First of all congrats on the invite, though it's too bad you were unable to go. The timing on this one coincides with the very first one but the next 2 were all in mid year which might have been better for you. As always good to see the graphs but the black line for RTR should really be something white or otherwise high contrasting with the dark background of the graph.
Also where is the link to the blog? You said "here" but no link.
Sorry about the broken link in the first paragraph. I'm not sure what happened there. The correct URL is here http://oraymw.tumblr.com/post/31900127624/mtgo-community-cup. Apparently I pasted it in incorrectly, probably because I accidentally mixed it up with another URL.
I'm not sure. For aerial predation specifically, I think it's best to play it safe and not maindeck it. I hate dead cards and I wouldn't run it if I'm pretty sure 3/5ths of my opponents don't have scary flying threats.
One card that I undervalued a lot is Voidwielder though. Hoses scavenge and populate and makes the selesnya promo a liability. I'd maindeck it.
As always, very informative and well-written. For someone like me, who really thinks the set can't come fast enough, it's awesome to have this sort of detailed information available up front.
On the flip side, it makes me wanna play RtR limited even more badly... oh, the cruelty.
I wonder how much we should skew our deckbuilding due to the unusual prerelease format?
e.g. you've called aerial predation non-maindeckable, but i think plummet isn't a million miles from maindeckable at the worst of times. Bearing in mind that ~2/5ths of my opponents are going to have hypersonic archons and triumvarate dragonses which I'd board it in for anyway, I think I might just maindeck it to start with?
"Please, Wizards, give us a week each of Mirage, Tempest, Urza’s and Mercadian Masques drafts. "
Someone's listening, Mirage and Tempst blocks are the next classic drafts. Now we'll just have to see if enough people draft these to make a dent on the prices...
Hello, i'm waiting for you to return... You sayd next week and several weeks have passed, had followed your articles to the letter and i'm ansyous to continue this jorney with you. Please come back.
Yeah, we miss you at the contest too Paul. You know, I don't enter the contest anymore myself. I found it more valuable to the community to just provide feedback as much as possible and help new contestants with templating and understanding how the criteria affect their cards. Also, when there is an issue with judging, its easier for me to step up and help there because I never have a card entered. Although I have a new idea I want to kick off this month when judging starts, so we'll see how that goes.
To clarify: this is NOT a general rating of each guild, but rather just the specific guild packs. I am not looking at RtR's entire card pool when I'm evaluating.
For the record, my guild predictions for RtR sealed outside of the prerelease is (from strongest to least): Selesnya, Azorius, Golgari, Rakdos, Izzet.
I'm sure there will be some interesting applications, I just think it's going to be too clunky for most competitive uses. This ability also works well with Squee and similar cards like death of a thousand stings.
Wow, nice to hear from you again, Trea! I haven't had the urge to participate in the custom card contest here on pure for a few years mainly because it is so time consuming and I feel obligated to at least try to create my own art for the items. Nice guide.
You're right that detain is worse in someways than unsummon but this is attached to a solid body so probably they didnt want any more man-o-wars. On the other hand, blasphemous act wants bodies on board so maybe detain is designed with that in mind?
I like the bottom logos particularly the ones with the curvy sans serif font. I feel like the kerning could be better but I think that's more because of the overall size of the logos. Good article. Almost tempts me to get back into the format.
This sphinx can be really nasty with dredge cards, easy to dump all your cards on the graveyard or just to fill your hand. Can be tricky to have the two cards, but you are blue, so be tricky is the norm.
I want me some full art lands! I remember them coming in Zendikar and I thought that was the way it was going to be from now on and then they went back to the old way of doing the lands. I was and still am dissapointed thats the way it is.
This Saturday is the last Ravnica Block tournament for Rotating Block Heirloom and my last chance to take a win with the Storm Herd and I will be trying to do just that!
There will be a new legality list for Heirloom coming out on October 1st. This is being done so that the new list does not happen in the midst of Zendikar Block in Rotating Block Heirloom. Two weeks after Return to Ravnica is released online I will be adding all of those legal cards to the legality lists manually.
I did have a Valakut deck built for Zendikar Block next month but wizards just had to unban Valakut in Modern and now its over the price range for Heirloom.
Yeah it was moderately successful in its day. And in Modern it is a small but powerful minority deck (tier 1.5 to 2) with some potential to just beat down. Using Blood Artist is an attrition method but as you said anything that creates a state where your opponent is helpless works.
I put that in the comments, because the link was broken.
First of all congrats on the invite, though it's too bad you were unable to go. The timing on this one coincides with the very first one but the next 2 were all in mid year which might have been better for you. As always good to see the graphs but the black line for RTR should really be something white or otherwise high contrasting with the dark background of the graph.
Also where is the link to the blog? You said "here" but no link.
Thanks Rick! I try to put in as much as possible, but to me it always feels like I have to cut out so many things that I wanted to say.
Sorry about the broken link in the first paragraph. I'm not sure what happened there. The correct URL is here http://oraymw.tumblr.com/post/31900127624/mtgo-community-cup. Apparently I pasted it in incorrectly, probably because I accidentally mixed it up with another URL.
I'm not sure. For aerial predation specifically, I think it's best to play it safe and not maindeck it. I hate dead cards and I wouldn't run it if I'm pretty sure 3/5ths of my opponents don't have scary flying threats.
One card that I undervalued a lot is Voidwielder though. Hoses scavenge and populate and makes the selesnya promo a liability. I'd maindeck it.
As always, very informative and well-written. For someone like me, who really thinks the set can't come fast enough, it's awesome to have this sort of detailed information available up front.
On the flip side, it makes me wanna play RtR limited even more badly... oh, the cruelty.
Good stuff. Be back next week.
I wonder how much we should skew our deckbuilding due to the unusual prerelease format?
e.g. you've called aerial predation non-maindeckable, but i think plummet isn't a million miles from maindeckable at the worst of times. Bearing in mind that ~2/5ths of my opponents are going to have hypersonic archons and triumvarate dragonses which I'd board it in for anyway, I think I might just maindeck it to start with?
EDIT: I liked the article, by the way!
"Please, Wizards, give us a week each of Mirage, Tempest, Urza’s and Mercadian Masques drafts. "
Someone's listening, Mirage and Tempst blocks are the next classic drafts. Now we'll just have to see if enough people draft these to make a dent on the prices...
Hello, i'm waiting for you to return... You sayd next week and several weeks have passed, had followed your articles to the letter and i'm ansyous to continue this jorney with you. Please come back.
Yeah, we miss you at the contest too Paul. You know, I don't enter the contest anymore myself. I found it more valuable to the community to just provide feedback as much as possible and help new contestants with templating and understanding how the criteria affect their cards. Also, when there is an issue with judging, its easier for me to step up and help there because I never have a card entered. Although I have a new idea I want to kick off this month when judging starts, so we'll see how that goes.
To clarify: this is NOT a general rating of each guild, but rather just the specific guild packs. I am not looking at RtR's entire card pool when I'm evaluating.
For the record, my guild predictions for RtR sealed outside of the prerelease is (from strongest to least): Selesnya, Azorius, Golgari, Rakdos, Izzet.
I'm sure there will be some interesting applications, I just think it's going to be too clunky for most competitive uses. This ability also works well with Squee and similar cards like death of a thousand stings.
Wow, nice to hear from you again, Trea! I haven't had the urge to participate in the custom card contest here on pure for a few years mainly because it is so time consuming and I feel obligated to at least try to create my own art for the items. Nice guide.
You're right that detain is worse in someways than unsummon but this is attached to a solid body so probably they didnt want any more man-o-wars. On the other hand, blasphemous act wants bodies on board so maybe detain is designed with that in mind?
I like the bottom logos particularly the ones with the curvy sans serif font. I feel like the kerning could be better but I think that's more because of the overall size of the logos. Good article. Almost tempts me to get back into the format.
This sphinx can be really nasty with dredge cards, easy to dump all your cards on the graveyard or just to fill your hand. Can be tricky to have the two cards, but you are blue, so be tricky is the norm.
I wish I had the time to participate. Right now, my work time is getting in the way. :(
Great article!
Whoops...rated Angel's Mercy an A. Haha I am not trolling people. It was an accident.
It is a strong F and it's not even that fun...
Hopefully I'll be able to mae another attempt at old school Rav block myself. Last time didn't go so well.
I guess I'll just have to sell the 17 Valakuts I've been hoarding =) (when those were going for 5 cents I couldn't help myself).
I want me some full art lands! I remember them coming in Zendikar and I thought that was the way it was going to be from now on and then they went back to the old way of doing the lands. I was and still am dissapointed thats the way it is.
This Saturday is the last Ravnica Block tournament for Rotating Block Heirloom and my last chance to take a win with the Storm Herd and I will be trying to do just that!
There will be a new legality list for Heirloom coming out on October 1st. This is being done so that the new list does not happen in the midst of Zendikar Block in Rotating Block Heirloom. Two weeks after Return to Ravnica is released online I will be adding all of those legal cards to the legality lists manually.
I did have a Valakut deck built for Zendikar Block next month but wizards just had to unban Valakut in Modern and now its over the price range for Heirloom.
Yes, it is my current killer of choice.
It can be hard to cast in anything beyond a mono-black deck, but it's the last thing anyone expects ;) Thanks for the comment.
I've definitely considered Metamorph. Looks like I just need to make that happen. Thanks for the comment!
It's in my to-do list of Modern Birthing Pod endgames. Did you ever try it that way?
Yeah it was moderately successful in its day. And in Modern it is a small but powerful minority deck (tier 1.5 to 2) with some potential to just beat down. Using Blood Artist is an attrition method but as you said anything that creates a state where your opponent is helpless works.