I agree with the comments about scroll thief, acidic slime, infantry veteran, and garruk's over rotting legion being an easy call.
Infantry Veteran helps flyers get through with more damage, helps trade up, and sometimes even wins games when people forget to play around it.
In terms of the videos, the technical difficulties were annoying, and match 1 seemed to drag on forever. I would work on cutting the time down a lot.
Keep making draft videos and you will get better at it. Hope to see some Scars ones soon! Thanks.
Oh come on ....there have to be more annoying cards in EDH than Armageddon...Jokulhaups? Decree of Annihilation hard cast? Any infinite combo engine (of which there are an absolute shitton)? Turn 3-4 Emrakul? Id say all of those would end the game for me quicker than an armageddon which is basically a gamble that you will recover quicker than all 3 of your opponents which you can set up for but not guarantee.
And by 4 mana you mean three?? (costs G+2 to cycle) Krosan Tusker is pretty awesome when you are sitting at 3 mana and absolutely need land number 4. It also does not suck that much late game where a body that big does have some impact. Particularly in reanimation after having cycled it.
I was thinking mostly about Pithing Needle myself. R&D once said that its inclusion was a "safety blanket". That if anything went horribly wrong, players can always hate that thing out with Pithing Needle. Like you, I was expecting a new needle. Something like "Name a card. That card loses all abilities." maybe, which would finally let me "needle" (verb) a Winter Orb. It'd be a bit broken with things like Phyrexian Dreadnought, but meh, that was just one example. Point is, I assumed that no needle effect in M11 meant that something had to appear in SoM. That was a lost bet.
You need real answers to planeswalkers, like Cancel and Duress. If someone drops a Venser, makes their team unblockable, and smacks you for lethal (or for an amount that makes a counter-strike suicidal) then it doesn't matter if your men can kill Venser. Venser already worked.
How's this?
Turn 4: Wrath of Judgment
Turn 5: either Elspeth or Venser
Turn 6: the other one. Activate Elspeth's -2. Activate Venser's +2 targeting Elspeth.
How do you deal with that? Elspeth's at 4, Venser's at 5, and there are still three 1/1s to swing through. Even without the turn 4 DoJ that's a tall order of damage. Creatures can't be relied on to kill Planeswalkers. They're always a turn late. Or two, if you draw them.
Ratchet Bomb answers Elspeth's tokens, but it takes way too long to reach 4 or 5. And EoT 2U "Proliferate. Draw a card." can make it jump straight to 6 while it's tapped. But then again, Venser resets Ratchet Bomb... or opposing PWs if you're desperate. -_- (Maybe blink your moneyjace, play mine, use it, go. Pop.)
Generally good article, though as I stated in some previous - I would like to see some drafts that are not perfectly good and you are the only one getting, a color.
As for pyroclasm and wrath of god effects - as I'm reading the draft walkthrough's on this site I see that they are veeery underlooked. Passing a Day of Judgment is something strange for me ... but as I see nobody even questioned it. Puting it under Serra Angel and Mind Control seems to me just wrong. But maybe it's the old school of drafting I'm talking about, but when I was learning how to draft it was "Mass removal, removal, creatures" or the BREAD way where it is the combination of Bomb and Removal. Although I can see a point in keeping away from white as the most drafted colour.
Also it's the second time I see article where a player plays Red and passes pyroclasm. Of course it kills your awakener's and elfs, and it does nothing to the bigger guys, but remember you can always take value from it by simply attacking with little dudes into their bigger and firing it up.
You also seem to under rate the cultivate - there was a moment when you picked ranger or llanowar over it (too lazy to search for exact pick). Would like to hear some discussion bout it, coz a lot of people seem to value it very high.
You should really explain your picks more. "Doom Blade it's the pick" it's not really an explanation, expecially when there's also Pacifism in the same pack. Explain that Doom Blade is the pick because if you take a white card you're gonna ship a white signal anyway...
BTW this is the way LSV kills time during drafts XD
Heres the deal. If you choose to pay for an event, and play a deck, you had damn well better expect to lose. I dont care if your a 6 year old with no grasp of the game at all. Paying to play, ie events, means that you will lose, even if you have the hands down best deck in the format. So bah at your whole meaningless dribble about how you will face net decks or pro players. What were you expecting? Your article should have said something along the lines of increase payout, or decrease the chess clock so that rounds run faster.
Also your article is misleading saying that your get more eternal players at your store then we can online, of course you will have more players when you pander to a group of children who dont want to play "cut throat" magic. Classic and legacy online fail because of the price of the format+length of events+random time of events+poor payout.
If you want a casual event atmosphere go play in a pre there are litterly dozens of them every month.
I agree, and I don't think krosan tusker is that great. Maybe if it put the land into play instead of in your hand..but paying 4 mana to draw 2, one of which MUST be a basic land (which imo is worse than draw 2 randoms), is just weak. No one plays divination. No one would play it if it cost 1 more. And no one will play it if it cost 1 more and had a weaker effect.
Sunspear askari is just a knight of meadowgrain at best.
Also, no mention of the obvious synergy between kuldotha rebirth and the new spellbombs?
So I may have mentioned in the splash that I would name my favorite new Commander card from Scars of Mirrodin...well as you can see I didnt. The only hint I will give you is that it is neither White nor is it Blue.
For the first 5 people that get it right you will get your choice in order of posting from the following 5 generals
Scion of Ur-Dragon
Oros the Avenger
Numot the Devastator
Saffi Eriksdotter
Hokori, Dust Drinker
So see if you can figure it out.
And only 3 guesses per person and they have to be in one post.
Warp World has been very well received in my playgroup. The first few times I played this deck, people would even show me the counterspell for Warp World and then let it resolve "just to see what happens." The random nature of the spell means its far less annoying to most people than something like Obliterate, which sets everyone to zero. It might be a pseudo-Wrath, it might be a faux-Armageddon, or it might just take you from 6 lands to a winning position, but you never know until it actually happens. I certainly don't see it as a problem card, even when I'm running a deck that's not built around it.
So, is Warp World one of the cards people get pissed at in Commander? I mean, if I asked you to rate the cards people hate most among Armageddon, Obliterate and Warp World, what would the order be? I'm just wondering to what extent this breaks that nebulous "social contract".
There is (as far as I know) still casual drafting. (You can set up a table and draft with friends or you could last time I checked which was admittedly ages ago.)
Part of the reason you saw so few people in the Classic 2-man queues is the prize payout. Urzas packs now get you under 3 tickets, so it's posible to end up losing money even if you win a majority of the 2mans you play.
I think this would help, however, you'd have to price/prize it so that you don't encourage sharks to come and amass packs for "going infinite" or whatever.
Oddly, some new players do try the classic 2 man queues. (probably the only format where people try their casual decks against ur dominating deck)
MTGO itself is quite a daunting idea for most people. Unfortunately, regardless of the format, the players with the better decks / playskill are going to have the winning advantage on their side.
If there would be a solution, it would be to make a crappy EV tournament that is not worth your time entering. As spikey as one gets, they do have to make some better choices going into tournaments.
The best way for newer players to play is to get into the cheaper formats or just stick with limited to start off unless they are willing to shell out thousands off the bat.
In online poker, you find easier / more casual competition by going to lower stakes tables. If MTGO had some options that were cheaper than 2 tickets to enter, they might attract a more casual crowd. What if you could enter some sort of event for the equivalent of $0.50? Some casual people would try it out just to test the waters, while most pros would probably not bother with it.
I agree with the comments about scroll thief, acidic slime, infantry veteran, and garruk's over rotting legion being an easy call.
Infantry Veteran helps flyers get through with more damage, helps trade up, and sometimes even wins games when people forget to play around it.
In terms of the videos, the technical difficulties were annoying, and match 1 seemed to drag on forever. I would work on cutting the time down a lot.
Keep making draft videos and you will get better at it. Hope to see some Scars ones soon! Thanks.
there may not be a "casual" pre, but its a heck of a lot less competitive then your average event since there is no entrey fee.
Indeed we did. Had some pretty cool solutions too.
We did a whole custom card contest about pwalker hate 2 months ago if they need some ideas... ;)
Oh come on ....there have to be more annoying cards in EDH than Armageddon...Jokulhaups? Decree of Annihilation hard cast? Any infinite combo engine (of which there are an absolute shitton)? Turn 3-4 Emrakul? Id say all of those would end the game for me quicker than an armageddon which is basically a gamble that you will recover quicker than all 3 of your opponents which you can set up for but not guarantee.
I respectfully submit dear Whiffy that there is no such thing as a casual PRE.
And by 4 mana you mean three?? (costs G+2 to cycle) Krosan Tusker is pretty awesome when you are sitting at 3 mana and absolutely need land number 4. It also does not suck that much late game where a body that big does have some impact. Particularly in reanimation after having cycled it.
I was thinking mostly about Pithing Needle myself. R&D once said that its inclusion was a "safety blanket". That if anything went horribly wrong, players can always hate that thing out with Pithing Needle. Like you, I was expecting a new needle. Something like "Name a card. That card loses all abilities." maybe, which would finally let me "needle" (verb) a Winter Orb. It'd be a bit broken with things like Phyrexian Dreadnought, but meh, that was just one example. Point is, I assumed that no needle effect in M11 meant that something had to appear in SoM. That was a lost bet.
You need real answers to planeswalkers, like Cancel and Duress. If someone drops a Venser, makes their team unblockable, and smacks you for lethal (or for an amount that makes a counter-strike suicidal) then it doesn't matter if your men can kill Venser. Venser already worked.
How's this?
Turn 4: Wrath of Judgment
Turn 5: either Elspeth or Venser
Turn 6: the other one. Activate Elspeth's -2. Activate Venser's +2 targeting Elspeth.
How do you deal with that? Elspeth's at 4, Venser's at 5, and there are still three 1/1s to swing through. Even without the turn 4 DoJ that's a tall order of damage. Creatures can't be relied on to kill Planeswalkers. They're always a turn late. Or two, if you draw them.
Ratchet Bomb answers Elspeth's tokens, but it takes way too long to reach 4 or 5. And EoT 2U "Proliferate. Draw a card." can make it jump straight to 6 while it's tapped. But then again, Venser resets Ratchet Bomb... or opposing PWs if you're desperate. -_- (Maybe blink your moneyjace, play mine, use it, go. Pop.)
Generally good article, though as I stated in some previous - I would like to see some drafts that are not perfectly good and you are the only one getting, a color.
As for pyroclasm and wrath of god effects - as I'm reading the draft walkthrough's on this site I see that they are veeery underlooked. Passing a Day of Judgment is something strange for me ... but as I see nobody even questioned it. Puting it under Serra Angel and Mind Control seems to me just wrong. But maybe it's the old school of drafting I'm talking about, but when I was learning how to draft it was "Mass removal, removal, creatures" or the BREAD way where it is the combination of Bomb and Removal. Although I can see a point in keeping away from white as the most drafted colour.
Also it's the second time I see article where a player plays Red and passes pyroclasm. Of course it kills your awakener's and elfs, and it does nothing to the bigger guys, but remember you can always take value from it by simply attacking with little dudes into their bigger and firing it up.
You also seem to under rate the cultivate - there was a moment when you picked ranger or llanowar over it (too lazy to search for exact pick). Would like to hear some discussion bout it, coz a lot of people seem to value it very high.
You should really explain your picks more. "Doom Blade it's the pick" it's not really an explanation, expecially when there's also Pacifism in the same pack. Explain that Doom Blade is the pick because if you take a white card you're gonna ship a white signal anyway...
BTW this is the way LSV kills time during drafts XD
Nice vids, waiting for the next one ;)
We also fire 5 - 10 eternal events a week online, are there that many at local stores?
Heres the deal. If you choose to pay for an event, and play a deck, you had damn well better expect to lose. I dont care if your a 6 year old with no grasp of the game at all. Paying to play, ie events, means that you will lose, even if you have the hands down best deck in the format. So bah at your whole meaningless dribble about how you will face net decks or pro players. What were you expecting? Your article should have said something along the lines of increase payout, or decrease the chess clock so that rounds run faster.
Also your article is misleading saying that your get more eternal players at your store then we can online, of course you will have more players when you pander to a group of children who dont want to play "cut throat" magic. Classic and legacy online fail because of the price of the format+length of events+random time of events+poor payout.
If you want a casual event atmosphere go play in a pre there are litterly dozens of them every month.
whiffy steps off his soap box
I agree with zombardo. Low cost/low payout queus would help a lot.
I agree, and I don't think krosan tusker is that great. Maybe if it put the land into play instead of in your hand..but paying 4 mana to draw 2, one of which MUST be a basic land (which imo is worse than draw 2 randoms), is just weak. No one plays divination. No one would play it if it cost 1 more. And no one will play it if it cost 1 more and had a weaker effect.
Sunspear askari is just a knight of meadowgrain at best.
Also, no mention of the obvious synergy between kuldotha rebirth and the new spellbombs?
fyi don't use vimeo. they delete videos of videogames. http://vimeo.com/guidelines
So I may have mentioned in the splash that I would name my favorite new Commander card from Scars of Mirrodin...well as you can see I didnt. The only hint I will give you is that it is neither White nor is it Blue.
For the first 5 people that get it right you will get your choice in order of posting from the following 5 generals
Scion of Ur-Dragon
Oros the Avenger
Numot the Devastator
Saffi Eriksdotter
Hokori, Dust Drinker
So see if you can figure it out.
And only 3 guesses per person and they have to be in one post.
it goes....
1. Obliterate
2. armageddon
956. Warp world
seriously wapr world isnt even close to annoying in edh. Unless you have out hive mind
Comments and Suggestions welcome
Warp World has been very well received in my playgroup. The first few times I played this deck, people would even show me the counterspell for Warp World and then let it resolve "just to see what happens." The random nature of the spell means its far less annoying to most people than something like Obliterate, which sets everyone to zero. It might be a pseudo-Wrath, it might be a faux-Armageddon, or it might just take you from 6 lands to a winning position, but you never know until it actually happens. I certainly don't see it as a problem card, even when I'm running a deck that's not built around it.
So, is Warp World one of the cards people get pissed at in Commander? I mean, if I asked you to rate the cards people hate most among Armageddon, Obliterate and Warp World, what would the order be? I'm just wondering to what extent this breaks that nebulous "social contract".
There is (as far as I know) still casual drafting. (You can set up a table and draft with friends or you could last time I checked which was admittedly ages ago.)
Part of the reason you saw so few people in the Classic 2-man queues is the prize payout. Urzas packs now get you under 3 tickets, so it's posible to end up losing money even if you win a majority of the 2mans you play.
I think this would help, however, you'd have to price/prize it so that you don't encourage sharks to come and amass packs for "going infinite" or whatever.
Oddly, some new players do try the classic 2 man queues. (probably the only format where people try their casual decks against ur dominating deck)
MTGO itself is quite a daunting idea for most people. Unfortunately, regardless of the format, the players with the better decks / playskill are going to have the winning advantage on their side.
If there would be a solution, it would be to make a crappy EV tournament that is not worth your time entering. As spikey as one gets, they do have to make some better choices going into tournaments.
The best way for newer players to play is to get into the cheaper formats or just stick with limited to start off unless they are willing to shell out thousands off the bat.
In online poker, you find easier / more casual competition by going to lower stakes tables. If MTGO had some options that were cheaper than 2 tickets to enter, they might attract a more casual crowd. What if you could enter some sort of event for the equivalent of $0.50? Some casual people would try it out just to test the waters, while most pros would probably not bother with it.