I missed this due to the daylight savings shift and not paying enough attention to the clock: I had a couple of nasty decks I was vacillating between.
I concur with RexDart on something being needed to shake things up: I'm reminded of my and Lord Erman's big debate on the format back in September 2009 which directly led to the creation of the Tribal Apocalypse PRE in the first place.
As to what that should be, I'm still not certain. People seem to be falling into well-worn ruts and comfortable decks which they know will compete, but which are unappealing to play against.
Really enjoyed this article! I enjoyed your videos and think you commentate on the game well. I've been interested in playing Block Constructed but it seems a bit too Mythic-centric for my tastes. Do you know if there are any good budget decks in Block?
I think the problem with rants is when they are too frequent, and disproportionate. Everything you said in your Wizards vs. Technology section is absolutely true, and it's important to try to give them yet another wake-up call.
I love MTGO - it is by far my favorite computer game of all time, but that's because I love Magic, and the opportunity to play official Magic tournaments online is priceless to me. One could say I love MTGO because of Magic, and in spite of, well, MTGO.
It just gets frustrating sometimes. Which is why constant feedback is important. We have to show we care, even if sometimes it is by ranting a bit.
Had to miss this past week's event (I was in St. Louis for the Starcity Games Open -- smashing face with Zombies on Saturday for standard, and Wild Nacatls on Sunday for legacy!) At least at the top, this week's underdog results look like mostly the same decks and the same players as it has been for awhile in the endangered events.
I'm starting to think a playset of Rest in Peace would be a legitimate answer to the Underdog format. Three out of four decks in the Top 4 here use the 'yard, and two of them are either unplayable or nearly so against Rest in Peace. The Underdog/Endangered metagame for the past year has been dominated by three deck types: graveyard combo (dredge variants, Living End, reanimator), Punishing Grove Werewolves, and white weenie decks (with or without blades). There are a few cards that combo very well with Rest in Peace, so that it's never completely dead if you build those into your deck. I think that's at least one possible path out of this stale metagame.
I really like the endangered event, it's what drew me to Tribal Apocalypse originally (I naively brought Barbarians to the first event I played, Jeska and Balthor and the whole gang included). But despite the variety available to deckbuilders within these tribes -- even more now with Underdog replacing Endangered -- the top of the format has remained fairly stagnant for awhile, with only the occasional rogue strategy peeking through (i.e. Kuma's avatars or wolves, AJ's gargoyles). Something needs to shake it up a little. Just my take on this, for what it's worth.
Re: the video, I had a bunch of meetings this week so couldn't record when I usually do. Those of you who like the vids (and there are a few, thanks to you guys for watching), I'll have a new one in Kuma's article next week.
Great stuff, and I look forward to play in the PRE. I'd wish for you to dedicate some time to explain the correlations between Commander and 100CS, though. What's the mindset a Commander player should use when switching to 100CS? Considering a highly competitive, tournament Commander player, which might be already used to play 1v1 (which is almost entirely different from multiplayer Commander) because some tourneys require that in their final round, and some of those matches might well last 5 turns, not the 3 hours of a casual Commander game.
For instance, what's the difference, deckbuilding-wise, between your Workshop Esper deck and a Sharuum deck devised for Commander 1v1? (Except for the lack of some more obvious combo pieces like Mindslaver.)
I have always enjoyed your articles and the 100CS format is one of my all-time favorites. That Workshop Esper deck is awesome! I'm always on the look out for a home for Trading Post/Phyrexia's Core/Wellsprings/Spine of Ish Sah.
I'd play in classic events and continue to misplay the card for three or four months until I learned what was actually worth destroying my hand to counter....oh, that question wasn't directed at me?
It's completely uninteresting to say, but it's the most expensive card and is pretty close to a necessity to play a large number of decks at the highest tier.
I have to say this is very annoying. I often look through the Modern Dailies for decks for my articles and having a smaller pool of information is very limiting. It also means I'm less likely to see the newer more innovative decks.
I also agree that there is a level of incentive in knowing that your MTGO name and decklist will be published on the mothership if you perform well in the Daily. I also highly doubt this is going to have any real impact on the 'solving' any format.
Thanks for the feedback. That's some good insight. I agree with some of what you say but disagree on the rest.
I'd defend my pack 1 Runewings over Izzet cards. My previous picks definitely had me in Azorius territory and I do think Runewings are very good and safer picks when you aren't 100% sure where you're going yet. You're right about Skywatches, they should be picked up late to fill a top-end curve if it still needs filling. Early plays are a priority.
Also, I only got 1 Teleportal. I don't think 1 card is worth building my deck around when I've already collected a bunch of strong control cards. I'd never pick a Shred-Freak over a Street Spasm or an Electromancer over a Thoughtflare unless I got 2+ Teleportals early. Those cards are just so strong.
Should've picked Hover Barrier too. I figured it wouldn't make the cut so I hated, but I undervalue that card.
Well I guess this draft is a learning experience, because by the p2p6 where you pick up Teleportal, you've already indicated that you don't want to draft that kind of deck. P1P6 and p1p9 you take 2 Isperia's Skywatch over the superb Pursuit of Flight and the playable Hussar Patrol. In pack 1 also, you take an Arrester over Goblin Rally and Runewing over Traitorous Instinct. Granted, you're not so firmly into Izzet yet, but regardless Runewings and Skywatches are not so much pack 1 material, in my opinion. They're susceptible to being overvalued. For example, Runewing often gets used as a chump and a dump against Rakdos, and at that point even Inaction Injunction is almost strictly better, as well as being playable in Teleportal.dec I'm surprised again when you pick Runewing over Chemister's Trick p2p4. The Trick is playable in even the more controlly versions of Izzet, since a lot of the time when you have your 2-3 drops, it's a removal and a fog.
Another pick you make before Teleportal comes around is p2p2 Sunspire Griffin over Rakdos Shred Freak. This wasn't the greatest pack for you, but being able to pick up 2x Izzet Guildgate late P1 is a solid indication that that side of the table is not in those colors. The packs were very light on white cards after pick 8 also. You don't have such a solid commitment to red yet, but you definitely shouldn't be into white. That's making the worst out of a bad situation pick 2. After you're passed Teleportal as well, you pass up a Shred Freak p2p8 for a Street Spasm. That's certainly not a poor choice, but it's one that indicates control and light board presence over early tempo plays, which Teleportal would reward.
After you pick up the Teleportal, you pass up another solid 2 drop in Goblin Electromancer, p3p3. Thoughtflare is again not a poor choice there, it's just one that indicates control over early tempo. Basically any 2 drops are playable in Teleportal style tempo.
I'm also a little baffled by you picking Common Bond over Hover Barrier p3p7. Hover Barrier is the kind of pick that would be consistent with Thoughtflare and Street Spasm. Also the value as a hate-draft is pretty low since the same players passed on Common Bond as late as p6 of pack 1, and so any Selesnya drafters on that side of the table are not good players, and not to be worried about. p3p8 might be Chemister's Trick instead of Staticaster, but that can go either way at this point too because you're so light on early drops.
Overall, I see pretty standard 1650-1700 behavior in your opponents, overvaluing removal and undervaluing early drops. Problem is that you might have been overvaluing a lot of the late drops over early ones too. Something to remember for the next time the table pushes you into Izzet, which will be often I expect.
Haven't had a chance to listen yet (had this come out yesterday I could have listened on the 2.1 hour train ride each way to/from nyc.) However I do have some thoughts on playsets: Force of Willx4 would put me solidly in able to play classic (and maybe legacy less solidly) whereas Tarmogoyf would help me play Zoo in any format. 4x the big duals would help (I have 0 tundras, underground seas and volcanic islands) with most classic/legacy formats.
Other than that we get into pricy standard playsets. Karn (well almost standard), Geists, Bonfires. All would be useful in building winning decks. (Though perhaps not so much for fun.)
Keya - I find that Mono-Red Aggro/Burn has a tendency to see a lot of play in new formats but usually disappears gradually as the format takes shape. I kind of doubt it will have the staying power of some of the other decks in Standard right now but as a relatively cheap option is seems decent.
Also, I'd like a playset of Tarmogoyf for the purposes of building Modern decks. A playset of Geist of Saint Traft might follow pretty close behind.
Errata: the Watch List section isn't updated. Cephalid Illusionist is currently Level 1 because its success ratio is below 25% now (13 times used, only 3 times undefeated). And I won't have to involve Blippy anymore, sadly.
Nope. Malum played them in Event 94, didn't manage to win a proper match (he got a bye).
By the way, statistics say that Nephilim have been played another two times this year, in Event 76 and 83, both by nightviper429, both with 1-2 final scores. Event 76 would have satisfied the challenge (the win in Event 83 was due to opponent not showing), but it was before the challenge was even launched, of course.
Well said mr Legendary Slug. I couldn't agree more. The problem is, is this article going to be taken seriously by the Deciders? Honestly I doubt it. Not that they don't love you because I think they very much do but because peremptory decisions tend to be ill-conceived but mightily defended by those who make them. Particularly when you've just publicly tweaked their nose for it.
That lots of people are not merely annoyed but outraged by the decision to remove huge chunks of data from the known meta game in order to "make the formats more fun" is probably of no concern at all to them. I had hopes for awhile that this sort of thinking/behavior was a thing of the past but I see I was mistaken and have very little faith that they will change their minds based on some vocal minority (the vast majority of players just don't get involved in issues at all most of the time and many won't even care that they lost a good deal by this decision and others won't understand how it affects them even with your eloquence lighting the way.
I am not saying players are stupid (quite the contrary on average I think) but I think people tend to be hard to push towards action unless the matter is one that they personally know is important. Kitchen table players? Don't care. FNM players probably don't care (I mean on average, there will always be some that do.) Guys that never play with sideboards, don't care...(Meta wha? screw that lets just have fun with our 40 life, 10 card hands and our 1400 card decks.)
Not that there is no hope for this cause. I mean several years after the Extended format idiocy they fixed things by introducing the Modern format which was a huge hit and finally gave us back some value for our collections with an Eternal format that most people find accessible even if Tarmogoyf was hard to get.
Great article as always, but one thing jumped out at me right away.
"The original Alpha and Beta booster packs had 15 cards per pack, with 1 rare, 3 uncommons and 11 commons in each booster – except that one card at random in each pack was replaced with a basic land. That included rares, on occasion."
That's not how it was done. The basic lands were printed on the sheets with all of the other cards at each rarity. It wasn't the best method for distributing basic lands, but it got the job done. Lands were printed this way through Revised. There were 4 Islands on the rare sheet in Alpha, Beta and Unlimited. I never opened any Alpha, Beta or Unlimited packs, but I've opened plenty of Revised packs. While I missed out on the Power 9, I also never opened an Island as my rare. Getting a basic land (or two) in an uncommon slot was frustrating enough. I opened a few packs that had 6-7 basic lands in them. I don't think I ever opened a pack that only had one basic land in it.
I missed this due to the daylight savings shift and not paying enough attention to the clock: I had a couple of nasty decks I was vacillating between.
I concur with RexDart on something being needed to shake things up: I'm reminded of my and Lord Erman's big debate on the format back in September 2009 which directly led to the creation of the Tribal Apocalypse PRE in the first place.
As to what that should be, I'm still not certain. People seem to be falling into well-worn ruts and comfortable decks which they know will compete, but which are unappealing to play against.
Really enjoyed this article! I enjoyed your videos and think you commentate on the game well. I've been interested in playing Block Constructed but it seems a bit too Mythic-centric for my tastes. Do you know if there are any good budget decks in Block?
Good work on the article!
Nice article as usual Pete though I am wondering why some cards dont make the lists like Arcbound Ravager.
I think the problem with rants is when they are too frequent, and disproportionate. Everything you said in your Wizards vs. Technology section is absolutely true, and it's important to try to give them yet another wake-up call.
I love MTGO - it is by far my favorite computer game of all time, but that's because I love Magic, and the opportunity to play official Magic tournaments online is priceless to me. One could say I love MTGO because of Magic, and in spite of, well, MTGO.
It just gets frustrating sometimes. Which is why constant feedback is important. We have to show we care, even if sometimes it is by ranting a bit.
Had to miss this past week's event (I was in St. Louis for the Starcity Games Open -- smashing face with Zombies on Saturday for standard, and Wild Nacatls on Sunday for legacy!) At least at the top, this week's underdog results look like mostly the same decks and the same players as it has been for awhile in the endangered events.
I'm starting to think a playset of Rest in Peace would be a legitimate answer to the Underdog format. Three out of four decks in the Top 4 here use the 'yard, and two of them are either unplayable or nearly so against Rest in Peace. The Underdog/Endangered metagame for the past year has been dominated by three deck types: graveyard combo (dredge variants, Living End, reanimator), Punishing Grove Werewolves, and white weenie decks (with or without blades). There are a few cards that combo very well with Rest in Peace, so that it's never completely dead if you build those into your deck. I think that's at least one possible path out of this stale metagame.
I really like the endangered event, it's what drew me to Tribal Apocalypse originally (I naively brought Barbarians to the first event I played, Jeska and Balthor and the whole gang included). But despite the variety available to deckbuilders within these tribes -- even more now with Underdog replacing Endangered -- the top of the format has remained fairly stagnant for awhile, with only the occasional rogue strategy peeking through (i.e. Kuma's avatars or wolves, AJ's gargoyles). Something needs to shake it up a little. Just my take on this, for what it's worth.
Re: the video, I had a bunch of meetings this week so couldn't record when I usually do. Those of you who like the vids (and there are a few, thanks to you guys for watching), I'll have a new one in Kuma's article next week.
Just kidding. I listened to the whole thing. Thanks for the kind thoughts in addition to the usual fantastic coverage.
Great stuff, and I look forward to play in the PRE. I'd wish for you to dedicate some time to explain the correlations between Commander and 100CS, though. What's the mindset a Commander player should use when switching to 100CS? Considering a highly competitive, tournament Commander player, which might be already used to play 1v1 (which is almost entirely different from multiplayer Commander) because some tourneys require that in their final round, and some of those matches might well last 5 turns, not the 3 hours of a casual Commander game.
For instance, what's the difference, deckbuilding-wise, between your Workshop Esper deck and a Sharuum deck devised for Commander 1v1? (Except for the lack of some more obvious combo pieces like Mindslaver.)
Good to see another great article Tarmo. You significantly contribute every time you write something. :)
I have always enjoyed your articles and the 100CS format is one of my all-time favorites. That Workshop Esper deck is awesome! I'm always on the look out for a home for Trading Post/Phyrexia's Core/Wellsprings/Spine of Ish Sah.
your 100cs articles have long been some of my favs and glad to see them coming back
I'd play in classic events and continue to misplay the card for three or four months until I learned what was actually worth destroying my hand to counter....oh, that question wasn't directed at me?
It's completely uninteresting to say, but it's the most expensive card and is pretty close to a necessity to play a large number of decks at the highest tier.
I have to say this is very annoying. I often look through the Modern Dailies for decks for my articles and having a smaller pool of information is very limiting. It also means I'm less likely to see the newer more innovative decks.
I also agree that there is a level of incentive in knowing that your MTGO name and decklist will be published on the mothership if you perform well in the Daily. I also highly doubt this is going to have any real impact on the 'solving' any format.
Poor decision on Wizards part I feel.
Thanks for the feedback. That's some good insight. I agree with some of what you say but disagree on the rest.
I'd defend my pack 1 Runewings over Izzet cards. My previous picks definitely had me in Azorius territory and I do think Runewings are very good and safer picks when you aren't 100% sure where you're going yet. You're right about Skywatches, they should be picked up late to fill a top-end curve if it still needs filling. Early plays are a priority.
Also, I only got 1 Teleportal. I don't think 1 card is worth building my deck around when I've already collected a bunch of strong control cards. I'd never pick a Shred-Freak over a Street Spasm or an Electromancer over a Thoughtflare unless I got 2+ Teleportals early. Those cards are just so strong.
Should've picked Hover Barrier too. I figured it wouldn't make the cut so I hated, but I undervalue that card.
Well I guess this draft is a learning experience, because by the p2p6 where you pick up Teleportal, you've already indicated that you don't want to draft that kind of deck. P1P6 and p1p9 you take 2 Isperia's Skywatch over the superb Pursuit of Flight and the playable Hussar Patrol. In pack 1 also, you take an Arrester over Goblin Rally and Runewing over Traitorous Instinct. Granted, you're not so firmly into Izzet yet, but regardless Runewings and Skywatches are not so much pack 1 material, in my opinion. They're susceptible to being overvalued. For example, Runewing often gets used as a chump and a dump against Rakdos, and at that point even Inaction Injunction is almost strictly better, as well as being playable in Teleportal.dec I'm surprised again when you pick Runewing over Chemister's Trick p2p4. The Trick is playable in even the more controlly versions of Izzet, since a lot of the time when you have your 2-3 drops, it's a removal and a fog.
Another pick you make before Teleportal comes around is p2p2 Sunspire Griffin over Rakdos Shred Freak. This wasn't the greatest pack for you, but being able to pick up 2x Izzet Guildgate late P1 is a solid indication that that side of the table is not in those colors. The packs were very light on white cards after pick 8 also. You don't have such a solid commitment to red yet, but you definitely shouldn't be into white. That's making the worst out of a bad situation pick 2. After you're passed Teleportal as well, you pass up a Shred Freak p2p8 for a Street Spasm. That's certainly not a poor choice, but it's one that indicates control and light board presence over early tempo plays, which Teleportal would reward.
After you pick up the Teleportal, you pass up another solid 2 drop in Goblin Electromancer, p3p3. Thoughtflare is again not a poor choice there, it's just one that indicates control over early tempo. Basically any 2 drops are playable in Teleportal style tempo.
I'm also a little baffled by you picking Common Bond over Hover Barrier p3p7. Hover Barrier is the kind of pick that would be consistent with Thoughtflare and Street Spasm. Also the value as a hate-draft is pretty low since the same players passed on Common Bond as late as p6 of pack 1, and so any Selesnya drafters on that side of the table are not good players, and not to be worried about. p3p8 might be Chemister's Trick instead of Staticaster, but that can go either way at this point too because you're so light on early drops.
Overall, I see pretty standard 1650-1700 behavior in your opponents, overvaluing removal and undervaluing early drops. Problem is that you might have been overvaluing a lot of the late drops over early ones too. Something to remember for the next time the table pushes you into Izzet, which will be often I expect.
Haven't had a chance to listen yet (had this come out yesterday I could have listened on the 2.1 hour train ride each way to/from nyc.) However I do have some thoughts on playsets: Force of Willx4 would put me solidly in able to play classic (and maybe legacy less solidly) whereas Tarmogoyf would help me play Zoo in any format. 4x the big duals would help (I have 0 tundras, underground seas and volcanic islands) with most classic/legacy formats.
Other than that we get into pricy standard playsets. Karn (well almost standard), Geists, Bonfires. All would be useful in building winning decks. (Though perhaps not so much for fun.)
Really liked the podcast guys!
Keya - I find that Mono-Red Aggro/Burn has a tendency to see a lot of play in new formats but usually disappears gradually as the format takes shape. I kind of doubt it will have the staying power of some of the other decks in Standard right now but as a relatively cheap option is seems decent.
Also, I'd like a playset of Tarmogoyf for the purposes of building Modern decks. A playset of Geist of Saint Traft might follow pretty close behind.
Addendum to the video for Rexdart: The Persist spirits are also an outlet for Cabal Coffers mana.
Just out of curiosity, what would you do with the playset of FoW?
Top of the list is FoW, followed by all the fetch lands.
Errata: the Watch List section isn't updated. Cephalid Illusionist is currently Level 1 because its success ratio is below 25% now (13 times used, only 3 times undefeated). And I won't have to involve Blippy anymore, sadly.
Nope. Malum played them in Event 94, didn't manage to win a proper match (he got a bye).
By the way, statistics say that Nephilim have been played another two times this year, in Event 76 and 83, both by nightviper429, both with 1-2 final scores. Event 76 would have satisfied the challenge (the win in Event 83 was due to opponent not showing), but it was before the challenge was even launched, of course.
I thought someone took the Nephilim prize...
Well said mr Legendary Slug. I couldn't agree more. The problem is, is this article going to be taken seriously by the Deciders? Honestly I doubt it. Not that they don't love you because I think they very much do but because peremptory decisions tend to be ill-conceived but mightily defended by those who make them. Particularly when you've just publicly tweaked their nose for it.
That lots of people are not merely annoyed but outraged by the decision to remove huge chunks of data from the known meta game in order to "make the formats more fun" is probably of no concern at all to them. I had hopes for awhile that this sort of thinking/behavior was a thing of the past but I see I was mistaken and have very little faith that they will change their minds based on some vocal minority (the vast majority of players just don't get involved in issues at all most of the time and many won't even care that they lost a good deal by this decision and others won't understand how it affects them even with your eloquence lighting the way.
I am not saying players are stupid (quite the contrary on average I think) but I think people tend to be hard to push towards action unless the matter is one that they personally know is important. Kitchen table players? Don't care. FNM players probably don't care (I mean on average, there will always be some that do.) Guys that never play with sideboards, don't care...(Meta wha? screw that lets just have fun with our 40 life, 10 card hands and our 1400 card decks.)
Not that there is no hope for this cause. I mean several years after the Extended format idiocy they fixed things by introducing the Modern format which was a huge hit and finally gave us back some value for our collections with an Eternal format that most people find accessible even if Tarmogoyf was hard to get.
Great article as always, but one thing jumped out at me right away.
"The original Alpha and Beta booster packs had 15 cards per pack, with 1 rare, 3 uncommons and 11 commons in each booster – except that one card at random in each pack was replaced with a basic land. That included rares, on occasion."
That's not how it was done. The basic lands were printed on the sheets with all of the other cards at each rarity. It wasn't the best method for distributing basic lands, but it got the job done. Lands were printed this way through Revised. There were 4 Islands on the rare sheet in Alpha, Beta and Unlimited. I never opened any Alpha, Beta or Unlimited packs, but I've opened plenty of Revised packs. While I missed out on the Power 9, I also never opened an Island as my rare. Getting a basic land (or two) in an uncommon slot was frustrating enough. I opened a few packs that had 6-7 basic lands in them. I don't think I ever opened a pack that only had one basic land in it.
In my best Zach Steel Overseer voice: "It's got FREAKING SQUADRON HAWKS IN IT. FREAKING SQUADRON HAWKS!"
Montolio is so good that the Batterskulls ride HIM to victory!
;)