Continuation from the previous article, but this episode of series will be different. So far, I have been talking about how I want to trade and sell to make money, but what about the playing aspect? Surely we need to play to indulge in the Madness for Modern! In fact, the PTQ and GP season for Modern is picking up already; GP Minneapolis has started off the modern event, with the Top 4 going to the following decks:
- Scapeshift
- Jund
- U/W Control
- U/W/x Kiki-Midrange
Full result: http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=7306&f=MO
So what are we going to play? What to expect? I'm sure you know your local meta, but if in case this article is being read by someone who is new or unfamiliar to the format, I hope this will be a good starting point to gauge and understand what you will face in the meta.
As a short intro for modern, it's a non-rotating (Eternal) format with cards legal up to 8th Edition with it's own specific banned-list. The meta has a healthy range of aggro, control and combo decks, with combo decks taking the percentage dominance of about 40% of the meta. It is currently still shaping itself as more deck ideas are created, tested and played, but there are several decks in the different archetype of decks that has proven or established themselves to be the contender. These decks are what you'll see in general in a typical Modern metagame:
Aggro
Control
- U/W Control
- U/W/R Midrange
- U/W/R Control
- Gifts Control
- Cruel Control
- Mono-U or U/x TRON
- The Rock
- Faeries
- The Rack
Combo
- Melira Pod
- Amulet of Vigor Combo
- Kiki- Pod
- Soul Sisters
- Twin-Exarch/Kiki-Twin
- UR Storm
- Scapeshift
- Ad Nauseum
- Living End
- R/G TRON
- Reanimator
I'm not an expert in the game or the play for most of the decks, so I'll leave links to primers on MTG Salvation.com for references. If you go ahead to explore the other areas of the site, you'll realise other decks are not listed but exist as minority. Some are unproven for tournament results, but are still a force to be reckoned with.
I personally do have a few decks that I have worked on. They are complete but lacking the physical cards:
- Bant Midrange (abandoned)
- 5C Ally Reanimator (currently playing)
Dump/Draw the library until you have Angel of Glory's Rise and Unburial Rites in the graveyard. Then reanimate Angel of Glory's Rise, triggering her ability to bring back all Human cards back onto the battlefield. Most cards are there to dump cards into the graveyard. A very small amount of cards are present to protect the combo.
Idea is a Turn 1 mana creature, followed by a Turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft. If opponents cannot answer him, I'll swing in for 6 the next turn and continuing to apply heavy pressure on the opponent. Cards like Elspeth, Knight Errant and Swords are added to boost damage and pressure while cards like Bant Charm, Remand, Snapcaster Mage provides utility.
Bant Midrange was abandoned due to the high cost of Tarmogoyf... The deck works without him, but seriously, it's Tarmagoyf... "The best green creature in any constructed format..." ~ Everyone.
See? If you looked through the list above, you'll realise that the meta-game is although diverse, the staples will forever remain staples. Powerhouse cards or incredibly powerful staples will see a slow increase in price overtime unless banned or reprinted and on the finance point of view, it's really worth throwing some money as investment. That brings to my point of starting out in the finance aspect of MTG in the first place. Sure, other formats like Standard and legacy do bring in some lucrative deals and trades for their chases cards, but legacy is expensive to buy in, while standard rotates every year and upkeep is constant. Modern is slightly cheaper than legacy, but still expensive in general to buy in. That's why it's best to jump onto the ship before it's too expensive to take the leap!
Given the choice I would not have abandoned the Bant deck, but given the circumstances of my situation in my studies and finances, I can't afford to go for modern events regularly or the remaining physical cards for sanctioned play, so hence, I decided to sell the deck. (I have played several otherdecks before but not in modern format.) At the moment now, I play mainly EDH and Modern on a casual level, but I believe that the decks can pit against other decks in the minority range. (That's not the point though...)
Back to topic, the point I'm trying to make is that don't just blindly jump into the format just because everyone (including me) is asking you to jump. Stop! Evaluate your schedule and your plans outside MTG. Do you have the time and commitment to play the events regularly? Even without playing the events, do you play with your friends or group regularly? The word here is regular or frequently.. It's not so much as about how well you play or how far you plan to go into it as a career. Modern is non-rotating, which means that cards will never rotate out like Standard, with more cards being added in. Also, this means that staples will be on the rise, but it also means that any reprints will automatically be Modern-legal unless banning of the card. If there is stock out there or supply available, you can always jump in later. For my case, I have to down-grade my cards to a cheaper deck because I want to start a foil Planeswalker collection and focus more on my studies; which means lesser play time for such events so no point for me to hold onto the cards (that's what I thought back then...) It's not a wrong move. I made back about 90% of what I had spent on the deck, maybe a little surplus, which I used to start off my Planeswalker collection. (The entire stupid move of this was to buy the Avacyn Restored and Theros Booster box...... I could have bought my Foil Elspeth, Knight Errant!!)
Second point to note is Budget. If your budget is relatively low and you want to have a good time playing rather than worrying yourself over how to save $100 for that staple card, (I don't know... A Karn or Liliana maybe?) then may I suggest that you probably stick to kitchen table casual or standard as a start, then slowly collect the pieces until you are ready to break into the format. Just note that a Tier 1 Modern deck will rob you of about $1200 to $1500 depending on your country's exchange rate to stores' quoted prices and the deck you play. Staples like Fetchlands and Shocklands will cost you about $60-90 and $15-18 on average. You're talking about at least 1-2 playsets of these for maximum mana efficiency for your deck! Creature/non-creature staples also can cost you a bomb. Some staples are cheap pick-ups while others can go into the range of $10+ till $100+ (Tarmogoyf...). So just know what you are going to jump into before really taking the jump.
Third point is knowing what you want to really play. Yes, at the start, all decks seems cool to play! but if you don't know what you want, you end up spending more and required and ended up selling off and re-starting all over again. Do your research; know what you are buying into for the decks and plan out your budget and see if it fits (see point 2). Also research on the deck if it's still under development or is a proven or established deck that see a lot of play. Just note that developing decks are cheaper and if they happen to be proven effective or strong in the meta, you'll see the price of your cards just suddenly doubled or tripled in value without you doing anything (other than play the deck to test the results of course!) however proven or established decks are like a "safe" zone which decks out there are more expensive but more likely to be complete and are generally to be more powerful, giving a better value for your buck!
Back to topic, the point I'm trying to make is that don't just blindly jump into the format just because everyone (including me) is asking you to jump. Stop! Evaluate your schedule and your plans outside MTG. Do you have the time and commitment to play the events regularly? Even without playing the events, do you play with your friends or group regularly? The word here is regular or frequently.. It's not so much as about how well you play or how far you plan to go into it as a career. Modern is non-rotating, which means that cards will never rotate out like Standard, with more cards being added in. Also, this means that staples will be on the rise, but it also means that any reprints will automatically be Modern-legal unless banning of the card. If there is stock out there or supply available, you can always jump in later. For my case, I have to down-grade my cards to a cheaper deck because I want to start a foil Planeswalker collection and focus more on my studies; which means lesser play time for such events so no point for me to hold onto the cards (that's what I thought back then...) It's not a wrong move. I made back about 90% of what I had spent on the deck, maybe a little surplus, which I used to start off my Planeswalker collection. (The entire stupid move of this was to buy the Avacyn Restored and Theros Booster box...... I could have bought my Foil Elspeth, Knight Errant!!)
Second point to note is Budget. If your budget is relatively low and you want to have a good time playing rather than worrying yourself over how to save $100 for that staple card, (I don't know... A Karn or Liliana maybe?) then may I suggest that you probably stick to kitchen table casual or standard as a start, then slowly collect the pieces until you are ready to break into the format. Just note that a Tier 1 Modern deck will rob you of about $1200 to $1500 depending on your country's exchange rate to stores' quoted prices and the deck you play. Staples like Fetchlands and Shocklands will cost you about $60-90 and $15-18 on average. You're talking about at least 1-2 playsets of these for maximum mana efficiency for your deck! Creature/non-creature staples also can cost you a bomb. Some staples are cheap pick-ups while others can go into the range of $10+ till $100+ (Tarmogoyf...). So just know what you are going to jump into before really taking the jump.
Third point is knowing what you want to really play. Yes, at the start, all decks seems cool to play! but if you don't know what you want, you end up spending more and required and ended up selling off and re-starting all over again. Do your research; know what you are buying into for the decks and plan out your budget and see if it fits (see point 2). Also research on the deck if it's still under development or is a proven or established deck that see a lot of play. Just note that developing decks are cheaper and if they happen to be proven effective or strong in the meta, you'll see the price of your cards just suddenly doubled or tripled in value without you doing anything (other than play the deck to test the results of course!) however proven or established decks are like a "safe" zone which decks out there are more expensive but more likely to be complete and are generally to be more powerful, giving a better value for your buck!
To end off, there is not much for the finance aspect as I'm still having my exams. I've planned to skip Journey into Nyx and several other sets until M15. For now I'll save the money for the purchase of the singles or probably for September/October Post-RTR rotation buys. (Hope price will reduce enough for relatively cheap pick-ups!)
As a leaving note, I honestly have to consider, what do I really want in the end? I'm still torn between wanting to sell off my cards for the money or should I keep them till later, but if I do, until when? This would probably be for my next article to reflect upon. But for now, Keep your heads up for Modern season! The prices of the staples WILL be going up and if in case you are still lost, the season has kicked off already! Expect the full swing coming in a couple of weeks time and by then, enjoy the season! Hopefully I can post at least 2 more articles in this series before the season hits full swing.
As a leaving note, I honestly have to consider, what do I really want in the end? I'm still torn between wanting to sell off my cards for the money or should I keep them till later, but if I do, until when? This would probably be for my next article to reflect upon. But for now, Keep your heads up for Modern season! The prices of the staples WILL be going up and if in case you are still lost, the season has kicked off already! Expect the full swing coming in a couple of weeks time and by then, enjoy the season! Hopefully I can post at least 2 more articles in this series before the season hits full swing.
- Side note: I finally have done up my Inventory log for all my rare and mythic rare cards! Yay! Next is for my Uncommon and Commons collection!
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