Last night's event only saw 1 DnT style list from the looks of the replays. I personally was playing it in the form of a modified Taxman list. I went 2-2 beating a weak round 1 opponent list and SICK's Standstill deck thanks to the inclusion of pithing needles (big props to Menace for hashing over the SB with me). In game 3 SICK just conceded when I had pithings on both Deeds and Jace and a board advantage. I then hit reanimator and lost to the show and tell side of the deck. I don't think there is a way to fix this match up really. Any ideas on how to stop the show and tell side of this deck would be awesome. Then in the final round of play I matched up with a landstill UWGR list using Ajani Veng. This one was harder to play against since there was so many different things that pithing could target. Landstill has topped a few of the events with 4-0 lists and is out there. 50% of my matches were vs this archtype. Goblins seem to be a bit down as written above and ANT, I can only guess, is down with the recent popularity of white allowing for cannonist and teegs, and the use of the blue trap counter. As for the Landstill vs combo decks it depends on the combo list but landstill list can easily accommodate the counter trap spell to deal with ANT or just battle it out with combo via counters and standstill. If anyone want to lend me a version of the standstill deck I am game for playing it next as I see it as top dog over ANT and Reanimator solely on the basis of the counter battle and card advantage.
yeah lets play tribal spirits...unless you purposefully bend this to your own definition. Its fairly obvious. Only someone with no real care of how things work out would do something different. I didnt name the game, but I still stand by the fact that it was a douche move.
But I think nobody actually called him a douche (indeed he did seem a very correct and sportsmanlike player to me), it was the resulting deck that was (maybe unintentionally) sorta-douche, in the "I work around the rules" sort of a way. You're perfectly right that it's always legit to do that, and that the rules HAVE to be written properly if you want to avoid that. But you can't say that "Let's play tribal using spirits as the tribe" was very ambiguous in its intent, and can't blame Shard for trusting his players to get the point of the thing with no need of too much rulings.
The original "rare" planeswalkers were obviously released prior to the mythic rarity. Now that mythic has been instituted the "rare" planeswalkers have been promoted to mythic. I agree though that Bolas was a bit pricey. However when he saw play he wrecked house, and he would see play when both players (should) have stabalized and he upsets the game state far less. That is what I'm getting at; the way they warp the game.
Flores released his article this morning on the Wizards main site. Not ONE deck was without planeswalkers. Even jund had Sarkhan thrown in there. 25% of the top 8 was "red-white-blue PLANESWALKERS", running 15 planeswalkers main deck. The only deck that didnt run Jace: MS were the jund builds, and I'm sure someone will soon find a way to shoehorn him in.
I'm just not sure that planswalkers were a healthy inclusion to the game.
Hehe, well you don't need to learn how to read until I learn how to write! (IE, round one was againt Bant not Naya). I'm also happy I "didn't" see the control match up!
Must have been a typo in my email to you. The deck does infact run enlightened tutor not mystical tutor. Other than the forbidden orchards, I wouldn't even have a bule source of mana production.
My vote is massively for 2hg for the next challange. I think going kaleidoscope would massively sway the results to those with the best mana bases. I own a full playset of duals/fetch, so it certainly wouldn't disadvantage me, but those without $1500 worth of lands would be at a marked disadvantage.
Ah well then not only was that guy NOT being a douche, he was being a good guy. In addition it seems to me to be an arbitrary idea that some cards are ok and others are not if there is no actual rule. I'd say ditch that in favor of actually nailing down what is and isn't allowed and then not complaining about anything not covered. But instead rethinking the rules when they aren't broad enough or specific enough.
I'm keeping my vote for KALEIDOSCOPE. That said, using a second preference or alternative vote system rather than first past the post, 2HG would be next on my list. I love a good collaboration.
Well done, good walkthrough. It was hard to see that Traitorous Instinct coming, realistically I think you couldn't have done more - short of actual mind reading!
Just one suggestion, include more screenshots of key situations in the future. Reading through the whole description of a board state takes a while and is harder to picture than actually seeing the board.
And personally, I'm not interested in M10 or ZZW. What you could maybe consider is doing a walkthrough on the current Nix Tix/Pax draft of the week?
Other than that, I think you're doing a great job with this. Keep it up.
I have to disagree with the article. Adding Kiln Fiend turns on your opponent removal and thus allows him to interact more with you. IMHO, the strongest reason for playing burn is exactly the fact that it doesn't really care about what your opponent is doing.
Having battled against the 20 Slivers/20 Changelings "Spirit" deck, I have to say, in defense of the guy, he sorta built his deck in a hurry in the last 10 minutes (sparing me from a boring bye), and also got wrong about the event being pauper.
Still what Shard means, I think, is that the spirit of the event (the spirit of the Spirits!) was not "find a way around". Next time doing mono-tribe, maybe, would be better to ban changelings entirely, as the chosen tribe is surely wide enough (the other choices were humans, elementals, and so), and the whole point is to build with members of such tribe.
I identify with the anxiety thing. As a performer Ive had to deal with that on stage quite a lot. Also how confident I am in my deck makes a huge difference to how on edge I feel in a give match up. Grats on winning 21 packs (65 or so tix?)
I would just like to quote yourself from the post in the wizards PRE section "This means no turn 1 combo decks, established classic archetypes, etc.**" Does this not include Oath of Druids / Forbidden Orchard then?
This is one of the reasons I didnt play as my deck did include a combo.
One thing: Krosan Verge is a great fetch giving you 2 for 1 exchange for a 2 turn delay (if you drop it turn 1). Another: Panoramas are just as good fetches as any pay 1 life, sac this land out there except that they only get basics and then only 1 of 3 types. Still imho they are worth thinking about. Expedition Map is a great (potentially reusable) fetch that costs 3 mana (1 + 2). True the land comes to your hand but that is all just fine for landfall, etc.
I really don't get the comment about the "douchiness" of playing slivers + changelings. If you didn't want people to do that you could have just said no nonspirits. It seems rather meanspirited to even mention it since the guy lost whomever he was. Not only is the term 'douchiness' insulting in multiple ways but it implies that you were not ok with his build but if his build followed your rules (and lost) what was the complaint? You talk about wanting to make the event friendlier and then say stuff like that. Very disappointing.
Understood 100% Shard, but it is frustrating to compile a list that is 1. within alloted allowance 2.good across the field. Most of the time you can tune a deck against 2-3 certain types and win with it maybe with some good pairings top 8, but it will have a very hard time being even across the the spectrum of match ups. Those decks will not put you into the payout as often as the others will.
I think the most expensive standard deck may only be $700, but I can see your point. Yeah its expensive but some people just cant afford the decks, everyone will agree to this. There two options now are don't play or innovate. Thats my point, people dont even bother with the innovating any more. They cant afford the top deck and therefore dont play and then moan.
Last night's event only saw 1 DnT style list from the looks of the replays. I personally was playing it in the form of a modified Taxman list. I went 2-2 beating a weak round 1 opponent list and SICK's Standstill deck thanks to the inclusion of pithing needles (big props to Menace for hashing over the SB with me). In game 3 SICK just conceded when I had pithings on both Deeds and Jace and a board advantage. I then hit reanimator and lost to the show and tell side of the deck. I don't think there is a way to fix this match up really. Any ideas on how to stop the show and tell side of this deck would be awesome. Then in the final round of play I matched up with a landstill UWGR list using Ajani Veng. This one was harder to play against since there was so many different things that pithing could target. Landstill has topped a few of the events with 4-0 lists and is out there. 50% of my matches were vs this archtype. Goblins seem to be a bit down as written above and ANT, I can only guess, is down with the recent popularity of white allowing for cannonist and teegs, and the use of the blue trap counter. As for the Landstill vs combo decks it depends on the combo list but landstill list can easily accommodate the counter trap spell to deal with ANT or just battle it out with combo via counters and standstill. If anyone want to lend me a version of the standstill deck I am game for playing it next as I see it as top dog over ANT and Reanimator solely on the basis of the counter battle and card advantage.
yeah lets play tribal spirits...unless you purposefully bend this to your own definition. Its fairly obvious. Only someone with no real care of how things work out would do something different. I didnt name the game, but I still stand by the fact that it was a douche move.
But I think nobody actually called him a douche (indeed he did seem a very correct and sportsmanlike player to me), it was the resulting deck that was (maybe unintentionally) sorta-douche, in the "I work around the rules" sort of a way. You're perfectly right that it's always legit to do that, and that the rules HAVE to be written properly if you want to avoid that. But you can't say that "Let's play tribal using spirits as the tribe" was very ambiguous in its intent, and can't blame Shard for trusting his players to get the point of the thing with no need of too much rulings.
Count 2HG as my vote as well.
The original "rare" planeswalkers were obviously released prior to the mythic rarity. Now that mythic has been instituted the "rare" planeswalkers have been promoted to mythic. I agree though that Bolas was a bit pricey. However when he saw play he wrecked house, and he would see play when both players (should) have stabalized and he upsets the game state far less. That is what I'm getting at; the way they warp the game.
Flores released his article this morning on the Wizards main site. Not ONE deck was without planeswalkers. Even jund had Sarkhan thrown in there. 25% of the top 8 was "red-white-blue PLANESWALKERS", running 15 planeswalkers main deck. The only deck that didnt run Jace: MS were the jund builds, and I'm sure someone will soon find a way to shoehorn him in.
I'm just not sure that planswalkers were a healthy inclusion to the game.
Hehe, well you don't need to learn how to read until I learn how to write! (IE, round one was againt Bant not Naya). I'm also happy I "didn't" see the control match up!
Must have been a typo in my email to you. The deck does infact run enlightened tutor not mystical tutor. Other than the forbidden orchards, I wouldn't even have a bule source of mana production.
My vote is massively for 2hg for the next challange. I think going kaleidoscope would massively sway the results to those with the best mana bases. I own a full playset of duals/fetch, so it certainly wouldn't disadvantage me, but those without $1500 worth of lands would be at a marked disadvantage.
Ah well then not only was that guy NOT being a douche, he was being a good guy. In addition it seems to me to be an arbitrary idea that some cards are ok and others are not if there is no actual rule. I'd say ditch that in favor of actually nailing down what is and isn't allowed and then not complaining about anything not covered. But instead rethinking the rules when they aren't broad enough or specific enough.
Ditto both choices.
I'm keeping my vote for KALEIDOSCOPE. That said, using a second preference or alternative vote system rather than first past the post, 2HG would be next on my list. I love a good collaboration.
Doh teach me to read :p
Well done, good walkthrough. It was hard to see that Traitorous Instinct coming, realistically I think you couldn't have done more - short of actual mind reading!
Just one suggestion, include more screenshots of key situations in the future. Reading through the whole description of a board state takes a while and is harder to picture than actually seeing the board.
And personally, I'm not interested in M10 or ZZW. What you could maybe consider is doing a walkthrough on the current Nix Tix/Pax draft of the week?
Other than that, I think you're doing a great job with this. Keep it up.
I have to disagree with the article. Adding Kiln Fiend turns on your opponent removal and thus allows him to interact more with you. IMHO, the strongest reason for playing burn is exactly the fact that it doesn't really care about what your opponent is doing.
Actually it's 6 packs, 21 tixs.
And very good article BTW.
Having battled against the 20 Slivers/20 Changelings "Spirit" deck, I have to say, in defense of the guy, he sorta built his deck in a hurry in the last 10 minutes (sparing me from a boring bye), and also got wrong about the event being pauper.
Still what Shard means, I think, is that the spirit of the event (the spirit of the Spirits!) was not "find a way around". Next time doing mono-tribe, maybe, would be better to ban changelings entirely, as the chosen tribe is surely wide enough (the other choices were humans, elementals, and so), and the whole point is to build with members of such tribe.
Vote for 2HG
thinking that might be a fun change or a FFA event
FFA you could do it with on points based and run 2 or 3 rounds
4 points win
3 points second
1 point each for 3rd and 4th
might take a while to complete though but not too long
Flip Combo noo! :)
didn't play because i was Sunbathing
I identify with the anxiety thing. As a performer Ive had to deal with that on stage quite a lot. Also how confident I am in my deck makes a huge difference to how on edge I feel in a give match up. Grats on winning 21 packs (65 or so tix?)
Great to see such a great deck running through a tournament.
AB will push a lot of matchups in your favor, you I would find room for him for sure.
Have you also tried cutting a land and bringing it "down" to 27?
I found jace 1.0 a nice turn 3 play against control, esp backed up by a T4 kicked ruinblaster.
T2 spreading seas
T3 jace 1.0
T4 kicked ruinblaster
is almost the best you can get against control. Would have loved to see a match against that.
I would just like to quote yourself from the post in the wizards PRE section "This means no turn 1 combo decks, established classic archetypes, etc.**" Does this not include Oath of Druids / Forbidden Orchard then?
This is one of the reasons I didnt play as my deck did include a combo.
One thing: Krosan Verge is a great fetch giving you 2 for 1 exchange for a 2 turn delay (if you drop it turn 1). Another: Panoramas are just as good fetches as any pay 1 life, sac this land out there except that they only get basics and then only 1 of 3 types. Still imho they are worth thinking about. Expedition Map is a great (potentially reusable) fetch that costs 3 mana (1 + 2). True the land comes to your hand but that is all just fine for landfall, etc.
I really don't get the comment about the "douchiness" of playing slivers + changelings. If you didn't want people to do that you could have just said no nonspirits. It seems rather meanspirited to even mention it since the guy lost whomever he was. Not only is the term 'douchiness' insulting in multiple ways but it implies that you were not ok with his build but if his build followed your rules (and lost) what was the complaint? You talk about wanting to make the event friendlier and then say stuff like that. Very disappointing.
Thanks for the shout out, great article as always. Let's get more events firing so this man can write more goodness!
Understood 100% Shard, but it is frustrating to compile a list that is 1. within alloted allowance 2.good across the field. Most of the time you can tune a deck against 2-3 certain types and win with it maybe with some good pairings top 8, but it will have a very hard time being even across the the spectrum of match ups. Those decks will not put you into the payout as often as the others will.
I think the most expensive standard deck may only be $700, but I can see your point. Yeah its expensive but some people just cant afford the decks, everyone will agree to this. There two options now are don't play or innovate. Thats my point, people dont even bother with the innovating any more. They cant afford the top deck and therefore dont play and then moan.
And no, no standard rare ever hit 100