LOurs I was actually only talking about Standard and yes, I too will miss Underworld Dreams.
This weekend will be the 16th week of BYOS season two, which will be the final week of the normal season. So if you still are in need of points to get invited to the final tournament, then this weekend will be your last chance. Then at the 26th of September we will have the big Season Finale.
You may know it or not, but your contribution to the format was huge. These tournament reports of yours will be missed. But as I also do know very well, one must always follow his heart and apparently your heart is somewhere else.
Best of luck to you in your commander games!
LE
PS: I'll try to be there for the final tournament. I hope that it will be something to be remembered!
I've been real busy and also unable to make events quite often these days, but I do offer great thanks for the time you put into the events, they've been a lot of fun and I've met a lot of cool players through it
Ulfr posted: "The B/G deck sure looks interesting, but it seems completely unprotected against the Storm Grapeshot kill (or am I missing something?) Otherwise, it looks quite solid, if it manages to protect itself against Grapeshot, it definitely could be strong."
I've played with similar decks in some PRE's and have found that some minor disruption is often all it takes to keep Storm from "going off". I am surprised to not see Duress, at least in the SB. 2nd turn Rats isn't always enough against Storm, but then, not much is enough against Storm when they get the nut draw.
Of course, it could be that this BG Rock deck snuck through the PE without pairing against Storm.
Your card selection / comment were pretty fine. I would only personaly add Underworld Dreams to the leaving cards which makes me sad : a very iconical card too, even if not played in tournament deck, but which is always a card I like a lot to build around.
Just a question : when you're saying maelstrom pulse > vindicate, did you have std/ext format in mind or were you thinking to all format ?
Well Scars looks overwhelmingly like a candy store to me. Will need to free up tix/creds etc to scrounge up some of the fun cards in the set. I am definitely interested in podcasting however I have no interest at all from the players point of view in tourneys (though I am very interested in some metas just for the fun of it.) I hope you can find someone to fill runeliger's shoes as it is definitely interesting hearing about that side of the game.
Great! Maybe next article you could expand on this a bit with practical illustrations (packs youve won over a period of time, vs tickets spent, etc). :)
Exemplar also sets up a one-side sweep. (Well except for the knight itself. Now that said, I agree with Tarm that it probably induces most players to play with more knights than is good for your deck.
Good article. I just played my first 4-booster sealed last night and had a blast. Of course I had a really bomby pool (crystal ball, whispersilk cloak, mind control, blinding mage, day of judgement, forsee, water servant, azure drake... etc..), nothing like the trash you've got stuck with here.
I'm wondering if there isn't some better way to format your articles.
hey thanks man, i wasn't expecting another mini-article on the cards I mentioned. Fun! I agree with just about everything you wrote up there. I will say that if you build an equip deck around Auriok Steelshaper, you can eke out Kor/Knight/Soldier/Shapeshifter subthemes that can go pretty nuts, so that Exemplar becomes yet another annoying pump-2/3-of-your-board play--best when you can come up with plays where putting in the Exemplar or another pumping lord wins on that turn. However, I've still never gotten it to work outside of casual-level play. OK: it's a FUN card to play with, even if not quite tourney-worthy.
4-pack sealed is quickly becoming my favorite format and I have really enjoyed your past three articles.
I wish I could remember the exact quote regarding luck, but I remember it as being something like "luck = skill + opportunity". The take-home point is that you often need skill to maximize the opportunity a lesser-skilled player might overlook, and this often appears to observers as luck. I think the best way to apply this thinking in Magic is to play to your outs when you are in an "unwinnable" situation. You have nothing to lose (versus just giving up and prematurely conceding) and may get "lucky" when you do draw into those outs.
Again ... great article and keep up the good work.
Well, as a tournament player playing only for "profit" rather than preparing for any particular tournament, I see that this and classic are the 2 best tournaments to be playing in since they have the lowest number of competitors as compared to any other format and a simple 3-2 can potentially put you in the t8.
Compare this to say daily events. You need to get 3-1 (75% win rate) to at least win something and you get 2 draft sets (correct me if I'm wrong here cos I'm not on mtgo). That equivalent can potentially be obtained at 3-2 which (60% win rate depending on breakers) and a 2-3 gets you a draft set (40% win rate). That is hard to beat.
I managed to rack up 15 qps this season solely playing these 2 wkend challenge formats. I personally find that these 2 formats generally reward you greatly for having some small edge over the field, be it playskill or deck building.
I'm not sure exactly why people think it's better to throw tix into 90 pax PEs where prizes are for t8 than to play in these. While I don't exactly make a lot, I am increasing my worth slowly.
Viscera Seer: unless you just want a sac outlet for the sake of having one, i didn't think that the scry 2 effect would be worth playing. I think that husk has very high potential to be good (by next year) because I'm waiting on UD.
Leylines: The problem with the other leylines are that they aren't worth 4 mana for their effects unlike the white leyline which is still good at 4 mana, esp since odds of you having them in your hand is very low.
Fire Servant: At 5 mana, I would want a creature that either doesn't die easily, can win the game or does something immediately. Since most burn deal around 3-4 damage, it is very likely that spitfire itself can deal the "double damage" fire servant promises unless you find yourself in a situation where u have a handful of burn spells and have fire servant in play and you untap (which is very unlikely).
Combust: I put combust there for awhile but I took it down once I realised that I can't imagine myself sb-ing one since it is very narrow against colors with not that many creatures. (even if it says "kill baneslayer")
Knight Exemplar: I didn't include this because I don't value him highly given the fact that you will be inclined to play more knights than optimal and that he promises something that is easily taken away.
Serra Ascendant: Soul sisters wasn't out when I prepared the list of cards to look at. I would imagine that it's quite difficult to emulate that particular deck as lifegain as a general strategy is weaker in a format with a classic pool.
Mighty Leap: I think that ww should be more evasively built so they won't be able to appreciate the flying part of the spell. For tricks, I would opt to play protection spells as they have a bigger impact.
Steel Overseer: I suppose I missed this. Not sure why but it can be useful even in the current format without scars of mirrodin since it works well with modular and can sneak permanent +1/+1 counters on Mishra's factory and Blinkmoth nexus.
A UUL draft set is worth 10 (my sets have been going at that rate) so you get to cover more than the entry of 6 (don't get shortchanged by the pack buying bots!)
The previous tournament fired at 33 people, a recent high (I hope that it goes at least 2 over the minimum number to add a round since adding 1 more round is in effect adding another hour)
100c singleton was doing well until the recent slump. Not too sure what had happened during that time since I just picked my tournament pace recently.
I admire the 100cs format and respect it but I don't love it. Tournament formats that leave little room for fun are hard to be interested in. I am not saying 100cs can't be fun but I have noticed even the "casual" room players (those who only play for "fun" bring decks that are not just highly tuned but seem downright unfun (turn 1 wins are not impossible and turn 2-3 locks/dominance(where the outcome is almost guaranteed by then and I won't even get into burn.dec.) happen enough to be a turn off, pardon the pun.) I Think if you really want more players you have to appeal to other tournament players and sell them on what makes 100cs a good way to win at magic. It seems to me that 6 tix for a constructed tourney is average but if the pay out is also average then why bother when there is classic/legacy/standard etc all of which are a bit more easily solved and fire more regularly/quickly.)
if you are tired of playing merfolk and already have the staples, you should get a playset of gilded drakes and play Aether fish.
It's a very good deck that has a better matchup against anything that tries to win with creatures
for reference
creature [14]
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Gilded Drake
2 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
instant [15]
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Snap
3 Spell Snare
enchantment [3]
3 Standstill
artifact [7]
4 Aether Vial
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte
land [19]
4 Flooded Strand
8 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Polluted Delta
planeswalker [2]
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
60 cards
Sideboard:
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 Annul
4 Spell Pierce
4 Submerge < -- i play wipeaway here, because they are also good against CB
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
15 cards
Yes I remember it very well actually. It was the bane of my Belcher deck, packing it's 3-4x Null Rods and whatnot. At that time it was typically Ur, splashing the R for Grim Lavamancers.
I was really just taking a shot at Noble Fish/Sekie Strike, as they're kinda... bad... in the current Vintage, or at least Classic, formats.
actually, vintage fish WAS a real deck, for quite a long time. I played a half dozen variants of it over the years. It was Essentially U/x aggro/control or U/x Tempo control depending on colors.
The one that didn't fire was a friday timeslot. That is such an awful day/time I have no idea why wizards moved the sunday one to that. Anything but pauper usually fails to fire at that slot.
I really like 100cs, but with the payout being UZ/UL its hard to get excited to play when making top16 just breaks even on their 6 tix. When it switches over to med4 I'll probably start playing again, until urza's gets put back as the payout (probably when destiny releases).
BYOS Season Two Finale - I will see you in the field of battle to defend my title.
Thanks everyone for the comments.
LOurs I was actually only talking about Standard and yes, I too will miss Underworld Dreams.
This weekend will be the 16th week of BYOS season two, which will be the final week of the normal season. So if you still are in need of points to get invited to the final tournament, then this weekend will be your last chance. Then at the 26th of September we will have the big Season Finale.
Thanks again everybody for the comments.
LE
great read, what's up with the end of byos? the final season game this weekend?
You may know it or not, but your contribution to the format was huge. These tournament reports of yours will be missed. But as I also do know very well, one must always follow his heart and apparently your heart is somewhere else.
Best of luck to you in your commander games!
LE
PS: I'll try to be there for the final tournament. I hope that it will be something to be remembered!
I've been real busy and also unable to make events quite often these days, but I do offer great thanks for the time you put into the events, they've been a lot of fun and I've met a lot of cool players through it
I agree 100% it's an impossible time slot for a lot of people, if it's not a weekend I have 100% chance to not be able to play
Ulfr posted: "The B/G deck sure looks interesting, but it seems completely unprotected against the Storm Grapeshot kill (or am I missing something?) Otherwise, it looks quite solid, if it manages to protect itself against Grapeshot, it definitely could be strong."
I've played with similar decks in some PRE's and have found that some minor disruption is often all it takes to keep Storm from "going off". I am surprised to not see Duress, at least in the SB. 2nd turn Rats isn't always enough against Storm, but then, not much is enough against Storm when they get the nut draw.
Of course, it could be that this BG Rock deck snuck through the PE without pairing against Storm.
Excellent article, really enjoyablke read.
Your card selection / comment were pretty fine. I would only personaly add Underworld Dreams to the leaving cards which makes me sad : a very iconical card too, even if not played in tournament deck, but which is always a card I like a lot to build around.
Just a question : when you're saying maelstrom pulse > vindicate, did you have std/ext format in mind or were you thinking to all format ?
Once again, very good job.
Pretty spot on for me. Personally I'm still bitter about the BLOCKS that rotated out of Extended, but some wounds just cut deep XD. Good read.
/uncontrollable sobbing
/quit job
/join podcast
Well Scars looks overwhelmingly like a candy store to me. Will need to free up tix/creds etc to scrounge up some of the fun cards in the set. I am definitely interested in podcasting however I have no interest at all from the players point of view in tourneys (though I am very interested in some metas just for the fun of it.) I hope you can find someone to fill runeliger's shoes as it is definitely interesting hearing about that side of the game.
Great! Maybe next article you could expand on this a bit with practical illustrations (packs youve won over a period of time, vs tickets spent, etc). :)
Exemplar also sets up a one-side sweep. (Well except for the knight itself. Now that said, I agree with Tarm that it probably induces most players to play with more knights than is good for your deck.
Good article. I could quibble about some choices, but just reversing 3&4 sort of stuff. Great read.
Good article. I just played my first 4-booster sealed last night and had a blast. Of course I had a really bomby pool (crystal ball, whispersilk cloak, mind control, blinding mage, day of judgement, forsee, water servant, azure drake... etc..), nothing like the trash you've got stuck with here.
I'm wondering if there isn't some better way to format your articles.
http://puremtgo.com/articles/waiting-godot-four-play-pt-1
this one has some good examples of how to show a pool that is both easy on the eyes and instantly recognizable to any of us to play MTGO.
hey thanks man, i wasn't expecting another mini-article on the cards I mentioned. Fun! I agree with just about everything you wrote up there. I will say that if you build an equip deck around Auriok Steelshaper, you can eke out Kor/Knight/Soldier/Shapeshifter subthemes that can go pretty nuts, so that Exemplar becomes yet another annoying pump-2/3-of-your-board play--best when you can come up with plays where putting in the Exemplar or another pumping lord wins on that turn. However, I've still never gotten it to work outside of casual-level play. OK: it's a FUN card to play with, even if not quite tourney-worthy.
4-pack sealed is quickly becoming my favorite format and I have really enjoyed your past three articles.
I wish I could remember the exact quote regarding luck, but I remember it as being something like "luck = skill + opportunity". The take-home point is that you often need skill to maximize the opportunity a lesser-skilled player might overlook, and this often appears to observers as luck. I think the best way to apply this thinking in Magic is to play to your outs when you are in an "unwinnable" situation. You have nothing to lose (versus just giving up and prematurely conceding) and may get "lucky" when you do draw into those outs.
Again ... great article and keep up the good work.
Well, as a tournament player playing only for "profit" rather than preparing for any particular tournament, I see that this and classic are the 2 best tournaments to be playing in since they have the lowest number of competitors as compared to any other format and a simple 3-2 can potentially put you in the t8.
Compare this to say daily events. You need to get 3-1 (75% win rate) to at least win something and you get 2 draft sets (correct me if I'm wrong here cos I'm not on mtgo). That equivalent can potentially be obtained at 3-2 which (60% win rate depending on breakers) and a 2-3 gets you a draft set (40% win rate). That is hard to beat.
I managed to rack up 15 qps this season solely playing these 2 wkend challenge formats. I personally find that these 2 formats generally reward you greatly for having some small edge over the field, be it playskill or deck building.
I'm not sure exactly why people think it's better to throw tix into 90 pax PEs where prizes are for t8 than to play in these. While I don't exactly make a lot, I am increasing my worth slowly.
Viscera Seer: unless you just want a sac outlet for the sake of having one, i didn't think that the scry 2 effect would be worth playing. I think that husk has very high potential to be good (by next year) because I'm waiting on UD.
Leylines: The problem with the other leylines are that they aren't worth 4 mana for their effects unlike the white leyline which is still good at 4 mana, esp since odds of you having them in your hand is very low.
Fire Servant: At 5 mana, I would want a creature that either doesn't die easily, can win the game or does something immediately. Since most burn deal around 3-4 damage, it is very likely that spitfire itself can deal the "double damage" fire servant promises unless you find yourself in a situation where u have a handful of burn spells and have fire servant in play and you untap (which is very unlikely).
Combust: I put combust there for awhile but I took it down once I realised that I can't imagine myself sb-ing one since it is very narrow against colors with not that many creatures. (even if it says "kill baneslayer")
Knight Exemplar: I didn't include this because I don't value him highly given the fact that you will be inclined to play more knights than optimal and that he promises something that is easily taken away.
Serra Ascendant: Soul sisters wasn't out when I prepared the list of cards to look at. I would imagine that it's quite difficult to emulate that particular deck as lifegain as a general strategy is weaker in a format with a classic pool.
Mighty Leap: I think that ww should be more evasively built so they won't be able to appreciate the flying part of the spell. For tricks, I would opt to play protection spells as they have a bigger impact.
Steel Overseer: I suppose I missed this. Not sure why but it can be useful even in the current format without scars of mirrodin since it works well with modular and can sneak permanent +1/+1 counters on Mishra's factory and Blinkmoth nexus.
A UUL draft set is worth 10 (my sets have been going at that rate) so you get to cover more than the entry of 6 (don't get shortchanged by the pack buying bots!)
The previous tournament fired at 33 people, a recent high (I hope that it goes at least 2 over the minimum number to add a round since adding 1 more round is in effect adding another hour)
100c singleton was doing well until the recent slump. Not too sure what had happened during that time since I just picked my tournament pace recently.
I admire the 100cs format and respect it but I don't love it. Tournament formats that leave little room for fun are hard to be interested in. I am not saying 100cs can't be fun but I have noticed even the "casual" room players (those who only play for "fun" bring decks that are not just highly tuned but seem downright unfun (turn 1 wins are not impossible and turn 2-3 locks/dominance(where the outcome is almost guaranteed by then and I won't even get into burn.dec.) happen enough to be a turn off, pardon the pun.) I Think if you really want more players you have to appeal to other tournament players and sell them on what makes 100cs a good way to win at magic. It seems to me that 6 tix for a constructed tourney is average but if the pay out is also average then why bother when there is classic/legacy/standard etc all of which are a bit more easily solved and fire more regularly/quickly.)
if you are tired of playing merfolk and already have the staples, you should get a playset of gilded drakes and play Aether fish.
It's a very good deck that has a better matchup against anything that tries to win with creatures
for reference
creature [14]
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Gilded Drake
2 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
instant [15]
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Snap
3 Spell Snare
enchantment [3]
3 Standstill
artifact [7]
4 Aether Vial
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte
land [19]
4 Flooded Strand
8 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Polluted Delta
planeswalker [2]
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
60 cards
Sideboard:
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 Annul
4 Spell Pierce
4 Submerge < -- i play wipeaway here, because they are also good against CB
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
15 cards
Yes I remember it very well actually. It was the bane of my Belcher deck, packing it's 3-4x Null Rods and whatnot. At that time it was typically Ur, splashing the R for Grim Lavamancers.
I was really just taking a shot at Noble Fish/Sekie Strike, as they're kinda... bad... in the current Vintage, or at least Classic, formats.
actually, vintage fish WAS a real deck, for quite a long time. I played a half dozen variants of it over the years. It was Essentially U/x aggro/control or U/x Tempo control depending on colors.
The one that didn't fire was a friday timeslot. That is such an awful day/time I have no idea why wizards moved the sunday one to that. Anything but pauper usually fails to fire at that slot.
I really like 100cs, but with the payout being UZ/UL its hard to get excited to play when making top16 just breaks even on their 6 tix. When it switches over to med4 I'll probably start playing again, until urza's gets put back as the payout (probably when destiny releases).
Thuh-Nagarjuna,
You are now Thuh-Nagarjuna to me. Just for future reference (AKA The-Nagarjuna, Thee-Nagarjuna, Tha-Nagarjuna)
Sorry standard Thuh-Nagarjuna is belong to us.
Xaoslegend-