Maelstrom Archangel...+7 hand. Isn't that just a combo decks dream right there?...lol...slap this baby with any classic Affinity deck and its pretty much turn 1 kill.
achievements are an excelent idea, anyone see the news letter this month in your inbox stating how many packs you have won over your lifetime? i know that im a tourny whore and all but everyone i have talked to is excited about it. its a simple thing really and if wotc can track how many packs you have won in the last 4 years im positive they can get way more varied in what they want players to get excited about. in a way achievements are already here, not quite like xbox but still.
as far as the list you have created, sure i appreciate the amount of work you did in trying to put together a skeleton, but really as others have said it would be a nightmare for the other player not trying to farm achievements. imo, they should be organic like most xbox ones. there are very very few achievments you can get by not just playing the game, and this is where i think your list is flawed.
instead of specfics, how about
win 10 matches.
win 100 matches
win 1000 matches
win with x amount of alternat win cons, such as mortal combat.
as others have said, win with cards x, y, and z are tedious for a large segment of the populace, and in a way your being directed how to play the game. if a player wnats to be told how to win, they will just join events where you HAVE to play certain stratgies a large portion of the time if you wantr to consistenly win. and you get packs for your efforts, insteat of a dumpy little icon.
also little trophys are cool, but wouldnt non tradeable avatars be an even better trophy? you can show off your achievements all the time when ever you join a match.
First of all I would suggest Kor Skyfisher even though she's not an Ally. She returns an ally back to hand and then you can play it again and trigger all the others on table. Not the best strategy but I know that it works. You don't want to bounce back your allies with counters on them but Ondu Cleric and/or Halimar Excavator are perfect targets.
I would also not play counterspells because just like you said, Allies love to play their cards and tap out. Instead I would add some card drawing spells (Brainstorm?).
I would also add Terramorphic Expanse too. Halimar Depths may reveal three lands in a row and that card is a nice way to "fix" that. And just because of Terramorphic Expanse, you may get in Green and add Oran-Rief Survivalist and Greypelt Hunter (who has trample).
So I would play 4x Halimar Excavator, 4x Ondu Cleric, 4x Umara Raptor, 4x Oran-Rief Survivalist, 4x Greypelt Hunter plus 2x Kor Skyfishers.
You add your 24 lands, add your 22 creatures and it makes 46 cards. You then add 4 Join the Ranks, 5 card drawing and 4 removal (journey to nowhere?) plus 1 bounce (Into the Roil probably) and you'll be fine... I think :).
Your deck is actually quite good for a last minute throw together. Werebear provides some late game beef to throw muscle bursts on. As far as Serra goes, I just really wanted the Wanderers and thus not enough space left for Serra. I probably should have mentioned that I did have Serra in the UBW deck initially.
I look forward to seeing what you bring to the pauper event.
most of the creature base in my muscle burst deck is 1/1s so getting through Sphinx wasn't easy, in order to win those games I would have to get a great draw in order to speed things out, not a real competitive deck, but it can be fun if you get some good mana ramp through the farmhands and then muscle burst on an Iwamori or something, it's done some crazy fun things in the casual room since, I had put it together like 20min or so before the PRE.. the Sphinx deck did an easy job of running through my humans, I have to say Serra Sphinx was one of my favorite cards in TSP block, I had used it in several drafts and it was such a bomb, I still try and sneak it in a deck now and then
nice little add for pauper, it'll be interesting cuz I think we'll see a lot of the same tribes, but still fun any ways, I had been planning a UW ally deck, but you're version is missing one card that I think is really key
I really like the Sphinx deck here. One question though, is there any reason other than price not to run a copy of sharuum the hegemon? you can tutor her up or cascade into her. The reanimation clause would fit nicely as well.
I doublechecked and my account has a listed email, not sure why it didn't appear. Regardless, it's tomer.del@gmail.com
Yes, you should have unused cards. I like adding red herrings but made a halfhearted effort this time around due to last puzzle's disaster. I really, really liked that puzzle!
Effovex, if you're one mana short than you may or may not be very close to the answer.
PREs are free admission tournaments that have a mixed bag of competitive decks and people just trying out random stuff for fun because you lose nothing for joining. Like I said before, it's a more casual environment than PEs, and 2mans for that matter. Tournaments that have an admission cost will always have a higher density of top-tier decks. That's not a slight to PREs, which are fun / diverse / free, but you can't point your finger at a deck that top8'd in TPDC and say, "See? This deck is better!"
"In my opinion, the PDCs are more challenging from a deck construction perspective and the PE is more challenging from a game play perspective."
Why?
I know how Stompy plays and how Elves plays, I own both decks. Everything Stompy can do, Elves does better. Stompy can run little lands, Elves can run even less lands (mana elves). All of Stompy's "tricks" can also be played in Elf decks, it's not like Vines of Vastwood is barred from Elves. The difference is that Elves deploys faster, kills faster, and can "just win" if they hit a big Distant Melody. Both decks fold to MBC's Crypt Rats. Stompy loses to Storm outright, but Elves can sometimes win.
I never said that Elves is a better deck than Stompy because it wins that matchup. In the only recent PE that Stompy showed up in the top8, Elves was ranked higher in the same event. The fact that Elves eliminated Stompy is just gravy.
I'm not a Stompy hater. I'm the opposite, I dislike treehuggers and pine for green fatties to surpass tree huggers. It's a fun deck. It can win a bunch in tournament practice. I did alot of that when Vines of Vastwood hit online cause I loved that card. A nice big list of 2/X creatures, Rancor, good times. Then I realized that Elves just does it better.
Nice new style article. I liked the art of hymn to tourach so much (since I couldn't find the print) I painted it myself! My complaint about magic art is that it's all WAY too centered.
I can remove everything except the drift of phantasm that comes back to play. I'm one mana short of dealing with it, unless I miscounted my mana somewhere. Which I didn't. Do your "I'm not using all available mana" solutions take into account the returning drift?
I would enjoy achievements to a point but can also see it not really working. I wouldnt mind a set of achievements based on the cards flippers is writing about. Like 50pts- Win a game through Mortal Combat or something.
While I don't equate the competitive level of PEs and PREs, the Pauper PREs are rather competitive if a much different environment than the PEs, just as the 2-man queues are very different than either the PEs or PREs for their metagame.
The variety of decks in the PREs changes the metagame as compared to the PEs. The PE is a rather fixed environment with the current prevalence of White Weenie and Goblins which in some ways enhances the opportunities of rogue decks. In a more complex environment like TPDC, finding a consistently winning deck can be more challenging.
In my opinion, the PDCs are more challenging from a deck construction perspective and the PE is more challenging from a game play perspective.
I would not discount the competitive nature of the PREs or the accomplishments fromt those events. The fact that over the past few weeks, white weenie, blue-red aggro, and green stompy have reached the finals of all three events is impressive.
The current green stompy deck operates on many of the principles of the Goblin deck while using pump cards that make it problematic for the white weenie decks. Green Stompy can get a ton of 2 and 3 power creatures into play and requires very few slots for lands. The fact that Goblins and WW use very few instants for their removal makes them susceptible to the efficiency of the pump spells in Stompy.
(Note that I have played Elves and I think they are a fragile deck, whereas Stompy seems to have some similar elements that would let it parallel the success of WW and Goblins. I will definitely be trying out this deck.)
Last point, just because Elves beat Stompy, doesn't mean that Elves are a better deck. I have beaten Goblins with some really stupid casual decks, but I would never say that my equipment deck is better than Goblins.
Spreading seas is a shoe-in most times - just rather run boomerang instead, as that's more infuriating :) I'd consider any card that's blue and says, "Draw a card" :) I did try it to answer the question, but it leaves open a crucial turn where you should be countering. Just like the looter, which I wish was an instant too, so putting another slow 2 drop, (not an instant in other words) is death to the tempo...in normal decks, it's awesome, or perhaps if you have room in sideboard.
Your justified frustration at the absurdity of spam and captcha really makes me shake my head in sympathy even while I chuckle a little. Not sure if Jam really wants to put the time into making an intelligent spam guard. If he did he'd probably working somewhere more lucrative.
One of my friends played a Chance Encounter deck the other day. He used Squee's Revenge and called 10 heads in a row. Even though I was going to win (bounced his Chance Encounter) I conceded and let him have the game anyways. I mean, with luck like that, he deserved it.
Sorry...Anyway to my comment.
Maelstrom Archangel...+7 hand. Isn't that just a combo decks dream right there?...lol...slap this baby with any classic Affinity deck and its pretty much turn 1 kill.
achievements are an excelent idea, anyone see the news letter this month in your inbox stating how many packs you have won over your lifetime? i know that im a tourny whore and all but everyone i have talked to is excited about it. its a simple thing really and if wotc can track how many packs you have won in the last 4 years im positive they can get way more varied in what they want players to get excited about. in a way achievements are already here, not quite like xbox but still.
as far as the list you have created, sure i appreciate the amount of work you did in trying to put together a skeleton, but really as others have said it would be a nightmare for the other player not trying to farm achievements. imo, they should be organic like most xbox ones. there are very very few achievments you can get by not just playing the game, and this is where i think your list is flawed.
instead of specfics, how about
win 10 matches.
win 100 matches
win 1000 matches
win with x amount of alternat win cons, such as mortal combat.
as others have said, win with cards x, y, and z are tedious for a large segment of the populace, and in a way your being directed how to play the game. if a player wnats to be told how to win, they will just join events where you HAVE to play certain stratgies a large portion of the time if you wantr to consistenly win. and you get packs for your efforts, insteat of a dumpy little icon.
also little trophys are cool, but wouldnt non tradeable avatars be an even better trophy? you can show off your achievements all the time when ever you join a match.
Here are a few suggestions for your Allies list:
First of all I would suggest Kor Skyfisher even though she's not an Ally. She returns an ally back to hand and then you can play it again and trigger all the others on table. Not the best strategy but I know that it works. You don't want to bounce back your allies with counters on them but Ondu Cleric and/or Halimar Excavator are perfect targets.
I would also not play counterspells because just like you said, Allies love to play their cards and tap out. Instead I would add some card drawing spells (Brainstorm?).
I would also add Terramorphic Expanse too. Halimar Depths may reveal three lands in a row and that card is a nice way to "fix" that. And just because of Terramorphic Expanse, you may get in Green and add Oran-Rief Survivalist and Greypelt Hunter (who has trample).
So I would play 4x Halimar Excavator, 4x Ondu Cleric, 4x Umara Raptor, 4x Oran-Rief Survivalist, 4x Greypelt Hunter plus 2x Kor Skyfishers.
You add your 24 lands, add your 22 creatures and it makes 46 cards. You then add 4 Join the Ranks, 5 card drawing and 4 removal (journey to nowhere?) plus 1 bounce (Into the Roil probably) and you'll be fine... I think :).
Hope this helps.
LE
Your deck is actually quite good for a last minute throw together. Werebear provides some late game beef to throw muscle bursts on. As far as Serra goes, I just really wanted the Wanderers and thus not enough space left for Serra. I probably should have mentioned that I did have Serra in the UBW deck initially.
I look forward to seeing what you bring to the pauper event.
very true, I was so caught on Scute Mob I didn't even think about going RB as well
I love the Hegemon but 3 tickets was out of my range.
Indeed it is a price thing. And yeah that was a very nice allies deck.
Unearth and skittering skirge get along very well since you can unearth another creature on to the battlefield without having to sacrifice the Skirge.
I've been meaning to make a deck around the shade and I am happy to see it here. Maybe you should have tried a RB Insect deck.
"He could have a career in porn with a crocodile that big"
Thx for spilling soda on m- ke-board , now the - isn't working an-more
most of the creature base in my muscle burst deck is 1/1s so getting through Sphinx wasn't easy, in order to win those games I would have to get a great draw in order to speed things out, not a real competitive deck, but it can be fun if you get some good mana ramp through the farmhands and then muscle burst on an Iwamori or something, it's done some crazy fun things in the casual room since, I had put it together like 20min or so before the PRE.. the Sphinx deck did an easy job of running through my humans, I have to say Serra Sphinx was one of my favorite cards in TSP block, I had used it in several drafts and it was such a bomb, I still try and sneak it in a deck now and then
nice little add for pauper, it'll be interesting cuz I think we'll see a lot of the same tribes, but still fun any ways, I had been planning a UW ally deck, but you're version is missing one card that I think is really key
Pauper week eh but no slivers:(
Knowing Paul it be a price thing :)
Also Paul in the next to last event i played in I played a counter Allies deck and went 2-1 it was pretty solid only losing to yourself(Twice).
I really like the Sphinx deck here. One question though, is there any reason other than price not to run a copy of sharuum the hegemon? you can tutor her up or cascade into her. The reanimation clause would fit nicely as well.
I doublechecked and my account has a listed email, not sure why it didn't appear. Regardless, it's tomer.del@gmail.com
Yes, you should have unused cards. I like adding red herrings but made a halfhearted effort this time around due to last puzzle's disaster. I really, really liked that puzzle!
Effovex, if you're one mana short than you may or may not be very close to the answer.
PREs are free admission tournaments that have a mixed bag of competitive decks and people just trying out random stuff for fun because you lose nothing for joining. Like I said before, it's a more casual environment than PEs, and 2mans for that matter. Tournaments that have an admission cost will always have a higher density of top-tier decks. That's not a slight to PREs, which are fun / diverse / free, but you can't point your finger at a deck that top8'd in TPDC and say, "See? This deck is better!"
"In my opinion, the PDCs are more challenging from a deck construction perspective and the PE is more challenging from a game play perspective."
Why?
I know how Stompy plays and how Elves plays, I own both decks. Everything Stompy can do, Elves does better. Stompy can run little lands, Elves can run even less lands (mana elves). All of Stompy's "tricks" can also be played in Elf decks, it's not like Vines of Vastwood is barred from Elves. The difference is that Elves deploys faster, kills faster, and can "just win" if they hit a big Distant Melody. Both decks fold to MBC's Crypt Rats. Stompy loses to Storm outright, but Elves can sometimes win.
I never said that Elves is a better deck than Stompy because it wins that matchup. In the only recent PE that Stompy showed up in the top8, Elves was ranked higher in the same event. The fact that Elves eliminated Stompy is just gravy.
I'm not a Stompy hater. I'm the opposite, I dislike treehuggers and pine for green fatties to surpass tree huggers. It's a fun deck. It can win a bunch in tournament practice. I did alot of that when Vines of Vastwood hit online cause I loved that card. A nice big list of 2/X creatures, Rancor, good times. Then I realized that Elves just does it better.
Nice new style article. I liked the art of hymn to tourach so much (since I couldn't find the print) I painted it myself! My complaint about magic art is that it's all WAY too centered.
I can remove everything except the drift of phantasm that comes back to play. I'm one mana short of dealing with it, unless I miscounted my mana somewhere. Which I didn't. Do your "I'm not using all available mana" solutions take into account the returning drift?
Im still stuck on the fact that chance encounter costs 2.75....i mean why?
I would enjoy achievements to a point but can also see it not really working. I wouldnt mind a set of achievements based on the cards flippers is writing about. Like 50pts- Win a game through Mortal Combat or something.
While I don't equate the competitive level of PEs and PREs, the Pauper PREs are rather competitive if a much different environment than the PEs, just as the 2-man queues are very different than either the PEs or PREs for their metagame.
The variety of decks in the PREs changes the metagame as compared to the PEs. The PE is a rather fixed environment with the current prevalence of White Weenie and Goblins which in some ways enhances the opportunities of rogue decks. In a more complex environment like TPDC, finding a consistently winning deck can be more challenging.
In my opinion, the PDCs are more challenging from a deck construction perspective and the PE is more challenging from a game play perspective.
I would not discount the competitive nature of the PREs or the accomplishments fromt those events. The fact that over the past few weeks, white weenie, blue-red aggro, and green stompy have reached the finals of all three events is impressive.
The current green stompy deck operates on many of the principles of the Goblin deck while using pump cards that make it problematic for the white weenie decks. Green Stompy can get a ton of 2 and 3 power creatures into play and requires very few slots for lands. The fact that Goblins and WW use very few instants for their removal makes them susceptible to the efficiency of the pump spells in Stompy.
(Note that I have played Elves and I think they are a fragile deck, whereas Stompy seems to have some similar elements that would let it parallel the success of WW and Goblins. I will definitely be trying out this deck.)
Last point, just because Elves beat Stompy, doesn't mean that Elves are a better deck. I have beaten Goblins with some really stupid casual decks, but I would never say that my equipment deck is better than Goblins.
Spreading seas is a shoe-in most times - just rather run boomerang instead, as that's more infuriating :) I'd consider any card that's blue and says, "Draw a card" :) I did try it to answer the question, but it leaves open a crucial turn where you should be countering. Just like the looter, which I wish was an instant too, so putting another slow 2 drop, (not an instant in other words) is death to the tempo...in normal decks, it's awesome, or perhaps if you have room in sideboard.
Did you try spreading seas in your testing? :) Nothing like screwing with their mana too.....
BTW I wonder how many people now have you blocked after your testing....
...just for including Kurtis Blow in the article, I give you a 5!
Your justified frustration at the absurdity of spam and captcha really makes me shake my head in sympathy even while I chuckle a little. Not sure if Jam really wants to put the time into making an intelligent spam guard. If he did he'd probably working somewhere more lucrative.
One of my friends played a Chance Encounter deck the other day. He used Squee's Revenge and called 10 heads in a row. Even though I was going to win (bounced his Chance Encounter) I conceded and let him have the game anyways. I mean, with luck like that, he deserved it.