The crazy thing is Jace 2.0 has pushed up into the range where I actually thought it made sense to crack a booster for no other reason than try to open one. Breaking one of my hard rules of playing MTGO.
Figuring 16 packs gave me approximately a 20% chance (10 mythics at 1 per 8 packs) of pulling it off that's what I did. Bots had the packs at 3.2 so 50 tickets got me the packs I needed. Man was I happy to see that Jace when I opened them... wasting 50 tickets would have sucked. It was actually a really nice open with 2 other mythics and a couple of man-lands.
Booster drafting to crack a Jace is a fool's bet. One pack of WWK has a 1/80 chance of winning that lottery. If you actually want Zendikar cards then maybe its different, but purely for getting a Jace don't bother. By the time you pay for all the drafts needed you could have just bought the single. The bottom line is you should draft to draft, not to acquire cards.
EDIT: I should add that everyone complaining about mythics resulting in Jace's price tag should look a lot harder at the Zen block set structure and its effect on card supply. Wizards did us no favors with this large-small-large thing that they did.
For non-MTGO sets and cards, I always use starcitygames.com's advanced search engine. It is the best and the most detailed I've seen so far. Here's the link:
thanks for the comments, though it looks like we're finally seeing the tole of these RoE events because we're getting to the point where I start putting together the next article and there are only 3 legacy events that have fired.
not to gush, but words cannot describe how awesome this is lol I was looking forward to this and you did not disappoint... this is better then I thought you were going to do and you've given me soo many ideas as well as fixed problems I had with mono black... I couldnt figure out which blocks would work for it, but now I know
one of the biggest things I find tricky for byos is 5th and 6th editions... its easy to sort in the client for certain blocks, but with those not online its harder to know what they offer, any chance that youll have that added info?
First, great article. I like the way you laid it all out for each color option. I feel that Pithing needle is going to see some play with all these deeeds, EEs, Jaces and various lands in the standstill deck archtype. It seems to be the only answer I can find for Dnt or LnT decklists.
While looking at the deck list I notice you have 4 Day of Judgment's but no Wrath of God's the better version in the main deck, yet you have a WoG in the SB.
i myself have not even bothered to look up when the legacy events are this last 2 weeks, all my time and energy was in roe sealed. ill bet a lot of peoples were, and cmon i can sell a u pack for 2 to a bot??ugh
we should have the legacy/classic events payout any oop set instead oif the newest one.
Legacy events that don't fire when they're scheduled at good times make me sad =(
A good number of events fired at 16 players as you pointed out. Last week there were late night events just did not fire. I suppose the value of Uz packs may be an issue and the RoE release events do not help at all.
I wish wizards would allow players to upload their own picture, one per player shouldn't be too much to ask. Obviously if it's obscene or something they'd be booted, which would be a pretty heafty drawback to getting a few laughs. I can't imagine any jokepic being worth your entire online collection - so I believe it would govern itself.
based on your list alone there are 12 mythics not seeing play in RoE and 9 mythics from WWK so we are looking at 4 out of 25 mythics seeing heavy play. This kind of defeats your statement when less than 20% of the rarity sees heavy tournament play. I guess WotC was right, Mythics aren/t just all powerful tourney cards...though I'm sure someone will contradict this.
I think you miss part of the point of rarities. Of course some mythics are going to be highly playable and thus highly sought after. Everyone who groaned when they announced the new rarity knew this right off the bat. Hence the groaning. But when you say playable. There are plenty of playable rares, uncommons and commons. It is just silly to say that you HAVE To have mythics to compete in the same way it was once silly to make that claim about having to have rares. (It still is silly but less so with mythics involved.)
Without going too far in this discussion of who´s right and wrong, let´s just ask one another which cards of WWK and ROE sees tournament play, shall we? for example, as per last Washington DC GP: (only taking rares+mythic here, some uncommons see play, like wall of omens and firewalker)
Celestial Colonnade
Scalding Tarn
Gideon Jura
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lavaclaw Reaches
Raging Ravine
Sarkhan the Mad
Vengevine
Consuming Vapors
Eldrazi Conscription
So, besides Manlands and a few lost copies of Consuming vapor/Conscription, all the "power" so it seems are in Mythic cards, esp. Planewalkers.
I dont care HOW wizards carefully chose their words. truth is that playable cards are being pushed more and more from Rares onto Mythic rarity level. that is what concerns me. Please see who is "twisting" things here, Me or Wizards?
After all we've been through to get more cards from Rare to uncommon and common rarity, wizards just turns around and do the opposite.
But who am I to complain, after all, if there are more players, it must be better, right?
Thanks for all the kind words all. I did horrible this weekend, as flood/screw showed up first two rounds. Mana gods are very upset with me lately...but a different build of Burn got 2nd place, running no kiln fiends. I talked to the guy and he simply didn't know of the beast, however I have to say that playing these is like playing a red flagbearer, very rare to see them live. But if they do, game over! Super good percentage against storm compared to standard burn.
I don't even play Incinerate anymore. Way too expensive! (Seriously) in testing, if the Kiln Fiend survives...one of the best spells to have is Lavadart. Seriously, 1 mana dump gets you +6 to your hound and clears the way. Burst is quite often relevant at its kicked cost too! Do me a favor and play it first :)
As you appropriately pointed out, the statement by MaRo indicates that not all powerful cards will be Mythic (like the man-lands, Devastating Summons, Goblin Guide, Blightning, Bloodbraid, Halimar Depths, etc, etc) There are powerful cards all across the spectrum for lots of archetypes, including Mythics.
If everything stays the same (meaning no Jace 2.0 in M11) the Jace is going to be ridiculously high for as long as he is legal in Standard and possibly as long as he is legal in Extended. U/x decks are really good right now, and a lot of that power is on the back of Jace 2.0. However I have faith that the meta can adjust and/or that the there will be more answers in M11/Scars to deal with the pendulum swing we're seeing now. Much like how they push-push-pushed RDW. Then printed Kor Firewalker. They knew that red was absurdly good, and nerfed it. To that same end I can see a Faith's Fetter style card being printed at common to really punish Planeswalker heavy decks. All things get answered in time, I guess.
Thanks for the reminder; you're right I should have mentioned those.
Weekly BYOS tournaments take place in the Anything Goes room every Sunday. Registration begins at 12:30 EST. You have to be in /join BYOS chatroom. The tournament starts at 13:00 EST.
Normally it is 3 rounds of swiss and then 2 rounds of Top-4 single elimination. When the participation is high, then it is 4 rounds of swiss and then 3 rounds of Top-8 single elimination.
Playing in the tournament costs you nothing and there are prizes for the Top-4 players.
You can find more info on the official forums under the "Player Run Events" section. Every week the host of the tournament creates a new thread there and announces that week's tournament.
i dont know if incinerate would necessarily be better. One main reason is that burst lightning while only doing 2 damage still adds the +3/+0 bonus most kills a blocker if needed and still allows for multiple other burn spells to be played that same turn. For example Burst Lightning and Needle Drop still deal 3 damage for 2 mana, and because of the draw you are only down one card as well. However Kiln Fiend becomes a 7/2, instead of the 4/2 you would get with just a single incinerate.
I really like the article. The way you wrote, in a "red style", made for a good read. Burn is 1 of my favorite decks in any format it can be built in so seeing an article dedicated to it was cool. I hadnt really given Kiln Fiend much consideration for pauper but after reading this, man, I think Im going to pick up a set and give Burn a whirl in TPDC tonight. Your talk about Fiend allowing you to use burn that normally has to go to the dome as removal while still getting the same amount of damage through turned on the lightbulb. My only question is the inclusion of Burst Lightning. Would Incinerate be better? You get 1 more damage for 1 more mana. Im asking this because running 19 lands with 2 being cyclers and 5 spells that put land into the graveyard, I wouldnt think the kicker on Burst would be relevant very often, if ever. If your testing has proven otherwise, right on. Just thought I might bring that point up. Otherwise, fantastic article and decklist.
I feel like you are leaving out critical information, especially in a guide. When is the BYOS? I realize it is on the weekend but can you be more exact? How does someone sign up? Does it cost any money?
The crazy thing is Jace 2.0 has pushed up into the range where I actually thought it made sense to crack a booster for no other reason than try to open one. Breaking one of my hard rules of playing MTGO.
Figuring 16 packs gave me approximately a 20% chance (10 mythics at 1 per 8 packs) of pulling it off that's what I did. Bots had the packs at 3.2 so 50 tickets got me the packs I needed. Man was I happy to see that Jace when I opened them... wasting 50 tickets would have sucked. It was actually a really nice open with 2 other mythics and a couple of man-lands.
Booster drafting to crack a Jace is a fool's bet. One pack of WWK has a 1/80 chance of winning that lottery. If you actually want Zendikar cards then maybe its different, but purely for getting a Jace don't bother. By the time you pay for all the drafts needed you could have just bought the single. The bottom line is you should draft to draft, not to acquire cards.
EDIT: I should add that everyone complaining about mythics resulting in Jace's price tag should look a lot harder at the Zen block set structure and its effect on card supply. Wizards did us no favors with this large-small-large thing that they did.
I'm glad you found this one useful.
For non-MTGO sets and cards, I always use starcitygames.com's advanced search engine. It is the best and the most detailed I've seen so far. Here's the link:
http://sales.starcitygames.com/spoiler/spoiler.php
Thanks for the comment.
LE
great stuff, just yesterday I was trying to track down this list
thanks for the comments, though it looks like we're finally seeing the tole of these RoE events because we're getting to the point where I start putting together the next article and there are only 3 legacy events that have fired.
not to gush, but words cannot describe how awesome this is lol I was looking forward to this and you did not disappoint... this is better then I thought you were going to do and you've given me soo many ideas as well as fixed problems I had with mono black... I couldnt figure out which blocks would work for it, but now I know
one of the biggest things I find tricky for byos is 5th and 6th editions... its easy to sort in the client for certain blocks, but with those not online its harder to know what they offer, any chance that youll have that added info?
First, great article. I like the way you laid it all out for each color option. I feel that Pithing needle is going to see some play with all these deeeds, EEs, Jaces and various lands in the standstill deck archtype. It seems to be the only answer I can find for Dnt or LnT decklists.
While looking at the deck list I notice you have 4 Day of Judgment's but no Wrath of God's the better version in the main deck, yet you have a WoG in the SB.
I have missed something here?
i myself have not even bothered to look up when the legacy events are this last 2 weeks, all my time and energy was in roe sealed. ill bet a lot of peoples were, and cmon i can sell a u pack for 2 to a bot??ugh
we should have the legacy/classic events payout any oop set instead oif the newest one.
Legacy events that don't fire when they're scheduled at good times make me sad =(
A good number of events fired at 16 players as you pointed out. Last week there were late night events just did not fire. I suppose the value of Uz packs may be an issue and the RoE release events do not help at all.
I wish wizards would allow players to upload their own picture, one per player shouldn't be too much to ask. Obviously if it's obscene or something they'd be booted, which would be a pretty heafty drawback to getting a few laughs. I can't imagine any jokepic being worth your entire online collection - so I believe it would govern itself.
based on your list alone there are 12 mythics not seeing play in RoE and 9 mythics from WWK so we are looking at 4 out of 25 mythics seeing heavy play. This kind of defeats your statement when less than 20% of the rarity sees heavy tournament play. I guess WotC was right, Mythics aren/t just all powerful tourney cards...though I'm sure someone will contradict this.
Some players convinced the sky is falling wont be persuaded otherwise till the day the day and realize they never saw anything crash down
I think you miss part of the point of rarities. Of course some mythics are going to be highly playable and thus highly sought after. Everyone who groaned when they announced the new rarity knew this right off the bat. Hence the groaning. But when you say playable. There are plenty of playable rares, uncommons and commons. It is just silly to say that you HAVE To have mythics to compete in the same way it was once silly to make that claim about having to have rares. (It still is silly but less so with mythics involved.)
Sundays at 12:30pm EST in /join byos
Brilliant article! You can really feel that you put a lot of effort into it.
Without going too far in this discussion of who´s right and wrong, let´s just ask one another which cards of WWK and ROE sees tournament play, shall we? for example, as per last Washington DC GP: (only taking rares+mythic here, some uncommons see play, like wall of omens and firewalker)
Celestial Colonnade
Scalding Tarn
Gideon Jura
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lavaclaw Reaches
Raging Ravine
Sarkhan the Mad
Vengevine
Consuming Vapors
Eldrazi Conscription
So, besides Manlands and a few lost copies of Consuming vapor/Conscription, all the "power" so it seems are in Mythic cards, esp. Planewalkers.
I dont care HOW wizards carefully chose their words. truth is that playable cards are being pushed more and more from Rares onto Mythic rarity level. that is what concerns me. Please see who is "twisting" things here, Me or Wizards?
After all we've been through to get more cards from Rare to uncommon and common rarity, wizards just turns around and do the opposite.
But who am I to complain, after all, if there are more players, it must be better, right?
Thanks for all the kind words all. I did horrible this weekend, as flood/screw showed up first two rounds. Mana gods are very upset with me lately...but a different build of Burn got 2nd place, running no kiln fiends. I talked to the guy and he simply didn't know of the beast, however I have to say that playing these is like playing a red flagbearer, very rare to see them live. But if they do, game over! Super good percentage against storm compared to standard burn.
I don't even play Incinerate anymore. Way too expensive! (Seriously) in testing, if the Kiln Fiend survives...one of the best spells to have is Lavadart. Seriously, 1 mana dump gets you +6 to your hound and clears the way. Burst is quite often relevant at its kicked cost too! Do me a favor and play it first :)
Well said, Urza's. Thanks for that!
As you appropriately pointed out, the statement by MaRo indicates that not all powerful cards will be Mythic (like the man-lands, Devastating Summons, Goblin Guide, Blightning, Bloodbraid, Halimar Depths, etc, etc) There are powerful cards all across the spectrum for lots of archetypes, including Mythics.
If everything stays the same (meaning no Jace 2.0 in M11) the Jace is going to be ridiculously high for as long as he is legal in Standard and possibly as long as he is legal in Extended. U/x decks are really good right now, and a lot of that power is on the back of Jace 2.0. However I have faith that the meta can adjust and/or that the there will be more answers in M11/Scars to deal with the pendulum swing we're seeing now. Much like how they push-push-pushed RDW. Then printed Kor Firewalker. They knew that red was absurdly good, and nerfed it. To that same end I can see a Faith's Fetter style card being printed at common to really punish Planeswalker heavy decks. All things get answered in time, I guess.
Very good point ShardFenix.
Thanks for the reminder; you're right I should have mentioned those.
Weekly BYOS tournaments take place in the Anything Goes room every Sunday. Registration begins at 12:30 EST. You have to be in /join BYOS chatroom. The tournament starts at 13:00 EST.
Normally it is 3 rounds of swiss and then 2 rounds of Top-4 single elimination. When the participation is high, then it is 4 rounds of swiss and then 3 rounds of Top-8 single elimination.
Playing in the tournament costs you nothing and there are prizes for the Top-4 players.
You can find more info on the official forums under the "Player Run Events" section. Every week the host of the tournament creates a new thread there and announces that week's tournament.
LE
i dont know if incinerate would necessarily be better. One main reason is that burst lightning while only doing 2 damage still adds the +3/+0 bonus most kills a blocker if needed and still allows for multiple other burn spells to be played that same turn. For example Burst Lightning and Needle Drop still deal 3 damage for 2 mana, and because of the draw you are only down one card as well. However Kiln Fiend becomes a 7/2, instead of the 4/2 you would get with just a single incinerate.
I really like the article. The way you wrote, in a "red style", made for a good read. Burn is 1 of my favorite decks in any format it can be built in so seeing an article dedicated to it was cool. I hadnt really given Kiln Fiend much consideration for pauper but after reading this, man, I think Im going to pick up a set and give Burn a whirl in TPDC tonight. Your talk about Fiend allowing you to use burn that normally has to go to the dome as removal while still getting the same amount of damage through turned on the lightbulb. My only question is the inclusion of Burst Lightning. Would Incinerate be better? You get 1 more damage for 1 more mana. Im asking this because running 19 lands with 2 being cyclers and 5 spells that put land into the graveyard, I wouldnt think the kicker on Burst would be relevant very often, if ever. If your testing has proven otherwise, right on. Just thought I might bring that point up. Otherwise, fantastic article and decklist.
I feel like you are leaving out critical information, especially in a guide. When is the BYOS? I realize it is on the weekend but can you be more exact? How does someone sign up? Does it cost any money?
Thanks
This article was just full of win all the way around. Great job.