Nice review. I had to look up Doubling Chant to see if it was different than I remembered. It wasn't. Needless to say I'm putting 4 in all my Commander Decks to rule all.
One of my goals is to see if I can deck myself with Mind Unbound. I can see that getting very crazy quickly.
I actually like what Gavin has done to create the Overextended format. AND it is just a matter of time until the corporatization takes a stranglehold and completely ruins it. Kind of like Classic...
I think this is the point that under_the_hammer is driving at, although I admit that I am not a mind reader....
I can't really argue your point, you're right about Modern being more talked about and embraced by WOTC but I don't really see any Modern PRE's being held (maybe I'm not looking hard enough) and I'm enjoying the Overextended PRE's a lot. Sorry this article wasn't for you, but I'll be on the lookout for Modern, if you know of any, let me know.
I just got a copy of Camtasia Studio, Tpup. It works really well and allows editing and scoring. It is pretty spendy to get the license, but you can get a stripped down 30-day trial version on the free.
The future is MODERN - WOTC will make sure that Modern is thrown down your throats. Why cling to O/Extended and start a new article series. This format will be deader than classic within 2 months.
Finally watched this. Tough luck, man. There were a few times I saw other plays, but then the next turn it ended up not mattering because your opponent had a FoW or something and you would have lost anyway, so I won't list them.
You gotta click the spell first though!
And I agree with FTFY. He didn't phrase it eloquently, but the point is valid: presentation is everything. I was fast-forwarding through long parts of these that could have been cut out. I don't know the good video editing software for Windows though. If you're a pirate, think big like Premier, but if you're looking for free, I'm sure you can search for some stuff that will just do simple edits. Does Windows still come with Movie Maker? And can that handle HD? Having these in 720p is great for watching them on full screen, so don't compromise that if/when you get an editing program. Consider that some constructive criticism. Looking forward to more videos!
Always interesting to see the other side of a match.
Why not therapy naming force of will before going balls to the wall with Hermit Druid in game 2? I would have just mental misstepped it and wastelanded your underground sea as it turns out, but it still seems like a slightly better line in the abstract, especially when you seem so concerned about FoW. That's one of the great things about cabal therapy in a combo deck - you don't have to know what they are holding, just name one of the two cards that can stop you.
Also the sideboarding seems odd. I guess you didn't realize that I had leyline of the void in my SB and took out the stern proctor. Oddly enough, I actually forgot to bring in leyline of the void in g2 (face slap) but it wound up not mattering, so siding out proctor was mostly correct. However in general it would not be. You would also want to bring in the nature's claims.
I have my stops set for constructed magic, no reason at all to just turn things off and on, i play pretty fast no matter what format, and not f6ing is a good way to bluff countermagic. not that they can always tell that i hit f6
as for the white, well, it had some evasion thats true, it had no removal, even though the blue was situational, it had 5 counterspells ice cage and turn to frog, much better then a few 4 mana flyers and destiney imo.
Agreed about the overall power level - along the same lines, though, aggro decks in this format often have the problem of needing to draw their cards in the "right order" (also known as the Signal Pest Problem), so yeah ... I think it's a good lesson: when things go to dung, the Aggro lever can be pulled and good things can happen, with decent draws.
Whiffy, great stuff as always. Any chance you could re-record your intro? There is so much more static and background noise in it that in your regular submissions that it is almost tough to listen to.
Yea I was laughing at myself about the Censor (Exarch is a fine man)> but it really did pull me the needed extra 4 points in at least one game. Would I prefer that it was a Metalcrafted Blast? Sure! But it wasn't and it was still pretty good for beating.
My prefered colors in the sealed pool was WR over RU over RB. Man you need more F6 & F8 action in your games also being active with the step stops only turning on beginning of combat when having a tapper out and so on speeds things up a lot.
Enjoy the draft content as always. Interestingly, I drafted a very similar deck just two nights ago, taking down an 8-4. Of course opening a Batterskull helped immensely, but having that top out the curve and playing a bunch of WW dudes leads to quite an aggro deck. I too got passed a Puresteel Paladin (I think mine was pick 3 or 4 though), and my finals opp informed me there was a 2nd one passed around so I probably was cut off from equipment in the following packs somewhat. I too found it funny that I was happily taking edgewright and friends in pack 3. I also took a master's call pretty early to set up the metalcraft beats that come in pack 3. 2 artifacts with 1 spell is quite good when you're trying to set up metalcraft early, and having the extra dudes to equip or just beat with doesn't hurt either.
Not sure on your take exactly, but I think the inquisitor exarch and the necrogen sensor are actually key cards in these kinds of decks because they provide reach that a WW deck doesn't usually have (without vulshok replica or blast or something). I won 2 games off of top-decked censors and one off a top-decked exarch (I was probably winning at least one of those anyway, but still). Would have won yet another that I had my opp on 1 life for several turns before succumbing to land draw after land draw. Anyway - good job on the draft and keep em coming :).
Thanks man. BTW- Keep posting them, I and I'll keep reading/watching them.
Interested in moar Pauper (haven't viewed the Commander article yet.) I have been testing Infect and the Deluxe Red that you featured a couple of weeks ago.
the biggest reason people hate time stretch is because it gets zero involvement from other players after you play it.
Usually, it means that you have to watch 5-10 mins while the other player just combos to oblivion. It's not about losing, I think. It's more feeling "great he's gonna combo like crazy, I'm gonna tap out and do something else. boring...." People want to play something. If you deny people from playing anything, the game gets dull and pointless to play. It's not so bad in an environment where the games are usually quick. A good EDH game takes at least 30 min to play and it's just agonizing to watch yourself slowly die while the other guy makes his final ultra huge combo for 10 mins.
On the other hand, other big bombs usually mean that the game is over in one turn (insurrection) or you get another turn to come back right away(avenger of zendikar).
Seems like you played well, but this seems like a LOT of "run-good" as well, to actually activate your Metalcraft cards with 12 (13 post-board) total artifacts, many of which are extremely frail creatures and will naturally die and/or set you up for the total blowout.
Then again, the way the draft went, going for the MC "Hail Mary" might have been the right call - it was going to take a little luck to get there anyway.
Great win. I won one again last night, after opening my 2nd Tezzeret and A Phyrexian Obliterator!!! I didn't play either (not enough artifacts for Tezz. I ended up GB infect- occasionally siding in the obliterator).
anyway, I noticed that in pack 2 you passed 2 master's calls (you picked a Viridian Claw and a Relic-Warder instead). I do agree those are tough choices, but one of those would have helped your metalcraft.
Mortarpod, Scrapmelter and Relic-Warder are just that good in this format though.
He's poking fun at the actual uselessness (barring cloning an opponent's card with one of your own) of the card in this format.
Awesome article, but as Commander is Singleton, how would Doubling Chant be useful at all? And how would you put 4 in a commander deck??
Nice review. I had to look up Doubling Chant to see if it was different than I remembered. It wasn't. Needless to say I'm putting 4 in all my Commander Decks to rule all.
One of my goals is to see if I can deck myself with Mind Unbound. I can see that getting very crazy quickly.
I actually like what Gavin has done to create the Overextended format. AND it is just a matter of time until the corporatization takes a stranglehold and completely ruins it. Kind of like Classic...
I think this is the point that under_the_hammer is driving at, although I admit that I am not a mind reader....
I can't really argue your point, you're right about Modern being more talked about and embraced by WOTC but I don't really see any Modern PRE's being held (maybe I'm not looking hard enough) and I'm enjoying the Overextended PRE's a lot. Sorry this article wasn't for you, but I'll be on the lookout for Modern, if you know of any, let me know.
I just got a copy of Camtasia Studio, Tpup. It works really well and allows editing and scoring. It is pretty spendy to get the license, but you can get a stripped down 30-day trial version on the free.
What program are you using to record the videos before uploading to YouTube?
The future is MODERN - WOTC will make sure that Modern is thrown down your throats. Why cling to O/Extended and start a new article series. This format will be deader than classic within 2 months.
Finally watched this. Tough luck, man. There were a few times I saw other plays, but then the next turn it ended up not mattering because your opponent had a FoW or something and you would have lost anyway, so I won't list them.
You gotta click the spell first though!
And I agree with FTFY. He didn't phrase it eloquently, but the point is valid: presentation is everything. I was fast-forwarding through long parts of these that could have been cut out. I don't know the good video editing software for Windows though. If you're a pirate, think big like Premier, but if you're looking for free, I'm sure you can search for some stuff that will just do simple edits. Does Windows still come with Movie Maker? And can that handle HD? Having these in 720p is great for watching them on full screen, so don't compromise that if/when you get an editing program. Consider that some constructive criticism. Looking forward to more videos!
Always interesting to see the other side of a match.
Why not therapy naming force of will before going balls to the wall with Hermit Druid in game 2? I would have just mental misstepped it and wastelanded your underground sea as it turns out, but it still seems like a slightly better line in the abstract, especially when you seem so concerned about FoW. That's one of the great things about cabal therapy in a combo deck - you don't have to know what they are holding, just name one of the two cards that can stop you.
Also the sideboarding seems odd. I guess you didn't realize that I had leyline of the void in my SB and took out the stern proctor. Oddly enough, I actually forgot to bring in leyline of the void in g2 (face slap) but it wound up not mattering, so siding out proctor was mostly correct. However in general it would not be. You would also want to bring in the nature's claims.
I have my stops set for constructed magic, no reason at all to just turn things off and on, i play pretty fast no matter what format, and not f6ing is a good way to bluff countermagic. not that they can always tell that i hit f6
as for the white, well, it had some evasion thats true, it had no removal, even though the blue was situational, it had 5 counterspells ice cage and turn to frog, much better then a few 4 mana flyers and destiney imo.
Agreed about the overall power level - along the same lines, though, aggro decks in this format often have the problem of needing to draw their cards in the "right order" (also known as the Signal Pest Problem), so yeah ... I think it's a good lesson: when things go to dung, the Aggro lever can be pulled and good things can happen, with decent draws.
Whiffy, great stuff as always. Any chance you could re-record your intro? There is so much more static and background noise in it that in your regular submissions that it is almost tough to listen to.
Keep up the good work!
Yea I was laughing at myself about the Censor (Exarch is a fine man)> but it really did pull me the needed extra 4 points in at least one game. Would I prefer that it was a Metalcrafted Blast? Sure! But it wasn't and it was still pretty good for beating.
My prefered colors in the sealed pool was WR over RU over RB. Man you need more F6 & F8 action in your games also being active with the step stops only turning on beginning of combat when having a tapper out and so on speeds things up a lot.
Enjoy the draft content as always. Interestingly, I drafted a very similar deck just two nights ago, taking down an 8-4. Of course opening a Batterskull helped immensely, but having that top out the curve and playing a bunch of WW dudes leads to quite an aggro deck. I too got passed a Puresteel Paladin (I think mine was pick 3 or 4 though), and my finals opp informed me there was a 2nd one passed around so I probably was cut off from equipment in the following packs somewhat. I too found it funny that I was happily taking edgewright and friends in pack 3. I also took a master's call pretty early to set up the metalcraft beats that come in pack 3. 2 artifacts with 1 spell is quite good when you're trying to set up metalcraft early, and having the extra dudes to equip or just beat with doesn't hurt either.
Not sure on your take exactly, but I think the inquisitor exarch and the necrogen sensor are actually key cards in these kinds of decks because they provide reach that a WW deck doesn't usually have (without vulshok replica or blast or something). I won 2 games off of top-decked censors and one off a top-decked exarch (I was probably winning at least one of those anyway, but still). Would have won yet another that I had my opp on 1 life for several turns before succumbing to land draw after land draw. Anyway - good job on the draft and keep em coming :).
Thanks man. BTW- Keep posting them, I and I'll keep reading/watching them.
Interested in moar Pauper (haven't viewed the Commander article yet.) I have been testing Infect and the Deluxe Red that you featured a couple of weeks ago.
I do my decks with jamuuraa's puremtgo deck builder but I think that raredraft.com, which I do the viewer through, can do a deck builder too.
White was fairly open.
Quick question, how do you do deck tags and the draft pick viewer? I want to vlog one of mine.
I was going to say..."when did wotc give us 8-mans?", but you answered that at the end. Good stuff as always.
the biggest reason people hate time stretch is because it gets zero involvement from other players after you play it.
Usually, it means that you have to watch 5-10 mins while the other player just combos to oblivion. It's not about losing, I think. It's more feeling "great he's gonna combo like crazy, I'm gonna tap out and do something else. boring...." People want to play something. If you deny people from playing anything, the game gets dull and pointless to play. It's not so bad in an environment where the games are usually quick. A good EDH game takes at least 30 min to play and it's just agonizing to watch yourself slowly die while the other guy makes his final ultra huge combo for 10 mins.
On the other hand, other big bombs usually mean that the game is over in one turn (insurrection) or you get another turn to come back right away(avenger of zendikar).
Paul - I wonder if the Master's Calls passing didn't make another drafter investigate White in a couple of fairly weak packs.
Twohands - I did rungood, but I also drafted a pretty aggressive deck in a draft that seemed to have really low-power cards overall.
Good show in the sealed!!
Seems like you played well, but this seems like a LOT of "run-good" as well, to actually activate your Metalcraft cards with 12 (13 post-board) total artifacts, many of which are extremely frail creatures and will naturally die and/or set you up for the total blowout.
Then again, the way the draft went, going for the MC "Hail Mary" might have been the right call - it was going to take a little luck to get there anyway.
Great win. I won one again last night, after opening my 2nd Tezzeret and A Phyrexian Obliterator!!! I didn't play either (not enough artifacts for Tezz. I ended up GB infect- occasionally siding in the obliterator).
anyway, I noticed that in pack 2 you passed 2 master's calls (you picked a Viridian Claw and a Relic-Warder instead). I do agree those are tough choices, but one of those would have helped your metalcraft.
Mortarpod, Scrapmelter and Relic-Warder are just that good in this format though.
Nice win, sir.