Modern Magic

Today on the mothership, Tom LaPille wrote an article about the new Community Cup format called Modern. You can read the article here. They hope to test out the viability of the format and how people react to it. My hope is it will become a supported format for FNM, Pro Tour Qualifiers, Grand Prix, and even the Pro Tour itself.

I personally believe the format would be accepted with open arms because there is not that much room left for people to fully enjoy Legacy. As everyone knows, card availability and basic entry cost for a competitive Legacy deck can be daunting. The same applies to Magic Online. Many people simply do not want to drop money on digital copies of decks/cards they have real versions of. The investment in the Legacy format is too great for some people and is simply viewed as starting over.

The Modern format would be easy for Standard players to port their cards over with minimal costs compared to purchasing duels, Wastelands, FoW's, and an additional set of sac lands. The biggest chunk of investment for most players will be Aether Vial, Tarmogoyf, Sword of Fire and Ice, shock lands, and plainswalkers. Notable mentions being Thoughtseize, Maelstrom Pulse, Noble Hierarch, and a few sought after cards used by CUBE and EDH players (Kokusho, Gifts Ungiven, etc).

The banned list makes deck creation almost utopian for lots of creative minds.

Ancient Den
Seat of the Synod
Vault of Whispers
Great Furnace
Tree of Tales
Chrome Mox
Dark Depths
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Sword of the Meek
Umezawa's Jitte
Golgari Grave-Troll

As you can see some very powerful cards have been axed. Interpreting the list, you can see some powerful combination cards are very viable. Decks such as Dragonstorm, Time Sieve, Seismic Swans, Scapeshift/Valakut/Omen, Hypergenesis, Pyromancers Swath, Dredge, Tooth and Nail, Splinter Twin/Pestermite/Deciever, and even Enduring Ideal. Some of the old strategies will make it and some won't, but the important thing how great they are as options! It's certain there won't just be combo decks running rampant. Aggro, control and even mid-range decks will be a smorgasbord for people looking for a new snack to feast on :)

My eyes will be glued to the Community Cup to see what pans out.

Amos C.