I've done a few ZZW drafts or sealed events hoping to open him; unfortunately I never got lucky enough. ZZW still provides a decent amount of money rares like the fetchlands, manlands, goblin guide, basilisk collar, stoneforge mystic, etc that it's not a bad set to open if you're looking to get some kind of value out of the rare slot. It just stinks that the draft environment for ZZW is pretty lousy and I never had much fun in it.
Thanks for reading!! Although there are some annoyingly good decks in standard at the moment, I think still it's a pretty fun format. Wishing you much success if you decide to start playing in tournaments. Here is his list: I haven't played all too much standard in the last few weeks but I think many people are running Jace Beleren mainboard. I'm not absolutely positive on this.
4 Archive Trap
1 Call to Mind
4 Into the Roil
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Preordain
4 Pyromancer Ascension
2 Ravenous Trap
4 See Beyond
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Treasure Hunt
Spells [38]
prices like that on jace makes it so tempting to just draft a lot of Zen, but somewhere inside you gotta know in reality you're not going to hit him... then if you do there's always that temptation to hold it yourself for future decks
Hi doc,
first of all I want to tell you that althought standard is not my favourite format I'm enjoying your metagame reports a lot. Maybe I'll start playing some standart.
I've been trying to find the list of the Mike Flores' budget pyromancer-archive trap deck but I've not been succesfull. Could you help me?
Thanks and keep the good work.
Due to my sorta OCD, I maintain a full ordered list of all the creature types. I like to sort them in different groups like Profession (Wizard, Soldier, down to Advisor or Flagbearer), Humanoid Race, Monster, Real Animal, etc. With the members' total and main colors. I mainly use it for ideas.
If you, or anyone, are interested, please tell me and I can send you the list in Excel format.
I would really like to see a "in the verge of extinction" theme week, with the very obscure and weird stuff like Metathran, Thalakos, Slith, Noggle, Rabbit, Carrier (I still have to figure out what a Carrier is supposed to be). And of course, Weird. At least 4 members for tribe, and you have to use all of them.
Rout the players into Heirloom! hehe. Man I love not being accountable to the oppression of standard card values.
So that seems like a great feature for the site, I was just thinking the other day how there were cards I wanted to sell to the site but that their bot didn't pick up on or seemed to have an outdated buy price on. Will try this out sometime in the near future to see how well it works out in reality. Hopefully there isn't so much activity that it needs to be shut down for overloading capacity to process and deal with people.
These cards in here really is a great thing to have. definitely this is actually a very rare cards that really had a great thing to have because for sure you will get some winning options in your hands. good start for that cases and as a matter of fact these were the types of cards that is better for having it on the go for the clear ideas of your winning streak. Thanks a lot for having these here on us.
I agree with MMogg in that a traditional control deck should be highlighted. The ability to deal just 1 poison counter, and then deal the rest with Steady Progress, Contagion Clasp, Throne of Geth, and pals is not to be underestimated. If you can just fly under the radar just a couple turns, you'll be in a strong position to win the game. Especially if people are new to playing poison, they might not even notice that their lone poison counter morphed into 4 via a few proliferates.
Of course, finding a Singleton copy of all these cards will be sort of a challenge. But it's pretty effective if you can pull it off.
You've certianly earned it Paul, tx for the well wishing, I crossing my fingers too. I think the site is good for now, I'll have to admit gross ignorance about all things as far as running websites, founding them, picking hosting ect so I'll have to do some studying when I get some time on that. I certianly appreciate all the contribution people give especially when they have special technical or artistic skills to the effort.
@Splendid
Net deck and pray to Krom?
I guess it depends on how little time "no time" actually is. If time does not exists as some have theorized and instead all moments exist simultaneously and what we perceive as time is merely our disembodied intellect reviewing the determined story of our own lives in an organized and seemingly linear fashion than you will either already be intersected with Heirloom or you never will be. I have a good feeling about my own future review that you do intersect with Heirloom quite often in the pages of simulitude so as likely as anything you already have found "time" for Heirloom, and have always had that "time", and always will =P.
Either that or we might be as ships passing in the night and only briefly be aware of the pleasantry of one another and then as nothing at all and forgotten in the multiplicity of experience.
Sort of off topic, but I wouldn't mind seeing Leeches in MED4. Seems like that could come in handy with this nifty new mechanic I've heard about called "infect". Just an idea.
I have seen T&L decks like the one you describe, Mogg, and that's definitely a way to go. But I wanted to be a little more aggressive and offensive (in more ways than one) so that's why I went this route. If you have the patience to hold on to those Deflections and Goblin Flectomancers, though, more power to you.
Thanks for that game Paul! My deck worked pretty smoothly there, so I think it would have been tough to defend against no matter what. But at least you came in second!
As for the deck, I would take out Kiki-Jiki and include Mimic Vat. Not counting the Commander there are only 6 legendary creatures, but whenever I drew Kiki I only had one of my legends out. Mimic Vat gets around that problem, and although they aren't identical, they are functionally the same.
"Oh, one thing that is vastly different between "normal" commander decks and "infect" decks is that all/most of the infect decks creatures are essentially dealing commander damage."
This. I know Skittles is a pain in the ass, but so are Zur, Uril, etc. If that means you have to start packing Hinders and Condemns to instead of Insurrection and Darksteel Colossus, that's what you have to do.
But Tainted Strike, and to a lesser extent Grafted Skeleton, are the ones that scare me more. And then the damage from those little crappy bugs and horrors add up over time. People didn't really know about the Grafted Exoskeleton trick (that infect doesn't require combat damage) but I have a feeling you will be seeing more of it in the near future.
Usually these things work themselves out over time. People realize a dedicated infect deck when they see it, and start gunning for them. It's similar to why people generally don't play Erayo and Jhoira any more. But the random Strike and Exoskeleton out of nowhere are the ones that you really need to watch out for.
Great write up, you're obviously devoting a lot of energy to this. The format sounds really interesting, and the decklists whet my appetite further. I wish I had more free time to jump in and participate - you've cracked the cheap competitive magic conundrum, now can you crack the competitive magic for people with no time problem?
I haven't won or lost to Infect yet. Maybe just lucky to avoid it.
I've done a few ZZW drafts or sealed events hoping to open him; unfortunately I never got lucky enough. ZZW still provides a decent amount of money rares like the fetchlands, manlands, goblin guide, basilisk collar, stoneforge mystic, etc that it's not a bad set to open if you're looking to get some kind of value out of the rare slot. It just stinks that the draft environment for ZZW is pretty lousy and I never had much fun in it.
Which is exactly why Mythics are good for WotC. They increase interest in drafting and sealed deck tournaments.
Most people care more about the price of the jackpot mythic than the price of the moderate winnings they could get by opening a reasonably good rare.
Thanks for reading!! Although there are some annoyingly good decks in standard at the moment, I think still it's a pretty fun format. Wishing you much success if you decide to start playing in tournaments. Here is his list: I haven't played all too much standard in the last few weeks but I think many people are running Jace Beleren mainboard. I'm not absolutely positive on this.
4 Archive Trap
1 Call to Mind
4 Into the Roil
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Preordain
4 Pyromancer Ascension
2 Ravenous Trap
4 See Beyond
4 Trapmaker's Snare
3 Treasure Hunt
Spells [38]
4 Halimar Depths
7 Island
7 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
Lands [22]
4 Forked Bolt
4 Jace Beleren
4 Pyroclasm
3 Spell Pierce
Sideboard (15)
prices like that on jace makes it so tempting to just draft a lot of Zen, but somewhere inside you gotta know in reality you're not going to hit him... then if you do there's always that temptation to hold it yourself for future decks
Hi doc,
first of all I want to tell you that althought standard is not my favourite format I'm enjoying your metagame reports a lot. Maybe I'll start playing some standart.
I've been trying to find the list of the Mike Flores' budget pyromancer-archive trap deck but I've not been succesfull. Could you help me?
Thanks and keep the good work.
I've played both noggle and carrier tribal, not competitive, but kinda fun
agreed. I can't remember what point the whiffler was actually arguing, but I do remember thinking "wow, this guy's a bit of a clunge".
Due to my sorta OCD, I maintain a full ordered list of all the creature types. I like to sort them in different groups like Profession (Wizard, Soldier, down to Advisor or Flagbearer), Humanoid Race, Monster, Real Animal, etc. With the members' total and main colors. I mainly use it for ideas.
If you, or anyone, are interested, please tell me and I can send you the list in Excel format.
I would really like to see a "in the verge of extinction" theme week, with the very obscure and weird stuff like Metathran, Thalakos, Slith, Noggle, Rabbit, Carrier (I still have to figure out what a Carrier is supposed to be). And of course, Weird. At least 4 members for tribe, and you have to use all of them.
Its in about 33 hours, look for Nagarjuna to be running it, I'll be having my first baby, (well watching my wife have it and smoking a stogie).
X-
Xaos, when is this weekend's tournament? Hopefully Saturday rather than Sunday...
Go Jace Go!,
Rout the players into Heirloom! hehe. Man I love not being accountable to the oppression of standard card values.
So that seems like a great feature for the site, I was just thinking the other day how there were cards I wanted to sell to the site but that their bot didn't pick up on or seemed to have an outdated buy price on. Will try this out sometime in the near future to see how well it works out in reality. Hopefully there isn't so much activity that it needs to be shut down for overloading capacity to process and deal with people.
X-
These cards in here really is a great thing to have. definitely this is actually a very rare cards that really had a great thing to have because for sure you will get some winning options in your hands. good start for that cases and as a matter of fact these were the types of cards that is better for having it on the go for the clear ideas of your winning streak. Thanks a lot for having these here on us.
I agree with MMogg in that a traditional control deck should be highlighted. The ability to deal just 1 poison counter, and then deal the rest with Steady Progress, Contagion Clasp, Throne of Geth, and pals is not to be underestimated. If you can just fly under the radar just a couple turns, you'll be in a strong position to win the game. Especially if people are new to playing poison, they might not even notice that their lone poison counter morphed into 4 via a few proliferates.
Of course, finding a Singleton copy of all these cards will be sort of a challenge. But it's pretty effective if you can pull it off.
Heartless Hidetsugu would certainly be on the list of commanders I'd gun for.
Him grafted and any method that prevents/redirects the damage to controller or just letting life total drop below 20 is GG in a hurry.
@Paul
You've certianly earned it Paul, tx for the well wishing, I crossing my fingers too. I think the site is good for now, I'll have to admit gross ignorance about all things as far as running websites, founding them, picking hosting ect so I'll have to do some studying when I get some time on that. I certianly appreciate all the contribution people give especially when they have special technical or artistic skills to the effort.
@Splendid
Net deck and pray to Krom?
I guess it depends on how little time "no time" actually is. If time does not exists as some have theorized and instead all moments exist simultaneously and what we perceive as time is merely our disembodied intellect reviewing the determined story of our own lives in an organized and seemingly linear fashion than you will either already be intersected with Heirloom or you never will be. I have a good feeling about my own future review that you do intersect with Heirloom quite often in the pages of simulitude so as likely as anything you already have found "time" for Heirloom, and have always had that "time", and always will =P.
Either that or we might be as ships passing in the night and only briefly be aware of the pleasantry of one another and then as nothing at all and forgotten in the multiplicity of experience.
Thanks for the positive comments, cheers,
X-
Regrettably I'm going to miss this week due to a family commitment, but I was considering monowhite Shades wwith maindeck black hosers.
'Twas the Green Trigon, which I don't like outside of infect, and even there I'm not a huge fan.
Battle of Wits is legal, would be an interesting deck.
Sort of off topic, but I wouldn't mind seeing Leeches in MED4. Seems like that could come in handy with this nifty new mechanic I've heard about called "infect". Just an idea.
Thanks for the comments guys.
I have seen T&L decks like the one you describe, Mogg, and that's definitely a way to go. But I wanted to be a little more aggressive and offensive (in more ways than one) so that's why I went this route. If you have the patience to hold on to those Deflections and Goblin Flectomancers, though, more power to you.
Thanks for that game Paul! My deck worked pretty smoothly there, so I think it would have been tough to defend against no matter what. But at least you came in second!
As for the deck, I would take out Kiki-Jiki and include Mimic Vat. Not counting the Commander there are only 6 legendary creatures, but whenever I drew Kiki I only had one of my legends out. Mimic Vat gets around that problem, and although they aren't identical, they are functionally the same.
"Oh, one thing that is vastly different between "normal" commander decks and "infect" decks is that all/most of the infect decks creatures are essentially dealing commander damage."
This. I know Skittles is a pain in the ass, but so are Zur, Uril, etc. If that means you have to start packing Hinders and Condemns to instead of Insurrection and Darksteel Colossus, that's what you have to do.
But Tainted Strike, and to a lesser extent Grafted Skeleton, are the ones that scare me more. And then the damage from those little crappy bugs and horrors add up over time. People didn't really know about the Grafted Exoskeleton trick (that infect doesn't require combat damage) but I have a feeling you will be seeing more of it in the near future.
Usually these things work themselves out over time. People realize a dedicated infect deck when they see it, and start gunning for them. It's similar to why people generally don't play Erayo and Jhoira any more. But the random Strike and Exoskeleton out of nowhere are the ones that you really need to watch out for.
Great write up, you're obviously devoting a lot of energy to this. The format sounds really interesting, and the decklists whet my appetite further. I wish I had more free time to jump in and participate - you've cracked the cheap competitive magic conundrum, now can you crack the competitive magic for people with no time problem?
Umm, don't read too much into this, but is Battle of wits banned? I think I can do it with spirits...
I didn't enjoy losing to this commander but I did enjoy the process of playing against it several weeks ago.