Gonna have to agree with you Pete. I'm not a big fan of cutting worlds, but I also understand that it is likely a huge expense, especially in getting people out to the tournament. Cutting the tournament down to 16 players will make it a much more manageable event for Wizards, with plenty of exciting coverage. I'd rather have Worlds, and I suspect that this is mostly a result of Hasbro requiring WotC to make budget cuts, but that is the way the dice sometimes land.
As for the PPC and PWPs, I don't know enough to comment, but I really like your analysis.
Tweeted out a thing. If we actually want to see change to OP we should buy stock. Hasbro stock is going down and continues to trend down, maybe it might work? Shrug.
Every single person that goes out of their way to qualify and make the trip for their respective Nationals are affected. Everyone who plays in a Regionals tournament for the dream of making it to Nationals is affected. I hate all of the latest changes, but I honestly feel the end of Nationals relevance is by far the worst one, and will affect many thousands of players worldwide.
The allure of a Pro dream is a powerful thing. The vast majority of those players will never get to even play in a Pro Tour, but don't underestimate the force of even the faintest aspirations.
Strict, 100% casual kitchen table players aren't affected, obviously. But everyone who regularly plays in tournaments (ANY tournaments) and/or like to follow high level Magic coverage have just gotten a rude awakening.
I know I was even kinda excited to start playing again at FNMs to try and keep qualifying for Nationals, which was one of the intended effects of Planeswalker Points. Now that Nationals is no longer relevant at all, all that goes into the drain. I'm not sure if they realize how counterproductive these new measures are to the very goal of PWPs (to make more people go to their local stores).
That is also your prerogative if you want to quit, but if this is the straw that broke the camel's back, then quitting was inevitable anyway....
Also, I am sure that a small portion of non-PT players share your sentiment. It is still probably not more than 1%. Of course, that is just my guess, but I thought there was something ridiculous like 1 million players world wide...
I, too, believe that Hasbro is trying to moneyball the game. They will attempt to milk every dollar
they can from it even if they alienate the core audience of the game. I also think that the bean counters
will eventually come to the conclusion that there is too much prize support for the game and they can cut costs and increase profit by reducing the prize support. That will be a bad sign for the game.
Some friends were joking (?) the other day and asked, "How long will it be before you see a box of
Lucky Charms with this offer: send in three boxtops and get a set of the Power Nine!"
This was the best analysis I have seen of the organized play changes; they make a lot more sense when you think about the goal being to attract the interest of the casual player, which is after all what the Pro Tour is for. Your perspective, having seen Magic die 43 times now, is refreshing and instructive.
I'm curious as to why the Innistrad card links are not live, since the MTGOTraders site has had them for sale for awhile now. Perhaps next week?
it is nothing to do with being on the PT. I am a casual player, i never play in pro tours dont earn single buck from magic. but lots of people with the hopes of playing in PT one day. if you take the dream the rest will follow. if you take lsv and pv out, i will be gone as well. so be careful, when you say 99%
Good points, but I have a real hard time caring abour the OP changes. I, along with 99% of MTG players, are never going to be on the PT.
I am not saying it doesn't matter, but it does seem the new system is going to be more cost effective for Hasbro. That is actually important because if Hasbro can continue to make MTG profitable, they will keep it going. That means I get to play and occasionally mise prize packs.
I am okay with this, but I can understand why "the elite" would be pissed.
My children love Dinosaur Train, Caillou (this one annoys me), and Shaun the Sheep. Shaun the Sheep is my favorite because I love stop motion animation and Aardman Studios (Wallace and Grommit).
the problem with the chnages are the way wizards is lying thorugh helene and scott larabee by looking into our eyes. there is one real reason for these changes: cost cutting. by going down from worlds to invitational they are going down from 250k to 100k cost. by getting rid of pro club more hundred couple thousands. instead of saying the thruth they hide it behind stupid explanations. there is no good reason to dumb down nationals. it is the biggest event for most of the mid elvel players.
these chnages may not have big impact in the short tem but it will collapse the system some day, just like feeding your pet with less and less food every day.
I totally agree that playing online with Innistrad is much neater than playing paper. I think you get a new appreciation for DFCs when they just happen, front-to-back.
And though the graveyard/exile window system is still kind of a hassle, it's way easier to track everything at once.
I'm playing Burning Vengeance myself (I can't resist a UR enchantment-based combo-control [cf. Pyromancer Ascension]) and enjoying it quite a bit, though I haven't jumped in a daily yet either. The one thing I don't like is being completely cold to a Witchbane Orb game 1 (beyond removing it with Naturalize[s]). I'm not sure about Snapcasters--on the one hand, everything has Flashback, as you say, but on the other hand, they also swing for 2, which is something that's missing from the Snapless build that I'm running. :/
Two cards that came to mind immediately are Fatestitcher and Rings of Brighthearth. Fatestitcher can actually help with mana problems by untapping a land or mana rock as well as getting a second use out of all your tapping creatures. All activated abilities are great with the rings, you can even throw in some cycling lands and get an extra draw out of them.
No Land Tax in a deck that is mana hungry? Although lately I've been using Oath of Lieges instead. I find it stays around longer and builds some good will among the other players so they don't go after you if you're the softest target on the board.
I'd also experiment with Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch in the deck. Even if you don't want to combo them together they seem like they could be fine additions on their own.
Mercadian Masques Countdown: Masques block arrives, in its entirety, on December 5th. Details on the Masques roll-out here. Countdown to Masques Block: 24 days.
You got me really excited there! Sadly its more than 24 days till the 5th December...
Surely one can use Tariel in a good_stuff.dec but if one really wants to built a deck around her, then the following things must be considered:
1- She's a slow general who doesn't have access to Green. Which means a lot of artifact based mana ramping will be needed. By "a lot", I mean at least 8 such cards.
2- You will not be playing her in an Aggro deck obviously. Meaning she will most of the time be the one and only creature on your side. Meaning she will need extra protection. Meaning lots of Lightning Graves/Darksteel Plate kind of cards must be included. Especially Darksteel Plate is great.
3- She's white and black and she's slow. This means that you must really pack more than the usual amount of mass removal. Damnation, Wrath of God, Rout, Sunblast Angel, Life's Finale... you have to use as many as you can. Start testing with 10 such cards I would say. Dread and No Mercy are other very good cards that must be considered.
4- A few ways to untap Tariel is needed but not more than two. Black gives tutors and with them you can find your untapper(s) easily.
5- Discard is important. It's an ugly method in Commander and I know that, but it is needed in this deck. Cards that can make everybody discard is even more important. Strongarm Tactics, Incendiary Command, Scythe Specter, Syphon Mind, Chandra Ablaze and the dreaded Myojin of Night's Reach are the ones that I can think of as candidates right now. The fewer answers they have the better. The more cards they have in their graveyard the better.
6- To minimize the "random" part on Tariel's gametext, cards that can target cards in graveyards is important. Insert Nezumi Graverobber and Withered Wretch here. Looking at your example in your article, if you have Withered Wretch in play, you can use it to remove Akroma and Serra Avenger first and then tap Tariel and get you that Ulamog.
7- The rest should be card drawing, tutors and utility.
Surely it's way too early to talk about a meta, but it looks like the format is going to be very healthy without having a "deck to beat" around. The format is very fun and diverse which is something I like very much. I don't know what will happen in the coming weeks and months, but so far I like the format a lot.
Yea, Naturalize might just be better. The idea with bramblecrush is hitting planeswalkers (which aren't heavily played right now) or the super-lands, but you don't do that much in this meta.
I'm trying out subbing naturalizes for the bramble crushes. So far found them useful in helping take down some of mono-red's powerful artifacts that I've seen running around, as well as BV, and the token pumper.
Moved all 3 of them to board for the BV and Red match-ups, and instead I'm testing the additional snappy and one more stitched drake.
And now that I write this I kind of wonder why I have them in sideboard if they may work well against 3 decks... probably should fix that.
I wish they would make a third set. But I know about the original cards, I have them. I have boxes of everything from Beta to Planeshift in a storage locker. When I was a kid my dad bought me like 3 packs a day because I thought the pictures were nice. You would be amazed at how much money people are offering me now for the stuff I have. The unopened packs alone someone offered me $300. (At NG you could have bought beta Duals for $32 a piece, now they are like thousands. I could buy a newer car just with my dual lands)
But how is everyone forgetting about the greatest thing ever legal in Magic?
I mean sure Fallen Empires had those badass Saprolings, but Masques is bringing back the scariest group of creatures ever in the game (granted it is only 1 card).. But seriously...
I don't know about you guys, but the moment that set comes out, forget Rishidan Ports, I'm making myself the greatest ever squirrel deck. It will be insane.
They need to bring back squirrels hardcore in a set coming to a store near you.
They are also bringing back Thwart which is the poor mans Force of Will, and will be used in every deck.
Lets think of prices for cards.... Hmm.
Rishidan Port - $50 foiled $80
Thwart - $10 Foiled $25
Squee Goblin Nabob (Which I think was a staple) - $10
Misdirection - 30ish
Unmask - $25 easily
Food Chain - $15
Nether Spirit.. Hmmm This card is better than Bloodghast... 10?
Legions is worthless and the best card is a blue common Accumulated Knowledge.
Foil - $10 (A card you can argue is better than force of will depending on the deck and format)
And the rest of the set is terrible. The Avatars will be fun for a limited, but it's not like the old days when Avatars were Type 2 staples.
This will be a nice set to make money on, especially with all the lands. Like Dust Bowl etc.. This will definitely be worth the price of admission if you get lucky.
That card, Chaos Confetti, was based on Chaos Orb which people used to rip up to get more advantage out of it until the DCI ruled that was illegal play.
See I quit playing during 7th edition. I think the Planeswalker saga was the last I played before coming back to MTGO and played SOM, which was a crazy transition btw. Who's idiotic idea was it to make planeswalkers anyway?
Thanks for telling me the rule change. I liked mana burn, but I guess they had to "dumb down" the game a little bit to make it easier.
I just wish I was around for Unhinged because Unglued was one of the greatest sets of all time. I mean that chaos card where you would rip it up and throw it in the air destroying everything on the board was fun, and the 99/99 double card was cool, and they had the greatest tribe ever... CHICKENS!!!!
But how could you forget the best card in the set? An instant mind control. That card in limited and other formats might be a $4-5 uncommon.
I mean, what is there to comment about w/re: Geist Honored Monk? It's a great rare, miles ahead of any common, and is absolutely the pick there. Don't overthink it.
Also, in many red decks Harvest Pyre is close enough to Dead Weight that it was at least considering it to stay open - although obviously your first pick pushes you slightly toward R/B Vampires, it's fine on its own and unlike the ground-pounder vampires it doesn't much benefit from the enablers (who needs +2/+0 and first strike, or an additional counter, when you're smashing with a 6/6 and growing flier?). Dead Weight is definitely better, but there's definitely a conversation to be had in this specific instance.
Lots of good suggestions guys, and I've been emailed a few as well. I'll try out a bunch of them for sure.
Sorry monkey, no Blue in the deck.
Gonna have to agree with you Pete. I'm not a big fan of cutting worlds, but I also understand that it is likely a huge expense, especially in getting people out to the tournament. Cutting the tournament down to 16 players will make it a much more manageable event for Wizards, with plenty of exciting coverage. I'd rather have Worlds, and I suspect that this is mostly a result of Hasbro requiring WotC to make budget cuts, but that is the way the dice sometimes land.
As for the PPC and PWPs, I don't know enough to comment, but I really like your analysis.
Tweeted out a thing. If we actually want to see change to OP we should buy stock. Hasbro stock is going down and continues to trend down, maybe it might work? Shrug.
Every single person that goes out of their way to qualify and make the trip for their respective Nationals are affected. Everyone who plays in a Regionals tournament for the dream of making it to Nationals is affected. I hate all of the latest changes, but I honestly feel the end of Nationals relevance is by far the worst one, and will affect many thousands of players worldwide.
The allure of a Pro dream is a powerful thing. The vast majority of those players will never get to even play in a Pro Tour, but don't underestimate the force of even the faintest aspirations.
Strict, 100% casual kitchen table players aren't affected, obviously. But everyone who regularly plays in tournaments (ANY tournaments) and/or like to follow high level Magic coverage have just gotten a rude awakening.
I know I was even kinda excited to start playing again at FNMs to try and keep qualifying for Nationals, which was one of the intended effects of Planeswalker Points. Now that Nationals is no longer relevant at all, all that goes into the drain. I'm not sure if they realize how counterproductive these new measures are to the very goal of PWPs (to make more people go to their local stores).
I love how well you explain the OP changes. I think the whole community could benefit from having it put in front of them like this.
You are the man!!!
Unless it is on their own volition.
That is also your prerogative if you want to quit, but if this is the straw that broke the camel's back, then quitting was inevitable anyway....
Also, I am sure that a small portion of non-PT players share your sentiment. It is still probably not more than 1%. Of course, that is just my guess, but I thought there was something ridiculous like 1 million players world wide...
I, too, believe that Hasbro is trying to moneyball the game. They will attempt to milk every dollar
they can from it even if they alienate the core audience of the game. I also think that the bean counters
will eventually come to the conclusion that there is too much prize support for the game and they can cut costs and increase profit by reducing the prize support. That will be a bad sign for the game.
Some friends were joking (?) the other day and asked, "How long will it be before you see a box of
Lucky Charms with this offer: send in three boxtops and get a set of the Power Nine!"
This was the best analysis I have seen of the organized play changes; they make a lot more sense when you think about the goal being to attract the interest of the casual player, which is after all what the Pro Tour is for. Your perspective, having seen Magic die 43 times now, is refreshing and instructive.
I'm curious as to why the Innistrad card links are not live, since the MTGOTraders site has had them for sale for awhile now. Perhaps next week?
it is nothing to do with being on the PT. I am a casual player, i never play in pro tours dont earn single buck from magic. but lots of people with the hopes of playing in PT one day. if you take the dream the rest will follow. if you take lsv and pv out, i will be gone as well. so be careful, when you say 99%
Good points, but I have a real hard time caring abour the OP changes. I, along with 99% of MTG players, are never going to be on the PT.
I am not saying it doesn't matter, but it does seem the new system is going to be more cost effective for Hasbro. That is actually important because if Hasbro can continue to make MTG profitable, they will keep it going. That means I get to play and occasionally mise prize packs.
I am okay with this, but I can understand why "the elite" would be pissed.
My children love Dinosaur Train, Caillou (this one annoys me), and Shaun the Sheep. Shaun the Sheep is my favorite because I love stop motion animation and Aardman Studios (Wallace and Grommit).
Thanks for this. Eff Comcast.
the problem with the chnages are the way wizards is lying thorugh helene and scott larabee by looking into our eyes. there is one real reason for these changes: cost cutting. by going down from worlds to invitational they are going down from 250k to 100k cost. by getting rid of pro club more hundred couple thousands. instead of saying the thruth they hide it behind stupid explanations. there is no good reason to dumb down nationals. it is the biggest event for most of the mid elvel players.
these chnages may not have big impact in the short tem but it will collapse the system some day, just like feeding your pet with less and less food every day.
I totally agree that playing online with Innistrad is much neater than playing paper. I think you get a new appreciation for DFCs when they just happen, front-to-back.
And though the graveyard/exile window system is still kind of a hassle, it's way easier to track everything at once.
I'm playing Burning Vengeance myself (I can't resist a UR enchantment-based combo-control [cf. Pyromancer Ascension]) and enjoying it quite a bit, though I haven't jumped in a daily yet either. The one thing I don't like is being completely cold to a Witchbane Orb game 1 (beyond removing it with Naturalize[s]). I'm not sure about Snapcasters--on the one hand, everything has Flashback, as you say, but on the other hand, they also swing for 2, which is something that's missing from the Snapless build that I'm running. :/
Two cards that came to mind immediately are Fatestitcher and Rings of Brighthearth. Fatestitcher can actually help with mana problems by untapping a land or mana rock as well as getting a second use out of all your tapping creatures. All activated abilities are great with the rings, you can even throw in some cycling lands and get an extra draw out of them.
No Land Tax in a deck that is mana hungry? Although lately I've been using Oath of Lieges instead. I find it stays around longer and builds some good will among the other players so they don't go after you if you're the softest target on the board.
I'd also experiment with Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch in the deck. Even if you don't want to combo them together they seem like they could be fine additions on their own.
Mercadian Masques Countdown: Masques block arrives, in its entirety, on December 5th. Details on the Masques roll-out here. Countdown to Masques Block: 24 days.
You got me really excited there! Sadly its more than 24 days till the 5th December...
Surely one can use Tariel in a good_stuff.dec but if one really wants to built a deck around her, then the following things must be considered:
1- She's a slow general who doesn't have access to Green. Which means a lot of artifact based mana ramping will be needed. By "a lot", I mean at least 8 such cards.
2- You will not be playing her in an Aggro deck obviously. Meaning she will most of the time be the one and only creature on your side. Meaning she will need extra protection. Meaning lots of Lightning Graves/Darksteel Plate kind of cards must be included. Especially Darksteel Plate is great.
3- She's white and black and she's slow. This means that you must really pack more than the usual amount of mass removal. Damnation, Wrath of God, Rout, Sunblast Angel, Life's Finale... you have to use as many as you can. Start testing with 10 such cards I would say. Dread and No Mercy are other very good cards that must be considered.
4- A few ways to untap Tariel is needed but not more than two. Black gives tutors and with them you can find your untapper(s) easily.
5- Discard is important. It's an ugly method in Commander and I know that, but it is needed in this deck. Cards that can make everybody discard is even more important. Strongarm Tactics, Incendiary Command, Scythe Specter, Syphon Mind, Chandra Ablaze and the dreaded Myojin of Night's Reach are the ones that I can think of as candidates right now. The fewer answers they have the better. The more cards they have in their graveyard the better.
6- To minimize the "random" part on Tariel's gametext, cards that can target cards in graveyards is important. Insert Nezumi Graverobber and Withered Wretch here. Looking at your example in your article, if you have Withered Wretch in play, you can use it to remove Akroma and Serra Avenger first and then tap Tariel and get you that Ulamog.
7- The rest should be card drawing, tutors and utility.
I hope this helps.
LE
My personal testing showed me that:
Burning Vengeance beats Aggro
UGx Dredge beats Burning Vengeance
Midrange/Control beats UGx Dredge
Aggro beats Midrange/Control
Surely it's way too early to talk about a meta, but it looks like the format is going to be very healthy without having a "deck to beat" around. The format is very fun and diverse which is something I like very much. I don't know what will happen in the coming weeks and months, but so far I like the format a lot.
LE
Yea, Naturalize might just be better. The idea with bramblecrush is hitting planeswalkers (which aren't heavily played right now) or the super-lands, but you don't do that much in this meta.
At the time I will honestly say, I did not like him all that much. Since then I've grown to see how good he is.
I'm trying out subbing naturalizes for the bramble crushes. So far found them useful in helping take down some of mono-red's powerful artifacts that I've seen running around, as well as BV, and the token pumper.
Moved all 3 of them to board for the BV and Red match-ups, and instead I'm testing the additional snappy and one more stitched drake.
And now that I write this I kind of wonder why I have them in sideboard if they may work well against 3 decks... probably should fix that.
Most glaring error: p2p5: Galvanic Juggernaut is a legitimate card, especially when you have two Cultists. Devils is awful.
Also, Monk is absolutely the pick, no question.
I wish they would make a third set. But I know about the original cards, I have them. I have boxes of everything from Beta to Planeshift in a storage locker. When I was a kid my dad bought me like 3 packs a day because I thought the pictures were nice. You would be amazed at how much money people are offering me now for the stuff I have. The unopened packs alone someone offered me $300. (At NG you could have bought beta Duals for $32 a piece, now they are like thousands. I could buy a newer car just with my dual lands)
But how is everyone forgetting about the greatest thing ever legal in Magic?
I mean sure Fallen Empires had those badass Saprolings, but Masques is bringing back the scariest group of creatures ever in the game (granted it is only 1 card).. But seriously...
SQUIRRELS!!!!!!! http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24672
I don't know about you guys, but the moment that set comes out, forget Rishidan Ports, I'm making myself the greatest ever squirrel deck. It will be insane.
They need to bring back squirrels hardcore in a set coming to a store near you.
They are also bringing back Thwart which is the poor mans Force of Will, and will be used in every deck.
Lets think of prices for cards.... Hmm.
Rishidan Port - $50 foiled $80
Thwart - $10 Foiled $25
Squee Goblin Nabob (Which I think was a staple) - $10
Misdirection - 30ish
Unmask - $25 easily
Food Chain - $15
Nether Spirit.. Hmmm This card is better than Bloodghast... 10?
Legions is worthless and the best card is a blue common Accumulated Knowledge.
Foil - $10 (A card you can argue is better than force of will depending on the deck and format)
And the rest of the set is terrible. The Avatars will be fun for a limited, but it's not like the old days when Avatars were Type 2 staples.
This will be a nice set to make money on, especially with all the lands. Like Dust Bowl etc.. This will definitely be worth the price of admission if you get lucky.
That card, Chaos Confetti, was based on Chaos Orb which people used to rip up to get more advantage out of it until the DCI ruled that was illegal play.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5712
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=301
I didn't actually play with Unhinged besides a little fun drafting stuff but it was pretty silly. Sure showed some creative ideas for design space.
See I quit playing during 7th edition. I think the Planeswalker saga was the last I played before coming back to MTGO and played SOM, which was a crazy transition btw. Who's idiotic idea was it to make planeswalkers anyway?
Thanks for telling me the rule change. I liked mana burn, but I guess they had to "dumb down" the game a little bit to make it easier.
I just wish I was around for Unhinged because Unglued was one of the greatest sets of all time. I mean that chaos card where you would rip it up and throw it in the air destroying everything on the board was fun, and the 99/99 double card was cool, and they had the greatest tribe ever... CHICKENS!!!!
But how could you forget the best card in the set? An instant mind control. That card in limited and other formats might be a $4-5 uncommon.
I mean, what is there to comment about w/re: Geist Honored Monk? It's a great rare, miles ahead of any common, and is absolutely the pick there. Don't overthink it.
Also, in many red decks Harvest Pyre is close enough to Dead Weight that it was at least considering it to stay open - although obviously your first pick pushes you slightly toward R/B Vampires, it's fine on its own and unlike the ground-pounder vampires it doesn't much benefit from the enablers (who needs +2/+0 and first strike, or an additional counter, when you're smashing with a 6/6 and growing flier?). Dead Weight is definitely better, but there's definitely a conversation to be had in this specific instance.
Since it'll help those that do attack avoid damage. I use it in my weenie Edric deck, and I'm never unhappy to see it.
Great article as always, and great idea on showing people how to build better :-D
PatrykG