Since when you need to hardcast a creature to have it on the battlefield? But even in Commander, you hardcast it, take 7, blink it, take 7, recur the blinker, cast Doubling Season, take 14...
(Ask Leviathan below, I learned this from one of his old articles :)
Glad you enjoy it, it really is incredibly fun. I get "ohh, nice" or some variation from just about everyone that I pull the combo off against in practice games, I love it. And I'm finding the combo is still surprisingly good vs aggro decks once you've stabilised. It just becomes a source of huge card advantage and cycling away dead cards even if you're not discarding much or even anything from your opponent's hand.
While I'd love to run sweet stuff like lazav and mirko, the latter seems way too slow unfortunately. Best case your opponent has out like 7 lands by the time you play him, assuming they have 24 lands it's still going to take him 5 hits to actually kill your opponent. Aetherling does it in 3, less if you have a notion thief hitting too.
We had a different variation of BUG in an earlier episode where we mentioned you were trying out something similar for classic, Episode 87 I think, but this seems closer to your classic version.
You didn't respect the premise of Gabriel Angelfire, which is that Gabriel Angelfire is inept and dim-witted. Just look at the art: he's sitting on his ass and doesn't have a clue how to handle that sword (he's probably going to try and eat it). That's what you get for being a male Angel.
Your Hazezon Tamar is over the top. Fetching any 3 lands untapped just spells "you win the game".
On the other hand, you made Rasputin worse! Rasputin's strength, especially in Commander, is that he gives you 7 mana the turn he comes into play (cue shenanigans). Giving him summoning sickness makes him nearly useless.
"double its power. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)"
C'mon, you know this one should be worded "add X +1/+0 counters, where X is its power". :)
(Except you shouldn't use counters that aren't +1/+1).
Seeing Varolz in the sideboard of your sealed deck, I probably would have went with Jund. But then, even if you have the perfect deck, you can still lose to derpy things like bad draws or land screw/land flood.
Ruric Thar as a 6/6 beater with vigilance is impossibly hard to pass up. It's not always best to go for tempo over power. Sometimes power wins out (as I discovered when someone beat me in RTR sealed with an 8-cmc dragon).
Re: WOTC problems. I feel like it's been long enough now that they need a house-cleaning in the company. They're too stuck in policy, rather than innovation. When you take away the great card design that has been present in the RTR block and the fantastic artwork we've seen, what do you have left?
Maybe an a company that can't get its program working correctly, no matter how much time passes. Maybe we have a company that while well meaning, fails at customer service because the people responsible for answering consumer concerns can't actually solve problems created outside their department. Maybe- just possibly- we get a company catering to obsessed hobbyists who live in an alternate reality in which the euphoric high of beating someone with expensive pixelated images is a good substitute for purpose in life.
Should it be any surprise that such a company does not have its feet held to the fire when it consistently, repeatedly, with little deviation, gets things wrong?
two actually you need to go big or go fast. the closest thing to this format that I have played is Cube.
using the new white commons you can make a very aggressive deck that can win before turn 6, or you can go slow using the 6-8 drops to just finish off a board stall, but you need to commit to one or the other if you try and go midrange you just seem to fall short
Boo at slivers. Not because I hate playing against them but because I hate seeing such linear tribes in the core set. Might as well just print a butt load of elves while they're at it. Same thing.
Yeah, the EV on the prerelease drafts is notoriously low, esp since entering with packs is not an option. Nice work on the pair of wins. Any good insights into the pretend format?
I've been toying with the deck for some time, and Bloodgift Demon, Seizan, Perverter of Truth and Rune-Scarred Demon are best at being both beaters and card advantage sources than what comes in the deck. There are other options as well (Phyrexian Arena, Underworld Connections, Increasing Ambition, Planar Portal), but I guess these are MVPs because they can be cheated onto the battlefield with Kaalia, and also do a reasonable job of beating down.
I do not know either, but I want to know, hence the experiment :D We will see in time I hope, but will go out on a limb and say that variety is probably better.
You are absolutely correct about me being able to burn him out with the bombardment a turn ealier. I always take a less romantic (safer) approach to winning when it requires me too sac my entire board. The thing to remember is that I can burn him out with the bombardment even if he does play the Galvanic Blast since I can simply activate it in response. Of course I wasn't too worried about Galvanic Blast since he didn't have the Great Furnace in Play. What I was more worried about was because he was playing Ancient Den he may have some way of either preventing the damage or gaining life to keep from dying, and then I would be at the mercy of the shuffler to draw more Goblins before he drew another creature. And I think that scenario favors him since I don't have a single Goblin in my deck that can cover 4 life in a single turn on its own, and he already had a Cranial Plating down so any creature he draws is lethal. I knew I had the win in hand and didn't need to resort to an all out attack for the win. That is my line of thinking on it.
Nice catch though, I am glad I had a chance to explain that since I neglected to in the video. And btw, being that I am the host of the event, I do have the ability to see anyones deck during the event, I always choose not to look however unless there is a potential problem since I feel like that would give me an unfair advantage. Plus, I really prefer to be surprised as any other player would be. To me peaking would take out part of the fun.
Thanks for your comment, I am glad you liked the videos.
I wonder if that last paragraph is worth having a discussion about? I was always of the mind that it's better to have a variety each day, and to spread out the like-content stuff. That way, everybody will see at least one article a day that interests them. (Or at least have greater odds of doing so.) But for people like me who don't play Silverblack or Pauper, a day of that stuff means nothing to read.
Also, for people who do like those formats, do they want to read four articles all at once? I don't know the answer to this -- just wondering out loud.
I'll also see if Jam can add something about contacting me or heath to the write for puremtgo section, I usually get emails from heath from people who have messaged him!
Thanks mate. The deckbuilder is less urgent, but it'd also be good to get that working.
On another note, your email address (or even your identity as the editor!) isn't available anywhere on this website as far as I can see. When I was first starting out, I didn't have any idea how to contact you guys formally to see if you'd even be interested in my article series, I just sent it in and hoped :).
I try not to feature the same writer more than once a week, but I'm easing up on that now, I see that starcity and channelfireball does multiple pieces by the same person and I want to try it out a bit.
yeah, I mostly agree with that although I do think it's ok to split some articles up. eg. i did it recently with my set review, I simply couldn't have done justice to the entire set in a single week's article and those articles lose a lot of their relevance the later they're published, so I split up what was ultimately 8,000 total words and 6 decklists over two weeks.
On an unrelated note, JXC - do you have any idea if/when auto-linking and images will be working for DGM? I've just saved a preview of my latest article and it's going to be a huge PITA for me to do all of the images manually, although I will if it's not going to be updated in the next day or so.
Doubling Season doesn't let you get 14 because Rasputin can only have 7 counters on him.
Since when you need to hardcast a creature to have it on the battlefield? But even in Commander, you hardcast it, take 7, blink it, take 7, recur the blinker, cast Doubling Season, take 14...
(Ask Leviathan below, I learned this from one of his old articles :)
I must be missing part of the Rasputin combo. Surely the idea isn't to pay six and then get seven on the same turn? Seems like a waste.
Glad you enjoy it, it really is incredibly fun. I get "ohh, nice" or some variation from just about everyone that I pull the combo off against in practice games, I love it. And I'm finding the combo is still surprisingly good vs aggro decks once you've stabilised. It just becomes a source of huge card advantage and cycling away dead cards even if you're not discarding much or even anything from your opponent's hand.
While I'd love to run sweet stuff like lazav and mirko, the latter seems way too slow unfortunately. Best case your opponent has out like 7 lands by the time you play him, assuming they have 24 lands it's still going to take him 5 hits to actually kill your opponent. Aetherling does it in 3, less if you have a notion thief hitting too.
I lol'd. Simply, that is all.
I like that you gave Lady Orca "pizzazz"! At first I thought it was pizza. But who couldn't use a little bit of flair in their life?
Chromium still sucks though. You'd need Mystic Decree, Nemesis Mask and Loxodon Warhammer to go really nuts.
I like how with each of the others you didn't even try to be fair. Good commentary on power creep.
We had a different variation of BUG in an earlier episode where we mentioned you were trying out something similar for classic, Episode 87 I think, but this seems closer to your classic version.
You didn't respect the premise of Gabriel Angelfire, which is that Gabriel Angelfire is inept and dim-witted. Just look at the art: he's sitting on his ass and doesn't have a clue how to handle that sword (he's probably going to try and eat it). That's what you get for being a male Angel.
Your Hazezon Tamar is over the top. Fetching any 3 lands untapped just spells "you win the game".
On the other hand, you made Rasputin worse! Rasputin's strength, especially in Commander, is that he gives you 7 mana the turn he comes into play (cue shenanigans). Giving him summoning sickness makes him nearly useless.
"double its power. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)"
C'mon, you know this one should be worded "add X +1/+0 counters, where X is its power". :)
(Except you shouldn't use counters that aren't +1/+1).
You guys talk about this neat BUG deck as if I haven't been playing one since early January (http://www.mtgoacademy.com/unlocking-the-vault-40-introducing-deathrite-...). Only real difference is the maindeck Trygon, which I added for QT #3...
I tease, but I agree, it has no place in Classic right now, unfortunately.
Seeing Varolz in the sideboard of your sealed deck, I probably would have went with Jund. But then, even if you have the perfect deck, you can still lose to derpy things like bad draws or land screw/land flood.
Ruric Thar as a 6/6 beater with vigilance is impossibly hard to pass up. It's not always best to go for tempo over power. Sometimes power wins out (as I discovered when someone beat me in RTR sealed with an 8-cmc dragon).
Re: WOTC problems. I feel like it's been long enough now that they need a house-cleaning in the company. They're too stuck in policy, rather than innovation. When you take away the great card design that has been present in the RTR block and the fantastic artwork we've seen, what do you have left?
Maybe an a company that can't get its program working correctly, no matter how much time passes. Maybe we have a company that while well meaning, fails at customer service because the people responsible for answering consumer concerns can't actually solve problems created outside their department. Maybe- just possibly- we get a company catering to obsessed hobbyists who live in an alternate reality in which the euphoric high of beating someone with expensive pixelated images is a good substitute for purpose in life.
Should it be any surprise that such a company does not have its feet held to the fire when it consistently, repeatedly, with little deviation, gets things wrong?
two actually you need to go big or go fast. the closest thing to this format that I have played is Cube.
using the new white commons you can make a very aggressive deck that can win before turn 6, or you can go slow using the 6-8 drops to just finish off a board stall, but you need to commit to one or the other if you try and go midrange you just seem to fall short
OK to be fair they seem to be sliveroids. :p
Yay for Slivers! I love Slivers! These ain't Slivers. Period.
Boo at slivers. Not because I hate playing against them but because I hate seeing such linear tribes in the core set. Might as well just print a butt load of elves while they're at it. Same thing.
Yeah, the EV on the prerelease drafts is notoriously low, esp since entering with packs is not an option. Nice work on the pair of wins. Any good insights into the pretend format?
did 4 DGM drafts that went 3-0,2-1,1-2,3-0 I would of done more but by saturday the 15 tix to enter meant I could go 3-0 and still lose 3 tix
I've been toying with the deck for some time, and Bloodgift Demon, Seizan, Perverter of Truth and Rune-Scarred Demon are best at being both beaters and card advantage sources than what comes in the deck. There are other options as well (Phyrexian Arena, Underworld Connections, Increasing Ambition, Planar Portal), but I guess these are MVPs because they can be cheated onto the battlefield with Kaalia, and also do a reasonable job of beating down.
I do not know either, but I want to know, hence the experiment :D We will see in time I hope, but will go out on a limb and say that variety is probably better.
You are absolutely correct about me being able to burn him out with the bombardment a turn ealier. I always take a less romantic (safer) approach to winning when it requires me too sac my entire board. The thing to remember is that I can burn him out with the bombardment even if he does play the Galvanic Blast since I can simply activate it in response. Of course I wasn't too worried about Galvanic Blast since he didn't have the Great Furnace in Play. What I was more worried about was because he was playing Ancient Den he may have some way of either preventing the damage or gaining life to keep from dying, and then I would be at the mercy of the shuffler to draw more Goblins before he drew another creature. And I think that scenario favors him since I don't have a single Goblin in my deck that can cover 4 life in a single turn on its own, and he already had a Cranial Plating down so any creature he draws is lethal. I knew I had the win in hand and didn't need to resort to an all out attack for the win. That is my line of thinking on it.
Nice catch though, I am glad I had a chance to explain that since I neglected to in the video. And btw, being that I am the host of the event, I do have the ability to see anyones deck during the event, I always choose not to look however unless there is a potential problem since I feel like that would give me an unfair advantage. Plus, I really prefer to be surprised as any other player would be. To me peaking would take out part of the fun.
Thanks for your comment, I am glad you liked the videos.
I wonder if that last paragraph is worth having a discussion about? I was always of the mind that it's better to have a variety each day, and to spread out the like-content stuff. That way, everybody will see at least one article a day that interests them. (Or at least have greater odds of doing so.) But for people like me who don't play Silverblack or Pauper, a day of that stuff means nothing to read.
Also, for people who do like those formats, do they want to read four articles all at once? I don't know the answer to this -- just wondering out loud.
I'll also see if Jam can add something about contacting me or heath to the write for puremtgo section, I usually get emails from heath from people who have messaged him!
Thanks mate. The deckbuilder is less urgent, but it'd also be good to get that working.
On another note, your email address (or even your identity as the editor!) isn't available anywhere on this website as far as I can see. When I was first starting out, I didn't have any idea how to contact you guys formally to see if you'd even be interested in my article series, I just sent it in and hoped :).
I am okay with multiple sections for an article, as long as they are relevant and are good pieces of content.
I'll send jam a message about it tonight.
I try not to feature the same writer more than once a week, but I'm easing up on that now, I see that starcity and channelfireball does multiple pieces by the same person and I want to try it out a bit.
yeah, I mostly agree with that although I do think it's ok to split some articles up. eg. i did it recently with my set review, I simply couldn't have done justice to the entire set in a single week's article and those articles lose a lot of their relevance the later they're published, so I split up what was ultimately 8,000 total words and 6 decklists over two weeks.
On an unrelated note, JXC - do you have any idea if/when auto-linking and images will be working for DGM? I've just saved a preview of my latest article and it's going to be a huge PITA for me to do all of the images manually, although I will if it's not going to be updated in the next day or so.