So, is it time for Twin to go? (Finally)
Modern forum
Posted on July 31, 2015, 10:41 a.m. by vishnarg
Before I get into this, let's back track 7 months. Remember how terrible and menacing Birthing Pod was? The most unbeatable combo and aggro deck to ever come into modern? Let's look back on why it was banned, according to the banning announcement by Wizards back in late January:
"Over the past year, Birthing Pod decks have won significantly more Grand Prix than any other Modern decks and compose the largest percentage of the field. Each year, new powerful options are printed, most recently Siege Rhino. Over time, this creates a growing gap between the strength of the Pod deck and other creature decks. Pod won five of the twelve Grand Prix over the past year, including winning the last two. The high percentage of the field playing Pod suppresses decks, especially other creature decks, that have an unfavorable matchup. In the interest of supporting a diverse format, Birthing Pod is banned."
Okay, so we can all agree Pod was just too good and a severe blight on the health of the modern format because of its rampant abundance in both top level events and local FNMs. Remember the deck that could compete best with Pod back when we still had Dig and Cruise? That's right, it was Splinter Twin, because the combo could race a Pod deck that had little answers to the combo outside of Spellskite and an Abrupt Decay. Today, looking at MTGtop8.com, Splinter Twin has risen to take up 13% of the meta. This is about where Pod was at when it was banned. This is also, like Pod, a deck that gets better and better with time; just over the past year, it got access to Tasigur and Kolaghans Command, making Grixis Twin the new best modern deck. I've personally never been a fan of the Twin decks, but the deck is becoming so flexible and consistent that it's almost impossible to beat consistently. Sure, Wizards gave us Rending Volley, but how much better was this than Combust? Is Volley really the answer we needed to Twin? Just look at Origins; this time we get Mizzium Meddler, another note from Wizards saying "We're not banning Twin yet, so here's another crappy answer to Moderns strongest combo deck".
Other issues I have with Twin is that it's very easy to incorporate into a deck. What disadvantages are there in including the combo in an already strong Grixis control deck? None at all. Plus, if Twin were banned, if people still wanted to play the deck, they'd still have Kiki-Jiki, which would be a slower but more fair way to use the combo.
Bottom line: Twin decks are an easy, one turn infinite combo that has always been abusive to all other archetypes in modern. When compared with the success Pod had, Twin should also be banned using the same logic. Thoughts?
buildingadeck says... #2
sylvannos: Your thoughts on Twin are pretty good.
Unbanning Bloodbraid Elf would be terrible for the format. Jund is already around 6% of the decks being played. An Unban of the card that made Jund a go-to a few years ago would put Jund too far ahead.
Any of the artifact lands would break affinity. The one extra damage is often all the deck needs to win a turn sooner thanks to Cranial Plating + Inkmoth Nexus .
Ancestral Vision is a card that I could see unbanned because it takes 4 turns for it to do something, but given the fact that they just banned Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time, I see it as something nonsensical for Wizards to do.
Chrome Mox is interesting, but I think it's power level is above the power level of the format. The only cards of similar power are Mox Opal and Lotus Petal, both of which have significant downsides and requirements.
Sword of the Meek actually has a case, in my opinion. There aren't many creatures at 1/1 being played in modern except tokens, and that's a Tier 2 deck. I feel like it is perfectly fair to include in the format.
August 2, 2015 3:31 p.m.
chessmaster156 says... #3
Remember, if u try to combo off with a twin deck, i can respond to a Splinter Twin attempt withPath to Exile, or even a Murderous Cut, or Mana Leak the Twin, or even Qasali Pridemage. Heck, Fog even stalls a turn for you to hit it with sorcery speed removal. Also, my prison deck keeps Twin in check at my local shop.
August 2, 2015 11:51 p.m.
@TheAnnihilator: Yah they'd have to ban Cranial Plating and/or Disciple of the Vault or Affinity just starts killing people on turn 3. However, we'd end up getting five cards unbanned (Ancient Den, Tree of Tales, Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers, Great Furnace) and Affinity wouldn't lose much of its speed. Sure, it doesn't get the turn two nuts where it attacks for a dozen-some-odd damage, but it can more effectively rely on Thoughtcast and maybe even go back to playing Frogmite.
With a Force of Will reprint, you could get rid of half the banned list. Glimpse of Nature, Blazing Shoal, Seething Song, and Dread Return could all come off for sure since they just enable glass-cannon combo decks that get blown out by Force of Will. We'd probably see U/W/x Control variants pop up more, as well, instead of fringe play like now.
@buildingadeck: I was hoping they'd keep Dig Through Time, Birthing Pod, and Treasure Cruise unbanned, taking Bloodbraid Elf and Golgari Grave-Troll off. I think Bloodbraid Elf is probably fine in such a format. The real problem with Jund was Deathrite Shaman setting up turn two Liliana of the Veils, then getting all kinds of value.
I think Ancestral Vision would have been fine in our theoretical format.
I don't think Chrome Mox would enable a lot of the combo decks WotC thinks it would. Storm already has Simian Spirit Guide (which is doesn't even play), and Eggs can't exactly imprint a bunch of cards on it.
What we'd probably see is rather something like what happened in Extended and what Chrome Mox sees most play in Legacy for: mono-color aggro decks. One of the issues with aggro right now is how bad it is to cost more than one mana and have less than four toughness. With Chrome Mox, all of a sudden we're casting Goblin Piledrivers on turn one into turn two Goblin Chieftains. Or early Aven Mindcensors in D&T. Or turn one Gravecrawlers into turn two Lotleth Trolls and still having regeneration mana open. Bitterblossom? Figure of Destiny? Magus of the Moon? All much more attractive options in a format with Chrome Mox.
For some examples of what I mean, check these out:
Goblins at Grand Prix Bruxelles 2004
This long list of aggro decks from Extended 2008 Worlds
There's a couple of Goblin Charbelcher lists from that era that played Chrome Mox, but that's pretty much the only pure combo deck using it. The really powerful Storm cards are already banned (mainly Rite of Flame). Even in Legacy, where all the broken rituals aren't banned, Chrome Mox is still played mostly in decks like Sea Stompy, Goblins, and Weird Stoneblade variants.
It'd have to remain under close scrutiny, but I think the DCI really jumped the gun when they made Modern and banned it.
August 3, 2015 4:47 a.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #5
That's a good point about Cranial Plating. Maybe WotC banned the enablers (aka, the artifact lands) rather than actual problem (Plating)? Then again, I don't really mind Plating being in the format right now -- tho it is pretty OP.
I'm just not sure that a non-Cranial Plating, true Affinity deck could be powerful enough to be competitive, even with the artifact lands, Myr Enforcer, Frogmite, Thoughtcast, and the like.
August 3, 2015 3:49 p.m.
chessmaster156 says... #6
I'd quit modern if they reprinted Force of Will. Affinity has plenty of hate staring it in the face, they don't need to have Cranial Plating banned. As far as Sword of the Meek goes, it would be good for a not too powerful token deck to have.
TheAnnihilator says... #1
@sylvannos I like a lot of what you're saying, except unbanning artifact lands. Also, no too sure how reprinting Force would do anything good, but it's worth considering (I didn't know that FoW isn't actually on the Reserved list!).
August 2, 2015 3:28 p.m.