• Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    I did feel slightly guilty with the rats tbh, crypt rats were just far and away the best creature around, combine it with most of MBC and it's a really strong deck. Especially the game vs allies where I just 3x corrupt to the face. The last time PDCmagic guys hosted a tribal event the rats won it, they just have 4 of the best creatures in pauper (imo) and the only real decision was nezumi ronin or cutthroat.

    I really enjoyed the matches though, and the atmosphere throughout.

    As for the format: definitely singleton. That sounds like a lot of fun.

  • Pure Skill - Pauper Teachings   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Open Beta just opened for this...looks cool:

    http://www.mytheongame.com/open-beta-event

    like diablo/warcraft with more of a greek mythology feel

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    1- You don't declare your Standard neither at the beginning of a game nor at some other time. It's up to you to figure out what your opponent is playing. You can always ask of course.

    2- You opponent knows what Standard you use by looking at the cards you use. A first turn Watery Grave into a second turn Drowned Catacomb followed by a Rune Snag should be enough for your opponent to guess what Standard you are playing. Sometimes it's a bit trickier than that and takes longer to understand what people play but if you're confused, you can always ask.

    3- You can use all versions of cards you own as long as they exist in the blocks you choose. Your Dark Ritual, regardless of its version, is legal as long as one of your blocks have Dark Ritual. You can play your 7th Edition Serra Angel even though you use M10. You can use your Onslaught Smother in your RAV-ZEN-7th Ed deck. So yes, your Devine/Demonic Dark Ritual is legal if you are using Mirage as one of your main blocks.

    4- Your opponent knows that you're cheating if you play Wrath of God while you have Baneslayer Angel on table. He will know that you're cheating if you play Borderland Ranger while you have Brushland on table. Basically if you think the opponent is using illegal cards, then ask which sets he's using. If the card he just played doesn't exist in those sets, PM the tournament host.

    5- If you don't feel comfortable in general then just don't play. People can always cheat in those formats where there is no auto rules enforcements yet there are tons of such formats and PREs for those formats. If you don't trust anyone but the MTGO client, then BYOS clearly isn't a format for you.

    Hope this helps.

    LE

  • A Look At Legacy: April 15 - 21... Premier & Taxes   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Jotun Grunts + Tarmogoyf doesn't exactly seem like a match made in heaven.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    I don't think it's easy at all. I guess I'm just too much of a rules lawyer. My biggest problem with BYOS is enforceability.

    Do I declare what my standard is at the start of the game?

    How does my opponent know what my standard is?

    How are reprints handled? Using the example above, I only own Birds of Paradise from 8th Edition. They were in M10 and Ravnica, so do I get to use them?

    How does my opponent know I'm not cheating? I don't own any Mirage block Dark Rituals, but I do own some from Divine/Demonic. Can I use those and say my block is Mirage?

    Basically, the only way I can see this format being viable and not irritating to the players (especially players like me who are going to be trying to figure out which "standard" you are playing) is that EVERY card you play MUST BE from the expansions you are using. And that seems really stupid.

    When I first heard of this format, the name, to me, suggested that you had to build a deck that was standard legal at some point. Like Onslaught/8th Edition/Mirrodin or Alara/M10/Zendikar Those were actual standard formats. If I can just lump any two blocks and a core set together how is that really different than a normal deck? It's like classic, but more restrictive?

    If I'm running slivers, wouldn't I naturally choose Tempest/Onslaught/random core or Onslaught/Timespiral/random core, or some variation of those three? From a tribal perspective, that's already how sliver decks are made. They've only appeared in 3 blocks. The same could be said for elves. Wouldn't the natural choice be Onslaught/Lorwyn/Llanowar Elves core? Those are the elf cards all tournament level elf decks are already using.

    Given they way WOTC tends to cycle creatures, most tribal decks either already use some variation on BYOS anyway, or would be spread so thin that it would eliminate most tribes. Examples of that would Dwarves, Elephants, Cats, Illusions. Or you'd have most, if not all, of the good cards coming out of the same expansion, like Treefolk, Vampires, and Rats. And let's not even get into discussions of where the most likely tribes will come from.... the ones most often printed: Zombies, Elves, Goblins, Soldiers, Wizards.

    If you go with BYOS, be prepared to ban all the same tribes you just banned in pauper. This could very well be the least fun variation on Tribal.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    I agree I did both as well and only real test was against another Tribal Pauper, and yes I did start to think allies was a lot like slivers, tho you ban them and youd want to ban soldiers as well, and rats, which leaves only the creative decks, but a smaller choice of tribe

  • One Double O #33 - Rise of the Eldrazi!   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Nice review. I think Bear Umbra should get a mention as well. The creature doesn't even have to connect, it just has to attack. Fun stuff.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    $10 (2.5 each), $24 (6 each), and $1.6 (.4 each) respectively... like 36 total

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    lol was just the first example I could come up with of a 4+ color tribe

  • Krakens and Dreadnoughts for Jewelry   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Awesome report! Can't wait to take the deck to my next tourney!

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Extremely unlikely: A nephilim tribal deck is exceedingly tricky to win with in the first case, let alone stripped of monocolored support like blessing and might.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Actually the big three in kaleidoscope were Pillar of the Paruns, Reflecting Pool and Exotic Orchard. Almost drawbackless 5-color lands in most games.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    So, I only play 2 formats regularly Classic Tribal and Pauper. I built three decks in preparation for this event and tested all of them in both Classic Tribal games and in Pauper. I tried mono-white Soldiers, Red/Green Warrior, and mono-Black Rats.

    I quickly realized that Classic Pauper Tribal really is a unique metagame to itself. First, Pauper has sideboards and some decks that do well, do so due to their sideboard. Secondly, pauper has a number of decks that have few creatures, so the need for creature control in pauper is less than in pauper tribal. For instance, a sideboard with Holy Light would helped a great deal in my loss to the Naya Cats.

    Taking a Pauper Tribal deck up against a non-Pauper Tribe is mostly asking for a beating.

    Basically, all of my testing showed that my decks stunk. All of them, but the tournament showed that all three were viable concepts (the cat deck isn't that far from Warriors in many ways).

    After this weekend, I agree with the exclusion of Goblins (ultra efficient creatures plus burn spells would make the deck a more reliable and efficient version of the Cat deck without the risk of mana issues or use of cards that do not directly deal damage to an opponent). I think that Elves would not have been a problem with the amount of creature control sitting around. I think that Slivers would have been borderline, but comparable to an Allies deck.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    this really could go both ways... there are several possibilities for two colored decks, which is doable without heavy duals, but the whole maybe won by a 5c nephilim

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Build Your Own Standard is quite easy actually.

    You pick 2 blocks and a core set to build your deck from

    for example Alara-Ravnica-m10 gives you access to Ravnica, Guildpact, Dissension, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn and Magic 2010

  • One Double O #33 - Rise of the Eldrazi!   15 years 8 weeks ago

    lol i know right? sometimes we all get those moments, i always overlook the togs idk why

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    What about 2 of each creature allowed, singleton for all others cards (except basic lands, of course).

  • A Look At Legacy: April 15 - 21... Premier & Taxes   15 years 8 weeks ago

    thanks all for the comments.... but what does it say about a card when every mono-colored deck is splashing for it?

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    The idea of a tribal singleton deck is going to involve some pretty heavy shopping for most people. Where as the decks I've built for other weeks have involved a few new cards each time, going singleton is going to force many many purchases. The almost total lack of depth for playable tribes would be pretty limiting too.

    I think the pauper went really well. Why don't you just say once a month we do tribal and then adjust the banned tribes accordingly, to keep the meta healthy?

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    I am sad to say I missed this one. I really wanted to participate, but I figured Rats would win and I was semi-upset about the exclusion of goblins and elves, but the allowing of zombies and rats. I was also leery of Soldiers being allowed too. I even made two decks for the event: slivers and wizards. Did anyone run those? Curious to know how they faired.

    As for the vote, with this much lead time I should be able to schedule time to be there. The vangaurd lover in me has to vote for Vangaurd. That seems like it would be massively broken, but also massively fun. Given the classic nature paired in with tribal might limit the number of super-broken decks that Classic Vangaurd likes to produce. However, I could also see a lot of Hermit Druid decks that win on turn one with Bizarre of Bagdad, which truly is a frustrating way to lose.

    If I had to make a second choice, I would go with Singleton. That seems like a cheap and easy format. I will echo an earlier statement. I don't like Kaleidescope AT ALL! I didn't like it when WOTC started pushing it and my opinion has not changed. When they stopped running tournaments for it, I gave a little cheer and a dance. Most people have forgotten that Kaleidescope even existed by now. Let's leave it that way. I am not in favor of a format that asks you to own 4x of the Rav duals and 4x Pillar of the Paruns just to be competitive. Plus, as I recall, the format was dominated by Blue/Black control and Green/White aggro, which effectively killed the format.

    If I actually understood the rules to build your own standard, I would vote for that. I have had it explained to me three times now and I still don't get it.

  • One Double O #33 - Rise of the Eldrazi!   15 years 8 weeks ago

    That comment makes me sad. I tend to like the way you think. How did you miss that one? It has been the base of my Enchantress deck for years. Argothian/Verduian/Messa Enchantress (or Enchantress's Presense) + Auratog + Urza Aura's = amazing

    Kor Spiritdancer just gives you another target in this deck :) Now I'll have FIVE ways to draw a card whenever I play an enchantment. Woot Woot

    Until someone plays Presence of the Master NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  • A Look At Legacy: April 15 - 21... Premier & Taxes   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Well done from beginning to end. Keep up the great work! I agree with menace here, Tarmo just seems to good to pass up. Hard to argue with the results though.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    There's a reason this hasn't been done before. :) I suggested a tribalton format not long ago (december I think?) and even came up with a few lists but no one was interested. Possibly the lack of dynamic tribes in singleton is the problem or as you say the scarcer tribes get knocked out. (you need 20 unique creatures for singleton 60 tribal, and 34 unique creatures for singleton 100 tribal. That really does narrow down the field considerably and then you add in the color requirements and dual lands become a must have for the serious minded players.)

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    As it turns out, I know I won't be participating that weekend (daughter's birthday).

    My fear for kaliedoscope isn't in which tribes are available, but in the disparity between deck quality based on the ownership of dual lands.

    While there are many land options, this format would highlight the superiority of the dual lands. I could see many players being frustrated from a perceived inability to compete on a level playing field. While pauper's affordability brought a large crowd, this variation might constrict participation.

    Whatever you choose, I wish everyone the best of luck.

  • Tribal Apocalypse: Commonly Fantastic   15 years 8 weeks ago

    Personally I vote singleton tribal. I think it is the EDH lover in me.
    My one worry is that it might really restrict the number of viable tribes pretty badly. You might want some sort of additional rule that allows some of the smaller tribes to get in on it also.