is there only 2 archetypes in modern
Modern forum
Posted on May 11, 2014, 10:10 p.m. by Fistfulvengence
I went to a fnm 1 day and i noticed everyone was playing either birthing pod or affinity, do you think there should be a ban or something to nerf these decks.
Must be a oddly focused local meta. For instance, last Friday at my own Modern FNM I played against 5 completely different decks that night: Living End, Tarmo-Twin, RW Prison, UWR and Infect. Pod and Affinity certainly make up a healthy chunk of the metagame, but they are no where near pervasive enough to warrant major bannings.
May 11, 2014 10:17 p.m.
Fistfulvengence says... #4
i was playing at a lgs in toronto, there was 1 guy who played uwr twin but him and i were the only guys not playing those archetypes, there were about 20 people there so it was definitely surprising for me to see all the same decks
May 11, 2014 10:21 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #5
Just run heavy artifact hate in your sideboard and thank your opponents for the easy games.
May 11, 2014 10:26 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur That works well enough for Affinity, but artifact hate doesn't really do that much to Birthing Pod
. It's basically impossible to hate the deck out completely since attacking any one angle of graveyard, artifacts, etc doesn't shut them down completely and attacking all of the angles just means you lose to the beatdown plan.
May 11, 2014 10:32 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #8
It's affinity and tron at my shop. So, naturally, my Jund deck pushes their shit in on the regular. Lol. Stupid meta.
May 11, 2014 11:33 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #9
The beatdown is still definitely a real strategy, but Pod is definitely a worse deck without its namesake in play. If you can keep them off of Birthing Pod then suddenly they become a mediocre midrange toolbox deck with no way to choose their tools.
Sometimes they find the right tools anyways. But that's life, right.
May 11, 2014 11:39 p.m.
CommanderOfBolas says... #10
My shop has a pretty diverse meta. people play Elves, U/R Twin, UWR, Storm, Affinity, And even a few mill decks I personally play RUG Scapeshift. Anyway, I don't think anyone plays pod at my store. I have a friend building the deck right now, but he probably wont have it ready by next modern fnm
May 11, 2014 11:42 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur Sure, but the problem is you can't really "keep" them off Birthing Pod . Even in the face of Krosan Grip they can retain priority and activate Birthing Pod putting them some measure ahead and you still trading a card for Birthing Pod . It's still better than leaving Birthing Pod in play for a few turns, but that's part of why hating that deck out is so hard. I'd much rather pack a Grafdigger's Cage or Damping Matrix since it hits a lot more of the deck.
May 12, 2014 12:01 a.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #12
All of that is a fine plan. It really doesn't matter exactly what cards you choose as hate. You simply need to go in with a sideboard plan against the decks you expect to face. If you show up at a tourney and don't have a defined plan for beating Pod then you're going to lose to it almost 100% of the time.
Just be prepared, yo.
May 12, 2014 12:11 a.m.
gnarlicide says... #13
My gameplay against pod (with me playing Jund, of course) is side in some ancient grudge, rakdos charm, grafdiggers cage and engineered explosives.
I forget what I take out off the top of my head, but the gameplan is something like this. Kill dorks, kill pod, kill melira. Those three give me a very good chance against that deck. I used to play it myself, and I learned that if any of those things got knocked out, I was doomed. Scavenging ooze also does a lot more work in this matchup for me. As finks and redcap are next to worthless in this match, especially post board. It's really easy to beat, actually. The beat down plan, while an option, does not provide enough oomph later in the game to take a stand against the ole bully of modern.
Maybe it's the players that I face, but nobody switches gears to beat down soon enough.
May 12, 2014 12:30 a.m.
vampirelazarus says... #14
Meanwhile, my shop has no one playing the same deck....
May 12, 2014 12:39 a.m.
megawurmple says... #15
My game plan against Pod and Affinity is really simple. Land Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on turn 3. Pod has no guys with toughness greater than 2 other than Archangel of Thune and the only way they can remove my Norn is hoping to draw into their singleton Shriekmaw . Affinity also has no guys with toughness 2 or more, expect that deck packs absolutely no removal big enough to take down Norn.
Also, I have Ancient Grudge and Grafdigger's Cage in my sideboard, just in case.
May 12, 2014 4:35 a.m.
tyforthevenom says... #16
My lgs meta is storm, affinity, affinity storm, curse, goblin, elf, sunburst and tron with only my lgs owner running a kiki pod against which Pithing Needle and Stony Silence are fantastic
May 12, 2014 6:43 a.m.
Just got back into Magic after a long break. Stopped in '96. It's weird to see how the game has changed so much. Back when I started it was get cards, make a deck with what you have. Now it's go on internet, see what deck works, go on ebay and buy cards. While the game has become insanely more popular than it was when I stopped, I feel alot has been lost. The meta at the store I play is also affinity and twin and while I don't feel specific cards should be banned, I do feel that the meta is basically the same everywhere. When your talking about so many sets to chose from in modern and everyone from different areas mentioning the same basic meta's, something should be done to diversify.
May 14, 2014 2:02 p.m.
NotSoLuckyLydia says... #18
We've got fifteen players at my LGS. We see 13 different decks. (2 people play jund and 2 play 8rack.)
May 14, 2014 2:16 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #19
@Spinner80: Thats not a great assumption of the game. Its still really easy to brew. The thing is, most people want to play an archetype, so they look up deck lists, to see what is in the archetype. Those people are alright.
Now, what you've described is netdeckers. They are the ones who look up winning lists, and buy the deck card for card, and play to win, even going so far as to crush kids' dreams.
So, in summary, archetypes exist and are recognized, and a good thing (they even exist outside of mtg in other games, like EVE and the dual rep Incursus.......), but building into an archetype shouldn't be classified as netdecking.
The appeal of modern is that you don't necessarily need to build into an archetype or netdeck, modern is a format that rewards brewing and bringing new ideas. Almost any deck, with a great pilot, can win at the lgs level, and maybe even have some success at the grand prix level.
May 15, 2014 2:04 a.m.
mathimus55 says... #20
vampirelazarus has a great point. Magic is the only game I've played where using someone else's build is grounds for harassment and ridicule. I played WoW back in the day and when Lich King came out if I wasn't running x's rogue build or y's tank build to a t I wasn't allowed to raid with my guild that I even started. Yes magic encourages new things but if someone brings the latest top 8 to FNM let them. Beat them with familiarity of your own deck and show them it's more than the cards.
May 15, 2014 6:59 a.m.
megawurmple says... #21
I'm with mathimus55 here. I actually enjoy playing against people who tear decks straight off the internet because it often means that they aren't hugely familiar with how the deck runs. However, when I build my own decks, I do it with the knowledge of how the deck should run, the roles of each card, how to deal with various situations and so on. I think the best example of this was in a GPT I played a while ago, back in the good old days when Deathrite Shaman wasn't banned. This guy I was against had obviously just taken the list off the web without practicing with the deck or reading up on how to play it, and he shot straight for the infinite combo in game 1. On turn 3, he used his Birthing Pod to sacrifice his Deathrite Shaman , which was easily the best utility creature in the format back then, and he fetched up a Melira, Sylvok Outcast . I promptly slapped it with a Lightning Bolt . People like that are a nice easy win for me just because they have no clue what they're doing.
CrazyLittleGuy says... #2
No, Modern is pretty healthy right now. FNM isn't a good sample size of the competitive meta, and both decks listed there are very susceptible to any artifact removal. How many people were at your FNM, and in what state/city is it? Metas vary by area pretty heavily.
May 11, 2014 10:16 p.m.