You are right, it isn't an original quote. It is a quote that stock traders use when they short a stock (bet on it going down), which is how I made my money, I guess to make themselves feel better about doing it.
You want a quote that is original?
10 years ago today was my first day of freshman year of High School in Brooklyn, NY. I walked out of my school and the entire sky was black. It was the worst f*****ng day of my life. I knew 10 people that died that day, and if you haven't thought about what happened today, then you will never understand.
Well my first go was a little tragic (as it should be for first goes I guess). Tried the infect, nabbed a couple of big infect guys and went Black/Blue. But draws were all fairly average and my first 2 rounds against obviously experienced NMS drafters, final round I won 2-0 against someone on a similar level to me. My creature control was lacking and I didn't have enough fast/early infecters. I scored a Hero of Oxid Ridge in the 2nd pack, but no other good red was appearing.
Just playing my 2nd NMS draft now, with Red/White... first round was a big tease, the guy disconnected and made it back in with 1 minute spare! He took me down for 2-0 with that damn infecting Imp, what a killer that guy is. Both games I struggled to get the land out, and in both he managed to kill my 1 plains (got a few 2W spells). 2nd round I got a bit more working on the 3 mana and this deck holds together much better than my first draft. We'll see over the next hour or so I suppose :) I did skip 2-3 strong white commons in the first pack, I keep forgetting unlike M12 those cards aren't in the next packs!!!
I am finding the cards and possible deck/combinations much more interesting in NMS.
[EDIT] - finished that draft, won solidly in round 2 - decked worked quite well even if there was a few drafting regrets. Round 3 the deck was holding up nicely, because the guy drafted Puresteel Paladin (foil at that too, and he said it was a pick 2 - lucky bugger!) which came into play turn 2 in both games. Without that Paladin (and subsequent expensive equipment) I was a contender.
I don't even think that's the exact quote, I believe it is, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" although I would have to google a bunch to make sure. Either way, Milton is so widely read it is more likely he didn't feel the need to cite the source, much like a Shakespeare quote. It is also in italics.
I never expected 600+ views on my article, especially for a new guy who nobody know's about. I just want to thank you all for reading, and comment so I can make a better, more "to the point" article that will meet the needs of readers.
If there is someone out there who is in-tune with the formats outside of standard, feel free to write comment on here and I will try to work with you to see if I can help people speculate on those formats. The only problem with those formats is that they seem a little lackluster in terms of diversity of decks. So there really isn't much in terms of speculation.
I mean there are easy cards. Like I bought Jace the Mind Sculptor at 35 when it was banned because I knew it was such a powerful card, it had to have value. I made a lot of tickets when I sold those. It paid for a lot of Sealed M12 pre-release games. And in those pre-releases, I was able to sell a ton of cards and made more tickets. For example, I sold Solemn Simalcrum at 13 a piece, which was nice since I re-bought them for $3, but it looks like it's moving downward.
In my next article, I will try to lower the amount of text, talk more about my process, show you a simple way of tracking cards without using any math, and talk about some things I think are greatly overlooked in the game.
Once again, thank you all for reading, and I will make sure I make some changes to make my article better for all readers.
I never expected 600+ views on my article, especially for a new guy who nobody know's about. I just want to thank you all for reading, and comment so I can make a better, more "to the point" article that will meet the needs of readers.
If there is someone out there who is in-tune with the formats outside of standard, feel free to write comment on here and I will try to work with you to see if I can help people speculate on those formats. The only problem with those formats is that they seem a little lackluster in terms of diversity of decks. So there really isn't much in terms of speculation.
I mean there are easy cards. Like I bought Jace the Mind Sculptor at 35 when it was banned because I knew it was such a powerful card, it had to have value. I made a lot of tickets when I sold those. It paid for a lot of Sealed M12 pre-release games. And in those pre-releases, I was able to sell a ton of cards and made more tickets. For example, I sold Solemn Simalcrum at 13 a piece, which was nice since I re-bought them for $3, but it looks like it's moving downward.
In my next article, I will try to lower the amount of text, talk more about my process, show you a simple way of tracking cards without using any math, and talk about some things I think are greatly overlooked in the game.
Once again, thank you all for reading, and I will make sure I make some changes to make my article better for all readers.
I'm not trying to fill Hammy's shoes, and remember, they have access to bot numbers I do not. They have told me that they got a lot of flack for writing this article, but I try to talk about the lower priced cards.
There are plenty of people who talk about the highest priced cards, which I think is usually spoken about in state of the program, but I can write about them if you want.
What I am really trying to do with my articles is help the lower/budget style player. And I tried to make it simple, like showing the value of Phyrexian crusader being a Zombie, which most people didn't know.
But I can talk about the prices of the lowest cost cards I look at, and the higher priced cards. The only issue with the highest priced cards is that they are in Modern/Legacy/Classic, while I am talking about Standard because that is what I play. I would really have no idea about those cards because as I had said, I quit during the time cards like Tamogryph (probably spelled wrong) etc., came out. I mean I first saw storm when I was playing a game of Pauper, which was insane btw. I saw some guy cast like 30 spells, un-tap all his mana over and over, and then return every permanent I had on the board, and I was just playing a mono-red burn/small creature deck. I was like WHAT THE H**L IS GOING ON. By the time I wrote 'IS', I was dead, haha.
But I will try to be more professional and make more charts and etc. in my next article. It is funny that you said I should post more since it was a real struggle just to get my article published.
All I can say is that if you read what I wrote, and comment on it, I will make any changes you ask for, since you are the people who dictate what I write.
But its not about what results at what events give the most points. It's not like people are going to say 'Nah screw winning the grand prix, I'm just cool getting middling results at FNM' and ending up at the Pro-Tour.
The idea is that all levels of competitive magic are worth playing because they all give you points and nothing can take that away from you once you have them. The whole idea about the system is to get people playing magic week in and week out, and those who are both active AND consistently successful get onto the PT circuit.
What does that mean in practical terms ? Well it means that you can't just surge ahead by jumping on the winning band wagon before everyone else does and then just stop playing when the meta stabilizes and similar crap that preserves your rating at the expense of your credibility. You have to show that you can consistently win in competitive formats throughout the year, both early in the meta when strong constructed decks are less common and months later when every t1 deck has a strategy to kill you.
That's what this is all about. If you want to really be a pro you need to sit down and play in every event you can and get good finishes. Doesn't make much difference if its a PTQ or a GP or FNM, play at the all and do well and you can get there.
Spike, Johnny, and Timmy are psychographic profiles created for WotC to describe the 3 major types of deck builders. The community itself has adopted them as shorthand for competitive players (spikes), rogue deckbuilders (johnny's) and casual players (timmy's). We do mangle wotc's intent when we use them.
Thanks! I have to shout-out anyone who gives feedback that leaves me thinking! I agree that while it sucked losing to the finalist, it is a "good" draft what that happens.
There is a file that MODO saves on your hard drive for every draft you are involved in. I am not sure of the url of the site that explains how to use this but I suspect there is information for it on the raredraft site.
A little unrelated, but what is the deal with the terms "Spike, Johnny and Timmy"? I've deduced from context Spike is a competitive player, but when did these become widespread psychographic terms?
These sound like marketing research terms, and I have no idea why magic players refer to themselves, often proudly, by these terms, since I've never seen that in any other subculture.
Blue control was completely absent from the Pro Tour, and many people think they will make changes to the Modern Banned list. I'm bringing this up because Jace is going to see a significant price bump, because he is one of the cards speculated to come off, along with Ancestral Vision. I expect him to be 3-5 tickets higher leading up to the announcement on the 20th.
Vision has been reprinted and is in a dual deck, so it has a lower ceiling. Cloudpost may also get banned, but there really isn't any reason to dump them, they are going to hold value due to pauper regardless.
Wow, I get a shout out in articles? I'll try to not let it go to my head.
I actually wanted to compliment you on the rare draft portion, not just because I thought the picks were good, but the quick explanations were well done. Despite opening up a ton of bombs, this draft had some extremely tough decisions. O-Ring vs Sorin's Thirst, Sengir vs Mind Control (It was a trap, good instincts), Sengir vs Throne, all of which were interesting.
Getting beaten in the finals by the guy you passed to is the sign of excellent drafting. I know that sounds bizarre, but it just means you two both read signals and worked together to build the strongest decks at the table. Who drew the bets cards and ended up winning is pretty irrelevant.
LIKE!
You are right, it isn't an original quote. It is a quote that stock traders use when they short a stock (bet on it going down), which is how I made my money, I guess to make themselves feel better about doing it.
You want a quote that is original?
10 years ago today was my first day of freshman year of High School in Brooklyn, NY. I walked out of my school and the entire sky was black. It was the worst f*****ng day of my life. I knew 10 people that died that day, and if you haven't thought about what happened today, then you will never understand.
Well my first go was a little tragic (as it should be for first goes I guess). Tried the infect, nabbed a couple of big infect guys and went Black/Blue. But draws were all fairly average and my first 2 rounds against obviously experienced NMS drafters, final round I won 2-0 against someone on a similar level to me. My creature control was lacking and I didn't have enough fast/early infecters. I scored a Hero of Oxid Ridge in the 2nd pack, but no other good red was appearing.
Just playing my 2nd NMS draft now, with Red/White... first round was a big tease, the guy disconnected and made it back in with 1 minute spare! He took me down for 2-0 with that damn infecting Imp, what a killer that guy is. Both games I struggled to get the land out, and in both he managed to kill my 1 plains (got a few 2W spells). 2nd round I got a bit more working on the 3 mana and this deck holds together much better than my first draft. We'll see over the next hour or so I suppose :) I did skip 2-3 strong white commons in the first pack, I keep forgetting unlike M12 those cards aren't in the next packs!!!
I am finding the cards and possible deck/combinations much more interesting in NMS.
[EDIT] - finished that draft, won solidly in round 2 - decked worked quite well even if there was a few drafting regrets. Round 3 the deck was holding up nicely, because the guy drafted Puresteel Paladin (foil at that too, and he said it was a pick 2 - lucky bugger!) which came into play turn 2 in both games. Without that Paladin (and subsequent expensive equipment) I was a contender.
ooooo saw it. that is why im such a noob lol. thanks. (^^)
it is on the site next to the draft viewer. You just copy and paste the embed code into the body of your article.
because it makes sense. I have been doing pretty well in the NMS queues .
Would be funnier if you were talking about hounds tribal, or dead dog in pauper.
I don't even think that's the exact quote, I believe it is, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" although I would have to google a bunch to make sure. Either way, Milton is so widely read it is more likely he didn't feel the need to cite the source, much like a Shakespeare quote. It is also in italics.
Cry Havoc and let slip the cards of war
-Char49D
the article was ok, but I definitely didn't like how you made it look like you came up with that quote
it's from Paradise Lost, one of the most famous pieces of written English in existence.
John Milton. 1667.
Book 1.
Lines 258-63.
Not only are these 4-3-2-2 drafts with the lowest payout, but they are also 15 tickets instead of 14. Why do they feel the need to nickel and dime us?
Well, it isn't your fault, good content as usual Agur.
yea uploaded some drafts but unable to find information on how to link it like andrew did.
I never expected 600+ views on my article, especially for a new guy who nobody know's about. I just want to thank you all for reading, and comment so I can make a better, more "to the point" article that will meet the needs of readers.
If there is someone out there who is in-tune with the formats outside of standard, feel free to write comment on here and I will try to work with you to see if I can help people speculate on those formats. The only problem with those formats is that they seem a little lackluster in terms of diversity of decks. So there really isn't much in terms of speculation.
I mean there are easy cards. Like I bought Jace the Mind Sculptor at 35 when it was banned because I knew it was such a powerful card, it had to have value. I made a lot of tickets when I sold those. It paid for a lot of Sealed M12 pre-release games. And in those pre-releases, I was able to sell a ton of cards and made more tickets. For example, I sold Solemn Simalcrum at 13 a piece, which was nice since I re-bought them for $3, but it looks like it's moving downward.
In my next article, I will try to lower the amount of text, talk more about my process, show you a simple way of tracking cards without using any math, and talk about some things I think are greatly overlooked in the game.
Once again, thank you all for reading, and I will make sure I make some changes to make my article better for all readers.
I never expected 600+ views on my article, especially for a new guy who nobody know's about. I just want to thank you all for reading, and comment so I can make a better, more "to the point" article that will meet the needs of readers.
If there is someone out there who is in-tune with the formats outside of standard, feel free to write comment on here and I will try to work with you to see if I can help people speculate on those formats. The only problem with those formats is that they seem a little lackluster in terms of diversity of decks. So there really isn't much in terms of speculation.
I mean there are easy cards. Like I bought Jace the Mind Sculptor at 35 when it was banned because I knew it was such a powerful card, it had to have value. I made a lot of tickets when I sold those. It paid for a lot of Sealed M12 pre-release games. And in those pre-releases, I was able to sell a ton of cards and made more tickets. For example, I sold Solemn Simalcrum at 13 a piece, which was nice since I re-bought them for $3, but it looks like it's moving downward.
In my next article, I will try to lower the amount of text, talk more about my process, show you a simple way of tracking cards without using any math, and talk about some things I think are greatly overlooked in the game.
Once again, thank you all for reading, and I will make sure I make some changes to make my article better for all readers.
I'm not trying to fill Hammy's shoes, and remember, they have access to bot numbers I do not. They have told me that they got a lot of flack for writing this article, but I try to talk about the lower priced cards.
There are plenty of people who talk about the highest priced cards, which I think is usually spoken about in state of the program, but I can write about them if you want.
What I am really trying to do with my articles is help the lower/budget style player. And I tried to make it simple, like showing the value of Phyrexian crusader being a Zombie, which most people didn't know.
But I can talk about the prices of the lowest cost cards I look at, and the higher priced cards. The only issue with the highest priced cards is that they are in Modern/Legacy/Classic, while I am talking about Standard because that is what I play. I would really have no idea about those cards because as I had said, I quit during the time cards like Tamogryph (probably spelled wrong) etc., came out. I mean I first saw storm when I was playing a game of Pauper, which was insane btw. I saw some guy cast like 30 spells, un-tap all his mana over and over, and then return every permanent I had on the board, and I was just playing a mono-red burn/small creature deck. I was like WHAT THE H**L IS GOING ON. By the time I wrote 'IS', I was dead, haha.
But I will try to be more professional and make more charts and etc. in my next article. It is funny that you said I should post more since it was a real struggle just to get my article published.
All I can say is that if you read what I wrote, and comment on it, I will make any changes you ask for, since you are the people who dictate what I write.
But its not about what results at what events give the most points. It's not like people are going to say 'Nah screw winning the grand prix, I'm just cool getting middling results at FNM' and ending up at the Pro-Tour.
The idea is that all levels of competitive magic are worth playing because they all give you points and nothing can take that away from you once you have them. The whole idea about the system is to get people playing magic week in and week out, and those who are both active AND consistently successful get onto the PT circuit.
What does that mean in practical terms ? Well it means that you can't just surge ahead by jumping on the winning band wagon before everyone else does and then just stop playing when the meta stabilizes and similar crap that preserves your rating at the expense of your credibility. You have to show that you can consistently win in competitive formats throughout the year, both early in the meta when strong constructed decks are less common and months later when every t1 deck has a strategy to kill you.
That's what this is all about. If you want to really be a pro you need to sit down and play in every event you can and get good finishes. Doesn't make much difference if its a PTQ or a GP or FNM, play at the all and do well and you can get there.
Spike, Johnny, and Timmy are psychographic profiles created for WotC to describe the 3 major types of deck builders. The community itself has adopted them as shorthand for competitive players (spikes), rogue deckbuilders (johnny's) and casual players (timmy's). We do mangle wotc's intent when we use them.
Thanks! I have to shout-out anyone who gives feedback that leaves me thinking! I agree that while it sucked losing to the finalist, it is a "good" draft what that happens.
I'm a big fan of this deck in Modern and I think your analysis and the article in general is very very good. Thank you, sir!
There is a file that MODO saves on your hard drive for every draft you are involved in. I am not sure of the url of the site that explains how to use this but I suspect there is information for it on the raredraft site.
Interestingly, with the likes if Mentor of the Meek, I think there may, MAY, be a T1 WW deck somewhere in the Standard mix once Innistrad goes live.
np lol.
wanted to ask how did you post from your drafts from raredraft? i saved some rav drafts which would be used for the next article. crashed horribly xD
A little unrelated, but what is the deal with the terms "Spike, Johnny and Timmy"? I've deduced from context Spike is a competitive player, but when did these become widespread psychographic terms?
These sound like marketing research terms, and I have no idea why magic players refer to themselves, often proudly, by these terms, since I've never seen that in any other subculture.
Blue control was completely absent from the Pro Tour, and many people think they will make changes to the Modern Banned list. I'm bringing this up because Jace is going to see a significant price bump, because he is one of the cards speculated to come off, along with Ancestral Vision. I expect him to be 3-5 tickets higher leading up to the announcement on the 20th.
Vision has been reprinted and is in a dual deck, so it has a lower ceiling. Cloudpost may also get banned, but there really isn't any reason to dump them, they are going to hold value due to pauper regardless.
"Legacy prices are falling again. Big Jace is up a bit, but the format, overall, is not doing well. I blame Mental Misstep." I blame modern ;-)
Wow, I get a shout out in articles? I'll try to not let it go to my head.
I actually wanted to compliment you on the rare draft portion, not just because I thought the picks were good, but the quick explanations were well done. Despite opening up a ton of bombs, this draft had some extremely tough decisions. O-Ring vs Sorin's Thirst, Sengir vs Mind Control (It was a trap, good instincts), Sengir vs Throne, all of which were interesting.
Getting beaten in the finals by the guy you passed to is the sign of excellent drafting. I know that sounds bizarre, but it just means you two both read signals and worked together to build the strongest decks at the table. Who drew the bets cards and ended up winning is pretty irrelevant.