The Commander deck looks pretty good. Just looking at it, your curve isn't out of control or anything. One issue (as you point out) is that you don't have any mana rocks, Land Tax, Journeyer's Kite, etc. You're probably going to always be behind in the mana race to Green decks that pack any sort of ramp, and that will put you on the defensive a lot. You will want to hit all your land drops at least through the first 5 turns or so to get you going. If you're worried about the rocks getting wiped, go with Darksteel Ingot, Armillary Sphere and Wayfarer's Bauble type stuff. But you're probably going to need some sort of mana help aside from Sol Ring.
You're probably going to want at least one way to wipe the board clean. Sunblast Angel is cool and all, but there's something to be said for Oblivion Stone, Planar Cleansing, Akroma's Vengeance, etc. Depending on which of these you use you could also add a tutor or two for them (Fabricate, Mystical Tutor, etc.)
I think Rebecca is still an option. Her last cards were in the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block, which with the dark fable theme was very suited to her style. It's probably a matter of finding the right block. Admittedly, stuff like Zendikar or SOM wouldn't have felt right. If there will be a return to Lorwyn (which I very much hope for), I'm sure she'll be in the team. After all, fans have given WotC hell over her exclusion one time already.
I %100 agree about the artwork. As I'm missing the arts of Rebecca Guay. She is the reason I started to play MTG. As, I saw a card (Gaeas Blessing) at my friend illustrated by her. And her art make me interested about this game and then everything follows. I wish for her return one day...
But still I like the arts of some new generation illustrators; Igor Kieryluk, Volkan Baga or Cynthia Sheppard.
Yeah, the artwork is an important element to consider in this. Among the original artists there were a few pretty bad ones, bless their souls (and/or simply doing art that didn't receive enough reason to be super-polished — the main reason being how much they paid for it.) You could even say the new frame, or in general some kind of change of frame, was necessary once they wanted to invest more effort, money and, therefore, focus on the artworks.
Yeah, I have to agree with this point - the new frames do allow for more different themes. And I actually like the look of hybrid mana cards and Planeswalkers. Dryad Militant, Deathrite Shaman, Garruk Primal Hunter etc. look good enough that if other cards looked similiarly "rich", I could forget about the general dislike I have about the switch to more modern and polished design.
I also think the artwork is now much more important to how the card as a whole will turn out. In old frames even cards with a bad artwork looked good enough, while now there is a much bigger variance.
I honestly have no idea what explanation of the nickname youre referring to since I am 100% sure I never said anything about "trying to emulate hitler" haha. The facebook character Jaka Hitlor that we created had nothing to do with Hitler/nazism apart from the name.
A house full of people can, in many ways, be a joyous occurrence that is meant to be celebrated. On days when you have had a rough time, whether at school or work, it is nice to come home to people who care about you.
AJ and I have toyed with a number of boros variants (with any number of tribes) involving mostly a splash plus Valakut or Emeria or in a few cases both. My general lack of involvement in the PRE in the last few years has reduced the appearances of those decks. But the idea has definitely been toyed with a number of times.
Every time I mentioned miha in a video for the last several months I wondered about the Hitler thing. I just wasn't ever going to bring it up because the whole thing is really touchy, and I didn't know if Hitler references were as taboo or carried the same connotations in his culture (for instance, in India they're apparently not that unusual for some reason) so I guess I'm kind of glad to get the actual story here.
It was very interesting to get more complete explanations of his deckbuilding style. Specifically, I have always advocated splashing red in Kithkin and other white weenie decks for reach against control/midrange, plus you get Lightning Helix for aggro mirrors. He suggests a red splash for Kithkin, and I wonder why it has never been popular to do this in the event. Are people really wedded to keeping their white weenie decks pure white? The mana fixing options are actually pretty affordable for red-white: Plateau is the cheapest dual land, and you can always use painlands which are pretty good for aggro decks.
My rebuttal to the Frame Debate (which I didn't put in the interview, since it was just a collateral thing):
Yes, the new frame looks futuristic. By design. MTG isn't a D&D type of universe anymore, it incorporates a lot of different feels, so the concept of ancient machines made by goblin in dark caves is good and all, but that's not what the MTG background is anymore. Mirrodin (not accidentally the first block to adopt the new frame) is a sci-fi world. They actually are robots from a production line (and the Phyrexians are techno-demons.) The Esper, Izzet and Simic are linked to sci-fi concepts, or steampunk at best. The Eldrazi come from Lovecraft. The modern planeswalkers, which drive so much of the current background, are superheroes; they dress as superheroes and act as superheroes (and supervillains), whereas the old ones (when there were no cards for them) were more like ancient gods.
Of course they needed a better way to represent all of this.
This said, miha's answer is the first that succeeded in giving me a reason I can relate to for liking the old frame better. Rather than the usual "It was better when it was worse" and "It reminds me of my childhood Magic games with my friends". :P
Strangely enough, I never associated "hitlor" with "hitler" (btw, I think every legitimate family with that surname changed it after WWII). I figured "mihahitlor" was some reference to a character or something. People use the most obscure things for their nicknames.
Judging from Gašper's YouTube account, I assume one of the possibilities for a nickname do-over would be Slovenian_Bobby_Peru. :)
(For whom doesn't remember, it's Willem Dafoe character in Wild at Heart)
Excellent article in an excellent series Kuma. Good to get to know the player behind the masque. :) Miha has given me a couple bad impressions stemming from his name. One because of the name itself and 2) Yhe initial explanation ("we were trying to find a way to emulate Hitler..." (which was probably a problem with translation) that rubbed me the wrong way. That he sees it as a mistake and not a good thing makes a big difference imho. Hitler was not someone to willingly emulate.
Miha on the other hand has turned out to be a pillar of the PRE and has fielded some very strong decks. I remember when he started he was merely average out of the pack and now he stands at the top so congrats to him for that. As for chess...watch out! That old man has a pocket knife... :p
I have to say I also am not a huge fan of the new borders/frames. Even less so since I have recently played some paper magic again and they really don't feel like M:TG cards to me. The frames really do spoil the mood of the game. On the other hand they are much easier to read. (I was recently looking through my Ice Age stockpile and man those cards had tiny fonts.
Bring the old frame back! 100% agree with you mihahitlor about that.
I know nothing about chess besides moving the pieces, but wouldn't mind playing agaisnt you sometime. Always liked the game.
Good interview Kumagoro.
Very interesting take. I believe Sunspire and Opal are the only ones that will see a list, due in part to 'blink' efx...that said, I don't think it's likely to make them 'tourney-worthy'. Nivix Cyclops on the otherhand....wow.
I wonder why the card image for Oubliette doesn't match the oracle text, while Tawnos' Coffin does?
Also, board wipes are awesome and necessary, and IMHO armageddon effects are just a part of that same idea since mana ramp is out of control in Commander. Maybe I don't want somebody to have 15 lands in play, and maybe that guy should understand why I don't want that.
I can see Lotus Bloom being banned in Modern to hurt Eggs, as Psychobabble mentioned. Alternatively, they could ban Reshape which would be less hurtful to some fun casual Modern decks. Banning Reshape would also allow Eggs to remain playable but not have the speed or consistency that made it a problem. I don't see any other cards being worthy of a ban in Modern.
idk if you were being serious, but there's no way lili gets banned from standard. I fully expect to see:
Standard - no change
Modern - Lotus bloom (having such a boring and coverage-unfriendly deck win major events at the start and end of the season doens't bode well for its future)
And i agree that temporal fissure is a good chance to be banned from pauper.
I blame this possible misconception on my part solely on AJ since if my faulty memory is at all correct he is the one who told me this prior to my testing it and finding it to be true. I am guessing somewhere along the way someone tweaked something in the client.
This was *SUPPOSED* to be tomorrow. :(
The Commander deck looks pretty good. Just looking at it, your curve isn't out of control or anything. One issue (as you point out) is that you don't have any mana rocks, Land Tax, Journeyer's Kite, etc. You're probably going to always be behind in the mana race to Green decks that pack any sort of ramp, and that will put you on the defensive a lot. You will want to hit all your land drops at least through the first 5 turns or so to get you going. If you're worried about the rocks getting wiped, go with Darksteel Ingot, Armillary Sphere and Wayfarer's Bauble type stuff. But you're probably going to need some sort of mana help aside from Sol Ring.
You're probably going to want at least one way to wipe the board clean. Sunblast Angel is cool and all, but there's something to be said for Oblivion Stone, Planar Cleansing, Akroma's Vengeance, etc. Depending on which of these you use you could also add a tutor or two for them (Fabricate, Mystical Tutor, etc.)
Reparations is a good time.
I've run Boros style several times: they tend not to do well for one reason or another. Ran into a few Price of Progress burn decks, if I recall.
I think Rebecca is still an option. Her last cards were in the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block, which with the dark fable theme was very suited to her style. It's probably a matter of finding the right block. Admittedly, stuff like Zendikar or SOM wouldn't have felt right. If there will be a return to Lorwyn (which I very much hope for), I'm sure she'll be in the team. After all, fans have given WotC hell over her exclusion one time already.
Great Interview, Kuma.
I %100 agree about the artwork. As I'm missing the arts of Rebecca Guay. She is the reason I started to play MTG. As, I saw a card (Gaeas Blessing) at my friend illustrated by her. And her art make me interested about this game and then everything follows. I wish for her return one day...
But still I like the arts of some new generation illustrators; Igor Kieryluk, Volkan Baga or Cynthia Sheppard.
Yeah, the artwork is an important element to consider in this. Among the original artists there were a few pretty bad ones, bless their souls (and/or simply doing art that didn't receive enough reason to be super-polished — the main reason being how much they paid for it.) You could even say the new frame, or in general some kind of change of frame, was necessary once they wanted to invest more effort, money and, therefore, focus on the artworks.
Yeah, I have to agree with this point - the new frames do allow for more different themes. And I actually like the look of hybrid mana cards and Planeswalkers. Dryad Militant, Deathrite Shaman, Garruk Primal Hunter etc. look good enough that if other cards looked similiarly "rich", I could forget about the general dislike I have about the switch to more modern and polished design.
I also think the artwork is now much more important to how the card as a whole will turn out. In old frames even cards with a bad artwork looked good enough, while now there is a much bigger variance.
I honestly have no idea what explanation of the nickname youre referring to since I am 100% sure I never said anything about "trying to emulate hitler" haha. The facebook character Jaka Hitlor that we created had nothing to do with Hitler/nazism apart from the name.
A house full of people can, in many ways, be a joyous occurrence that is meant to be celebrated. On days when you have had a rough time, whether at school or work, it is nice to come home to people who care about you.
Towel rails
AJ and I have toyed with a number of boros variants (with any number of tribes) involving mostly a splash plus Valakut or Emeria or in a few cases both. My general lack of involvement in the PRE in the last few years has reduced the appearances of those decks. But the idea has definitely been toyed with a number of times.
I would definitely be up for a game (and btw, I also have pretty much zero clue about how to play correctly.)
Every time I mentioned miha in a video for the last several months I wondered about the Hitler thing. I just wasn't ever going to bring it up because the whole thing is really touchy, and I didn't know if Hitler references were as taboo or carried the same connotations in his culture (for instance, in India they're apparently not that unusual for some reason) so I guess I'm kind of glad to get the actual story here.
It was very interesting to get more complete explanations of his deckbuilding style. Specifically, I have always advocated splashing red in Kithkin and other white weenie decks for reach against control/midrange, plus you get Lightning Helix for aggro mirrors. He suggests a red splash for Kithkin, and I wonder why it has never been popular to do this in the event. Are people really wedded to keeping their white weenie decks pure white? The mana fixing options are actually pretty affordable for red-white: Plateau is the cheapest dual land, and you can always use painlands which are pretty good for aggro decks.
My rebuttal to the Frame Debate (which I didn't put in the interview, since it was just a collateral thing):
Yes, the new frame looks futuristic. By design. MTG isn't a D&D type of universe anymore, it incorporates a lot of different feels, so the concept of ancient machines made by goblin in dark caves is good and all, but that's not what the MTG background is anymore. Mirrodin (not accidentally the first block to adopt the new frame) is a sci-fi world. They actually are robots from a production line (and the Phyrexians are techno-demons.) The Esper, Izzet and Simic are linked to sci-fi concepts, or steampunk at best. The Eldrazi come from Lovecraft. The modern planeswalkers, which drive so much of the current background, are superheroes; they dress as superheroes and act as superheroes (and supervillains), whereas the old ones (when there were no cards for them) were more like ancient gods.
Of course they needed a better way to represent all of this.
This said, miha's answer is the first that succeeded in giving me a reason I can relate to for liking the old frame better. Rather than the usual "It was better when it was worse" and "It reminds me of my childhood Magic games with my friends". :P
Strangely enough, I never associated "hitlor" with "hitler" (btw, I think every legitimate family with that surname changed it after WWII). I figured "mihahitlor" was some reference to a character or something. People use the most obscure things for their nicknames.
Judging from Gašper's YouTube account, I assume one of the possibilities for a nickname do-over would be Slovenian_Bobby_Peru. :)
(For whom doesn't remember, it's Willem Dafoe character in Wild at Heart)
Excellent article in an excellent series Kuma. Good to get to know the player behind the masque. :) Miha has given me a couple bad impressions stemming from his name. One because of the name itself and 2) Yhe initial explanation ("we were trying to find a way to emulate Hitler..." (which was probably a problem with translation) that rubbed me the wrong way. That he sees it as a mistake and not a good thing makes a big difference imho. Hitler was not someone to willingly emulate.
Miha on the other hand has turned out to be a pillar of the PRE and has fielded some very strong decks. I remember when he started he was merely average out of the pack and now he stands at the top so congrats to him for that. As for chess...watch out! That old man has a pocket knife... :p
I have to say I also am not a huge fan of the new borders/frames. Even less so since I have recently played some paper magic again and they really don't feel like M:TG cards to me. The frames really do spoil the mood of the game. On the other hand they are much easier to read. (I was recently looking through my Ice Age stockpile and man those cards had tiny fonts.
Bring the old frame back! 100% agree with you mihahitlor about that.
I know nothing about chess besides moving the pieces, but wouldn't mind playing agaisnt you sometime. Always liked the game.
Good interview Kumagoro.
Very interesting take. I believe Sunspire and Opal are the only ones that will see a list, due in part to 'blink' efx...that said, I don't think it's likely to make them 'tourney-worthy'. Nivix Cyclops on the otherhand....wow.
Oh boy, Blasphemous Act and Magmaquake look really good right now.
I wonder why the card image for Oubliette doesn't match the oracle text, while Tawnos' Coffin does?
Also, board wipes are awesome and necessary, and IMHO armageddon effects are just a part of that same idea since mana ramp is out of control in Commander. Maybe I don't want somebody to have 15 lands in play, and maybe that guy should understand why I don't want that.
Yeah was joking about Lili Standard I very much doubt there will be any changes.
For Pauper the cards to watch out for are temporal glimmer post and possibly cloud of faeries.
Glimmerpost and Cloud are really a stretch but it depend on if they see mono blue being to strong
I can see Lotus Bloom being banned in Modern to hurt Eggs, as Psychobabble mentioned. Alternatively, they could ban Reshape which would be less hurtful to some fun casual Modern decks. Banning Reshape would also allow Eggs to remain playable but not have the speed or consistency that made it a problem. I don't see any other cards being worthy of a ban in Modern.
Happy to help. If you have other questions feel free to ask. :)
Thanks Paul.
I don't know a whole lot about this sort of thing but I've found it can help with presenting long articles. Very helpful information.
idk if you were being serious, but there's no way lili gets banned from standard. I fully expect to see:
Standard - no change
Modern - Lotus bloom (having such a boring and coverage-unfriendly deck win major events at the start and end of the season doens't bode well for its future)
And i agree that temporal fissure is a good chance to be banned from pauper.
I blame this possible misconception on my part solely on AJ since if my faulty memory is at all correct he is the one who told me this prior to my testing it and finding it to be true. I am guessing somewhere along the way someone tweaked something in the client.