In what situations would the Ondu Clerics come in from the board? White Weenie perhaps? I'm just wondering if there's room to tweak them out of the board or not.
From what I understand, the absurd part is, this is a real petition. Clearly most of you have gotten the joke by now, and for anyone confused, I will stand by the writers on this site until I am no longer a part of it.
Yeah, if push-comes-to-shove, I do Raven's Crime myself to the Cruel into the GY. Not really my favorite move, but sometimes you just have to do it to pull off the combo.
Since I wasn't playing when Saga came out, I've been waiting for someone to do a set review. Thanks for this one. Of course, I could always use a review for EDH too...
Thanks for your suggestions. Remand would be awesome. Marsh Flitter is pretty out of place which should make an easy switch to Remand. Thanks again for the comment
I completely agree that Tolarian Academy should not be banned. This one is not even close, and in fact I'm somewhat angry that this card has been insti-banned. This has clearly not been thought out well, and it is the latest example of the 100CS banned list being ignored or glossed over.
There is no tournament worthy artifact deck that can abuse Tolarian Academy. Believe me, I've tried and tried in vain to create one, with significant help from a few of the format's best players, and the deck does not exist. Any way you make it, it's just too inconsistent. If you don't believe me, look in the tournament archives and see how many times Glimmervoid shows up in top 8 decks. Answer: once, when I lucked into 8th place with a 3-2 record with an artifact-heavy deck. Just about any 100CS deck that can abuse Tolarian Academy would run Glimmervoid, would it not? The deck just doesn't exist in 100CS. But even if the possibility of such a deck existed, that would be a GOOD thing unless it's such a degenerately powerful deck that it warps the format. But... such a degenerate deck *does not exist.* The closest you could come to degenerate is a deck that gets its combo cards and wins quickly a small percentage of the time. The rest of the time it's an inconsistent deck that's bad against both aggro and control. Banning Tolarian Academy without giving artifact nerds like me any chance at playing with it just makes me angry. 100CS is not the same as the 4X formats, so you can't assume that cards that are powerful in Classic will also be overpowering in 100CS (See: Flash).
Think of it this way. Creating a combo deck that features Tolarian Academy would be roughly as powerful as a deck that uses Cabal Coffers to life drain you to death, and I think 100CS players are aware of just how powerful that deck is. (If I'm not mistaken, Cabal Coffers has also only been in one top 8 deck list)
By the way, it is easy to cripple an artifact deck with hate cards. Blow up their mana and other artifacts, and all of a sudden they're hosed. Shatterspree, Shatterstorm, Ancient Grudge, Kataki, Fracturing Gust, etc. The availability of lots of good artifact hate means that even if an artifact deck did get good, it wouldn't ever dominate. It's just too fragile and easy to hose.
If it has already been decided that a) we get Moxen in MED4 and b) they will not be banned in 100CS, and c) Tolarian Academy is too powerful with the Moxen, then I can live with that logic. I doubt that this is the case, though.
If you own all the other cards you could replace Tarmo with Kitchen Finks. You could even change the list to more rockish and include cabal therapy to exploit the finks. Quirion Dryad is also a decent option and at 67 cents is slightly cheaper than tarmogoyf lol. Thanks for the comments Justsin and again sorry to anyone who was offended about the political comment.
Despite the mention of politics I think it was a good read, I like the idea of combining NO and Stone in one deck, you tend to see it happen quite often in Legacy where a deck may use CounterTop in addition to another combo esp. with the Dark Depths ones I've encountered. I'd love to give the deck a run through, but I can never bring myself to spending so much money on finishing my set of Tarmos... it's one of those things every green deck (and even non-green decks) use them so you almost have to have them, but I cannot justify 55 per
"To me the biggest puzzle is sideboarding. Not only because I think a lot what to bring in and what to take out, but also because I think a lot about what they will bring in and what they will take out. I admit that most of my 1-2 losses happen due to my poor sideboarding."
I'm one of those people in the same boat, I find when sideboarding I tend to over think or mistakenly take out something important to find room
fantastic article, I always look forward the them, but the addition of US breakdown was great, Im def one of those players who stocks up for 100cs first before any other format and you made mention of some things in US that I hadn't even considered yet
one thing tho wouldnt the use of drake + brooding not work since the brooding would return the creature you took with the drake? I mean I guess it still means a 3/3 for 2, but I think the option of brand is much better
To me the biggest puzzle is sideboarding. Not only because I think a lot what to bring in and what to take out, but also because I think a lot about what they will bring in and what they will take out. I admit that most of my 1-2 losses happen due to my poor sideboarding.
I am surprised NOT to see a rise in the Summoning Trap Block decks. There are so many nice fatties one might bring in with that trap while some midrange creatures such as Emeria Angel hold the ground (or the sky) until you mana ramp to six or higher. WU Control should think twice before countering a creature you play and Aggro should always fear your Day of Judgments and Journey to Nowheres. I'm surely missing something but I wonder what that is.
I enjoyed reading this and it was organized well. However, in the future it might be better to just focus on the premier event results rather than the pdc events as well. The pdc events are really awesome but the top 8 results don't usually match up with what's actually being played in 2 man ques and weekend events. As an example, looking at these results someone just starting pauper would assume that r/u control is a popular deck that makes top finishes all the time, but in reality it's very close to a rogue deck and hasn't made a top 8 outside of that one pe. This isn't to say that the r/u control deck is bad, because I think it actually seems really good, it's just that the deck is pretty rarely played. Nice article though.
The purpose of banning cards should be to prevent games from becoming "whoever gets card X first wins". That was roughly what happened when skullclamp was in the format. Of course, while some control decks didn't play skullclamp, any deck with a good number of creatures ran it.
If moxes are allowed in the format, games might degenerate into "who has the most moxes" kind of games... which is probably why they would be preemptively banned in the format. That's understandable.
Of course, I don't call the shots so I can't say that my 1st statement is true.
From what I observe, the bannings are currently done in a way that steer decks towards being more creature based and less combo based or more "fair". I do think some of it is excessive though...
i assume rdw would really call for the clerics
In what situations would the Ondu Clerics come in from the board? White Weenie perhaps? I'm just wondering if there's room to tweak them out of the board or not.
thanks
Take care guys. Have fun.
Well, to be fair we have a lot of those in common. :D
Thanks. ;)
I don't really begrudge my husband's MTGO habit. He tolerates my own geeky addictions, so I pretty much have to tolerate his by default.
From what I understand, the absurd part is, this is a real petition. Clearly most of you have gotten the joke by now, and for anyone confused, I will stand by the writers on this site until I am no longer a part of it.
Happy April Fools!
Yeah, if push-comes-to-shove, I do Raven's Crime myself to the Cruel into the GY. Not really my favorite move, but sometimes you just have to do it to pull off the combo.
The comment from Susan is classic.
If only our wives understood the true magnitude of this addiction we call MTGO.
Up to 10 signatures now, watch out guys!
So may I ask why that deck is called 'je moeder.dec'? Is that because she's an angel and a demon :|
Since I wasn't playing when Saga came out, I've been waiting for someone to do a set review. Thanks for this one. Of course, I could always use a review for EDH too...
A solid 0 out of 10 on funny. Stick with what you guys do.
Thanks for your suggestions. Remand would be awesome. Marsh Flitter is pretty out of place which should make an easy switch to Remand. Thanks again for the comment
I was going to write in until I saw the comments. I thought I missed something HUGE! Love the article, although you were short on this weeks.
I completely agree that Tolarian Academy should not be banned. This one is not even close, and in fact I'm somewhat angry that this card has been insti-banned. This has clearly not been thought out well, and it is the latest example of the 100CS banned list being ignored or glossed over.
There is no tournament worthy artifact deck that can abuse Tolarian Academy. Believe me, I've tried and tried in vain to create one, with significant help from a few of the format's best players, and the deck does not exist. Any way you make it, it's just too inconsistent. If you don't believe me, look in the tournament archives and see how many times Glimmervoid shows up in top 8 decks. Answer: once, when I lucked into 8th place with a 3-2 record with an artifact-heavy deck. Just about any 100CS deck that can abuse Tolarian Academy would run Glimmervoid, would it not? The deck just doesn't exist in 100CS. But even if the possibility of such a deck existed, that would be a GOOD thing unless it's such a degenerately powerful deck that it warps the format. But... such a degenerate deck *does not exist.* The closest you could come to degenerate is a deck that gets its combo cards and wins quickly a small percentage of the time. The rest of the time it's an inconsistent deck that's bad against both aggro and control. Banning Tolarian Academy without giving artifact nerds like me any chance at playing with it just makes me angry. 100CS is not the same as the 4X formats, so you can't assume that cards that are powerful in Classic will also be overpowering in 100CS (See: Flash).
Think of it this way. Creating a combo deck that features Tolarian Academy would be roughly as powerful as a deck that uses Cabal Coffers to life drain you to death, and I think 100CS players are aware of just how powerful that deck is. (If I'm not mistaken, Cabal Coffers has also only been in one top 8 deck list)
By the way, it is easy to cripple an artifact deck with hate cards. Blow up their mana and other artifacts, and all of a sudden they're hosed. Shatterspree, Shatterstorm, Ancient Grudge, Kataki, Fracturing Gust, etc. The availability of lots of good artifact hate means that even if an artifact deck did get good, it wouldn't ever dominate. It's just too fragile and easy to hose.
If it has already been decided that a) we get Moxen in MED4 and b) they will not be banned in 100CS, and c) Tolarian Academy is too powerful with the Moxen, then I can live with that logic. I doubt that this is the case, though.
lol @ 8 signatures that's classic
can we get some less obvious April's fool pranks.... that petition would have that anonymous guy on there like 400 times
Maybe now we will have more room for the better articles. Adios Amigos!
If you own all the other cards you could replace Tarmo with Kitchen Finks. You could even change the list to more rockish and include cabal therapy to exploit the finks. Quirion Dryad is also a decent option and at 67 cents is slightly cheaper than tarmogoyf lol. Thanks for the comments Justsin and again sorry to anyone who was offended about the political comment.
Despite the mention of politics I think it was a good read, I like the idea of combining NO and Stone in one deck, you tend to see it happen quite often in Legacy where a deck may use CounterTop in addition to another combo esp. with the Dark Depths ones I've encountered. I'd love to give the deck a run through, but I can never bring myself to spending so much money on finishing my set of Tarmos... it's one of those things every green deck (and even non-green decks) use them so you almost have to have them, but I cannot justify 55 per
"To me the biggest puzzle is sideboarding. Not only because I think a lot what to bring in and what to take out, but also because I think a lot about what they will bring in and what they will take out. I admit that most of my 1-2 losses happen due to my poor sideboarding."
I'm one of those people in the same boat, I find when sideboarding I tend to over think or mistakenly take out something important to find room
fantastic article, I always look forward the them, but the addition of US breakdown was great, Im def one of those players who stocks up for 100cs first before any other format and you made mention of some things in US that I hadn't even considered yet
one thing tho wouldnt the use of drake + brooding not work since the brooding would return the creature you took with the drake? I mean I guess it still means a 3/3 for 2, but I think the option of brand is much better
Nice article.
To me the biggest puzzle is sideboarding. Not only because I think a lot what to bring in and what to take out, but also because I think a lot about what they will bring in and what they will take out. I admit that most of my 1-2 losses happen due to my poor sideboarding.
I am surprised NOT to see a rise in the Summoning Trap Block decks. There are so many nice fatties one might bring in with that trap while some midrange creatures such as Emeria Angel hold the ground (or the sky) until you mana ramp to six or higher. WU Control should think twice before countering a creature you play and Aggro should always fear your Day of Judgments and Journey to Nowheres. I'm surely missing something but I wonder what that is.
LE
I enjoyed reading this and it was organized well. However, in the future it might be better to just focus on the premier event results rather than the pdc events as well. The pdc events are really awesome but the top 8 results don't usually match up with what's actually being played in 2 man ques and weekend events. As an example, looking at these results someone just starting pauper would assume that r/u control is a popular deck that makes top finishes all the time, but in reality it's very close to a rogue deck and hasn't made a top 8 outside of that one pe. This isn't to say that the r/u control deck is bad, because I think it actually seems really good, it's just that the deck is pretty rarely played. Nice article though.
The purpose of banning cards should be to prevent games from becoming "whoever gets card X first wins". That was roughly what happened when skullclamp was in the format. Of course, while some control decks didn't play skullclamp, any deck with a good number of creatures ran it.
If moxes are allowed in the format, games might degenerate into "who has the most moxes" kind of games... which is probably why they would be preemptively banned in the format. That's understandable.
Of course, I don't call the shots so I can't say that my 1st statement is true.
From what I observe, the bannings are currently done in a way that steer decks towards being more creature based and less combo based or more "fair". I do think some of it is excessive though...
You can rename pivot column names, so you don't have to have the default "Sum of Field_Name" and "Row Labels".
Just saying...