Since this article has gone up, I've had a few people ask me about how their chosen guild is going to perform in the prerelease.
Here's the thing, there isn't actually a "wrong" guild for the Prerelease. Sure, you will probably get the highest percentage chance of winning if you go Orzhov, but that doesn't mean you won't have a chance with any of the other guilds. WotC has done a pretty good job of balancing the builds for the prerelease itself, especially with the inclusion of the prerelease rares. For example, if you are Gruul, then you have a good shot at getting Ground Assault and Pit Fight, which are sure to be stellar removal cards. The important thing is to understand the routes that your deck in particular has to win.
Also, the prerelease is kind of just this gimmicky experience where you should just be trying to have as much fun as possible. I'm definitely going with Simic, and I think that it is a particularly strong choice for the prerelease, since you are more likely to get evolve creatures alongside evolve enablers. But, I decided to make the choice not based on my desire to win, but on my desire to play a bunch of freaky UG creatures.
Yeah, Orzhov control I'd rate it somewhere around 3.0 - 3.5 when you're using it to back up defensive creatures. It's relatively easy to keep one mana up, and if they dare use a spell to try and attack into a hard blocker and you can easily end up 2for1'ing them.
From the Ars Arcanum Gatecrash Primer and Josh Silvestri's primer at channelfireball, it does sound like 4toughness is the magic number again. 1/4 defenders get a lot scarier with all these X/1 creatures running about, something I didn't weigh enough when writing.
If someone can only read a single Gatecrash-related article before the first sealed/draft events start firing, it should be this one. Fantastic article.
I expect smite to be a pretty high pick in an orzhov deck, but a much lower pick in boros.
As an aside, I wonder if 4 will still be the "magic" toughness in this format? It certainly was in R2R, but there seem to be more 2/2s and less 3/3s in this set (i say, from a very quick glance!).
Smite bumped to 2.5, it's situational removal that requires a legal blocker but when that's met it deals with anything for 1cmc.
With 4 toughness being the "magic number" to block most anything, Basilica Guards and Knight of Obligation become far stronger, becoming 3.0 or 3.5 considering how they demand a combat trick or removal to bypass almost always.
For some reason the Soundcloud gizmo doesn't quite want to work in firefox.
I also have a recommendation for the next time you guys do this: Get yourselves some headphone/mics so that we can't hear the background and your voices are clearly audible. I found myself straining at some points to understand what you guys were talking about.
For the most part I agreed with your assessments. The Living Death reprint seems like it will be an insane house in combination with Faithless Looting and or Forbidden Alchemy/Mulch.
The Specter is akin to Praetor's grasp and will be playable if you are also running Chromatic Lantern and or Farseek. I realize this seems like a greedy mana base but it works.
In combination with the scrying card this could be quite good. Not sure how competitive it will be but then most dimir mill cards tend to not quite make that cut. PTQs aside I think there will be quite a few FNM Standard decks sporting some unusual strategies.
The downside is that it is lame to super aggro such as the boros stuff coming out at the same time. Will need to run a strong control component to slow the aggro player down. In fact the Specter may just be sideboarded out vs those kind of decks.
I'm not much excited for Gatecrash, but still it's a good set. Mostly I liked the flavor of this set. My top 5 (except 5 shock lands): Thespian’s Stage , Legion Loyalist , Skullcrack , Domri Rade and Boros Charm.
I have to say gatecrash has me a little underwhelmed. It isn't terrible and doesn't resonate badly with me, like some sets have (ROE and Zen I am looking at you.) But it doesn't really pique my interest except for a handful of cards. I am not even sure I have a top 5. I did like that they added a couple more fish which are woefully underrepresented and one of them looks almost playable as a casual card.
Keya I am surprised no one here mentioned my interview article with you. Particularly after such a weekend finish. Osyp's commentary aside, I think you did quite well and this potential is why I picked you as an interviewee.
It's a combination of FoW going down, Jace being far better in Vintage than Classic, and probably erroneous speculation that he is going to be unbanned in modern.
I too don't think Goyf is going to go down by that much with the Masters, unless by some kind of miracle Goyf is reprinted as rare there. I'm expecting that vastly all the real money cards to be Mythic (Clique and Goyf is practically guaranteed). Stuff like Mutavault, Thoughtseize and Confidant shouldn't be mythic according to reasonable criteria but probably will be, if only in order to sell more packs (Confidant really should not be mythic, given that Meddling Mage was reprinted as rare and Snapcaster was put as rare).
In other stuff, does anyone know why Jace, TMS has been steadily going up? I find it strange that it has been going up due to Legacy, but it could be due to FoW going down and that "freeing up" some value to go to Jace.
If you don't want to restart the client, you can just check how many copies you can make available for trade. Phantom cards may be displayed as being part of your collection, but you can never make them tradable. In your example you could not have made more than 6 Annihilating Fire and 7 Splatter Thugs tradable. It's still a bug and annoying as such, though.
I really like the color game, and think it has a lot of strategic potential for something that involves only two decisions. It's a system that can be manipulated and dodged, but at a cost to the player, and there's definitely a "right" way to play in my opinion. I have my thoughts about the correct way to play this mini-game, but I'll conceal them for now and see how the actual competitors play it out (as the #13 seed I'm not expecting to reach that far, but I do have a plan if I do.)
FYI, my intention, assuming I do not reach the final four, is to record my commentary live while watching the final championship match for this week. In that event, it will not be part of the "Show & Tell" series, but a special Invitational coverage event. I will still take any replays and comment on them post hoc.
About the Round 4, I feel like I should clarify that when you name a color for your opponent to use in his 2-color deck, he cannot name the same color for you. So the resulting two decks facing each other will have entirely different color identities. For instance, player 1 says "blue" (meaning that he will not play blue, while his opponent will have to). Then player 2 says "red". Then player 1 says "white" as his second choice for player 2. And finally player 2 says "black" as his second choice for player 1. The resulting color identities of the two decks will be Rakdos for Player 1, Azorius for Player 2. And green will not be available to anyone.
I already received some good feedback about this idea, that was born last year when Ayanam1 and NemesisParadigm had to improvise a deck from scratch at the last minute because there was some miscommunication and the decks they had prepared weren't legal. I added the color choices to spice it up and, at the same time, make the building pool a bit smaller. It's possible we'll do some kind of side event in the future with this format of "pseudo-limited".
I doubt the "rock bottom" will be much lower than $40-50. Goyf is going to be a mythic in the set, and the set is rumored to be priced higher than normal sets. Sure, the card will take a hit, but it will still be one of, if not the most expensive card in modern.
That was fairly interesting considering what we've been getting lately. Swamp would have been my choice for basic land. I figured maybe you did some testing with the blue affinity cards and then took them out last minute.
Do you mean the judge foil Survival with the wolf and the snake? It's pretty sweet. I'd like to upgrade to Terese Nielsen's promo Lotus Cobras when those come out online, been eyeing those since last year when they handed them out at GP's.
I usually prefer the older card frames and original artwork for most things, but Exalted Angel is a rare exception for me. It also helps that all the other Angels I play in my mono-white list are Modern-frame so it looks a bit nicer. Speaking of Angel art, the promo artwork for the new RW 4-drop Angel in Gatecrash is super-sweet, and I hope it gets an online release quickly. I will likely hit up my Game Day at the local store for GTC just to trade for a few in paper and hopefully win one.
I could have played with Thoughtseize instead of IoK in that fae list and given myself a nice comfy $100 lead! Missed opportunity there. But IoK was optimal, I regret nothing. I could splash green for Goyf and white for Geist of Saint Traft and make some ridiculously expensive but clunky Franken-deck that wouldn't win a game all day. Still wouldn't compete with that one from last week though.
The singleton Island was in the deck because I wanted to be able to grab a land in the event of a path to exile effect (that way I could hold onto the tempo. You're quite right that I should have swapped out the seat of synods for black artifact lands. I really threw this together at the last minute, and should have tested a bit more. I'll try to bring something interesting for the next regular event I can make.
Don't worry. I'll automatically purge for doubles when I'll do the report. You can always re-take the survey to change an answer, so the survey will magically take only the answer with the latest timestamp for each submitter.
I liked romellos's all-or-nothing gambit with Gaddock vs Dream Halls. And Thalia is a bane vs it too.
Your Faerie deck was evaluated 6 weeks ago. I'm sure it'll cost much more than that number as of right now. :)
Damn, I'd like to have those PROMO Exalted Angels only for the Modern frame (it's becoming more and more of a priority for me). But the cost is so insanely higher, it's like 15 to 1. And the art isn't THAT better (mainly, the figure is too small and didn't convey the flavor at all, I don't think it was commissioned for it.)
The database is teasing me with all kinds of re-framed promos still nowhere to be found. I hate when it does that. Did you see that super-sweet Survival of the Fittest?
Since this article has gone up, I've had a few people ask me about how their chosen guild is going to perform in the prerelease.
Here's the thing, there isn't actually a "wrong" guild for the Prerelease. Sure, you will probably get the highest percentage chance of winning if you go Orzhov, but that doesn't mean you won't have a chance with any of the other guilds. WotC has done a pretty good job of balancing the builds for the prerelease itself, especially with the inclusion of the prerelease rares. For example, if you are Gruul, then you have a good shot at getting Ground Assault and Pit Fight, which are sure to be stellar removal cards. The important thing is to understand the routes that your deck in particular has to win.
Also, the prerelease is kind of just this gimmicky experience where you should just be trying to have as much fun as possible. I'm definitely going with Simic, and I think that it is a particularly strong choice for the prerelease, since you are more likely to get evolve creatures alongside evolve enablers. But, I decided to make the choice not based on my desire to win, but on my desire to play a bunch of freaky UG creatures.
So... enjoy your prerelease everyone!
Yeah, Orzhov control I'd rate it somewhere around 3.0 - 3.5 when you're using it to back up defensive creatures. It's relatively easy to keep one mana up, and if they dare use a spell to try and attack into a hard blocker and you can easily end up 2for1'ing them.
From the Ars Arcanum Gatecrash Primer and Josh Silvestri's primer at channelfireball, it does sound like 4toughness is the magic number again. 1/4 defenders get a lot scarier with all these X/1 creatures running about, something I didn't weigh enough when writing.
If someone can only read a single Gatecrash-related article before the first sealed/draft events start firing, it should be this one. Fantastic article.
I expect smite to be a pretty high pick in an orzhov deck, but a much lower pick in boros.
As an aside, I wonder if 4 will still be the "magic" toughness in this format? It certainly was in R2R, but there seem to be more 2/2s and less 3/3s in this set (i say, from a very quick glance!).
A couple modifications:
Smite bumped to 2.5, it's situational removal that requires a legal blocker but when that's met it deals with anything for 1cmc.
With 4 toughness being the "magic number" to block most anything, Basilica Guards and Knight of Obligation become far stronger, becoming 3.0 or 3.5 considering how they demand a combat trick or removal to bypass almost always.
For some reason the Soundcloud gizmo doesn't quite want to work in firefox.
I also have a recommendation for the next time you guys do this: Get yourselves some headphone/mics so that we can't hear the background and your voices are clearly audible. I found myself straining at some points to understand what you guys were talking about.
For the most part I agreed with your assessments. The Living Death reprint seems like it will be an insane house in combination with Faithless Looting and or Forbidden Alchemy/Mulch.
The Specter is akin to Praetor's grasp and will be playable if you are also running Chromatic Lantern and or Farseek. I realize this seems like a greedy mana base but it works.
In combination with the scrying card this could be quite good. Not sure how competitive it will be but then most dimir mill cards tend to not quite make that cut. PTQs aside I think there will be quite a few FNM Standard decks sporting some unusual strategies.
The downside is that it is lame to super aggro such as the boros stuff coming out at the same time. Will need to run a strong control component to slow the aggro player down. In fact the Specter may just be sideboarded out vs those kind of decks.
I'm not much excited for Gatecrash, but still it's a good set. Mostly I liked the flavor of this set. My top 5 (except 5 shock lands): Thespian’s Stage , Legion Loyalist , Skullcrack , Domri Rade and Boros Charm.
I have to say gatecrash has me a little underwhelmed. It isn't terrible and doesn't resonate badly with me, like some sets have (ROE and Zen I am looking at you.) But it doesn't really pique my interest except for a handful of cards. I am not even sure I have a top 5. I did like that they added a couple more fish which are woefully underrepresented and one of them looks almost playable as a casual card.
Keya I am surprised no one here mentioned my interview article with you. Particularly after such a weekend finish. Osyp's commentary aside, I think you did quite well and this potential is why I picked you as an interviewee.
Blouses as a deck name, but only if it is a reference to the Prince skit.
It's a combination of FoW going down, Jace being far better in Vintage than Classic, and probably erroneous speculation that he is going to be unbanned in modern.
I too don't think Goyf is going to go down by that much with the Masters, unless by some kind of miracle Goyf is reprinted as rare there. I'm expecting that vastly all the real money cards to be Mythic (Clique and Goyf is practically guaranteed). Stuff like Mutavault, Thoughtseize and Confidant shouldn't be mythic according to reasonable criteria but probably will be, if only in order to sell more packs (Confidant really should not be mythic, given that Meddling Mage was reprinted as rare and Snapcaster was put as rare).
In other stuff, does anyone know why Jace, TMS has been steadily going up? I find it strange that it has been going up due to Legacy, but it could be due to FoW going down and that "freeing up" some value to go to Jace.
Live comments FTW! Do it, please! :)
If you don't want to restart the client, you can just check how many copies you can make available for trade. Phantom cards may be displayed as being part of your collection, but you can never make them tradable. In your example you could not have made more than 6 Annihilating Fire and 7 Splatter Thugs tradable. It's still a bug and annoying as such, though.
I really like the color game, and think it has a lot of strategic potential for something that involves only two decisions. It's a system that can be manipulated and dodged, but at a cost to the player, and there's definitely a "right" way to play in my opinion. I have my thoughts about the correct way to play this mini-game, but I'll conceal them for now and see how the actual competitors play it out (as the #13 seed I'm not expecting to reach that far, but I do have a plan if I do.)
FYI, my intention, assuming I do not reach the final four, is to record my commentary live while watching the final championship match for this week. In that event, it will not be part of the "Show & Tell" series, but a special Invitational coverage event. I will still take any replays and comment on them post hoc.
Yeah, that's the typical answer, but he's not running those cards. That's why I was asking.
About the Round 4, I feel like I should clarify that when you name a color for your opponent to use in his 2-color deck, he cannot name the same color for you. So the resulting two decks facing each other will have entirely different color identities. For instance, player 1 says "blue" (meaning that he will not play blue, while his opponent will have to). Then player 2 says "red". Then player 1 says "white" as his second choice for player 2. And finally player 2 says "black" as his second choice for player 1. The resulting color identities of the two decks will be Rakdos for Player 1, Azorius for Player 2. And green will not be available to anyone.
I already received some good feedback about this idea, that was born last year when Ayanam1 and NemesisParadigm had to improvise a deck from scratch at the last minute because there was some miscommunication and the decks they had prepared weren't legal. I added the color choices to spice it up and, at the same time, make the building pool a bit smaller. It's possible we'll do some kind of side event in the future with this format of "pseudo-limited".
Leyline of the Void and Planar Void help a lot in that regard as well.
Also allows you run stuff like Il-Gotten Gains, Web of Inertia, etc.
Though arguably Oona would be the better commander for milling anyway.
I doubt the "rock bottom" will be much lower than $40-50. Goyf is going to be a mythic in the set, and the set is rumored to be priced higher than normal sets. Sure, the card will take a hit, but it will still be one of, if not the most expensive card in modern.
Isn't the answer to Eldrazi, Sadistic Sacrament and the like?
That was fairly interesting considering what we've been getting lately. Swamp would have been my choice for basic land. I figured maybe you did some testing with the blue affinity cards and then took them out last minute.
Tarmo is expected to hit rock bottom with the coming of Mod Mas.
Do you mean the judge foil Survival with the wolf and the snake? It's pretty sweet. I'd like to upgrade to Terese Nielsen's promo Lotus Cobras when those come out online, been eyeing those since last year when they handed them out at GP's.
I usually prefer the older card frames and original artwork for most things, but Exalted Angel is a rare exception for me. It also helps that all the other Angels I play in my mono-white list are Modern-frame so it looks a bit nicer. Speaking of Angel art, the promo artwork for the new RW 4-drop Angel in Gatecrash is super-sweet, and I hope it gets an online release quickly. I will likely hit up my Game Day at the local store for GTC just to trade for a few in paper and hopefully win one.
I could have played with Thoughtseize instead of IoK in that fae list and given myself a nice comfy $100 lead! Missed opportunity there. But IoK was optimal, I regret nothing. I could splash green for Goyf and white for Geist of Saint Traft and make some ridiculously expensive but clunky Franken-deck that wouldn't win a game all day. Still wouldn't compete with that one from last week though.
The singleton Island was in the deck because I wanted to be able to grab a land in the event of a path to exile effect (that way I could hold onto the tempo. You're quite right that I should have swapped out the seat of synods for black artifact lands. I really threw this together at the last minute, and should have tested a bit more. I'll try to bring something interesting for the next regular event I can make.
Don't worry. I'll automatically purge for doubles when I'll do the report. You can always re-take the survey to change an answer, so the survey will magically take only the answer with the latest timestamp for each submitter.
I liked romellos's all-or-nothing gambit with Gaddock vs Dream Halls. And Thalia is a bane vs it too.
Your Faerie deck was evaluated 6 weeks ago. I'm sure it'll cost much more than that number as of right now. :)
Damn, I'd like to have those PROMO Exalted Angels only for the Modern frame (it's becoming more and more of a priority for me). But the cost is so insanely higher, it's like 15 to 1. And the art isn't THAT better (mainly, the figure is too small and didn't convey the flavor at all, I don't think it was commissioned for it.)
The database is teasing me with all kinds of re-framed promos still nowhere to be found. I hate when it does that. Did you see that super-sweet Survival of the Fittest?