Hey guys, I'm headed to Utrecht (which is in the Netherlands, apparently - the more you know) for the GP this weekend to jam some modern masters sealed. I can't say I'm particularly nervous about it. Sealed is just always so hit-or-miss, sometimes you open garbage pools and sometimes you open things you know will carry you to the top 8.
I don't really have a "plan" and I think it's always a joke that people talk about sealed strategy. You could do one thousand practice pools and then still mess up for the one that matters. What do I want to do? Well, wizards was not particularly subtle with the archetypes.
My hope is just to open up the R/B bloodlust deck and attack people. I don't know if there are a ton of people who can pilot a rakdos deck better than me. Just sayin'. Ashenmoor Gouger is one of my favorite creatures ever, along with Vampire Lacerator. It's like this set wants me to run R/B.
I played in two drafts last week and won them both, going 3-1. I started off 3-0 and then in both flights, got paired down against someone who was 1-1-1...and lost. Even when I play sixteen lands, I always seem to flood like a bitch. It's just so frustrating when you've drawn land 12, put one on the bottom of your deck and ANY REMOVAL SPELL kills your opponent. Oh well, whatever. I uploaded my decks - both were pretty strong, but the first one is probably better.
- - -
So I could talk about the white-weenie or Torchrunner 3.0 that I'm messing around with in standard, but I wanted to take this time and try something different. I think that this won't be anything more than an echo of other players' sentiment, but I feel very let down with Modern Masters 2015.
1. The set feels very rushed. I don't think it was fleshed out very well. There's a lot of inequity (Gut Shot at common) and non-synergy (Daybreak Coronet lacks real support enchantments). I don't know if the set just wasn't tested enough or there were some executive decisions here and there, but this feels like one of the worst sets in a long time.
2. The value just isn't there. I understand that not EVERY card in the set can be a modern staple, but there's certainly a lot, and I mean A LOT, of dross in this set. You almost have to open a Tarmogoyf or Vendillion Clique to make your money back on a box. Most of the uncommons are worth nothing and there's a huge amount of cards that NO ONE asked to be reprinted, and a lot that weren't reprinted. I thought the whole idea was to make modern more accessible to new players. Well, are they just buying this set for the rares? There's still a ton of commons/uncommons that are 3+ dollars. Gitaxian Probe is insanely expensive online and was anyone really calling for Tezzeret's Gambit to be reprinted?
3. The print run is awful. People are opening packs with three rares and people are opening BOXES with zero total rares. I assume most people have seen the video of the guy opening something llike 18 foil Rusted Relics from one box? He opened a total of 69 or something. That is just unacceptable. Wizards has been doing this for too long to be messing up this bad. Between Utrecht and Las Vegas, I can only assume there will be a bunch of players who open up a bunch of craziness. I mean, if you open up some pool with 18 Rusted Relics, would they make you keep it? God, I hope not. And if some guy if getting 3 rares per pack, would they let him keep it? He just made his money back and then some.
4. The packaging is awful. Wizards statement is that they're trying to be more environmental-friendly with this. Ok, I could get behind that, but come on, I can only assume that this flimsy cardboard is much cheaper to package with. And yes, cards are coming out damaged, there are always accidents, but the main thing is that the sides of the cards are being marked IN THE PACK. The packs look seriously awful and there are even rumors of stores replacing packs without the rares. I don't know about all that, but it definitely seems like more shady things can be done with this flimsy cardboard.
All in all, MM 2015 has been a bit of a SNAFU so far. The first modern masters was so fun to play and seemed really balanced, the second set honestly is less exciting and with the prospect of Modern Masters 2017....2019...2021(?) on the horizon, it certainly seems less interesting.
So...we shall see how it goes this weekend. Good luck to anyone battling out there!
No comments:
Post a Comment