Leyline made sense in Ravnica due to dredge, and would have made sense in M10 considering Alara block's unearth mechanic. It made no sense in M11 considering Vengevine was the only creature that used the graveyard, and Leyline is horrible against it.
I agree Whiffy, Wasteland is actually being propped up by hoarding. I wish WOTC would implement a real trading system so that bots didn't run the entire economy to such a ridiculous degree, but I could go on about the issues of MTGO all day.
I don't know why they don't bother to reprint more cards that can't be redeemed since it is like printing money, but many decisions of theirs baffle me.
You can actually tell which cards are being hoarded easily by how far their prices drop when they are drafted. When ME was draftable, duals plummeted in value. Whenever Tempest is draftable, Wasteland loses a huge amount of its value, and it sells for around 20-30, about half of the current value.
Bots are always going to make money on cards worth less than a ticket, since players rarely want to deal with fractional value. Because of the absolutely indefensible interface and lack of an auction system, cards are regularly sold to bots at well below their value.
Just as a hypothetical, lets say bots are selling wasteland at 50 and buying at 45. If I want to sell a wasteland, am I really going to try to sell the Wasteland for 3 weeks hoping someone sees my confidential to make between 1-4 tickets?
This particular issue effects most out of print, rare cards.
Glad I read the whole article, because I was going to say, there is no way running 3 brainstorm is correct when you have that many fetches.
That being said, after looking at the deck I would make some changes.
Cut white - 4 Life Burst isn't good enough, you can beat RDW without it. If you are fetching it with teachings you are already winning.
Diabolic Edict - I would play at least two, it is insane vs Infect, and very good in general.
Firebolt - Same as Edict.
4 Rewind is too many, I would cut it to two. I don't think you need 4 counterspells either, and definitely get rid of Faerie Trickery.
I'm not a big fan of Think Twice, and your deck needs more win conditions, two is not enough. I would go with 3-4 Mulldrifter. Steamcore Weird and Izzet Chronarch are also excellent creatures for this type of deck.
I would run Negate maindeck, especially with brainstorm, it is a great teachings target. If you run red and don't have Gorilla Shaman in your board, it is a crime against humanity. If you run R/G, ditto, but ancient grudge.
Pauper doesn't get enough love, neither does skred. Nice article.
Good point, Leyline is awesome but just not in a caw/valakut/steel meta. Same happend with even more powerful cards before : meddling mage is really a great creature, but also saw no play during alara era although is would probably have been better to deal with caw than with jund...
For obvious reasons, WOTC is not going to reveal how many digital cards they have ever produced. In any case, sometimes we can't compare paper cards with digital cards. Imagine every time a physical magic player/user going to a a shop/event, was carrying absolutely all the paper cards he owns in eternal ultra-mint condition, all of them perfectly classified and ready to be trade/buy/sell in seconds.
wasteland simply is not a 50 dollar card online. I havent checked in a while but even though it is a 4 of in legacy and classic the card is just not actually worth the price. it is based off the price of paper cards. another example of this is Oath of druids vs Mana Drain. Oath is 12.50 and mana drain is 16.00. both are in stock, the difference is that Oath of druids is an automatic 4 of in one of THE top classic decks, and mana drain is sporadically used. The demand is much higer for Oath of druids and I would be willing to bet there are less of a particulat Exodus rare online then a particular Med 3 rare. So why the price hike on mana drain over oath? Oath is a 10 dollar card in paper and Drain is a hundred dollar card. By the laws of supply and demand, Oath should be higher then Drain, yet it is 3.5 cheaper per card. Wastelands real price should be in the 30's not the high 40's.
One thing to keep in mind about sets like Tempest...while they haven't been as popular to draft during their seasonal on times they have been drafted over YEARS. Those initial drafts were fairly high and the repeated seasons have seen more. Wastelands also was not a super hot commodity (ten tix I think it was in 2009?) until someone hoarded a good majority of them in expectations of speculation. I am not saying they aren't scarce now but I think that scarcity is at least somewhat artificially controlled.
Leyline of the Void is my favorite M12 rare...perhaps with a bias. But even so. I've found uses for it in a lot of decks I ran, and have too many copies of it in paper and online to keep track of. People who play Pyromancer's just don't expect you to win on turn 0.
I saw the first episode on hulu and then they didn't show the others before episode 7 so I skipped it and moved on. Your English is fine. Everyone makes mistakes in writing. If something seems too complex syntactically brake it down into simpler ideas.
Enjoyed the podcast this week guys. Good to hear Josh interviewed. Had i known that he sounded that American I would have been giving him a harder time on client all this time.
I like the idea of the deck tech video section of the Steel Cage Event (Even though Zach's was awal). Nice addition!
The Deedstill deck looks fun. I can see those Deeds wreaking some havoc on the current meta.
Sorry about rnd 1 for you Andy. How did you fair rnd 1 Zach and George? (Probably for next weeks episode).
I am not making the argument that you are the "Homer" or "Chaucer" of the site...merely stating the cleanliness and structure of your article format is what we all should be striving for. Like, you are a decent benchmark. Guess I should be more clear about that too...
I have 2 children > 5, meaning I never get to see any movies....
Thanks Andrew but I think you're overvaluing my writings. :-) Don't misunderstand me though: I'm really glad you like my articles but there are a lot better writers than me on this site. Even just because my English is far from perfect...I still stumble too many times upon intricated syntax constructs. I guess I just have to read more english novels and watch more tv shows...by the way, did anyone see Alphas this summer? ;-)
I have to admit that I've been intrigued by this card as well and am considering buying myself a playset to toy around with it. Works great with Myr Superion and Perilious Myr as mentioned in the article. But there are plenty of other interactions this card can have. Glissa the Traitor works well in returning your Perilious Myr's to your hand and you can play them again for free, hitting either one of their small guys or going right to the face. I think playing this on turn two and then Bloodgift Demon turn three is a pretty strong play. Plus makes cards that replace themselves like Solemn Simulacrum or effects like Acidic Slime stronger during the early turns.
Do I really need to pat your back again and say that EVERY writer (yes, me too) here could benefit from using your articles as a standard? (Not an insult to anyone, rather a compliment for Dave)
I like the INN highlight section.
Forbidden Alchemy...Delver of Secrets!!!! I am so excited.
I totally agree about mayor of averbruck. Geist honoured monk would need a very very specific deck to pop up for her to be good (note that it is a her. I thought female monks were nuns?).
I see mayor being used in a tarmogoyf role, i.e. a 2-mana finisher for control decks.
Banning creatures that do degenerate things is one thing (IE Goblin Lackey, Goblin Recruiter, Lin-Sivvi in Masques Block). Eternal formats tend to have a ton of removal and ways to deal with creatures at its disposal.
Knight is certainly a powerful creature, but I don't think he warrants a ban. He is slightly harder to kill than Goyf because he can grab a Sejiri Steppe for protection, but that is a narrow circumstance and usually only happens once. Otherwise he dies to pretty much any "destroy target creature" removal spell. I do not think Zoo needs to be neutered any further. GSZ ban did actually hurt the deck. It doesn't take much to hate Zoo out of a metagame.
I can get behind taking Jace and Vision off.
Actually, I hope they leave Jace on long enough for him to drop to ~25 tix online, then they can take him off :)
Leyline made sense in Ravnica due to dredge, and would have made sense in M10 considering Alara block's unearth mechanic. It made no sense in M11 considering Vengevine was the only creature that used the graveyard, and Leyline is horrible against it.
I agree Whiffy, Wasteland is actually being propped up by hoarding. I wish WOTC would implement a real trading system so that bots didn't run the entire economy to such a ridiculous degree, but I could go on about the issues of MTGO all day.
I don't know why they don't bother to reprint more cards that can't be redeemed since it is like printing money, but many decisions of theirs baffle me.
You can actually tell which cards are being hoarded easily by how far their prices drop when they are drafted. When ME was draftable, duals plummeted in value. Whenever Tempest is draftable, Wasteland loses a huge amount of its value, and it sells for around 20-30, about half of the current value.
Bots are always going to make money on cards worth less than a ticket, since players rarely want to deal with fractional value. Because of the absolutely indefensible interface and lack of an auction system, cards are regularly sold to bots at well below their value.
Just as a hypothetical, lets say bots are selling wasteland at 50 and buying at 45. If I want to sell a wasteland, am I really going to try to sell the Wasteland for 3 weeks hoping someone sees my confidential to make between 1-4 tickets?
This particular issue effects most out of print, rare cards.
Glad I read the whole article, because I was going to say, there is no way running 3 brainstorm is correct when you have that many fetches.
That being said, after looking at the deck I would make some changes.
Cut white - 4 Life Burst isn't good enough, you can beat RDW without it. If you are fetching it with teachings you are already winning.
Diabolic Edict - I would play at least two, it is insane vs Infect, and very good in general.
Firebolt - Same as Edict.
4 Rewind is too many, I would cut it to two. I don't think you need 4 counterspells either, and definitely get rid of Faerie Trickery.
I'm not a big fan of Think Twice, and your deck needs more win conditions, two is not enough. I would go with 3-4 Mulldrifter. Steamcore Weird and Izzet Chronarch are also excellent creatures for this type of deck.
I would run Negate maindeck, especially with brainstorm, it is a great teachings target. If you run red and don't have Gorilla Shaman in your board, it is a crime against humanity. If you run R/G, ditto, but ancient grudge.
Pauper doesn't get enough love, neither does skred. Nice article.
Good point, Leyline is awesome but just not in a caw/valakut/steel meta. Same happend with even more powerful cards before : meddling mage is really a great creature, but also saw no play during alara era although is would probably have been better to deal with caw than with jund...
For obvious reasons, WOTC is not going to reveal how many digital cards they have ever produced. In any case, sometimes we can't compare paper cards with digital cards. Imagine every time a physical magic player/user going to a a shop/event, was carrying absolutely all the paper cards he owns in eternal ultra-mint condition, all of them perfectly classified and ready to be trade/buy/sell in seconds.
btw, great as always. Thanks for the effort.
wasteland simply is not a 50 dollar card online. I havent checked in a while but even though it is a 4 of in legacy and classic the card is just not actually worth the price. it is based off the price of paper cards. another example of this is Oath of druids vs Mana Drain. Oath is 12.50 and mana drain is 16.00. both are in stock, the difference is that Oath of druids is an automatic 4 of in one of THE top classic decks, and mana drain is sporadically used. The demand is much higer for Oath of druids and I would be willing to bet there are less of a particulat Exodus rare online then a particular Med 3 rare. So why the price hike on mana drain over oath? Oath is a 10 dollar card in paper and Drain is a hundred dollar card. By the laws of supply and demand, Oath should be higher then Drain, yet it is 3.5 cheaper per card. Wastelands real price should be in the 30's not the high 40's.
Just my opinion i guess.
George/whiffy
Leyline just saw no play. I know wotc likes to give hints and stuff about upcoming sets, but I think the leyline cycle was just misplaced.
One thing to keep in mind about sets like Tempest...while they haven't been as popular to draft during their seasonal on times they have been drafted over YEARS. Those initial drafts were fairly high and the repeated seasons have seen more. Wastelands also was not a super hot commodity (ten tix I think it was in 2009?) until someone hoarded a good majority of them in expectations of speculation. I am not saying they aren't scarce now but I think that scarcity is at least somewhat artificially controlled.
Leyline of the Void is my favorite M12 rare...perhaps with a bias. But even so. I've found uses for it in a lot of decks I ran, and have too many copies of it in paper and online to keep track of. People who play Pyromancer's just don't expect you to win on turn 0.
Imagine my surprise to discover how good it is! Wurmcoil Engine comes out on turn 4....
I saw the first episode on hulu and then they didn't show the others before episode 7 so I skipped it and moved on. Your English is fine. Everyone makes mistakes in writing. If something seems too complex syntactically brake it down into simpler ideas.
Enjoyed the podcast this week guys. Good to hear Josh interviewed. Had i known that he sounded that American I would have been giving him a harder time on client all this time.
I like the idea of the deck tech video section of the Steel Cage Event (Even though Zach's was awal). Nice addition!
The Deedstill deck looks fun. I can see those Deeds wreaking some havoc on the current meta.
Sorry about rnd 1 for you Andy. How did you fair rnd 1 Zach and George? (Probably for next weeks episode).
This is even more appreciated. Thanks! :-)
I just need to build a Commander deck with this. Right now!
P.S.: The Myr Superion tech is sick!
I am not making the argument that you are the "Homer" or "Chaucer" of the site...merely stating the cleanliness and structure of your article format is what we all should be striving for. Like, you are a decent benchmark. Guess I should be more clear about that too...
I have 2 children > 5, meaning I never get to see any movies....
Thanks Andrew but I think you're overvaluing my writings. :-) Don't misunderstand me though: I'm really glad you like my articles but there are a lot better writers than me on this site. Even just because my English is far from perfect...I still stumble too many times upon intricated syntax constructs. I guess I just have to read more english novels and watch more tv shows...by the way, did anyone see Alphas this summer? ;-)
I agree. I like that better.
I have to admit that I've been intrigued by this card as well and am considering buying myself a playset to toy around with it. Works great with Myr Superion and Perilious Myr as mentioned in the article. But there are plenty of other interactions this card can have. Glissa the Traitor works well in returning your Perilious Myr's to your hand and you can play them again for free, hitting either one of their small guys or going right to the face. I think playing this on turn two and then Bloodgift Demon turn three is a pretty strong play. Plus makes cards that replace themselves like Solemn Simulacrum or effects like Acidic Slime stronger during the early turns.
Not to disagree with your statement but...Id rather you said guideline.
Do I really need to pat your back again and say that EVERY writer (yes, me too) here could benefit from using your articles as a standard? (Not an insult to anyone, rather a compliment for Dave)
I like the INN highlight section.
Forbidden Alchemy...Delver of Secrets!!!! I am so excited.
Seems like Heartless Summoning is one of those cards that everyone is talking about, but no one is putting practical application to.
I like how this article subtly suggests potential card choices and winds down with a deck.
Good work. Kumagoro was right. You are a good writer.
Now imagine this card with Bloodbraid Elf or Enlisted Wurm....
Enlisted Wurm is a 4/4 for 4 that cascades....
Which card/scenario are you referring to?
-Zach
In my testing, the Mayor is quite ridiculous in pretty much every deck that can have him.
I think "Bitterblossom" is a fair comparison, Jimmy.
I totally agree about mayor of averbruck. Geist honoured monk would need a very very specific deck to pop up for her to be good (note that it is a her. I thought female monks were nuns?).
I see mayor being used in a tarmogoyf role, i.e. a 2-mana finisher for control decks.
Ligers do exist
Banning creatures that do degenerate things is one thing (IE Goblin Lackey, Goblin Recruiter, Lin-Sivvi in Masques Block). Eternal formats tend to have a ton of removal and ways to deal with creatures at its disposal.
Knight is certainly a powerful creature, but I don't think he warrants a ban. He is slightly harder to kill than Goyf because he can grab a Sejiri Steppe for protection, but that is a narrow circumstance and usually only happens once. Otherwise he dies to pretty much any "destroy target creature" removal spell. I do not think Zoo needs to be neutered any further. GSZ ban did actually hurt the deck. It doesn't take much to hate Zoo out of a metagame.
I can get behind taking Jace and Vision off.
Actually, I hope they leave Jace on long enough for him to drop to ~25 tix online, then they can take him off :)