A Modern War.

Pro Tour Philly just happened and now people are playing copies of the hot decks/cards. Not me. Fagetta bout it. I'd rather weld some weird Frankenstein type monster to rip limbs off other decks. You see, there is a tournament coming up at my LGS, Comic Town, and I want to crush people like grapes. So I need to really dig my heals in. Rawr.

To start off, like many other "brewers" out there, I dipped my nose into The Gatherer. My hopes of finding key pieces for the deck I want to play seem to yield very disheartening results. It's at this time when you realize that some of the cards you need are either banned or just too expensive. There is some glimmer of hope, just not much.

I may have to net-deck. There's nothing wrong with net-decking, but when I am about to play in an expected field, sometimes a metagamed deck feels right. The risk that I still can get blown out is there, but I feel like if I want to win, I have to be having fun with the deck I'm shuffling.

For many people I've known over the years it's the reverse for them. They need to be winning to have fun. I've tried to push that thought process in my head. To become a wild animal and...yaa..not gonna happen. Not at the beginning of it all. I certainly don't like losing, but I also hate playing decks that lack innovation attached to competitiveness. Friggorid was a prime example of a deck I love to play, as is Maher-Oath, Counter-Phoenix, the OG RDW with Tangle Wire, Sabre Bargain, Hatred, Skies, Tog, Balancing Tings, Cocoa Pebbles, Living Death, and of course my all time favorite, Reanimator (with Welder-Reanimator right at that spot).

Deck names aside, building a deck from scratch is tiresome. Arguments with friends/testing partners, proxied cards, hours and hours wasted grinding ideas into dust, and - the worst part - finding the cards for every ones deck for the event. Let me tell you, not being able to find Mindstones and having to play a mana Myr instead, is teeth grinding. Among the worst of the worst is when you do find the card but the dealer is selling them at an insanely jacked up price. That card you bought for 15 dollars - that you could have bought from the local store the night before for $5 - won't leave your binder for a long time just on principle.

The biggest hurdle for making a deck for a "now known" format like Modern is that it really isn't all that known. It's history is being written at this very second. Not just on MTGO, but across all LGS's, coffee shops, cafeteria's, and at friends houses, people are absorbing those turn 3 kills and either loathe it or are giddy like a priest at a boys ranch.

People have cried "XXX card needs banned!" or "XXX card isn't THAT bad of a card to be banned." It's almost like they haven't really thought about why the banned list is the way it is. Some hate not getting their way (like it's fucking Burger King or some shit), and others are just the type to do a potato sack race with scissors.

Patience isn't necessarily something most players have. I remember when Extended was first announced and the banned list had cards like Kird Ape, Hippie, and Juggernaut (of all cards! the gall!). It was confusing for me. Why didn't they ban Force of Will, Birds of Paradise, Dark Ritual, or Duel Lands?

Who was I to complain? :)

We've come a long way from Extended and Legacy (a big "fuck you" to fake formats like Vintage, EDH, 5 Color, Cubing, Mental Magic, and the ever elusive Pauper). Let's enjoy what we have. Stock up on coffee, Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and cigarettes - there's gonna be some long nights a coming!

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