I can't even begin to say how sad this is.
I've known Erik through Magic Online and the forums for a long time, and I feel an incredible sense of loss.
I had one the other day that had Myr Welder, who was a house. I had 2 infusers out and a golem foundry in the bin, so the welder imprinted that and started making tons of golems.
These articles are a great read! I have been impressed with VI when I've played against him on a couple of occasions but never actually considered that he could be built around.
I actually tried this last night in a draft and ran a U/r control deck with only 1 VI and x2 Necrogen Censer, Culling Dias, and a Trigon of Throught. The deck had a lot of removal and was pretty solid but the VI was the definite MVP. By himself he won me a few games comboing with a Necrogen Censer and in other generating insane CA with a Culling Dias. Just a fun card and a really fun deck to play.
Hopefully I can give this a try again before it gets too popular.
Statements like this I don't understand. If you missed it, how can you call it the worst block? Surely you realize that eternal staple power level and Standard playability are not equal. Sure Mirrodin and Shards blocks were full of cards that have become power houses in Legacy and Classic, but who wants to play Affinity and Jund dominated Standard environments again?
and who is going to play mm block? ugh, pass. i stopped playing at that time and loe and behold, i lucked out and missed the worst block since fe/homelands
Another great article. I saw the Goblins deck you played here on the SCG website and decided to build it as it is nice and budget friendly. I quite enjoyed playing around with it, but I agree with you that it can be very weak to hate. Kor Firewalker is pretty much the worst.
Also, I haven't had time to listen to the podcasts but I'll be sure to give them a listen later on.
My grixis junk is junky too, but Thraximundar is a real mean card in itself. (if you have enough mana acceleration.)
Only thing missing would be adding infect to him.
I am ready to look into setting up a IRC server if people are interested. The way it could work is that we will take care of all the bidding on the IRC server, and then everyone will acquire the cards they bought on MTGO (you don't necessarily have to buy cards that you don't want to run in your deck). It can be just casual for now, and we can look into prizes after a couple successful drafts. Because we have to acquire cards individually, this will eliminate the "bidding for value" problem, and people selling out for a big money card. Once we have this down, my idea was to expand to have the auction as normal on the IRC server, but to have the auctioneer buy all the packs on MTGO (each person would send tickets to the auctioneer to pay for the packs). The auctioneer will be prevented from participating to remove any desire to falsify any of the cards in the packs. The auctioneer will also take screenshots with timestamps for anyone who would like to see them. We can work out some sort of incentive for someone to be the auctioneer (each person sends the auctioneer 1-2 extra tickets,etc.)
really liked the interview with tom. The play by play on the games i didn't love. Maybe if it was a single final matchup and you had a video to go with it then sure.
Resolved Oath; EE, Ratchet Bomb,or Disk(last 2 being preemptive for the most part and open to Claim/Grudge)). The Sad Sacs get the most value out of the sb for Storm match ups. REBs/Pyro for blue decks?
Tangle Wire is a Vintage and soon to be Classic staple as well in every Shop deck, wont be as high as Ports. I think Ports will hit 40 from Goblins,DnT and Lands.
One land hands are a 'must keep' with Stompy. There are simply so many one land plays/reversals...you need to become the mindset that is Stompy....One land is a great opening hand with Stompy...if you don't 'get this' play something else, and fast!
Hornet Sting is VERY surprisingly good vs. WW and even temporal storm variants. I'm now using 4x in sideboard...who'd have thought one damage was so vital :)
from back in the day: http://outofthebrokensky.com/newart/newarts.asp?ID=23
an archive of a series I wrote on Masques Block Constructed (though narrow in that it only covers UG, it does discuss a LOT of deck ideas by various people who emailed me.) Just to show you a sample of what it was like. You will have to use gatherer to look up cards you don't know listed there.
I'm probably in the minority, but I wanna see what Masques is like. I missed it irl, and I'm interedted in the contrast with Urza's (block full of broken cards i don't really like)
MASQUES IS COMING!!!! So many GREAT stuff from that block, such as... I mean... You know, that nice card called... Oh wait.
TBF, there's Daze, Gush, Foil and Thwart, maybe some more free spells I can't recall now, maybe the Paralax enchantments? And some ok casual stuff.
But Prophecy is going to be a major pain. Who's gonna play that? I guess the limited experience will be even more miserable with mana burn gone (yes, the rule that played a MAJOR rule on the set's design).
Good to see a lunch box again Whiffy.
I absolutely love Magus of the Moon. I will make your build and take it for a spin. I havent slung a lightning bolt in far to long either.
Have a goon one.
Great article as ussual. It stinls that your not going to write as much. Now I need to find my commander article fix elsewhere. I need to hurry up and get my L1 judge cert so I can start writing again. I been thinking on making a Marton Stromgald deck ever since I played against yours. Fun deck. Look forward to more articles even as scarce as they may be.
I can't even begin to say how sad this is.
I've known Erik through Magic Online and the forums for a long time, and I feel an incredible sense of loss.
I'm trying your suggestions today. Thermokarst is seeming very slow lately, and I'm loving hornet sting :)
I had one the other day that had Myr Welder, who was a house. I had 2 infusers out and a golem foundry in the bin, so the welder imprinted that and started making tons of golems.
These articles are a great read! I have been impressed with VI when I've played against him on a couple of occasions but never actually considered that he could be built around.
I actually tried this last night in a draft and ran a U/r control deck with only 1 VI and x2 Necrogen Censer, Culling Dias, and a Trigon of Throught. The deck had a lot of removal and was pretty solid but the VI was the definite MVP. By himself he won me a few games comboing with a Necrogen Censer and in other generating insane CA with a Culling Dias. Just a fun card and a really fun deck to play.
Hopefully I can give this a try again before it gets too popular.
Yeah Goblins is definitely one of if not the most powerful deck for its cost in standard.
Thanks!
Statements like this I don't understand. If you missed it, how can you call it the worst block? Surely you realize that eternal staple power level and Standard playability are not equal. Sure Mirrodin and Shards blocks were full of cards that have become power houses in Legacy and Classic, but who wants to play Affinity and Jund dominated Standard environments again?
great updates, but what about leagues!!!!!
and how about another lifetime mopr award?
and who is going to play mm block? ugh, pass. i stopped playing at that time and loe and behold, i lucked out and missed the worst block since fe/homelands
Another great article. I saw the Goblins deck you played here on the SCG website and decided to build it as it is nice and budget friendly. I quite enjoyed playing around with it, but I agree with you that it can be very weak to hate. Kor Firewalker is pretty much the worst.
Also, I haven't had time to listen to the podcasts but I'll be sure to give them a listen later on.
My grixis junk is junky too, but Thraximundar is a real mean card in itself. (if you have enough mana acceleration.)
Only thing missing would be adding infect to him.
Commander is easily my favorite format, and your articles have given me such insight, new ideas, and cards I would never have heard of.
Definitely going to miss your writing :-( but hope that you continue to pop in every once in a while :-D
i thought about ee, as i could let it sit there, the problem with bomb and disk are they are too slow
I am ready to look into setting up a IRC server if people are interested. The way it could work is that we will take care of all the bidding on the IRC server, and then everyone will acquire the cards they bought on MTGO (you don't necessarily have to buy cards that you don't want to run in your deck). It can be just casual for now, and we can look into prizes after a couple successful drafts. Because we have to acquire cards individually, this will eliminate the "bidding for value" problem, and people selling out for a big money card. Once we have this down, my idea was to expand to have the auction as normal on the IRC server, but to have the auctioneer buy all the packs on MTGO (each person would send tickets to the auctioneer to pay for the packs). The auctioneer will be prevented from participating to remove any desire to falsify any of the cards in the packs. The auctioneer will also take screenshots with timestamps for anyone who would like to see them. We can work out some sort of incentive for someone to be the auctioneer (each person sends the auctioneer 1-2 extra tickets,etc.)
really liked the interview with tom. The play by play on the games i didn't love. Maybe if it was a single final matchup and you had a video to go with it then sure.
Resolved Oath; EE, Ratchet Bomb,or Disk(last 2 being preemptive for the most part and open to Claim/Grudge)). The Sad Sacs get the most value out of the sb for Storm match ups. REBs/Pyro for blue decks?
Tangle Wire is a Vintage and soon to be Classic staple as well in every Shop deck, wont be as high as Ports. I think Ports will hit 40 from Goblins,DnT and Lands.
One land hands are a 'must keep' with Stompy. There are simply so many one land plays/reversals...you need to become the mindset that is Stompy....One land is a great opening hand with Stompy...if you don't 'get this' play something else, and fast!
Attention all Affinity whiners - tune into game # 49501672 to see how easy this matchup is, ok not 'easy' but pretty favorable :)
Since Rishadan Port is the only rare worth anything will be interesting to see how high it goes
Hornet Sting is VERY surprisingly good vs. WW and even temporal storm variants. I'm now using 4x in sideboard...who'd have thought one damage was so vital :)
from back in the day:
http://outofthebrokensky.com/newart/newarts.asp?ID=23
an archive of a series I wrote on Masques Block Constructed (though narrow in that it only covers UG, it does discuss a LOT of deck ideas by various people who emailed me.) Just to show you a sample of what it was like. You will have to use gatherer to look up cards you don't know listed there.
I'm probably in the minority, but I wanna see what Masques is like. I missed it irl, and I'm interedted in the contrast with Urza's (block full of broken cards i don't really like)
MASQUES IS COMING!!!! So many GREAT stuff from that block, such as... I mean... You know, that nice card called... Oh wait.
TBF, there's Daze, Gush, Foil and Thwart, maybe some more free spells I can't recall now, maybe the Paralax enchantments? And some ok casual stuff.
But Prophecy is going to be a major pain. Who's gonna play that? I guess the limited experience will be even more miserable with mana burn gone (yes, the rule that played a MAJOR rule on the set's design).
Good to see a lunch box again Whiffy.
I absolutely love Magus of the Moon. I will make your build and take it for a spin. I havent slung a lightning bolt in far to long either.
Have a goon one.
Great article as ussual. It stinls that your not going to write as much. Now I need to find my commander article fix elsewhere. I need to hurry up and get my L1 judge cert so I can start writing again. I been thinking on making a Marton Stromgald deck ever since I played against yours. Fun deck. Look forward to more articles even as scarce as they may be.
Happy April 1st Hammy. :)