... right, but again - you don't exist in a vacuum, and in this specific draft white (and Infantry Veteran) was going extremely late, meaning you'd have other shots at a solid white common but not at premium removal/direct damage.
That's without getting into the fact that the green you'd drafted to that point sucks in the Infantry Veteran deck while the Bolt shines in that very same deck, just like the Veteran.
Re: fireball being overrated, that's fine and good (and I addressed all of those points earlier), but you're not comparing Fireball to Mind Control. You're comparing it to Arc Lightning for 6.
Put another way: when you have 6 available in your W/x aggro deck, most of the time the Fireball will be better. Every time you don't have 6 the Fireball is better. Every time you have more than 6 the Fireball is better.
I don’t know if anyone has tried it but it would be interesting to see a deck built around compiling Kaldra, but that could be something for when Scars comes out and we have a big influx in aritfacts.
I'd just like to apologise for the typos in the article I did fix a lot of them and then my browser crashed and I lost 1/3rd of the work and all the corrections. I did go back through a second time but I wasn’t in the best of moods and I see a few escaped me.
Just a comment on one card : Pygmy hippo.
Its a vanilla 2/2 that says if opp doesnt block he taps everything before combat damage step. You will never ever get mana off of hippo (unless your opps are first day scrubs) because there is no mana burn and people just tap down everything if they cant block it. Completely worthless card=pygmy hippo
Thanks I wasnt sure on the details for the pre, I have seen it a few times on the forums but wasnt sure how regular it was and couldnt find a stable group to link to for when people reference this article in the future.
It's strange you mention cube drafting but I did have a good think about how this could be brought online while writing this article as a PRE.
I have a lot of things worked out of how it could be done but I'm struggling to find a fast way for players to pick cards out of the generated packs in a timely fashion.
I'm sure it can be done but may take a while for me to think of a way to get round the final piece of the puzzle.
Excellently put. I discussed the history of Tribal as a tournament format in my paired article with Lord Erman covering the reasons for its demise. Essentially, you're right.
Thanks Niabock, I was just about to take offense at that omission. :)
There have been a lot of interesting formats popping up in the PRE room lately, including the non-sure-I've-heard-of-it-before 5 moons. I would advise anyone to browse through and seeing all the different opportunities that exist.
Great comments by Badmalloc and Thuh-Nagarjuna. I want to take my time responding to these but I'll have to do that later. Obviously thanks a ton Badmalloc for doing that work for everyone who plays the format and will play it. My wife went into preterm labor on tuesday morning and has been in the hospital since. I've basically been living at the hospital with her since then. The event will still run on saturday even if I have to give the prizes to someone else and have them run it and award everything. Good luck with your Heirloom. Keep the faith.
There is a peasant pre that has been running every sunday night for the past few years. Event threads show up on the wizards pre forums with decklists/discussion/whatever on pdcmagic.com
fantastic article, but Prism could be a bit more expanded to include Singleton and PPS variations
there were a few tournies for prism back in the day, but it didn't last long and a lot of people lost interest in Prism when they did their latest update on the BnR list for it that removed like all tutors and transmutes and esp eternal witness
I like the references to all of the PREs. I'm sure those will be helpful to a lot of players.
I just wanted to add that 4 Booster sealed deck tournaments are available (in M2011 and ROE) all the time in the sealed deck room and not just as a part of TNM (Thursday Night Magic).
Rise of the Eldrazi 4-booster sealed deck tournaments were just added last night after the extended downtime.
Most of the PREs are run similarly, but I have found that you can always jsut join the chatroom before the event and the players are happy to fill in any specific details.
I've only just started looking at PRE's, and have yet to participate. I never knew how they were organized, so in my head it looked like a big mess! This has greatly helped in changing my outlook on them, so I really appreciate, and will be looking in to future events.
I think this was an interesting draft report because it had some difficult picks and was well described by the author. White was flowing well, so you had the good fortune to be able to stay with your first pick and keep building around it (I hate it when I have to drop my first couple picks because the color is being savagely cut). The mistake occured in P6P1 when you picked the spined wurm. There was a perfectly good seige mastodon in the pack, and there was no reason to dive into green at this point. If you'd stayed flexible, it would have been easier to splash red later and have an excellent deck. Movement into red would have ocurred P3P2, when the bolt showed up.
I think stormfront pegasus may be a bit overrated, and I would have gone with the white knight in P2P2. There are a lot of 1 toughness fliers that can block the stormfront pegasus and trade, like the squadron hawk and the augury owl.
Speaking of squadron hawk, I would have been interested in your thoughts on this for P4P1. When do you need to dive in to start picking up the squadron hawks? They are very popular, and work excellently with cards like inspired charge, but if you don't start picking them up right away someone else will.
Finally, running three colors in an aggro deck that's not green based and including a single terramorphic expanse is just asking for trouble. You have a little more freedom to splash in a control deck where you want the game to go long, but in aggro you just can't get away with it unless you are green where color fixers are abundnant.
Thx for doing the work for the heirloom filter even before playing it! I couldn't test it up to now, but hope to do so soon!!!
Your suggestions about 1.-3. are really important and constructive for Heirloom, i think! If one day heirloom will be relevant for the price value of cards, i will look forward to see it change a bit instead of having always the same dominating decks for years!
For older sets i don't see so much changes coming up for the static list, because the relevance of cards is set after a while to each format and the prices are "fixed" in common. Standard legal sets are always changing a bit, but all in all the relevant cards wont be to much to update them every month or quarter!
Hope to see u soon for a match or on Saturday 11.00 am for the next Heirloom Event.
I think it takes guts to write about a losing effort and open yourself up to punishing replies!
The name albright seems familiar. I suspect he's ousted me in draft before, or maybe I've just read that name in many T8 lists.
I'm fairly certain I would have been drawn to that 4th pick Azure Drake. Not only does it trump the smaller white fliers already picked (and being picked here), but it puts me into the colour that all the pro's are writing is best. Doesn't look like it would have worked out well, but that's where I likely would have gone.
Fireball vs Trisk is an interesting debate. I find everyone is running some Trisk hate due to plenty of strong artifacts/enchantments in the set, such as Juggernaut, Mind Control, and the new scry Top. Acidic Slime is popular, plus there's a decent Vandal at common. All these factors lower the value of Trisk to me, but it still comes down to when you can pick it and what your deck is. I like to gravedig my Trisk, but I don't like my opponent rising it from the grave. Fireball doesn't have those factors. Of course having numerous artifacts/enchantment to absorb the hate helps improve the value of Trisk.
Of course the Scars spoilers tell us why Trisk is in M11....
i know of a card which that person definitely doesn't have 4 of.. ;p
i'm one of the very few collectors on mtgo, with a long run goal to get a 100c singleton collection that is worth tons. For that, I've been keeping track of promos and stuff for a very long time. There aren't that many stuff to go around so it's better not to have more collectors coming in.. I know that many have stopped mainly cos it can be very hard to get some also cos there have been people messing around the market recently.
i need to get a foil fow too =x
but that would have to wait for awhile...
... right, but again - you don't exist in a vacuum, and in this specific draft white (and Infantry Veteran) was going extremely late, meaning you'd have other shots at a solid white common but not at premium removal/direct damage.
That's without getting into the fact that the green you'd drafted to that point sucks in the Infantry Veteran deck while the Bolt shines in that very same deck, just like the Veteran.
Re: fireball being overrated, that's fine and good (and I addressed all of those points earlier), but you're not comparing Fireball to Mind Control. You're comparing it to Arc Lightning for 6.
Put another way: when you have 6 available in your W/x aggro deck, most of the time the Fireball will be better. Every time you don't have 6 the Fireball is better. Every time you have more than 6 the Fireball is better.
I don’t know if anyone has tried it but it would be interesting to see a deck built around compiling Kaldra, but that could be something for when Scars comes out and we have a big influx in aritfacts.
Myr are currently playable, the new lord just makes them even more so
I'd just like to apologise for the typos in the article I did fix a lot of them and then my browser crashed and I lost 1/3rd of the work and all the corrections. I did go back through a second time but I wasn’t in the best of moods and I see a few escaped me.
Just a comment on one card : Pygmy hippo.
Its a vanilla 2/2 that says if opp doesnt block he taps everything before combat damage step. You will never ever get mana off of hippo (unless your opps are first day scrubs) because there is no mana burn and people just tap down everything if they cant block it. Completely worthless card=pygmy hippo
Wizards could only do this when they finish work on the collection server and thats the day leagues come back as well....
As a PRE it would be difficult. If WotC decided to support it, it'd be a snap, so long as a template was provided/enforced (Also easy).
Thanks I wasnt sure on the details for the pre, I have seen it a few times on the forums but wasnt sure how regular it was and couldnt find a stable group to link to for when people reference this article in the future.
I wasnt aware it was under pdcmagic.com
I didnt know that thanks for the info.
It's strange you mention cube drafting but I did have a good think about how this could be brought online while writing this article as a PRE.
I have a lot of things worked out of how it could be done but I'm struggling to find a fast way for players to pick cards out of the generated packs in a timely fashion.
I'm sure it can be done but may take a while for me to think of a way to get round the final piece of the puzzle.
Excellently put. I discussed the history of Tribal as a tournament format in my paired article with Lord Erman covering the reasons for its demise. Essentially, you're right.
Thanks Niabock, I was just about to take offense at that omission. :)
There have been a lot of interesting formats popping up in the PRE room lately, including the non-sure-I've-heard-of-it-before 5 moons. I would advise anyone to browse through and seeing all the different opportunities that exist.
Hey guys,
Great comments by Badmalloc and Thuh-Nagarjuna. I want to take my time responding to these but I'll have to do that later. Obviously thanks a ton Badmalloc for doing that work for everyone who plays the format and will play it. My wife went into preterm labor on tuesday morning and has been in the hospital since. I've basically been living at the hospital with her since then. The event will still run on saturday even if I have to give the prizes to someone else and have them run it and award everything. Good luck with your Heirloom. Keep the faith.
Xaoslegend-
There is a peasant pre that has been running every sunday night for the past few years. Event threads show up on the wizards pre forums with decklists/discussion/whatever on pdcmagic.com
fantastic article, but Prism could be a bit more expanded to include Singleton and PPS variations
there were a few tournies for prism back in the day, but it didn't last long and a lot of people lost interest in Prism when they did their latest update on the BnR list for it that removed like all tutors and transmutes and esp eternal witness
I like the references to all of the PREs. I'm sure those will be helpful to a lot of players.
I just wanted to add that 4 Booster sealed deck tournaments are available (in M2011 and ROE) all the time in the sealed deck room and not just as a part of TNM (Thursday Night Magic).
Rise of the Eldrazi 4-booster sealed deck tournaments were just added last night after the extended downtime.
Most of the PREs are run similarly, but I have found that you can always jsut join the chatroom before the event and the players are happy to fill in any specific details.
I've only just started looking at PRE's, and have yet to participate. I never knew how they were organized, so in my head it looked like a big mess! This has greatly helped in changing my outlook on them, so I really appreciate, and will be looking in to future events.
Nice clarifications there, enjoyed it. Also, what's a guy gotta do to get Cube Drafting supported on MTGO o.O?
I think this was an interesting draft report because it had some difficult picks and was well described by the author. White was flowing well, so you had the good fortune to be able to stay with your first pick and keep building around it (I hate it when I have to drop my first couple picks because the color is being savagely cut). The mistake occured in P6P1 when you picked the spined wurm. There was a perfectly good seige mastodon in the pack, and there was no reason to dive into green at this point. If you'd stayed flexible, it would have been easier to splash red later and have an excellent deck. Movement into red would have ocurred P3P2, when the bolt showed up.
I think stormfront pegasus may be a bit overrated, and I would have gone with the white knight in P2P2. There are a lot of 1 toughness fliers that can block the stormfront pegasus and trade, like the squadron hawk and the augury owl.
Speaking of squadron hawk, I would have been interested in your thoughts on this for P4P1. When do you need to dive in to start picking up the squadron hawks? They are very popular, and work excellently with cards like inspired charge, but if you don't start picking them up right away someone else will.
Finally, running three colors in an aggro deck that's not green based and including a single terramorphic expanse is just asking for trouble. You have a little more freedom to splash in a control deck where you want the game to go long, but in aggro you just can't get away with it unless you are green where color fixers are abundnant.
Hey badmalloc!
Thx for doing the work for the heirloom filter even before playing it! I couldn't test it up to now, but hope to do so soon!!!
Your suggestions about 1.-3. are really important and constructive for Heirloom, i think! If one day heirloom will be relevant for the price value of cards, i will look forward to see it change a bit instead of having always the same dominating decks for years!
For older sets i don't see so much changes coming up for the static list, because the relevance of cards is set after a while to each format and the prices are "fixed" in common. Standard legal sets are always changing a bit, but all in all the relevant cards wont be to much to update them every month or quarter!
Hope to see u soon for a match or on Saturday 11.00 am for the next Heirloom Event.
Best wishes
Nagarjuna
I think it takes guts to write about a losing effort and open yourself up to punishing replies!
The name albright seems familiar. I suspect he's ousted me in draft before, or maybe I've just read that name in many T8 lists.
I'm fairly certain I would have been drawn to that 4th pick Azure Drake. Not only does it trump the smaller white fliers already picked (and being picked here), but it puts me into the colour that all the pro's are writing is best. Doesn't look like it would have worked out well, but that's where I likely would have gone.
Fireball vs Trisk is an interesting debate. I find everyone is running some Trisk hate due to plenty of strong artifacts/enchantments in the set, such as Juggernaut, Mind Control, and the new scry Top. Acidic Slime is popular, plus there's a decent Vandal at common. All these factors lower the value of Trisk to me, but it still comes down to when you can pick it and what your deck is. I like to gravedig my Trisk, but I don't like my opponent rising it from the grave. Fireball doesn't have those factors. Of course having numerous artifacts/enchantment to absorb the hate helps improve the value of Trisk.
Of course the Scars spoilers tell us why Trisk is in M11....
it does go around targeted removals.. =)
but u'll probably have to add another guy for it to work better..
i know of a card which that person definitely doesn't have 4 of.. ;p
i'm one of the very few collectors on mtgo, with a long run goal to get a 100c singleton collection that is worth tons. For that, I've been keeping track of promos and stuff for a very long time. There aren't that many stuff to go around so it's better not to have more collectors coming in.. I know that many have stopped mainly cos it can be very hard to get some also cos there have been people messing around the market recently.
i need to get a foil fow too =x
but that would have to wait for awhile...
So U/W fliers are still good and you had draft where nobody was drafting your colour... quite boring.