Yeah, it's time consuming and way tougher than I thought it would be. I am fortunate(?) enough that my weekend starts at 8am Sunday and goes until 4pm Wednesday, so I don't have to bother with petty things like a career after the weekend's events wrap up.
You wont get to see the other side till next week. i am intentinally a week behind on events. i just dont have the time to play an event saturday and then render the vids and build an article by subday night. Dont worry though, ill be dredging on monday.
Excellent - I was quick to pick fault with your article last week. But you have really pulled out a great article this week. All whilst backing it all up and walking the walk of winning the DE.
Congratulations on winning the event and props for the article.
Yeah my own experiences with people on mtgo have been quite mixed between the bizarre and wonderful and where did that alien come from??
But part of that is that I tend to be a bit fiery myself so I can get into IT if you know what I mean. But I tend to encourage discourse despite the risk of a row or unpleasantness.
It is a joy for me to run into intelligence on the other end of the line but sometimes that is mitigated when they turn out to be turds. :)
Excellent read! I was fascinated about the judging details, I'm only an online player so those kind of details are bizarre and fascinating. I also find it amazing that people can be so self-serving that they would even consciously cheat, a genuine measure of a person is how they loose - not win.
I find playing Magic (Online only for several months now, but I played as a teenager back in revised, dark, legends, empires days) the extreme personalities - competitive, narcissistic, opinionated etc quite incredible. For over a decade I honestly forgot these people existed, and have been rudely reminded since. So I found the following to be an utterly brilliant, disturbing and damning comment:
"However, ten years of forum trolls have taken their toll. I find I have become bitter in some ways, and I don’t have the endurance to tolerate obnoxious jackasses anymore. I have dealt with a huge number of immature, socially unskilled kids who confuse being obnoxious with being cool, and I have lost the ability to laugh at it. Now it is just feels like a bad headache – something that is annoying and cannot be gone fast enough. And unfortunately some of that can bleed over into my writing."
Such an indictment of the effect people have on one another without fully comprehending that effect, especially through the internet and forums because this behaviour is certainly less in real life. When I was young and full of vehemence in my convictions I'd single-mindedly argue my viewpoints, which I understand (and just tend not to bait anymore) but serious trolling is no different to bullying.
I will of course add that I've met some utterly fantastic people via MTGO, who are friendly, funny, generous and honest. But the bad have already given me a couple of negative experiences that now make me generally avoid chatting to people while playing.
Very true with your ranting comments there. Magic appears to have a very high number of people with opinions that are unable to deal with reality outside of their view point :) (I say that with the full data of my own experience). Fact is, if a business had a product on the market that wasn't profiting their overall strategy that product would be removed.
Sure the 4322 total payout is 1 pack less, but I think it's the most tempting queue to play because it says to the average player "hey, you only have to win 1 round for a decent payout". Who cares (rhetorical question ok!) if the total is 1 less than the other queues, you're never going to win 12 packs, so whats the dif? For me, Swiss is brilliant because I draft for my collection, casual decks and trade value just as much to win because I'm not good enough, or lucky enough to win everytime and I'd say I loose that first match nearly half the time, although ISD-draft has been treating me very well now averaging over 2 wins per - but I would definitely not have "won" back the value I've put in if it was 4322 or 84.
End of the day, stop being an A-hole and be an adult - let other adults make their own choices. What works for you does not work for everyone else, your opinion and the opinion of your social group does not make up anything close to market/business research. People are also emotional beings and go with what feels right for them.
Yeah, I don't like shade much either actually...but I feel you need that or ORDER main to justify lategame flood issues. Shade is a 'win more' card imo. Kami of False Hope is a fantastic 1cc vs. storm if you find yourself facing it over/over.
Yeah that's the deck I'm playing with right now. I've seen it a lot in UB decks, but not sure it's the right fit there, since that deck plays a lot fewer instants and sorceries.
Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't sure whether to expect any on my first article or not but I greatly appreciate it.
@deluxeicoff: You may have a point about swapping a Priest for a Bodyguard. Between Trooper and Priest, I was definitely more happy with the Trooper. I believe I was fortunate, at least in that particular TPDC, because a heavy portion of the metagame was mono black or UB medium control. In those matchups the Priest forces them to either lose life just trying to win the attrition war or waste removal on a 1/1 rather than one of my actual clocks. By the way, I checked out the article of yours that you linked to and that was very interesting. It kinda made me want to try Shades again. I believe I originally took them out because I got frustrated with having my suspended creature bounced as soon as it came into play but it would be nice to have a late game mana sink again.
@grapplingfarang: Agreed. I still believe that WW has a fighting chance against everything, but storm is arguably it's worst matchup. WW just doesn't have enough ways to interact with the storm player even post-board.
Nah, that's wrong, Jace wasen't in Starter II, he was in Unglued... it was one of those "fun" cards which will never be printed in a normal set. Surely WotC does know better than anyone that a planeswalker who can Brainstorm for free every freakin' turn belongs to those Un- sets.
To be honest, I didn't know about Vampirism. Had, I probably wouldn't of included it anyways. I am not big on using Aura's in a commder deck unless they are extremely good or fit the theme of the deck like an aura deck. There are just some better cards I would fit into the deck over Vampirism.
As far as Blood Tyrant goes, he was originally in the deck, and I took him out. But I wanted as many decent vampires as I could and put him back in.
I'll give you five fireballs just because you've actually sparked my interest in Mercadian Masques. From what I'd heard about the block previously (I didn't play during that time), I didn't think that was possible. :)
To be fair, Paul already has at least one non-US interview under his belt, his very first in fact. An excellent read as is now par for the course: Keep up the good work.
Maniac was 1 situation. I also considered things like Aura of Silence in play, though sculpting a perfect 7 card hand for the turn after is probably good enough. Other things like a Time Vault and key or Tezzeret with no artifacts in graveyard (or Welder not online).
These things mostly bring me back to the singleton Spine of Ish Sah, but a problem I do have right now is dealing with 2 permanents (If Welder is not active).
Alternate just keeps trolling,trolling, trolling what!?!
Dude just needs to be ignored, but other than that, another heroic effort. And yeah Wolf-run is still going strong in paper and isnt something to be messe with regardless of alternate's opinion and it versus WW is a toss up.
In the interest of fairness. One corner case could be if your opponent has a laboratory maniac in play and just needs to reach his draw step to win. This would rely on you not having a duplicant in your deck. Still for tournement play I dont think the win more win faster approach at expensive of deck wins is good.
MMOGG - I agree this would suck in the TP - but i would be absolutely happy to make those clicks in a de etc.
At least from my perspective. Talk about hatefull. :)
I hope all the shops players out there don't start running those, because that single card turns an ok matchup for me (hatebears) into a nightmare.
The main basics are also a nice touch. Sure surprised me.
Grats on your 4-0. Was hoping that was my first 4-0, but alas it was not to be.
Yeah, it's time consuming and way tougher than I thought it would be. I am fortunate(?) enough that my weekend starts at 8am Sunday and goes until 4pm Wednesday, so I don't have to bother with petty things like a career after the weekend's events wrap up.
You wont get to see the other side till next week. i am intentinally a week behind on events. i just dont have the time to play an event saturday and then render the vids and build an article by subday night. Dont worry though, ill be dredging on monday.
Excellent - I was quick to pick fault with your article last week. But you have really pulled out a great article this week. All whilst backing it all up and walking the walk of winning the DE.
Congratulations on winning the event and props for the article.
Yeah my own experiences with people on mtgo have been quite mixed between the bizarre and wonderful and where did that alien come from??
But part of that is that I tend to be a bit fiery myself so I can get into IT if you know what I mean. But I tend to encourage discourse despite the risk of a row or unpleasantness.
It is a joy for me to run into intelligence on the other end of the line but sometimes that is mitigated when they turn out to be turds. :)
I am glad you enjoyed the article. :D
Excellent read! I was fascinated about the judging details, I'm only an online player so those kind of details are bizarre and fascinating. I also find it amazing that people can be so self-serving that they would even consciously cheat, a genuine measure of a person is how they loose - not win.
I find playing Magic (Online only for several months now, but I played as a teenager back in revised, dark, legends, empires days) the extreme personalities - competitive, narcissistic, opinionated etc quite incredible. For over a decade I honestly forgot these people existed, and have been rudely reminded since. So I found the following to be an utterly brilliant, disturbing and damning comment:
"However, ten years of forum trolls have taken their toll. I find I have become bitter in some ways, and I don’t have the endurance to tolerate obnoxious jackasses anymore. I have dealt with a huge number of immature, socially unskilled kids who confuse being obnoxious with being cool, and I have lost the ability to laugh at it. Now it is just feels like a bad headache – something that is annoying and cannot be gone fast enough. And unfortunately some of that can bleed over into my writing."
Such an indictment of the effect people have on one another without fully comprehending that effect, especially through the internet and forums because this behaviour is certainly less in real life. When I was young and full of vehemence in my convictions I'd single-mindedly argue my viewpoints, which I understand (and just tend not to bait anymore) but serious trolling is no different to bullying.
I will of course add that I've met some utterly fantastic people via MTGO, who are friendly, funny, generous and honest. But the bad have already given me a couple of negative experiences that now make me generally avoid chatting to people while playing.
Very true with your ranting comments there. Magic appears to have a very high number of people with opinions that are unable to deal with reality outside of their view point :) (I say that with the full data of my own experience). Fact is, if a business had a product on the market that wasn't profiting their overall strategy that product would be removed.
Sure the 4322 total payout is 1 pack less, but I think it's the most tempting queue to play because it says to the average player "hey, you only have to win 1 round for a decent payout". Who cares (rhetorical question ok!) if the total is 1 less than the other queues, you're never going to win 12 packs, so whats the dif? For me, Swiss is brilliant because I draft for my collection, casual decks and trade value just as much to win because I'm not good enough, or lucky enough to win everytime and I'd say I loose that first match nearly half the time, although ISD-draft has been treating me very well now averaging over 2 wins per - but I would definitely not have "won" back the value I've put in if it was 4322 or 84.
End of the day, stop being an A-hole and be an adult - let other adults make their own choices. What works for you does not work for everyone else, your opinion and the opinion of your social group does not make up anything close to market/business research. People are also emotional beings and go with what feels right for them.
Yeah, I don't like shade much either actually...but I feel you need that or ORDER main to justify lategame flood issues. Shade is a 'win more' card imo. Kami of False Hope is a fantastic 1cc vs. storm if you find yourself facing it over/over.
I just love this - so interesting getting in depth insight to folks we see so often, keep it up :) Great new idea.
That was deluxe! Currently I"m trying to make a 'allflying' pauper deck with Dust Corona' s :) - unblockable city!
Yeah that's the deck I'm playing with right now. I've seen it a lot in UB decks, but not sure it's the right fit there, since that deck plays a lot fewer instants and sorceries.
Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't sure whether to expect any on my first article or not but I greatly appreciate it.
@deluxeicoff: You may have a point about swapping a Priest for a Bodyguard. Between Trooper and Priest, I was definitely more happy with the Trooper. I believe I was fortunate, at least in that particular TPDC, because a heavy portion of the metagame was mono black or UB medium control. In those matchups the Priest forces them to either lose life just trying to win the attrition war or waste removal on a 1/1 rather than one of my actual clocks. By the way, I checked out the article of yours that you linked to and that was very interesting. It kinda made me want to try Shades again. I believe I originally took them out because I got frustrated with having my suspended creature bounced as soon as it came into play but it would be nice to have a late game mana sink again.
@grapplingfarang: Agreed. I still believe that WW has a fighting chance against everything, but storm is arguably it's worst matchup. WW just doesn't have enough ways to interact with the storm player even post-board.
If his ability had been some sort of "taps target creature. it doesn't untap next turn" so it wasn't SO board dominant along with free brainstorms...
Thanks
Nah, that's wrong, Jace wasen't in Starter II, he was in Unglued... it was one of those "fun" cards which will never be printed in a normal set. Surely WotC does know better than anyone that a planeswalker who can Brainstorm for free every freakin' turn belongs to those Un- sets.
:p
LE
To be honest, I didn't know about Vampirism. Had, I probably wouldn't of included it anyways. I am not big on using Aura's in a commder deck unless they are extremely good or fit the theme of the deck like an aura deck. There are just some better cards I would fit into the deck over Vampirism.
As far as Blood Tyrant goes, he was originally in the deck, and I took him out. But I wanted as many decent vampires as I could and put him back in.
man i cant believe jace was in starter II i bought a lot of that set in paper never opened 1. sad face.
I'll give you five fireballs just because you've actually sparked my interest in Mercadian Masques. From what I'd heard about the block previously (I didn't play during that time), I didn't think that was possible. :)
Even though I'll miss Skyfisher shenanigans, I can't wait to see what a new standard season will bring to Pauper.
Congratulations to your Level one, i always lack the organization to actually get to it.
But
A vampire commander deck and no Vampirism? tsk tsk
To be fair, Paul already has at least one non-US interview under his belt, his very first in fact. An excellent read as is now par for the course: Keep up the good work.
Delver is quite good in the UB control deck since you have at least 12 instants or sorceries. That gives you two fast 3 power fliers. Not bad.
Maniac was 1 situation. I also considered things like Aura of Silence in play, though sculpting a perfect 7 card hand for the turn after is probably good enough. Other things like a Time Vault and key or Tezzeret with no artifacts in graveyard (or Welder not online).
These things mostly bring me back to the singleton Spine of Ish Sah, but a problem I do have right now is dealing with 2 permanents (If Welder is not active).
Alternate just keeps trolling,trolling, trolling what!?!
Dude just needs to be ignored, but other than that, another heroic effort. And yeah Wolf-run is still going strong in paper and isnt something to be messe with regardless of alternate's opinion and it versus WW is a toss up.
In the interest of fairness. One corner case could be if your opponent has a laboratory maniac in play and just needs to reach his draw step to win. This would rely on you not having a duplicant in your deck. Still for tournement play I dont think the win more win faster approach at expensive of deck wins is good.
MMOGG - I agree this would suck in the TP - but i would be absolutely happy to make those clicks in a de etc.
Hammer.