Awesome show as always. I just wish you hadn't spent the time bashing Lion's Eye Diamond - there's absolutely no need to restrict it when it's not even played in any of the format's good decks right now! At the moment Workshop is a way bigger problem card.
I'm going to watch the vids Sunday morning but I already know how many fireballs they deserve. ;)
Just a question: why Mark of Mutiny instead of the more humble Act od Treason? If the stolen creature isn't going to die the +1/+1 counter can come back as a liability. Is the single point of damage worth the risk? ( Yes, if there are two identical creatues on the field, you'll say. But still I'm not sold on just that. :D )
I still don't get it. If you're going to win significantly more drafts than you'll lose round 1 then the right thing to do is to play 8-4s. I just don't see a situation where 4322 would ever be better than either swiss or 8-4.
The swiss queues may take 45 minutes longer to finish but not to play. Round 1 is the same as any other and once you are done round 3 you can go do whatever you want. Waiting for round 2 to finish I find adds about 20 minutes to the total time, but there is also no time spent drafting.
while sealed pools can be luck-based, the thirty card format reduces variance to the point that games are rarely decided by mana screw/flood. You will have the opportunity to play your spells and outplay your opponent. In my past 8 sealeds I have 4 3-0, 3 2-1 and one 1-2 which doesn't seem to speak to luck.
You choose 4-3-2-2 over swiss when you know you'll win a significantly higher amount of drafts than you'll lose round 1. Swiss is only ever better if you lose round 1. Swiss drafts take infinitely longer than 4-3-2-2's and nothing is more annoying than being handcuffed from joining a 2nd or 3rd draft by a swiss event that just won't end.
I've never really looked into the sealed swiss queues but their is no way that they take as long as a 4-3-2-2. The term Swiss, in addition to deck-building, certainly adds at least 45 minutes. I also feel a certain amount of skill is removed from the event by the random pool open amongst such a small group of players. Naturally, the luck there will balance out in time.
Caw blade is a tough deck to pilot. I am pretty adept at playing control strategies, but the aggressive nature of Caw blade presents some very interesting decision trees. There are times where I am just a bit unsure of the "correct" line of play.
To me Boros requires some finesse to play correctly as well. While Boros can act like a full on aggro deck it also has some controlling aspects to it. There are times when playing that one extra creature will either win you the game or lose you the game. Do I crack the fetch now or do I wait? Do I journey the hawk or do I save it for the Baneslayer? The good players can recognize the right play.
This is why videos are an excellent teaching tool and Agur can continue doing Cawblade videos for the next five months in my opinion :)
I guess I just found it tough to avoid the "blocks of text" with this particular subject matter.
Re: Clowns in tourney room
The 2-Mans are starting to feature a lot more clowns too nowadays, but at least you get to profit off them in these queues as opposed to having them waste your time in the casual room.
My deck test progression goes like this:
2-Man's (extensively until I've seen some near 75% results)
then
8-Man's (the mentioned 100 tic experiment - I often skip this phase)
then
Daily Events (this is the true test of your deck's capabilities).
then
MOCS (When I'm sincerely testing constructed decks it is for MOCS purposes as I'm a limited-first player.
That seems more like midrange to me. Very powerful midrange at that. The long game is yours if you manage to supress the more aggro decks bound to come out as the format heats up.
Not wanting to draft 8-4 I can understand but why choose to draft 4322 over swiss? Shouldn't the number one rule of going infinite be to respect EV?
I also don't get what's not to like about the sealed swiss queues. The time commitment is the same as draft (3 rounds) and the EV is 53 1/8% as opposed to 42.86% in swiss and 8-4 and 39.29% in 4322. And that's not even counting the fact that you get to open an extra pack.
I'm usually against walls of text in articles, but not this time. Great insight/advice throughout - especially the tourney testing vs. clowns in tourney room. SO much time saved by spending a few tix to get real results, keep it up!
Glad you're enjoying the articles and point noted. This subject is much more clinical than most which unfortunately did not allow for a lot of images (as we're speaking about theory as opposed to specific formats/cards).
I'm not a competitive-focused-on-"profit" MTGO player, I just like to have fun playing (and winning) with original decks. What you're "teaching" then has no real use for me and I can't really judge if the advice is solid (although it does seem like it).
Nevertheless, I like reading good, interesting texts on MTG/MTGO and yours are always worth it. You have a down-to-the-earth tone and a clear, rational voice. Keep it up as you're doing a great job.
PS: I'd just try to add some breathing space to the articles with some images or using formating, as already suggested by someone.
Your simply lying. KF can and does (around 50%) kill when it swings. Not including an "I Win" card for fear of turning on opps removal is folly. Not to self-promote (like that even does anything here) but all the for/against comments about this are listed here in depth:
Where to begin . . . first of all apparently you can't take the time to read anything as it is me you totally agree with concerning the "a" for effort.
Second, how good is kiln fiend as the only creature in a deck that actually lives more than a turn? The beauty of the burn deck is it leaves decks staring at the their creature removal in disbelief. You play a kiln fiend and they're immediately vindicated. You'd be better off shard volley'ing them.
Third, not respecting someone because they don't put a marginal card in pauper burn deck is the most ridiculous thing I've heard since someone told me this company actually exists (www.clevelandsteamercleaner.com)
Totally agree with olaw - "A" for effort, but for heaven's sake, get an editor! ;) You spell worse than I do! Also, there are a lot of grey areas with regards to card choice...but a burn deck without kilnfiend is simply wrong on all levels. I can't respect anyone who deludes themselves into thinking otherwise.
"nd the person in question were skilled enough. I would recommend Cawblade to everyone"
That's a great point. I play against like 30 awful cawblade players per week. It seems that 90% of the people playing the deck are just plain terrible. I'm actually a little worried that I've tested like 10-1 vs cawblade because I think when MOCS rolls around it may be a different story.
I'm just trying to "spread the love" to all archetypes that I can (with my card pool) and I guess we can agree to disagree that Boros is still viable. (Though I agree its definitely not at the height of its power)
If money and preference were not factors, and the person in question were skilled enough. I would recommend Cawblade to everyone. The thing is however my last 3 articles have featured cawblade and its time to check other things out. Cawblade is still my favorite standard deck.
I plan on running Gobbos next, certainly another viable and "budget" tier 1 deck. In fact I may not even play Boros again for months who knows. I plan to go where the meta and my card pool takes me :D.
Believe me, I don't doubt Boros' pure power. I still love the deck and would play it if it were viable, I just don't believe it truly is.
You do make good rebuttal points, but I still believe a) their must-answer trumps are more numerous and stronger than our answers to those trumps and b) they are more likely to find their trump than we are to find the answer to the trump.
I'm glad you did well in these dailies, I used to do pretty well with Boros in them too - but my win % dropped like a rock post-Paris, and I had to move on. Hopefully you can keep it up and prove me wrong!
I never said Boros was my favorite deck in this meta-game. But, I still stick by the idea that it is a competitor and still a tier 1 if not tier 1.25 deck. A semi budget, still strong option in a world of Jace.
@ TRG
Boros does have a very rough time with poison decks featuring Crusader and sometimes Necropede(Side or Main). It is by no means an auto-loss. You can win through crusader if you have a fast start and they have a slow one and sometimes they don't draw crusader. The only options Boros has against crusader are brittle effigy, ratchet bomb and contagion clasp. None are worth it in my opinion.
@Swolyswond Yes Boros is not at its height, but I don't believe it is as dire as you say. Boros is not an underdog as much as a coin-flip against cawblade. (Cawblade being a deck that is probably my favorite deck) If you underestimate boros as cawblade you can straight up lose games.
I do believe your list is highly exaggerated, lets go through a few show why Boros doesn't pack it in.
Baneslayer - You can actually just force Baneslayer to chump; any landfall dude with adventuring gear and a fetch easily outgrows baneslayer and puts them in an awkward position. (Bonehoard can also just be huge some games - I've seen 13/13, 5 life won't prevent death from it)
Inferno Titan - Hes a real problem for this deck. Sideboard hes a liability for your opponent if they can't deal with your mark of mutiny.
Primeval Titan - Sometimes you just win before he attacks. Sideboard mark of mutiny kicks in.
Gideon Jura (not even JtN helps here) Boros decks have been killing Gideon since Cawblade has existed (Back to Pro Tour Paris when Reitzl was stomping a lot of Cawblade) Things have changed since then and its not as great a matchup for Boros anymore, but you don't pack it in to Gideon. Dealing 8+ damage is not unheard of for this deck.
Avenger of Zenidkar- Pro Green swords get through the final points or take to air with suited up Birds.
Vengevine - All depends on how many they have, one is annoying but not a major problem. If you need, sword up and go through or take to the air.
Phyrexian Crusader - Huge problem, but sometimes with the right start you can swing through him for the kill.
(Lesser extent): Kor Firewalker Fine but not unbeatable as you saw today.
Most of these creatures are hard for any deck to deal with on the board for longer than 1 turn, at least Boros has better options than most decks. 6 Main deck options more sideboard.
Kalastria Highborn
Fauna Shaman -
Anything carrying a Sword
Boros is a damage machine, don't underestimate how fast it can kill through light resistance. Steppe Lynx does a good impression of Leatherback Baloth on the attack while Plated Geopede attacks as a 5/5 First strike as well. The deck doesn't fold to a wrath effect and has ways to generate long game viability if needed.
I've seen a fair amount of Mono-Red, Boros seems gone I agree. I suppose we can further discuss in clan (whenever the hell I get out of work!) We should test up for that Mocs. The deck I'm playing has lost some steam lately with these current trends.
mtgo didnt have a glitch. i dont know if your new to modo or not, but you have learned a valuable lesson, when your ready to draft, be ready to draft. your experience happened to me once and i was like ohhhhh. needless to say its only ever happened the once. im also really really surprised you were givin anything as it wassent a client issue that made you pick the living weapon.
Awesome show as always. I just wish you hadn't spent the time bashing Lion's Eye Diamond - there's absolutely no need to restrict it when it's not even played in any of the format's good decks right now! At the moment Workshop is a way bigger problem card.
I'm going to watch the vids Sunday morning but I already know how many fireballs they deserve. ;)
Just a question: why Mark of Mutiny instead of the more humble Act od Treason? If the stolen creature isn't going to die the +1/+1 counter can come back as a liability. Is the single point of damage worth the risk? ( Yes, if there are two identical creatues on the field, you'll say. But still I'm not sold on just that. :D )
I still don't get it. If you're going to win significantly more drafts than you'll lose round 1 then the right thing to do is to play 8-4s. I just don't see a situation where 4322 would ever be better than either swiss or 8-4.
The swiss queues may take 45 minutes longer to finish but not to play. Round 1 is the same as any other and once you are done round 3 you can go do whatever you want. Waiting for round 2 to finish I find adds about 20 minutes to the total time, but there is also no time spent drafting.
while sealed pools can be luck-based, the thirty card format reduces variance to the point that games are rarely decided by mana screw/flood. You will have the opportunity to play your spells and outplay your opponent. In my past 8 sealeds I have 4 3-0, 3 2-1 and one 1-2 which doesn't seem to speak to luck.
A post just to put the 5 Star Rating on this article. Another great job.
You choose 4-3-2-2 over swiss when you know you'll win a significantly higher amount of drafts than you'll lose round 1. Swiss is only ever better if you lose round 1. Swiss drafts take infinitely longer than 4-3-2-2's and nothing is more annoying than being handcuffed from joining a 2nd or 3rd draft by a swiss event that just won't end.
I've never really looked into the sealed swiss queues but their is no way that they take as long as a 4-3-2-2. The term Swiss, in addition to deck-building, certainly adds at least 45 minutes. I also feel a certain amount of skill is removed from the event by the random pool open amongst such a small group of players. Naturally, the luck there will balance out in time.
Caw blade is a tough deck to pilot. I am pretty adept at playing control strategies, but the aggressive nature of Caw blade presents some very interesting decision trees. There are times where I am just a bit unsure of the "correct" line of play.
To me Boros requires some finesse to play correctly as well. While Boros can act like a full on aggro deck it also has some controlling aspects to it. There are times when playing that one extra creature will either win you the game or lose you the game. Do I crack the fetch now or do I wait? Do I journey the hawk or do I save it for the Baneslayer? The good players can recognize the right play.
This is why videos are an excellent teaching tool and Agur can continue doing Cawblade videos for the next five months in my opinion :)
Thanks for the comment,
I guess I just found it tough to avoid the "blocks of text" with this particular subject matter.
Re: Clowns in tourney room
The 2-Mans are starting to feature a lot more clowns too nowadays, but at least you get to profit off them in these queues as opposed to having them waste your time in the casual room.
My deck test progression goes like this:
2-Man's (extensively until I've seen some near 75% results)
then
8-Man's (the mentioned 100 tic experiment - I often skip this phase)
then
Daily Events (this is the true test of your deck's capabilities).
then
MOCS (When I'm sincerely testing constructed decks it is for MOCS purposes as I'm a limited-first player.
That seems more like midrange to me. Very powerful midrange at that. The long game is yours if you manage to supress the more aggro decks bound to come out as the format heats up.
Not wanting to draft 8-4 I can understand but why choose to draft 4322 over swiss? Shouldn't the number one rule of going infinite be to respect EV?
I also don't get what's not to like about the sealed swiss queues. The time commitment is the same as draft (3 rounds) and the EV is 53 1/8% as opposed to 42.86% in swiss and 8-4 and 39.29% in 4322. And that's not even counting the fact that you get to open an extra pack.
I'm usually against walls of text in articles, but not this time. Great insight/advice throughout - especially the tourney testing vs. clowns in tourney room. SO much time saved by spending a few tix to get real results, keep it up!
Glad you're enjoying the articles and point noted. This subject is much more clinical than most which unfortunately did not allow for a lot of images (as we're speaking about theory as opposed to specific formats/cards).
I'm not a competitive-focused-on-"profit" MTGO player, I just like to have fun playing (and winning) with original decks. What you're "teaching" then has no real use for me and I can't really judge if the advice is solid (although it does seem like it).
Nevertheless, I like reading good, interesting texts on MTG/MTGO and yours are always worth it. You have a down-to-the-earth tone and a clear, rational voice. Keep it up as you're doing a great job.
PS: I'd just try to add some breathing space to the articles with some images or using formating, as already suggested by someone.
I guess crapping on your pet card gets you a little "fired" up.
Regardless, Fiend is average at best in the red decks in pauper. Better noted, the red burn decks in pauper are below average.
Your simply lying. KF can and does (around 50%) kill when it swings. Not including an "I Win" card for fear of turning on opps removal is folly. Not to self-promote (like that even does anything here) but all the for/against comments about this are listed here in depth:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/burning-kiln
Where to begin . . . first of all apparently you can't take the time to read anything as it is me you totally agree with concerning the "a" for effort.
Second, how good is kiln fiend as the only creature in a deck that actually lives more than a turn? The beauty of the burn deck is it leaves decks staring at the their creature removal in disbelief. You play a kiln fiend and they're immediately vindicated. You'd be better off shard volley'ing them.
Third, not respecting someone because they don't put a marginal card in pauper burn deck is the most ridiculous thing I've heard since someone told me this company actually exists (www.clevelandsteamercleaner.com)
Totally agree with olaw - "A" for effort, but for heaven's sake, get an editor! ;) You spell worse than I do! Also, there are a lot of grey areas with regards to card choice...but a burn deck without kilnfiend is simply wrong on all levels. I can't respect anyone who deludes themselves into thinking otherwise.
"nd the person in question were skilled enough. I would recommend Cawblade to everyone"
That's a great point. I play against like 30 awful cawblade players per week. It seems that 90% of the people playing the deck are just plain terrible. I'm actually a little worried that I've tested like 10-1 vs cawblade because I think when MOCS rolls around it may be a different story.
I'm just trying to "spread the love" to all archetypes that I can (with my card pool) and I guess we can agree to disagree that Boros is still viable. (Though I agree its definitely not at the height of its power)
If money and preference were not factors, and the person in question were skilled enough. I would recommend Cawblade to everyone. The thing is however my last 3 articles have featured cawblade and its time to check other things out. Cawblade is still my favorite standard deck.
I plan on running Gobbos next, certainly another viable and "budget" tier 1 deck. In fact I may not even play Boros again for months who knows. I plan to go where the meta and my card pool takes me :D.
Believe me, I don't doubt Boros' pure power. I still love the deck and would play it if it were viable, I just don't believe it truly is.
You do make good rebuttal points, but I still believe a) their must-answer trumps are more numerous and stronger than our answers to those trumps and b) they are more likely to find their trump than we are to find the answer to the trump.
I'm glad you did well in these dailies, I used to do pretty well with Boros in them too - but my win % dropped like a rock post-Paris, and I had to move on. Hopefully you can keep it up and prove me wrong!
I never said Boros was my favorite deck in this meta-game. But, I still stick by the idea that it is a competitor and still a tier 1 if not tier 1.25 deck. A semi budget, still strong option in a world of Jace.
@ TRG
Boros does have a very rough time with poison decks featuring Crusader and sometimes Necropede(Side or Main). It is by no means an auto-loss. You can win through crusader if you have a fast start and they have a slow one and sometimes they don't draw crusader. The only options Boros has against crusader are brittle effigy, ratchet bomb and contagion clasp. None are worth it in my opinion.
@Swolyswond Yes Boros is not at its height, but I don't believe it is as dire as you say. Boros is not an underdog as much as a coin-flip against cawblade. (Cawblade being a deck that is probably my favorite deck) If you underestimate boros as cawblade you can straight up lose games.
I do believe your list is highly exaggerated, lets go through a few show why Boros doesn't pack it in.
Baneslayer - You can actually just force Baneslayer to chump; any landfall dude with adventuring gear and a fetch easily outgrows baneslayer and puts them in an awkward position. (Bonehoard can also just be huge some games - I've seen 13/13, 5 life won't prevent death from it)
Inferno Titan - Hes a real problem for this deck. Sideboard hes a liability for your opponent if they can't deal with your mark of mutiny.
Primeval Titan - Sometimes you just win before he attacks. Sideboard mark of mutiny kicks in.
Gideon Jura (not even JtN helps here) Boros decks have been killing Gideon since Cawblade has existed (Back to Pro Tour Paris when Reitzl was stomping a lot of Cawblade) Things have changed since then and its not as great a matchup for Boros anymore, but you don't pack it in to Gideon. Dealing 8+ damage is not unheard of for this deck.
Avenger of Zenidkar- Pro Green swords get through the final points or take to air with suited up Birds.
Vengevine - All depends on how many they have, one is annoying but not a major problem. If you need, sword up and go through or take to the air.
Phyrexian Crusader - Huge problem, but sometimes with the right start you can swing through him for the kill.
(Lesser extent): Kor Firewalker Fine but not unbeatable as you saw today.
Most of these creatures are hard for any deck to deal with on the board for longer than 1 turn, at least Boros has better options than most decks. 6 Main deck options more sideboard.
Kalastria Highborn
Fauna Shaman -
Anything carrying a Sword
Boros is a damage machine, don't underestimate how fast it can kill through light resistance. Steppe Lynx does a good impression of Leatherback Baloth on the attack while Plated Geopede attacks as a 5/5 First strike as well. The deck doesn't fold to a wrath effect and has ways to generate long game viability if needed.
I've seen a fair amount of Mono-Red, Boros seems gone I agree. I suppose we can further discuss in clan (whenever the hell I get out of work!) We should test up for that Mocs. The deck I'm playing has lost some steam lately with these current trends.
Probably not. There hasn't been a Boros Top 16 placing in any major live tournament lately, and the aggro MTGO players seem to be defaulting to Vamps.
mtgo didnt have a glitch. i dont know if your new to modo or not, but you have learned a valuable lesson, when your ready to draft, be ready to draft. your experience happened to me once and i was like ohhhhh. needless to say its only ever happened the once. im also really really surprised you were givin anything as it wassent a client issue that made you pick the living weapon.
Well I'm hoping there's a lot of Boros in MOCS 4, but I suspect there won't be.
I was never a fan of Zoo in the old K-scope, but if I have to build one for the new version, then I think I would run something like this:
22x Lands (w/lots of fetchlands)
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4x Boggart Ram-Gang
3x Qasali Pridemage
2x Dauntless Escort
1x Uril, the Miststalker
4x Lightning Helix
3x Shield of the Oversoul
3x Naya Charm
2x Eladamri's Call
My sideboard would be then something like this:
4x Loxodon Hierarch
3x Gaddock Teeg (could be 4 as well)
2x Aura Shards (could be 1 or 3 depending on the meta)
2x Giant Solifuge
2x Pure/Simple (could be 4)
1x Dauntless Escort
1x Mystic Enforcer
And I would also consider testing Soltari Guerrillas and Fires of Yavimaya.
Hope this helps.
LE