It's of course a perfect card in theory (as is Creeping Corrosion if you're in Green) but the problem is that Affinity can kill you on their turn 4 before you even play your 4th land.
Affinity has an amazing speed, it's just insane. You need to be as fast as they are otherwise you're simply dead. Kataki and Hurkyl's Recall cost 2 mana and can be played very timely and slow them down significantly.
Thanks Dreager, Thanks J! Yeah, I know we're close to rotation and actually I'm not that worried about the current situation. It just dawned on me while I was looking at the data that this were the kind of things that led to Big Jace's and Stoneforge's banning.
The one thing that kinda worries me is if we, as a community, can still work out our own b&r list much like it was done back in the days when Cranial Plating was still playable. Maybe it would just suffice to set some timed review, even once every four months or so, just to check if everything is running smoothly as it should.
The knowledge I get about Classic, Legacy, and Modern, I get from this web site.
And all Modern did to the current Tier 1 standard decks was super charge them. It gave Splinter Twin, which is so unoriginal it's amazing, just more cards to get your Splinter and Twin out.
Lets see, Fetch land, fetch land, gitaxian probe so you can see what your opponent has in hand, bounce the Torbor Orb, play your creature, untap your mana so you have enough for a counter spell, play 4th land, unlimited combo... blah blah blah.
And classic. Do you want to see my paper collection? I know a little about Beta considering that Cape Fear Games was offering me 5 digits for just one of my playsets of dual lands. Just 1. I have stacks of cards from Beta to when I quit in storage. I have unopened packs, lotus's, mox's multiple sets of dual lands.
I know classic because as a little kid, it was modern for me because I had the cards. I mean force of will today is insane, but when Alliances was out, it wasn't the greatest card ever. Pyromancy was actually the much cooler card (I mean exile a red card, instantly deal 4 damage any way you wanted? Pretty Badas*s). And Urza's Saga was the best set ever, but that sadly doesn't get any play.
And just to think. What would 90% of players in the game today do without planeswalkers? I mean when I came back and saw one of these things, I thought "Wow, this is stupid". I literally said that to my puppies Jackie and Shaky. And they agreed.
My puppies also don't flame a person for not knowing the entire metagame of every single format. Whoa, I had no idea what a riot it would cause.
And the best part? Nobody mentioned the important part of the article. "HOW TO SPECULATE".
I guess I should have added in more pictures, videos, and shiny objects.
I'm really done defending what I wrote. If everyone want to jump on me, that's fine. But if doesn't mean I don't stand behind my work.
I think its a little too close to the rotation to consider banning it now. With that said, Kor skyfisher is good, but I think white overall is just pretty OP at the moment. I don't think Kor Skyfisher would change it all that much.
Look, I worked hard to get my article published on this site. I had to wait a month, and then rewrite the first article 7 times. I worked harder than everyone else had to. And to be be honest, thanks to you all, they won't publish another one of my articles.
Do I have to explain it twice. This isn't for the player with a lot of money. This is for the ones that don't have their mom's AmEx platinum card. This is buying cards before they become tier 1.
You think I wanted to bust out 2 articles at once here? No. But I had Heath telling me one thing, the Editor telling me another, and the comments from my last article asking for another. This is what I wrote and I stand by it.
If you didn't want to read about 9/11, then scroll down. I don't care what you think, it's a damn important day. Nobody is forcing you to read it. And if you have the cards to play in daily tournaments every day, this article also isn't for you.
This article is about teaching people how to turn Online Magic cards into investments. But investments you can have fun with. I would love to go into a daily and just beat down a guy using white weenie, Mirran Crusader, Sword of War and Peace, and giving most people here a big "Bird". But I just wanted to talk about some cards I liked. I wasn't saying White Weenie could take over Standard, but I bet if you played the idea of the deck, and then tinkered with it here and there, you might have something.
I mean do you want Gideon in your deck or Elspeth? Do you want both? Do you want to Play Grand Abolisher with Venser in a control deck? I don't know. But this is article #2, and when, or if I write article #3, I can promise you one thing. It would be more interesting than watching a video of Classis or Modern. I'm sorry, but I'm just not into the whole "Whoever gets the best opening hand wins" thing. It's not fun. I'm a competitive person, but 90% of MTGO players have been taken out of competition because you are supposed to play Tier 1. What if people stopped and thought about it. You might create something new and exciting. That's what I want.
I'm done defending myself. Write what you want, about who you want, write anything. All I know is that I did what most people said I couldn't, and that is get a second article on this site. And on top of that, I had people tell me how good my first article was. At least I gave it my best shot. Sorry for trying to bring something new to the table. God forbid something new comes out. What would you do? Your sideboard wouldn't be ready for it. Haha.
Peace to you all, and have a Merry Christmas Everyone.
I will no longer try to defend myself. I don't have to. What I am doing here is a process, a step by step process. And if you are emailing the editor that I slandered you whiffy, I feel bad for you. I actually complimented you. If you want me to say things, I could, but why would I? I don't have any beef with you. Nor should you with me. You said things about my article, I defended them. Wouldn't you do the same if you were trying to do something entirely new and some people didn't agree?
... Your comments are exposing ignorance about both Classic and Modern. Classic is not all fetchs and FoW (since you're ignoring Dredge and Shops, which are two of the stronger decks in the format), and Modern is not all Zoo, 12Post and Pyro... There is Splintertwin (IT ONLY WON THE PRO TOUR), poison (IT ONLY T4'D THE PRO TOUR AND SMASHES 12POST!), and Affinity as well (OH YEA IT T4'D THE PRO TOUR!).
Speculation and 9/11 aside, your crying about how cards aren't free (errr cheap) and how old formats SUCK CUZ PEOPLE JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH OLD CARDS CUZ THAT'S SO LAME WHO WANTS TO DO THAT isn't really dignified.
Playing budget decks and speculating is fine. Making blanket statements about formats that you have 0 knowledge about (apparently) isn't really, especially when you don't back down when corrected.
Yes Hawks and Skyfishers have become boring, and when I do enter mpdc I always play something else. However it's not a new phenomenon in standard, especially at these times where you have 2 core and 6 expansion sets available. The same thing happened with blink/teachings control a few years back. Pauper standard metagames always begin aggro and end with control once the best build has been perfected. Innistrad come in on 17th October so you can stop worrying after that.
And you did attack me. If you have a problem with someone mentioning something in an article, just go past it. How hard is that to do? Nobody forced you to read that part.
And by attack on our home soil, there has never been an act of war on american soil when the country was the United States of America.
Look, whiffy, A) Don't tell me to grow up. B) Are you joking? This is hilarious. Modern is a joke. It consists of 3 Decks. That's all. 3. Cloudpost usually wins, unless Zoo wins, and then there is always Pyromancers Ascention or whatever that card is.
I hate modern. You know why? Because all Modern is is an excuse for people with old cards to use them again because they get bored of Standard and need something new to play with.
I said this in the beginning of my first article, and I'll say it again.
"I would bet you that 90% of people on MTGO cannot afford to make a constructed deck as they currently are".
What I am trying to do is try something different.
And btw, I watch your videos. I wasn't making fun of you, I was actually complementing you. Did you read the part where I wrote an entire paragraph saying "I don't have a problem with you, you worked hard to get where you are in MTGO".
I wasn't attacking you personally. I was defending myself. As a writer, and I write for a lot of different things, all I have is myself, and my opinions. Without that, what's the point of writing at all?
And really all I want to accomplish is to have people take a better look at their cards. Just because a card wasn't used in a deck that won a daily tournament doesn't mean it isn't good. It just means that it wasn't used. There may be a use for it.
There are 3 kinds of MTG players.
1) The people with money to copy decks card for card.
2) The smart people who just can't afford to make a constructed deck that has won.
3) The smart people who create the decks that everyone uses.
Those people are just like me as a kid. They looked at their cards closer and found use in them, use that wasn't there before. Who knows, maybe we are overlooking cards every day. I know I do.
That is why when I searched for Zombies in my standard collection, and Glissa came up, and then I found out Innistrad is going to have a ton of zombies, I think I found something.
Whiffy, my problem isn't with anyone. All are entitled to their own opinion. But do you still have fun with the game? Like other than winning, do you enjoy the game?
Today, I can make a deck out of cards you would never use in your life and maybe win. Maybe I'll beat a "Tier 1" deck with cards you wouldn't look twice at. But I'll enjoy myself, and I hope people who read this can do the same.
And you having a collection worth about 2.5k isn't helping the point, haha. I mean congrats. You worked your a*s off and you are successful in what you do. So this isn't for you. It's for the other 90% who cannot do that.
And hell yeah I gave myself 5 stars. And it will have a real effect on the overall rating.
You have to understand, this article wasn't what I wanted entirely.
This is about speculation. But I had the owner of the site telling me I had to write one thing, the editor telling me I had to write another, and people who commented on my last article telling me I had to write another.
And btw, speculation can be two sided. It's for people who want to take risk, but it can be for cheap and expensive risk.
Let me explain as I have been doing for the past 30 minutes.
I am retired at 24 years old. I made enough money in the stock market at the age of 19 to drop out of college, open my own fund, and then finish college when I closed the fund 2 years after it started.
Now in my fund, which wasn't registered with the SEC, but who cares, there were (and I am not allowed to say), but I had between 1-50 clients, with it being double digits.
There were 2 kind of investors. The ones who wanted to take risks, and the others who wanted to grow at a slow rate. Now the way the fund works, I do whatever I want, but I also don't want to lose their money.
So I had to break it in half as they desired.
For the people who wanted a steady 2 year return, I invested their money heavily in GEO, a company that always makes their quarterly earnings estimates, and high yielding dividend stocks like Linn Energy, who has an enormous 15% dividend.
The other half told me to go crazy and make as much as possible. So for them I bought mostly bank stocks, and everything that had fallen under $5.00 making it a "penny stock". To off-set this since it was a hedge fund, I had to hedge those bets, so I day traded triple leveraged ETF's whether it was energy, banks, or the overall S&P.
This is the same-exact-thing. Even though the first investors didn't want to be as risky, they were investing with a hedge fund, so therefor they were already in risk territory, so they were buying, lets say, Tezzeret.
The second half wanted to be risky and buy up things that people had given up hope on. I bought Sirius Satellite radio at $0.073 per share, and sold it for over a dollar. Do you want to do the math on what kind of return that was? Those are the people who buy Grand Abolisher.
Not to mention my algorithm for the triple leveraged ETF's was working perfectly when based upon the VIX or volatility index.
There are two kind of MTGO players. The risky, and risk adverse. I am trying to appeal to both. But this is only my second article. I haven't even charted out everything yet, or figured out how to make a chart using their writing tool.
I would like, in the future, to talk about the expensive, and the cheap. But I was told to give an introduction. And I think it was smart to do so. I showed people a simple process of HOW TO speculate, before I go into specific cards. The white weenie was just personal for me. I didn't have to add it. I could have put up ANOTHER DRAFT VIDEO, but what's the point. Why not talk about something interesting?
The article was getting long, and I figured last week I wrote a good article about Zombies, this week I wanted to see if I could get White Weenie started.
And Whiffy, if I win a standard Daily after Innistrad with a White Weenie deck, what will you give me? How about one of those force of wills? Haha
And I still think Norn's Annex is playable. It is a sideboard card in constructed decks, and it doesn't hurt to have on against a mono-black deck. It is hard for your opponent to make you discard it since it's not 3 CMC, and it's not a creature or planeswalker, and it can be out by turn 3.
And Nihil Spellbomb. This is another sideboard card. The entire purpose of the next article is about Sideboard cards. If Innistrad has a ton of flashback, if your opponent needs to exile something from a graveyard, etc, nihil spellbomb looks like it takes the whole graveyard out of the picture. All I was going to do was talk about it, and since I'm not an expert, and neither are most people here since I don't see anyone winning $50,000 tournaments or anything like that, talking is what we do here.
I do freelance journalism for a multitude of websites, from sports, to politics, to economics, to MTGO. When I write for them, all I do is bring up ideas. Do people always agree? Hell no! Do you know how much hate mail I got after I was a contributing writer for a CNN article talking about why the reason we still use Crude Oil from the Middle East is to stop "Zero Sum Gain"? I got people threatening my life for that one.
It's just my second article. I'm just talking, just like everyone else talks. I mean is this article any worse than that one written about the Chancellors from NPH? I had to fight hard to get my articles started, and then I had to give in to what everyone wanted me to write.
You want speculation? Fine. My next article will be written my way. And Whiffy, and Gardivi, and random people who don't like it, that's fine. Nobody forced you to read it. If you choose to read it and have a conversation about it, that's fine. If you don't, you don't. Go watch a video of someone playing cloudpost against Zoo again, or someone drafting M12 where P1P1 is Gideon.
Let's be honest. This is the internet. You obviously think I'm wrong, and that's fine. So did my parent's when I dropped out of college to start a hedge fund at 19. But I bought their new home so my puppies Jacky and Shaky have a big yard to run in, and I bought my apartment in Chelsea. I do know what I'm talking about, but it's a progression.
This ins't easy stuff. I mean I know if you took $100 and tried to invest it, you would lose all of it, or be too scared to buy anything. Me on the other hand, I would take that hundred and leverage about 100-200x, and make 3x that, or lose it all. What I'm trying to say is that this is a slow process. Some people will catch on quickly, some wont.
And this is for the budget player. If you have an unlimited credit card, you don't need to speculate. This isn't for you. This is for the people who don't have the cards to compete, and a way of finding them so they can be competitive.
What is so sad? Magic used to be about having fun. But nothing is fun if you want to play classic but can't because you don't have Force of Will or every Dual Land. Where is the fun in that. I remember going through my cards and making a new deck every day when I was a little kid. That was fun. Having everyone just play what's on a decklist? Where did the fun go in this game?
MTGO is becoming more like Call of Duty players K/D ratio and less about just enjoying yourself. So what if I don't have the cards to play constructed, does that mean I shouldn't? And does that mean I can't win? Hell no. That's the point of these articles. It's not for you guys. You guys can go to the decklists, and copy them card for card. Me, and the people who like my articles and ideas, we but cards that are cheap and may go up in the future, and make decks that we enjoy playing.
first of all, yes i have read both your spec articles.
I didnt say all the cards you showcased are low, but when you talk about cards that have been in multiple sets adn are at a time or a quarter to buy, chances are that they will continue to be a dime or a quarter for the long haul.
some of the cards you mentioned surely do have a profit margin. telling people to buy so cheap though is not worth there time.
Lets say i buy 10 honor the pure for 2.5 then sell for 5 bucks, maybe. That is pretty tiny and way to slow to really be cost effective, i want whole tickit amounts if im going to go through the trouble of buying selling.
As for where my collection is, you are so off. yes i have most of the expensive classic cards, i also have like 11 planeswalkers not the 80 or so you claim i have.
way to be off the mark.
secondly thanks for bashing an entire format because you either a, dont like it, b, are upset you cant afford it, or c, have your panties in a twist because i gave you 1 fireball. real mature.
I have been playing in events and collecting cards for classic for FOUR PLUS YEARS. and i still dont have all the cards. Im not some rich guy who just trows money into magic, i have built my collection through blood sweat and tears.
Hearing you talk like this about me is just petty. "Oh that guy is a jerk cause he has cards and others dont, he has no idea what new players are like"
Are you kidding me? seriously, I would love for classic to be affordable, i crave a force of will reprint, so that others can play the format. I dont care if my force's drop to 10 tickits, as long as there are people playing. This is my hobbue, not an investment, that is just a nice bonus.
as for the 9/11. Yes i have a right to say what i please as an american posting on an american site, just as you do. I just thought it was distasteful.
And not to call your grandpappy a lier but, here are the wars fought on american soil.
King Philip's War 1675 - 1676
Queen Ann's War 1702 - 1713
French and Indian War 1754 - 1763
The American Revolution
War of 1812
Civil War
World War II ( The Battle of the Aleutian Islands)
I understand you put work into your article and you may feel like i attacked you, but grow up. I gave you my comments and you attack me and an entire format, with slander and lies. btw my collection is worth roughly 2.5 k, if what you cliamed were true it would be worth about 10 k, and i cant build a single modern deck, let alone a fully foiled deck.
Giving yourself 5 fireballs is akin to saying "Screw a rating system where my readers can score my article so I can get a gist of if I need to improve, I'm just going to inflate my scores because I care more about having a good rating than an accurate one."
I disagree a little. I always 5ball myself. I'm not sure why 9/11 was in the article, but I skipped that part. The most important thing though is that if you scooped up 20+ .1 cards and sell them at .3, you're tripling a low-cost investment, which really isn't an awful deal. I don't do it myself that often, but I do often sock away 4-8 of a random decent rare that is very cheap with almost every order hoping for a little growth out of them.
And I was hoping that regardless of whatever it was, MTGO or anything, that it would get mentioned because it's not just something that can be forgotten about. It's different for some since they don't live here, but I live here, and people I know died.
I did not want a political piece here, I just wanted to make sure it was remembered, because it's easy to forget. I made it as neutral as possible.
And btw, you say they have a small profit margin. My bad Whiffy. Not everyone can afford to play an entire foil Modern Deck like you can.
This is an intro to speculation. Had you read this piece and my previous one, I'm working up to the expensive cards. Right now, it's not time to be buying as Standard cards are all going down in price, but I can tell you that as I get more into the idea of speculation, which ISN'T FOR YOU since you don't need to play cheap decks and have all the cards you need to play any format, I will get into things that will make you money.
You don't think Grand Abolisher will be a valuable card? You don't see all of M12 making a nose dive? Here, you want some fun tips for the player with an unlimited credit card Whiffy?
Here is why I am the one writing on speculation on this site. It's because, in the words of the prophet C.M. Punk "I am the best in the world".
I bought Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor a short time after they were banned. I made a ton of tickets.
I bought Spellskite for $4 a piece.
I bought Phyrexian Metamorph at $3.50.
I bought Sword of Body and Mind at $4.
And I bought Karn at $13.
Those are just a few. I made trades daily. I can even make deals with people where I bundle cards and get them for $3-5 less. People like bulk.
All those trades got me more than 100% profit in return. Not to mention I bought around 15 Torbor Orbs at $1.00 before anyone knew they were worth anything.
I do know what I am talking about. But this isn't the time to buy. When it is time to buy, I will start putting up charts and numbers. But until then, I'm trying to look for anything that might have value.
Whiffy, I think sometimes you forget that 90% of people playing MTGO don't have a playset of every Dual Land, a playset of Force of Will, and 4 of every planeswalker ever made to the point where they can just go through their cards and make a deck and put it online like you do before your videos. (Which I watch btw, and I have given you a 5, so don't give me a 1, that's just not cool bro.
I'm not writing this for you. You have your cards. I'm writing this for people that you want to compete with you, because to be honest, watching a video of you playing classic is so boring. It's not you that's boring, it's just classic.
Here is classic:
Dual lands
Fetch lands
Force of WIll
Mental Misstep
'Whoever draws their unlimited combo first wins"
That bores the hell out of me. That's why I'm doing this. I am asking people to look at their cards closer. I can't ask people to buy cards, because I don't know everything. What I can do is show people the tools that will allow them to speculate, and maybe talk about some decks that aren't being played over, and over, and over.. Oh look, there's Cloudpost, oh exciting Valakut, WOW Storm turn 3 kill!!!!! It would be exciting if it wasn't done by everyone out there.
I'm not mad at you personally. I just think there are a lot of people out there that can't play like you can. And that's fine. You have worked hard to get where you are in MTGO. But most people don't have the time/money, or maybe they just want to have fun in public games and buy cards that they can afford, and not have to mortgage their houses to do so.
--------------------------------------
Now Whiffy, and please give me a real name to call you by please, but I will not flame you, or anyone for that matter on their perspective on me talking about 9/11. If the Editor didn't want it in there, he had free reign to delete it. I told Heath he could if he wanted to.
You are entitled to your own opinion, and that is what makes this country great is that you are allowed to have your opinion, so nobody should be flaming anyone about that.
But I have to disagree with your statement. I had two grandfathers in WW2. One of them was at Pearl Harbor. He survived only by lying on top of floating dead bodies after his ship was destroyed, and even he believes 9/11 is the first attack on American soil. I will take the words of a man in the Navy over an MTGO player any day of the week.
I wrote about it simply because it is something that is important to everyone, and it transcends everything. From Pro-Wrestling, to Professional Sports, to TV, Media in general, to the individual. I just think sometimes people need to be reminded of things so they don't forget. But I tried my best just to mention it as neutral as possible. And if anyone flames you, then they are stupid for doing so. You are entitled to your opinion, but this is just my second article bud. Don't kick me while I'm down.
I'm just trying to help the people who still get excited when they open that first planeswalker in a draft and are truly happy because they never had that card before. Unlike players like you who just have everything and have gotten to the point where you are jaded because you have classic decks that only the 40 or so people who play classic competitively can afford.
Btw, I have never played classic, I played classic when it was new, you know, in Beta, but what packs do you win when you win a standard tournament? Do you win like M12? Because wouldn't that be the opposite of classic?
1) "What I am trying to accomplish here is talking about the budget player...". I thought this was more of a speculative piece? There's not a large overlap between budget players (who are constrained on money) and members who engage in speculation (who are prepared to spend money accepting that it might not be coming back). You either need to focus on one or the other, or make it extremely clear that's what you're doing. Appealing to budget players in an article titled 'Speculation 101' did not even cross my mind.
2) Norn's Annex - I'm extremely dubious, but I'll leave it at that.
3) I haven't seen enough of the set to know if Nihil Spellbomb will be nuts or not. As of right now, 140 cards spoiled, I don't think it'll be earthbreaking. It might be played, especially if decks including Skagg Ruinator start popping up, but there's no equivalent of Dredge from what I've seen.
First off i think it incredibly rude to give yourself 5 fireballs.
2ndly I agree that your giving insider tips for cards that have wayyyyyyy to small a profit margin to gain any real value on.
3rd, and this is where i will get flamed. The whole 9/11 thing was really uncalled for and out of place in this article. Yes it was a tragedy, yes we have rebounded, no it was not the first attack on american soil, there have been at least half a dozen wars fought on american soil. Yes im american, no 9/11 does not have to be brought up in a gaming article.
The last time white weenie was worth playing, it had Figure of Destiny and Spectral Procession. Those cards were off the charts insane in mono-white and they are what made the archetype. There is nothing spoiled that makes me think it will be a strong player in the metagame. Norn's Annex will never be constructed playable, however Mirran Crusader, Elspeth and Grand Abolisher have a lot of room to grow even without white weenie.
FWIW whiffy, I agree with your sentiment regarding 9/11 memorials in these types of articles.
I'm going to do something so completely stupid it's genius. I am going to take cards I speculate on, and use them in a daily. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is.
Now mind you I am not the best player in the world, or the best wrestler (C.M. Punk), but I will make a R/G I have been working hard on in the past few weeks based on cards I speculated. If I'm right, I should do well.
Oh and I might now join a Daily. I will do one of those 8 player constructed, it makes more sense because the Daily's are at awkward times, and I just unlocked the Atomizer in Resistance 3 and it is SO MUCH FUN, so I might have to do two things at once.
If I'm as smart as I'm claiming, then not only will my deck make me money based on cards in it, but also win tournaments.
It's a Mono Green Deck splashed with Chandra and Heavy on the "pray I get a first turn Birds of Paradise, then play a Thrun by turn 3, and Sword of F&F by turn 4, and then win the game....... Deck".
Haha. Ok, what I really wanted to do with this article was write about sideboard cards. In which I think Norms Annex is a great addition to a sideboard. But had you read my last article I'm just going through the motions on the different decks coming out when ZEN cycles out.
Had I been able to write the article I wanted to, it would have been different. But you are right. This is actually 3 articles I had to smush together in one, so it might have gotten a little blurred.
When it comes to Honor of the Pure, I don't see it as a speculative card, I just see it as a way of starting your speculation. It's a card you can build around. And I think you can make a legitimate argument that White Weenie is making a comeback.
In Innistrad, I see a lot of white cards that can be considered a "White Weenie" style deck. And Honor of the Pure is one of them. Had I been more poignant in my point, you would have seen that I was talking about Honor of the Pure just as a lead up to talking about speculative White cards like the Grand Abolisher, Mirran Crusader, Elspeth Tirel, etc..
Now I can tell you honestly that there is a lack of serious 4 drops in SOM/Innistrad/M12. I mean good 4 drops. You have Thrun, Hero of Bladehold, Hero of Oxid Ridge, and what, Solemn Simulacrum?
What I am trying to accomplish here is talking about the budget player, and until Hero Drops and is no longer being used in Caw/Blade, I don't see it fitting into what I am trying to accomplish.
And when it comes to Norn's Annex, I was watching Modern last night, A LOT OF MODERN. And I noticed one thing:
There were a lot of creatures, but no artifact destruction. If you put out a Torbor Orb or anything like that, if it resolved, you would end up winning the game. I also noticed that having mana open was important. I think Norn's Annex has a place in Sideboards, and I think it is incredibly underrated. Sure it's no planeswalker, but it can stop Splinter Twin, I mean your opponent wont be able to attack you. I think it stops storm, if it is creature based, and because you can cost it for 3 mana, it has the potential to slow down ZOO decks.
I just think Norn's Annex is highly underrated, and should at least be in your sideboard alongside Torbor Orb.
But look, I had do write this article for 3 separate parties, and I couldn't write what I wanted. My next one will be better. With less text, more high cost speculation, a chart for cards I am currently watching, and a "why I don't upload drafts that I take part in" draft video.
I think the "How not to draft like me" would be fantastic, and btw, no mention on Nihil Spellbomb being the Innistrad killer?
Thanks anyway. I agree with what you said, and I should have made that more clear.
Shackles is actually a really good idea; I'm surprised I didn't think about it.
Boomerang seems poor, on the other hand. Remand gets spells AND draws a card, both of which are suPer important. Bouncing a land only ever matters in the cloudpost mirror. Mindbreak Trap would be a fine sideboard card; I didn't include a sideboard. I can test Greaves, I don't know how good it would be.
"Norn's Annex: $0.15. When will people figure out that this card is good? It will put to a halt any creature based, non-white deck. "
People will probably realize it when it becomes good. In other words, never.
I don't agree with a lot of your assertions; I think they're inaccurate. For instance, you say that Archangel is a fine card because it's a 4/4 for 4 and there aren't going to be many solid four drops in Innistrad Standard. But you really don't need more than Hero of Bladehold, since any white deck that wants Heros won't be loading up on the four drops. Recommending to buy Honor the Pure at .10 is kind of silly. If the white weenie deck becomes popular, I have no doubt it'll go up. But it's been reprinted three times in the last three years. It's not going to go above a ticket, and probably won't even reach a ticket. So it's pretty marginal to buy a bunch of Honor the Pures at .10, hope for them to go up, and then sell them to the bots for like .2 or .3.
Some cards I agree with you on, like Grand Abolisher and Mirran Crusader, even if it's for different reasons than you provided.
Sorry, double post!
It's of course a perfect card in theory (as is Creeping Corrosion if you're in Green) but the problem is that Affinity can kill you on their turn 4 before you even play your 4th land.
Affinity has an amazing speed, it's just insane. You need to be as fast as they are otherwise you're simply dead. Kataki and Hurkyl's Recall cost 2 mana and can be played very timely and slow them down significantly.
LE
Thanks Dreager, Thanks J! Yeah, I know we're close to rotation and actually I'm not that worried about the current situation. It just dawned on me while I was looking at the data that this were the kind of things that led to Big Jace's and Stoneforge's banning.
The one thing that kinda worries me is if we, as a community, can still work out our own b&r list much like it was done back in the days when Cranial Plating was still playable. Maybe it would just suffice to set some timed review, even once every four months or so, just to check if everything is running smoothly as it should.
The knowledge I get about Classic, Legacy, and Modern, I get from this web site.
And all Modern did to the current Tier 1 standard decks was super charge them. It gave Splinter Twin, which is so unoriginal it's amazing, just more cards to get your Splinter and Twin out.
Lets see, Fetch land, fetch land, gitaxian probe so you can see what your opponent has in hand, bounce the Torbor Orb, play your creature, untap your mana so you have enough for a counter spell, play 4th land, unlimited combo... blah blah blah.
And classic. Do you want to see my paper collection? I know a little about Beta considering that Cape Fear Games was offering me 5 digits for just one of my playsets of dual lands. Just 1. I have stacks of cards from Beta to when I quit in storage. I have unopened packs, lotus's, mox's multiple sets of dual lands.
I know classic because as a little kid, it was modern for me because I had the cards. I mean force of will today is insane, but when Alliances was out, it wasn't the greatest card ever. Pyromancy was actually the much cooler card (I mean exile a red card, instantly deal 4 damage any way you wanted? Pretty Badas*s). And Urza's Saga was the best set ever, but that sadly doesn't get any play.
And just to think. What would 90% of players in the game today do without planeswalkers? I mean when I came back and saw one of these things, I thought "Wow, this is stupid". I literally said that to my puppies Jackie and Shaky. And they agreed.
My puppies also don't flame a person for not knowing the entire metagame of every single format. Whoa, I had no idea what a riot it would cause.
And the best part? Nobody mentioned the important part of the article. "HOW TO SPECULATE".
I guess I should have added in more pictures, videos, and shiny objects.
I'm really done defending what I wrote. If everyone want to jump on me, that's fine. But if doesn't mean I don't stand behind my work.
Is this card even worth it?
Although, Hurkyl's Recall seems insane too...if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I think its a little too close to the rotation to consider banning it now. With that said, Kor skyfisher is good, but I think white overall is just pretty OP at the moment. I don't think Kor Skyfisher would change it all that much.
As always though, great article
Look, I worked hard to get my article published on this site. I had to wait a month, and then rewrite the first article 7 times. I worked harder than everyone else had to. And to be be honest, thanks to you all, they won't publish another one of my articles.
Do I have to explain it twice. This isn't for the player with a lot of money. This is for the ones that don't have their mom's AmEx platinum card. This is buying cards before they become tier 1.
You think I wanted to bust out 2 articles at once here? No. But I had Heath telling me one thing, the Editor telling me another, and the comments from my last article asking for another. This is what I wrote and I stand by it.
If you didn't want to read about 9/11, then scroll down. I don't care what you think, it's a damn important day. Nobody is forcing you to read it. And if you have the cards to play in daily tournaments every day, this article also isn't for you.
This article is about teaching people how to turn Online Magic cards into investments. But investments you can have fun with. I would love to go into a daily and just beat down a guy using white weenie, Mirran Crusader, Sword of War and Peace, and giving most people here a big "Bird". But I just wanted to talk about some cards I liked. I wasn't saying White Weenie could take over Standard, but I bet if you played the idea of the deck, and then tinkered with it here and there, you might have something.
I mean do you want Gideon in your deck or Elspeth? Do you want both? Do you want to Play Grand Abolisher with Venser in a control deck? I don't know. But this is article #2, and when, or if I write article #3, I can promise you one thing. It would be more interesting than watching a video of Classis or Modern. I'm sorry, but I'm just not into the whole "Whoever gets the best opening hand wins" thing. It's not fun. I'm a competitive person, but 90% of MTGO players have been taken out of competition because you are supposed to play Tier 1. What if people stopped and thought about it. You might create something new and exciting. That's what I want.
I'm done defending myself. Write what you want, about who you want, write anything. All I know is that I did what most people said I couldn't, and that is get a second article on this site. And on top of that, I had people tell me how good my first article was. At least I gave it my best shot. Sorry for trying to bring something new to the table. God forbid something new comes out. What would you do? Your sideboard wouldn't be ready for it. Haha.
Peace to you all, and have a Merry Christmas Everyone.
I will no longer try to defend myself. I don't have to. What I am doing here is a process, a step by step process. And if you are emailing the editor that I slandered you whiffy, I feel bad for you. I actually complimented you. If you want me to say things, I could, but why would I? I don't have any beef with you. Nor should you with me. You said things about my article, I defended them. Wouldn't you do the same if you were trying to do something entirely new and some people didn't agree?
... Your comments are exposing ignorance about both Classic and Modern. Classic is not all fetchs and FoW (since you're ignoring Dredge and Shops, which are two of the stronger decks in the format), and Modern is not all Zoo, 12Post and Pyro... There is Splintertwin (IT ONLY WON THE PRO TOUR), poison (IT ONLY T4'D THE PRO TOUR AND SMASHES 12POST!), and Affinity as well (OH YEA IT T4'D THE PRO TOUR!).
Speculation and 9/11 aside, your crying about how cards aren't free (errr cheap) and how old formats SUCK CUZ PEOPLE JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH OLD CARDS CUZ THAT'S SO LAME WHO WANTS TO DO THAT isn't really dignified.
Playing budget decks and speculating is fine. Making blanket statements about formats that you have 0 knowledge about (apparently) isn't really, especially when you don't back down when corrected.
Yes Hawks and Skyfishers have become boring, and when I do enter mpdc I always play something else. However it's not a new phenomenon in standard, especially at these times where you have 2 core and 6 expansion sets available. The same thing happened with blink/teachings control a few years back. Pauper standard metagames always begin aggro and end with control once the best build has been perfected. Innistrad come in on 17th October so you can stop worrying after that.
First off, it's spelled LIAR, not lier.
And you did attack me. If you have a problem with someone mentioning something in an article, just go past it. How hard is that to do? Nobody forced you to read that part.
And by attack on our home soil, there has never been an act of war on american soil when the country was the United States of America.
Look, whiffy, A) Don't tell me to grow up. B) Are you joking? This is hilarious. Modern is a joke. It consists of 3 Decks. That's all. 3. Cloudpost usually wins, unless Zoo wins, and then there is always Pyromancers Ascention or whatever that card is.
I hate modern. You know why? Because all Modern is is an excuse for people with old cards to use them again because they get bored of Standard and need something new to play with.
I said this in the beginning of my first article, and I'll say it again.
"I would bet you that 90% of people on MTGO cannot afford to make a constructed deck as they currently are".
What I am trying to do is try something different.
And btw, I watch your videos. I wasn't making fun of you, I was actually complementing you. Did you read the part where I wrote an entire paragraph saying "I don't have a problem with you, you worked hard to get where you are in MTGO".
I wasn't attacking you personally. I was defending myself. As a writer, and I write for a lot of different things, all I have is myself, and my opinions. Without that, what's the point of writing at all?
And really all I want to accomplish is to have people take a better look at their cards. Just because a card wasn't used in a deck that won a daily tournament doesn't mean it isn't good. It just means that it wasn't used. There may be a use for it.
There are 3 kinds of MTG players.
1) The people with money to copy decks card for card.
2) The smart people who just can't afford to make a constructed deck that has won.
3) The smart people who create the decks that everyone uses.
Those people are just like me as a kid. They looked at their cards closer and found use in them, use that wasn't there before. Who knows, maybe we are overlooking cards every day. I know I do.
That is why when I searched for Zombies in my standard collection, and Glissa came up, and then I found out Innistrad is going to have a ton of zombies, I think I found something.
Whiffy, my problem isn't with anyone. All are entitled to their own opinion. But do you still have fun with the game? Like other than winning, do you enjoy the game?
Today, I can make a deck out of cards you would never use in your life and maybe win. Maybe I'll beat a "Tier 1" deck with cards you wouldn't look twice at. But I'll enjoy myself, and I hope people who read this can do the same.
And you having a collection worth about 2.5k isn't helping the point, haha. I mean congrats. You worked your a*s off and you are successful in what you do. So this isn't for you. It's for the other 90% who cannot do that.
And hell yeah I gave myself 5 stars. And it will have a real effect on the overall rating.
Tempered steel is WW basically... Also, it was good in 1-block alara for a while.
That is true. I guess I might have to lay off. On the other hand, I love a nice rating! (So bad of me :/)
Even though hes inactive Chris Jericho is still the best in the world:P
You have to understand, this article wasn't what I wanted entirely.
This is about speculation. But I had the owner of the site telling me I had to write one thing, the editor telling me I had to write another, and people who commented on my last article telling me I had to write another.
And btw, speculation can be two sided. It's for people who want to take risk, but it can be for cheap and expensive risk.
Let me explain as I have been doing for the past 30 minutes.
I am retired at 24 years old. I made enough money in the stock market at the age of 19 to drop out of college, open my own fund, and then finish college when I closed the fund 2 years after it started.
Now in my fund, which wasn't registered with the SEC, but who cares, there were (and I am not allowed to say), but I had between 1-50 clients, with it being double digits.
There were 2 kind of investors. The ones who wanted to take risks, and the others who wanted to grow at a slow rate. Now the way the fund works, I do whatever I want, but I also don't want to lose their money.
So I had to break it in half as they desired.
For the people who wanted a steady 2 year return, I invested their money heavily in GEO, a company that always makes their quarterly earnings estimates, and high yielding dividend stocks like Linn Energy, who has an enormous 15% dividend.
The other half told me to go crazy and make as much as possible. So for them I bought mostly bank stocks, and everything that had fallen under $5.00 making it a "penny stock". To off-set this since it was a hedge fund, I had to hedge those bets, so I day traded triple leveraged ETF's whether it was energy, banks, or the overall S&P.
This is the same-exact-thing. Even though the first investors didn't want to be as risky, they were investing with a hedge fund, so therefor they were already in risk territory, so they were buying, lets say, Tezzeret.
The second half wanted to be risky and buy up things that people had given up hope on. I bought Sirius Satellite radio at $0.073 per share, and sold it for over a dollar. Do you want to do the math on what kind of return that was? Those are the people who buy Grand Abolisher.
Not to mention my algorithm for the triple leveraged ETF's was working perfectly when based upon the VIX or volatility index.
There are two kind of MTGO players. The risky, and risk adverse. I am trying to appeal to both. But this is only my second article. I haven't even charted out everything yet, or figured out how to make a chart using their writing tool.
I would like, in the future, to talk about the expensive, and the cheap. But I was told to give an introduction. And I think it was smart to do so. I showed people a simple process of HOW TO speculate, before I go into specific cards. The white weenie was just personal for me. I didn't have to add it. I could have put up ANOTHER DRAFT VIDEO, but what's the point. Why not talk about something interesting?
The article was getting long, and I figured last week I wrote a good article about Zombies, this week I wanted to see if I could get White Weenie started.
And Whiffy, if I win a standard Daily after Innistrad with a White Weenie deck, what will you give me? How about one of those force of wills? Haha
And I still think Norn's Annex is playable. It is a sideboard card in constructed decks, and it doesn't hurt to have on against a mono-black deck. It is hard for your opponent to make you discard it since it's not 3 CMC, and it's not a creature or planeswalker, and it can be out by turn 3.
And Nihil Spellbomb. This is another sideboard card. The entire purpose of the next article is about Sideboard cards. If Innistrad has a ton of flashback, if your opponent needs to exile something from a graveyard, etc, nihil spellbomb looks like it takes the whole graveyard out of the picture. All I was going to do was talk about it, and since I'm not an expert, and neither are most people here since I don't see anyone winning $50,000 tournaments or anything like that, talking is what we do here.
I do freelance journalism for a multitude of websites, from sports, to politics, to economics, to MTGO. When I write for them, all I do is bring up ideas. Do people always agree? Hell no! Do you know how much hate mail I got after I was a contributing writer for a CNN article talking about why the reason we still use Crude Oil from the Middle East is to stop "Zero Sum Gain"? I got people threatening my life for that one.
It's just my second article. I'm just talking, just like everyone else talks. I mean is this article any worse than that one written about the Chancellors from NPH? I had to fight hard to get my articles started, and then I had to give in to what everyone wanted me to write.
You want speculation? Fine. My next article will be written my way. And Whiffy, and Gardivi, and random people who don't like it, that's fine. Nobody forced you to read it. If you choose to read it and have a conversation about it, that's fine. If you don't, you don't. Go watch a video of someone playing cloudpost against Zoo again, or someone drafting M12 where P1P1 is Gideon.
Let's be honest. This is the internet. You obviously think I'm wrong, and that's fine. So did my parent's when I dropped out of college to start a hedge fund at 19. But I bought their new home so my puppies Jacky and Shaky have a big yard to run in, and I bought my apartment in Chelsea. I do know what I'm talking about, but it's a progression.
This ins't easy stuff. I mean I know if you took $100 and tried to invest it, you would lose all of it, or be too scared to buy anything. Me on the other hand, I would take that hundred and leverage about 100-200x, and make 3x that, or lose it all. What I'm trying to say is that this is a slow process. Some people will catch on quickly, some wont.
And this is for the budget player. If you have an unlimited credit card, you don't need to speculate. This isn't for you. This is for the people who don't have the cards to compete, and a way of finding them so they can be competitive.
What is so sad? Magic used to be about having fun. But nothing is fun if you want to play classic but can't because you don't have Force of Will or every Dual Land. Where is the fun in that. I remember going through my cards and making a new deck every day when I was a little kid. That was fun. Having everyone just play what's on a decklist? Where did the fun go in this game?
MTGO is becoming more like Call of Duty players K/D ratio and less about just enjoying yourself. So what if I don't have the cards to play constructed, does that mean I shouldn't? And does that mean I can't win? Hell no. That's the point of these articles. It's not for you guys. You guys can go to the decklists, and copy them card for card. Me, and the people who like my articles and ideas, we but cards that are cheap and may go up in the future, and make decks that we enjoy playing.
first of all, yes i have read both your spec articles.
I didnt say all the cards you showcased are low, but when you talk about cards that have been in multiple sets adn are at a time or a quarter to buy, chances are that they will continue to be a dime or a quarter for the long haul.
some of the cards you mentioned surely do have a profit margin. telling people to buy so cheap though is not worth there time.
Lets say i buy 10 honor the pure for 2.5 then sell for 5 bucks, maybe. That is pretty tiny and way to slow to really be cost effective, i want whole tickit amounts if im going to go through the trouble of buying selling.
As for where my collection is, you are so off. yes i have most of the expensive classic cards, i also have like 11 planeswalkers not the 80 or so you claim i have.
way to be off the mark.
secondly thanks for bashing an entire format because you either a, dont like it, b, are upset you cant afford it, or c, have your panties in a twist because i gave you 1 fireball. real mature.
I have been playing in events and collecting cards for classic for FOUR PLUS YEARS. and i still dont have all the cards. Im not some rich guy who just trows money into magic, i have built my collection through blood sweat and tears.
Hearing you talk like this about me is just petty. "Oh that guy is a jerk cause he has cards and others dont, he has no idea what new players are like"
Are you kidding me? seriously, I would love for classic to be affordable, i crave a force of will reprint, so that others can play the format. I dont care if my force's drop to 10 tickits, as long as there are people playing. This is my hobbue, not an investment, that is just a nice bonus.
as for the 9/11. Yes i have a right to say what i please as an american posting on an american site, just as you do. I just thought it was distasteful.
And not to call your grandpappy a lier but, here are the wars fought on american soil.
King Philip's War 1675 - 1676
Queen Ann's War 1702 - 1713
French and Indian War 1754 - 1763
The American Revolution
War of 1812
Civil War
World War II ( The Battle of the Aleutian Islands)
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_wars_were_fought_on_American_soil#ixzz1Xx...
I understand you put work into your article and you may feel like i attacked you, but grow up. I gave you my comments and you attack me and an entire format, with slander and lies. btw my collection is worth roughly 2.5 k, if what you cliamed were true it would be worth about 10 k, and i cant build a single modern deck, let alone a fully foiled deck.
Giving yourself 5 fireballs is akin to saying "Screw a rating system where my readers can score my article so I can get a gist of if I need to improve, I'm just going to inflate my scores because I care more about having a good rating than an accurate one."
I disagree a little. I always 5ball myself. I'm not sure why 9/11 was in the article, but I skipped that part. The most important thing though is that if you scooped up 20+ .1 cards and sell them at .3, you're tripling a low-cost investment, which really isn't an awful deal. I don't do it myself that often, but I do often sock away 4-8 of a random decent rare that is very cheap with almost every order hoping for a little growth out of them.
And I was hoping that regardless of whatever it was, MTGO or anything, that it would get mentioned because it's not just something that can be forgotten about. It's different for some since they don't live here, but I live here, and people I know died.
I did not want a political piece here, I just wanted to make sure it was remembered, because it's easy to forget. I made it as neutral as possible.
And btw, you say they have a small profit margin. My bad Whiffy. Not everyone can afford to play an entire foil Modern Deck like you can.
This is an intro to speculation. Had you read this piece and my previous one, I'm working up to the expensive cards. Right now, it's not time to be buying as Standard cards are all going down in price, but I can tell you that as I get more into the idea of speculation, which ISN'T FOR YOU since you don't need to play cheap decks and have all the cards you need to play any format, I will get into things that will make you money.
You don't think Grand Abolisher will be a valuable card? You don't see all of M12 making a nose dive? Here, you want some fun tips for the player with an unlimited credit card Whiffy?
Here is why I am the one writing on speculation on this site. It's because, in the words of the prophet C.M. Punk "I am the best in the world".
I bought Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor a short time after they were banned. I made a ton of tickets.
I bought Spellskite for $4 a piece.
I bought Phyrexian Metamorph at $3.50.
I bought Sword of Body and Mind at $4.
And I bought Karn at $13.
Those are just a few. I made trades daily. I can even make deals with people where I bundle cards and get them for $3-5 less. People like bulk.
All those trades got me more than 100% profit in return. Not to mention I bought around 15 Torbor Orbs at $1.00 before anyone knew they were worth anything.
I do know what I am talking about. But this isn't the time to buy. When it is time to buy, I will start putting up charts and numbers. But until then, I'm trying to look for anything that might have value.
Whiffy, I think sometimes you forget that 90% of people playing MTGO don't have a playset of every Dual Land, a playset of Force of Will, and 4 of every planeswalker ever made to the point where they can just go through their cards and make a deck and put it online like you do before your videos. (Which I watch btw, and I have given you a 5, so don't give me a 1, that's just not cool bro.
I'm not writing this for you. You have your cards. I'm writing this for people that you want to compete with you, because to be honest, watching a video of you playing classic is so boring. It's not you that's boring, it's just classic.
Here is classic:
Dual lands
Fetch lands
Force of WIll
Mental Misstep
'Whoever draws their unlimited combo first wins"
That bores the hell out of me. That's why I'm doing this. I am asking people to look at their cards closer. I can't ask people to buy cards, because I don't know everything. What I can do is show people the tools that will allow them to speculate, and maybe talk about some decks that aren't being played over, and over, and over.. Oh look, there's Cloudpost, oh exciting Valakut, WOW Storm turn 3 kill!!!!! It would be exciting if it wasn't done by everyone out there.
I'm not mad at you personally. I just think there are a lot of people out there that can't play like you can. And that's fine. You have worked hard to get where you are in MTGO. But most people don't have the time/money, or maybe they just want to have fun in public games and buy cards that they can afford, and not have to mortgage their houses to do so.
--------------------------------------
Now Whiffy, and please give me a real name to call you by please, but I will not flame you, or anyone for that matter on their perspective on me talking about 9/11. If the Editor didn't want it in there, he had free reign to delete it. I told Heath he could if he wanted to.
You are entitled to your own opinion, and that is what makes this country great is that you are allowed to have your opinion, so nobody should be flaming anyone about that.
But I have to disagree with your statement. I had two grandfathers in WW2. One of them was at Pearl Harbor. He survived only by lying on top of floating dead bodies after his ship was destroyed, and even he believes 9/11 is the first attack on American soil. I will take the words of a man in the Navy over an MTGO player any day of the week.
I wrote about it simply because it is something that is important to everyone, and it transcends everything. From Pro-Wrestling, to Professional Sports, to TV, Media in general, to the individual. I just think sometimes people need to be reminded of things so they don't forget. But I tried my best just to mention it as neutral as possible. And if anyone flames you, then they are stupid for doing so. You are entitled to your opinion, but this is just my second article bud. Don't kick me while I'm down.
I'm just trying to help the people who still get excited when they open that first planeswalker in a draft and are truly happy because they never had that card before. Unlike players like you who just have everything and have gotten to the point where you are jaded because you have classic decks that only the 40 or so people who play classic competitively can afford.
Btw, I have never played classic, I played classic when it was new, you know, in Beta, but what packs do you win when you win a standard tournament? Do you win like M12? Because wouldn't that be the opposite of classic?
1) "What I am trying to accomplish here is talking about the budget player...". I thought this was more of a speculative piece? There's not a large overlap between budget players (who are constrained on money) and members who engage in speculation (who are prepared to spend money accepting that it might not be coming back). You either need to focus on one or the other, or make it extremely clear that's what you're doing. Appealing to budget players in an article titled 'Speculation 101' did not even cross my mind.
2) Norn's Annex - I'm extremely dubious, but I'll leave it at that.
3) I haven't seen enough of the set to know if Nihil Spellbomb will be nuts or not. As of right now, 140 cards spoiled, I don't think it'll be earthbreaking. It might be played, especially if decks including Skagg Ruinator start popping up, but there's no equivalent of Dredge from what I've seen.
First off i think it incredibly rude to give yourself 5 fireballs.
2ndly I agree that your giving insider tips for cards that have wayyyyyyy to small a profit margin to gain any real value on.
3rd, and this is where i will get flamed. The whole 9/11 thing was really uncalled for and out of place in this article. Yes it was a tragedy, yes we have rebounded, no it was not the first attack on american soil, there have been at least half a dozen wars fought on american soil. Yes im american, no 9/11 does not have to be brought up in a gaming article.
The last time white weenie was worth playing, it had Figure of Destiny and Spectral Procession. Those cards were off the charts insane in mono-white and they are what made the archetype. There is nothing spoiled that makes me think it will be a strong player in the metagame. Norn's Annex will never be constructed playable, however Mirran Crusader, Elspeth and Grand Abolisher have a lot of room to grow even without white weenie.
FWIW whiffy, I agree with your sentiment regarding 9/11 memorials in these types of articles.
I'm going to do something so completely stupid it's genius. I am going to take cards I speculate on, and use them in a daily. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is.
Now mind you I am not the best player in the world, or the best wrestler (C.M. Punk), but I will make a R/G I have been working hard on in the past few weeks based on cards I speculated. If I'm right, I should do well.
Oh and I might now join a Daily. I will do one of those 8 player constructed, it makes more sense because the Daily's are at awkward times, and I just unlocked the Atomizer in Resistance 3 and it is SO MUCH FUN, so I might have to do two things at once.
If I'm as smart as I'm claiming, then not only will my deck make me money based on cards in it, but also win tournaments.
It's a Mono Green Deck splashed with Chandra and Heavy on the "pray I get a first turn Birds of Paradise, then play a Thrun by turn 3, and Sword of F&F by turn 4, and then win the game....... Deck".
Haha. Ok, what I really wanted to do with this article was write about sideboard cards. In which I think Norms Annex is a great addition to a sideboard. But had you read my last article I'm just going through the motions on the different decks coming out when ZEN cycles out.
Had I been able to write the article I wanted to, it would have been different. But you are right. This is actually 3 articles I had to smush together in one, so it might have gotten a little blurred.
When it comes to Honor of the Pure, I don't see it as a speculative card, I just see it as a way of starting your speculation. It's a card you can build around. And I think you can make a legitimate argument that White Weenie is making a comeback.
In Innistrad, I see a lot of white cards that can be considered a "White Weenie" style deck. And Honor of the Pure is one of them. Had I been more poignant in my point, you would have seen that I was talking about Honor of the Pure just as a lead up to talking about speculative White cards like the Grand Abolisher, Mirran Crusader, Elspeth Tirel, etc..
Now I can tell you honestly that there is a lack of serious 4 drops in SOM/Innistrad/M12. I mean good 4 drops. You have Thrun, Hero of Bladehold, Hero of Oxid Ridge, and what, Solemn Simulacrum?
What I am trying to accomplish here is talking about the budget player, and until Hero Drops and is no longer being used in Caw/Blade, I don't see it fitting into what I am trying to accomplish.
And when it comes to Norn's Annex, I was watching Modern last night, A LOT OF MODERN. And I noticed one thing:
There were a lot of creatures, but no artifact destruction. If you put out a Torbor Orb or anything like that, if it resolved, you would end up winning the game. I also noticed that having mana open was important. I think Norn's Annex has a place in Sideboards, and I think it is incredibly underrated. Sure it's no planeswalker, but it can stop Splinter Twin, I mean your opponent wont be able to attack you. I think it stops storm, if it is creature based, and because you can cost it for 3 mana, it has the potential to slow down ZOO decks.
I just think Norn's Annex is highly underrated, and should at least be in your sideboard alongside Torbor Orb.
But look, I had do write this article for 3 separate parties, and I couldn't write what I wanted. My next one will be better. With less text, more high cost speculation, a chart for cards I am currently watching, and a "why I don't upload drafts that I take part in" draft video.
I think the "How not to draft like me" would be fantastic, and btw, no mention on Nihil Spellbomb being the Innistrad killer?
Thanks anyway. I agree with what you said, and I should have made that more clear.
Shackles is actually a really good idea; I'm surprised I didn't think about it.
Boomerang seems poor, on the other hand. Remand gets spells AND draws a card, both of which are suPer important. Bouncing a land only ever matters in the cloudpost mirror. Mindbreak Trap would be a fine sideboard card; I didn't include a sideboard. I can test Greaves, I don't know how good it would be.
"Norn's Annex: $0.15. When will people figure out that this card is good? It will put to a halt any creature based, non-white deck. "
People will probably realize it when it becomes good. In other words, never.
I don't agree with a lot of your assertions; I think they're inaccurate. For instance, you say that Archangel is a fine card because it's a 4/4 for 4 and there aren't going to be many solid four drops in Innistrad Standard. But you really don't need more than Hero of Bladehold, since any white deck that wants Heros won't be loading up on the four drops. Recommending to buy Honor the Pure at .10 is kind of silly. If the white weenie deck becomes popular, I have no doubt it'll go up. But it's been reprinted three times in the last three years. It's not going to go above a ticket, and probably won't even reach a ticket. So it's pretty marginal to buy a bunch of Honor the Pures at .10, hope for them to go up, and then sell them to the bots for like .2 or .3.
Some cards I agree with you on, like Grand Abolisher and Mirran Crusader, even if it's for different reasons than you provided.