Re: the PVDDR tweet: the example of basketball is a bad one just because it's a physical game and what the coaches are known for is a mental "game". Mental vs. physical prowess. On the other hand, both Magic players and writers are sailing the same waters, so to speak, and are both using mental/strategic powers. I think that makes Paulo's position stronger.
The first 5 minutes or so will be going over the rules, followed by a 10 minute (or so) intermission for first pairings, so the actual games won't start till about 9:45PM Eastern. So getting there at 9:35 is still "plenty of time".
One question: If I am not able to guarantee arrival by 6:30 (9:30 eastern I guess =P) but can get quite close (as in 6:35 or so) can I still play? If so, I'd like to pre-register, mtgo name is xger21
The League is back... YSO is back... and all became right with the world.
This League season has seen such a subdued response and nearly no prize support (compared to previously). We do have a bit, but not like the well over $100 previously. This has really been a huge lull in the Classic scene. We'll see how things shape up.
I also wanted to add that I haven't played Classic much at all in the past six months. Ever since moving last autumn, I've just had too many real-world things going on. I have no decks built at the moment. Maybe the League will pique my interest in the format once again.
Before I talk about Blue, I wanted to say thanks for reading! I sometimes forget that non-Commander players will check out the article and I'm glad you brought up the Blue issue.
Your favorite, like that of many people, is Blue and that's really understandable. As we all know Blue is considered the most powerful color in Magic and for good reason: It is really powerful. And in a format like Commander, which has a smaller ban list than Vintage, it is possible to go all out with many of your favorite cards.
The issue with Blue is that it lives at instant speed. Most of Blue's most powerful cards are instants. You just have to look at the cards mentioned by Karazor to see what I'm talking about. As I noted in the article, getting away from instants that you play during opponents' turns is a great way to speed up games. Having to click OK in response to each actions your opponents' take incrementally increases the length of each game and those small amounts add up over time. When you play a Commander game you may notice that games with multiple Blue players tend to take longer (on average) than other games. Blue is not only typically more complicated but takes time to play.
Of course, other colors can do similar things. As was pointed out Azusa decks (and plenty of others) can put a crap ton of triggers on the stack slowing everything down to a crawl. It just happens to be that Blue is most often the worst offender when it comes to these issues. You can definitely play Blue without causing delays, it just takes some focus and deck tweaking.
Also I disagree with Blue being described as just a support color. My opinion may not mean a whole lot, but what I've seen while playing is that Blue can do just about everything all by itself, on top of being able to keep opponents from playing what they want. I know that there are a lot of people out there that say mono-Green is the most powerful deck out there (I also don't agree with this) but Blue is not only good by itself, I believe it pretty much increases the power of the colors that it plays with. I'm glad that there are people out there like Karazor that only rely upon Blue in support as they make playing Commander more bearable, since there are plenty more people out there that rely on Blue to do broken and (subjectively) unfun stuff. Blue is definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, colors in Commander.
I, and will, follow with interest this article and Pete's section on speculation. I have also started 10 months ago to do the same kind of speculation/trade/test with MtGO cards. My goal was to try to make at leat a 10 % profit in 1 year.
I'm trading on a little bigger scale and using various strategies with Standard and Modern formats mostly. Standard has bigger jumps in prices but Modern is way more predictable. So far it's doing well.
I think your card choices are pretty good. I also bet on all those cards, except for the mythics for which I'm still not totally convince, although there's probably nothing to loose considering their prices.
I bought cards from a variety of sources. I don't know that I could get those prices today as they move up and down. Some of the prices I paid are high as the card values continue to drop. I don't think we'll start seeing a bounce for a month or so (excluding bounces based on previewed cards).
Since this article is hosted on PureMTGO and MTGO Traders, I won't print any competing bots names on principle.
I bought before the announcement was made, and I'm realllly torn about what to do next. Having 2 sets of dual lands of the right colors makes decks more consistent, and we'll likely see a return to 5-color decks. And, the ISD lands will likely be worth less since they aren't the only way to get those 2 colors. The Ravnica-duals work nicely with the ISD duals, as Temple Garden is a forest and a plains, so Isolated Chapel comes into play untapped once a Temple Garden is in play. Right now, I'm holding on.
I question the wisdom of buying the ISD lands since Return to Ravnica is the upcoming Fall set. Did you buy those before that was announced or are you planning to move those before that set is released?
I'm fine with new sets coming to MTGO later than in paper, for the reasons you listed. I just wish they would use those two weeks to put up Classic drafts (my favorite - but other MTGO specialty things are acceptable). A week of TSE or Urzas or MED would fire a lot more if it were during what many players consider "down time" online and are willing to spend their tix/time doing something other than the latest set.
Your investment going down by 3% makes me think that speculation is due to a lot of luck. I bought a copy of Elesh for commander when it was around $5 or $6. I also bought Jin-Gitaxias for about the same price. Elesh has skyrocketed when Jin has gone way down. At the time Jin's was everyone's favorite. It wasn't until Innistrad came out that Elesh's value began to shine over Jin's. I think a lot of movement is due to changes relating to interacting with upcoming sets which is hidden knowledge. I guess there is window where you could see the upcoming cards and make purchases before everyone else realizes what is going to be good, but the time you have to do that is really small.
Woo hoo! Response to the Ham On Wry events has been interesting; there are 18 players registered for the US Event already. Only 32 "paying" seats left! I'm expecting a few more pledges to roll in over the next few weeks, so the prizes can only get more outrageous!
Both these ideas look nice. Yours is really a double tribal, two decks together! I think this is definitely going to be a real thing for a Very Special Event down the line. As a bi-monthly thing, it might be too exotic. (EDIT: But the more I think of it, the more I love the idea of two tribal decks muddled together!)
20 double-type creatures can give birth to some of the same decks (Elves definitely, most builds are already legal for that; and the same for Wizard or Knight, which are already likely to feature 20 Humans in there). But it's worth of further study. Maybe with some banned types.
Too bad I couldn't finish the new article in time to be submitted today, so it's all postponed to next week. :/
Sorry, I read this "unique" chain of replies only now. And apologies, I answered your original statement lightheartedly, naively thinking that your comment was just a harmless remark. Instead, it apparently hints at a crucial part of your entire life, something you will stand for against the bad guys like me, that never acknowledge creativity because, yeah, who cares, right? Sure, that's exactly me.
I kindly invite you to take your medications (it can be dangerous to stay off of them for too long, you know? You can think it's normal to do all those replies violently fighting with different people because an Elder deck wasn't exalted like you think it should, but no, it's not normal, it's the path to be banned for trolling) then re-read my original answer. You will notice:
- a smile where I say that I paid 1 tix to the guy
- the part where I say "but sure it's great": I reckon these are ambiguous words, but in their obscurity they were intended to convey a positive meaning
- the part where I give a technical reason why, WHILE GREAT, the build has IN MY OPINION its fault in the overcomplicated nature of its battleplan, which is the reason why I didn't write an epic poem to celebrate it.
I could also add that using an entire tribal base only as pitching fuel is something other commenters (yet not me) would see in a negative light, as it's a way AROUND the tribal format. AJ_Impy could challenge you to a public showdown for less. And I confess I would have liked better a build where the Elders were actually put onto the battlefield (like the other Elder builds attempted to do), as my inner Timmy would have loved to see a win via Nicol Bolas attacking rather than being exiled.
Plus, you can keep the same shell and replace the Elders with any kind of green fatties, and the deck would work in the same exact way. Or actually better, since Nicol Bolas and Chromium are 8 cards only used to pitch for a singleton Soul Spike, which is hardly fundamental. So, that's not really a build that exploits the Elders, it's a build that makes do with the Elders.
Moreso, do you really think the Nefarious Lich/Sickening Dreams combo was new and not already known? Well, google it and think again.
Is that non-dismissive enough for you? Or is it still bad behaviour because it doesn't agree with you?
You know, justcanceled is a great guy, we had some good laughs when I gave him the tix and he showed me his "Elder collection". I was happy to leave it as a nice accomplishment, which still is, without digging deeper into the reasons why it doesn't deserve three trumpet blasts and a 21-gun salute (like most of our decks as well, for different reasons; but I'm not here to bash on the players, I'm here to encourage them). You forced me to write them. Good job.
I don't play commander, so thanks for the info. I would probably play it, but I'm not a huge fan of singleton style games, also, my favorite color is blue, so that doesn't help.
Blippy, can you add me as well?
-ImpinAintEasy on MTGO-
Re: the PVDDR tweet: the example of basketball is a bad one just because it's a physical game and what the coaches are known for is a mental "game". Mental vs. physical prowess. On the other hand, both Magic players and writers are sailing the same waters, so to speak, and are both using mental/strategic powers. I think that makes Paulo's position stronger.
The first 5 minutes or so will be going over the rules, followed by a 10 minute (or so) intermission for first pairings, so the actual games won't start till about 9:45PM Eastern. So getting there at 9:35 is still "plenty of time".
I added you to US Event.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhLez4zEwHkIdHFTdnlsY25LVmh...
I'd like to Pre-register for the USA Event, my MTGO name is ImpinAintEasy. Can you take care of that or how do I register?
I would also like to pre-register for the USA event. My mtgo name is ImpinAintEasy
One question: If I am not able to guarantee arrival by 6:30 (9:30 eastern I guess =P) but can get quite close (as in 6:35 or so) can I still play? If so, I'd like to pre-register, mtgo name is xger21
The League is back... YSO is back... and all became right with the world.
This League season has seen such a subdued response and nearly no prize support (compared to previously). We do have a bit, but not like the well over $100 previously. This has really been a huge lull in the Classic scene. We'll see how things shape up.
I also wanted to add that I haven't played Classic much at all in the past six months. Ever since moving last autumn, I've just had too many real-world things going on. I have no decks built at the moment. Maybe the League will pique my interest in the format once again.
Glad to see you guys back.
Before I talk about Blue, I wanted to say thanks for reading! I sometimes forget that non-Commander players will check out the article and I'm glad you brought up the Blue issue.
Your favorite, like that of many people, is Blue and that's really understandable. As we all know Blue is considered the most powerful color in Magic and for good reason: It is really powerful. And in a format like Commander, which has a smaller ban list than Vintage, it is possible to go all out with many of your favorite cards.
The issue with Blue is that it lives at instant speed. Most of Blue's most powerful cards are instants. You just have to look at the cards mentioned by Karazor to see what I'm talking about. As I noted in the article, getting away from instants that you play during opponents' turns is a great way to speed up games. Having to click OK in response to each actions your opponents' take incrementally increases the length of each game and those small amounts add up over time. When you play a Commander game you may notice that games with multiple Blue players tend to take longer (on average) than other games. Blue is not only typically more complicated but takes time to play.
Of course, other colors can do similar things. As was pointed out Azusa decks (and plenty of others) can put a crap ton of triggers on the stack slowing everything down to a crawl. It just happens to be that Blue is most often the worst offender when it comes to these issues. You can definitely play Blue without causing delays, it just takes some focus and deck tweaking.
Also I disagree with Blue being described as just a support color. My opinion may not mean a whole lot, but what I've seen while playing is that Blue can do just about everything all by itself, on top of being able to keep opponents from playing what they want. I know that there are a lot of people out there that say mono-Green is the most powerful deck out there (I also don't agree with this) but Blue is not only good by itself, I believe it pretty much increases the power of the colors that it plays with. I'm glad that there are people out there like Karazor that only rely upon Blue in support as they make playing Commander more bearable, since there are plenty more people out there that rely on Blue to do broken and (subjectively) unfun stuff. Blue is definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, colors in Commander.
Prize support is truly incredible. I won't be too surprised if we play six rounds. :D
I, and will, follow with interest this article and Pete's section on speculation. I have also started 10 months ago to do the same kind of speculation/trade/test with MtGO cards. My goal was to try to make at leat a 10 % profit in 1 year.
I'm trading on a little bigger scale and using various strategies with Standard and Modern formats mostly. Standard has bigger jumps in prices but Modern is way more predictable. So far it's doing well.
I think your card choices are pretty good. I also bet on all those cards, except for the mythics for which I'm still not totally convince, although there's probably nothing to loose considering their prices.
wow that's awesome, now if only the cost of most classic decks wasnt so killer :P
:)
WotC has pledged 62 IPA Draft Sets, which will be distributed 9-6-4-4-2-2-2-2 at both Events!
I bought cards from a variety of sources. I don't know that I could get those prices today as they move up and down. Some of the prices I paid are high as the card values continue to drop. I don't think we'll start seeing a bounce for a month or so (excluding bounces based on previewed cards).
Since this article is hosted on PureMTGO and MTGO Traders, I won't print any competing bots names on principle.
I bought before the announcement was made, and I'm realllly torn about what to do next. Having 2 sets of dual lands of the right colors makes decks more consistent, and we'll likely see a return to 5-color decks. And, the ISD lands will likely be worth less since they aren't the only way to get those 2 colors. The Ravnica-duals work nicely with the ISD duals, as Temple Garden is a forest and a plains, so Isolated Chapel comes into play untapped once a Temple Garden is in play. Right now, I'm holding on.
I question the wisdom of buying the ISD lands since Return to Ravnica is the upcoming Fall set. Did you buy those before that was announced or are you planning to move those before that set is released?
May I ask which bots do you buy from? I can't seem to find those cards you bought at those prices?
I'm fine with new sets coming to MTGO later than in paper, for the reasons you listed. I just wish they would use those two weeks to put up Classic drafts (my favorite - but other MTGO specialty things are acceptable). A week of TSE or Urzas or MED would fire a lot more if it were during what many players consider "down time" online and are willing to spend their tix/time doing something other than the latest set.
Thanks as always for the article.
Your investment going down by 3% makes me think that speculation is due to a lot of luck. I bought a copy of Elesh for commander when it was around $5 or $6. I also bought Jin-Gitaxias for about the same price. Elesh has skyrocketed when Jin has gone way down. At the time Jin's was everyone's favorite. It wasn't until Innistrad came out that Elesh's value began to shine over Jin's. I think a lot of movement is due to changes relating to interacting with upcoming sets which is hidden knowledge. I guess there is window where you could see the upcoming cards and make purchases before everyone else realizes what is going to be good, but the time you have to do that is really small.
Woo hoo! Response to the Ham On Wry events has been interesting; there are 18 players registered for the US Event already. Only 32 "paying" seats left! I'm expecting a few more pledges to roll in over the next few weeks, so the prizes can only get more outrageous!
I'd have to imagine there would be very very few tribes that would fit that limitation
Both these ideas look nice. Yours is really a double tribal, two decks together! I think this is definitely going to be a real thing for a Very Special Event down the line. As a bi-monthly thing, it might be too exotic. (EDIT: But the more I think of it, the more I love the idea of two tribal decks muddled together!)
20 double-type creatures can give birth to some of the same decks (Elves definitely, most builds are already legal for that; and the same for Wizard or Knight, which are already likely to feature 20 Humans in there). But it's worth of further study. Maybe with some banned types.
Too bad I couldn't finish the new article in time to be submitted today, so it's all postponed to next week. :/
Sorry, I read this "unique" chain of replies only now. And apologies, I answered your original statement lightheartedly, naively thinking that your comment was just a harmless remark. Instead, it apparently hints at a crucial part of your entire life, something you will stand for against the bad guys like me, that never acknowledge creativity because, yeah, who cares, right? Sure, that's exactly me.
I kindly invite you to take your medications (it can be dangerous to stay off of them for too long, you know? You can think it's normal to do all those replies violently fighting with different people because an Elder deck wasn't exalted like you think it should, but no, it's not normal, it's the path to be banned for trolling) then re-read my original answer. You will notice:
- a smile where I say that I paid 1 tix to the guy
- the part where I say "but sure it's great": I reckon these are ambiguous words, but in their obscurity they were intended to convey a positive meaning
- the part where I give a technical reason why, WHILE GREAT, the build has IN MY OPINION its fault in the overcomplicated nature of its battleplan, which is the reason why I didn't write an epic poem to celebrate it.
I could also add that using an entire tribal base only as pitching fuel is something other commenters (yet not me) would see in a negative light, as it's a way AROUND the tribal format. AJ_Impy could challenge you to a public showdown for less. And I confess I would have liked better a build where the Elders were actually put onto the battlefield (like the other Elder builds attempted to do), as my inner Timmy would have loved to see a win via Nicol Bolas attacking rather than being exiled.
Plus, you can keep the same shell and replace the Elders with any kind of green fatties, and the deck would work in the same exact way. Or actually better, since Nicol Bolas and Chromium are 8 cards only used to pitch for a singleton Soul Spike, which is hardly fundamental. So, that's not really a build that exploits the Elders, it's a build that makes do with the Elders.
Moreso, do you really think the Nefarious Lich/Sickening Dreams combo was new and not already known? Well, google it and think again.
Is that non-dismissive enough for you? Or is it still bad behaviour because it doesn't agree with you?
You know, justcanceled is a great guy, we had some good laughs when I gave him the tix and he showed me his "Elder collection". I was happy to leave it as a nice accomplishment, which still is, without digging deeper into the reasons why it doesn't deserve three trumpet blasts and a 21-gun salute (like most of our decks as well, for different reasons; but I'm not here to bash on the players, I'm here to encourage them). You forced me to write them. Good job.
I don't play commander, so thanks for the info. I would probably play it, but I'm not a huge fan of singleton style games, also, my favorite color is blue, so that doesn't help.
Was I smartass when I called you jackass? :P