if we are talking competitive that's a different matter, but casual legacy? Who cares if your cards are real or not if we be playing casual?
Modern Horizons is the exact reason I stopped playing Modern. The level of power that set shoved into the format forces anyone who wants to win to cling to the 'best' meta deck. Want to play something outside the meta? Enjoy your 0-5. Want to use cards you love from years ago? Enjoy your 0-5. Don't even get me started on how they refuse to reprint some of the staples or fetch lands in any meaningful way, pricing out anyone who IS interested in joining the format.
Pretty much same here. MH1 was the last set I bought into. Wasn't just the Modern Horizons sets but that led me to opt out but the final nail in the coffin for me.
The only Modern Horizons card I genuinely felt inspiration to brew with was Junk Winder from MH2. Im genuinely sad that the card is locked behind Modern Horizons because it looks like such a fun card to use. But yeah Modern needs to axe the modern-exclusive sets if it wants to survive. I feel your pain.
4:00 As a yugioh player this sounds so weird, for one because no Magic format I can think of meets the standard you're suggesting, but also because when the best deck isn't at least like 20% it feels like a clown fiesta.
As a yugioh player myself who has gotten into standard mtg, I’ve noticed that mtg players across formats have a massive reaction to bannings when compared to YGO players
yeah like as someone who pays attention to both games pro player's hate incredibly wide formats as at least in the case of yugioh a very wide format without a a real set of meta strategies means its just more likely ya get hit with some cheese your sideboard can't handle and lose
@@tomdoetsch8603 Honestly ya. I play commander mainly but coming from yugioh originally definitely hardened me to the point of not caring when mana crypt was banned. I feel like a lot of magic only players put to much faith in the idea of safe investment cardboard. When I played yugioh, i'd only invest in the stuff I thought was actually fun after I got tired of not being quick enough to sell top decks before they got most of their toys banned.
Hi Trinket, I'm a relatively new viewer but a long-time MTG player and this really struck a nerve for me. I was a budget-conscious player who bought into Mardu Pyromancer years back, had an amazing time, and got wrecked when MH1 brought in Hogaak & got Faithless Looting banned. As a budget player I simply couldn't afford to buy in again when faced with the risk of the same thing happening twice, so I left the format and even took a break from Magic as a whole for a little while. Now, years later, I have a *lot* more money behind me, but I've never bought back in to Modern. The diverse, naturally-progressing format I loved is just gone. I came to terms with that 5 years ago - I never yucked people's yum or tried to doomsay over it, but it's just been so sad to watch more and more people make the same realisation and go through the same struggle. I genuinely feel awful seeing it happen over and over. I hope WotC learn a lesson from it, but I can't see a way to repair Modern. Can't unring that bell.
Truth. I feel this is a symptom of game designers listening to their audience, despite their audience not being game designers. When I was a simpler player, I saw Baleful Strix and Shardless Agent in my Planechase precons and thought to myself, "These aren't too strong for Modern! I sure wish they were legal!" I was wrong. I was foolish. I want to be saved from this world that I myself manifested.
This is exactly what Ive been saying for years. I'm not a modern player, but I play casually with friends and family and we play with any cards we can get our hands on, bans disregarded. But slowly we've had to limit what cards we use, and those cards come from the newer sets. The powercreep is accelerating, and sooner or later it's going to tear Magic to shreds. And the reason why powercreep is accelerating? It forces people to buy more cards, more frequently. Hasbro is extracting and long term profits the Magic IP would have made for short term profits. Thats also why I'm surprised they actually banned The One Ring. Maro loves to tote how well the LotR sets did, despite the fact that it probably only sold as well as it did because they literally made it a lottery and made a card that was required to be competitive. Everyone had to get The One Ring, and the cheapest way to do that was to buy packs. Although, they may have banned The One Ring if their internals show that no one is buying LotR anymore. Powercreep and corporate greed has killed Magic. I don't see it recovering. Now we just get to watch as it dies a slow, painful death
The only issue I have with your proposed solution is that commander sets go direct to Legacy and Vintage, and both of these formats' metas have suffered with modern horizons/lotr sets as well. Of course excluding them from commander sets would work as well, (and I digress they can hardly be called popular formats) but the whole reason I like legacy is it's basically all MTG cards except for the most extreme broken ones.
I will say the unbans are amazing, so many cool decks are going to be put into the format. Like ive been brewing some decks with my local players and these unbans open so many old decks back up. This is genuinely the best thing to happen to modern in a long time.
Wizards has *kind of* heard you. Supposedly the up coming Standard sets Final Fantasy and Spider-man were originally going to be direct-to-modern sets, but the backlash from all of the direct-to-moderns sets made Wizards change their mind. Now they said that all sets "Universes Beyond or otherwise" will be going through Standard for the foreseeable future. As per usual it seems, they hear our complaints, and solve them in the most Monkey Paw way possible. I especially fear if they haven't been toned down as an unpopular Standard set with a direct-to-modern power level sounds terrifying.
My lgs (college town) usually maxes out around 8 modern players at the weekly event, which is already low, but recently there haven't even been enough to play after MH3. It's pretty dire.
This might be something that the community has to do on their own as wizards doesn't give a crap. I think the community has the potential to do it through but it requires a lot of people caring about fixing modern
Some community made formats have succeeded, but most have failed. For every commander and pauper, there is a frontier or tiny leaders. And in order to truly grow, community made formats still require proper tournament support, at which point they are no longer truly community run. Premodern is a pretty popular community built format that is impossible for WotC to interfere with, and it does have some private tournament support, but it it also has a massive barrier to entry due to card prices being very high and no real way to play unless you live near a community that supports it.
Modern is completely dead at the shops I patronize here (Twin Cities, MN), and it used to pack the stores. Now it’s all Commander and other card games (FAB, Lorcana, etc.) I do think Magic really opened themselves up to allowing other games in. Also, Commander Horizons makes SO MUCH more sense. We’re the ones that buy it all! 😂
Yeah. I recently got back into the game and was hoping I might get to dust off my old merfolk deck, but alas. I do see a lot of pauper on store calendars here, though, which is great!
As a player who got back into magic because of commander, the idea of modern sounds like it would be my preferred format. I’m super bummed that it exists in this state. :(
I think a big part of the draw of Modern is that it was the place to go after your favourite Standard deck rotated, and you were tired of keeping up with rotations. Your red aggro deck has a bunch of things rotate? Check out modern! They also have a red Monastery Swiftspear aggro deck, and coincidentally, a few of your Standard cards are pretty good there! The cards people cared about acted as a bridge that lead from one format to the other. Because each Modern deck now is so reliant on Modern Horizons and Universes Beyond, you don't have that same connection to the cards you want to play in Modern. You can't go from playing Red/White Mice in Standard to Red/White Energy in Modern, there's zero overlap, and people just don't care about Energy as a theme. Pioneer is what Modern used to be, but it's not nearly as beloved because of many factors, which is really unfortunate.
I have theories, but I'm not experienced much in either format, and haven't played Modern before MH2. I think it's two main things: Modern's cardpool, and Pioneer's reputation. Modern's cardpool is very specific, and goes back far enough for basically anybody playing to find something to be nostalgic over. The cardpool itself covers a very interesting span of time where there was a lot more experimentation and "weird" cards (see: lantern of insight) as well as cards that will never stop being played due to their power level (see: fetches). Because of all of these factors, Modern had a very specific feel to it that other formats don't have. It had an identity of being super-Standard in that way, if that makes sense. Pioneer suffers from this - theres a lot less nostalgia cards like Lightning Bolt or Goblin Guide, and less powerful cards that never leave like fetches. But the only reason for this is to diversify itself as a format from Modern, which does kind of feel bad. Pioneer's reputation is improving, but it had a pretty rough start with meta decks running around that people didn't really enjoy, and to an extent, still don't. I personally think the format is fun to consume content about, but that's because I'm primarily a Standard player. This is more subjective, but another part of this is I believe to be tied to set design when it comes to themes. Lots of older sets ~a decade ago were just generally more flavorful and had better worldbuilding and had more evocative cards in general. Cards felt more... not sure how to put this, but more like "Magic". These days, sets are more concerned with portraying shallow tropes on their cards. Thunder Junction, Murders at Karlov Manor, Duskmourn, and Bloomburrow all suffer from this in varying degrees (with Bloomburrow being the closest to good in my eyes). Something is missing from these sets that make me feel the way I do looking through original Innistrad block, old Ravnica cards, etc. Because Pioneer's card pool includes many of these kinds of modern cards, it just doesn't carry the same weight as old Modern decks do. The newer cards feel more like game pieces rather than windows into the world of Magic. But maybe this part is just me haha, it totally could be.
@@vesselfragment I think you're right about these newer cards. I first joined around kaladesh block, but my favorite part of magic has always been delving into the really old cards and trying to put something together with fallen empires or old kamigawa block.
It's weird, because I'm not sure what changed, and I can't pinpoint exactly when things changed. It may just simply be the presentation of these tropes. I look at original Delver of Secrets and feel so differently about it compared to anything from Duskmourn or Bloomburrow. There's just something missing from recent sets, and I don't know what it is.
Except it's not exactly though. Pioneer is a significant downgrade for those that enjoyed Modern when it was enjoyable. There is a significant amount of cards that people are/were invested in that is cut from the Pioneer pool that were available in pre-Horizons modern. Plus the problems that are brought up in this video aren't completely exclusive to Modern Horizons sets. You see similar issues with insane power creep printings in the standard sets too. There is a pretty surprising number of Standard printed cards that are banned in multiple "eternal" formats in just the past few years (Oko as a prime example). All eternal formats are being affected by these same type of problems, Modern was just in that "sweet-spot" to get hit the hardest by them (Pioneer not eligible for MH sets and Legacy/Vintage are powerful enough to resist some of the rapid shifts).
In my city, the only competitive format that has consistent in person events is Pauper. People want to play magic, they are just frustrated with the business decisions of WotC/Hasbro.
@ absolutely. I feel like magic, specifically commander has scratched the itch that I lost years ago for Yu-Gi-Oh! in the sense that you can see two cards that don’t necessarily pair together, but make interesting and creative combos. I think that we were fed that in our youth, but as things became more type, focused in the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game it pivoted to a very cookie cutter design philosophy. Where are you basically just throw in 2 to 4 tight deck engines along with what is our equivalent of counter spells taking up a good 40% of your deck and you’re done (in the form of hand traps and negation effects) bobs, and weaves in its area of creativity, but it’s so homogenized that as soon as someone creates an innovative strategy, it basically becomes the new meta. Commander is definitely in some way similar due to the desire to be high powered EDH so as to get the same kind of feel as I get from doing a 20 minute combo in Yu-Gi-Oh, but at the very least whenever there’s an infinite combo starting, it takes all of three minutes to begin and conclude versus Yu-Gi-Oh! where you’re sitting there for a half hour hoping that the card you draw is the answer to then proceeded to do the same to your opponent
Haven’t played 60card format since 2013 🤪 its been about commander for a decade at my lgs with standard and modern disappearing slowly i’ve been trying to get people into pauper with no luck
I stop playing Modern around 2 months ago. With The One Ring being banned, I quit. Not that the bans were bad. It is because I just don't want to play in a rotating format where I cannot stick to a one deck for long. Not to mention very expensive cards get banned regularly.
in the last 5 years of playing mtg, ive only come across 1 modern player in the wild where i live. the format isnt dead, but its got almost no action in Jax Fl where i live. and its the largest city in the US
Rollercoaster of emotions, the nastalgia of mox opal and twin with so much hype then to be slowly burned and lowered into the ground by the rest of the video. I was the last person to show up to modern at my game store. Modern may see an uptick just from oldheads that want to feel something again
8:30 i don´t know if banning the modern sets in modern would solve the problem. The current standard sets are strong enough to push classic modern cards out of the format, so standard will rotate modern.
Eventually, rotation does happen. People will be interested in new stuff regardless, and new products need just enough power creep to sell Ban the direct to modern sets, and the issues with mh and ub sets will eventually plague the standard sets.
@@yusheitslv100the whole point of standard is it doesn't need power creep, all a set has to do is be good against the other standard legal sets, but it doesn't have to be better.
That is to be expected to a degree, but it is supposed to happen naturally over the course of several set/years. At least with that it's a bit easier to alleviate a bit with banning cards here and there when it happens too suddenly. It's the difference between a few cards from a set being problems vs. the bulk of a set entirely changing the landscape of the format (and usually multiple formats at that). But yes, it isn't just isolated to MH sets, they are just the most egregious offender on that front.
Format becomes popular, WOTC exploits it by catering to it and ruining it, players move on to another Format WOTC exploits and ruins it by catering to it, rinse and repeat until game is dead.
I miss modern. Most fun I've had playing magic was brewing and perfect a black red discard deck built around tibalt and demigod. the damage modern horizons has done turning the format into block constructed can never be understated
As a creator with a sizable platform, have you considered a "if you build it, they will come" approach? I am aware that another creator named d00mwake runs a (I think) twice-a-year Pure Modern tournament, meaning all supplemental products are banned. It would be awesome to have more creator support/awareness in that direction, since, like you said, I think there's a huge audience for it, but there's just not enough actual momentum just yet. Plus I believe MaRo or someone else said something along the lines of "want a new format? Make one and we will adopt it". I personally would be onboard to try out some classic prime time if there were more tournaments, as the deck always looked super fun to me, but I have never had a group before MH released.
I’m still a small fry in the grand scheme of things. Maybe if I could network a bit… but we would need a bigger push from other larger creators maybe one day…
@@thetrinketmage Yeah for sure, it'd be awesome to see a Pure Modern episode of Shuffle Up and Play or something along those lines, but in the interim, any promotion is good promotion imho. Always good to have groundwork for the day arrives!
Used to have a Modern Mardu brew deck back in 2014. Would run all the cheap removal like Path to Exile and Terminate, and then run Evershrike + Spirit Loop which was my tough to answer threat that would keep me alive while my removal would eat all my opponents potential blockers. That deck NEEDED Faithless Looting to remain consistent in both digging for the aura and burying the Evershrike in the graveyard. MH1 came out, dredge became super disgusting and they banned Faithless Looting killing my deck. Even with the Looting unbanned the format is too fast and I sold off my old Modern manabase months ago which I have no interest in acquiring again. I used to love this format.
I wasn't expecting this video to have San Diego content, that was a fun surprise! We've been trying to get constructed started again over here at Brute Force Games, we're planning to bring Standard back to FNM in the new year and we're continuing to tweak and tune Modern in the hopes that we can get a consistent 8-12. Hopefully we can bring constructed back to some of it's early 2000's FNM glory!
Commander took over the game. This was happening 8-9 years ago when I got into Magic. Commander is what I learned to play. Yeah, I *can* play draft and all that, but Commander has more players and I’m far more likely to meet Commander players than any other genre of Magic.
Yoooo I didnt expect to hear my LGS mentioned! I only started playing magic again recently and BFG has been great! I love the little wooden tokens they give out for prereleases, Bloomburrow had a food token where the bear-ified store owner is handing you a pie ♥️
No way! One of my favorite creators was in the San Diego Area and went to Brute force games??? I was there right before it moved and when I came back I saw the usual events were still commander centric. I think one issue with the "open hours" commander setup was it was difficult as a lone player to get into a game if you didn't come accompanied with friends or planned a meetup. Hpwever, I did like that the popular casual format was freely available at all the hours so players could be flexible with their time instead of crushing a single event a week.
A lot of the community is divided around the existence of MH2, specifically. Basically, some people believe that MH2 was great because the new cards opened up the metagame in new and interesting ways, while others thought it was terrible because no set invalided existing staples/decks more than it. I firmly fall into the second camp, as do most people I know who do not wish to pay over $1000 every time a shakeup happens. MH1 did indeed start us on the road to ruin, but MH2 just took it to another level.
I only have 1 lgs that even cares about MTG anymore. Out of the 3 stores in my area. And that one struggles to get drafts going, struggles to get modern going, pioneer is working, commander is booming, and standard doesn't exist. The other stores moved onto Yu-Gi-Oh, and Lorcana respectively, with both the yuigoh and mtg store also hosting pretty big Pokemon events.
08:55 the problem with modern master Is that with a slow moving format, you don't have enough expensive cards to make them regurarly, that's why the they move to modern Horizon... And I agree with you that non-standard sets are way too much. Here in Italy it's still played a bit, but I do also see a lot of premodern and oldschool as competitive formats to show how people dislike the recent releases
@chickenwyngs3646 swear i read on reddit that someone went and 5-0ed a league with it on the day it came back so it might not mean nothing. Really i feel like all the dooming is just a whole bunch of people still upset at MH for doing what quite a lot of people were asking for. People are honest to god pretty hype for the new modern format and coming back to at least try things out. Maybe with the ugliest parts of the format tuned down the format can play in a place that is a lot healthier. And they won't be printing anymore direct to modern sets for a while
I completely agree that scheduled BNRs are not good for the format for one reason: allowing for *scheduled* routine "maintenance" of the format instead of hitting things *as necessary* allows for two major problems. 1) it allows for WotC to push out more product because they don't have to spend as much time playtesting - and that leads to problem two, which is 2) it makes the first few months to a year of a new product release the "beta test" for that product. In essence, WotC gets to pretend like they're most Triple A game developers and relase a buggy, incomplete, half-cooked mess - but charge full price for it. That's theft in more ways than one, and it should have consequences.
@legendarydragoon1462 true, and that's a fair point - but it doesn't negate what I said about lowering the need for QA in play-testing cards. That might be the reason Wizards wants you to accept, but it isn't the whole truth.
I’d like to point out that the purpose modern initially was transferred to pioneer as a format that is for non rotating standard cards only! This issue was taken into account as before the first modern horizons set, pioneer was introduced :) I am also keeping in mind that this is your channel, and these are your opinions. In the Midwest, modern is the premier format to play, we get more modern players than draft and commander. I find it almost easier to deckbuild, theorycraft, and grind out games of modern than for commander. Your gripes are valid but they are also that of someone who is from the sidelines as a mainly edh player. This ban and restricted announcement is one of the best things that has happened to this format in a very long time.
I’m happy to hear people are still playing modern! I’d argue if pioneer took over that role it would be bigger but people didn’t want to move as much and ultimately pioneer split the modern format more than replaced it. But yea this is my opinion if you have fun playing modern I am happy for you
Honestly I'd love pioneer if it had fetchlands and allowed more types of decks in the meta. There are no prison or hatebear decks, the only combo deck allowed to exist is lotus field and that deck is always at the top of the chopping block, and control decks just feel like they cant keep up with the midrange in the format. Grindy midrange the format where you lose to yourself if you play 3+ colors is a hard sell to a long time modern player who played twin or Kiki chord or storm or UW control or anything that wasn't jund or junk
Anecdotally modern is very big in my area of New Jersey. Modern sold out every night at my old store, so much so that they started running it twice a week. It killed off Friday draft nights because everyone just wanted to play Modern instead. Now the store did close two months ago, but that entire crowd has just moved to another store where it's still popping. They have a whole youtube channel called OC Hivemind where games are streamed if you want proof.
The problem with your solution is, even if Wizards changed Modern to only allow previously standard-legal sets, Commander is still the dominant format due to WotC's shift into commander-centric design since around 2019-ish. WotC has starved every other format to make sure its golden child Commander eats good. As such, I don't think a change even as drastic as that would revive Modern.
At my lgs, modern gets 1 table full. Commander gets the store so packed that my lgs had to physically destroy their back wall and expand the shop to seat more commander players.
I live in a town with about 20k people and we regularly have 16-20 people for modern on Mondays 🤷♂️ Only 1 or 2 people I can think of were on boros energy. Very little overlap in the decks people play around here actually.
Yeah, I'm in an even smaller town (game store is a few towns away in a town of like 8k) and we get 20-30 people for Modern twice a week. And it'll probably get more now that ToR and Amped Raptor are gone, so the best card and the best deck are gone. And honestly, I blame Commander taking off as the "premiere" format for ruining everything. Eternal format that needs to get people buying more and more cards, and the only way to do that is to raise the power level. But they have to support other formats since a set of nothing but Commander jank isn't going to move product either unless it's tied to some other IP (Universes Beyond).
My close friend and the person who got me into Magic was the biggest modern fan of all time, and was so stoked when he could play his actual favorite card: Tarmogoyf. He took the time and saved up to build a dredge deck like he always wanted, and it ruled. Fast forward a few years later, he's barely even paid attention to modern because of how broken the format is at a fundamental level. He spends most of his time playing EDH now
Holy moly. Thank god I'm not the only person that has these exact feelings about, and experiences with modern. All the play patterns suck, everything is way too fast, free spells remove play complexity and decision making, versatile interaction is outrageously cheep, and there isn't even a hint of diversity in decks to play and all of that is wrapped up in the knowledge that modern used to be the arguably best way to play Magic: the Gathering and now it's in rubble and ashes. At least let it die with the tiniest sliver of dignity still in there and pull the plug. I genuinely have no clue why anybody plays modern anymore. Is it stockholm syndrome or something? Modern players, blink twice if Wizards is keeping your family hostage
Southern Illinois *carbondale specifically* checking in- everything but commander is completely dead but commander is doing better than I ever imagined for the area
Great vid. This is endemic of everything WOTC changes. The 3 set blocks let us deeply explore a plane, it's characters, and it's mechanics. Now, WOTC relies on member-berries from that era for its' marketing. Having Standard rotate right into Pioneer and Modern was amazing. It didn't make cracking a box seem like such a waste of money.
Players do have the power to create and curate their own formats, you could remove the horizon sets from Modern and call it something else like Homestyle Modern, find out what people are playing in the format, modify a banlist accordingly, and if successful you've created a format that will spike the prices of cards and force Wizards to reprint previously goofy things in their sets
Being able to walk into a store and see people play something is something that is important. I also play Flesh and Blood and over the past few months have seen people walk over to us at the LGS and ask about the game and learn to play it. Seeing a game being played is a massive point of entry for people
I agree with your view on bans: it is an absolute failure for a company that makes cards they want you to play to have to say you can’t play a card that they, in fact, made specifically for you to play.
My store used to run modern every week. Now the only mtg events that are even on the schedule are Legacy and EDH. Yugioh events are now skyrocketing in attendance over mtg at this store that primarily focuses on mtg 😅
I hope that wizards can use the modern sets as a jumping point, printing staple archetypes and adding some extra support to new strats that come in from standard. Reprints of cards that haven't been seen printed in years would be beautiful.
I started playing paper modern right after Shadows Over Innistrad released, and stopped playing around the time that MH1 was released, for reasons not-relating to magic. Since then, I still haven't played, but I've continued to buy singles and collect cards that I want or that I would *like* to play with one day whenever I inevitably get back in to it. That said, in the meantime I have been watching, observing - witnessing the format I love continue to take fall after fall in to disrepute, despair, and degeneracy. I too miss Modern, Trinket, and Lord willing, we'll get to play it again some day, when it's healthy and lively again, and not faltering under the weight of its own sickness.
Eagerly awaiting the day modern - horizon block constructed becomes a format. Considering how many people share this sympathy its likely only a matter of time.
the 10 percent of the meta thing is a bit heavy handed! I understand the sentiment behind what you're saying, and it seems to not have worked with just how disproportionately strong the Horizons cards are, but it's probably good to see how metas evolve, even if one deck does creep up pretty high. Nearing 30% is obviously insane though, so maybe the heavy handedness is warranted when the horizons set are the way that they are.
This is actually a great idea! I was a Modern player until Commander took over. Core sets feel like they’re being discontinued and core set blocks don’t gel like they use to ie Time Spiral Block & Lorwyn Block. It’s all fueling Commander decks and vintage players. It prices out players and kills the consumer base. I wish Wizards had a Richard Garfield who could call the shots and get players out there again.
I got into MTG with All Will Be One. I didn't even know what Modern was for the longest time, and for a little while, I didn't even know Commander wasn't supposed to be the "main" format. I didn't know 60 card constructed formats existed. The issue now is that I would *love* to play 60 card magic; but I missed it. Nobody plays Modern anymore, paper standard is basically dead, legacy and vintage exist pretty much exclusively on MTGO, and asking about Pioneer and Pauper get people to give me weird looks. It doesn't help that I live an hour plus away from the nearest LGS. I'd love to play 60 card, or even draft or sealed, but when commander is just infinitely easier to play... other formats suffer for it.
The Modern league at my local shop hasn't fired in months. All I've heard from people who used to play is frustration. They can't keep up with it. A lot of them have moved out of Magic altogether and play Warhammer now.
@@thetrinketmage brother, it almost sounds worse from what my friends who live out there say lol. They leave out the poverty bit until I ask about it, then they tell its way worse than sf and that everybody they know is struggling in some notable form
@@ashemabahumat4173 really? I heard SF was worse but I've never been so I can't compare. Honestly I think downtown SD is worse than many places in LA right now...
@thetrinketmage thing about LA is that it has a specific area that at least looks presentable to tourists, but all of SF is just trash. But the homelessness and poverty levels are overall worse in LA. But I can say that in SF, they'll have you use social aid to you keep you in debt and siphon more tax dollars off of you
I wanted to pin a comment here and clarify a few things.
I want this video to age poorly, if modern comes back because of this ban and the format has many diverse decks and it stabilizes I will be happy!
My issue is I don't think that is going to happen. I can't "just be happy about the bans" because every store near me quit playing modern years ago. Even if I spent $600+ on a new modern deck I would not have a place to play it.
The ban is targeting a symptom it's not the cure. The increased monetary cost of modern is something I should have talked about more here, but that's why it will struggle to return after these bans. Mox opals are now $100+ each. If I spend that much on 4 one rings only to have them banned and the price cut in half, then why would I spend money on opals or any new broken card if it might just get banned or "rotate" out. Games stores near me for years have struggled to get 4 players for modern I don't see how this fixes that at all.
You just described Pioneer, modern is dead and pioneer inherited that mantle and rule
Hopefully wotc listens and stops with mhx after the glaringly clear survey response yes we wanted powerful cards, but they could have been injected through modern masters as well. Bring back those kind of sets, call them modern reincarnation or something, and allow some new cards, and needed reprints for modern BOTH, not just one or the other.
@@Donny-G I think I heard something about pioneer masters in the future
replace every instance of "Modern" with "EDH" in your video and this comment and your entire point falls flat on its face; the difference is that commander is not allowed to be competitive, so of course it's easy to get 4 Timmys who want to not interact and cast their Colossal Dreadmaws. its larping a competitive TCG.
I think this video will age well purely because Competitive Magic as a whole is dying. MTG arena is doing for Standard what the locals used to do: run weird stuff, get top 4-8 in a tournament, and walk away with some packs. Competitive Paper Magic is on a downward spiral because Arena is cheaper to run, cheaper to play, and arguably "promises" a better chance to make the Pro Tour.
That feeling when Modern rotates faster than standard
Modern became yearly and Standard became extended
I was confused and thought Standard was Modern and Modern was Standard for exactly this reason. Ie "Why would anyone play modern when it rotates so quickly?"
no for real. i used to live to brew fun decks to play at local events.
remember when aether vial was good?
does it really man?
2 months ago UW Oculus was a beast in standard, a solid tier 1 deck, now it is a joke of a deck with 40% wr or less
Gruul midrange was amazing in Worlds, now? it sucks as well
You clearly dont know what rotation means
Admittedly, I’m pretty new to Magic in the scheme of things, I started playing after MH2 existed. I’ve never once heard a Modern player say they enjoy Modern. It’s that simple, I watch a lot of Magic content, I talk to a lot of Magic players and I’ve never once heard a Modern player say they enjoy Modern.
Commander players love Commander, Legacy players love Legacy, Pauper players love Pauper, Canlander players love Canlander. Hell, even Standard players will tell you they’re having a lot of fun and the meta’s pretty good right now. Those formats all have their own issues and gripes but people still play them because they enjoy them. Modern players all seem to goddamn hate playing Modern. I’m going to get a reply from someone who is the exception, and congratulations to them, they’ll literally be the first person in two-ish years of playing this game that I’ve heard it from.
I feel this, I'm extra annoyed there's not pioneer this year cuz its in a good place, but all it took was one modern rcq for me to never want to try the format again
You're not wrong. Modern had such promise when it was announced, and even though it turned out to be so much less than the Wild West we were promised. It was quickly defined, but it was good. And then someone at a corporation had an idea...
Most of my playgroup play modern and they seem to love it. No I never heard them say they love it but they must if its all they play mostly 😂😂😂 I'm new to magic like 1 month new and I love commander. I do want to venture into other formats and learn more deck building.
This was not the case before modern horizons, and in fact was the opposite, but only old heads remember counter top legacy and pauper with gush daze and foil (and when people could just PLAY g probe, delver always knew if you had the out lol). But when everything other format got better, modern got milked because it was the most marketable set of enfranchised players and went to the gutter. Peak modern was casting siege rhino or splinter twin or birthing pod, or tarmogoyf, or when the synergy of bolt snap bolt was so powerful it was the only wincon control decks needed, or when a deck like a mono red control deck with skred and blood moon could spike a GP vs the top meta. But the line has to go up, and it's gotta go up faster every year or shareholders get angry
Most Modern players generally stopped enjoying Modern after the Twin ban. My brother straight up quit playing magic when they banned Twin and refuses to come back now even though its legal again.
The bans did matter, this means that one ring price will probably go down a bit, meaning even more people at my store will be willing to play it in commander, yay…
It's already near the bottom of its price. People have been anticipating a ban for ages and the price has been dropping accordingly
On the bright side I doubt it'll go down that much tbh because of how busted it is in commander
My brother mentioned this to me, that now was the chance to pick it up. And my response was "Why? I already have a $2 proxy of it!"
I don't really care about it in commander that much, it's strong, yes, and there's no reason to not run it if you have it, but it's easy enough to deal with if you have a good deck
Oh, boo hoo. Keep crying. Find a different game to play.
I couldn't agree more. What annoys me is that they didn't have to push the power level of Modern with MH because they were already pushing the power level with FIRE design in Standard. Without HM and LOTR, Modern would still be full of cards printed since War of the Spark. They pushed a push that was already being pushed... off a cliff.
"boros energy precon" is funny
I came to the prerelease draft of MH3 at my local store. One person I faced got pretty much a full play set of boros energy and stomped me. It just feels sad that it's even possible to pull a full, highly competitive deck (minus sideboard) by opening the one set.
@@auricle2873 good cards being cheap is a good thing
WotC is aware of how their choices have damaged 60 card constructed. But instead of fixing this problem, they're just gonna put all their eggs in the Commander basket.
Yeah but commander is suffering as well. The format hat lost a lot of its creativity and its appeal because there no more puzzles to solve as every commaner ist just the complete solution in a box. Boring, at least to me.
I think Foundations proves they at least want to save Standard
@@TuesdaySFDhow?
The Foundations cards have had absolutely no impact on standard which is still dominated by exploding mice.
Most the cards in foundations are completely unplayable.
Right? Just as I'm about to invent Modern-Commander.
@@isidoreaerys8745 Most cards in every set are completely unplayable in any format other than limited. Your point?
Modern just sounds like MTG Yu-Gi-Oh. We dont have rotations but we do have bans
It's rotates every new horizons set lol
@@tquenched3210did you understand the comment or not. He is implying that bans and new sets change the format of Yugioh massively similarly to a rotation.
Noticed your comment as I was typing the exact same thing. Even the nature of MTG's power creep is very similar to Yugioh's, where cards slowly increase in power and flexibility. One big difference though is that Yugioh's new archetypes are often very clearly the best thing out, and then the power is reined in by a few targeted bans when the next big strategy releases. I feel Magic is a bit different, because new cards usually push existing strategies to new levels of playability rather than entirely replace them, but this leads to much longer lasting change, since one or two bans does very little to effect the playability of the rest of the pushed cards they print. Like, Amped Raptor may be banned, but I suspect Ocelot Pride, Ajani Nacatl Pariah, and Phlage could all very easily still see play.
I was also about to make this comment, lol. I was a Yu-Gi-Oh player before I was a Magic player, and I've felt for a few years that Magic is starting to resemble the things I didn't like about Yu-Gi-Oh.
@@Kgfaoat least yugioh isn't replicating what is bad about magic
I half agree. The ban announcement does not “matter” because they did what they were supposed to do. They didn’t solve any foundational problems with the format, and mostly just slapped a new coat of paint on it and called it repaired. But this was, if nothing else, the best we could’ve hoped for in a bnr announcement. That being said, my inner Joker kinda wanted no changes to all formats just to watch the game continue to burn and descend further into chaos. But I guess we gotta wait a little longer for the next greedy, drama-inducing decision wotc wants to make
this was good as far as a B&R goes but it won't save modern
@ my opinion is not just modern, but magic is unsaveable. I came from yugioh a long time ago and I see the same writing on the wall. Magic is no longer a game, it is a product. This is a trend that’s been getting worse in all of gaming since maybe 2013, but magic especially so since like 2019/FIRE/UB. I had your crisis a few months back, I practically grew up with this game in my 15+ years playing. And at this point I am content to enjoy the game until the wheels fall off, but I’m under no illusion that the same people who crafted and maintained this masterpiece for decades are the same ones running the show today. It is a true ship of Theseus situation. I came to the reality that this chapter in my life will inevitably close and it truly is sad, but it is what it is.
I also came from yugioh! But I think the game is able to be saved don’t give up just yet!
@ with a WOTC that overtakes the RC because they disagreed with the bannings? And with UB, including delaying the return to Lorwyn to fit in another UB release? And Modern Horizons? The problem is systemic, you would need a new ceo at hasbro who loves magic and would put their life on the line for it and risk fiduciary responsibility infringement. If the game is fun to play I will play it but I’m not going to pretend the emperor is wearing clothes.
@@Lazydino59 All UB is Standard now so that's no longer a problem, and the RC asked Hasbro to take it because the reality is Commander is no longer a casual little side thing, it is the thing. Magic is alive and well, with or without you, but what is struggling is the 60 card constructed formats (as this video addresses), as well as draft. And, Magic was ALWAYS a product. A great product, or perhaps extremely effective? Addictive for sure, with a great formula for business success.
Your "Do the exact thing that destroyed Modern to Commander" suggestion is..................short sighted. There are already plenty of people who thing edh was better before it was specifically designed for. How much rampant power creep can Commander take before everyone gets mad and stops playing?
Commander needs to same thing Modern needs. For wotc to just design for standard and have cards naturally flow into it.
Commander is a non-competitve format, I don’t care in the slightest about the power creep in commander because I can play whatever I want and am not constrained by trying to win
Agreed! That’s just a different video on power creep overall I was focused on modern for this video
yep, every typal deck has a hyper efficient commander for it (looking at you, edgar markov), and every niche set-specific mechanic has a signpost 5 color sludge value creature as well to make it work (Marina Vendrell, Go-shintai)
I frequent brute force games. The pauper scene there is thriving, but any other format is dead.
Yes! I got into pauper because of that store it’s awesome there I love it!
You are the first online mtg content creator with whom I agree 100% about modern. I'm so glad you said this. It does really make me sad to reminiscence on old modern.
Man, I the times miss when playing lightning helix felt good.
@@topkapi9351 haha yeaa.
Modern was such a great format. the days of glorious jund Tarmogoyf are long gone.
They really weren't that Great. I played through that entire era.
naah those days too needed changes. Always changes. Right now changes has gone from being just"changes" to actually destroying the modern fomant and actually creating a new 'fresh' one with little to none brewing element involved.
Totally agree that fixing modern means banning the horizon sets from modern
Lol stupid idea. Not going to happen. Unnecessary
A few things.
1: Aaron Forsythe at MC Vegas eluded to printing directly into Modern being a mistake, and we won't see another Horizons set for a long while.
2: Standard is great right now. Your local stores should support it. Especially on Fridays. There are plenty of promos WotC can provide to drive interest, and stores should run leagues to bring folks out. That's what my LGS did and it's working.
3: Of the cards you showed on screen at the beginning Counterspell is a fair card. It went through Standard, and is not a part of the problems in Modern.
Counters spell represent power creep in the format. It pushed out logic knot and mana leak. Saying it’s just “fair” and fine without having effects in the format is wrong. Yes stores should do standard but for other reasons I haven’t gotten into in this short video stores don’t care about running standard events. Considering how well it sold I will be shocked if we don’t see MH4
Second on LGS running standard. I run an LGS and it’s so nice to have standard firing again. We got it firing every Friday now. And with 3 of the next 4 RCQ seasons being standard there’s no reason for good stores to sleep on the format. Grinders are going to be traveling to as many local events as they can
@@thetrinketmage just unban Mental Misstep and DRS. At this point, they might be the best thing for Modern.
/s
You're never going to attract a large player base into a format where the cards constantly rotate. Most people just aren't that into things period, and certainly not when it requires money to do so. Commander succeeds because it's social, it's cheap, and your cards will probably still be good 5-10 years from now unless you play against a cEDH deck or get targeted by some pubstomper.
That's just the reality of the hobby now. Formats that aren't Commander just won't attract the same size of player base.
@@thetrinketmagei would love to hear your opinions on standard and why it isn't what it used to be
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Every format is now a rotating format. They’ve only banned the One Ring (almost 2 years after its release, mind you) so that they could make room for the next One Ring. WotC is destroying the integrity of their formats for the quick cash grab and players will likely learn that lesson the hard way.
isn't pauper still hanging by ? like it still moves faster than it should but it doesn't feel as rotaty as Modern
haven't played it for a long time tho so I might be biased
Which is why Commander will always be the main Magic format
Pauper seems like the most apealing format for me. Not modern anymore. sadge.
The cycle of printing the most powerful cards into the format, everyone plays them, the crads get banned, more get printed etc. Is how konami operates yugioh as a former player of that game. Horrible for the players and health of the game but people keep buying the product so they keep doing it.
I quit Yugioh over the same thing.
I feel like part of the problem is that with the other formats is that Modern is way more easy to hurt
Legacy and Vintage have a lot of control pieces that help keep the format in check
Standard and Limited players are just used to rotation
And Pauper players are basically addicted to Adderall, we seriously don't get upset at bans and new cards coming into the format are super welcome
It just goes to show that a major part people hate bans is because of the monetary aspect.
Lurrus remains the only card banned in vintage for power level reasons. Lurrus broke Vintage in half.
Modern is a sensitive format that does require a delicate touch for balance, I'll agree. But some stuff from the modern horizons sets is great. Getting meltdown and the artifact taplands was really nice. And I don't think either of those would have been printable in standard.
Flesh and blood mentioned, time for my regularly scheduled "tell everyone to start playing flesh and blood"
I have a couple of decks, but no one to play with. :(
Sorry, but I like having money
I gave it a shot. I do not enjoy the living legends system-it’s also not a game you can play casually, imo
@@Mischievous_Moth I had this issue, so I basically just started showing up at the store offering to teach the game to anyone who wanted. It's now gotten to the point that the store is getting it's second RCQ equivalent event. The game sells itself
As someone whose favorite format is legacy it's sad to see that modern is dying the same death legacy did although seemingly even faster.. at least legacy had a slow death...
oh hi based gay fire emblem enjoyer, fun seeing you here
having cards in the format that are like $200+, that are required to play, is honestly ridiculous and I think if those cards were more accessible, people might actually play more Legacy…
@@UnicornLupus I mean yes and no, cuz most legacy players I've met don't really have a problem with people coming in with a full proxy deck, if we are talking competitive that's a different matter, but casual legacy? Who cares if your cards are real or not if we be playing casual?
Modern Horizons is the exact reason I stopped playing Modern. The level of power that set shoved into the format forces anyone who wants to win to cling to the 'best' meta deck. Want to play something outside the meta? Enjoy your 0-5. Want to use cards you love from years ago? Enjoy your 0-5.
Don't even get me started on how they refuse to reprint some of the staples or fetch lands in any meaningful way, pricing out anyone who IS interested in joining the format.
What do you mean reprinting shocks or fetches once every 5-10 years doesn't meaningfully lower their price for more than a week?
Pretty much same here. MH1 was the last set I bought into. Wasn't just the Modern Horizons sets but that led me to opt out but the final nail in the coffin for me.
those eyes. every time I see those eyes I am filled with terror and dread. it is fantastic and I hate it.
At the end, you can really hear the emotion and exasperation.
I feel you.
The only Modern Horizons card I genuinely felt inspiration to brew with was Junk Winder from MH2. Im genuinely sad that the card is locked behind Modern Horizons because it looks like such a fun card to use.
But yeah Modern needs to axe the modern-exclusive sets if it wants to survive. I feel your pain.
4:00 As a yugioh player this sounds so weird, for one because no Magic format I can think of meets the standard you're suggesting, but also because when the best deck isn't at least like 20% it feels like a clown fiesta.
As a yugioh player myself who has gotten into standard mtg, I’ve noticed that mtg players across formats have a massive reaction to bannings when compared to YGO players
yeah like as someone who pays attention to both games pro player's hate incredibly wide formats as at least in the case of yugioh a very wide format without a a real set of meta strategies means its just more likely ya get hit with some cheese your sideboard can't handle and lose
@@tomdoetsch8603 part of it is probably that yugioh players are way more used to aggressive bannings and format upheavals.
@@tomdoetsch8603 Honestly ya. I play commander mainly but coming from yugioh originally definitely hardened me to the point of not caring when mana crypt was banned. I feel like a lot of magic only players put to much faith in the idea of safe investment cardboard. When I played yugioh, i'd only invest in the stuff I thought was actually fun after I got tired of not being quick enough to sell top decks before they got most of their toys banned.
Hi Trinket, I'm a relatively new viewer but a long-time MTG player and this really struck a nerve for me. I was a budget-conscious player who bought into Mardu Pyromancer years back, had an amazing time, and got wrecked when MH1 brought in Hogaak & got Faithless Looting banned. As a budget player I simply couldn't afford to buy in again when faced with the risk of the same thing happening twice, so I left the format and even took a break from Magic as a whole for a little while.
Now, years later, I have a *lot* more money behind me, but I've never bought back in to Modern. The diverse, naturally-progressing format I loved is just gone. I came to terms with that 5 years ago - I never yucked people's yum or tried to doomsay over it, but it's just been so sad to watch more and more people make the same realisation and go through the same struggle. I genuinely feel awful seeing it happen over and over. I hope WotC learn a lesson from it, but I can't see a way to repair Modern. Can't unring that bell.
Truth. I feel this is a symptom of game designers listening to their audience, despite their audience not being game designers. When I was a simpler player, I saw Baleful Strix and Shardless Agent in my Planechase precons and thought to myself, "These aren't too strong for Modern! I sure wish they were legal!" I was wrong. I was foolish. I want to be saved from this world that I myself manifested.
god I forgot shardless agent was an actual card before beign forced into modern
This is exactly what Ive been saying for years. I'm not a modern player, but I play casually with friends and family and we play with any cards we can get our hands on, bans disregarded. But slowly we've had to limit what cards we use, and those cards come from the newer sets. The powercreep is accelerating, and sooner or later it's going to tear Magic to shreds. And the reason why powercreep is accelerating? It forces people to buy more cards, more frequently. Hasbro is extracting and long term profits the Magic IP would have made for short term profits. Thats also why I'm surprised they actually banned The One Ring. Maro loves to tote how well the LotR sets did, despite the fact that it probably only sold as well as it did because they literally made it a lottery and made a card that was required to be competitive. Everyone had to get The One Ring, and the cheapest way to do that was to buy packs. Although, they may have banned The One Ring if their internals show that no one is buying LotR anymore. Powercreep and corporate greed has killed Magic. I don't see it recovering. Now we just get to watch as it dies a slow, painful death
The only issue I have with your proposed solution is that commander sets go direct to Legacy and Vintage, and both of these formats' metas have suffered with modern horizons/lotr sets as well.
Of course excluding them from commander sets would work as well, (and I digress they can hardly be called popular formats) but the whole reason I like legacy is it's basically all MTG cards except for the most extreme broken ones.
I will say the unbans are amazing, so many cool decks are going to be put into the format. Like ive been brewing some decks with my local players and these unbans open so many old decks back up. This is genuinely the best thing to happen to modern in a long time.
The way a friend of mine describes modern these days is that the format is pretty much just Modern Horizons Block Constructed
Dude I’m tripping. I lived in SD and I recognize these stores. What a flashback.
Wizards has *kind of* heard you. Supposedly the up coming Standard sets Final Fantasy and Spider-man were originally going to be direct-to-modern sets, but the backlash from all of the direct-to-moderns sets made Wizards change their mind. Now they said that all sets "Universes Beyond or otherwise" will be going through Standard for the foreseeable future. As per usual it seems, they hear our complaints, and solve them in the most Monkey Paw way possible. I especially fear if they haven't been toned down as an unpopular Standard set with a direct-to-modern power level sounds terrifying.
Yea I’m not sure if that will end up being good or not but I’ll wait and see before I judge maybe they toned it down a lot
My lgs (college town) usually maxes out around 8 modern players at the weekly event, which is already low, but recently there haven't even been enough to play after MH3. It's pretty dire.
Wizards rotating non rotating sets with power creep is wild AF
This might be something that the community has to do on their own as wizards doesn't give a crap. I think the community has the potential to do it through but it requires a lot of people caring about fixing modern
It’s possible but very very difficult
Some community made formats have succeeded, but most have failed. For every commander and pauper, there is a frontier or tiny leaders. And in order to truly grow, community made formats still require proper tournament support, at which point they are no longer truly community run. Premodern is a pretty popular community built format that is impossible for WotC to interfere with, and it does have some private tournament support, but it it also has a massive barrier to entry due to card prices being very high and no real way to play unless you live near a community that supports it.
Honestly, I could see a Modern Masters set that's basically alt art frames only being a huge seller.
It would make wizards so much money
Modern is completely dead at the shops I patronize here (Twin Cities, MN), and it used to pack the stores. Now it’s all Commander and other card games (FAB, Lorcana, etc.)
I do think Magic really opened themselves up to allowing other games in. Also, Commander Horizons makes SO MUCH more sense. We’re the ones that buy it all! 😂
Yeah. I recently got back into the game and was hoping I might get to dust off my old merfolk deck, but alas. I do see a lot of pauper on store calendars here, though, which is great!
As a player who got back into magic because of commander, the idea of modern sounds like it would be my preferred format. I’m super bummed that it exists in this state. :(
As an enfranchised modern player, go back to before the first horizons set and watch old gameplay of mdoern. It was amazing, fun and innovative,
I think a big part of the draw of Modern is that it was the place to go after your favourite Standard deck rotated, and you were tired of keeping up with rotations. Your red aggro deck has a bunch of things rotate? Check out modern! They also have a red Monastery Swiftspear aggro deck, and coincidentally, a few of your Standard cards are pretty good there! The cards people cared about acted as a bridge that lead from one format to the other. Because each Modern deck now is so reliant on Modern Horizons and Universes Beyond, you don't have that same connection to the cards you want to play in Modern. You can't go from playing Red/White Mice in Standard to Red/White Energy in Modern, there's zero overlap, and people just don't care about Energy as a theme. Pioneer is what Modern used to be, but it's not nearly as beloved because of many factors, which is really unfortunate.
Can you expand on what makes Pioneer feel different from what Modern was before mh?
I have theories, but I'm not experienced much in either format, and haven't played Modern before MH2.
I think it's two main things: Modern's cardpool, and Pioneer's reputation.
Modern's cardpool is very specific, and goes back far enough for basically anybody playing to find something to be nostalgic over. The cardpool itself covers a very interesting span of time where there was a lot more experimentation and "weird" cards (see: lantern of insight) as well as cards that will never stop being played due to their power level (see: fetches). Because of all of these factors, Modern had a very specific feel to it that other formats don't have. It had an identity of being super-Standard in that way, if that makes sense.
Pioneer suffers from this - theres a lot less nostalgia cards like Lightning Bolt or Goblin Guide, and less powerful cards that never leave like fetches. But the only reason for this is to diversify itself as a format from Modern, which does kind of feel bad. Pioneer's reputation is improving, but it had a pretty rough start with meta decks running around that people didn't really enjoy, and to an extent, still don't. I personally think the format is fun to consume content about, but that's because I'm primarily a Standard player.
This is more subjective, but another part of this is I believe to be tied to set design when it comes to themes. Lots of older sets ~a decade ago were just generally more flavorful and had better worldbuilding and had more evocative cards in general. Cards felt more... not sure how to put this, but more like "Magic". These days, sets are more concerned with portraying shallow tropes on their cards. Thunder Junction, Murders at Karlov Manor, Duskmourn, and Bloomburrow all suffer from this in varying degrees (with Bloomburrow being the closest to good in my eyes). Something is missing from these sets that make me feel the way I do looking through original Innistrad block, old Ravnica cards, etc. Because Pioneer's card pool includes many of these kinds of modern cards, it just doesn't carry the same weight as old Modern decks do. The newer cards feel more like game pieces rather than windows into the world of Magic. But maybe this part is just me haha, it totally could be.
@@vesselfragment I think you're right about these newer cards. I first joined around kaladesh block, but my favorite part of magic has always been delving into the really old cards and trying to put something together with fallen empires or old kamigawa block.
It's weird, because I'm not sure what changed, and I can't pinpoint exactly when things changed. It may just simply be the presentation of these tropes. I look at original Delver of Secrets and feel so differently about it compared to anything from Duskmourn or Bloomburrow. There's just something missing from recent sets, and I don't know what it is.
I mean, I think you're wrong because Pioneer basically is the "fixed" modern you're talking about and basically no one plays that either.
Hmm, maybe I should check out pioneer as a casual framework for non-commander nights.
Except it's not exactly though. Pioneer is a significant downgrade for those that enjoyed Modern when it was enjoyable. There is a significant amount of cards that people are/were invested in that is cut from the Pioneer pool that were available in pre-Horizons modern.
Plus the problems that are brought up in this video aren't completely exclusive to Modern Horizons sets. You see similar issues with insane power creep printings in the standard sets too. There is a pretty surprising number of Standard printed cards that are banned in multiple "eternal" formats in just the past few years (Oko as a prime example). All eternal formats are being affected by these same type of problems, Modern was just in that "sweet-spot" to get hit the hardest by them (Pioneer not eligible for MH sets and Legacy/Vintage are powerful enough to resist some of the rapid shifts).
In my city, the only competitive format that has consistent in person events is Pauper. People want to play magic, they are just frustrated with the business decisions of WotC/Hasbro.
Yugioh player coming into magic hearing all of this: “first time, huh”
Yeah, competitive Yu-Gi-Oh sucks. I love the game but damn is it mismanaged
@ absolutely. I feel like magic, specifically commander has scratched the itch that I lost years ago for Yu-Gi-Oh! in the sense that you can see two cards that don’t necessarily pair together, but make interesting and creative combos. I think that we were fed that in our youth, but as things became more type, focused in the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game it pivoted to a very cookie cutter design philosophy. Where are you basically just throw in 2 to 4 tight deck engines along with what is our equivalent of counter spells taking up a good 40% of your deck and you’re done (in the form of hand traps and negation effects) bobs, and weaves in its area of creativity, but it’s so homogenized that as soon as someone creates an innovative strategy, it basically becomes the new meta. Commander is definitely in some way similar due to the desire to be high powered EDH so as to get the same kind of feel as I get from doing a 20 minute combo in Yu-Gi-Oh, but at the very least whenever there’s an infinite combo starting, it takes all of three minutes to begin and conclude versus Yu-Gi-Oh! where you’re sitting there for a half hour hoping that the card you draw is the answer to then proceeded to do the same to your opponent
He’s quick with it
I wrote the script pre ban announcement cause it doesn’t matter what got banned
Haven’t played 60card format since 2013 🤪 its been about commander for a decade at my lgs with standard and modern disappearing slowly i’ve been trying to get people into pauper with no luck
I stop playing Modern around 2 months ago. With The One Ring being banned, I quit. Not that the bans were bad.
It is because I just don't want to play in a rotating format where I cannot stick to a one deck for long. Not to mention very expensive cards get banned regularly.
in the last 5 years of playing mtg, ive only come across 1 modern player in the wild where i live. the format isnt dead, but its got almost no action in Jax Fl where i live. and its the largest city in the US
Rollercoaster of emotions, the nastalgia of mox opal and twin with so much hype then to be slowly burned and lowered into the ground by the rest of the video. I was the last person to show up to modern at my game store. Modern may see an uptick just from oldheads that want to feel something again
8:30 i don´t know if banning the modern sets in modern would solve the problem. The current standard sets are strong enough to push classic modern cards out of the format, so standard will rotate modern.
Yea probably there would need to be more fixes but it would he a real start
Eventually, rotation does happen.
People will be interested in new stuff regardless, and new products need just enough power creep to sell
Ban the direct to modern sets, and the issues with mh and ub sets will eventually plague the standard sets.
@@yusheitslv100the whole point of standard is it doesn't need power creep, all a set has to do is be good against the other standard legal sets, but it doesn't have to be better.
That is to be expected to a degree, but it is supposed to happen naturally over the course of several set/years. At least with that it's a bit easier to alleviate a bit with banning cards here and there when it happens too suddenly.
It's the difference between a few cards from a set being problems vs. the bulk of a set entirely changing the landscape of the format (and usually multiple formats at that). But yes, it isn't just isolated to MH sets, they are just the most egregious offender on that front.
Format becomes popular, WOTC exploits it by catering to it and ruining it, players move on to another Format WOTC exploits and ruins it by catering to it, rinse and repeat until game is dead.
My friends and I have started playing pre fire Modern, a community format with all sets starting with War of the Spark illegal
I miss modern. Most fun I've had playing magic was brewing and perfect a black red discard deck built around tibalt and demigod. the damage modern horizons has done turning the format into block constructed can never be understated
R.I.P Lingering souls , my favorite card
Man modern revolved around lingering souls for years
Dude.. they need to bring back Standard and the Pro Tour with Grand Prixs
As a creator with a sizable platform, have you considered a "if you build it, they will come" approach? I am aware that another creator named d00mwake runs a (I think) twice-a-year Pure Modern tournament, meaning all supplemental products are banned. It would be awesome to have more creator support/awareness in that direction, since, like you said, I think there's a huge audience for it, but there's just not enough actual momentum just yet. Plus I believe MaRo or someone else said something along the lines of "want a new format? Make one and we will adopt it". I personally would be onboard to try out some classic prime time if there were more tournaments, as the deck always looked super fun to me, but I have never had a group before MH released.
I’m still a small fry in the grand scheme of things. Maybe if I could network a bit… but we would need a bigger push from other larger creators maybe one day…
@@thetrinketmage Yeah for sure, it'd be awesome to see a Pure Modern episode of Shuffle Up and Play or something along those lines, but in the interim, any promotion is good promotion imho. Always good to have groundwork for the day arrives!
Used to have a Modern Mardu brew deck back in 2014. Would run all the cheap removal like Path to Exile and Terminate, and then run Evershrike + Spirit Loop which was my tough to answer threat that would keep me alive while my removal would eat all my opponents potential blockers.
That deck NEEDED Faithless Looting to remain consistent in both digging for the aura and burying the Evershrike in the graveyard. MH1 came out, dredge became super disgusting and they banned Faithless Looting killing my deck. Even with the Looting unbanned the format is too fast and I sold off my old Modern manabase months ago which I have no interest in acquiring again. I used to love this format.
I wasn't expecting this video to have San Diego content, that was a fun surprise! We've been trying to get constructed started again over here at Brute Force Games, we're planning to bring Standard back to FNM in the new year and we're continuing to tweak and tune Modern in the hopes that we can get a consistent 8-12. Hopefully we can bring constructed back to some of it's early 2000's FNM glory!
Commander took over the game. This was happening 8-9 years ago when I got into Magic. Commander is what I learned to play. Yeah, I *can* play draft and all that, but Commander has more players and I’m far more likely to meet Commander players than any other genre of Magic.
I miss my 2 weekly moderns that use to fire
Yoooo I didnt expect to hear my LGS mentioned! I only started playing magic again recently and BFG has been great! I love the little wooden tokens they give out for prereleases, Bloomburrow had a food token where the bear-ified store owner is handing you a pie ♥️
No way! One of my favorite creators was in the San Diego Area and went to Brute force games??? I was there right before it moved and when I came back I saw the usual events were still commander centric. I think one issue with the "open hours" commander setup was it was difficult as a lone player to get into a game if you didn't come accompanied with friends or planned a meetup. Hpwever, I did like that the popular casual format was freely available at all the hours so players could be flexible with their time instead of crushing a single event a week.
Yes! More people need to hear it. They ruined the format. Louder for the people in the back!!
A lot of the community is divided around the existence of MH2, specifically. Basically, some people believe that MH2 was great because the new cards opened up the metagame in new and interesting ways, while others thought it was terrible because no set invalided existing staples/decks more than it. I firmly fall into the second camp, as do most people I know who do not wish to pay over $1000 every time a shakeup happens. MH1 did indeed start us on the road to ruin, but MH2 just took it to another level.
I only have 1 lgs that even cares about MTG anymore. Out of the 3 stores in my area. And that one struggles to get drafts going, struggles to get modern going, pioneer is working, commander is booming, and standard doesn't exist.
The other stores moved onto Yu-Gi-Oh, and Lorcana respectively, with both the yuigoh and mtg store also hosting pretty big Pokemon events.
08:55 the problem with modern master Is that with a slow moving format, you don't have enough expensive cards to make them regurarly, that's why the they move to modern Horizon...
And I agree with you that non-standard sets are way too much.
Here in Italy it's still played a bit, but I do also see a lot of premodern and oldschool as competitive formats to show how people dislike the recent releases
Splinter Twin is back, after a decade of begging and it means... nothing.
@chickenwyngs3646 swear i read on reddit that someone went and 5-0ed a league with it on the day it came back so it might not mean nothing. Really i feel like all the dooming is just a whole bunch of people still upset at MH for doing what quite a lot of people were asking for. People are honest to god pretty hype for the new modern format and coming back to at least try things out. Maybe with the ugliest parts of the format tuned down the format can play in a place that is a lot healthier. And they won't be printing anymore direct to modern sets for a while
@jmanwild87 I agree, and the format is a bit cheaper to getninto with recent fetch and shock reprints
The win-win-win excludes players like myself whose favorite cards are the uncommons from MH sets like Soulherder or Copycrook or Dregscape Sliver.
I completely agree that scheduled BNRs are not good for the format for one reason: allowing for *scheduled* routine "maintenance" of the format instead of hitting things *as necessary* allows for two major problems. 1) it allows for WotC to push out more product because they don't have to spend as much time playtesting - and that leads to problem two, which is 2) it makes the first few months to a year of a new product release the "beta test" for that product. In essence, WotC gets to pretend like they're most Triple A game developers and relase a buggy, incomplete, half-cooked mess - but charge full price for it. That's theft in more ways than one, and it should have consequences.
Scheduled bans give players confidence to invest into a deck and get at least 3 months out of it
@legendarydragoon1462 true, and that's a fair point - but it doesn't negate what I said about lowering the need for QA in play-testing cards. That might be the reason Wizards wants you to accept, but it isn't the whole truth.
I’d like to point out that the purpose modern initially was transferred to pioneer as a format that is for non rotating standard cards only! This issue was taken into account as before the first modern horizons set, pioneer was introduced :)
I am also keeping in mind that this is your channel, and these are your opinions. In the Midwest, modern is the premier format to play, we get more modern players than draft and commander.
I find it almost easier to deckbuild, theorycraft, and grind out games of modern than for commander. Your gripes are valid but they are also that of someone who is from the sidelines as a mainly edh player.
This ban and restricted announcement is one of the best things that has happened to this format in a very long time.
I’m happy to hear people are still playing modern! I’d argue if pioneer took over that role it would be bigger but people didn’t want to move as much and ultimately pioneer split the modern format more than replaced it. But yea this is my opinion if you have fun playing modern I am happy for you
Honestly I'd love pioneer if it had fetchlands and allowed more types of decks in the meta. There are no prison or hatebear decks, the only combo deck allowed to exist is lotus field and that deck is always at the top of the chopping block, and control decks just feel like they cant keep up with the midrange in the format. Grindy midrange the format where you lose to yourself if you play 3+ colors is a hard sell to a long time modern player who played twin or Kiki chord or storm or UW control or anything that wasn't jund or junk
But don’t forget universe is beyond are now gonna start going through standard
Anecdotally modern is very big in my area of New Jersey. Modern sold out every night at my old store, so much so that they started running it twice a week. It killed off Friday draft nights because everyone just wanted to play Modern instead. Now the store did close two months ago, but that entire crowd has just moved to another store where it's still popping. They have a whole youtube channel called OC Hivemind where games are streamed if you want proof.
The problem with your solution is, even if Wizards changed Modern to only allow previously standard-legal sets, Commander is still the dominant format due to WotC's shift into commander-centric design since around 2019-ish. WotC has starved every other format to make sure its golden child Commander eats good. As such, I don't think a change even as drastic as that would revive Modern.
"why make a deck for a format that hardly anyone plays"
At my lgs, modern gets 1 table full.
Commander gets the store so packed that my lgs had to physically destroy their back wall and expand the shop to seat more commander players.
I live in a town with about 20k people and we regularly have 16-20 people for modern on Mondays 🤷♂️
Only 1 or 2 people I can think of were on boros energy. Very little overlap in the decks people play around here actually.
That’s awesome! I just think it’s the exception not the rule
Yeah, I'm in an even smaller town (game store is a few towns away in a town of like 8k) and we get 20-30 people for Modern twice a week. And it'll probably get more now that ToR and Amped Raptor are gone, so the best card and the best deck are gone.
And honestly, I blame Commander taking off as the "premiere" format for ruining everything. Eternal format that needs to get people buying more and more cards, and the only way to do that is to raise the power level. But they have to support other formats since a set of nothing but Commander jank isn't going to move product either unless it's tied to some other IP (Universes Beyond).
So lucky
I like this take, however this will probably never happen because then Wizards would have to admit they made a mistake
Visited San Diego and visited brute force and tc’s rocket, great stores!
I'm in Texas, and my LGS hold modern events every week; at one point, it was so popular they added an entry fee for it.
Where in Texas? The store near my Dad’s place in Dallas stopped playing modern :(
My close friend and the person who got me into Magic was the biggest modern fan of all time, and was so stoked when he could play his actual favorite card: Tarmogoyf. He took the time and saved up to build a dredge deck like he always wanted, and it ruled. Fast forward a few years later, he's barely even paid attention to modern because of how broken the format is at a fundamental level. He spends most of his time playing EDH now
Mmmmm.... delicious. This was well cooked.
Holy moly. Thank god I'm not the only person that has these exact feelings about, and experiences with modern. All the play patterns suck, everything is way too fast, free spells remove play complexity and decision making, versatile interaction is outrageously cheep, and there isn't even a hint of diversity in decks to play and all of that is wrapped up in the knowledge that modern used to be the arguably best way to play Magic: the Gathering and now it's in rubble and ashes. At least let it die with the tiniest sliver of dignity still in there and pull the plug.
I genuinely have no clue why anybody plays modern anymore. Is it stockholm syndrome or something? Modern players, blink twice if Wizards is keeping your family hostage
You are truly delirious. The modern format is the only format that is not a team format that has any resemblance to life.
I will eat a sealed box of Modern Horizons 3 if Hasbro decides to heed your advice and ban Modern Horizons 1/2/3 from Modern.
Southern Illinois *carbondale specifically* checking in- everything but commander is completely dead but commander is doing better than I ever imagined for the area
Yoooo another carb player huh
Great vid. This is endemic of everything WOTC changes. The 3 set blocks let us deeply explore a plane, it's characters, and it's mechanics. Now, WOTC relies on member-berries from that era for its' marketing. Having Standard rotate right into Pioneer and Modern was amazing. It didn't make cracking a box seem like such a waste of money.
im not gonna spend 30 hours teching out some repetitive hypercompetitive modern deck. commander awaits!
Players do have the power to create and curate their own formats, you could remove the horizon sets from Modern and call it something else like Homestyle Modern, find out what people are playing in the format, modify a banlist accordingly, and if successful you've created a format that will spike the prices of cards and force Wizards to reprint previously goofy things in their sets
Being able to walk into a store and see people play something is something that is important. I also play Flesh and Blood and over the past few months have seen people walk over to us at the LGS and ask about the game and learn to play it. Seeing a game being played is a massive point of entry for people
I agree with your view on bans: it is an absolute failure for a company that makes cards they want you to play to have to say you can’t play a card that they, in fact, made specifically for you to play.
My store used to run modern every week. Now the only mtg events that are even on the schedule are Legacy and EDH.
Yugioh events are now skyrocketing in attendance over mtg at this store that primarily focuses on mtg 😅
I hope that wizards can use the modern sets as a jumping point, printing staple archetypes and adding some extra support to new strats that come in from standard. Reprints of cards that haven't been seen printed in years would be beautiful.
I sold all my MTG cards a couple years ago, now I only play with counterfeits. :D
I think the key to understanding this game is that brewing hasn't actually been good for getting wins since the internet took off
I started playing paper modern right after Shadows Over Innistrad released, and stopped playing around the time that MH1 was released, for reasons not-relating to magic. Since then, I still haven't played, but I've continued to buy singles and collect cards that I want or that I would *like* to play with one day whenever I inevitably get back in to it. That said, in the meantime I have been watching, observing - witnessing the format I love continue to take fall after fall in to disrepute, despair, and degeneracy. I too miss Modern, Trinket, and Lord willing, we'll get to play it again some day, when it's healthy and lively again, and not faltering under the weight of its own sickness.
Eagerly awaiting the day modern - horizon block constructed becomes a format. Considering how many people share this sympathy its likely only a matter of time.
the 10 percent of the meta thing is a bit heavy handed! I understand the sentiment behind what you're saying, and it seems to not have worked with just how disproportionately strong the Horizons cards are, but it's probably good to see how metas evolve, even if one deck does creep up pretty high.
Nearing 30% is obviously insane though, so maybe the heavy handedness is warranted when the horizons set are the way that they are.
Pioneer seems to be the newer better version of Modern. Especially with newer players like me.
This is actually a great idea! I was a Modern player until Commander took over. Core sets feel like they’re being discontinued and core set blocks don’t gel like they use to ie Time Spiral Block & Lorwyn Block. It’s all fueling Commander decks and vintage players. It prices out players and kills the consumer base. I wish Wizards had a Richard Garfield who could call the shots and get players out there again.
I got into MTG with All Will Be One. I didn't even know what Modern was for the longest time, and for a little while, I didn't even know Commander wasn't supposed to be the "main" format. I didn't know 60 card constructed formats existed.
The issue now is that I would *love* to play 60 card magic; but I missed it. Nobody plays Modern anymore, paper standard is basically dead, legacy and vintage exist pretty much exclusively on MTGO, and asking about Pioneer and Pauper get people to give me weird looks.
It doesn't help that I live an hour plus away from the nearest LGS. I'd love to play 60 card, or even draft or sealed, but when commander is just infinitely easier to play... other formats suffer for it.
The Modern league at my local shop hasn't fired in months. All I've heard from people who used to play is frustration. They can't keep up with it. A lot of them have moved out of Magic altogether and play Warhammer now.
"When I used to live in LA"
Oh. I'm so sorry to hear that.
It’s not as bad as the internet makes LA out to be
@@thetrinketmage brother, it almost sounds worse from what my friends who live out there say lol. They leave out the poverty bit until I ask about it, then they tell its way worse than sf and that everybody they know is struggling in some notable form
@@ashemabahumat4173 really? I heard SF was worse but I've never been so I can't compare. Honestly I think downtown SD is worse than many places in LA right now...
@thetrinketmage thing about LA is that it has a specific area that at least looks presentable to tourists, but all of SF is just trash. But the homelessness and poverty levels are overall worse in LA. But I can say that in SF, they'll have you use social aid to you keep you in debt and siphon more tax dollars off of you