Pro Tour results
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 23, 2014, 4:14 p.m. by vishnarg
Did anybody else watch that Pro Tour! It was really amazing. Not a single Bitterblossom or Nacatl in the top 8. I would have expected Biterblossom to be carried in by something but they probably need time to find their home first. What are your thoughts?
I hate seeing UWR with another back to back win, but there's no denying it's easily the strongest deck in Modern, followed by Pod. It was nice to see a few rogue decks make a splash i.e. The Rack, Blue Moon, etc. I'm really happy with the format as a whole.
February 23, 2014 4:27 p.m.
julianjmoss says... #4
also blood moon was incredibly prominent which i don't think was as expected. while it usually shows up it isn't as it was this weekend. Those blue moon decks looked awesome. nacatl and bitterbloosom decks cant deal very well with those
February 23, 2014 4:27 p.m.
alpinefroggy says... #5
@ DrFunk27 I dont think uwr is the best deck, pod is. Wilson in the finals got some bad draws that last game and could have easily won the game if he had a turn two pod or even just an average hand.
February 23, 2014 4:35 p.m.
One cannot be happy with modern right now. It's true that different decks flourish. However arguably the most popular archetype: jund/k is dead right now. We all know, that DRS was a very strong card, maybe banning it was justified (I tend to disagree) - but they should've unbanned Bloodbraid Elf to keep jund alive. U/R in combination right now is way too strong and was covered by 6 out of 8 decks in the Top 8.
24x Scalding Tarn 22x Lightning Bolt 17x Snapcaster Mage 16x Remand
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave Snapcaster Mage unbanned. It leads to U/W/R control not needing to play "bad" cards like Supreme Verdict or real win-conditions like Thundermaw Hellkite . Instead you have basically 8 Path to Exile or Lightning Bolt or Lightning Helix . I wonder how far a U/W/R burn deck would come... oh wait it just won a PT...
I don't know man, this looks better than before, but the dominance of U/R is even greater than before. DRS was good at keeping Snappy in check. Now the dude is free to go rampant. But hey, you can waste your precious sideboard space for cards like Relic of Progenitus ...
[x]unban BBE or DRS
February 23, 2014 4:44 p.m.
@ Putrefy Or you know play cards like Grafdiggers Cage, Rest in Peace, Scavenging Ooze, etc. Don't act like it's the end of the world, there are plenty of ways to keep Snapcaster in check. Jund had it's time to reign and good riddance. It's time for other decks to flourish and to open up new archetypes. I'm very excited to see what GP Richmond brings.
February 23, 2014 4:49 p.m.
pingpongball120 says... #8
If you actually watched the top 8, Snapcaster wasn't a huge card. Relic of Progenitus and Scavenging Ooze went HARD
February 23, 2014 5:58 p.m.
Maybe my judgement is deluded because Snapcaster Mage has annoyed me since it's existence. But saying that it wasn't a huge card is untrue. Sure you need the spells to go with it - but if you have them it's insane. Any creature-based strategy just gets blanked against Snapcaster - Bolt - Path.
February 23, 2014 6:05 p.m.
alpinefroggy says... #10
Its not a card that was particularly devasating but its the absurd value and flexibility that can be generated from snapcaster.
February 23, 2014 6:06 p.m.
as a UWR player I was really happy with the results. UWR control is very difficult to play but it rewards a player who makes the right decisions. I think the meta greatly improved with the banning of DRS. And unbanning Bloodbraid Elf is a bad idea imo. While snapcaster is very good, I think people have access to hate and will, from now on, side board accordingly. It was a very exciting pro tour to watch!
P.S. I dont think Fae is bad. It doesn't match up well to Zoo, which was 16% of the meta though. I think we will see more Fae in the coming months as it is putting up good results on MTGO and has a good Control/Combo matchup which will become quite important in the months to come.
February 23, 2014 6:28 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #12
Jund is till pretty badass. I won a modern tournament today, losing one only to affinity.
I beat, melira pod, another affinity, gr tron, esper gifts and hate bears. the twin deck that was present, scrubbed out from everyones sb (which was expecting it).
As long as people are ballsy, playing jund would be VERY lucrative right now. Nobody is sideboarding against it currently and it still plays stron by replacing the DRS with 2x Grim Lavamancer s and 2x Kitchen Finks . Trust me. This deck still puts up numbers.
February 23, 2014 7:09 p.m.
I do agree with gnarlicide, Jund is going to continue to put up numbers. DRS was important but not the key.
February 23, 2014 7:15 p.m.
Liliana of the Veil is the key. If they wanted to that would've been the alternative. But they made the right choice.
alpinefroggy says... #2
Bitterblossom in fae and other decks proved to be very bad in testing. The format was just set up well to deal with fae and it wasn't good enough to be competative. Plenty of decks with good hate and many decks that just outright destroy it (zoo/affinity) doesn't prove it will be good.
nacatl. definatly good but it has a notably bad combo match up and as a result its sucess tends to be retarded. Other existing decks adapted for it a little to be decent. Overall its probably still in zoo which might be the best deck in the format but it doesn't have a favorable game against everything.
February 23, 2014 4:21 p.m.