I prefer Exalted as you can use her with Ancient Tomb to cast her morphed on turn two and then unmorph on turn three on the attack where as Baneslayer takes a lot longer to get into play.
They put up 64-man drafts for Urza's. A small something, to be sure, but something none-the-less.
I think there are other considerations that aren't really listed in the communication from WOTC. Namely, that they can only keep people excited with releases for so long, and it can't be constant. Look around... people are just now getting into the excitement of RoE - even though it's a paper release. Roe official spoilers start on the 18th. That sort of stuff hampers efforts, to make the release last longer. If the pushed Urza's release for another week, that would run right into it.
That being said, I honestly think that it probably wouldn't hurt to go right into it. At least not for popular sets like Urza's. It should have been that way for Exodus too - the eternal crowd loved that set - I have no idea why so many other people seemed to not like it.
Im hoping the high end ones drop a bit more than they have...right now they seem still ridiculous. On the other hand the low end ones are about where they will be till next season.
Hi, and thank you for commenting and your take on allies. It's much appreciated.
The first thing I notice about your deck is the maindeck day of judgement. While it's a great sideboard card against other aggressive strategies, I wouldn't run it maindeck. The second thing that I've noticed was the lack of unfair allies. Talus paladin and Kabira evangel are considered the unfair ones. You play 4 of them in any build, no matter what.
Furthermore Day of Judgment and ancient ziggurat don't mix very well. You often increase the cost of your day of judgment to 5 or 6 mana.
11 cards come in against jund after sideboarding, but what do you cut?
countermagic could be sweet, but most of the time, you'll tap out.
You have to be very careful in avoiding these traps when building your deck.
I hope this helps a bit. Keep up the good work !
Yeah, I'm glad I found a girl who likes me and puts up with my habit. I started playing MTGO after we were married, though, so she likes to say that I lied to her about all my possible vices.
When people leave, all it takes is a "sorry, gotta go" or a heads up to a partner. Real simple, and can make a difference.
I think because I was focused on the Soldier theme, I just completely forgot about the Battle Axe. That's a good call. I like it better than Hall of the Bandit Lord, because restrictive lands always mess with my head when making mulligan decisions.
You are right, there is definitely some room for more utility lands. When I first made the deck, I was trying to make it "budget" and stick close to just using basic lands. Obviously I got away from that idea, but didn't do much with the lands.
a lot of the best angels are far from cheap esp the ones at relatively low cc, Baneslayer is just the top of the list, tho I'm surprised to see the low value on Exalted
As always, I enjoyed the article. I have a question for you economic minded types. I'm considering picking up Ravnica duals over the next few months. Is this a decent time to buy, or should I wait for lower prices to come?
Yeah we have had a pretty big increase in sales with all the new players which makes it harder to keep everything in stock. We have however started restocking twice daily now and we also opened a 5th bot(mtgotradersbot3) to help out.
The Tortured Zombies deck is pretty interesting. I gave it a spin in a couple of solo games yesterday, and the thing that occurred to me is that it could use one or more sacrifice effects to reuse Grave Scrabbler, most likely either Carrion Feeder or Gutless Ghoul, as both are zombies themselves. I have yet to try it in a game, but I will likely give Carrion Feeder a try in that slot.
I just can't justify paying nix pax MVW.. only because the format is so incredibly lame and really there is like 5 money cards in the whole block (Vamp Tutor, LED, Dreadnaught.. after that what.. Abeyance? other uncommon tutors?)
I just wish every month for 2 weeks they'd feature a different "old set" so you can buy it in the store and have "events" for them all week.. maybe that is what we'll get to one day.
Personally, I've had the same problems trying to get random Zendikar stuff too.. it seems they have been getting really really low stock (at least compared to what I was used to seeing a few months ago..*shrug*) But I have a feeling it is due to increased player base and demand for the game more than anything else.
Best part of the article and its so true for all of us nerds who actually has a girl that actually consents to sex with us and a family. I do agree that you should say something before you go, regardless or at least finish a round, if in the middle, sometimes that can help a partner in 2hg or 3hg, like Wrath of God or Stroke of Genius before you go.
"As a matter of fact, my unscientific research (meaning I'm completely making this up, but it feels right) found that about half of games I have played have had someone drop for one reason or another. I know that I've had to bail on games in the past, with reasons being anything from kids having nightmares, kids falling and splitting their head on the ground bleeding all over the place, kids yanking a modem out of the wall, kids beating the hell out of each other, kids pulling off their diapers and trying to pee pretty designs onto the wall. Yup, about 90% of the time I drop because of my kids. The remaining 10% of the time, I've had to drop due to connection issues, and then there is the rare instance when the wife comes into the room and asks, "Are we gonna do it, or what?" Sorry boys, MTGO loses out on that one every time."
Treefolks have plenty of momentum going for them, they don't need a lackey affect. Giants could use some more interesting cards but I still would rather see something that made use of their giant size rather than have a lackey effect.
I prefer Exalted as you can use her with Ancient Tomb to cast her morphed on turn two and then unmorph on turn three on the attack where as Baneslayer takes a lot longer to get into play.
The reason Exalted Angel is so cheap is because she has rotated out of Extended into the black void of Classic/Legacy.
very well done article. keep them coming. graphics are perfect. info is awesome.
They put up 64-man drafts for Urza's. A small something, to be sure, but something none-the-less.
I think there are other considerations that aren't really listed in the communication from WOTC. Namely, that they can only keep people excited with releases for so long, and it can't be constant. Look around... people are just now getting into the excitement of RoE - even though it's a paper release. Roe official spoilers start on the 18th. That sort of stuff hampers efforts, to make the release last longer. If the pushed Urza's release for another week, that would run right into it.
That being said, I honestly think that it probably wouldn't hurt to go right into it. At least not for popular sets like Urza's. It should have been that way for Exodus too - the eternal crowd loved that set - I have no idea why so many other people seemed to not like it.
Im hoping the high end ones drop a bit more than they have...right now they seem still ridiculous. On the other hand the low end ones are about where they will be till next season.
Hi, and thank you for commenting and your take on allies. It's much appreciated.
The first thing I notice about your deck is the maindeck day of judgement. While it's a great sideboard card against other aggressive strategies, I wouldn't run it maindeck. The second thing that I've noticed was the lack of unfair allies. Talus paladin and Kabira evangel are considered the unfair ones. You play 4 of them in any build, no matter what.
Furthermore Day of Judgment and ancient ziggurat don't mix very well. You often increase the cost of your day of judgment to 5 or 6 mana.
11 cards come in against jund after sideboarding, but what do you cut?
countermagic could be sweet, but most of the time, you'll tap out.
You have to be very careful in avoiding these traps when building your deck.
I hope this helps a bit. Keep up the good work !
Yeah, I'm glad I found a girl who likes me and puts up with my habit. I started playing MTGO after we were married, though, so she likes to say that I lied to her about all my possible vices.
When people leave, all it takes is a "sorry, gotta go" or a heads up to a partner. Real simple, and can make a difference.
Thanks for the comment!
I think because I was focused on the Soldier theme, I just completely forgot about the Battle Axe. That's a good call. I like it better than Hall of the Bandit Lord, because restrictive lands always mess with my head when making mulligan decisions.
You are right, there is definitely some room for more utility lands. When I first made the deck, I was trying to make it "budget" and stick close to just using basic lands. Obviously I got away from that idea, but didn't do much with the lands.
Thanks for the suggestions!
a lot of the best angels are far from cheap esp the ones at relatively low cc, Baneslayer is just the top of the list, tho I'm surprised to see the low value on Exalted
As always, I enjoyed the article. I have a question for you economic minded types. I'm considering picking up Ravnica duals over the next few months. Is this a decent time to buy, or should I wait for lower prices to come?
Awesome article, I am very much looking forward to the next article.
I do find quite often that I prefer the older art from Tempest - Urza days to some of the new stuff, glad to see these articles back again
http://social.bioware.com/brc/1693876
yep cool when I checked early this morning there were 0
Actually, MVW is one of the best, for top end rares, of ANY set you could draft (prices from last week's article):
http://puremtgo.com/articles/state-program-april-2nd-2010
Lion's Eye Diamond, 60. Rare
Null Rod, 41. Rare
Vampiric Tutor, 38. Rare
Natural Order, 36. Rare
Phyrexian Dreadnought, 26. Rare
Undiscovered Paradise, 16. Rare
Abeyance, 14. Rare
Enlightened Tutor, 10.5. Uncommon
Lotus Vale, 8.5. Rare
Tithe, 8. Rare
Firestorm, 7. Rare
Anvil of Bogardan, 6. Rare
Mana Web, 5.5. Rare
Serenity, 5. Rare
Mystical Tutor, 4.75. Uncommon
Doomsday, 4.5. Rare
Goblin Bomb, 4. Rare
Crypt Rats, 4. Common
Flash, 4. Rare
Worldly Tutor, 3.5. Uncommon
The Tortured Zombies deck is pretty interesting. I gave it a spin in a couple of solo games yesterday, and the thing that occurred to me is that it could use one or more sacrifice effects to reuse Grave Scrabbler, most likely either Carrion Feeder or Gutless Ghoul, as both are zombies themselves. I have yet to try it in a game, but I will likely give Carrion Feeder a try in that slot.
http://social.bioware.com/brc/1693876
I just can't justify paying nix pax MVW.. only because the format is so incredibly lame and really there is like 5 money cards in the whole block (Vamp Tutor, LED, Dreadnaught.. after that what.. Abeyance? other uncommon tutors?)
I just wish every month for 2 weeks they'd feature a different "old set" so you can buy it in the store and have "events" for them all week.. maybe that is what we'll get to one day.
Personally, I've had the same problems trying to get random Zendikar stuff too.. it seems they have been getting really really low stock (at least compared to what I was used to seeing a few months ago..*shrug*) But I have a feeling it is due to increased player base and demand for the game more than anything else.
Best part of the article and its so true for all of us nerds who actually has a girl that actually consents to sex with us and a family. I do agree that you should say something before you go, regardless or at least finish a round, if in the middle, sometimes that can help a partner in 2hg or 3hg, like Wrath of God or Stroke of Genius before you go.
"As a matter of fact, my unscientific research (meaning I'm completely making this up, but it feels right) found that about half of games I have played have had someone drop for one reason or another. I know that I've had to bail on games in the past, with reasons being anything from kids having nightmares, kids falling and splitting their head on the ground bleeding all over the place, kids yanking a modem out of the wall, kids beating the hell out of each other, kids pulling off their diapers and trying to pee pretty designs onto the wall. Yup, about 90% of the time I drop because of my kids. The remaining 10% of the time, I've had to drop due to connection issues, and then there is the rare instance when the wife comes into the room and asks, "Are we gonna do it, or what?" Sorry boys, MTGO loses out on that one every time."
Treefolks have plenty of momentum going for them, they don't need a lackey affect. Giants could use some more interesting cards but I still would rather see something that made use of their giant size rather than have a lackey effect.
Thanks for the suggestions I will try them all.