From Wikipedia: "Censorship is the suppression of speech or other PUBLIC communication which may be considered objectionable..."
Withholding information only amounts to censorship if that information is public. The US Senate not publishing minutes of their deliberations is censorship. Me not telling you what I had for dinner last night is not. Wizards is not a public entity. It's a private one. Whatever happens on their servers is their business.
And I'm still waiting on someone to explain why results from the remaining structured events aren't a valid statistical sample. I'm glad that WOTC still provides data from these, which they're under no legal duty to do. I don't like the idea of the emo college-know-it-all hippes from Southpark coming in and comparing WOTC to the Communist party when in reality we're lucky to have such good support for this game.
I want to be able to see for myself which decks are performing well, not just the ones that WOTC
deems "okay" for me to see. The way metagames shift and decks morph, sometimes on a dime, I want
to make my own decisions and not be guided by some drone who thinks he's doing "the right thing."
I'm not gonna argue for or against on the censorship issue, but please, please, BlippyTheSlug, keep up the rant: yes, we should have the full results, especially for Modern. Yes, getting these results is what makes a proper metagame. Yes, a proper metagame makes for a healthy format, provides a point of entry for new players, helps to develop new decks, and more. And in the end, whether others agree or not, it's good that SOMEONE keeps up the rant when Wizards takes away something without even bothering telling the community.
Mortars is really good, but the field that I played in I thought it was not needed. In a field where there is a lot more GW or Jund, I would run three in the board without hesitation. As it was there was a lot of mono red and vampires, and I felt the card was weaker there.
Man, I for one would love to see them given away in the same fashion that they did the premium deck give away, where it is tiered based on the number of years you have been online as to which card you got. This would solve a bunch of issues i think and would still make black lotus, the card i think that will be the lowest to get given out in quantity, the most expensive card of the lot. I think the if done this way it would go about right. Maybe even having a buffer for the first tier so that not too many get given out.
I think if done this way it should go as this
Timetwister-> Random Mox -> Time Walk -> Ancestral Recall -> and the big daddy Black Lotus
Now I think this method will distribute about the same ammount of each mox in the market as say time walk, but i was thinking they may actually switch with the time twister, that way each as an individual card may be distributed in the same ammount of scarcity as some of the higher up choices and keep their prices stablized more.
Then, if prices seem to be too high after a year or two, the old art (or new art depending on which version they give away) can be given as prizes for qualifying for a MOCS
I'm basically reading your articles from before I even knew what this site was. Casual Johnny who tries to think outside the box through rarely-played cards? That's my piece of cake. Too bad Vanguard isn't a thing anymore.
So I have been playing magic half my adult life, since Alpha. In the paper world, I participated in events around Odyssey and Onslaught Blocks, before hanging up my tourney hat and settling into casual fun with cards. I write articles on puremtgo, I have blogs about magic. I's my major hobby. But if we applied the same tunnel vision view to paper we apply to online-- that of viewing event firings and participations as indication of popularity, then according to the data in paper, after Onslaught block, the paper tourney world was less popular by at least one player, me. In actuality, though, it wasn't because I still loved/love magic I just didn't go to events. Magic has always been my favorite hobby and not only have I purchased cards from every set every printed, but I've switched to online and brought along a bunch of friends. All of these friends play legacy/classic. Only like two of these friends-- I'd say two out of around 20 friends I convinced to go to MTGO, play in events, but we All play magic online and we all play classic. Do you know how many of us own Force of Wills? None. Heck, some of us don't even LIKE playing blue. It hasn't stopped classic's popularity for us at all, and even in the Just for Fun Room, we face horrible and very expensive decks and sometimes our $20 budget classic deck hoses their Volcanic Island/Force of Will laiden deck, and sometimes it doesn't. I don'tthink classic or legacy is lacking because one card is so pricey, even if it is a good card. The ENTIRETY of classic staples is daunting. Forget $120 for a FoW, I have a child and oil heat so $15.00 for a Maze of Ith makes my heart palpitate. I think like all the other comments above, the reason why legacy events don't fire is craptacular prizes, not deck building cost. In fact, a lot of times my friends complain that after they drop money for a deck, even if it's 5 bucks for a black goblin deck, that they don't want to turn around and pay to enter a tourney. "2) People are playing these formats, but they are doing it without Force of Will." -- Yeah top decks in events feature 4x FoW, we get that. But again, Events are not the only way to play magic. Tons of people every day play Legacy, just not in events. I know events def. help you set prices for cards, but I think everyone constantly forgets about the people like me who play Magic Online everday, spend money out of every pay check for cards new and old, and don't play in online events. If you gave me a playset of FoW, I could honesty care less. I hate counterspells, but my love of Vintage/Legacy/Classic will remain. Do you want me to play in events? Then make the prizes worth it, because I'd rather draft and know I'm gettin 3 packs worth of cards even if I lose.
Except it would be nice for the johnny come latelys to have a shot at the achievements you all took for granted. (Plus Im not too keen on coming up with another 50 names lol.)
Ah, it was the Karn's achiievement you were attempting, then. Yeah, that's kinda hard to pull off, it probably won't be brought back in the next achievement rotation (actually, SBena aims to replace them all, but I'd like to do a mix of the two things. Also, there will be achievements to do over the course of multiple events, especially deckbuilding ones -- something like: complete this cycle of tribes -- to encourage diversity).
Kuma said it very well indeed, although the analogy I'd use would be bringing a salt shaker to a slug race. :)
It was a fun event, and I can hardly point the finger at anyone for deck meanness given punishing grove and a brace of Karns (Didn't get the achievement there, but there's always next time).
Paul, I thought it was clear from the explanation in-video that the combo I was talking about was Lightning Crafter + Kiki-Jiki + Card X (any repeatable free sac outlet that can sac Crafter.) In the video when I was describing how the potential combo was executed, I am pretty sure I stated Kiki-Jiki was championed by the Crafter's copy as part of the combo execution, so that sac'ing the copy returns Kiki-Jiki to the battlefield untapped and ready to repeat the process.
I didn't intend to create the perception that LC + Card X was a 2-card combo without Kiki-Jiki, but perhaps my wording in the text box here was ambiguous.
In any event, Goblin Chirurgeon is the correct answer and does complete the combo.
Hate to burst your bubble, Justice, but he did not misuse the word "censorship" in his original article.
Take your own advice: just get over it. It really is censorship: Wizards is censoring the information.
They are choosing which data to send out and which data to withhold. That's censorship by any definition
you want to throw out there.
Ok, first you misuse the word "censorship" in your original diatribe against Wizards not reporting results. Now, it's onto this juvenile rant.
Sample - a series of subjects chosen from among a population for statistical analysis.
Samples are used all the time in statistics where it's either impracticable or impossible to study the entire population. Still, statistical studies of samples are valid as representative of the entire population for two reasons - 1) proper choice of a sample is easy to make 2) any sampling error can be mathematically measured. Instead of doing either of those things, you just have an emo pout about results being redacted.
Look, the results we have available are probably representative of the decks people are playing across the board, because I can't see any reason why they wouldn't be. If there is any bias in the sample however, it actually works to benefit the purpose of the study, our decision of what to play in the meta, because rewards are higher in the sample, and so competition is stiffer.
Just get over it. Save yourself the time of making pie charts like that in the future, for both our sakes.
RexDart: Goblin Chirurgeon is the only shaman I can think of from FE that fits the criteria you were mentioning but it doesn't seem like it completes the combo.
Blippy: Sorry that you didnt win but glad you made slugs fly. I was convinced that the strictures of Slugapalooza were too tight to beget anything but broken decks so I opted to watch instead. Seeing the winning deck didn't even interact with its own slugs at all I think this was borne out.
A bit of possibly useful info: the Googledocs tabs can be linked directly by going to the tab and copying its address, since the last digit (the "gid") is different for each tab of a sheet.
So the direct link to the Achievement list is this.
I need to tell you that if you'll ever come to play in Tribal Apocalypse, you'll make me indescribably happy. You, sir, are the deckbuilder I try to be.
Welcome welcome! Nice to see more Tribal talk. Spread the awareness, spread the fun!
Two things: you need to improve a little bit the image-related stuff (positions, linking, I'll tell you about that in the game, if you want) -- but don't worry, it's something I learned slowly myself.
And the new challenge was launched right after you cleared the Nephilim Challenge (which came after the Elder Challenge and the Kirin Challenge, by the way): now it's Volver Challenge.
Thanks for the welcome to PureMTGO. I really wanted to jump for joy with this article being posted. I would really take the advice of Mr. Paul and asked my English teacher friend to proofread and edit my next article. Also thanks for the link I really need to learn how to do those kind of stuff. I never expected that Vantar's number is a high school id number. He sure is a sentimental kind of guy. AJ since I am the first victim of your achievement you owe me. hehe. I am gonna ask you for a date for a full interview about that achievement. To Kuma thanks a lot for introducing me to Tribal. I really love the format and asking my friends to join. Thanks and see you all in Tribal.
From Wikipedia: "Censorship is the suppression of speech or other PUBLIC communication which may be considered objectionable..."
Withholding information only amounts to censorship if that information is public. The US Senate not publishing minutes of their deliberations is censorship. Me not telling you what I had for dinner last night is not. Wizards is not a public entity. It's a private one. Whatever happens on their servers is their business.
And I'm still waiting on someone to explain why results from the remaining structured events aren't a valid statistical sample. I'm glad that WOTC still provides data from these, which they're under no legal duty to do. I don't like the idea of the emo college-know-it-all hippes from Southpark coming in and comparing WOTC to the Communist party when in reality we're lucky to have such good support for this game.
I want to be able to see for myself which decks are performing well, not just the ones that WOTC
deems "okay" for me to see. The way metagames shift and decks morph, sometimes on a dime, I want
to make my own decisions and not be guided by some drone who thinks he's doing "the right thing."
I'm not gonna argue for or against on the censorship issue, but please, please, BlippyTheSlug, keep up the rant: yes, we should have the full results, especially for Modern. Yes, getting these results is what makes a proper metagame. Yes, a proper metagame makes for a healthy format, provides a point of entry for new players, helps to develop new decks, and more. And in the end, whether others agree or not, it's good that SOMEONE keeps up the rant when Wizards takes away something without even bothering telling the community.
Mortars is really good, but the field that I played in I thought it was not needed. In a field where there is a lot more GW or Jund, I would run three in the board without hesitation. As it was there was a lot of mono red and vampires, and I felt the card was weaker there.
Wow not a single Mortars even in the sideboard. I am surprised. That card seems like it breaks whole decks.
Man, I for one would love to see them given away in the same fashion that they did the premium deck give away, where it is tiered based on the number of years you have been online as to which card you got. This would solve a bunch of issues i think and would still make black lotus, the card i think that will be the lowest to get given out in quantity, the most expensive card of the lot. I think the if done this way it would go about right. Maybe even having a buffer for the first tier so that not too many get given out.
I think if done this way it should go as this
Timetwister-> Random Mox -> Time Walk -> Ancestral Recall -> and the big daddy Black Lotus
Now I think this method will distribute about the same ammount of each mox in the market as say time walk, but i was thinking they may actually switch with the time twister, that way each as an individual card may be distributed in the same ammount of scarcity as some of the higher up choices and keep their prices stablized more.
Then, if prices seem to be too high after a year or two, the old art (or new art depending on which version they give away) can be given as prizes for qualifying for a MOCS
Thank You for the welcome. I actually write this after I won the challenge and I really wasn't sure if there is going to be another challenge.
It would be an honor to be mentored by you in writing articles.
I'm basically reading your articles from before I even knew what this site was. Casual Johnny who tries to think outside the box through rarely-played cards? That's my piece of cake. Too bad Vanguard isn't a thing anymore.
So I have been playing magic half my adult life, since Alpha. In the paper world, I participated in events around Odyssey and Onslaught Blocks, before hanging up my tourney hat and settling into casual fun with cards. I write articles on puremtgo, I have blogs about magic. I's my major hobby. But if we applied the same tunnel vision view to paper we apply to online-- that of viewing event firings and participations as indication of popularity, then according to the data in paper, after Onslaught block, the paper tourney world was less popular by at least one player, me. In actuality, though, it wasn't because I still loved/love magic I just didn't go to events. Magic has always been my favorite hobby and not only have I purchased cards from every set every printed, but I've switched to online and brought along a bunch of friends. All of these friends play legacy/classic. Only like two of these friends-- I'd say two out of around 20 friends I convinced to go to MTGO, play in events, but we All play magic online and we all play classic. Do you know how many of us own Force of Wills? None. Heck, some of us don't even LIKE playing blue. It hasn't stopped classic's popularity for us at all, and even in the Just for Fun Room, we face horrible and very expensive decks and sometimes our $20 budget classic deck hoses their Volcanic Island/Force of Will laiden deck, and sometimes it doesn't. I don'tthink classic or legacy is lacking because one card is so pricey, even if it is a good card. The ENTIRETY of classic staples is daunting. Forget $120 for a FoW, I have a child and oil heat so $15.00 for a Maze of Ith makes my heart palpitate. I think like all the other comments above, the reason why legacy events don't fire is craptacular prizes, not deck building cost. In fact, a lot of times my friends complain that after they drop money for a deck, even if it's 5 bucks for a black goblin deck, that they don't want to turn around and pay to enter a tourney. "2) People are playing these formats, but they are doing it without Force of Will." -- Yeah top decks in events feature 4x FoW, we get that. But again, Events are not the only way to play magic. Tons of people every day play Legacy, just not in events. I know events def. help you set prices for cards, but I think everyone constantly forgets about the people like me who play Magic Online everday, spend money out of every pay check for cards new and old, and don't play in online events. If you gave me a playset of FoW, I could honesty care less. I hate counterspells, but my love of Vintage/Legacy/Classic will remain. Do you want me to play in events? Then make the prizes worth it, because I'd rather draft and know I'm gettin 3 packs worth of cards even if I lose.
Equal parts surprised and flattered! Thanks.
Except it would be nice for the johnny come latelys to have a shot at the achievements you all took for granted. (Plus Im not too keen on coming up with another 50 names lol.)
I agree with Sbena, completely clean slate rather than any repeats. What has been done has been proven.
Ah, it was the Karn's achiievement you were attempting, then. Yeah, that's kinda hard to pull off, it probably won't be brought back in the next achievement rotation (actually, SBena aims to replace them all, but I'd like to do a mix of the two things. Also, there will be achievements to do over the course of multiple events, especially deckbuilding ones -- something like: complete this cycle of tribes -- to encourage diversity).
The way you worded it sounded like Kiki wasn't in the picture which is why I was baffled. lol. Thanks for clearing that up.
I'd be delighted, bdgp. Feel free to nudge me when you see me online, or fire off an email to my eponymous yahoo.com address.
Kuma said it very well indeed, although the analogy I'd use would be bringing a salt shaker to a slug race. :)
It was a fun event, and I can hardly point the finger at anyone for deck meanness given punishing grove and a brace of Karns (Didn't get the achievement there, but there's always next time).
Paul, I thought it was clear from the explanation in-video that the combo I was talking about was Lightning Crafter + Kiki-Jiki + Card X (any repeatable free sac outlet that can sac Crafter.) In the video when I was describing how the potential combo was executed, I am pretty sure I stated Kiki-Jiki was championed by the Crafter's copy as part of the combo execution, so that sac'ing the copy returns Kiki-Jiki to the battlefield untapped and ready to repeat the process.
I didn't intend to create the perception that LC + Card X was a 2-card combo without Kiki-Jiki, but perhaps my wording in the text box here was ambiguous.
In any event, Goblin Chirurgeon is the correct answer and does complete the combo.
Hate to burst your bubble, Justice, but he did not misuse the word "censorship" in his original article.
Take your own advice: just get over it. It really is censorship: Wizards is censoring the information.
They are choosing which data to send out and which data to withhold. That's censorship by any definition
you want to throw out there.
Ok, first you misuse the word "censorship" in your original diatribe against Wizards not reporting results. Now, it's onto this juvenile rant.
Sample - a series of subjects chosen from among a population for statistical analysis.
Samples are used all the time in statistics where it's either impracticable or impossible to study the entire population. Still, statistical studies of samples are valid as representative of the entire population for two reasons - 1) proper choice of a sample is easy to make 2) any sampling error can be mathematically measured. Instead of doing either of those things, you just have an emo pout about results being redacted.
Look, the results we have available are probably representative of the decks people are playing across the board, because I can't see any reason why they wouldn't be. If there is any bias in the sample however, it actually works to benefit the purpose of the study, our decision of what to play in the meta, because rewards are higher in the sample, and so competition is stiffer.
Just get over it. Save yourself the time of making pie charts like that in the future, for both our sakes.
RexDart: Goblin Chirurgeon is the only shaman I can think of from FE that fits the criteria you were mentioning but it doesn't seem like it completes the combo.
Blippy: Sorry that you didnt win but glad you made slugs fly. I was convinced that the strictures of Slugapalooza were too tight to beget anything but broken decks so I opted to watch instead. Seeing the winning deck didn't even interact with its own slugs at all I think this was borne out.
Now I am truly regretting selling my collection tribal 100 looks like so much fun
A bit of possibly useful info: the Googledocs tabs can be linked directly by going to the tab and copying its address, since the last digit (the "gid") is different for each tab of a sheet.
So the direct link to the Achievement list is this.
I need to tell you that if you'll ever come to play in Tribal Apocalypse, you'll make me indescribably happy. You, sir, are the deckbuilder I try to be.
Welcome welcome! Nice to see more Tribal talk. Spread the awareness, spread the fun!
Two things: you need to improve a little bit the image-related stuff (positions, linking, I'll tell you about that in the game, if you want) -- but don't worry, it's something I learned slowly myself.
And the new challenge was launched right after you cleared the Nephilim Challenge (which came after the Elder Challenge and the Kirin Challenge, by the way): now it's Volver Challenge.
Thanks for the welcome to PureMTGO. I really wanted to jump for joy with this article being posted. I would really take the advice of Mr. Paul and asked my English teacher friend to proofread and edit my next article. Also thanks for the link I really need to learn how to do those kind of stuff. I never expected that Vantar's number is a high school id number. He sure is a sentimental kind of guy. AJ since I am the first victim of your achievement you owe me. hehe. I am gonna ask you for a date for a full interview about that achievement. To Kuma thanks a lot for introducing me to Tribal. I really love the format and asking my friends to join. Thanks and see you all in Tribal.