That is not viable and will need to be changed after this year. I am hoping, optimistically right now, that Wizards follows up on their recent changes by adding Modern Grand Prix across the board. Europe will need at least one more, ideally two, to make that a viable situation. I am trusting Wizards to follow through with all this by adding at least one European GP next year.

Do you think this is viable?
There is, in comparison, one legacy event this year, and 9 Standard/limited events.

My comment made it pretty clear that a possible Opal ban would be based on results from the next 12 months, not from ban mania or pro tour pressures. I have always been about results-oriented bans and if Affinity has the results, I acknowledge Opal is the card to go. That sais, the new PT structure raises the results bar much higher than it was before. You will notice I never said it was likely. Just that it was possible.

Oh, I do not wish modern to replace standard, only to provide a viable alternative to competitive players, now I feel they can ignore modern completely and focus exclusively on standard

anyways, we’ll see, thanks for the reply

So Aaron Forscythe stated in his article that the PT accelerated the banning of cards. You talked about that in your article. No PT should decelerate the speed of banning, right?
Still one of the first comments is about banning new cards and you agree with the comment. What happened to modern in the US since the PT that mox opal and SSG are só dominant they need a banning nów, because in Europe we apparently missed the boat on that one then.

Sorry, but to me this seems more like an addiction to banlist discussions, than something based on a rationale. I actually think we’ll see more unbannings this year, as Forscythe stated that the banlist should be as small as possible.

Happy to respond more directly to these, although many of them are addressed in some form in this article.

1. Honestly, no one should have hoped Modern would replace Standard. That was an unrealistic expectation I would have argued against and one I never even held. It’s also totally outside the scope of anything Wizards promised or implied about Modern.

2. If you want to play Modern at GPs/SCG Classic or Open events/PPTQs/RPTQ/other local tourneys, you can still do so. You can even make a name from it, and the average player and above average player alike can still do that without a Modern Pro Tour. I assume most Modern players play the format because they enjoy its decks, metagame, and community, and not to try riding Modern to the Pro Tour. Given the average tournament prospects of the average player, I’d say this has been the case for years and the update doesn’t change it.

3. Like I said, there is a demonstrable need for a non-rotating format. Legacy is never going to be that format and there is no indication they are replacing Modern with a new non-rotating format. If so, there is considerable profit to be had in adding Modern GPs to just double-down on the non-rotating market. I expect Wizards to add at least a few of these next year to capitalize in these opportunities. If they don’t, consider me off Team Optimism.

4. Ban mania and bans were hugely detrimental to Modern for years. It plays out in games the same way basically any other factor you mentioned, or those I/Forsythe talked about, play out in games: they hang over the play experience and cast a shadow over the format. That prevents people from buying in and scares people away from investment. And again, Modern was never billed as an alternative to Standard to my knowledge. I don’t know why people made this assumption.

As for the guidelines, you’ll have to wait for next week to talk about those. For now, I’ll say your worries are overblown and out of dialogue with both Forsythe’s article and some of Stoddard’s recent pieces as well.

Sorry to hear you are cashing out. I definitely feel where you are coming from, as it’s something I will probably do myself in the next couple of years as personal and professional demands change. That said, I do want to speak to one of your fears, both to you and anyone else who has it: that Wizards has failed to build “a diverse non-rotating format, where reprints could keep prices in check allowing players to build multiple archetypes.” I agree these are currently challenges Modern faces, but I also believe the new direction for Modern will really help Wizards fulfill those expectations. It just wasn’t going to happen with Modern as a Pro Tour format, whether with the crazy spikes and hype around PTs, the banlist changes, and the fear around bans and pushed metagame changes.

I’m hoping 2016 sees all that start to change, even if it’s harder for players that do want to play Pro Tour Magic and now can’t do so with Modern. Hopefully you enjoy your next hobbies and maybe come back one day!

Whether they are reading and listening or just reaching the same/similar conclusions, I am just happy with how the format is shaping out since the start of April. Here’s to more awesome Modern to come!

I would love to think it contributed to the decision, and it is definitely not that unlikely. However the decision went down, I am happy it ended up like it did and glad so many have enjoyed both Forsythe’s article and my “Fixing Modern” attempts. Also, like you, I also plan on enjoying the format for a long time and these kinds of decisions should give us a lot of faith.

Glad you enjoyed the piece! Who knows if the past article informed Forsythe’s update, but however the decision got made, I am just happy it got made at all. Agree with you that we need to stay levelheaded, supportive, and in conversation with Wizards as Modern keeps growing and changing. As long as it stays on this current trajectory, you can bet I will stay the course!

No clue if it was just a happy coincidence or if the last article made some small contribution, but either way, I am really happy we got the guidelines. Very excited to unpack them next week too. I think there’s a lot there beyond just a few bulletpoints.

Opal is a card that could go in the next 12 months, depending on how Affinity performs. SSG is a likelier target in my opinion, and probably one that goes with Opal, as you suggest, or before it. At least we can be more confident that any bans will be based on metagame considerations and not Pro Tour demands.

The Twin ban’s timing was definitely questionable, but honestly, if blue decks keep doing what they are doing, the ban will be worth it. I am much happier with a blue format of AV than one with Twin, especially if AV may one day be joined by other blue-benefitting bans and reprints. We will see how it turns out but I am optimistic!

1. Modern is no longer a path to the top, top players should focus on standard, therefore standard is more important than modern and the hope of modern being an alternative to standard are dashed

2.this does affect players of many skill levels, I just hate it when I have to trade my gpt victories for credits due to most gps being standard, now I also have to trade all my pptq victories as well… This may be just me but I’d rather try to make a name for myself regionally sometime rather than selling wins for boosters and nobody knowing me, modern can no longer do that, in fact why would modern players want to play in pptqs at all now?

3. I have a hard time believing I am telling this to you, but your assumption about more modern gps, is not backed by any evidence at all, in fact in the long term it could mean less

4. You focus too much on what most players wanted less bans and more talk, but the thing is that neither of those affects the quality of the games we play, we could as well have more bans and 0 communication and yet a better format,those were secondary objectives which people obssessed over but mostly for monetary issues, we got the bonus and missed the primary objective which was having a non rotating alternative to standard

5. The guidelines are meaningless, so they will not introduce cards directly into modern, nor will they ban anything unless absolutely necessary and they will not test for modern either, so what are they going to do to meet their guidelines? Some sort of prayer I guess…

This is not the end of the world, but I have every reason to be cautiously pessimistic , why would I

They could certainly do some work on the reprints/affordability – perhaps they believe modern masters is all we deserve and never shall there be another instance of thoughtseize, chord of calling, mutavault etc in a standard set (the lack of a frigging cavern of souls or glimpse the unthinkable in SOI is a travesty). That being said a better reason to freak out would have been the twin ban, where it became de jour for Wizards to just ban some random high profile card to create a new format – i.e. forced, unpredictable rotation.

You say you’ve been playing for nearly 15 years – and presumably you did not make the pro tour in those 15 years. But now that they’ve removed modern from the PT your dream is officially over so its time to quit the format? It sounds like you were not likely going to be playing in a PT anytime soon anyways so that’s an interesting rationale for quitting the format/game.

This is also an absurd time to complain about their communication on the format. Last week? Sure. But Forsythe literally just gave a rational explanation for a policy change AND provided literal text on what their vision for the format is. Now if you don’t like that vision, then fine I guess, but they are being remarkably transparent and forthright right now.

This weekend I decided to price out my collection and sell out.

It has become very clear that the hopes player had for Modern (a diverse non-rotating format, where reprints could keep prices in check allowing players to build multiple archetypes) are not at all how WotC saw it. Between that misplaced hope, and the absolutely atrocious player communication about Modern by WotC I don’t see a reason to keep giving the company or the game my time and my money. Specially since evenn if I *were* to give them my money, they have already made it explicitly clear that they will not test or design for my favorite format. OK then.

The removal of the PT was the nail in the coffin. The only time I have even come close to qualifying for the PT was through Modern. The reason is simple: I have neither the time nor inclination to grind Standard or Limited. Modern was a way to play a format where card knowledge accumulated through years of time investment could actually yield dividends. Getting to a Modern GP has often meant traveling long distances and that’s simply not doable a lot of the time.

I hope that your optimism for the format pans out.

I have decided to change hobbies, and it saddens me greatly because MtG is and will be a cornerstone subculture through which I met a lot of great people.

But hey, if enough people like me leave, prices should come down a bit.

I feel pretty neutral about the PT thing, but that’s likely because I’m so new to the format; I’ve no ideas about what it really means (experientially) to be or not be a PT format, so I feel pretty unaffected. That said, AF’s article made sense, so I hope to enjoy the format for a good long while.

I am with you on Team Optimism and I believe that this is a very important step in the right direction for Wizards to take. Modern as a format has a long road ahead of it in order to bring it in line with what both the community and Wizards wants it to be, but Aaron’s article represents an important milestone showing that Wizards is ready and willing to do their part in order to get us there. We as a community now need to do our part in continuing to show our support for the format that we all love and maintain a consistent and levelheaded dialog with Wizards about our concerns and desires.

And all for the best. I look forward to your followup article going over the new definition of modern and how it compares to the old ones you were stitching together – I think the biggest addition was the desire to have a small ban list.

I’m convinced mox opal is banned this year at some point, and probably simian spirit guide. Maybe with opal gone we could unban the artifact lands to still shrink the overall banlist length. Bloodbraid has to come off at some point too – if someone lives the dream 1/100 matches by cascading into AV good for them – its still not likely going to make temur midrange better than jund or abzan.