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I was an early adopter of Modern. Too frugal to play Standard and too cheap to play Legacy, I found that Modern was perfect: a relatively inexpensive, non-rotating format with a large card pool and an unsolved metagame. This was a few years ago, when trading was still something people did, and I traded for every single Modern staple I could find.
What appealed to me most about the format was its pseudo-eternal nature. Given real-life issues like a job and a family, I liked the idea that I would be able to put together a deck, make periodic updates with new cards, and play in a few events a year with little to no last-minute card gathering.
Of course, that's not how the format has turned out. With frequent bannings and unbannings, your pet deck—especially if it's good—may not be a part of the format for long. As it turns out, Modern is not the low-maintenance format I had imagined, but one where one must constantly be on the lookout for the banhammer.
I'm not saying Modern is inherently bad, just that's it's a higher-upkeep format than it initially seemed. Really, it's more like Standard than Legacy, both in the way the games play out and in how the metagame shifts regularly. I wasn't even a Birthing Pod player (I did own the deck, but I had played it in an event exactly once), but the banning of Pod has hindered my enthusiasm about the format in a big way.
Of course, as a community, we did ask for this. Last summer, Wizards tried to cut the Modern pro tour and make the circuit Standard and Draft only, and the community was not happy. At the time, Tom LaPille explained/hinted/threatened:
When the community outrage led to the reinstatement of the Modern pro tour, we should have known that major shakeups were coming. Unfortunately, LaPille's tweets seem to indicate that Wizards believes one can't be both a fan of entertaining Modern pro tours and have a stable format you can play at your local shop—it's either one or the other, and the community demanded an entertaining pro tour. Bannings were inevitable.
I've been on the fence for a while, but with Modern Masters 2015 right around the corner, plus the mercurial nature of the format becoming more clear to me, I'm looking to trade or sell most of my Modern collection. The format is a great one for grinders. There's plenty of money to be made in it by speculators (if you're an Insider, you've been reading all about those opportunities lately). When we're not watching Abzan mirrors, it's pretty entertaining for spectators. But for someone who plays casually or infrequently, the cost of the format combined with its volatile nature means that it's just not worth it.
So yeah, even though I enjoyed watching the pro tour (although I do think the "health" and "diversity" of Modern was greatly overstated for the entire weekend), it also convinced me that Modern is just not the format for those in my situation. I was hoping for another Legacy, but I can see now that it's just another Extended.
Farewell, Modern. It was nice while it lasted.
Really appreciated this article and the points made. The reasons you outlined were why I left standard and went into modern over a year ago. I not giving up on modern, but I understand why you might. If they decide that they need to ban whatever the best deck is every year in order to shake things up for PT ratings then I will likely follow suit at some point. I feel like unbanning things is less of a feel bad and probably the more healthy approach. If the power level keeps getting nerfed then it will continue to be much closer to standard than Legacy, which I see as a bad thing for players
I think you make a great point. I also hadn’t seen those Tom LaPille tweets which also make a great point. However, my experience has been that competitive environments within the MTG community are inevitable; if you sanction a format and put prizes on its events, it becomes competitive. The PT puts more attention on the format, but if you don’t support the format at the pro level, you’re not addressing huge pent-up demand.
Whether WotC likes it or not, it’s competitive players with 3-4 years of experience under their belts are not satisfied with just Standard and limited. It has to start matching Modern card availability with the increased demand.
I’m in the same boat…I was an early adopter of Modern too and collected ALL the staples and have continued til now….I would scoured all the shops to find a Modern event that actually fired(and promote the formate to anyone who’ed listen)…traveled to many states and countries to play in Modern GP’s….I haven’t built a deck or played a match since the last banning (I watched the PT however)…but I think I’m done …the direction of modern is mirroring standard > Midrange, the gathering> so I can play that 7 days a week already- and that wasn’t the pull that got me into to modern to begin with- but its diversity of decks and strategies and the fact I could in theory hone the craft of being as good as possible with just 1 deck and know my plays better than anyone> I don’t believe thats the case right now and moving forward…I have binders and binders of modern staples just sitting until I get the courage to finally let go them that were they will sit…..Good read and well said DB!
I’m Salty on Modern right now….early adopter, tons of staples> everything came to screaming halt for me post bannings> don’t want to…but as soon as I get the courage I’m dumping staples and stocks….I had high hopes> but the direction of future looks like Midrange: the gathering….and I already enjoy Limited more that Standard… Good Read, thanks DB!
I think banning OP combos and cards are fine. It makes people creative and dive deeper into the modern card pool. What’s the point of having set and sets of cards at your disposal if people play the same decks and cards. I want more decks with synergy, and less decks with “good cards” in it. Decks with “good cards” can be oppressive for new players, and are not that fun to play against. I like interaction, interesting cards, interesting combos, and matches. I think the bannings also help with budget players like my self that want a format with more choices of cards and play style than standard, but still want to be competitive.
Nice article. I agree that Modern seems like a very unsafe format these days- too many reprints, too many expensive cards not being reprinted, and too many decks scuttled by bans.
It seems odd that the health of the Pro Tour metagame trumps the health of the ‘lower level’ metagame. There’s only ONE PT Modern event per year- does that really create so much pressure on the format that it must be repeatedly altered by bans?
And how much did the bans really shake things up? The coverage team reported that 28% of the decks at PT DC were GWB, just sans Pod. The Top 8 included 3 Abzan, 2 Twin, and 2 Burn. Nothing new. Nothing innovative. Certainly no sign of any card that’s been unbanned in the past 2 years. Cruise and Pod are gone? OK, just play the other handful of god decks instead.
I’d agree with Mr. LaPille…except Legacy proves him wrong. While I know PTs are bigger than GPs (from a financial perspective), the recent Legacy GP in New Jersey had innovation AND a diverse metagame. It’s hard to sit there and state that when you make a format very competitive the metagame shrinks to the point that it’s no longer fun, the problem is that WoTC has actually banned modern into it’s current metagame rather than let the metagame evolve over time (like Legacy’s has). Legacy works because you can play combo, aggro, or control (or some hybrid of them). Modern is lacking in any true “control” strategies at tier 1 status, whether that is the fault of the playerbase for not developing one yet (unlikely) or WoTC for banning the cards needed to establish a good control deck platform (unbanning JTMS would be the best starting point).