Glad to see someone else using Dragonstorm. I've been playing with it the past few days with mixed results. At worst, I've had some pretty dead draws with lots of land and mana acceleration. I'm going to adopt some of your cantrips and see how I do. I have gotten hosed by Control decks, unfortunately. I'm still learning, but generally against BU control decks, they'll just sit back and hold counters in their hand which shut me down pretty quickly. Any suggestions against that?

It is a fun deck though and one that doesn't seem to infuriate people as much as Storm.

:) If you read the second sentence of the article, all will be made clear. But to save you the time:

Classic was chosen because, according to all sources, Classic was Hammy's favorite format.

Yes, collecting the interviews took a while, so the table is not up to date, but it was when I started with the interviews. Keeping the same table made more sense to me.

I did not interview Boin, Digwen or other players since, as I said on the article, I felt that it was more interesting to focus on the current format (and the format has shifted quite a bit in the last few years, going from Goblins to Delver, with Familiar Storm and Infect in between).

Glad you all enjoyed the read.

PS I enjoyed the read.

Thanks for the plug!

I love your illustration for Rock/Paper/Scissors/Lizard/Spock. So much so, I'm gonna steal it and use it next opportunity I get.

Hey, thanks for the nice read; it's nice to hear opinions from people who are playing the format at the highest level. Since pauper isn't played in paper, we don't have the same kind of pauper celebrities, so it's cool to give these guys some exposure. Also, it would be nice to get a little follow up on the impact of DKA now that it's been out a while.

I agree that he could have been less dismissive. I am betting though that Kuma has a good reason for not being so. He is not a mean person typically. Also I think it was a little disappointing to him and others.

The reward is certainly encouragement for further Johnny attempts to meet the challenges regardless of acclamation though.

My apologies if you felt I was interfering in a private conversation. The way THIS community tends to work is everyone chimes in where they think it appropriate. Again if you really wanted a private conversation pming was an option.

The question I have for YOU is: Are you creative enough to win with Kirin? If so Kuma has a ticket for you regardless of whether he likes your build or not.

of course discussion is fine and expected in a public forum, but in all fairness it was obvious i was talking to him alone and stated they were my own assertions(*down rated to grab his attention). not to sound cold but, i believe i maintained a level of apathy toward everyone else. i don't personally know him well enough to generate any actual hatred. my more direct comments weren't made until you chimed in.

i was applauding the decks creativity... not the deck itself. perhaps that wasn't clear. i agree, a good creative deck should receive more praise. but his reply seemed a bit dismissive toward the accomplishment of the player that fulfilled *his challenge - even if not to the fullest expectations. as far as elders go, its obviously somewhat difficult to win even once. having 20 8cmc w/ high upkeep can't be conducive to much of anything other than losing... success takes on different definitions with the various players profiles. some players would deem winning at all a success.

Lol. Not sure who "U" is but I'll let them know. Meantime nope I'm here to stay. As far as "hypocritically" jumping into a public discussion...yeah OK :) So what part of public didn't get your attention? If you wanted to discuss this privately you could have talked to Kumagoro in client. You made a comment on a commonly frequented site knowing that people would read it so you must have expected others to comment too. Did you expect us all to agree with you? Sorry I'll work on that for next time. :p

Kuma isn't perfect by any means. He can be a smart ass for sure and his comments aren't always on the mark but I don't think he deserved to be attacked for responding to yours. As far as your claim that you were not attacking him...you down rated his article to a 1 which is your prerogative but shows your intent pretty clearly.

On topic: He did pay out a ticket out of pocket which I think entitles him to his opinion in the matter. Sure creativity is often overlooked in the Apocalypse event and people don't necessarily give it enough kudos but a bad deck is bad. If you liked it why not actually tell us what's so great about it?

I am pretty certain a good creative deck would have received far more accolades. Personally I don't expect a good creative deck to show up for Elder Dragons. They are 7cmc with high upkeep costs. But if one did you can bet people would be cheering for it. Just because someone used an awkward funny johnny approach to it does not make it worthy of praise. The litmus for this article series is success.

lol yes you may. sorry i shouldnt have let them get me worked up :/ i promise no more mean responses even after they say w/e it is lol :)

its cute of you to defend him and respond to my "pithy" statment. i don't believe i referred to you in my reply, correct me for i may already have forgotten. i didn't attack him in the first statement. merely gave my own opinion and hinted at what i like. his response was a shot at the effectiveness of the elder deck which he had stated only needed to win once. for him scoff at the guy that won his challenge is childish. and please do forgive me for allowing him more credit than was due.
you hypocritically jump into our discussion. i don't know you nor do i care for your side remarks. your trolling/pitiful attempt to side me away is at best laughable. go find another hobby, or better yet go play some mtgo. ie u and your bs please do "Go away."

Your point such as it is was made in the first post. Was it really necessary to troll further? Seems that "boys that are stuck to their own opinions" aren't the only things that float away around here. Oh and really? You expected your pithy statement to elicit an unpredictable response? Really? Go away.