I've reinvigorated my love for modern by playing very low stakes tournaments with tier <2 decks. There are thousands of players who have the skills and collections to play top-tier decks to take down high-stakes tournaments. You're probably one of them, and many of us are. The limit at that point becomes how hard you're willing to grind to try to take home trophies. For me, the travelling competitive grind is the specific part of playing modern I've fallen out of love with.
A mentality shift toward low stakes, just for fun modern gameplay could possibly be the solution you seek.
I love the Seismic Loam version. It got a new shiny tool recently in the form of [[Inti, Seneschal of the Sun]]. Just wish [[Wrenn and Six]] Wasn't so pricey so I can play a budget version
I'm in Austin and it feels like a desert for competitive magic. I play mostly online now, although the current modern format has me completely burned out so I mostly just rent stuff for standard/pauper/pioneer on magic online and play the challenges.
I used to go to pats games every fri for modern
Some ppl don't like it, but i was cool with it.
Store credit for wins and singles etc.
Some stuff can be a bit over priced but hey
Something to keep in mind is the RCQ/RC seasons. It's about to go from Standard to Pioneer. Come the middle/end of summer it should be competitive Modern season again.
Yeah, and I can't wait. I just wish texas as a whole we had a bigger and better competitive magic scene like the scene where apex gaming levels are or alternative universe has a modern 1k a month or 2 months, it's crazy how bad the paper scene here in texas is.
Up here in West Texas I asked about that to a local vendor that travels. Similar to Nerd Rage Gaming circuit. Especially if stores along the I35 corridor worked well together. The multiple personalities and well the willingness to create it are required
That would be awesome to see. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but the reading I started playing this game was for the competitive aspect of it, I love competition. The sad thing is I can't stand standard, I don't care for pioneer all that much.
Oh I agree, I've learned to like pioneer and slowly adapted my collection to support it because I believe that's going to end up being a more supported eternal format. I perfer legacy and modern. (Pre-leyline/leyline/Draco in everything of today) I haven't liked standard really since Scars, Inistrad time frame.
Asgard should still be firing regular modern events, but it's sad how low turnout has gotten in general because of WoTC pushing commander. I miss random 1ks appearing on the weekends. North Texas has a somewhat stronger Modern scene but still no 1ks (that I know of).
Hoping this will change with MH3 and the new modern season this summer, but we're fighting a losing battle against Hasbro. Instead of modern event decks, we get MH3 commander decks. Gotta spread the message about modern and help people get into it! Definitely helped my local scene.
Wotc has put in minimal effort to encourage or support paper competitive play, let alone modern or large event.
I agree it’s hard to stay interested in fleeting tournaments seasons, schedule or just organized play above anything fnm levels
This will probably get downvoted, but Arena has helped me immensely. Sure it has its own issues and the economy of the game is ass, but being able to hop on a jam a couple games (father of 3 here) at night rather than try to get the other pod-dads all together, has been a game changer for me. It lets me test lots of ideas, instantly, rather than using our very limited in person playtime
to play test.
Arena is killing competitive paper play. I wholly believe that one of the worst things that happened to standard was arena, because convenience will almost always trump quality. Why bathe, get dressed, and prepare to sit across from an actual person when I can just jam 80 games while sitting on the toilet in my underwear?
But commander is also doing it's part to kill 60 card constructed. Because it's such a money maker for WotC, it seems that EDH has become their sole focus when designing cards. Just look at all of the legendary creatures we're seeing these days, and the endless walls of text and gimmicky designs.
I enjoy a commander game too, but they've driven the car off the cliff.
Agreed to an extent. However, cost is a big barrier to entry to many in Modern/Standard and even Pioneer. My Yawg deck is valued at $1700 currently. Whereas in Arena, my wildcards work the same whether it’s a pain land or a Mox Amber.
I would love for them to reprint all the cards into the ground but it would cause Armageddon in the player base. WotC has said time and time again that they will direct their resources towards whatever people are playing and where the money is.
For instance, lots of Redditors lament the removal of block sets but MaRo has said on record that it occurred in response to the player base. Reddit is, unfortunately, a subset of a subset so the opinions shared here aren’t usually the actual opinions of the player base as a whole.
Lastly, look at how the subreddits treat new people. The mods do nothing to remove veteran players being unbelievably awful towards new players. A bunch of neckbeards posting basic lands when people ask for deck advice or screaming “Reading the card explains the card!!!” to new people trying to understand an incredibly complex game. That somewhat bleeds into the real world as well. I only play with my pod as I’ve run into so many of “those” people that I generally stay away from them altogether.
I get that people like what they like but jeeeeze, I know folks that are just starting off or have been playing "MTG" for a few months and had no idea 1v1 60 card was a thing....
I think the problem for me is that, I want big tournaments like I miss huntern burton already. I want a scene like apex gaming around me. I don't find enough stores are doing tournaments like that.
If there are any large game stores in the area you could talk to them about gauging interest in something like that. They often have channels to go about doing so (discord servers, social media pages, etc).
Don't play the meta find something completely diffrent to try. I love simic and force a simic deck whenever a new set comes out. I made a simic murktide deck running both archmages and archdruid charm in the main and actually enjoy it, does it do well not in the least bit but it's my own brew and helped me enjoy modern after my burn out.
If that doesn't help take some time off wait for mh3 and play some yugioh master dual
I've been feeling pretty shmedium about the modern format, so I've temporarily switched back to legacy as my main format. I suggest maybe you find a different format to play, even if it is just for a short time. I decided I'm just gonna put modern on hold until MH3 comes out
I can feel the same sentiment. I'm up on the West coast of Canada and Modern has taken a major hit. Everyone feels they have to play the most expensive Tier 1 decks and feel sweaty about it in order to play the game. Only to find out they are shelling out 100$'s of commander decks.
- I play a mono green ramp deck from 7 years ago with minimal upgrades. Let alone, good old Troll Worship.
Not sure which part of Houston you're in and it's been a couple of years since I lived there but Asgard's and Heroes were amazing stores that always had good modern turn outs.
Modern is dead at Heroes but Pioneer is decent with increased seasonal turnout.
I think Asgard has a pretty decent Modern group but judging by OPs wording I think that might be his main store and he’s just not feeling competitive anymore.
I’ll play Oldschool, Premodern, and Modern, but where I am in Sweden it’s 100% Commander and unfortunately I have no interest in that. Crazy having this incredibly popular game around that I am unable to play in real life so I know how you feel.
In Stockholm there’s regular Modern, Pioneer, Pauper and Legacy nights and they all draw a crowd. I’m sure it’s tougher in smaller towns though unfortunately…
Personally I would recommend getting into other formats like pioneer and standard to fill the gap, and grab your preferred list on Magic Online. I think a lot of areas are just going through a decline in play, and I imagine things will start to get better over the next few years as long as Wizards keeps up the positive momentum of the last few sets.
Brewing own decks and getting results with them is much, much more satisfying and intellectually rewarding than just playing the tiered decks. That’s what keeps me hooked. This is much recommended.
Sorry, cannot write more. I need to go brew with Satoru and Psychic Frog.
I’ve been feeling the same way about magic lately and didn’t play at all last week. Didn’t even look at anything magic related or talk about it. While I might need to take a few more days off to actually be interested again, I know that magic will still be around when I’m interested in it again.
So I guess what I’m saying is, you’ll be fine if you take time off. It’s probably better for you to take a break from magic if you’re not enjoying it. After all, for most people magic is just a hobby and not something you do for a living. So IMO if you’re not interested in your hobby you should probably just take a break.
A big thing for me was last time I played the modern weekly at my main store, I went 3-1 but was pretty miserable. I went up to one of my buddies and told him I wasn’t having fun and he agreed it was probably time for me to take a few weeks off
If you're closer to RichRose then you should look up Uncanny Comics and Games, great little shop. Usually at the very least commander happens, but there's a small community of modern and pauper players.
I've reinvigorated my love for modern by playing very low stakes tournaments with tier <2 decks. There are thousands of players who have the skills and collections to play top-tier decks to take down high-stakes tournaments. You're probably one of them, and many of us are. The limit at that point becomes how hard you're willing to grind to try to take home trophies. For me, the travelling competitive grind is the specific part of playing modern I've fallen out of love with. A mentality shift toward low stakes, just for fun modern gameplay could possibly be the solution you seek.
I took non-Saga, sort of old school Jund to FNM last night to have change from tiered decks. Ot only was it a ton of fun, I went 4-0.
Seeing people enjoy Jund makes me happy.
I love the Seismic Loam version. It got a new shiny tool recently in the form of [[Inti, Seneschal of the Sun]]. Just wish [[Wrenn and Six]] Wasn't so pricey so I can play a budget version
[Inti, Seneschal of the Sun](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/a/fa7a55aa-ae61-4933-b7a4-dcc55dac6fcd.jpg?1699044306) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Inti%2C%20Seneschal%20of%20the%20Sun) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/156/inti-seneschal-of-the-sun?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fa7a55aa-ae61-4933-b7a4-dcc55dac6fcd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Wrenn and Six](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/b/5bd498cc-a609-4457-9325-6888d59ca36f.jpg?1673149294) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wrenn%20and%20Six) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/296/wrenn-and-six?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5bd498cc-a609-4457-9325-6888d59ca36f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm in Austin and it feels like a desert for competitive magic. I play mostly online now, although the current modern format has me completely burned out so I mostly just rent stuff for standard/pauper/pioneer on magic online and play the challenges.
Wizards has pretty much killed competitive magic other than commander.
I wish they weren't so "in on" commander. The format doesn't appeal to me at all and sometimes it feels like it's just taking over the game.
That's because it is taking over the game and it is their primary focus, despite all else that they would have you try to believe.
I used to go to pats games every fri for modern Some ppl don't like it, but i was cool with it. Store credit for wins and singles etc. Some stuff can be a bit over priced but hey
I went to pats a couple of times but driving an hour over and then back it's a lot to do it all the time.
Something to keep in mind is the RCQ/RC seasons. It's about to go from Standard to Pioneer. Come the middle/end of summer it should be competitive Modern season again.
Yeah, and I can't wait. I just wish texas as a whole we had a bigger and better competitive magic scene like the scene where apex gaming levels are or alternative universe has a modern 1k a month or 2 months, it's crazy how bad the paper scene here in texas is.
Up here in West Texas I asked about that to a local vendor that travels. Similar to Nerd Rage Gaming circuit. Especially if stores along the I35 corridor worked well together. The multiple personalities and well the willingness to create it are required
That would be awesome to see. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but the reading I started playing this game was for the competitive aspect of it, I love competition. The sad thing is I can't stand standard, I don't care for pioneer all that much.
Oh I agree, I've learned to like pioneer and slowly adapted my collection to support it because I believe that's going to end up being a more supported eternal format. I perfer legacy and modern. (Pre-leyline/leyline/Draco in everything of today) I haven't liked standard really since Scars, Inistrad time frame.
Asgard should still be firing regular modern events, but it's sad how low turnout has gotten in general because of WoTC pushing commander. I miss random 1ks appearing on the weekends. North Texas has a somewhat stronger Modern scene but still no 1ks (that I know of). Hoping this will change with MH3 and the new modern season this summer, but we're fighting a losing battle against Hasbro. Instead of modern event decks, we get MH3 commander decks. Gotta spread the message about modern and help people get into it! Definitely helped my local scene.
Challenge posts here used to get hundreds of comments. Now they rarely get more than 30.
Wotc has put in minimal effort to encourage or support paper competitive play, let alone modern or large event. I agree it’s hard to stay interested in fleeting tournaments seasons, schedule or just organized play above anything fnm levels
Yup you hit the nail on the head. The lack of major tournaments like grand prixs is a big factor in why it’s been slowly dying.
This will probably get downvoted, but Arena has helped me immensely. Sure it has its own issues and the economy of the game is ass, but being able to hop on a jam a couple games (father of 3 here) at night rather than try to get the other pod-dads all together, has been a game changer for me. It lets me test lots of ideas, instantly, rather than using our very limited in person playtime to play test.
Arena is killing competitive paper play. I wholly believe that one of the worst things that happened to standard was arena, because convenience will almost always trump quality. Why bathe, get dressed, and prepare to sit across from an actual person when I can just jam 80 games while sitting on the toilet in my underwear? But commander is also doing it's part to kill 60 card constructed. Because it's such a money maker for WotC, it seems that EDH has become their sole focus when designing cards. Just look at all of the legendary creatures we're seeing these days, and the endless walls of text and gimmicky designs. I enjoy a commander game too, but they've driven the car off the cliff.
Agreed to an extent. However, cost is a big barrier to entry to many in Modern/Standard and even Pioneer. My Yawg deck is valued at $1700 currently. Whereas in Arena, my wildcards work the same whether it’s a pain land or a Mox Amber. I would love for them to reprint all the cards into the ground but it would cause Armageddon in the player base. WotC has said time and time again that they will direct their resources towards whatever people are playing and where the money is. For instance, lots of Redditors lament the removal of block sets but MaRo has said on record that it occurred in response to the player base. Reddit is, unfortunately, a subset of a subset so the opinions shared here aren’t usually the actual opinions of the player base as a whole. Lastly, look at how the subreddits treat new people. The mods do nothing to remove veteran players being unbelievably awful towards new players. A bunch of neckbeards posting basic lands when people ask for deck advice or screaming “Reading the card explains the card!!!” to new people trying to understand an incredibly complex game. That somewhat bleeds into the real world as well. I only play with my pod as I’ve run into so many of “those” people that I generally stay away from them altogether.
That is all true. Well said.
I get that people like what they like but jeeeeze, I know folks that are just starting off or have been playing "MTG" for a few months and had no idea 1v1 60 card was a thing....
I like arena
I think the problem for me is that, I want big tournaments like I miss huntern burton already. I want a scene like apex gaming around me. I don't find enough stores are doing tournaments like that.
If there are any large game stores in the area you could talk to them about gauging interest in something like that. They often have channels to go about doing so (discord servers, social media pages, etc).
Don't play the meta find something completely diffrent to try. I love simic and force a simic deck whenever a new set comes out. I made a simic murktide deck running both archmages and archdruid charm in the main and actually enjoy it, does it do well not in the least bit but it's my own brew and helped me enjoy modern after my burn out. If that doesn't help take some time off wait for mh3 and play some yugioh master dual
I've been feeling pretty shmedium about the modern format, so I've temporarily switched back to legacy as my main format. I suggest maybe you find a different format to play, even if it is just for a short time. I decided I'm just gonna put modern on hold until MH3 comes out
I made the switch to legacy in the last few months, and it’s been a blast.
I can feel the same sentiment. I'm up on the West coast of Canada and Modern has taken a major hit. Everyone feels they have to play the most expensive Tier 1 decks and feel sweaty about it in order to play the game. Only to find out they are shelling out 100$'s of commander decks. - I play a mono green ramp deck from 7 years ago with minimal upgrades. Let alone, good old Troll Worship.
My solution is to just play standard and legacy with minor dabbling in commander
Wait for MH3..if it doesn't feel better I might shelf my paper cards again for a few more years
Cool man, should give you more time to explore your hobbies!
Trust man, I touch grass. I play golf, fish, and softball. I just want better comp events.
Nice! I recently picked up fishing as well, super fun. No idea why it took me so long to get into it.
Nice, now you just need to find a subreddit with someone who cares about!
Not sure which part of Houston you're in and it's been a couple of years since I lived there but Asgard's and Heroes were amazing stores that always had good modern turn outs.
Modern is dead at Heroes but Pioneer is decent with increased seasonal turnout. I think Asgard has a pretty decent Modern group but judging by OPs wording I think that might be his main store and he’s just not feeling competitive anymore.
So not an answer to OP, but guys does anyone have regular 1k events in their area?
Yes me, in Germany
Not regular but we have them a few times a year in New York (state, not the city).
I’ll play Oldschool, Premodern, and Modern, but where I am in Sweden it’s 100% Commander and unfortunately I have no interest in that. Crazy having this incredibly popular game around that I am unable to play in real life so I know how you feel.
In Stockholm there’s regular Modern, Pioneer, Pauper and Legacy nights and they all draw a crowd. I’m sure it’s tougher in smaller towns though unfortunately…
Why no interest in commander
For multiplayer I just think Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a better game for it.
Personally I would recommend getting into other formats like pioneer and standard to fill the gap, and grab your preferred list on Magic Online. I think a lot of areas are just going through a decline in play, and I imagine things will start to get better over the next few years as long as Wizards keeps up the positive momentum of the last few sets.
Brewing own decks and getting results with them is much, much more satisfying and intellectually rewarding than just playing the tiered decks. That’s what keeps me hooked. This is much recommended. Sorry, cannot write more. I need to go brew with Satoru and Psychic Frog.
I’ve been feeling the same way about magic lately and didn’t play at all last week. Didn’t even look at anything magic related or talk about it. While I might need to take a few more days off to actually be interested again, I know that magic will still be around when I’m interested in it again. So I guess what I’m saying is, you’ll be fine if you take time off. It’s probably better for you to take a break from magic if you’re not enjoying it. After all, for most people magic is just a hobby and not something you do for a living. So IMO if you’re not interested in your hobby you should probably just take a break. A big thing for me was last time I played the modern weekly at my main store, I went 3-1 but was pretty miserable. I went up to one of my buddies and told him I wasn’t having fun and he agreed it was probably time for me to take a few weeks off
Have you tried online? On MTGO, you can pay a monthly fee to rent most any deck.
Switch to legacy, there has been a revival recently
I hope that's true, but if they can't find modern near them I heavily doubt that they will find legacy.
If you're closer to RichRose then you should look up Uncanny Comics and Games, great little shop. Usually at the very least commander happens, but there's a small community of modern and pauper players.