Thanks for sharing the story behind your deck choice!
To everyone: please write something like that when you post your decklist in the forum, so I'll put it in the article!
Abour Stoneforge, I'm very conflicted. On the one hand, I agree with you, especially about the proliferation of the card as witnessed lately (TribAp has trends somehow, but after one year of consistent survey, we may have to draw some conclusions). On the other hand, I'm not entirely comfortable in adding more and more cards to our special banned list. We risk to turn it into Modern Tribal Wars.
Then again, I don't even like too much to see techs from current or just-rotated-out Standard dominate Tribal. But again, do we really want to ban Standard powerhouses/banned cards while playing in a Legacy environment? It doesn't feel right.
Plus, maybe the right move would be to keep Stoneforge and ban the entire Sword cycle, for the same reason Umezawa's Jitte is banned. (Batterskull alone can be fine, it doesn't paralyze monocolored tribes the way the swords do. And we can keep Stoneforge to tutor specific equipments for a particular strategy, which is strong but not broken).
Good article, keep up the good work on tribal coverage, just a couple things I wanted to comment on.
-About Glimpse of Nature....I was all ready to play the constructs deck that I played this week when I saw the announcement that Glimpse was on watch. After I was already tempted to play the deck, (I had played/discussed the deck with some and they did not seem to take combo elves to seriously, and I did not understand how people could complain about Walldrazi with that legal) I had to play this deck to try and show the power of it and push Glimpse over the edge. Although I did not 3-0 (the deck can fold to it's own mulligans sometimes,) I still think that it was the most powerful thing that could do in Tribal at the time, and would heavily favor it over Walldrazi, Cats, or Goblins.
-One card that I was curious if it has been discussed before, Stoneforge Mystic. Has this been discussed as something to be banned before? It seems like far and away the best creature in the format (and it is usually played off tribe). I am not sure it is to powerful, but it is just so versatile. Just throw some Stoneforges in a deck and pull up a sword with protection from opponents colors and the deck is instantly more powerful. I am just not sure how healthy this is for the format when it can go in almost every deck and people do not have access to a sideboard for artifact removal.
This is obviously not an article for someone who is a super experienced Stompy player. So the fact that you don't like it isn't surprising. I'm fairly new to Pauper, and I've never played with or against Stompy, and I found this article just fine. I think there is value in seeing someone's thought process when they first pick up a deck, as well as when they've played it for ages.
To be perfectly honest, the game clock is a completely legitimate way to win. It's not like you're hiring someone to run over to your opponent's house and disconnect their internet connection, or deliver them a pizza and distract them from the game. If your opponent isn't being smart with their clock, and you are, then you deserve the win.
And compared to paper magic, MTGO is actually far LESS about winning through means other than pure Magic playing. Mike Flores just posted an article about playing a huge mind game with an opponent that spanned 2 games, and got his opponent to agree to a draw when he clearly had the better matchup. That is FAR more nefarious and underhanded than simply playing quickly and letting your opponent run out his clock, and this is coming from a Pro magic player. Most pro players have similar stories.
When you play Poker, and you are dealt cards, and then you frown and slump in your chair, do you get upset if your opponent assumes you drew a bad hand? Would he have a right to complain if you did all that just to bluff and you actually have a royal flush?
Honestly, I think playing Affinity is way closer to "cheating" than playing a time game. ; )
Wonderful deck, the Blasphemous Act seemed really good and I would think it'd be better in the main deck. I'm also wondering about the role of Boneyard Wurm, many a time was he a t2 graveyard fodder.
I liked watching the nationals. It was kind of a fun way of watching magic other than just staring at a screen of MTGO over and over. It was refreshing. Especially since I haven't played a game of paper magic in almost 11 years. I don't have the same type of attachment as other people do to it though so it's not as sad for me to see it gone, but I still found myself interested.
But damn, how has Magic grown. I mean I remember it being such a simple card game and now they have webcasts that are akin to the WSOP. I never expected that.
And this is a slight rumor I like to keep to myself, but you might want to look into a chart that may be coming up on magic boards if the person holding it chooses to show it, but it shows how the shuffler is coded and why it works in the way it does.
They screwed up and didn't add 2 variables (for computer people), and put all cards into 1 single grouping instead of making the mana, cards, and sideboard separate variables.
I have seen the heat chart, shown to me by a friend of mine from college who will remain "annonymous" (Wink, not me btw), but it shows that mana issues are 65-75% flawed because of their "randomization".
The worst thing I have seen is the how the sideboard works. I dont want to get much into it, but DO NOT change your mana base in a sideboard in limited. It will have a direct impact on your game. (Con. is different because of the amount of cards, so 1-2 mana wont change much)
Just figured I would talk about it in case this info comes out. Either way the rumors about the flawed shuffler or the complaining about it isn't entirely false. It actually has some weight to it.
**And aside form our differences Josh, I'm glad your kid is ok, especially after I just went through my dad's surgery last week where he had 14 pins put in his shoulder.
I would definitely partake in phantom drafts/cube drafts for a couple of tickets each. But like a previous poster mentioned, they have to hit that sweet spot in terms of price.
I was tinkering with this deck about 2 months ago. When I was able to land a counterbalance/ top it was gg. It was very strong.
As you guys mentioned though, by playing a turn 2 counterbalance, you are opening yourself up to a can of whoop ass on your opponents turn. So FOW in hand for you or you could be in trouble.
I am going to put 2 counterbalance and 2 tops in my Cat Stax this w/e. So get those prizes ready boys. I am coming to collect :)
Have a good w/e fella's!
Great job highlighting what is probably my favorite deck from innistrad block. Im even running a casual standard version of the deck. I cant wait to run the block version, though I will miss my viridian emissaries and birds of paradise which were a huge help. So I wonder how this would do in my FNM? I dont think many run nihil spellbomb lol, guess ill find out.
So cube drafting next year? That sounds like the best news I've heard for MTGO in a long time. Unfortunately, I'm sure they'll find some way to screw it up. Would have been nice to hear something about leagues as well. How long have they been telling us to wait for them to return? From what I hear v4 is looking god awful, so who knows if any of this will even be worth complaining about.
I really love the idea of phantom drafting but I highly doubt that wotc will make it just for 2 tix. I expect somewhere around 4 tix considering how greedy they can be.
According to forums on the mothership, WoTC is rethinking it's hardline stance on how Nationals is being effected by the OP changes. The scuttlebutt appears to be that they will be adding some event to feed from nationals, so Id keep my eyes peeled for that announcement. Other intriguing MTGO related rumors: Archnemesis, and Cube may be seeing online play next year.
Attacking with the Goblin Welder is something I'm probably too conservative with. I did notice other points where I didn't do it and should have.
As for not tapping the Narcomoeba, but casting a Golem. The 2 Mishra's Workshops can't be used to activate abilities, only to cast an artifact. That's why the mana in the pool shows up as yellow. So while I had 6 mana to cast a spell, I only have the Tolarian Academy to activate the Staff (Which could only generate 3).
In that extra-long game in round 3, early on there were four rounds in a row where you could have swung in with Lodestone golem + Welder, he doesn't have enough land to play any spells and can only vial in one blocker, which has to block the golem. Leting you squeeze in a point of damage with 100% safety. Four turns of that and you would have had the win, going into game 2 with tons more clock.
I also noticed in round 4, there's a point where you say "I can't tap Narcomeba down this turn" - which costs 4 - and then you play a second Lodestone Golem, which costs 4. Well you could have tapped it. Lodestone may have been the better play anyway, though.
4) Online play will be linked to your DCI number and will add to your PWP's at some point in time. This is likely 18-24 months away
6) Cube drafting will be coming to magic online next year
7) Phantom drafting will roll out on magic online to bring down the costs associated with online play. You pay 2 tickets and you get to draft, but you don't get to keep any of the cards you draft. There will be prize support for these drafts.
4, 6 and 7 would be really great!!!! Cube drafting would be really nice, too. Hope there will be many players to support that. That would also lead to more demand for older good cards after rotation.
I appreciated the discussion of counterspells and some different innovation ideas. I haven't used Spell Pierce as much lately because of all the creatures that have been running around. Spell Snare was my secret tech for a while, but it's hard to fit more than one or two in a deck, and usually it ends up in my sideboard.
In game r3g2, I didn't play the turn 1 trinisphere because of the aether vial (if you look how I set up my cards in hand, that was clearly my intent until the vial hit). If I lead with workshop and it gets wasted. I then have to follow up with tomb, city and top out at 4 mana, the next land i draw will kill the city anyway, leaving me with a tomb and whatever. I sacrificed a known 1 mana per turn until the next land drop for 1 mana more per turn after the next land drop. Now I definitely should have cast the trinisphere after the golem died, that was definitely bad.
In r3g3, I should have, I didn't see the play during my upkeep, but had I not paid for the Chalice, I could have kept Crucible and cast the Duplicant. I was too focused on keeping what I could and hoping for a land draw. Then I got distracted by the Metalworker draw and trying to win around the Kataki instead of eliminating it.
I haven't tried Ratchet Bomb, to be honest. Aether Vial hasn't really been huge in the metagame to attract attention. I have used Explosives a bit for Dredge, but as you said, I am dealing with them fairly well. Ratchet Bomb is certainly worth considering, especially with Delver of Secrets running around.
Thanks for the comments and pointing out plays, although I'm not sure that I would play the game 2 land drops differently, but certainly missed the Duplicant play. Glad you enjoyed the videos!
Hey, really enjoyed the vids, and don't sweat the long one, it was actually the most interesting to watch! I really like how you are able to articulate what's going through your mind as you're considering different lines of play. I'm curious how many things you wished you had done differently watching it back, since I know it's different when you're feeling the pressure in real time. In your round 3 match, there were a couple of things that seemed suspect while watching it. In game two, you played Ancient Tomb-City of Traitors, I think because you didn't want your Workshop to wasted, but isn't this pretty much always the wrong play because of exactly what happened? They waste your tomb, and then you have to sac your city (and 2-1 yourself) to keep going? Isn't it better to just lead T1 Workshop-Trinisphere since you still have two {2} lands? Then, in game 3, on your turn 5, isn't the smart play to Duplicant his Kataki right away rather than letting it screw you up for several more turns? It would have bought you 2 or 3 more turns to pull it out.
Finally after watching these matches, I have to wonder about Ratchet Bomb as a potential SB card. Seems really strong against aggro decks with lots of 1 and 2 drops or tokens; it even works against dredge's zombie tokens (not that you need more help for that matchup). On the play, leave in your sphere effects hoping to lock them out so they never get a chance to play their one-drops, but on the draw, bring it in. Since you don't have much colored mana it seems better (cheaper but then slower) than Engineered Explosives, perhaps enough better to be worth considering. Slightly more versatile than Triskelion, being able to take out Aether Vial, enchantments and so forth, but then isn't any kind of threat itself. It's also much easier to cast under your own spheres. Seems like being able to nuke a Vial T2 and drop a golem is really strong; anything they would Vial in would be nuked right along with it. Anyway don't know enough about the meta to know what conventional wisdom is or if people have already experimented with it.
Thanks for the comment! You could be right on the MUC matchup. I've had decent success against MUC since I built the deck, but admittedly it is a small sample size. I packed the Relic because I saw it in a sideboard in a daily event decklist, and figured it would be useful, but I haven't found it useful all that much either. I like the 4x Wrench Mind idea. Seems to be a backbreaker at times.
thanks for the classic video, I enjoyed it.. haven't played classic since 1998 or so
Thanks for sharing the story behind your deck choice!
To everyone: please write something like that when you post your decklist in the forum, so I'll put it in the article!
Abour Stoneforge, I'm very conflicted. On the one hand, I agree with you, especially about the proliferation of the card as witnessed lately (TribAp has trends somehow, but after one year of consistent survey, we may have to draw some conclusions). On the other hand, I'm not entirely comfortable in adding more and more cards to our special banned list. We risk to turn it into Modern Tribal Wars.
Then again, I don't even like too much to see techs from current or just-rotated-out Standard dominate Tribal. But again, do we really want to ban Standard powerhouses/banned cards while playing in a Legacy environment? It doesn't feel right.
Plus, maybe the right move would be to keep Stoneforge and ban the entire Sword cycle, for the same reason Umezawa's Jitte is banned. (Batterskull alone can be fine, it doesn't paralyze monocolored tribes the way the swords do. And we can keep Stoneforge to tutor specific equipments for a particular strategy, which is strong but not broken).
Good article, keep up the good work on tribal coverage, just a couple things I wanted to comment on.
-About Glimpse of Nature....I was all ready to play the constructs deck that I played this week when I saw the announcement that Glimpse was on watch. After I was already tempted to play the deck, (I had played/discussed the deck with some and they did not seem to take combo elves to seriously, and I did not understand how people could complain about Walldrazi with that legal) I had to play this deck to try and show the power of it and push Glimpse over the edge. Although I did not 3-0 (the deck can fold to it's own mulligans sometimes,) I still think that it was the most powerful thing that could do in Tribal at the time, and would heavily favor it over Walldrazi, Cats, or Goblins.
-One card that I was curious if it has been discussed before, Stoneforge Mystic. Has this been discussed as something to be banned before? It seems like far and away the best creature in the format (and it is usually played off tribe). I am not sure it is to powerful, but it is just so versatile. Just throw some Stoneforges in a deck and pull up a sword with protection from opponents colors and the deck is instantly more powerful. I am just not sure how healthy this is for the format when it can go in almost every deck and people do not have access to a sideboard for artifact removal.
This is obviously not an article for someone who is a super experienced Stompy player. So the fact that you don't like it isn't surprising. I'm fairly new to Pauper, and I've never played with or against Stompy, and I found this article just fine. I think there is value in seeing someone's thought process when they first pick up a deck, as well as when they've played it for ages.
To be perfectly honest, the game clock is a completely legitimate way to win. It's not like you're hiring someone to run over to your opponent's house and disconnect their internet connection, or deliver them a pizza and distract them from the game. If your opponent isn't being smart with their clock, and you are, then you deserve the win.
And compared to paper magic, MTGO is actually far LESS about winning through means other than pure Magic playing. Mike Flores just posted an article about playing a huge mind game with an opponent that spanned 2 games, and got his opponent to agree to a draw when he clearly had the better matchup. That is FAR more nefarious and underhanded than simply playing quickly and letting your opponent run out his clock, and this is coming from a Pro magic player. Most pro players have similar stories.
When you play Poker, and you are dealt cards, and then you frown and slump in your chair, do you get upset if your opponent assumes you drew a bad hand? Would he have a right to complain if you did all that just to bluff and you actually have a royal flush?
Honestly, I think playing Affinity is way closer to "cheating" than playing a time game. ; )
Wonderful deck, the Blasphemous Act seemed really good and I would think it'd be better in the main deck. I'm also wondering about the role of Boneyard Wurm, many a time was he a t2 graveyard fodder.
Can you post your sideboard plans for each matchup? Also maybe what you think are the best/worst matchups, and why?
Please contact Doctor Anime and get him
back into the pauper writing scene! - he's been nowhere for 2+years!
I liked watching the nationals. It was kind of a fun way of watching magic other than just staring at a screen of MTGO over and over. It was refreshing. Especially since I haven't played a game of paper magic in almost 11 years. I don't have the same type of attachment as other people do to it though so it's not as sad for me to see it gone, but I still found myself interested.
But damn, how has Magic grown. I mean I remember it being such a simple card game and now they have webcasts that are akin to the WSOP. I never expected that.
And this is a slight rumor I like to keep to myself, but you might want to look into a chart that may be coming up on magic boards if the person holding it chooses to show it, but it shows how the shuffler is coded and why it works in the way it does.
They screwed up and didn't add 2 variables (for computer people), and put all cards into 1 single grouping instead of making the mana, cards, and sideboard separate variables.
I have seen the heat chart, shown to me by a friend of mine from college who will remain "annonymous" (Wink, not me btw), but it shows that mana issues are 65-75% flawed because of their "randomization".
The worst thing I have seen is the how the sideboard works. I dont want to get much into it, but DO NOT change your mana base in a sideboard in limited. It will have a direct impact on your game. (Con. is different because of the amount of cards, so 1-2 mana wont change much)
Just figured I would talk about it in case this info comes out. Either way the rumors about the flawed shuffler or the complaining about it isn't entirely false. It actually has some weight to it.
**And aside form our differences Josh, I'm glad your kid is ok, especially after I just went through my dad's surgery last week where he had 14 pins put in his shoulder.
I would definitely partake in phantom drafts/cube drafts for a couple of tickets each. But like a previous poster mentioned, they have to hit that sweet spot in terms of price.
Any idea when the slated release date for v4 is?
Great content man! Keep the videos coming :)
I was tinkering with this deck about 2 months ago. When I was able to land a counterbalance/ top it was gg. It was very strong.
As you guys mentioned though, by playing a turn 2 counterbalance, you are opening yourself up to a can of whoop ass on your opponents turn. So FOW in hand for you or you could be in trouble.
I am going to put 2 counterbalance and 2 tops in my Cat Stax this w/e. So get those prizes ready boys. I am coming to collect :)
Have a good w/e fella's!
Great job highlighting what is probably my favorite deck from innistrad block. Im even running a casual standard version of the deck. I cant wait to run the block version, though I will miss my viridian emissaries and birds of paradise which were a huge help. So I wonder how this would do in my FNM? I dont think many run nihil spellbomb lol, guess ill find out.
So cube drafting next year? That sounds like the best news I've heard for MTGO in a long time. Unfortunately, I'm sure they'll find some way to screw it up. Would have been nice to hear something about leagues as well. How long have they been telling us to wait for them to return? From what I hear v4 is looking god awful, so who knows if any of this will even be worth complaining about.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't CBS it the only publicly available bot?
I really love the idea of phantom drafting but I highly doubt that wotc will make it just for 2 tix. I expect somewhere around 4 tix considering how greedy they can be.
According to forums on the mothership, WoTC is rethinking it's hardline stance on how Nationals is being effected by the OP changes. The scuttlebutt appears to be that they will be adding some event to feed from nationals, so Id keep my eyes peeled for that announcement. Other intriguing MTGO related rumors: Archnemesis, and Cube may be seeing online play next year.
Attacking with the Goblin Welder is something I'm probably too conservative with. I did notice other points where I didn't do it and should have.
As for not tapping the Narcomoeba, but casting a Golem. The 2 Mishra's Workshops can't be used to activate abilities, only to cast an artifact. That's why the mana in the pool shows up as yellow. So while I had 6 mana to cast a spell, I only have the Tolarian Academy to activate the Staff (Which could only generate 3).
In that extra-long game in round 3, early on there were four rounds in a row where you could have swung in with Lodestone golem + Welder, he doesn't have enough land to play any spells and can only vial in one blocker, which has to block the golem. Leting you squeeze in a point of damage with 100% safety. Four turns of that and you would have had the win, going into game 2 with tons more clock.
I also noticed in round 4, there's a point where you say "I can't tap Narcomeba down this turn" - which costs 4 - and then you play a second Lodestone Golem, which costs 4. Well you could have tapped it. Lodestone may have been the better play anyway, though.
4) Online play will be linked to your DCI number and will add to your PWP's at some point in time. This is likely 18-24 months away
6) Cube drafting will be coming to magic online next year
7) Phantom drafting will roll out on magic online to bring down the costs associated with online play. You pay 2 tickets and you get to draft, but you don't get to keep any of the cards you draft. There will be prize support for these drafts.
4, 6 and 7 would be really great!!!! Cube drafting would be really nice, too. Hope there will be many players to support that. That would also lead to more demand for older good cards after rotation.
I appreciated the discussion of counterspells and some different innovation ideas. I haven't used Spell Pierce as much lately because of all the creatures that have been running around. Spell Snare was my secret tech for a while, but it's hard to fit more than one or two in a deck, and usually it ends up in my sideboard.
In game r3g2, I didn't play the turn 1 trinisphere because of the aether vial (if you look how I set up my cards in hand, that was clearly my intent until the vial hit). If I lead with workshop and it gets wasted. I then have to follow up with tomb, city and top out at 4 mana, the next land i draw will kill the city anyway, leaving me with a tomb and whatever. I sacrificed a known 1 mana per turn until the next land drop for 1 mana more per turn after the next land drop. Now I definitely should have cast the trinisphere after the golem died, that was definitely bad.
In r3g3, I should have, I didn't see the play during my upkeep, but had I not paid for the Chalice, I could have kept Crucible and cast the Duplicant. I was too focused on keeping what I could and hoping for a land draw. Then I got distracted by the Metalworker draw and trying to win around the Kataki instead of eliminating it.
I haven't tried Ratchet Bomb, to be honest. Aether Vial hasn't really been huge in the metagame to attract attention. I have used Explosives a bit for Dredge, but as you said, I am dealing with them fairly well. Ratchet Bomb is certainly worth considering, especially with Delver of Secrets running around.
Thanks for the comments and pointing out plays, although I'm not sure that I would play the game 2 land drops differently, but certainly missed the Duplicant play. Glad you enjoyed the videos!
Hey, really enjoyed the vids, and don't sweat the long one, it was actually the most interesting to watch! I really like how you are able to articulate what's going through your mind as you're considering different lines of play. I'm curious how many things you wished you had done differently watching it back, since I know it's different when you're feeling the pressure in real time. In your round 3 match, there were a couple of things that seemed suspect while watching it. In game two, you played Ancient Tomb-City of Traitors, I think because you didn't want your Workshop to wasted, but isn't this pretty much always the wrong play because of exactly what happened? They waste your tomb, and then you have to sac your city (and 2-1 yourself) to keep going? Isn't it better to just lead T1 Workshop-Trinisphere since you still have two {2} lands? Then, in game 3, on your turn 5, isn't the smart play to Duplicant his Kataki right away rather than letting it screw you up for several more turns? It would have bought you 2 or 3 more turns to pull it out.
Finally after watching these matches, I have to wonder about Ratchet Bomb as a potential SB card. Seems really strong against aggro decks with lots of 1 and 2 drops or tokens; it even works against dredge's zombie tokens (not that you need more help for that matchup). On the play, leave in your sphere effects hoping to lock them out so they never get a chance to play their one-drops, but on the draw, bring it in. Since you don't have much colored mana it seems better (cheaper but then slower) than Engineered Explosives, perhaps enough better to be worth considering. Slightly more versatile than Triskelion, being able to take out Aether Vial, enchantments and so forth, but then isn't any kind of threat itself. It's also much easier to cast under your own spheres. Seems like being able to nuke a Vial T2 and drop a golem is really strong; anything they would Vial in would be nuked right along with it. Anyway don't know enough about the meta to know what conventional wisdom is or if people have already experimented with it.
Goat Pie does not sound appetizing. Maybe Goat MILK cheese pie...
Thanks for the comment! You could be right on the MUC matchup. I've had decent success against MUC since I built the deck, but admittedly it is a small sample size. I packed the Relic because I saw it in a sideboard in a daily event decklist, and figured it would be useful, but I haven't found it useful all that much either. I like the 4x Wrench Mind idea. Seems to be a backbreaker at times.