You Make the Masters Set

[Thomas David Baker]

I loved Innistrad.  I believed Maro when he said New World Order made things better for experienced players too and used Innistrad as an example.

Then Modern Masters came out and despite having to include a bunch of rares and only being allowed cards from Mirrodin to Shards it was way better than anything we've seen since Innistrad, and most of what came before, too.

It will be minimum one year until the next Modern Masters.

So, my idea is, let's make our own Modern Masters.

Random ideas that are very much half formed:

* 6 of each of 60 commons, 3 of each of 60 uncommons, 2 of each of 50 rares, 1 of each of 10 mythics is 650 cards.

* Use old cards, pre-Mirrodin, for spell-based funtimes and novelty even for players that have been playing for a while.

* Invent cards where necessary to fill holes.

* Some possible seeded archetypes: free spell necro, ug madness, gro, draw-go, astral slide, reanimator, artifact control, mill, auras, tokens, birthing pod, pox, sacrifice, prison, wizard tribal.

* Possibly include a lot of Legacy playables and call it "Legacy Masters".  What wizards would print if they said fuck it to the secondary market and the reserve list and tried to support legacy via a "Masters" release.

What do you think?  Interested in being on the development team?  Could make for some cheap Tuesday nights during the long reign of M14* ...

* = Bit of a cheap shot.  I've actually really enjoyed 3 of the last 4 core set drafts.

[James Mills]

GU is better for threashold and works well will madness style deck.

GB needs cards like cabal therapy, removal and big creatures. I suggest something like Spiritmonger at rare.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Seems a pretty obvious move.

I think maybe we need some draw to play soldiers at common, or at least a card that cares about soldiers. Possibilities include Daru Stinger or Piety Charm.

Also Goblin Legionnaire seems like a perfect fit! Maybe we can squeeze in one gold card per pair at common?

Thomas David Baker said:

Monk Idealist is also a Cleric so he might take the place of Auramancer in W and be downshifted to Common.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Also it looks like split cards didn't import correctly into MV

[Paul Hodgson]

War marshall would be sweet, how about strafe? (or flame slash if that's too bad)

Thomas David Baker said:

Latest R list:

CR01 - Mogg Fanatic R - creature, small, direct damage (goblins)
CR02 - Fireslinger 1R - creature, small, direct damage (wizards)
CR03 - Goblin Lookout 1R - creature, small (goblins)
CR04 - War Buggy 1R - creature, small, haste (goblins)
CR05 - Fault Riders 2R - creature, small, first strike (soldiers)
CR06 - Shock Troops 3R - creature, small, direct damage (soldiers)
CR07 - Anarchist 4R - creature, small (wizards)
CR08 - Mogg Flunkies 1R - creature, medium (goblins)
CR09 - Rock Jockey 2R - creature, medium (goblins)
CR10 - Chartooth Cougar 5R - creature, medium, mountaincycling (cycling)
CR11 - Firebolt R - sorcery, direct damage
CR12 - Kindle 1R - instant, direct damage
CR13 - Lavamancer's Skill 1R - aura, direct damage
CR14 - Blood Frenzy 1R - instant, power pumping
CR15 - Scrap 2R - artifact removal (cycling)
CR16 - Solar Blast 3R - instant, direct damage (cycling)
CR17 - Wave of Indifference XR - sorcery, falter
CR18 - Heat Ray XR - instant, creature damage

Firebolt may be too good at Common.  Too much of the damage can hit player - more should probably be creature-only.  More Sorceries for Anarchist?

Seriously considered timeshifting Mogg War Marshall or Dragon Fodder/Krenko's Command.  Mogg Alarm probably not good enough.

Fireslinger is a nombo with Lavamancer's Skills but there are few Wizards in R.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

Looking at red Soldiers at Uncommon/Rare and I think we may have a problem as there are 5 total, and most are bad! We could probably shift rarities of Goblin Trenches and/or Soltari Guerillas

[Dan Barrett]

Firebolt seems a good inclusion, so bump up to uncommon?

[Paul Hodgson]

Is red a natural fit for soldiers at this point in time? Looking at the file there are far more in U that would be a better fit if we wanted to push soldier tribal?

[James Mills]

Firebolt at common seems fine.

[Thomas David Baker]

WR theme absolutely doesn't have to be Soldiers.  5-6 tribal themes is too many anyway.

Does anyone know a WR deck from any of these blocks that was fun to play?

WR could just be the colors of efficient aggro if all else fails.

Looking at MMA there are role players like Arcbound Worker and the land cyclers but the individual commons are mostly pretty damn good. Amrou Scout, Drag Down, Dreamspoiler Witches, even Faerie Macabre and Fury Charm are ok.  So we should try and find good as well as synergetic cards. It's all well and good if a card is a Bird Soldier Cleric but if it is a 2/2 flier for 5 we have to skip on. Downgrading stuff from Uncommon seems like the next thing to look at.

Is there any way we can turn the fact that creatures used to be shit into a virtue? Inventing creatures or tweaking stats is an option. We can always put the original art into a Magic Set Editor version with higher power and toughness! Hopefully that isn't necessary.

[Thomas David Baker]

I think Strafe is a good suggestion. Kill an early guy, get it back with Anarchist for value. Nice.

I cut Solar Blast for it.

[Dan Barrett]

WR was Astral slide/Lightning Rift (cycling), no?

[Paul Hodgson]

yep, think so, might not work without those two cards though

Dan Barrett said:

WR was Astral slide/Lightning Rift (cycling), no?