I really think that's just poor sportmanship. It's one thing if you see a game that says something like, "No discard" and then you turn one Duress. I've won plenty of games where I got duressed turn one, a duress doesn't even really indicate a "discard" deck. I have had a hard enough time in the past finding decent people to play with in person, and its just worse online. :-/
4 booster sealed is definitely a format with more variance than draft, but that is one of the things that I found fascinating about it. For me 4 booster sealed is to booster draft as booster draft is to constructed. You are forced to try out strategies that you never would have gone for otherwise. The other day, I actually had to build my deck around Arc Runner, Fling, Act of Treason and it worked out really well. I have seen people attempt this in draft, but I've never seen it really work. But in 4 booster sealed, combos like this are the core of the experience.
A big part of this is the fact that you will see most of your cards in every game. The games go late because it is hard to break through, and there aren't that many cards in the deck anyways, so you usually go to the last 10 to 5 cards, which means your cards are going to show up more often. This is especially good when you have bombs, but it feels bad when you don't. But it feels really good when you have built around quirky combos and made them work.
I still think I like drafting more, but the prize structure is just so good for 4 booster sealed, that I plan on trying it out some more. Plus, I think that m11 draft is super boring, and 4 booster sealed is a format that actually makes me want to play m11.
I use to get a fair amount of concessions just from Duress. I mean I dont mind if people concede to a turn 1 discard spell. Though it does make me question their upbringing lol.
I would like to point out that i did agree that this was a casual deck. All i said was jitte an mind twist are not casual cards, and are going to get him concessions and blocked.This is not just an opinion either, anyone who plays jitte in the casual room knows that it gets more concessions than almost any card.
Thanks for the comments guys! Still no baby yet, he's obviously just too comfortable where he is. Somehow I have a (totally unscientific) feeling that tonight's the night...
Personally, I'm fine in cas with Wasteland and Strip Mine, but NOT if said deck also includes Crucible or LFTL. The latter is just playing a pretty unfair strategy, the former is just hedging against against other land strategies.
I played a 4 pack sealed swiss last weekend and it was torture. My rares were Leyline of Sanctity, Knight Exempler, Redirect, and Jinxed Idol. I was really short on playable creatures. I lost my first two matches to superior decks both having a mythic (Chandra and Sun Titan). I won my last match because my opponent had a deck as bad as mine. I might try it again at some point but I feel like a draft allows you a lot more control.
One of the better "what is casual" discussions I've seen in awhile. The one card that provokes concessions that really amazes me is wastelend. I've had several people concede when I play this card, but not to include one or two when people are playing things like cabal coffers and the like is just plain irrational. I think some players must have some sort of "every land is sacred" attitude - otherwise, conceding to a fairly narrowly tailored land destruction card like this just doesn't make sense, particularly when it should be commonly included in many decks that aren't "land destruction" decks overall.
This will be an ongoing debate that no one will ever agree to. It's almost the same argument of what cards are good cards and what are bad cards. There are no bad cards. It all depends on what your needs are. Even Sorrow's Path can be playable in the right deck.
Sometimes a casual deck becomes tier 1 or 2 due to changes in the meta. This categorization is still artificial and doesn't truly recognize a basic truth: Playing a griefer deck whether competitively or not is going to be seen as uncasual by those who mind being griefed. Now by that I mean strategies that focus on denial (via counters or discard or land kill) or seek to punish the opponent for playing anything. I for one enjoy mass destruction and while I hate when it happens to me I am willing to risk that to enjoy the game. A lot of the objections players have towards a particular strategy whether it be aggro, combo, griefer or control are that it denies them having fun (in their eyes.) This is unsolvable. Basic human nature. I hate card a) you play it I complain. You complain about the complaint and a big discussion over what is and isn't acceptable ensues. The only way to be sure you will be OK is to check beforehand. And even then some people are going to misunderstand or miscommunicate.
I think that if we actually used 3 different tags then this whole casual problem could be solved.
Beginner decks, as I see it, are random piles of whatever cards their owner has. These decks lack a cohesive strategy and serve only to have fun and see what happens. If someone asks you "what does your deck do?" and you stare at them blankly or cannot describe it in a sentence, then your deck is a beginner deck. Not that there is anything at all wrong with that, but it is what it is.
Casual decks are decks that have some cohesive strategy, but they simply are not good enough to play with in a tournament. Decks like burn.dec, discard.dec, elves.dec, and LD.dec fit this description. To me, these decks are very casual. Also, budgetized versions of popular tournmament decks also fall into this category.
Tournament decks are decks with a very powerful cohesive strategy that can compete with the best decks in their respective formats. These decks do not make card inclusion decisions based on card availability or price, but on what card best fills a purpose for the deck. Tier 1, 1.5, and 2 decks fit in this category, and are the only things that should be played in the TP room. Everything else should be in cas/cas IMHO.
Let me put it this way. The first time I ever went over to my would-be wife's house (Highschool) all I heard for the first 20 minutes of me being there was "Let me just find a save spot!". The game was none other than Chrono Trigger, and she was playing it on a classic SNES. Next to it was Breath of Fire II and Lufia. I was in love XD
Basically, I didn't do anything. I just married a nerd and WoW was the natural progression for her XD
Oh, and as for having no knowledge of competitive Standard? Don't worry, I don't either XD
Glad you had fun playing commander! Azami can be scary so you can expect to be ganged up on but I'm guessing you would be able to string more than one win together with it.
How do you go about getting your wife hooked on WOW or any other computer game? I need some tips because waiting to play until after she goes to bed is making me very sleepy.
I would comment about the substance of the article but I know nothing about competitive standard.
Xenomythosbiologically speaking Beholders don't have stomachs. In fact as far as I remember from Elminster's Ecology of Beholders they consume magic to live.
This is a casual classic deck... "real" classic decks do insane stuff..
The actual problem is that classic is what most beginners end up playing in the casual room as it houses every card online.. and so u'll see draft decks => proper decks => tournament caliber decks that are slightly off (like playing with shocklands or without some key components)...
Nice analysis of the changes in M11 drafting. I've seen exactly the change that is described; a shift away from blue-based decks to red/white and red/black decks in terms of the decks you need to watch out for. I think one of the main reasons is that people initially underappreciated the effect of having act of treason as a common. This lets white/red decks get in for a lot of damage VERY fast, and in black/red decks you can get an effectuve steal/sacrifice machine going pretty easily, using the vampires with sacrifice abilities. Act of treason + fling is also pretty nasty. While blue-based decks will win in the long term, these decks make sure the game never gets to the long term. The other fact is probably just that blue quickly gained a reputation for being the best color, and this has led to it being overdrafted.
Great first article minus the formatting, but then my first article was... less than ideal
Anyway the deck looks neat, though I don't know if creatures are prominent enough to require Damnation over spot removal, but it is casual classic, so who knows! Eh, well I guess it does kill Emrakul, soo...
In regards to Casual vs Competitive I laugh, as I hear that as Casual vs Elitist, or Casual vs Hardcore, as per my MMO forthcoming. I fully embrace casual formats and I'll try to steer away from certain themes when playing in casual environments, but there only so much I can do so as to still have fun. Cards like Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Force of Will and Pernicious Deed are all fun for me to play, regardless of format, and I'll not sacrifice my fun to play a game with other people. /rant
To quote Element H, casual is indeed in the eye of the beholder, unless it rolled a 5 or less, then it's in the stomach of the Beholder!
I really think that's just poor sportmanship. It's one thing if you see a game that says something like, "No discard" and then you turn one Duress. I've won plenty of games where I got duressed turn one, a duress doesn't even really indicate a "discard" deck. I have had a hard enough time in the past finding decent people to play with in person, and its just worse online. :-/
4 booster sealed is definitely a format with more variance than draft, but that is one of the things that I found fascinating about it. For me 4 booster sealed is to booster draft as booster draft is to constructed. You are forced to try out strategies that you never would have gone for otherwise. The other day, I actually had to build my deck around Arc Runner, Fling, Act of Treason and it worked out really well. I have seen people attempt this in draft, but I've never seen it really work. But in 4 booster sealed, combos like this are the core of the experience.
A big part of this is the fact that you will see most of your cards in every game. The games go late because it is hard to break through, and there aren't that many cards in the deck anyways, so you usually go to the last 10 to 5 cards, which means your cards are going to show up more often. This is especially good when you have bombs, but it feels bad when you don't. But it feels really good when you have built around quirky combos and made them work.
I still think I like drafting more, but the prize structure is just so good for 4 booster sealed, that I plan on trying it out some more. Plus, I think that m11 draft is super boring, and 4 booster sealed is a format that actually makes me want to play m11.
I use to get a fair amount of concessions just from Duress. I mean I dont mind if people concede to a turn 1 discard spell. Though it does make me question their upbringing lol.
I would like to point out that i did agree that this was a casual deck. All i said was jitte an mind twist are not casual cards, and are going to get him concessions and blocked.This is not just an opinion either, anyone who plays jitte in the casual room knows that it gets more concessions than almost any card.
Thanks for the comments guys! Still no baby yet, he's obviously just too comfortable where he is. Somehow I have a (totally unscientific) feeling that tonight's the night...
Personally, I'm fine in cas with Wasteland and Strip Mine, but NOT if said deck also includes Crucible or LFTL. The latter is just playing a pretty unfair strategy, the former is just hedging against against other land strategies.
Congratulations on the new baby. You will find out shortly that somehow 1 + 1 does not equal 2 when dealing with taking care of kids. Good luck!
I played a 4 pack sealed swiss last weekend and it was torture. My rares were Leyline of Sanctity, Knight Exempler, Redirect, and Jinxed Idol. I was really short on playable creatures. I lost my first two matches to superior decks both having a mythic (Chandra and Sun Titan). I won my last match because my opponent had a deck as bad as mine. I might try it again at some point but I feel like a draft allows you a lot more control.
One of the better "what is casual" discussions I've seen in awhile. The one card that provokes concessions that really amazes me is wastelend. I've had several people concede when I play this card, but not to include one or two when people are playing things like cabal coffers and the like is just plain irrational. I think some players must have some sort of "every land is sacred" attitude - otherwise, conceding to a fairly narrowly tailored land destruction card like this just doesn't make sense, particularly when it should be commonly included in many decks that aren't "land destruction" decks overall.
This will be an ongoing debate that no one will ever agree to. It's almost the same argument of what cards are good cards and what are bad cards. There are no bad cards. It all depends on what your needs are. Even Sorrow's Path can be playable in the right deck.
Sometimes a casual deck becomes tier 1 or 2 due to changes in the meta. This categorization is still artificial and doesn't truly recognize a basic truth: Playing a griefer deck whether competitively or not is going to be seen as uncasual by those who mind being griefed. Now by that I mean strategies that focus on denial (via counters or discard or land kill) or seek to punish the opponent for playing anything. I for one enjoy mass destruction and while I hate when it happens to me I am willing to risk that to enjoy the game. A lot of the objections players have towards a particular strategy whether it be aggro, combo, griefer or control are that it denies them having fun (in their eyes.) This is unsolvable. Basic human nature. I hate card a) you play it I complain. You complain about the complaint and a big discussion over what is and isn't acceptable ensues. The only way to be sure you will be OK is to check beforehand. And even then some people are going to misunderstand or miscommunicate.
I've had that happen. Sucks.
......A wizard did it. Cheese falls on your head and you die, no saving throws.
I think that if we actually used 3 different tags then this whole casual problem could be solved.
Beginner decks, as I see it, are random piles of whatever cards their owner has. These decks lack a cohesive strategy and serve only to have fun and see what happens. If someone asks you "what does your deck do?" and you stare at them blankly or cannot describe it in a sentence, then your deck is a beginner deck. Not that there is anything at all wrong with that, but it is what it is.
Casual decks are decks that have some cohesive strategy, but they simply are not good enough to play with in a tournament. Decks like burn.dec, discard.dec, elves.dec, and LD.dec fit this description. To me, these decks are very casual. Also, budgetized versions of popular tournmament decks also fall into this category.
Tournament decks are decks with a very powerful cohesive strategy that can compete with the best decks in their respective formats. These decks do not make card inclusion decisions based on card availability or price, but on what card best fills a purpose for the deck. Tier 1, 1.5, and 2 decks fit in this category, and are the only things that should be played in the TP room. Everything else should be in cas/cas IMHO.
Let me put it this way. The first time I ever went over to my would-be wife's house (Highschool) all I heard for the first 20 minutes of me being there was "Let me just find a save spot!". The game was none other than Chrono Trigger, and she was playing it on a classic SNES. Next to it was Breath of Fire II and Lufia. I was in love XD
Basically, I didn't do anything. I just married a nerd and WoW was the natural progression for her XD
Oh, and as for having no knowledge of competitive Standard? Don't worry, I don't either XD
Glad you had fun playing commander! Azami can be scary so you can expect to be ganged up on but I'm guessing you would be able to string more than one win together with it.
How do you go about getting your wife hooked on WOW or any other computer game? I need some tips because waiting to play until after she goes to bed is making me very sleepy.
I would comment about the substance of the article but I know nothing about competitive standard.
Xenomythosbiologically speaking Beholders don't have stomachs. In fact as far as I remember from Elminster's Ecology of Beholders they consume magic to live.
Thanks. Try the "Repair" button on the launch screen?
This is a casual classic deck... "real" classic decks do insane stuff..
The actual problem is that classic is what most beginners end up playing in the casual room as it houses every card online.. and so u'll see draft decks => proper decks => tournament caliber decks that are slightly off (like playing with shocklands or without some key components)...
Nice analysis of the changes in M11 drafting. I've seen exactly the change that is described; a shift away from blue-based decks to red/white and red/black decks in terms of the decks you need to watch out for. I think one of the main reasons is that people initially underappreciated the effect of having act of treason as a common. This lets white/red decks get in for a lot of damage VERY fast, and in black/red decks you can get an effectuve steal/sacrifice machine going pretty easily, using the vampires with sacrifice abilities. Act of treason + fling is also pretty nasty. While blue-based decks will win in the long term, these decks make sure the game never gets to the long term. The other fact is probably just that blue quickly gained a reputation for being the best color, and this has led to it being overdrafted.
Great first article minus the formatting, but then my first article was... less than ideal
Anyway the deck looks neat, though I don't know if creatures are prominent enough to require Damnation over spot removal, but it is casual classic, so who knows! Eh, well I guess it does kill Emrakul, soo...
In regards to Casual vs Competitive I laugh, as I hear that as Casual vs Elitist, or Casual vs Hardcore, as per my MMO forthcoming. I fully embrace casual formats and I'll try to steer away from certain themes when playing in casual environments, but there only so much I can do so as to still have fun. Cards like Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Force of Will and Pernicious Deed are all fun for me to play, regardless of format, and I'll not sacrifice my fun to play a game with other people. /rant
To quote Element H, casual is indeed in the eye of the beholder, unless it rolled a 5 or less, then it's in the stomach of the Beholder!
lol you guys are funny =p
Gratz on the second kid, and fun article. I've never really been attracted to Red outside of Wheel of Fortune and Goblin Welder but this was neat.
I thought your comments on how combat damage no longer stacks were insightful.
Yes actually. She got that H Gunship shield I've been after forever. We both tank, /sadface.