I would love to see them make available decks online for purchase that were winning decks from GP or PTs. This would get more individual cards available and an easier way to get the cards you need without spending hundreds of dollars on them. I personally have quit buying, it is WAY too expensive to play. I am an average player. If Im going to spend that kind of money, I will put it into something like coins, then just spend $15/month and play wow.
That's fair (as far as the "signals" portion on p1p2), but if you're going to ignore signals then you have to take the best card, and Chandra's Outrage is significantly more powerful in most archetypes than Azure Drake. Staying flexible by taking the best card accomplishes more of what you were trying, anyway.
It just so happens that tons of red got passed. As far as the Tunneler/Hellhound/Fling deck, it's cute but hard to put together - you have to draw the cards in the right order or it's just a crappy deck full of marginal cards. The Act/sac deck is much better. Mono-R should probably only be considered if you wind up with something like Cyclops Gladiator/3x Hellhound/Ancient Hellkite - there aren't enough truly red-intensive spells to benefit a mono-R deck, in my opinion.
I think Act of Treason is actually underrated a bit by a lot of players. Red decks like to race & to sneak in the last damage with something you didn't expect, like a Lava Axe or whatever. Very often in a race where it looks like the other guy is ahead, the red/x player can grab the lone Yavimaya Wurm that stayed home to block, letting all the attackers get through AND adding 6 damage to the expected maximum, and steal the game right there - or throw in a lightning bolt for the last few points.
I've said many a time before, Act of Treason is often the one spell I neglect to play around, too. Probably a lot of other people are that way. But even if you're trying to play around it, it's a strong spell & sometimes you just have to overcommit against red or else you're not getting enough attacks in to be ahead in the race. If someone's forced to hold two attackers back on several key turns, to play "just in case" and avoid the blowout because they know or suspect you have it... Then you got value out of taking less beats. If they see you have it in game one, it makes combat decisions a lot trickier for them. Sometimes they can't win unless they successfully guess whether you have it in hand or not, and any time they guess wrong you can gain value.
It's kind of like Red's "poor man's version of Mind Control". It's not as good, but it is faster-acting, and when it's just enough for fatal who cares about it being weaker? Mind Control is one of the top cards in the set after all - saying "weaker than Mind Control" is like when the cream cheese people advertised on TV "half the calories of butter". I mean come on, butter is the poster boy for high calories! Is that like "half as expensive as gold" or "half as poisonous as rattlesnake venom"? Some marketing!
Anyway I think Act of Treason's power level justifies it being an uncommon, even outside of that archetype it can swing games. So I wouldn't feel bad about picking one and then not ending up with those other cards - in any red/x aggro deck it's a reasonable inclusion. I'd say in a vaccuum, it may be the "most powerful outside that archetype" of the set of fling, skeleton, act, bloodthrone, and seer. Those last two in particular can be pretty lame without synergy cards to join them. Act is solid though, certainly better than something like Lava Axe. (Though is that like saying "more powerful than a speeding goblin balloon brigade"? Now I'm damning it with faint praise. I actually think it's better than some reasonably solid playables too, though it's not a truly top uncommon. Just decent.)
I agree that they often don't table, so you may be finding them in packs that still have stronger options available. But I wouldn't be at all unhappy to see one 5th or 6th pick. I don't generally get them there, but that's because the gods have decreed that it's my lot in life to be beaten by the card, rather than getting to play it. Someday I'll get to draft some!
Don't get me wrong... As much as the variety-craving and experimental side of me wants to get to play the red/black sacrifice deck, I do not want to A) first-pick the skeleton (unless it's a REALLY bad pack I open!) B) pick the skeleton over top notch bombs or removal or any other really good card, or C) otherwise make a really questionable skeleton grab.
If I saw it around pick 3 or 4, in a pack that had no stronger cards left in it... Especially if I had picked some black and/or red in my first few picks... Then I wouldn't mind grabbing one. In my fantasy world, I get a second one later even though it's uncommon, and a good selection of Bloodthrone Vampire, Viscera Seer, Act of Treason, Fling, and all the best support cards to go with 'em. Also I draw the right balance of spells in each game. Additionally, pigs fly. Well, the deck can be good when it's open at a particular table, don't know if I'll end up there.
I will say that the skeleton doesn't suck in a black deck even if you get none of the other pieces to go with it. Against non-tramplers, it's a recurring wall that could even get a few small beats in occasionally. So it can kinda "negate their current best creature" like Blinding Mage does, only at more mana cost each turn - but in exchange it's less vulnerable to removal than the Mage.
It also makes Necrotic Plague better if you happen to get one. And if you get even just one Bloodthrone Vampire or Viscera Seer to go with it, then it has the potential to enable some strong plays. I'm more than happy to draft one over an average card, off-color cards, etc. He could even join with a Barony Vampire to gang-block a 4/4, and it's really more like a 1 for 1 than a 2 for 1 trade.
No way I'm picking one over Serra Angel & Doom Blade, though. I might fantasize about doing something that stupid and lucksacking into a great deck, but then I shake my head clear and take the good card. Usually. Unless it's some kind of Elixir apparently. :D
The best option in my opinion, is to arrange "New Player Tournaments" even though you seem to disagree with this idea. This could be a tournament only for people with a rating up to 1699 (or less if you like). Of course, as you also say, a 1605 rating player could always be LSV's new account but how often would he or anyone at his calibre do such a thing?
In that other online TCG game I used to play we had this thing and I saw firsthand how it did work. My rating was between 1850 - 1900 in that game and I was never a problem for the new players because they always had their own tournament.
This could really be a solution.
LE
PS: There are no Turkish ninjas. Trust me. I know what I'm saying.
I 100% agree with you on the Planeswalker answers, to the extent that I wonder if you aren't just copying my statements from over on the Wizards site. >;-)
One positive feature is that of the 3 new planeswalkers, only Elspeth can directly protect herself. And even there she's using a -2 ability this time not a +1 one. So maybe there's a little hope for creatures being more effective against them. But still, with loyalties generally being up out of easy burnout range I'm very concerned that sufficient answers won't exist. Maybe black will start being a color again and then Hexmage will actually appear as an answer.
For Pauper, Sunspear Shikari could be fun but Glint Hawk just seems like a strictly inferior Kor Skyfisher. Now I love the Skyfisher, and I love resetting Serrated Arrows with them, but I really don't think I need a narrower version with less toughness.
Also I don't like the Horizon Spellbomb. If I'm green I would rather play Cultivate. Non-green, and I might as well play Expedition Map for non-basic options. If you just want early fixing with cycling, use a Chromatic Something. Only in a deck with a non-green base where you need fixing early without green but will have green mana later for added value would want this card. And I think the awkwardness of that phrasing implies its likelihood.
Lastly, Perilous Myr I hadn't noticed until just now so good mention. Occasionally I consider Moonglove Extract for a deck that can't beat protection and Perilous Myr might be more appealing there.
I am curious to know what was your solution to this problem that you decided didn't work.
I know there are a lot of us that would love to improve the way constructed tournaments are handled. But this is not easy considering we don't know the legal and programming limits that WotC has.
2-man queues are a great step in the right direction. I agree that they are a large step up from the tournament practice room, but they are still a much lower risk investment than 8-man queues and daily events.
I would love if there was a way to create your own 2-man queue to challenge your friends. You would pay 2 tickets, pick your format, pick the type of pack the winner receives, and pick your opponent. That opponent would either pay 2 tickets to start the tournament or cancel the queue resulting in a refund of your tickets.
That would solve so many problems. Of course it would also need to have limits to keep players from challenging new players to take advantage of them. Maybe both players would have to be in a special challenge room at the same time, or it would be an option in your settings that you would have to opt into. I don't know. It's an idea.
I'm not getting my hopes up. There are probably some kind of legal or programming reason why that couldn't be done. But I still like offering ideas, because you never know when you might come up with an idea that could be useful.
There is player interest in running a planeswalker PRE, I have been contacted by a few people who are interested in playing in one if someone ran it.
The problem I have with this is advertising, how can you attract more new players. If they are new they wont be reading PureMTGO or the forums and you can't advertise PRE's in game.
I strongly feel the definition of "Casual" is someone who doesn't complain or get upset about how a game or match went. When two people who have that "good attitude problem" play, then you have a "casual game". That's it, period. I know I can lose to pretty much anything, I'll shrug or if I saw something I never saw before, say "cool deck idea" and maybe later build a deck around that concept myself. If I play against something totally unfun to me and I didn't get to do much of anything... I'll say "gg" and play another. At least those games are usually over pretty fast.
I will say that quitting at the first counterspell or LD spell is making a huge assumption about the other person's deck. They might only have 4 counterspells or 4 LD spells in their entire deck, for all you know. I've had decks with just ONE counterspell, discard spell, or LD spell, and I played it and had someone conceed. They were missing out on a varied match against a deck loaded with singletons and cards most people never play, but oh well - their loss, not mine. I just shrugged and went on to play another game, as mentioned above.
I also think you'd find, if you played on past that early Stone Rain, that the other posters are right who've said that dedicated LD decks are pretty bad, and generally lose more than half their games. If they're only running 8-10 LD spells, their chances of keeping you off the mana to cast your spells are poor, and their deck now has a lower density of threats and answers than yours, probably, because of those 8-10 slots eaten up. On the other hand, if they run a few creatures and tons of LD spells, the deck is subject to drawing no creatures to pressure you while your mana is supressed. Or maybe just 1 creature, so that by the time they've got your life low, you've drawn into enough land to play a blocker, or pacifism or doom blade or whatever. Whatever mix of LD and creatures they play, the deck is very vulnerable to not drawing the right ratio of supression and threats to actually win.
So I play out games against LD, and win more than half of them, with just whatever random deck I'm playing that day. Since it's such a weak strategy. Maybe there's a question of patience here? If the shuffler's dealt out our decks in such a way that I'm going to win on turn 23, and I'm sitting there on turn 9 or 10 mentally griping to myself "I haven't gotten to play anything yet" - but my opponent hasn't got any creatures on the board either, should I be upset I'm "losing"? Or should I be patient and see what happens? They've built a deck that commits to a slower paced game not just for me, but for themself also. (Same thing with blue control decks in that regard). Because the Stone Rain, like the Counterspell, doesn't actively do anything to make them kill me. It just takes steps to hinder me from killing them.
If I want a fast paced game, those aren't my ideal opponents. But Stone Rain goes after the one type of card people in a long game are eventually likely to say they got too many of, and each new one is a "dead draw" - lands. And with 24 or so land, odds are my lands outnumber his LD spells and eventually I'm gonna get enough ahead to play some creatures. Even more so if I'm running some mana accel spells as well.
Counterspells are more viable for building a deck that can actually win more than 50% of its games, rather than less. But I sure wouldn't conceed against a guy for running four. Or even *gasp* eight. Some spells like Wrath of God or Cruel Ultimatum are so powerful that I think the game really needs things like Cancel and Duress to hold them in check. If people were guaranteed those spells would work every time, they'd warp the game in a different direction, with its own "un-fun" situations it would lead to.
When I started playing, I was a Timmy throwing out swarms of creatures, loxodon warhammers, blanchwood armors, and fireshriekers. I hated Wrath of God so much, and not long after I started playing in paper, they brought out Damnation and the environment was just flooded with sweepers!
I never quit a game because someone played those spells, though. I just tried to adapt and build decks I could have fun with & dodge some of those effects. First I made one that abused Norin the Wary and Saltskitter, critters that'll just be out of play when the Wrath goes off, and come back. Plus token making lands. (Both to make more guys, and also to scare Saltskitter away in response to any sweeper or removal!) Then I went nuts with Persist creatures - I miss 'em so much.
If I was running into a ton of counterspells, AND if it was spoiling my fun, I'd probably run more "cannot be countered" green spells. Haven't felt that need so far.
The only really un-fun situation for me is if the other player is rude and unpleasant. Then I might avoid playing them again. I'll generally finish the game though in any case. Playing a "bad" game of cards, against discard, counter and land destruction all at once, is still more fun than taking out the garbage or doing your taxes. It's still a game, right?
P1P2: No love for the Scroll Thief? It doesn't even get mentioned but Squadron Hawk does. I lost all of my interest in watching after that. Coupled with the fact that M11 is a lame-duck format.
With the negatives out of the way, I hope that you do keep trying to do these once Scars comes online as I do enjoy a video walkthrough, even when I disagree with the picks/player, as it provides alternate views on a given situation. Good luck going forward.
Actually there is a semi-answer to planeswalkers and it is really good in Scars. It's Liquimetal Coating. As an uncommon it will be much easier to get than Maelstrom Pulse. However it still requires a second card like Naturalize or Shatter to be of any use. But it is an artifact, it costs 2, so it comes out quick, which is what you need against planeswalkers. However, I too noticed that the current PW.dec is Red/White/Blue and the three planeswalkers we are gaining are red/white/blue. Anyone wonder if WotC is building our decks for us?
There really is no solution to keep people from playing against pros. Heck, that even happens at my local store. We have a lot of casual players that show up, but there are some tourney pros as well. At FNM, you just have to pray you don't have to face one of them round one.
As for new players, WotC is actually on the right path.... kinda. The creation of the planeswalker decks is a brilliant idea. I would venture to say it's the best idea towards gaining new players WotC has ever had. Any one remember pro-player cards and how MaRo said they were supposed to inspire people to become professional magic players? The best teaching tool ever were those World Champion gold-bordered decks. I learned on one of those and have taught several other people on them as well. Powerful cards at a cheap price, what's not to like? Yeah they aren't tournament legal, but they are great for teaching and just playign casual. I would love to see WOTC release more and more of these. I would also love to see some PRE's using them as well. I would do it, but my schedule is a little cramped right now. Maybe if things free up a bit, I can look into it.
It seems to me, WoTC R&D goes through cycles of trying stuff out and seeing what sticks. This year it looks to be colorless mythics. Last year it was multicolored mythics. Next year? Who knows. Planeswalkers are insane to play against but they are not unbeatable. You don't even need built in hate. You simply must make life hard for them to stick around. The problem of course is, while you are dealing damage to the planeswalkers your op lives on. I have played a few rounds where it was just better/faster to kill my opponent than to worry about their build of planeswalkers. I am not saying I like the number of playable mythics. I am just saying magic is bigger than this problem and it will solve itself eventually for most players.
I LOLed when I read the part about pairings against pros. Now everyone else knows how I felt playing out of Neutral Ground (the only place to play at all in NYC while it was around. Now of course there is only MODO, unless you want to squeeze into JHU's basement come friday night.)
Am I missing something? Shouldn't Jitte and Skullclamp be on the banned list? Or do we just auto-assume those are banned? Not trying to be funny here, I'm actually asking since I know the format is changing, but those cards aren't on the list.
you know I saw this and again got excited because you were reading my mind.. I just made a Xira deck two days ago for commander, but then I got to Warp World and that was the end of the article for me
Extinction is good, but it's not broken. A Crypt Rats with a Swarmyard can do more broken things than an Extinction can do. Part of the fun of deckbuilding is being able to work around the powerful cards in the format, and you can definitely work around Extinction.
I know exactly what you mean by being disappointed with triggered enchantments. My first draft had Pandemonium in it and it was a sad day indeed when I found out that it didn't work like I wanted it to.
I agree with your points here. You wouldn't think there would be much of a difference of playability between 4 mana and 5 mana but this has been the case since the planeswalkers were released, with the only one seeing a good amount of play being Gideon.
I don’t see how the existence of some cards, that are not available in all formats, that may slightly increase your chances against a very specific strategy if you’re lucky enough to draw one, make it okay for players to field a deck in the casual room that’s designed to keep their opponent from playing the game. I didn’t address this in the article, but I don’t think the “It’s possible to beat the deck” argument holds water. It’s possible to beat someone who is cheating at poker, but that doesn’t excuse the cheating. Not a great analogy since LD isn’t cheating, but hopefully you get the idea.
Yeah that was the busted part of Entity. Just fill your deck with pump creatures and set it to zero and then tap all your mana. If lords were still around it would have been amazing in 5 color Lord tribal. As it is,I run it in my soldier tribal with Daru Warchief, Captain of the Watch, the lord from coldsnap, and both veterans. with a bunch of token producers. I'll ahve to add the knights too. yay! busted. Why did they cancel this format?
I would love to see them make available decks online for purchase that were winning decks from GP or PTs. This would get more individual cards available and an easier way to get the cards you need without spending hundreds of dollars on them. I personally have quit buying, it is WAY too expensive to play. I am an average player. If Im going to spend that kind of money, I will put it into something like coins, then just spend $15/month and play wow.
That's fair (as far as the "signals" portion on p1p2), but if you're going to ignore signals then you have to take the best card, and Chandra's Outrage is significantly more powerful in most archetypes than Azure Drake. Staying flexible by taking the best card accomplishes more of what you were trying, anyway.
It just so happens that tons of red got passed. As far as the Tunneler/Hellhound/Fling deck, it's cute but hard to put together - you have to draw the cards in the right order or it's just a crappy deck full of marginal cards. The Act/sac deck is much better. Mono-R should probably only be considered if you wind up with something like Cyclops Gladiator/3x Hellhound/Ancient Hellkite - there aren't enough truly red-intensive spells to benefit a mono-R deck, in my opinion.
I think Act of Treason is actually underrated a bit by a lot of players. Red decks like to race & to sneak in the last damage with something you didn't expect, like a Lava Axe or whatever. Very often in a race where it looks like the other guy is ahead, the red/x player can grab the lone Yavimaya Wurm that stayed home to block, letting all the attackers get through AND adding 6 damage to the expected maximum, and steal the game right there - or throw in a lightning bolt for the last few points.
I've said many a time before, Act of Treason is often the one spell I neglect to play around, too. Probably a lot of other people are that way. But even if you're trying to play around it, it's a strong spell & sometimes you just have to overcommit against red or else you're not getting enough attacks in to be ahead in the race. If someone's forced to hold two attackers back on several key turns, to play "just in case" and avoid the blowout because they know or suspect you have it... Then you got value out of taking less beats. If they see you have it in game one, it makes combat decisions a lot trickier for them. Sometimes they can't win unless they successfully guess whether you have it in hand or not, and any time they guess wrong you can gain value.
It's kind of like Red's "poor man's version of Mind Control". It's not as good, but it is faster-acting, and when it's just enough for fatal who cares about it being weaker? Mind Control is one of the top cards in the set after all - saying "weaker than Mind Control" is like when the cream cheese people advertised on TV "half the calories of butter". I mean come on, butter is the poster boy for high calories! Is that like "half as expensive as gold" or "half as poisonous as rattlesnake venom"? Some marketing!
Anyway I think Act of Treason's power level justifies it being an uncommon, even outside of that archetype it can swing games. So I wouldn't feel bad about picking one and then not ending up with those other cards - in any red/x aggro deck it's a reasonable inclusion. I'd say in a vaccuum, it may be the "most powerful outside that archetype" of the set of fling, skeleton, act, bloodthrone, and seer. Those last two in particular can be pretty lame without synergy cards to join them. Act is solid though, certainly better than something like Lava Axe. (Though is that like saying "more powerful than a speeding goblin balloon brigade"? Now I'm damning it with faint praise. I actually think it's better than some reasonably solid playables too, though it's not a truly top uncommon. Just decent.)
I agree that they often don't table, so you may be finding them in packs that still have stronger options available. But I wouldn't be at all unhappy to see one 5th or 6th pick. I don't generally get them there, but that's because the gods have decreed that it's my lot in life to be beaten by the card, rather than getting to play it. Someday I'll get to draft some!
Don't get me wrong... As much as the variety-craving and experimental side of me wants to get to play the red/black sacrifice deck, I do not want to A) first-pick the skeleton (unless it's a REALLY bad pack I open!) B) pick the skeleton over top notch bombs or removal or any other really good card, or C) otherwise make a really questionable skeleton grab.
If I saw it around pick 3 or 4, in a pack that had no stronger cards left in it... Especially if I had picked some black and/or red in my first few picks... Then I wouldn't mind grabbing one. In my fantasy world, I get a second one later even though it's uncommon, and a good selection of Bloodthrone Vampire, Viscera Seer, Act of Treason, Fling, and all the best support cards to go with 'em. Also I draw the right balance of spells in each game. Additionally, pigs fly. Well, the deck can be good when it's open at a particular table, don't know if I'll end up there.
I will say that the skeleton doesn't suck in a black deck even if you get none of the other pieces to go with it. Against non-tramplers, it's a recurring wall that could even get a few small beats in occasionally. So it can kinda "negate their current best creature" like Blinding Mage does, only at more mana cost each turn - but in exchange it's less vulnerable to removal than the Mage.
It also makes Necrotic Plague better if you happen to get one. And if you get even just one Bloodthrone Vampire or Viscera Seer to go with it, then it has the potential to enable some strong plays. I'm more than happy to draft one over an average card, off-color cards, etc. He could even join with a Barony Vampire to gang-block a 4/4, and it's really more like a 1 for 1 than a 2 for 1 trade.
No way I'm picking one over Serra Angel & Doom Blade, though. I might fantasize about doing something that stupid and lucksacking into a great deck, but then I shake my head clear and take the good card. Usually. Unless it's some kind of Elixir apparently. :D
The best option in my opinion, is to arrange "New Player Tournaments" even though you seem to disagree with this idea. This could be a tournament only for people with a rating up to 1699 (or less if you like). Of course, as you also say, a 1605 rating player could always be LSV's new account but how often would he or anyone at his calibre do such a thing?
In that other online TCG game I used to play we had this thing and I saw firsthand how it did work. My rating was between 1850 - 1900 in that game and I was never a problem for the new players because they always had their own tournament.
This could really be a solution.
LE
PS: There are no Turkish ninjas. Trust me. I know what I'm saying.
I 100% agree with you on the Planeswalker answers, to the extent that I wonder if you aren't just copying my statements from over on the Wizards site. >;-)
One positive feature is that of the 3 new planeswalkers, only Elspeth can directly protect herself. And even there she's using a -2 ability this time not a +1 one. So maybe there's a little hope for creatures being more effective against them. But still, with loyalties generally being up out of easy burnout range I'm very concerned that sufficient answers won't exist. Maybe black will start being a color again and then Hexmage will actually appear as an answer.
For Pauper, Sunspear Shikari could be fun but Glint Hawk just seems like a strictly inferior Kor Skyfisher. Now I love the Skyfisher, and I love resetting Serrated Arrows with them, but I really don't think I need a narrower version with less toughness.
Also I don't like the Horizon Spellbomb. If I'm green I would rather play Cultivate. Non-green, and I might as well play Expedition Map for non-basic options. If you just want early fixing with cycling, use a Chromatic Something. Only in a deck with a non-green base where you need fixing early without green but will have green mana later for added value would want this card. And I think the awkwardness of that phrasing implies its likelihood.
Lastly, Perilous Myr I hadn't noticed until just now so good mention. Occasionally I consider Moonglove Extract for a deck that can't beat protection and Perilous Myr might be more appealing there.
I am curious to know what was your solution to this problem that you decided didn't work.
I know there are a lot of us that would love to improve the way constructed tournaments are handled. But this is not easy considering we don't know the legal and programming limits that WotC has.
2-man queues are a great step in the right direction. I agree that they are a large step up from the tournament practice room, but they are still a much lower risk investment than 8-man queues and daily events.
I would love if there was a way to create your own 2-man queue to challenge your friends. You would pay 2 tickets, pick your format, pick the type of pack the winner receives, and pick your opponent. That opponent would either pay 2 tickets to start the tournament or cancel the queue resulting in a refund of your tickets.
That would solve so many problems. Of course it would also need to have limits to keep players from challenging new players to take advantage of them. Maybe both players would have to be in a special challenge room at the same time, or it would be an option in your settings that you would have to opt into. I don't know. It's an idea.
I'm not getting my hopes up. There are probably some kind of legal or programming reason why that couldn't be done. But I still like offering ideas, because you never know when you might come up with an idea that could be useful.
Decks look fun, but I don't have any Primeval Titans or All is Dust, so guess I'll pass.
There is player interest in running a planeswalker PRE, I have been contacted by a few people who are interested in playing in one if someone ran it.
The problem I have with this is advertising, how can you attract more new players. If they are new they wont be reading PureMTGO or the forums and you can't advertise PRE's in game.
I strongly feel the definition of "Casual" is someone who doesn't complain or get upset about how a game or match went. When two people who have that "good attitude problem" play, then you have a "casual game". That's it, period. I know I can lose to pretty much anything, I'll shrug or if I saw something I never saw before, say "cool deck idea" and maybe later build a deck around that concept myself. If I play against something totally unfun to me and I didn't get to do much of anything... I'll say "gg" and play another. At least those games are usually over pretty fast.
I will say that quitting at the first counterspell or LD spell is making a huge assumption about the other person's deck. They might only have 4 counterspells or 4 LD spells in their entire deck, for all you know. I've had decks with just ONE counterspell, discard spell, or LD spell, and I played it and had someone conceed. They were missing out on a varied match against a deck loaded with singletons and cards most people never play, but oh well - their loss, not mine. I just shrugged and went on to play another game, as mentioned above.
I also think you'd find, if you played on past that early Stone Rain, that the other posters are right who've said that dedicated LD decks are pretty bad, and generally lose more than half their games. If they're only running 8-10 LD spells, their chances of keeping you off the mana to cast your spells are poor, and their deck now has a lower density of threats and answers than yours, probably, because of those 8-10 slots eaten up. On the other hand, if they run a few creatures and tons of LD spells, the deck is subject to drawing no creatures to pressure you while your mana is supressed. Or maybe just 1 creature, so that by the time they've got your life low, you've drawn into enough land to play a blocker, or pacifism or doom blade or whatever. Whatever mix of LD and creatures they play, the deck is very vulnerable to not drawing the right ratio of supression and threats to actually win.
So I play out games against LD, and win more than half of them, with just whatever random deck I'm playing that day. Since it's such a weak strategy. Maybe there's a question of patience here? If the shuffler's dealt out our decks in such a way that I'm going to win on turn 23, and I'm sitting there on turn 9 or 10 mentally griping to myself "I haven't gotten to play anything yet" - but my opponent hasn't got any creatures on the board either, should I be upset I'm "losing"? Or should I be patient and see what happens? They've built a deck that commits to a slower paced game not just for me, but for themself also. (Same thing with blue control decks in that regard). Because the Stone Rain, like the Counterspell, doesn't actively do anything to make them kill me. It just takes steps to hinder me from killing them.
If I want a fast paced game, those aren't my ideal opponents. But Stone Rain goes after the one type of card people in a long game are eventually likely to say they got too many of, and each new one is a "dead draw" - lands. And with 24 or so land, odds are my lands outnumber his LD spells and eventually I'm gonna get enough ahead to play some creatures. Even more so if I'm running some mana accel spells as well.
Counterspells are more viable for building a deck that can actually win more than 50% of its games, rather than less. But I sure wouldn't conceed against a guy for running four. Or even *gasp* eight. Some spells like Wrath of God or Cruel Ultimatum are so powerful that I think the game really needs things like Cancel and Duress to hold them in check. If people were guaranteed those spells would work every time, they'd warp the game in a different direction, with its own "un-fun" situations it would lead to.
When I started playing, I was a Timmy throwing out swarms of creatures, loxodon warhammers, blanchwood armors, and fireshriekers. I hated Wrath of God so much, and not long after I started playing in paper, they brought out Damnation and the environment was just flooded with sweepers!
I never quit a game because someone played those spells, though. I just tried to adapt and build decks I could have fun with & dodge some of those effects. First I made one that abused Norin the Wary and Saltskitter, critters that'll just be out of play when the Wrath goes off, and come back. Plus token making lands. (Both to make more guys, and also to scare Saltskitter away in response to any sweeper or removal!) Then I went nuts with Persist creatures - I miss 'em so much.
If I was running into a ton of counterspells, AND if it was spoiling my fun, I'd probably run more "cannot be countered" green spells. Haven't felt that need so far.
The only really un-fun situation for me is if the other player is rude and unpleasant. Then I might avoid playing them again. I'll generally finish the game though in any case. Playing a "bad" game of cards, against discard, counter and land destruction all at once, is still more fun than taking out the garbage or doing your taxes. It's still a game, right?
P1P2: No love for the Scroll Thief? It doesn't even get mentioned but Squadron Hawk does. I lost all of my interest in watching after that. Coupled with the fact that M11 is a lame-duck format.
With the negatives out of the way, I hope that you do keep trying to do these once Scars comes online as I do enjoy a video walkthrough, even when I disagree with the picks/player, as it provides alternate views on a given situation. Good luck going forward.
Actually there is a semi-answer to planeswalkers and it is really good in Scars. It's Liquimetal Coating. As an uncommon it will be much easier to get than Maelstrom Pulse. However it still requires a second card like Naturalize or Shatter to be of any use. But it is an artifact, it costs 2, so it comes out quick, which is what you need against planeswalkers. However, I too noticed that the current PW.dec is Red/White/Blue and the three planeswalkers we are gaining are red/white/blue. Anyone wonder if WotC is building our decks for us?
There really is no solution to keep people from playing against pros. Heck, that even happens at my local store. We have a lot of casual players that show up, but there are some tourney pros as well. At FNM, you just have to pray you don't have to face one of them round one.
As for new players, WotC is actually on the right path.... kinda. The creation of the planeswalker decks is a brilliant idea. I would venture to say it's the best idea towards gaining new players WotC has ever had. Any one remember pro-player cards and how MaRo said they were supposed to inspire people to become professional magic players? The best teaching tool ever were those World Champion gold-bordered decks. I learned on one of those and have taught several other people on them as well. Powerful cards at a cheap price, what's not to like? Yeah they aren't tournament legal, but they are great for teaching and just playign casual. I would love to see WOTC release more and more of these. I would also love to see some PRE's using them as well. I would do it, but my schedule is a little cramped right now. Maybe if things free up a bit, I can look into it.
It seems to me, WoTC R&D goes through cycles of trying stuff out and seeing what sticks. This year it looks to be colorless mythics. Last year it was multicolored mythics. Next year? Who knows. Planeswalkers are insane to play against but they are not unbeatable. You don't even need built in hate. You simply must make life hard for them to stick around. The problem of course is, while you are dealing damage to the planeswalkers your op lives on. I have played a few rounds where it was just better/faster to kill my opponent than to worry about their build of planeswalkers. I am not saying I like the number of playable mythics. I am just saying magic is bigger than this problem and it will solve itself eventually for most players.
Both of those are on the banned list already. The client takes care of it for us thankfully.
I LOLed when I read the part about pairings against pros. Now everyone else knows how I felt playing out of Neutral Ground (the only place to play at all in NYC while it was around. Now of course there is only MODO, unless you want to squeeze into JHU's basement come friday night.)
Am I missing something? Shouldn't Jitte and Skullclamp be on the banned list? Or do we just auto-assume those are banned? Not trying to be funny here, I'm actually asking since I know the format is changing, but those cards aren't on the list.
Your rogue deck looks fun but it seems to be only 56 cards (unless my arithmetic is very faulty). Whats missing?
*opens article*
*sees colorful graphix*
well I'm sold
what can I say I'm a sucker for formatting!
you know I saw this and again got excited because you were reading my mind.. I just made a Xira deck two days ago for commander, but then I got to Warp World and that was the end of the article for me
Extinction is good, but it's not broken. A Crypt Rats with a Swarmyard can do more broken things than an Extinction can do. Part of the fun of deckbuilding is being able to work around the powerful cards in the format, and you can definitely work around Extinction.
I know exactly what you mean by being disappointed with triggered enchantments. My first draft had Pandemonium in it and it was a sad day indeed when I found out that it didn't work like I wanted it to.
I agree with your points here. You wouldn't think there would be much of a difference of playability between 4 mana and 5 mana but this has been the case since the planeswalkers were released, with the only one seeing a good amount of play being Gideon.
I don’t see how the existence of some cards, that are not available in all formats, that may slightly increase your chances against a very specific strategy if you’re lucky enough to draw one, make it okay for players to field a deck in the casual room that’s designed to keep their opponent from playing the game. I didn’t address this in the article, but I don’t think the “It’s possible to beat the deck” argument holds water. It’s possible to beat someone who is cheating at poker, but that doesn’t excuse the cheating. Not a great analogy since LD isn’t cheating, but hopefully you get the idea.
Yeah that was the busted part of Entity. Just fill your deck with pump creatures and set it to zero and then tap all your mana. If lords were still around it would have been amazing in 5 color Lord tribal. As it is,I run it in my soldier tribal with Daru Warchief, Captain of the Watch, the lord from coldsnap, and both veterans. with a bunch of token producers. I'll ahve to add the knights too. yay! busted. Why did they cancel this format?