You know what, thank god that WotC was smart enough to make Snappy the SnapCasting Mage a rare instead of a mythic. If it was a mythic, it would be around the $50 easily.
What I find the most interesting is the war between Lilliana vs Garruk. Garruk is beating the Planeswalker that everyone said could be Jace 2.0.
I have my 4 Garruks so I'm happy, and it's a great card, but not nearly as good as Lilliana. Maybe people don't like that they have to discard also.
**Oh and let me get this right. Modern is a format where you create a broken deck only until it is banned and then create another broken deck? That sounds really stupid.
I am not saying that such players or such decks are "bad"; I am not saying that such people are losers, or that no one should ever play a deck like that. In fact, when an unorthodox strategy comes out of nowhere, it can be very effective and a great metagame choice.
What I am saying is that I don't enjoy when my opponents play strategies that I can't interact with. Poison in Std Pauper can be like that - if the player has the right combo of protection, creatures, and pump, they'll win, period. Mill can be similar, although at least in that case you can always be aggressive and try to get a win. Hexproof is similar in that once it gets going, there isn't a lot one can do to counteract the person's play.
At that point, it can feel like watching someone play solitaire.
So, here's all I mean: I don't enjoy playing matches against those sorts of deck. Is that personal preference wrong?
Ok, I quit playing over a decade ago before games were put online. Can you just explain what the worlds are and whether or not you can qualify for them on MTGO?
And if you don't play on paper but qualify for a PTQ, how can you play without the cards?
These may seem like stupid questions, but I really have no idea how this works and I just remember when I had a DCI card and that counted towards something when I was winning tournaments but all it got me was some promo cards.
I really don't understand why people doing something other than casting guys and turning them sideways bothers you so much. That's how magic works, there are different strategies for winning. Complaining about people doing things other than casting dorks and removal spells does not reflect well on you as it comes off as whining. Reminds me of the guys in ca's/ca's who add "no ld or counters or discard or mill or expensive cards..." to all their games
People hate on auras all the time. I see how they can net a two-for-one for the opponent,
but I don't think they are so bad that they are unplayable. I built a blue-white infect deck
that uses auras and I've been running it at FNM and having a lot of fun (and success) doing so.
Even after my opponents lose, they can't believe they were beaten by a deck with auras. (BTW, I am 11-2 and I've won two FNM's with it.)
People fixate on the possibility of a two-for-one and don't see the value you can get with an aura.
Card advantage is more than counting the cards in your hand. If an aura can get me some poison counters
that I would not otherwise have, I have gotten enough value from the card that it was worthwhile.
When Spectral Flight nabs two, four, or even six additional poison counters, then I've gotten my money's worth from the card. There is an equipment card that does the exact same thing that Spectral Flight does: it's Skinwing and it costs four to cast and six to equip. That's way too slow to be playable.
Enchantments are at a low tide in standard right now. No one runs main deck enchantment removal other
than Oblivion Rings. I realize that the article itself is about pauper, a format I do not play, but the subject of auras caught my attention. I would like to point out a couple more auras that are useful in the right situations: Divine Favor (which can gain you three life and put a creature out of easy burn range) and Spirit Mantle (which gives +1/+1 and protection from creatures). Slap a Spirit Mantle on a Priests of Norn and let the good times roll!
If you haven't done so already, here's how to make your voice heard regarding official support for Standard Pauper, straight from Community Cup participant joekewwl:
I would also go here and email CS so they put it through the proper channels: http://wizards.custhelp.com/app/ask
You will need to be logged into your Wotc boards account to use this.
Please make sure which ever place you email tell them your from the pdcmagic.com community and what and why you want it.
Seems that the orc gave me wrong information the other day.
I've just asked again and it seems that the release date of the graveborn deck online is unknown at this moment. Nice way for WOTC to not win a lot of money.
olivia is $$ cause its in team scg grixis control deck.
Deluxicoff - snapcaster is only going to go down in price as more and more are added to the system. It is a non-mythic in a big set. The supply will outnumber demand after a while, regardless of how good it is. If snappy was in either of the next 2 sets instead, or had been a mythic, we could have been looking at a drastically higher price.
It seems very odd to me that entomb prices have not dropped. The whole Graveborn deck is supposed to be on sale on mtgo for less than the current cost of one entomb. Which should make entomb drop drastically in price.
About the mtgolibrary bots--- lol at all the idiots using a bot that 1) has a history of malicious code, 2) is a piece of crap, 3) cant even do trades with a large percentage of the userbase
Modern is still a combo format btw. Nothing wotc has banned has changed that. All they have done is change the combos people play. ad nauseum/past in flames/splintertwin/melira all going strong.
I understand what is being said, ie, using a particular bot is dangerous. This can be interpreted as using a bot to buy/sell cards in the marketplace, which is not dangerous. That is all I am trying to point out. Using a bot is not the same as installing and using bot software.
Loved the sneak peak at the Modern decks - great insight...just threw down 60 tix for 4x snapcasters, I think they'll go up a bit more over time, as 'stuff in your graveyard' is only gonna get better with each new set.
I seem to recall some Twitter traffic this week requesting that WOTC stop reporting Momir Basic results, because the decklists are meaningless - just basic lands and an avatar. That could be why you didn't find any this week. You'd have to go into the client and look at the actual events.
Doesn't look like Graveborn is available at the store yet. Like was pointed out, Entomb prices haven't dropped much either. The whole thing seems odd to me.
I wouldn't worry about it LE, I've already moved on. But you can post suggestions here if you want. Or, if you are going to be very detailed, feel free to post an article!
However, I have to disagree about Silverchase Fox. In the environment with Kor Skyfisher, you never really had to choose between destroying an Enchantment or Artifact and having the creature, since you could always just bounce it back to hand. Against Hexproof, I don't like the fact that you are telegraphing your Enchantment hate to the Hexproof player with Silverchase Fox, since they will plan accordingly.
Now that's not to say that Kor Sanctifiers is strictly better. After all, there are corner cases where Silverchase Fox would be better. But in overall evaluation, my preference would be Sanctifiers.
You are absolutely right. The mistake on the Instant vs. Socery thing on Travel Prepations and Revoke Existence is inexcusable. Thanks for pointing that out.
I honesty am not sure how effective it would be to out-tempo the Hexproof deck. As you mention, both Lifelink and Accorder's Shield seem to be able to prevent that quite well. Which is why I don't claim that you can out tempo or race Hexproof.
Actually, Pete is referring to people running the bots to do the trading for them having the contents of their account transferred to an account held by the owner of Librarybot (a documented occurrence with cbsbots, now known as librarybot). So the claim is quite credible.
If you are running bot software, the bot runs your account for you. A user can offer a trade with you, which the bot will accept. The user can then give a secret phrase that the bot will recognize, then the bot will allow the user to trade away every card in its inventory for no cost.
There's nothing "willing" about it. If you run MTGO Library Bot the software, you _are_ exposing yourself to risk, because you're running software that gives completely control over your account to someone else.
edit - Oh, I think you read the announcement to mean that *trading* with MTGO Library bots is suspect. That is too, but not actually the point of the announcement.
I think it's disingenuous to claim, in bold, red, and underlined, that using MTGO Library bots could empty your account when in the direct quote from WOTC it states that using the software exposes you to risk. The only way they could empty your account through trades is if you willingly traded your whole account away in the client. I do recommend people trading with MTGO library bots to try and round up purchases to as close to a ticket as possible due to past and present security concerns.
Just a few errors which grates on me whilst reading this.
1. Travel Preparations is not an instant and can not be used as a combat trick.
2. Revoke Existence is not an instant
In tacking hexproof you either concentrate on the creatures or concentrate on the creature boosts.
Concentrating on the creatures are really only viable for UB control where there are enough cards to interact with their creatures. You need to literally counter each of thier 12 creatures and remove the ones that gets through with geth's verdict. If you fail in this you have a second line of defence by countering thier 9 ways of gaining flight and then gravedigger lock them, they can't do any damage cause they have no envasion or tample and eventually you'll have enough power/toughness so that they can't attack, don't be afraid to trade of 2 or 3 cards for thier voltroned creature, they most likely spent 2 or 3 cards in enchantments anyways and you're not even losing out in card advantage
All the other colors really have to interact with the creature boosts preferably at instant speed to net a 2 for 1 with some blocks.
Trying to interact with thier whole deck is a bit of a waste, why fight fair when you can net vitural card advantage of half thier deck.
The other way to beat hexproof is to tempo them out, They're paying a lot of mana to get out not that much thoughness worth off creatures even with enchantment pumps, so just win before they have time to voltron you with a unbeatable "lifelinking" monster. Lifelink's in hexproof's deck as a direct counter to this stratagy and is actually quite a good card if you compare it to the very good armadillo cloak in classic. Is it really the +2/+2 and trample that makes armadillo cloak good? no it's the ability to negate attacks by proactively attacking, getting the best defence by being offensive.
Look at it this way how many times have you played a close match vs red and are just about to stabilize on the board but can't attack for many a turn cause all your creatures have to sit and block all the time counting down the timer when the red player draws his burn spells to finish you off. It's the worst feeling, lifelink totally gets around that. Which is alos where Accorder's Shield comes in providing the same thing, the ability to attack whilst not compromising your defensive board position vs red aggro decks.
I examined your list carefully Mike, and it's more focused on the general this time. Still I think there are things you can improve. During weekend I will try to find time to build one Tariel deck (I had this general in my mind for some time, so the base of the deck is ready) and will e-mail you the list along with my (most probably) long and detailed comments.
Your clear bias for coventional strategies grates on me. I am always excited by new and different ideas. Even your card evaluations seem infected by your desire to see everything one way. Silverchase Fox is NOT clearly inferior to Kor Sanctifiers. It has different qualities for sure, including coming down one turn sooner, allowing you to get into the red zone and still be able to remove that enchantment when you're good and ready, unlike Sanctifiers that has to be held in hand or used up.
meh. ymmv.
You know what, thank god that WotC was smart enough to make Snappy the SnapCasting Mage a rare instead of a mythic. If it was a mythic, it would be around the $50 easily.
What I find the most interesting is the war between Lilliana vs Garruk. Garruk is beating the Planeswalker that everyone said could be Jace 2.0.
I have my 4 Garruks so I'm happy, and it's a great card, but not nearly as good as Lilliana. Maybe people don't like that they have to discard also.
**Oh and let me get this right. Modern is a format where you create a broken deck only until it is banned and then create another broken deck? That sounds really stupid.
Let me be clear:
I am not saying that such players or such decks are "bad"; I am not saying that such people are losers, or that no one should ever play a deck like that. In fact, when an unorthodox strategy comes out of nowhere, it can be very effective and a great metagame choice.
What I am saying is that I don't enjoy when my opponents play strategies that I can't interact with. Poison in Std Pauper can be like that - if the player has the right combo of protection, creatures, and pump, they'll win, period. Mill can be similar, although at least in that case you can always be aggressive and try to get a win. Hexproof is similar in that once it gets going, there isn't a lot one can do to counteract the person's play.
At that point, it can feel like watching someone play solitaire.
So, here's all I mean: I don't enjoy playing matches against those sorts of deck. Is that personal preference wrong?
Ok, I quit playing over a decade ago before games were put online. Can you just explain what the worlds are and whether or not you can qualify for them on MTGO?
And if you don't play on paper but qualify for a PTQ, how can you play without the cards?
These may seem like stupid questions, but I really have no idea how this works and I just remember when I had a DCI card and that counted towards something when I was winning tournaments but all it got me was some promo cards.
I really don't understand why people doing something other than casting guys and turning them sideways bothers you so much. That's how magic works, there are different strategies for winning. Complaining about people doing things other than casting dorks and removal spells does not reflect well on you as it comes off as whining. Reminds me of the guys in ca's/ca's who add "no ld or counters or discard or mill or expensive cards..." to all their games
People hate on auras all the time. I see how they can net a two-for-one for the opponent,
but I don't think they are so bad that they are unplayable. I built a blue-white infect deck
that uses auras and I've been running it at FNM and having a lot of fun (and success) doing so.
Even after my opponents lose, they can't believe they were beaten by a deck with auras. (BTW, I am 11-2 and I've won two FNM's with it.)
People fixate on the possibility of a two-for-one and don't see the value you can get with an aura.
Card advantage is more than counting the cards in your hand. If an aura can get me some poison counters
that I would not otherwise have, I have gotten enough value from the card that it was worthwhile.
When Spectral Flight nabs two, four, or even six additional poison counters, then I've gotten my money's worth from the card. There is an equipment card that does the exact same thing that Spectral Flight does: it's Skinwing and it costs four to cast and six to equip. That's way too slow to be playable.
Enchantments are at a low tide in standard right now. No one runs main deck enchantment removal other
than Oblivion Rings. I realize that the article itself is about pauper, a format I do not play, but the subject of auras caught my attention. I would like to point out a couple more auras that are useful in the right situations: Divine Favor (which can gain you three life and put a creature out of easy burn range) and Spirit Mantle (which gives +1/+1 and protection from creatures). Slap a Spirit Mantle on a Priests of Norn and let the good times roll!
If you haven't done so already, here's how to make your voice heard regarding official support for Standard Pauper, straight from Community Cup participant joekewwl:
Main person's ear you want to hear about this is Chris Kiritz:
chris.kiritz@wizards.com
I would also go here and email CS so they put it through the proper channels: http://wizards.custhelp.com/app/ask
You will need to be logged into your Wotc boards account to use this.
Please make sure which ever place you email tell them your from the pdcmagic.com community and what and why you want it.
Thanks, Joe
Seems that the orc gave me wrong information the other day.
I've just asked again and it seems that the release date of the graveborn deck online is unknown at this moment. Nice way for WOTC to not win a lot of money.
olivia is $$ cause its in team scg grixis control deck.
Deluxicoff - snapcaster is only going to go down in price as more and more are added to the system. It is a non-mythic in a big set. The supply will outnumber demand after a while, regardless of how good it is. If snappy was in either of the next 2 sets instead, or had been a mythic, we could have been looking at a drastically higher price.
It seems very odd to me that entomb prices have not dropped. The whole Graveborn deck is supposed to be on sale on mtgo for less than the current cost of one entomb. Which should make entomb drop drastically in price.
About the mtgolibrary bots--- lol at all the idiots using a bot that 1) has a history of malicious code, 2) is a piece of crap, 3) cant even do trades with a large percentage of the userbase
Modern is still a combo format btw. Nothing wotc has banned has changed that. All they have done is change the combos people play. ad nauseum/past in flames/splintertwin/melira all going strong.
Did anyone else notice olivia voldaren is now almost 10 dollars?! When and why is this happening
I understand what is being said, ie, using a particular bot is dangerous. This can be interpreted as using a bot to buy/sell cards in the marketplace, which is not dangerous. That is all I am trying to point out. Using a bot is not the same as installing and using bot software.
Great rundown overall - I sure wish wiz would support this format officially, till then I just can't seem to get into it :(
Loved the sneak peak at the Modern decks - great insight...just threw down 60 tix for 4x snapcasters, I think they'll go up a bit more over time, as 'stuff in your graveyard' is only gonna get better with each new set.
RIP Modern 2011-2011
I seem to recall some Twitter traffic this week requesting that WOTC stop reporting Momir Basic results, because the decklists are meaningless - just basic lands and an avatar. That could be why you didn't find any this week. You'd have to go into the client and look at the actual events.
Doesn't look like Graveborn is available at the store yet. Like was pointed out, Entomb prices haven't dropped much either. The whole thing seems odd to me.
I wouldn't worry about it LE, I've already moved on. But you can post suggestions here if you want. Or, if you are going to be very detailed, feel free to post an article!
You are probably spot on in regards to my bias.
However, I have to disagree about Silverchase Fox. In the environment with Kor Skyfisher, you never really had to choose between destroying an Enchantment or Artifact and having the creature, since you could always just bounce it back to hand. Against Hexproof, I don't like the fact that you are telegraphing your Enchantment hate to the Hexproof player with Silverchase Fox, since they will plan accordingly.
Now that's not to say that Kor Sanctifiers is strictly better. After all, there are corner cases where Silverchase Fox would be better. But in overall evaluation, my preference would be Sanctifiers.
You are absolutely right. The mistake on the Instant vs. Socery thing on Travel Prepations and Revoke Existence is inexcusable. Thanks for pointing that out.
I honesty am not sure how effective it would be to out-tempo the Hexproof deck. As you mention, both Lifelink and Accorder's Shield seem to be able to prevent that quite well. Which is why I don't claim that you can out tempo or race Hexproof.
Actually, Pete is referring to people running the bots to do the trading for them having the contents of their account transferred to an account held by the owner of Librarybot (a documented occurrence with cbsbots, now known as librarybot). So the claim is quite credible.
If you are running bot software, the bot runs your account for you. A user can offer a trade with you, which the bot will accept. The user can then give a secret phrase that the bot will recognize, then the bot will allow the user to trade away every card in its inventory for no cost.
There's nothing "willing" about it. If you run MTGO Library Bot the software, you _are_ exposing yourself to risk, because you're running software that gives completely control over your account to someone else.
edit - Oh, I think you read the announcement to mean that *trading* with MTGO Library bots is suspect. That is too, but not actually the point of the announcement.
I think it's disingenuous to claim, in bold, red, and underlined, that using MTGO Library bots could empty your account when in the direct quote from WOTC it states that using the software exposes you to risk. The only way they could empty your account through trades is if you willingly traded your whole account away in the client. I do recommend people trading with MTGO library bots to try and round up purchases to as close to a ticket as possible due to past and present security concerns.
Just a few errors which grates on me whilst reading this.
1. Travel Preparations is not an instant and can not be used as a combat trick.
2. Revoke Existence is not an instant
In tacking hexproof you either concentrate on the creatures or concentrate on the creature boosts.
Concentrating on the creatures are really only viable for UB control where there are enough cards to interact with their creatures. You need to literally counter each of thier 12 creatures and remove the ones that gets through with geth's verdict. If you fail in this you have a second line of defence by countering thier 9 ways of gaining flight and then gravedigger lock them, they can't do any damage cause they have no envasion or tample and eventually you'll have enough power/toughness so that they can't attack, don't be afraid to trade of 2 or 3 cards for thier voltroned creature, they most likely spent 2 or 3 cards in enchantments anyways and you're not even losing out in card advantage
All the other colors really have to interact with the creature boosts preferably at instant speed to net a 2 for 1 with some blocks.
Trying to interact with thier whole deck is a bit of a waste, why fight fair when you can net vitural card advantage of half thier deck.
The other way to beat hexproof is to tempo them out, They're paying a lot of mana to get out not that much thoughness worth off creatures even with enchantment pumps, so just win before they have time to voltron you with a unbeatable "lifelinking" monster. Lifelink's in hexproof's deck as a direct counter to this stratagy and is actually quite a good card if you compare it to the very good armadillo cloak in classic. Is it really the +2/+2 and trample that makes armadillo cloak good? no it's the ability to negate attacks by proactively attacking, getting the best defence by being offensive.
Look at it this way how many times have you played a close match vs red and are just about to stabilize on the board but can't attack for many a turn cause all your creatures have to sit and block all the time counting down the timer when the red player draws his burn spells to finish you off. It's the worst feeling, lifelink totally gets around that. Which is alos where Accorder's Shield comes in providing the same thing, the ability to attack whilst not compromising your defensive board position vs red aggro decks.
Just my two cents
I examined your list carefully Mike, and it's more focused on the general this time. Still I think there are things you can improve. During weekend I will try to find time to build one Tariel deck (I had this general in my mind for some time, so the base of the deck is ready) and will e-mail you the list along with my (most probably) long and detailed comments.
LE
Your clear bias for coventional strategies grates on me. I am always excited by new and different ideas. Even your card evaluations seem infected by your desire to see everything one way. Silverchase Fox is NOT clearly inferior to Kor Sanctifiers. It has different qualities for sure, including coming down one turn sooner, allowing you to get into the red zone and still be able to remove that enchantment when you're good and ready, unlike Sanctifiers that has to be held in hand or used up.
meh. ymmv.
Hey now Josh's email is in the article I wrote on him last year. But just in-case you don't want to go spelunking: joshua.claytor@gmail.com.