I cn answer for myself, I hate drawing the Canonist. I know its a powerful ability, but it so often hurts me as much as it does my opponent. And The Karakas/Mangara combo is sweet, but i've run into times when I've needed another land and I've had a karakas stuck in my hand.
Also, I find it odd to run 3 Kor Spiritdancers but only 2 pieces of equipment. I swapped the Bonesplitter for a Sword of B&M, I'd use a different sword if I owned one.
Oddly, I've been playing online since Mirrodin and this deck is the first time I've ever owned or played with athe dreaded Jitte.
How long do you think it would take for Mark Rosewater to grade 720 short answer tests?
Tthe test cut the number of applicants down somewhat arbitrarily but probably selected contestants who were at least in the top third of the pool (in terms of what Rosewater was looking for). Following that cut, the final eight were selected based on their design tests (effectively the short answer test you wanted; by the way, I think the point of the essay questions was just to deter potential half-hearted applicants from taking the multiple-choice test so that they would not skew the results).
I don't understand the reasoning behind calling Rosewater a coward. He is not afraid of anything. He addressed several individual questions about the test on Twitter and also made the following tweets:
"For the record, if I knew then what I know now, I would have rewritten the question for #6 and removed the vanilla creature from #48."
and
"I would love to give additional feedback but I don't have the time. Just doing what I am has taken many, many hours."
Also, I don't see why he needs to apologize. It was announced before the contest started that a multiple-choice test would be involved. Of course, all the flaws inherent in a multiple choice test would be present.
I'm guessing this was your way to rage against the system. This is one of my problems with the Magic community at large. They tend to spend more time on hyperbole than they do on innovation.
What kind of a following does Heirloom have on a day-to-day basis in the Heirloom room? I can't make the PREs, but if I could get some casual games in, I might dabble a bit. However, if no one plays outside of the PREs, there's not much point in dabbling. =)
Have to echo some of the other criticisms here. I'd say you lucked out and basically got handed a not bad infect deck that you won a match with. Congratulations? I had a hard time watching you pick blackcleave goblin over acid web spider to "force" infect and then (quite outrageously) the spider tables, only reinforcing your bad habit. In pack 1, the signals you send are nowhere near as important as the signals you receive, since if things dry up in pack 2 they'll just be back in pack 3, and honestly, nobody is going to see what is arguably the worst infect creature and decide they're going to force infect based on it.
it's never as simple as 1:1, sure you can say someone who knows the answer to a question will get it right 100% of the time, but that isn't exactly a truth either. Given a question with no options for chosing an answer you may be right. What is the definition of time? Without multiple choice answers to pick from I know the answer. Now given four options where I have to pick one it isn't necessarily 100% chance I'll get it right even though I know what "time" is. Your wording for that definition maybe different from mine and not distinguishable. Sure that's a simple example, but how many times have we all encountered a question on a test where the answer isn't there that we know is right? Whether it is a different interpretation in wording or not, it doesn't matter. Point is that it isn't really 100%
true I never would have considered the Pacifism splash though it would have been easy... and as far as honor goes... I can't tell you that lol brain lapse? I didn't even know I had it until you just mentioned it and I had to double check ><
I know its crazy, but again I tend to run decks with 16-17 land going back to the dead card thing. I get so frustrated when I get land flooded, way more so then mana screwed so I always play it short... its two fold, first I dont often run into mana problems so why change? and two when I get frustrated I play worse and get more frustrated so it tends to be semi-psychological, now if I was a better average drafter I'd jump into 8-4s, but since I'm not a great limited player I'll stick to 4322 where I get chances like this to stretch one draft into three.
Thx for the comment and advice, after the Pauper break I really should try to better myself at SoM or Zen drafts to start building towards Std, try not to get too flooded on M11
Thanks for the book titles. Since finishing my Masters I don't think I still have access to academic journals. =( At least those texts should offer a crash course on the fundamentals.
It's really a shame that the substance of the article is being overshadowed for most readers by the most insubstantial parts.
I wish more writers would reflect on various aspects of Magic from the perspective of their fields.
"This is why Multiple Choice tests are often called “multiple guess” because a person guessing at the answer has just as good of a chance of getting the question right as the person who knows the information."
This is simply false. A person guessing at the answer has 0.20-0.25 chance of getting it right (assuming 4 or 5 possible answers) as opposed to close to 1.0 for someone who knows the information. The rest of that paragraph is also nonsense.
"In the email to those taking the test, Mr. Rosewater did not state how many people were taking it, but I would guess that someone scored 50/50. That does not mean that individual knows anything about design. It might, but there’s no actual proof because in a large pool of examinees, on a Multiple Choice test, statistics show that at least one person will score a perfect score. This is also why when he mentioned he’d be curving the final score, it was a meaningless statement. "
While this is factually true, it is much less meaningful than you seem to think. The chance of getting the right answer out of 4 choices 50 times in a row is roughly the order of winning a state lottery 3 times in a row. Under the same hypothesis, the chance of getting even half the answers right (which, as I understand wasn't even near enough to get you qualified), is under 1:10 000. Bringing "statistics" into it was a nice initiative, but please make sure you even have a slight clue about it before you do. With extremely high probability, the people who got the top 30 scores were not guessing and the point you were trying to make is moot.
For someone studying tests, your understanding of this question seems extremely poor. I am not talking about calculating exact odds, I am simply talking about grossly mis-evaluating them to the point where the correct conclusion is the opposite one which you drew. This is just a silly article and, in this case, your lack of understanding has little consequence, but from a potential teacher, this is almost scary.
If I was judging this article as harshly as you judged the contest, I would go as far as saying that the main thing I got from reading it is reinforcing my skepticism of teaching certifications and "educators". People who know "how to teach", yet seem to have gaping holes in their own understanding and, more importantly, are unaware of them and have no problem spewing nonsense about things they clearly don't understand. I'll trade 10 educators for one teacher who knows what he's talking about.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the comments! I feel like I've been in a bit of a writing slump lately and the response to this article was inspiring. I enjoyed writing it very much, so I'm glad you all enjoyed reading it :)
Great article, and congrats on stretching your budget to cover 3 drafts! I was gonna say what radman99 did about Blood Tithe, in most decks it's a bad card. Also 16 lands is pretty risky unless your curve is very low. I like to play 18 but will do 17 sometimes, at 18 you seldom mulligan or get manascrewed. Also why no Honor of the Pure in the black/white, with 9 white creatures?
Plummet and purge are sometimes dead cards, but in each case you had an always-live alternative, like running the second Sign in Blood, a great card. I would argue that feed is also "sometimes dead" being essentially useless in any game that doesn't come down to a close race. If you're way ahead you didn't need it, If they're way ahead it isn't enough to save you. The potential upside of plummet, especially in a deck where you have no flyers and no giant spiders, is just higher. Purge is chancier to main deck than plummet but it's a reasonable gamble sometimes if you need filler.
I also think in your black/green you should have splashed Pacifism, you had enough fixing to make it an easy splash & that's one of the best removal cards in the set.
Also Swiss drafts and 8-4 queues give better EV than 4-3-2-2 drafts. Though I will admit I play 4-3-2-2 sometimes. Looking forward to seeing what you do in pauper next week!
yes perhaps I am too prone to liking blood tithe, first thing is I'm hardly a pro drafter so my choices may not be always 'right' which is also why I don't make these articles focused on the drafts lol
I'd never MD plummet or purge and you can't convince me otherwise, too situational, I'd rather have a mediocre spell like tithe over a dead card like plummet
thanks for the comment, the fact is that until recently Daze was one of two cards worth mentioning (the other was Rancor, which has since been released outside of precons), the others really don't have a lot of constructed value
I didn't take the test. I don't have any "sour grapes" on that subject. I do, however, have a very active dislike of Mark Rosewater and agree with everything you said about him. I think that the success of Magic is not because of Rosewater but in spite of him. You don't have to listen to him very long before you realize what an arrogant ass-clown he is.
As for those people defending him, just keep in mind that WOTC pays toadies good money to defend them. Don't put a toady out of work!
I cn answer for myself, I hate drawing the Canonist. I know its a powerful ability, but it so often hurts me as much as it does my opponent. And The Karakas/Mangara combo is sweet, but i've run into times when I've needed another land and I've had a karakas stuck in my hand.
Also, I find it odd to run 3 Kor Spiritdancers but only 2 pieces of equipment. I swapped the Bonesplitter for a Sword of B&M, I'd use a different sword if I owned one.
Oddly, I've been playing online since Mirrodin and this deck is the first time I've ever owned or played with athe dreaded Jitte.
How long do you think it would take for Mark Rosewater to grade 720 short answer tests?
Tthe test cut the number of applicants down somewhat arbitrarily but probably selected contestants who were at least in the top third of the pool (in terms of what Rosewater was looking for). Following that cut, the final eight were selected based on their design tests (effectively the short answer test you wanted; by the way, I think the point of the essay questions was just to deter potential half-hearted applicants from taking the multiple-choice test so that they would not skew the results).
I don't understand the reasoning behind calling Rosewater a coward. He is not afraid of anything. He addressed several individual questions about the test on Twitter and also made the following tweets:
"For the record, if I knew then what I know now, I would have rewritten the question for #6 and removed the vanilla creature from #48."
and
"I would love to give additional feedback but I don't have the time. Just doing what I am has taken many, many hours."
Also, I don't see why he needs to apologize. It was announced before the contest started that a multiple-choice test would be involved. Of course, all the flaws inherent in a multiple choice test would be present.
I'm guessing this was your way to rage against the system. This is one of my problems with the Magic community at large. They tend to spend more time on hyperbole than they do on innovation.
What kind of a following does Heirloom have on a day-to-day basis in the Heirloom room? I can't make the PREs, but if I could get some casual games in, I might dabble a bit. However, if no one plays outside of the PREs, there's not much point in dabbling. =)
Have to echo some of the other criticisms here. I'd say you lucked out and basically got handed a not bad infect deck that you won a match with. Congratulations? I had a hard time watching you pick blackcleave goblin over acid web spider to "force" infect and then (quite outrageously) the spider tables, only reinforcing your bad habit. In pack 1, the signals you send are nowhere near as important as the signals you receive, since if things dry up in pack 2 they'll just be back in pack 3, and honestly, nobody is going to see what is arguably the worst infect creature and decide they're going to force infect based on it.
Okay, your point taken and wrong, one phrase should seriously fix this issue...Maro is the head designer for Magic....there it is...
it's never as simple as 1:1, sure you can say someone who knows the answer to a question will get it right 100% of the time, but that isn't exactly a truth either. Given a question with no options for chosing an answer you may be right. What is the definition of time? Without multiple choice answers to pick from I know the answer. Now given four options where I have to pick one it isn't necessarily 100% chance I'll get it right even though I know what "time" is. Your wording for that definition maybe different from mine and not distinguishable. Sure that's a simple example, but how many times have we all encountered a question on a test where the answer isn't there that we know is right? Whether it is a different interpretation in wording or not, it doesn't matter. Point is that it isn't really 100%
"It's really a shame that the substance of the article is being overshadowed for most readers by the most insubstantial parts."
agreed.
true I never would have considered the Pacifism splash though it would have been easy... and as far as honor goes... I can't tell you that lol brain lapse? I didn't even know I had it until you just mentioned it and I had to double check ><
I know its crazy, but again I tend to run decks with 16-17 land going back to the dead card thing. I get so frustrated when I get land flooded, way more so then mana screwed so I always play it short... its two fold, first I dont often run into mana problems so why change? and two when I get frustrated I play worse and get more frustrated so it tends to be semi-psychological, now if I was a better average drafter I'd jump into 8-4s, but since I'm not a great limited player I'll stick to 4322 where I get chances like this to stretch one draft into three.
Thx for the comment and advice, after the Pauper break I really should try to better myself at SoM or Zen drafts to start building towards Std, try not to get too flooded on M11
I really like your version of Chandra I would love to use her in a deck and the art work for her is excellent as well.
Wizards please print this card....
great article
Thanks for the book titles. Since finishing my Masters I don't think I still have access to academic journals. =( At least those texts should offer a crash course on the fundamentals.
It's really a shame that the substance of the article is being overshadowed for most readers by the most insubstantial parts.
I wish more writers would reflect on various aspects of Magic from the perspective of their fields.
"This is why Multiple Choice tests are often called “multiple guess” because a person guessing at the answer has just as good of a chance of getting the question right as the person who knows the information."
This is simply false. A person guessing at the answer has 0.20-0.25 chance of getting it right (assuming 4 or 5 possible answers) as opposed to close to 1.0 for someone who knows the information. The rest of that paragraph is also nonsense.
"In the email to those taking the test, Mr. Rosewater did not state how many people were taking it, but I would guess that someone scored 50/50. That does not mean that individual knows anything about design. It might, but there’s no actual proof because in a large pool of examinees, on a Multiple Choice test, statistics show that at least one person will score a perfect score. This is also why when he mentioned he’d be curving the final score, it was a meaningless statement. "
While this is factually true, it is much less meaningful than you seem to think. The chance of getting the right answer out of 4 choices 50 times in a row is roughly the order of winning a state lottery 3 times in a row. Under the same hypothesis, the chance of getting even half the answers right (which, as I understand wasn't even near enough to get you qualified), is under 1:10 000. Bringing "statistics" into it was a nice initiative, but please make sure you even have a slight clue about it before you do. With extremely high probability, the people who got the top 30 scores were not guessing and the point you were trying to make is moot.
For someone studying tests, your understanding of this question seems extremely poor. I am not talking about calculating exact odds, I am simply talking about grossly mis-evaluating them to the point where the correct conclusion is the opposite one which you drew. This is just a silly article and, in this case, your lack of understanding has little consequence, but from a potential teacher, this is almost scary.
If I was judging this article as harshly as you judged the contest, I would go as far as saying that the main thing I got from reading it is reinforcing my skepticism of teaching certifications and "educators". People who know "how to teach", yet seem to have gaping holes in their own understanding and, more importantly, are unaware of them and have no problem spewing nonsense about things they clearly don't understand. I'll trade 10 educators for one teacher who knows what he's talking about.
Not sure where you got the artwork, But I like it. Kind of World of Warcraftish.
Just wanted to thank everyone for the comments! I feel like I've been in a bit of a writing slump lately and the response to this article was inspiring. I enjoyed writing it very much, so I'm glad you all enjoyed reading it :)
Great article, and congrats on stretching your budget to cover 3 drafts! I was gonna say what radman99 did about Blood Tithe, in most decks it's a bad card. Also 16 lands is pretty risky unless your curve is very low. I like to play 18 but will do 17 sometimes, at 18 you seldom mulligan or get manascrewed. Also why no Honor of the Pure in the black/white, with 9 white creatures?
Plummet and purge are sometimes dead cards, but in each case you had an always-live alternative, like running the second Sign in Blood, a great card. I would argue that feed is also "sometimes dead" being essentially useless in any game that doesn't come down to a close race. If you're way ahead you didn't need it, If they're way ahead it isn't enough to save you. The potential upside of plummet, especially in a deck where you have no flyers and no giant spiders, is just higher. Purge is chancier to main deck than plummet but it's a reasonable gamble sometimes if you need filler.
I also think in your black/green you should have splashed Pacifism, you had enough fixing to make it an easy splash & that's one of the best removal cards in the set.
Also Swiss drafts and 8-4 queues give better EV than 4-3-2-2 drafts. Though I will admit I play 4-3-2-2 sometimes. Looking forward to seeing what you do in pauper next week!
Good Job. I like the article. A fun read.
What a freaking awesome article, nicely done sir!!!!
I managed it :) that's cool thanks.
yes perhaps I am too prone to liking blood tithe, first thing is I'm hardly a pro drafter so my choices may not be always 'right' which is also why I don't make these articles focused on the drafts lol
I'd never MD plummet or purge and you can't convince me otherwise, too situational, I'd rather have a mediocre spell like tithe over a dead card like plummet
thanks for the comment, the fact is that until recently Daze was one of two cards worth mentioning (the other was Rancor, which has since been released outside of precons), the others really don't have a lot of constructed value
I liked the article a ton, and I liked this little tip as well. Lots of work went into this, and the vids are nice. Good job.
Wow, lots of info here, and a nice review of the precons. I can tell you put a lot of work into this. Good stuff.
I didn't take the test. I don't have any "sour grapes" on that subject. I do, however, have a very active dislike of Mark Rosewater and agree with everything you said about him. I think that the success of Magic is not because of Rosewater but in spite of him. You don't have to listen to him very long before you realize what an arrogant ass-clown he is.
As for those people defending him, just keep in mind that WOTC pays toadies good money to defend them. Don't put a toady out of work!
I believe I've been inspired to throw my hat back into the Standard (Block, whatever) ring... Thank you!