Thanks Keya! I know you guys talked about a lot of this stuff on the podcast, but I figure that there are enough people that prefer their info in written segments. I also figured that I would remember certain details that perhaps you didn't.
But yeah, totally awesome to hang out with you for five days :)
I think you highlighted a lot of the big points that were emphasized in the Q&A and I agree, I am hopeful for positive outcomes for the future of MTGO after some of the discussion.
IT was a blast hanging out with you too and I def learned a lot watching and listening to you and everyone else play!
The news about vintage is a bit disheartening as it sounds like they want to only have deep pocket players have access and that sounds like a disaster. Bad lotus is costly not because it is good in its one deck but because Mirage block has been severely underrepresented in drafts on MTGO. If it were more populous the result would be much lower prices for that card. Relevant cards being relevant. Also not good news is the lack of an immediate revamp of trading. THAT may be the worst news so far as without a decent trade format MTGO's economy may tank, since it is run with bots and those bots (except the most determined) may find it difficult-impossible to convert successfully to v4.
I am glad they are actually playing with their competitors games. That shows forward thinking. The way it was originally told, the quote of Worth saying that sounded quite arrogant and condescending. Which frankly seems out of character. The metrics news is good to hear. I know plenty of newer players who don't have the benefit of years of the way MTGO was wonder why the game has no ladders, no way to measure strength of players (other than reputation) and no way to see how one is doing compared to how one did previously.
Also good to hear about the windowing options. Not a fan of the multiwindowed system as I don't have the space for 2 decent-sized monitors in my studio apartment. And I am glad to hear about the matchmaking potentially being improved upon. Disappointed that they didn't talk about the editors which to me represents almost as big a problem as the bad trade interface. Maybe bigger if you consider how I used to use it to concoct tons of decks which a) will not be imported because I don't have the patience to hand load hundreds of them card by card. Particularly when I would have to do that with multiple programs open. and b) less inclined to tune as much since doing so requires strict attention to how the client is saving the deck.
The lack of a good collection view is also extremely disappointing. That said I am hopeful that as they knock some of these other things off their to do list they may get around to restoring the binder paradigm in some manner so that those of us who prefer an organized visual while perusing our collections can use one instead of the chaos that is the combination of Collection and Editor.
Lastly I have always been confident that despite some draconian seeming policy changes that the Team as you dub them are all competent, caring, professionals with our general interests in heart while having to deal with real logistics and organizational problems as well as the usual dev snafus. I am hopeful that this will mean a better product in the end even if in the meantime I am unable to partake in it for a while.
I have thought about adding in blue but every time I do find it slows my deck down considerably and I end up taking it out. There are a lot of blue cards though that fit nicely in an artifact deck. Godmode has some of that build.
Needlebug - interesting... I guess its a blocker but it cannot kill any of his crits and at 4 mana is it really a better option than just going for a more powerful 6 or 7?
Thanks for the report, good stuff. #12 is very interesting to me, my guess being that they're given away as prizes to tourneys, but who knows if that's gonna be true. I really want #3 though. I play on my laptop, and the mutliple windows is a pain for me to deal with.
I am not a fan. It may be because I can not figure out where the post ends and the sign begins, it may be the amount of used white space on my computer but it looks like a hot dumpster fire.
I think of bequeathal as the green Thoughtcast - takes some setup and only works in some decks, but great when it does. That last deck really wants some Pit Keepers, I think. Those guys are just dirty with driver of the dead.
Funny that I used to play with all those green cards at some point. Of course, they're green cards. I've probably played with every single one of them at some point (except Tarmogoyf. Never owned one.)
I had a Gruul midrange pauper deck with the Aurochs a few years ago. They're one of the best finishers for green.
And I played with Bequeathal too at that time! Honestly, didn't find it myself, I read it in an article here about a competitive pauper deck. So it was in a serious list at some point, some kind of stomper I believe, dunno what became of it.
I used to put 1 Sylvok Lifestaff in every pauper deck and another in the sideboard. It's very strong even when you don't sacrifice your own creatures, makes attacking hard for the opponent. (I remember I had a WUG deck with lots of ETB effects and tokens, where all those vanilla creatures were then improved by the staff). (Some of the tokens were Eldrazi Drones of course, and those can sac themselves while wearing the staff).
And boy, Llanowar Sentinel! That one, I used to play all the time in non-pauper Elf decks, like 15 years ago, back when Elf decks would ramp but were still honest. I miss those decks, now Elf = annoying combo time. They really ruined them.
yeah bro , pauper is fun. it is like everything else in mtgo it depends on match-ups. I mostly run a affinity build. also a cheap one. when it works you think wow, why can't it do this every time. I have went a lot of 3-1's with it and a few 4-0's. I also try and sideboard against the main meta, most of the decks run blue, so my personal opinion I side board against blue, red, and agro atm with the 2 major green builds and the addition of a new sliver lord for slivers. I look for mbc to make a comeback soon.
ArchGenius: I wouldn't really say I'm enraged or angry, just depressed that someone would waste everyone's time that way. And the problem will never end unless we object in a meanigful way.
Well, I was going to guess Chimney Imp...but since you already answered your own question.. ; )
Yeah, Obliterator is the stuff that true Devotion to Black is made of! I really like Heliod as the replacement for Sacred Mesa in the "Modern Enchantress" deck. It needed something else to be a win con and an Indestructible Enchantment that pumps out creatures that could eventually swing is pretty cool.
...Seriously, they need to reprint Chimney Imp as a Core Set chaff common. There is a whole generation of players right now who don't know how much they should despise opening Chimney Imp...
This gets even better. Let's look at the fetches since they are more important than the duals. Everyone talks about the duals, since those are the cards that ultimately end up tapped for mana. But without fetches there's practically no difference between a dual and a fastland. (Or a filterland depending on your strategy.)
The Bloodstained Mire is probably a bit undervalued at just 4. It still fetches Bayous after all. Now let's check the Modern-legal ZEN fetches.
ZEN: 27, 25, 16, 14, 11
That's Modern's fault. I was VERY surprised to see that two fetches were at or above 25 using MTGOTraders pricing. (Why aren't Volcanic Island, Scalding Tarn, and Misty Rainforest on the list of good stuff?)
My reaction depends on my mood. I have to say as a tournament player, ragequitters play a significant factor in me starting to multi-event. I don't like waiting around for nothing, so sometimes I just jump into a two-man with a quick red deck if I crushed someone badly and they can't take it. If I'm annoyed about the quit, the first thing I do is spend the time reporting them for unsportsmanlike conduct. This takes about 4-7 minutes. Wizards of the coast's bug reporting form is not compatible with screenshots uploaded from the Opera browser, which makes the process faster on my end, but I'm unsure if I'm actually making a difference since I've never had them mail me and request screenshots.
Thanks Keya! I know you guys talked about a lot of this stuff on the podcast, but I figure that there are enough people that prefer their info in written segments. I also figured that I would remember certain details that perhaps you didn't.
But yeah, totally awesome to hang out with you for five days :)
Excellent report, Matt.
I think you highlighted a lot of the big points that were emphasized in the Q&A and I agree, I am hopeful for positive outcomes for the future of MTGO after some of the discussion.
IT was a blast hanging out with you too and I def learned a lot watching and listening to you and everyone else play!
Look forward to part 2. Thanks for representing.
The news about vintage is a bit disheartening as it sounds like they want to only have deep pocket players have access and that sounds like a disaster. Bad lotus is costly not because it is good in its one deck but because Mirage block has been severely underrepresented in drafts on MTGO. If it were more populous the result would be much lower prices for that card. Relevant cards being relevant. Also not good news is the lack of an immediate revamp of trading. THAT may be the worst news so far as without a decent trade format MTGO's economy may tank, since it is run with bots and those bots (except the most determined) may find it difficult-impossible to convert successfully to v4.
I am glad they are actually playing with their competitors games. That shows forward thinking. The way it was originally told, the quote of Worth saying that sounded quite arrogant and condescending. Which frankly seems out of character. The metrics news is good to hear. I know plenty of newer players who don't have the benefit of years of the way MTGO was wonder why the game has no ladders, no way to measure strength of players (other than reputation) and no way to see how one is doing compared to how one did previously.
Also good to hear about the windowing options. Not a fan of the multiwindowed system as I don't have the space for 2 decent-sized monitors in my studio apartment. And I am glad to hear about the matchmaking potentially being improved upon. Disappointed that they didn't talk about the editors which to me represents almost as big a problem as the bad trade interface. Maybe bigger if you consider how I used to use it to concoct tons of decks which a) will not be imported because I don't have the patience to hand load hundreds of them card by card. Particularly when I would have to do that with multiple programs open. and b) less inclined to tune as much since doing so requires strict attention to how the client is saving the deck.
The lack of a good collection view is also extremely disappointing. That said I am hopeful that as they knock some of these other things off their to do list they may get around to restoring the binder paradigm in some manner so that those of us who prefer an organized visual while perusing our collections can use one instead of the chaos that is the combination of Collection and Editor.
Lastly I have always been confident that despite some draconian seeming policy changes that the Team as you dub them are all competent, caring, professionals with our general interests in heart while having to deal with real logistics and organizational problems as well as the usual dev snafus. I am hopeful that this will mean a better product in the end even if in the meantime I am unable to partake in it for a while.
These are awesome Chris, thank you!
I have thought about adding in blue but every time I do find it slows my deck down considerably and I end up taking it out. There are a lot of blue cards though that fit nicely in an artifact deck. Godmode has some of that build.
Needlebug - interesting... I guess its a blocker but it cannot kill any of his crits and at 4 mana is it really a better option than just going for a more powerful 6 or 7?
Thanks for the report, good stuff. #12 is very interesting to me, my guess being that they're given away as prizes to tourneys, but who knows if that's gonna be true. I really want #3 though. I play on my laptop, and the mutliple windows is a pain for me to deal with.
I always like Minamo, School at Water's Edge with Tolarian Academy.
I also like the interaction of Master Transmuter and Tangle Wire to make it one-sided (Johnny in me....)
Congrats on reaching a hundred episodes, gentlemen. Here's to the next century!
I am not a fan. It may be because I can not figure out where the post ends and the sign begins, it may be the amount of used white space on my computer but it looks like a hot dumpster fire.
Lush growth will help with domain and its only one mana for a Forest, plains and a mountain all in one!
I was right about the forums upgrade! :D
...wait. That's not a good thing. :(
I think of bequeathal as the green Thoughtcast - takes some setup and only works in some decks, but great when it does. That last deck really wants some Pit Keepers, I think. Those guys are just dirty with driver of the dead.
Funny that I used to play with all those green cards at some point. Of course, they're green cards. I've probably played with every single one of them at some point (except Tarmogoyf. Never owned one.)
I had a Gruul midrange pauper deck with the Aurochs a few years ago. They're one of the best finishers for green.
And I played with Bequeathal too at that time! Honestly, didn't find it myself, I read it in an article here about a competitive pauper deck. So it was in a serious list at some point, some kind of stomper I believe, dunno what became of it.
I used to put 1 Sylvok Lifestaff in every pauper deck and another in the sideboard. It's very strong even when you don't sacrifice your own creatures, makes attacking hard for the opponent. (I remember I had a WUG deck with lots of ETB effects and tokens, where all those vanilla creatures were then improved by the staff). (Some of the tokens were Eldrazi Drones of course, and those can sac themselves while wearing the staff).
And boy, Llanowar Sentinel! That one, I used to play all the time in non-pauper Elf decks, like 15 years ago, back when Elf decks would ramp but were still honest. I miss those decks, now Elf = annoying combo time. They really ruined them.
Thanks bubba. I am glad you enjoyed it!
yeah bro , pauper is fun. it is like everything else in mtgo it depends on match-ups. I mostly run a affinity build. also a cheap one. when it works you think wow, why can't it do this every time. I have went a lot of 3-1's with it and a few 4-0's. I also try and sideboard against the main meta, most of the decks run blue, so my personal opinion I side board against blue, red, and agro atm with the 2 major green builds and the addition of a new sliver lord for slivers. I look for mbc to make a comeback soon.
nice job. "normally I swing for 1 here, sorry it's a habit". I liked the interaction video.
You can always try to:
1. Do two drafts at once.
2. Eat at the same time while drafting.
3. Read a book.
4. Surf the internet
5. Watch tv
Just try to be more productive, it helps to keep you from getting up set over these rage quitters.
ArchGenius: I wouldn't really say I'm enraged or angry, just depressed that someone would waste everyone's time that way. And the problem will never end unless we object in a meanigful way.
Thought I'll do something productive today. Then I saw this and decided it's a good time to search through all kamigawa rares.
And yet, I'm not entirely sure a Phyrexian abomination is exactly what the Theros Gods had in mind when they asked for devoted followers. :)
Well, I was going to guess Chimney Imp...but since you already answered your own question.. ; )
Yeah, Obliterator is the stuff that true Devotion to Black is made of! I really like Heliod as the replacement for Sacred Mesa in the "Modern Enchantress" deck. It needed something else to be a win con and an Indestructible Enchantment that pumps out creatures that could eventually swing is pretty cool.
...Seriously, they need to reprint Chimney Imp as a Core Set chaff common. There is a whole generation of players right now who don't know how much they should despise opening Chimney Imp...
Our discussion has some lines that break randomly in between a sentence, bad word wrap for some reason.
This gets even better. Let's look at the fetches since they are more important than the duals. Everyone talks about the duals, since those are the cards that ultimately end up tapped for mana. But without fetches there's practically no difference between a dual and a fastland. (Or a filterland depending on your strategy.)
ONS fetches: 18 (Polluted Delta), 14 (Flooded Strand), 10, 8, 4
The Bloodstained Mire is probably a bit undervalued at just 4. It still fetches Bayous after all. Now let's check the Modern-legal ZEN fetches.
ZEN: 27, 25, 16, 14, 11
That's Modern's fault. I was VERY surprised to see that two fetches were at or above 25 using MTGOTraders pricing. (Why aren't Volcanic Island, Scalding Tarn, and Misty Rainforest on the list of good stuff?)
My reaction depends on my mood. I have to say as a tournament player, ragequitters play a significant factor in me starting to multi-event. I don't like waiting around for nothing, so sometimes I just jump into a two-man with a quick red deck if I crushed someone badly and they can't take it. If I'm annoyed about the quit, the first thing I do is spend the time reporting them for unsportsmanlike conduct. This takes about 4-7 minutes. Wizards of the coast's bug reporting form is not compatible with screenshots uploaded from the Opera browser, which makes the process faster on my end, but I'm unsure if I'm actually making a difference since I've never had them mail me and request screenshots.