That was the first time I had ever faced a t1 serra ascendant. It wasnt nearly as bad as some say though. I wanted to rite of replication it but you already had me below 30 life. sad day. Thanks for the read though.
I have been tweeking my deck each day and have been playing all planeswalker decks. I wont try it out in a tournament until it plays a mono-red deck because mono-red is the best deck out there. And I have been playing since Beta. Well I didn't play at Beta, my dad bought me cards, I was only 6. But I have been in the game for a while, and there I know one thing. If people are basing their decks around artifacts, then I keep it simple and build an anti-artifact deck. There are more than enough cards.
The only reason you don't see my deck played is because of the Sylvok Replica/Mortapod combo with Glissa. I am basically playing mono-black infect with anti-artifact green.
This isn't like when I quit the game years ago. There just aren't enough counterspells. Back in the day, there were at least 4 separate kinds of counterspells. Like Regular 2 mana counterspell, Thwart, those kinds. Now a days other than stoic rebuttal, there is no counterspell for my deck that doesn't have artifacts (other than 2-4 swords). And using Memoricide in the main deck, I know what you are playing as soon as the first mana.
I play SOM block only, so its different if you play Standard. I'm not a troll. I just think that Tezz is overrated and he's easily beaten. You will see black green decks soon, but people need to stop playing Glissa. Just because you have them from the promo and its black and green doesn't mean you have to put it in a deck.
And also have you seen the times (EST) for the SOM block tournaments? Its like 7am and 12am or something like that. If I take some adderall I would love to be up all night playing in a tournament. Otherwise I would love to use my deck in a QP game, but at a reasonable time.
While morally I do you have a slight discrepancy with winning through time, i can overlook it in a tournament for prizes. Beisdes I can think of many PDC events were I was playing Mono-Blue aggro, and would win with less than 30 seconds due to the deck combined with my gameplan. I have also won due to time, but never felt bad about it.
a sense of honor is one thing, but this is a competition. There is no honor in losing a game you should win because you want to handicap your self. the clock is a resource. you dis honor your self and your opponent when you let them win because of some pre concieved notions of morality.
If it were me i wouldnt conceed to time and neither would my opponent if i had a winning board and 5 seconds.
I'll be honest this would be a 5-star comment if it wasnt such obvious trolling. Look once this magical infect deck starts winning whole events and we see veritable truth on mtg.com, we will conceed your point that tezz is garbage. Until then, fat chance.
I had an experience awhile back where my finals opponent deliberately disconnected after the 2nd game in our match where my tech against his deck came into play and forced a win. (Volcanic Falloutx2 (in Naya Elves) vs Combo Elves). He waited until he had very little time left on the clock and almost timed out after coming back from the sideboard time. He then proceded to combo out in 4 lightning quick turns while I tried to top deck one of 8 sweepers to stop him from doing so. I had 24 mins left on my clock. He had about 29 seconds on his when he won.
Did I get unlucky? Sure. I metaed against his deck (Tribal Wars btw) specifically and was rewarded with one perfect game and two not so great games. (First game saw us go about 39 turns before his huge number of elves and tokens were able to finish me while I kept hoping to draw my sweepers.) I did feel cheated a little since he pulled a tantrum before coming back to win. But mainly I shrugged.
I had to admire his ability to come back from a fairly demoralizing loss and win it all.
No point to that story really except that I did consider gaming the clock but decided it was not the right thing to do. Personal choice. It was a PRE so not much was on the line (4 tix) Maybe I would have if the prize was a box worth of boosters or some similar prize. (Though I doubt it, I can't really say as I rarely have been in position to win that type of prize, and never had a dilemma about how to do it.)
The only other thing I have to address is: Honor. Being a purely subjective ideal there is little point in discussing it with those who do not see it the same way you do. Your sense of integrity prevents you from acting in certain ways. Theirs doesn't. Neither of you will convince the other that your way is better.
Truly excellent article - well-organized, with lots of food for thought and beautiful, purposeful visuals.
Stompy is one of my favorite deck archetypes, I played it a lot when it first showed up (Urza's Saga block). I'm no Pauper expert but the thoughts on card choices and match-ups looked sound to me. You can always argue about some details, but that happens with all decks.
>Tezz is garbage. He is based around putting out cards that can't stop a fast deck
Cool retarded troll, bro. 5/10, I responded.
He is based around drawing you artifacts (such as tumble magnet and ratchet bomb, which shut down aggro) and making your artifacts into 5/5's (that aggro decks can't beat.)
He's actually extremely powerful, and all recent tournament results (both Standard and Block) confirm that. Anything that compares favorably to Jace the Mind Sculptor needs a long hard look, granted he's more narrow, but the power is there.
hey, you guys are all unrealistic. we have a clock. it is a way to win the game just like damage decking and poison. If you are going to join a tournament and pay tickets to win prizes, you will take any advantage that the opponent gives you. If he is playing sloppy thats on him and you win. if he misclicks, same. but if he runs around the apartment or plays slow during the match its my fault when he times out? give it a rest. personally i have never ever timed out in a constructed match. omarvelous should have managed his clock better, played with it instead of against it.
RCueva - that's why I wrote this, to avoid having to re-write this to every person that chats with me on mtgo :) - which is flattering, but a sometimes feels like a pestermite! No offence, I'd be happy to answer a few questions...but the above should be more than enough imo.
Usually they are almost dead, so they have no choice.
We can argue this to death, or we can sling it out.
Also, Shield of the Oversoul is insane vs. Affinity, causing atog to lose an artifact a turn (at least, more if on mongrel) while you can even go aggro and untap it via ranger to play defence, basically giving it indestructable vigilance. Just like with temporal storm, the more 'answers' they bring in, the slower they play out. Also, the new affinity has ZERO flyers, and silhana usually takes it if any of the above 3 scenerios don't happen to occur.
Fog is nothing new..>I used to laugh at it, but it demands answers, and vs. stompy, you have just a few turns to do so.
I'll also point out that the cat's out of the bag on Fog. Nobody is ever going to go all-in on an Atog while you have green mana up. I mean, maybe it worked before, and maybe that explains some of the different record, but it's not terribly effective nowadays.
Totally disagree. Sleeve it up online and challenge me online anytime. Best of 3 games we'll do...no biasing the board etc.., just bring the new affinity (which I've faced many times) and we'll see. The same argument goes for me, atog for the win, stompy casts fog, wins everytime. Shinnen swings with groudswell, stompy wins everytime etc.., all matchups have their 'nut' draws/plays. Affinity is a great deck, I just don't need any artifact hate to beat it. My ratio vs. it is 10 wins 3 losses, all in tournaments.
Having now played 7 matches vs. Affinity, I have to question how much you've actually played against "new Affinity" decks with Atog, Carapace Forger, up to 8 maindeck burn spells, and often Perilous Myr in the side. I'm 1-6, and frankly I'm sure you're going to call me a bad player and/or point to small sample, but I tend to know what I'm doing, I have experience with similar decks previously, and none of these matches have been particularly close -- in fact, my opponent misplayed both losses of my only match win. If they cast Atog, you lose. If they cast a 4/4 on turn 2 and another on turn 3, you lose. I've also never managed to kill a DOTV; they have burn for the 1/2 or they have Springleaf Drum (and yes, I am aware of the Ranger tricks). I've won three total GAMES in these seven matches. I think you should massively re-evaluate this matchup.
Thanks Shard, I really just spend a night with a glass of wine (port's my fav)surfing for good images. Once I have a bunch, I save them in a folder and when the muse hits...I fire up photoshop and go to town. In order to do custom images/text/arrows etc.., you kinda need it. I'm sure you can find plenty of great lessons for free on youtube, from guys/gals that make me look like a hack :)
The worst thing for me is mispelling in a graphic, since I'm a horrible speller...MUCH harder to fix than a typo!
I have to admit, I really do like the graphics you used. I actually had your playwright article open while I was writing my latest piece, just to help me with making it better. But Im still jealous over the quality of your graphics. Any tips that dont include paying that website you linked money?
Since I normally come in here to tell Pauper authors to do better, I have to compliment you on an article well done. A shining example that I will point other Pauper authors to when they write quicky money-grab articles.
In particular, I must hand you credit regarding Shield of the Oversoul + Wild Mongrel; I had never thought about that particular interaction before! However, a word of warning for everybody: if you change the mongrel's color away from green, he will no longer be indestructible. Damage is not removed until end of turn, and if he stops being green, he will stop being indestructible, and if he has lethal damage, he will die as a state-based-effect.
It would be interesting to see you do a followup article on MGA Infect, or "Infectious Growth" and compare and contrast, as the two decks are such close cousins. Thanks for the nice article.
Duplicated. ...so much enthusiasm. XD
5 fireballs are not enough.
GREAT article, I was actually craving for this.
That was the first time I had ever faced a t1 serra ascendant. It wasnt nearly as bad as some say though. I wanted to rite of replication it but you already had me below 30 life. sad day. Thanks for the read though.
Hey! I was the Kemba guy in your game report, just to say that i cutted serra ascendant from my deck after this game. NIce article, enjoyed it.
I have been tweeking my deck each day and have been playing all planeswalker decks. I wont try it out in a tournament until it plays a mono-red deck because mono-red is the best deck out there. And I have been playing since Beta. Well I didn't play at Beta, my dad bought me cards, I was only 6. But I have been in the game for a while, and there I know one thing. If people are basing their decks around artifacts, then I keep it simple and build an anti-artifact deck. There are more than enough cards.
The only reason you don't see my deck played is because of the Sylvok Replica/Mortapod combo with Glissa. I am basically playing mono-black infect with anti-artifact green.
This isn't like when I quit the game years ago. There just aren't enough counterspells. Back in the day, there were at least 4 separate kinds of counterspells. Like Regular 2 mana counterspell, Thwart, those kinds. Now a days other than stoic rebuttal, there is no counterspell for my deck that doesn't have artifacts (other than 2-4 swords). And using Memoricide in the main deck, I know what you are playing as soon as the first mana.
I play SOM block only, so its different if you play Standard. I'm not a troll. I just think that Tezz is overrated and he's easily beaten. You will see black green decks soon, but people need to stop playing Glissa. Just because you have them from the promo and its black and green doesn't mean you have to put it in a deck.
And also have you seen the times (EST) for the SOM block tournaments? Its like 7am and 12am or something like that. If I take some adderall I would love to be up all night playing in a tournament. Otherwise I would love to use my deck in a QP game, but at a reasonable time.
While morally I do you have a slight discrepancy with winning through time, i can overlook it in a tournament for prizes. Beisdes I can think of many PDC events were I was playing Mono-Blue aggro, and would win with less than 30 seconds due to the deck combined with my gameplan. I have also won due to time, but never felt bad about it.
I like pauper, so I liked the content. That it also looks good is appreciated.
a sense of honor is one thing, but this is a competition. There is no honor in losing a game you should win because you want to handicap your self. the clock is a resource. you dis honor your self and your opponent when you let them win because of some pre concieved notions of morality.
If it were me i wouldnt conceed to time and neither would my opponent if i had a winning board and 5 seconds.
again this only applies to prize matches.
I'll be honest this would be a 5-star comment if it wasnt such obvious trolling. Look once this magical infect deck starts winning whole events and we see veritable truth on mtg.com, we will conceed your point that tezz is garbage. Until then, fat chance.
I had an experience awhile back where my finals opponent deliberately disconnected after the 2nd game in our match where my tech against his deck came into play and forced a win. (Volcanic Falloutx2 (in Naya Elves) vs Combo Elves). He waited until he had very little time left on the clock and almost timed out after coming back from the sideboard time. He then proceded to combo out in 4 lightning quick turns while I tried to top deck one of 8 sweepers to stop him from doing so. I had 24 mins left on my clock. He had about 29 seconds on his when he won.
Did I get unlucky? Sure. I metaed against his deck (Tribal Wars btw) specifically and was rewarded with one perfect game and two not so great games. (First game saw us go about 39 turns before his huge number of elves and tokens were able to finish me while I kept hoping to draw my sweepers.) I did feel cheated a little since he pulled a tantrum before coming back to win. But mainly I shrugged.
I had to admire his ability to come back from a fairly demoralizing loss and win it all.
No point to that story really except that I did consider gaming the clock but decided it was not the right thing to do. Personal choice. It was a PRE so not much was on the line (4 tix) Maybe I would have if the prize was a box worth of boosters or some similar prize. (Though I doubt it, I can't really say as I rarely have been in position to win that type of prize, and never had a dilemma about how to do it.)
The only other thing I have to address is: Honor. Being a purely subjective ideal there is little point in discussing it with those who do not see it the same way you do. Your sense of integrity prevents you from acting in certain ways. Theirs doesn't. Neither of you will convince the other that your way is better.
Truly excellent article - well-organized, with lots of food for thought and beautiful, purposeful visuals.
Stompy is one of my favorite deck archetypes, I played it a lot when it first showed up (Urza's Saga block). I'm no Pauper expert but the thoughts on card choices and match-ups looked sound to me. You can always argue about some details, but that happens with all decks.
>Tezz is garbage. He is based around putting out cards that can't stop a fast deck
Cool retarded troll, bro. 5/10, I responded.
He is based around drawing you artifacts (such as tumble magnet and ratchet bomb, which shut down aggro) and making your artifacts into 5/5's (that aggro decks can't beat.)
He's actually extremely powerful, and all recent tournament results (both Standard and Block) confirm that. Anything that compares favorably to Jace the Mind Sculptor needs a long hard look, granted he's more narrow, but the power is there.
hey, you guys are all unrealistic. we have a clock. it is a way to win the game just like damage decking and poison. If you are going to join a tournament and pay tickets to win prizes, you will take any advantage that the opponent gives you. If he is playing sloppy thats on him and you win. if he misclicks, same. but if he runs around the apartment or plays slow during the match its my fault when he times out? give it a rest. personally i have never ever timed out in a constructed match. omarvelous should have managed his clock better, played with it instead of against it.
also i liked the article.
RCueva - that's why I wrote this, to avoid having to re-write this to every person that chats with me on mtgo :) - which is flattering, but a sometimes feels like a pestermite! No offence, I'd be happy to answer a few questions...but the above should be more than enough imo.
Awesome article first of off.
Second I've been meaning to chat with you online for some pointers on how to play the deck.
Usually they are almost dead, so they have no choice.
We can argue this to death, or we can sling it out.
Also, Shield of the Oversoul is insane vs. Affinity, causing atog to lose an artifact a turn (at least, more if on mongrel) while you can even go aggro and untap it via ranger to play defence, basically giving it indestructable vigilance. Just like with temporal storm, the more 'answers' they bring in, the slower they play out. Also, the new affinity has ZERO flyers, and silhana usually takes it if any of the above 3 scenerios don't happen to occur.
Fog is nothing new..>I used to laugh at it, but it demands answers, and vs. stompy, you have just a few turns to do so.
I'll also point out that the cat's out of the bag on Fog. Nobody is ever going to go all-in on an Atog while you have green mana up. I mean, maybe it worked before, and maybe that explains some of the different record, but it's not terribly effective nowadays.
Totally disagree. Sleeve it up online and challenge me online anytime. Best of 3 games we'll do...no biasing the board etc.., just bring the new affinity (which I've faced many times) and we'll see. The same argument goes for me, atog for the win, stompy casts fog, wins everytime. Shinnen swings with groudswell, stompy wins everytime etc.., all matchups have their 'nut' draws/plays. Affinity is a great deck, I just don't need any artifact hate to beat it. My ratio vs. it is 10 wins 3 losses, all in tournaments.
Having now played 7 matches vs. Affinity, I have to question how much you've actually played against "new Affinity" decks with Atog, Carapace Forger, up to 8 maindeck burn spells, and often Perilous Myr in the side. I'm 1-6, and frankly I'm sure you're going to call me a bad player and/or point to small sample, but I tend to know what I'm doing, I have experience with similar decks previously, and none of these matches have been particularly close -- in fact, my opponent misplayed both losses of my only match win. If they cast Atog, you lose. If they cast a 4/4 on turn 2 and another on turn 3, you lose. I've also never managed to kill a DOTV; they have burn for the 1/2 or they have Springleaf Drum (and yes, I am aware of the Ranger tricks). I've won three total GAMES in these seven matches. I think you should massively re-evaluate this matchup.
Thx GP - I'm with you! It's all about quality not quanity. Here's another one you may like:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/burning-kiln
Thanks Shard, I really just spend a night with a glass of wine (port's my fav)surfing for good images. Once I have a bunch, I save them in a folder and when the muse hits...I fire up photoshop and go to town. In order to do custom images/text/arrows etc.., you kinda need it. I'm sure you can find plenty of great lessons for free on youtube, from guys/gals that make me look like a hack :)
The worst thing for me is mispelling in a graphic, since I'm a horrible speller...MUCH harder to fix than a typo!
I have to admit, I really do like the graphics you used. I actually had your playwright article open while I was writing my latest piece, just to help me with making it better. But Im still jealous over the quality of your graphics. Any tips that dont include paying that website you linked money?
Since I normally come in here to tell Pauper authors to do better, I have to compliment you on an article well done. A shining example that I will point other Pauper authors to when they write quicky money-grab articles.
In particular, I must hand you credit regarding Shield of the Oversoul + Wild Mongrel; I had never thought about that particular interaction before! However, a word of warning for everybody: if you change the mongrel's color away from green, he will no longer be indestructible. Damage is not removed until end of turn, and if he stops being green, he will stop being indestructible, and if he has lethal damage, he will die as a state-based-effect.
It would be interesting to see you do a followup article on MGA Infect, or "Infectious Growth" and compare and contrast, as the two decks are such close cousins. Thanks for the nice article.
Love the layout and the graphics. Well done. :)
Well, as long as you got my comments, what more do you need? :P