By far one of the best article series' on this site. It's just too bad that it's focused on a format that isn't yet sanctioned. I would love to see Standard Pauper 2-mans in the future. You would think it would be a good way for Wizards to support their newer blocks too and increase sales. Here's for hoping.
yeah i was going through the deck editor building before a list befre i ought anything ad i saw archon of justice. Took about two seconds to throw him in, so youre right.
I can't stand how much phone companies charge you for going over your minutes! Sorry to hear about sacrificing your collection to pay the bill. Is skype an option for you and your friend to talk in the future?
Thanks for the contest, I'll be on later today and message you if you're online.
Sorry about the money issues, but at least you were able to put your collection to good use. You were also to put together what looks like a competitive list on a budget, which is nice.
I'm writing about a Brion deck this week, but it isn't giant themed. Hopefully it will give you some ideas though. I would probably add Archon of Justice to your white staples, as being able to Vindicate stuff isn't bad.
Raksha really goes well with Kemba. Just a thought. And Genesis Wave is going to be a bomb.
At least you didn't have the misfortune of playing the rock solid green deck in round 1. It can be a major bummer going against the top deck round 1.
Most of the drafters in MTGO are fairly good, and it is pretty well known that blue and white are both good colors. I've often found that as a result, the blue/white decks that you draft are good, but not great, because the colors are good but typically a number of people will be fighting for them. I've often seen a green deck come in first partly as a result of this, since everyone avoids it like the plague, resulting in some pretty strong green going around.
I think maybe you are overemphasizing agro a bit. The crystal ball and the warlords axe are both a bit slow, but they really enhance your late game. Since your deck didn't have a lot of card drawing, you would tend to sputter out in the late game, and if you just had a card or two two reinfoce that part of your game I think it would have resulted in a better deck.
This is a very nice article, and if I ever get around to making an article with a video, I will problem use this article as a reference.
However, videos are a double-edged sword. You can't skim videos very easily and it's hard to keep an audience's attention for 5-7 minutes with a video if all you're doing is playing a match. After all there is a lot of interesting video content out there as well as Magic Online in-game replays of just about every kind of match you could possibly want to watch.
Videos are best at replaying a particularly memorable match or as a tutorial of something that is somewhat tricky to explain with text and pictures.
Videos should have at least a vaguely scripted dialogue unless you are naturally very good at being spontaneously entertaining. This is not something that comes naturally. I know I'm much sound much better when I've thought about what I want to say ahead of time.
Videos are NOT a good way to cut down on the work it takes to make an article by just recording a match and what you were going to talk about in an article anyway.
What I'm basically trying to say is that good content takes time and effort whether or not it's in a video or not.
Yes, I can relate. I kept shooting myself in the foot whenever I draft due to my raredrafting tendancies. That's one reason why I've switched to 4-booster sealed and new set release sealed events.
I read puremtgo at work everyday and play mtgo every night.
From my perspective, I don't like videos because it is blocked at work, so it takes away from my precious evening gaming time to watch them so i never watch them. I like plain text the best because I can read those at work without risking getting in trouble, pictures are hit or miss and videos definitely do not work for me.
Anytime there is videos, that is less content for me to read and enjoy, I hope I'm not the only one in this boat here...because I really enjoy many of the articles on this site! This is a plea to all the writers on this site, please keep your articles plain text!
Sorry about the money issues Shard. I'm in the "my account got hacked" boat myself, which is one of the reasons I'm playing commander almost exclusively now. And seriously budget strapped commander as well.
I've stripped my stonebrow deck of all its "creatures gain trample" cards except for gruul war plow because it acts like a manland as well. I found that all the critters I wanted to use had trample anyways.
I shall do my damndest to work on a new, fresh list and get to work on it. Worst case I shall steal like mad!
Has the meta started to work out a list of what may be considered format staples? I'm guessing that would be something that would develop over time organically.
Congratulations on the nuptial plans, try to have as good a time as I did for mine. (very, very good times)
I am of the position that all's fair in love and war, and this format is a bit of both. Do what you think will give you the best shot of winning I say and let the meta sort it out in the tumble. I can't speak for everyone of course but I don't think it's been any kind of issue so far.
I see people on all the time testing and playing Heirloom, so the short answer is yes the long answer involves the fact that if you don't have a robust friends list stocked with Heirloomers it can be a little tough sometimes but hit me up for a guestlist later, off to my 12 hour clinical this morning,
Good to know. Well I am tied up the next two weekends doing wedding planning stuff with the better half but pencil me in for the tournament on 30th October then hopefully pretty much every week after that!
On another note, is there any gentleman's agreement on pinching other people's decklists such as the ones you have been posting in your articles? Is it frowned upon? I don't want to tread on any toes but I also don't know if I will have sufficient time to test a new list? Are there generally people available through the week to test with and stuff?
The events start at 11:00 AM pacific standard time, which is 11AM in LA, CA, USA on Saturdays or Sundays, Then next event is this weekend on Saturday then the week after will be Sunday then Saturday twice again.
A quick time zone convert tells me that in London that would be a 7pm start.
Can't believe I made that mistake. I mis-remembered Bone Splinters completely, thinking that you sacrifice a creature for a one-mana Diabolic Edict. Nope...doesn't work like that! Pretty much the only way to remove a Duelist is Shrivel, Seismic Shudder, and Suicidal Charge.
Regarding the insane cheapness of Standard Pauper, I think only Block Pauper could possibly be less expensive. Only a handful of cards rise above a dime, and the only cards I can think of that might "set you back" are Staggershock (0.25) and Evolving Wilds (0.20), the most heavily played "expensive" commons. I can't recall the price cutoff for Heirloom, but I'd guess that most Standard Pauper cards would be Heirloom legal.
You're reminding me that I had meant to include a Scrye-style price guide...I've kind of gotten caught up in the Great Designer Search 2. I figure with Alara rotating so soon, I'll just wait to include this feature until after Scars drops online.
I absolutely will. I think a constructed format which allows you to play with a vast array of what MTGO has to offer for under $5 is a genius idea. What time do events generally kick off at US time? Is it a morning/lunch time thing for you guys? If so, that would make it evening here in the UK which is more than doable for me.
We'd certianly enjoy your company if you decided to join us in the Heirloom community.
I selected the time of day for our events with Europe and the US in mind. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean it's a perfect time for everyone in or near those places in any case.
In the future I'd like to have more events that give us coverage of all time zones and with more days of the week involved, but of course that will involve having other organizers investing themselves in the format.
Anyway I sure hope you can make it to one of our events sometime and join the chat channel "heirloom" on MTGO to try to find some people to play with as well. SOmetimes you have to PM the people in there since the channel doesnt alert them to new messages (type /join heirloom in any chat channel)
I really, really fancy trying this format. I'm only just getting back to MTGO after a few years self-exposed exile (when I was last on MTGO, it was still v2) and have only really been playing draft since I have got back. 'Proper' constructed is too expensive for me to consider/justify tbh. The only issue would be the time difference between when you guys play and me being over here in the UK.
First thing's first: I've sent you a message in-game from a friends account (Archorian) regarding the prize. I've got to say - Gelatinous Genesis got me quite excited too. Not a lot of M:TG formats frequently generate the sort of manapool that EDH does.
As for the article: I can sympathise about the money issues, I'm a student with a 15-month old, so money for Magic is pretty much nonexistent these days. That will pass, I'm sure. Vhati il-Dal was a lot of fun for me when Tempest came out - the idea of creating an EDH deck around him appeals!
I'm sure plenty of people will find this really useful for getting into video publishing. I may take a closer look next time I'm set to make new videos to see if I can improve mine a bit since they're pretty cave-man atm.
Maybe I'll put a link to this in the Heirloom link hub to encourage players of the format to get more proactive and make some of their own related media on it.
I've always loved deft duelist and bone splinters is pretty cool but unless youre name gives you the ability to make shroud disappear I don't think it's gonna kill the defter. If I ever find the spare time to play another budget format I may consider standard pauper since at least it's fairly interactive and totally budget.
Excellent reference, thanks for making it.
By far one of the best article series' on this site. It's just too bad that it's focused on a format that isn't yet sanctioned. I would love to see Standard Pauper 2-mans in the future. You would think it would be a good way for Wizards to support their newer blocks too and increase sales. Here's for hoping.
i increased my phone plan to the next level which gave me that friends and family deal were i can call any 5 numbers for free.
yeah i was going through the deck editor building before a list befre i ought anything ad i saw archon of justice. Took about two seconds to throw him in, so youre right.
I can't stand how much phone companies charge you for going over your minutes! Sorry to hear about sacrificing your collection to pay the bill. Is skype an option for you and your friend to talk in the future?
Thanks for the contest, I'll be on later today and message you if you're online.
Sorry about the money issues, but at least you were able to put your collection to good use. You were also to put together what looks like a competitive list on a budget, which is nice.
I'm writing about a Brion deck this week, but it isn't giant themed. Hopefully it will give you some ideas though. I would probably add Archon of Justice to your white staples, as being able to Vindicate stuff isn't bad.
Raksha really goes well with Kemba. Just a thought. And Genesis Wave is going to be a bomb.
At least you didn't have the misfortune of playing the rock solid green deck in round 1. It can be a major bummer going against the top deck round 1.
Most of the drafters in MTGO are fairly good, and it is pretty well known that blue and white are both good colors. I've often found that as a result, the blue/white decks that you draft are good, but not great, because the colors are good but typically a number of people will be fighting for them. I've often seen a green deck come in first partly as a result of this, since everyone avoids it like the plague, resulting in some pretty strong green going around.
I think maybe you are overemphasizing agro a bit. The crystal ball and the warlords axe are both a bit slow, but they really enhance your late game. Since your deck didn't have a lot of card drawing, you would tend to sputter out in the late game, and if you just had a card or two two reinfoce that part of your game I think it would have resulted in a better deck.
This is a very nice article, and if I ever get around to making an article with a video, I will problem use this article as a reference.
However, videos are a double-edged sword. You can't skim videos very easily and it's hard to keep an audience's attention for 5-7 minutes with a video if all you're doing is playing a match. After all there is a lot of interesting video content out there as well as Magic Online in-game replays of just about every kind of match you could possibly want to watch.
Videos are best at replaying a particularly memorable match or as a tutorial of something that is somewhat tricky to explain with text and pictures.
Videos should have at least a vaguely scripted dialogue unless you are naturally very good at being spontaneously entertaining. This is not something that comes naturally. I know I'm much sound much better when I've thought about what I want to say ahead of time.
Videos are NOT a good way to cut down on the work it takes to make an article by just recording a match and what you were going to talk about in an article anyway.
What I'm basically trying to say is that good content takes time and effort whether or not it's in a video or not.
Yes, I can relate. I kept shooting myself in the foot whenever I draft due to my raredrafting tendancies. That's one reason why I've switched to 4-booster sealed and new set release sealed events.
I read puremtgo at work everyday and play mtgo every night.
From my perspective, I don't like videos because it is blocked at work, so it takes away from my precious evening gaming time to watch them so i never watch them. I like plain text the best because I can read those at work without risking getting in trouble, pictures are hit or miss and videos definitely do not work for me.
Anytime there is videos, that is less content for me to read and enjoy, I hope I'm not the only one in this boat here...because I really enjoy many of the articles on this site! This is a plea to all the writers on this site, please keep your articles plain text!
Sorry about the money issues Shard. I'm in the "my account got hacked" boat myself, which is one of the reasons I'm playing commander almost exclusively now. And seriously budget strapped commander as well.
I've stripped my stonebrow deck of all its "creatures gain trample" cards except for gruul war plow because it acts like a manland as well. I found that all the critters I wanted to use had trample anyways.
I shall do my damndest to work on a new, fresh list and get to work on it. Worst case I shall steal like mad!
Has the meta started to work out a list of what may be considered format staples? I'm guessing that would be something that would develop over time organically.
Congratulations on the nuptial plans, try to have as good a time as I did for mine. (very, very good times)
I am of the position that all's fair in love and war, and this format is a bit of both. Do what you think will give you the best shot of winning I say and let the meta sort it out in the tumble. I can't speak for everyone of course but I don't think it's been any kind of issue so far.
I see people on all the time testing and playing Heirloom, so the short answer is yes the long answer involves the fact that if you don't have a robust friends list stocked with Heirloomers it can be a little tough sometimes but hit me up for a guestlist later, off to my 12 hour clinical this morning,
X-
Good to know. Well I am tied up the next two weekends doing wedding planning stuff with the better half but pencil me in for the tournament on 30th October then hopefully pretty much every week after that!
On another note, is there any gentleman's agreement on pinching other people's decklists such as the ones you have been posting in your articles? Is it frowned upon? I don't want to tread on any toes but I also don't know if I will have sufficient time to test a new list? Are there generally people available through the week to test with and stuff?
Hey Copperfield,
No biggie on the bone splinters deal, just worth noting was all.
You're right, most standard pauper cards are Heirloom legal, certianly there are exceptions of course.
Price guides are certianly useful,
X-
Hey Midi2304,
I'm glad to know you like the idea of the format we came up with. The official tournament announcement and results thread is Here: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75846/25877457/Heirloom_MTGO...
The events start at 11:00 AM pacific standard time, which is 11AM in LA, CA, USA on Saturdays or Sundays, Then next event is this weekend on Saturday then the week after will be Sunday then Saturday twice again.
A quick time zone convert tells me that in London that would be a 7pm start.
X-
Can't believe I made that mistake. I mis-remembered Bone Splinters completely, thinking that you sacrifice a creature for a one-mana Diabolic Edict. Nope...doesn't work like that! Pretty much the only way to remove a Duelist is Shrivel, Seismic Shudder, and Suicidal Charge.
Regarding the insane cheapness of Standard Pauper, I think only Block Pauper could possibly be less expensive. Only a handful of cards rise above a dime, and the only cards I can think of that might "set you back" are Staggershock (0.25) and Evolving Wilds (0.20), the most heavily played "expensive" commons. I can't recall the price cutoff for Heirloom, but I'd guess that most Standard Pauper cards would be Heirloom legal.
You're reminding me that I had meant to include a Scrye-style price guide...I've kind of gotten caught up in the Great Designer Search 2. I figure with Alara rotating so soon, I'll just wait to include this feature until after Scars drops online.
I absolutely will. I think a constructed format which allows you to play with a vast array of what MTGO has to offer for under $5 is a genius idea. What time do events generally kick off at US time? Is it a morning/lunch time thing for you guys? If so, that would make it evening here in the UK which is more than doable for me.
Hey midi2304,
We'd certianly enjoy your company if you decided to join us in the Heirloom community.
I selected the time of day for our events with Europe and the US in mind. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean it's a perfect time for everyone in or near those places in any case.
In the future I'd like to have more events that give us coverage of all time zones and with more days of the week involved, but of course that will involve having other organizers investing themselves in the format.
Anyway I sure hope you can make it to one of our events sometime and join the chat channel "heirloom" on MTGO to try to find some people to play with as well. SOmetimes you have to PM the people in there since the channel doesnt alert them to new messages (type /join heirloom in any chat channel)
X-
To cure rare drafting find a playgroup that redrafts their rares.
Bookmarking the article.
LE
I really, really fancy trying this format. I'm only just getting back to MTGO after a few years self-exposed exile (when I was last on MTGO, it was still v2) and have only really been playing draft since I have got back. 'Proper' constructed is too expensive for me to consider/justify tbh. The only issue would be the time difference between when you guys play and me being over here in the UK.
Hi ShardFenix,
First thing's first: I've sent you a message in-game from a friends account (Archorian) regarding the prize. I've got to say - Gelatinous Genesis got me quite excited too. Not a lot of M:TG formats frequently generate the sort of manapool that EDH does.
As for the article: I can sympathise about the money issues, I'm a student with a 15-month old, so money for Magic is pretty much nonexistent these days. That will pass, I'm sure. Vhati il-Dal was a lot of fun for me when Tempest came out - the idea of creating an EDH deck around him appeals!
Hey Westane,
Great article.
I'm sure plenty of people will find this really useful for getting into video publishing. I may take a closer look next time I'm set to make new videos to see if I can improve mine a bit since they're pretty cave-man atm.
Maybe I'll put a link to this in the Heirloom link hub to encourage players of the format to get more proactive and make some of their own related media on it.
X-
Copperfield,
I've always loved deft duelist and bone splinters is pretty cool but unless youre name gives you the ability to make shroud disappear I don't think it's gonna kill the defter. If I ever find the spare time to play another budget format I may consider standard pauper since at least it's fairly interactive and totally budget.
X-