Modern play, Gone?!

Wizard of the coast has made an announcement a while back concerning modern play at the pro tour events.  They decided to do away with the format, why? Here’s just some of the reason why they are getting rid of the format.

Wizards of the Coast made an announcement a while back concerning modern play at the pro tour events;  they decided to do away with the format. Why? Here’s just some of the reasons why they are getting rid of the format.

Wizards of the Coast's goal for the pro tour is to reward the players for their drafting skills, innovative deck building and skillful game-play in an environment they are not too familiar with. They also want to highlight the newest card set in the tournament, which seems like the biggest reason why they’re getting rid of modern. Wizards usually set the pro tour for modern just a few weeks after the new set comes out, which allows the players to showcase the new cards in their modern decks by showing how the new cards work in a premier level setting.

Since modern became a format back in 2011, Wizards of the Coast has questioned if the format is a good fit for a pro tour setting. Even top players have pointed out that the format isn't about being innovative or solving problems with the newest set; it gives rewards for repetitive, established decks. That wasn't what the pro tour was suppose to be about.

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creatureless take over

Seth Manfield, with a white black control deck that he built at 1 am on Friday morning, has beaten the 2007 other players that showed up for the big apple’s Grand Prix New York 2016. In the finals he took on Louis-Samuel Deltour, a French player, with his 4 color cryptolith rite deck. Louis-Samuel had as much of an uphill battle as Scott Lipp had in the semi-finals before him, facing endless spot and mass removal. Who knew that making a last minute, creatureless, deck would afford such a coveted prize?

G/W tokens were pretty well used by players around the Grand Prix New York play area and made the top 8 decklist 3 times. Bant company deck did not make the top 8, even though a lot of players have used the deck.

The top prize payout for Seth Manfield was $10,000,with Louis-Samuel taking home $5,000 for coming in second place. That's a pretty nice payout for both guys, just for playing a good ol’ intense game of Magic: The gathering. Every player will get a stoneforge mystic promo just for participating at any Grand Prix event (while supplies last).

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TOKEN VICTORY

The Shadows over Innistrad pro-tour came to an end on April 24, 2016. The winner? Steve Rubin with his G/W tokens deck, after three grueling and tiring days of trying to make it to the top. In the final match he took down Andrea Mengucci with his G/W/U Bant Company deck.

We all thought that the Bant Company deck was really the deck to beat. It had developed a reputation for knocking out the Eldrazi, which I am pretty sure we were all tired of seeing in tournaments. More recently, it seems to have had an unsuccessful run among some players; only a few have actually made it this far since the first time it appeared. That makes this Bant deck a stand-out performer, taking second place and a prize payout of $20,000, which is a pretty nice payout for second place!

The big question is, now that the tour has ended with a G/W tokens deck coming out on top, will we see more of this kind of deck showing up to your Friday night MtG and events with standard decks?

The answer: probably.  

I’m sure Magic players are running around trying to get all the cards they need to copy the winner’s deck, with the aim of winning events. It just so happens that the tour ended the weekend before Shadows over Innistrad game day weekend. There may be a chance that this deck will make its rounds during game day weekend at your local game shop.

The next pro tour will be happening in Sydney, Australia, from the 5th to the 7th of August, coinciding with the release of the Eldritch Moon set. The event will be standard and booster draft. I'm sure we'll be seeing Steve Rubin there playing.

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GAME DAY RESULTS

As most of you players and friends know I went to game day Saturday august 9th 2014. Most of you know that I did pretty well and also use my sliver deck. It was kind of a last minute decision to use the deck, so I am glad I went with the deck because otherwise I don’t think I would’ve done as well, but yet again we would never know until I give it a try.

As first of the rounds gets started I played against a super nice girl (mind you everyone I played against and talked to were pretty darn awesome) with a black/white deck. As I put out my mana onto the battle field she noticed I’m playing tri colored deck and as soon as I put out belligerent sliver onto the battlefield, she gave me this look and said “a nylea sliver deck?” I respond nicely with a “yup” and a smile. She proceeds to letting me know how much she hates playing against slivers for the rest of the round we played. It was quite fun to play her, especially with the first win I made was with all my slivers I control can’t be blocked except by two or more creature’s, double strike, produce mana, and having +1/+1 counters added to them. She had attacked me last turn with one of two creatures she had out so with all my creatures swinging (for 18 points of damage by the way) she couldn’t even block one of them giving me the win. now with the second hand we played she had more creatures out trying to keep up with the belligerent sliver’s ability and swinging at me for small damage points but I end up blocking her creatures killing them before they do anything to my creatures. The second hand gave me the win by swinging for 24 points of damage, even when she was able to block one of my creatures she was still being hit with 20 points of damage hitting her 16 life total down to below zero. Round 1 win goes to me.

At this point I’m catching my breath, only because that’s a first win right out of the bat. Moving onto round two playing against a red/blue deck which was obvious just from the first land card he put out (a pain land). The player is fairly new to the game with only starting two weeks before m-15 came out. But he did put up a pretty good fight with his deck. First round pretty much destroyed him rather quickly, I killed him with a sorcery card Lava axe which deal 5 points of damage to him. The second round he did really well (me being mana screwed helped too) he put out three enchantments where it would deal one damage to my creatures when they attack (I can’t remember what the name of the card is to save my life) so with me forgetting about the enchantment card being there I kept killing my creatures, stupid move really but I couldn’t get anywhere with what I have coming out. So the second hand went to him. Now the third hand he was mana screwed and couldn’t get his guttersnipe out the quickly enough to do some excessive damage to me. So I have won round two with my slivers swinging for 13 getting his life total down below zero. Second round won by me.

Now the third round lasted like 10 minutes it seems because I was playing against and black and red aggro deck. Annihilated me in what seems like 2 moves. I couldn’t get my creature out quickly enough to do anything. Obviously the second round I lost. This is ok with me only because I’m now 2 wins and 1 loss. I knew I’m going against other people who done pretty well in the other rounds. But I was happy because that’s really the most wins I’ve ever done at an event at my LGS, or any other place I’ve attended events at.

Now it’s the fourth round. I’m playing against a guy I’ve seen at the shop a few time before and usually do pretty well when it comes to his deck. First hand ended rather quickly with him putting an artifact and then enchanting it with ensoul artifact making it a 5/5 indestructible creature swinging with it each turn until my life total ran out. The second and third hand took a little bit longer to finish. But I did win the second hand but I barely held on, it wouldn’t have lasted as long if I didn’t get my belligerent sliver and bonescythe sliver out there. The third round he had 2 dragons out and kept swinging with them. But I had enough creatures out to be able to take majority of his life total down but I t wasn’t enough to beat him.

That last lost gave me a 2 win 2 loss record and placed 5th place out of 12. I couldn’t be happier with the result of the day. I didn’t win any packs but I did get a top eight promo card and also a participation card. The top eight promo is a foil chief engineer, and the participation promo card is reclamation sage (with an awesome alternate art). If you want to see what my sliver deck looks like click here for the link to take you to the tapped-out page.

What deck did you end up using for your game day and how well or bad did you do?

Leave comments of your thoughts.

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