lol k buddy. let me know how that goes when cryptic is still around.

Anyone read the cluster**** that is the new "may" rules at the higher RELs?

Subjective card functionality and different functionality depending what REL you are playing at?

Sounds like a great idea.

Link?

could have swore that they did #s on it and having t1 nacatl was a massive increase in win % over no nacatl or any other 1drop, and bigger than t2 goyf

Seems lame because I think cards should play as written, or as close as possible. This is like serious functional errata on a lot of cards, which is something Wizards has justifiably moved away from. Is there any explanation from Wizards? I assume it's to avoid having to resolve situations where a player misses this kind of thing and then the game proceeds too far to correct it and then it's noticed.

http://www.wizards.com/wpn/Document....rocedure_Guide

Section 1.4 is new and covers the change.

The idea is it sucks to remind your opponent that they missed a "must" trigger which is strictly better for them.

It also sucks that people angleshoot/cheat by not pointing their opponents misses when they think they can get away from it.

I like the intent of the changes. We will have to see if the rules as written are actually an improvement.

Thanks for the link. I agree with everything tabako wrote. I like the intent, as I hate knowing that I am usually the only person in the room who is going to remind my opponent to put counters on his Shrine of Burning Rage even if it winds up costing me the game. On the other hand, it may wind up that it would have been much less confusing for them to start making every future card covered by this list an optional ability.

Why does that preclude the ability to play Identity Crisis? That card was real good in the 5cc decks in Standard a couple of years ago (well, good in the matchups where you boarded it in, since it was often a sideboard card).

Thoughtseize is going to be a huge card in Modern, and obviously can be played in any deck that can cast ID Crisis. So if you aren't playing a straight up control mirror, you can still manufacture a plan to resolve Crisis by using hand disruption.

Alternatively, assuming the mana works and/or isn't too slow (I don't know if it is; I haven't tested any Modern because I wanted to wait for the bannings before really delving into deck construction), you could play an old-style 5cc deck with Vivid lands and Reflecting Pools where you can cast your own Cryptic Commands and ID Crisis. If you're worried about them Cryptic Commanding your spell, don't be an idiot and just run it into it!

In 5cc mirrors, there were two different approaches I used to resolve that against control decks:

1 - Start a fight on their turn with a big threat. In Standard, it was Cloudthresher or Bogardan Hellkite. Now, Teferi is an absolute nightmare in a control mirror. They counter it, you counter their counter, they counter your counter to their counter, and then that all happens and your spell doesn't resolve. Then you untap and Crisis them, and they don't have enough mana to deal with it.

(In the Teferi case, if he resolves, he's doing the same thing as countering all their spells, since obviously they can't stop ID Crisis. Teferi's also nicer because he's cheaper, so you don't have to wait to get to 10-11 mana to start doing things.)

2 - Start a fight on your turn by playing a spell that's going to matter like Ajani Vengeant. They counter, you counter, they counter, you counter, they counter, you're tapped out with your 5 cards in hand. They chortle as they untap and resolve Cruel Ultimatum. Oh no! You discard down to two cards, which are ID Crisis and Cruel Ultimatum. With them tapped low, you cast Crisis, then Cruel them the next turn.

Granted, some of these are situational and require cheap counters like Guttural Response (boarded in) and Negate. And these scenarios require the game to go long in the control mirror, which the old control mirrors definitely tended to do.

But those are a couple of strategies if you're planning on resolving ID Crisis, and there are of course other lines you can take with deck construction in order to make that plan happen. Your comment indicates that people are just going to do "herp derp cast my six-mana sorcery spell derp" and yeah obviously that's not going to work. Just like running Cruel Ultimatum into their countermagic didn't work, but plenty of people had a ton of success with that card in control mirrors.

The way in which they went about this rules change is extremely bizarre.

They wanted a rule so you could allow your opponent to miss triggers if you like. Instead they allow your opponent to miss triggers if they wish and you can allow them to miss if they actually forget.

The real explicitly states that just because an effect is detrimental doesn't mean it won't be optional. Yet, I saw on another forum someone from WOTC said that basically it would be up to the judge's discretion.

I'm not sure which is more confusing. The idea of having cards that are "may" as long as they are beneficial or the idea of having subjective "mays".

Also, Matt Sperling's article brings up another reason this rule is stupid(channelfireball.com):

Its trying to fix a problem that will exist after its implemented.

There are just much better tools than Identity Crisis now. I'd rather have cards like Vendilion Clique and cheap countermagic, both of which are better against combo decks anyway. If you want a threat specifically for the control matchup, almost any planeswalker is better.

And yeah, the rules changes are absurd.

Why is having Identity Crisis in your deck exclusive to decks that can't have those other things? Any well-designed control deck is going to have cheap countermagic and planeswalkers anyway.

Crisis is a good sideboard card and it has a much bigger impact on the game when resolved than a planeswalker. Sure, you can get an activation or two out of it and it goes unchecked, then it will win the game as handily. But if it resolves and they then deal with it with a card like Oblivion Ring, then you've gotten an incremental advantage after trading one-for-one.

With Crisis, the game is essentially over unless they topdeck a counterspell for whatever it is you're going to cast the next turn (usually Cruel Ultimatum).

But my earlier reply was more to argue the "har har, you can't cast that spell with cryptic in the format" assertion, which is completely untrue.

Man wizards are *******s. 2012 MOCS details are up and for no reason whatsoever the limited champ events will be phantom events (you don't keep cards you open). There is also no mention of opting out of a champs event for 6 packs, so we can assume that's gone. They are such little nickle and dime pieces of ****. That slight bit of effective rakeback was not insignificant to players and completely meaningless to them, but just to show us how they feel about us they do that.

Sure, they're not mutually exclusive, but I'd still rather spend the slots used on Identity Crisis on something else e.g. Ajani V/Elspeth/Teferi. The deck with e.g. 4 Negate and 2 ID Crisis in the SB will usually lose to the deck with 4 Negate and 2 Thoughtseize, all other things being equal. Obviously ID Crisis has a bigger effect on the game, but it's rarely going to resolve.

Yeah but snapcaster Identity, gg!

Currently running an esper shell for it, who needs to cruel after?

Negate + Thoughtseize is better in the mirror, for sure.

Negate + Crisis might be better against the field, though. Depending on what you expect to face, but if Melira combo or Reveillark becomes popular (for example), then you'd much rather have a card like Crisis that's going to win the game in several matchups, even though it's not the optimal card for either. Sideboard space in a control deck is so tight, so I'd rather have the more flexible option as long as I'm not giving up too much power to do so.

They are so cheap they won't even let you keep things that aren't real?

Plus living end, dredgevine, who knows what other gy combo (ooze?)

Btw I'll be @ commerce casino for all of February..
If anyone wants to play limited for small to nosebleed stakes let me know.

Be sweet if 4 people are interested.

I don't know what your definition of real is. Sounds like a stupid one though.

I was joking, but its not that "real" to hasbro/WOTC.

There is little cost for them to give away packs in those.

Sure, there will be a marginal increase in redemptions and a marginal decrease in revenue from selling packs.

Yeah, it's just jerky of them to take away those few cents of effective rake back for the players that played enough modo to q. I think the reason they did it is to justify not offering the opt-out option, which is basically being incorporated to the payout of champs tournies (which is better by decent bit). This is good for the people who plan on playing and competing in the champs events, but there are people who play lots of modo and just look at champs as a nice little 6 pack bonus for their work. Now all you get is entry to a day long tourny with average competition that's stronger than a GP.

Going to play live for the first time in months. Gonna go old school and draft OTJ and MD5Any of you guys from near CT

dude u missed the point.

banning nacatl and p fire doesnt make 7 mana cards playable that dont affect the board.

there are still lots of super efficient creatures around.

the times where instants and soceries are the best cards in ur deck are long over.

If we're talking about a 7 mana spell, Cruel Ultimatum does affect the board. If we're talking about a 6 mana spell (Identity Crisis), you don't have it in against aggressive decks, which is why it's a sideboard card.

There are plenty of efficient creatures, but there's also plenty of efficient removal. "The times where instants and sorceries are the best cards in ur deck are long over" suggests that control isn't a viable strategy, which is completely absurd.