Speaking of Boom Zoo, BDM has a fairly funny article on the mothership that is partially a send up interview with Bloodbraid Elf. A must read.
I have to say I did not enjoy Urza's in the beta. Without disclosing any details about it, the way they set up drafts is really unfun. But I think part of that is the realization that I really did not enjoy Urza's Saga in limited the first time around. I was much fonder of TSE and Masques. The one really great thing that came out of Urza's block limited for me was the Cycling mechanic. What a neat way to add cantrips to cards that made sense across the board without forcing you to cast the cards. This was definitely a great strategy in limited Urza's because if you wanted a sideboardish card in your main build you could include it as #23. (Hush, Lay Waste, and the RoPs all come to mind here.)
I have to say I missed AJ's presence here, hope his wife had a lot of fun with him.
"Blightning is simply the best card in standard right now"
Really?
Not Bloodbraid Elf. Or Baneslayer Angel. Or Jace the Mindsculptor. Or Path to Exile. Or Lightning Bolt. Or Knight of the Reliquary.
Really.
If your playskill and deck critique abilities are on par with your ability to evaluate cards in a format, you should probably look for a simpler game to play.
Yeah well I for one would be interested to see what brokeness lurked beneath your cool exterior. But I think it is better as a monthly challenge. with other weeks serving as normal events. That way we have 3 extra weeks to match your brilliance with our perhaps more workmanlike and less creative building skills.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to sideboard for the Naya matchup? That one looks like it would be pretty tough with Ranger of Eos grabbing guys for the behemoth sledge...
Innovation is a personal choice: If there were weekly changing build restrictions people would get sick and tired of me exploiting them to the best of my ability.
I can't make many tournaments, a kid and a house and a wedding to plan and all that jazz, but I was at this tournament and ran what I thought was a pretty good deck that went 2-1. My first game was being killed by one of those 20/x Fairies on turn 3 or 4. And me without a swords to plowshares in my hand.
My 2 cents is that if a less competitive tournament is wanted, players (especially the regulars) should play less competitive decks. That way if I get blown away in round 1, I'll probably play another loser in round 2. Someone that should be more my power level. When everyone plays super decks if you are playing a lesser deck you will be blown out in all three rounds. I'll be more likely to join a tournament again if I get blown out 1 round and have 2 fun. I probably won't if I get blown out all three.
I have to say that I have more fun playing tribal classic in the casual room than in the tournament. I find more innovation there. I may run into the occasional elf or goblin, but since it's not 2 out of 3, it's one and done, you get beat and move on to another opponent (if you can find one).
I still think the way to go is to have weekly changing build restrictions. I think that is the only way you will have innovation.
I'll try to pay closer attention. Had I known they were coming out on the same day I would have talked a bit about that article in this one, but I was just really busy working all weekend.
I don't think anyone is complaining, it just brings in to question the sincerity of the article when we read opposing thoughts posted on the same day on two different sites. Kind of "which one is his real opinion?" sort of thing.
My recommendation is to keep doing what you're doing, but in this example you could have talked about the other version more in this article (since it is more recent) to try and put things in a better perspective for the readers.
Know what would be great? Putting a link to your PRE tournament description. I hear you have a special banned list? Where is that? I could probably use the search function on this website and eventually find it... but I'm lazy (thus anonymous).
Make it easy. Post a link in every article (if your goal is to grow your tourney)
The cool thing about ruinblaster is its easier to cast if u just wanna push dmg, sometimes you will have situations where you have a hasted ghast coming back and they didnt leave enough men back for 2 hasties. Also the fact that it can carry a basilisk collar is great. Naya is already a strong enough matchup that the amount you would gain vs reliquary with terrain outweighs the utility ruinblaster has across the board in multiple matchups.
My opinions of things change at a rapid pace. I will likely play one of the two decks at the Grand Prix this weekend, and testing in the next few days will make my decision or me. As of late, the online metagame has shifted more towards Scapeshift and random combo decks, which makes DDT much better than pure Thopter, since it is just faster.
If anything, I am giving you guys more up-to-date content than SCG, so I really have no idea what you are complaining about. IF I had written an article about the SAME deck for both sites, you guys would have called me out for it. What do you actually want me to do?
I hate to say it... tribal classic is just not a good format. I loved it for a long long time. But that was before classic had the depth in the pool. At this point you are trying to run a no-sideboard casual classic tournament that happens to require some themed creatures.
Your problem is that 'casual classic' has no consensus definition. You have unknowingly(?) started the journey down a path with no end. More has been written on what is casual than on how bad v3 is setup.
So, I've enjoyed reading your reports and hope you don't stop your event. I have little hope the frustration of power differences will ever fade... this is classic format and the range of 'casual' is massive.
Although... I like the idea of banning the prior weeks top 2-4 tribes... just to see a different tribe on top every week. best of luck
have you considered Roiling Terrain in the SB instead of Goblin Ruinblaster? From your discussion of why you include it, it seems equivalent in terms of casting cost and potentially capable of dealing more damage in one shot than a 2/2 with haste. The card seems almost two have printed at that cost at common to punish people overplaying fetchlands and Knight of the Reliquary.
have you considered Roiling Terrain in the SB instead of Goblin Ruinblaster. From your discussion of why you include it, it seems equivalent in terms of casting cost and potentially capable of dealing more damage in one shot than a 2/2 with haste. The card seems almost two have printed at that cost at common to punish people overplaying fetchlands and Knight of the Reliquary.
Nice article/videos aaron. Originally I dind't build the deck with budget in mind the fact that it is cheap is just gravy.
As Ryan said we did move more towards your sb plan towards the end of the tournament. When testing originally on modo we didn't see many stags out of the jund board. The bolt's are definitely better than terminates if they have stag as with the ld package u can keep them off of 6 mana for broodmate anyway and terminate/bolt are both good vs siege gang. The slave of bolas is excellent vs thrinax which as u noticed is the main problem in the matchup. When you sac it at end of turn you get the tokens not the jund player as someone pointed out. From the original list I'd recommend siding out the 3 black knight 1 blood ghast 2 basalisk collar 2 swamp 4 terminate for 4 ruinblaster 4 tectonic edge 3 quake 1 slave of bolas.
another reason i believe are system limitations. For some reason I do not think MTGO as a program possesses the necessary code to check the legality of a deck after sideboarding since even post-sideboard the deck would still need to contain 33% of a specific creature type.
Keep in mind that Tribal Wars Classic is not a new format. The concept is a player driven one and was developed over time through trial and error. The format that WotC adopted was the one honed through PRES by players who felt the spirit of the format should be different than Classic and other formats. I agree that it is a handicap but the idea of formats like this is to build within a stricture knowing that the difficulty is changed quite a bit by the strictures. Similar to runners wearing weights and exercisers using resistance. The lack of a sideboard means that your whole meta must be accounted for in the main deck. Tough to do and really tough when the meta is as fluid as it seems online. Dumb? Well I guess. Some people would say playing White Weenie is dumb. Or goblins or RDW or Jund etc. To each their own eh?
But it's the author's responsibility to keep internally and stylistically consistent, and not the editor's - it's really not too big of a deal at all, but for an author admittedly still trying to find his voice (and one who has turned in, ahem, 'questionably similar' content between the two sites in the past), it's probably something to avoid in the future.
I don't think it should affect the validity of the content of the articles though.
I don't think Jund can currently make it in pauper. Tricolor with no rarelands is just slow and inconsistent, and the only awesome "Jund" card that you get to keep is Blightning. Even Terminate loses its greatness when the fattest target on the board is Mogg Flunkies.
I keep remembering things as I watch the videos. In r4g3 you say that Sign in Blood isn't that great on the draw but a cute play that you probably figured out is that it's great to sign on turn two if you're able to discard a bloodghast as a result of having 8 cards at eot.
One more thing I forgot until I watched all your videos. With reference to r3g3 when you blightning on turn 3 and he negates it. Against uw control you almost always want to save your blightnings for Jace. Unless they only have 2 cards left. Also I believe you blightninged in r3g1 the turn before he cast Jace. Blightning on a Jace is pretty backbreaking, especially when they tap out to play him and bounce a dork.
Speaking of Boom Zoo, BDM has a fairly funny article on the mothership that is partially a send up interview with Bloodbraid Elf. A must read.
I have to say I did not enjoy Urza's in the beta. Without disclosing any details about it, the way they set up drafts is really unfun. But I think part of that is the realization that I really did not enjoy Urza's Saga in limited the first time around. I was much fonder of TSE and Masques. The one really great thing that came out of Urza's block limited for me was the Cycling mechanic. What a neat way to add cantrips to cards that made sense across the board without forcing you to cast the cards. This was definitely a great strategy in limited Urza's because if you wanted a sideboardish card in your main build you could include it as #23. (Hush, Lay Waste, and the RoPs all come to mind here.)
I have to say I missed AJ's presence here, hope his wife had a lot of fun with him.
hobble - bad bc kor skyfisher, 3CC to slow, and vs goblins: mogg raider effects + too slow... efficiency is key
"Blightning is simply the best card in standard right now"
Really?
Not Bloodbraid Elf. Or Baneslayer Angel. Or Jace the Mindsculptor. Or Path to Exile. Or Lightning Bolt. Or Knight of the Reliquary.
Really.
If your playskill and deck critique abilities are on par with your ability to evaluate cards in a format, you should probably look for a simpler game to play.
Yeah well I for one would be interested to see what brokeness lurked beneath your cool exterior. But I think it is better as a monthly challenge. with other weeks serving as normal events. That way we have 3 extra weeks to match your brilliance with our perhaps more workmanlike and less creative building skills.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to sideboard for the Naya matchup? That one looks like it would be pretty tough with Ranger of Eos grabbing guys for the behemoth sledge...
Innovation is a personal choice: If there were weekly changing build restrictions people would get sick and tired of me exploiting them to the best of my ability.
I can't make many tournaments, a kid and a house and a wedding to plan and all that jazz, but I was at this tournament and ran what I thought was a pretty good deck that went 2-1. My first game was being killed by one of those 20/x Fairies on turn 3 or 4. And me without a swords to plowshares in my hand.
My 2 cents is that if a less competitive tournament is wanted, players (especially the regulars) should play less competitive decks. That way if I get blown away in round 1, I'll probably play another loser in round 2. Someone that should be more my power level. When everyone plays super decks if you are playing a lesser deck you will be blown out in all three rounds. I'll be more likely to join a tournament again if I get blown out 1 round and have 2 fun. I probably won't if I get blown out all three.
I have to say that I have more fun playing tribal classic in the casual room than in the tournament. I find more innovation there. I may run into the occasional elf or goblin, but since it's not 2 out of 3, it's one and done, you get beat and move on to another opponent (if you can find one).
I still think the way to go is to have weekly changing build restrictions. I think that is the only way you will have innovation.
Thanks! That really brightens up my spritis. =)
I'll try to pay closer attention. Had I known they were coming out on the same day I would have talked a bit about that article in this one, but I was just really busy working all weekend.
meant to say doesn't outweigh the utility of the ruinblaster
I don't think anyone is complaining, it just brings in to question the sincerity of the article when we read opposing thoughts posted on the same day on two different sites. Kind of "which one is his real opinion?" sort of thing.
My recommendation is to keep doing what you're doing, but in this example you could have talked about the other version more in this article (since it is more recent) to try and put things in a better perspective for the readers.
I would say excellent work overall.
Know what would be great? Putting a link to your PRE tournament description. I hear you have a special banned list? Where is that? I could probably use the search function on this website and eventually find it... but I'm lazy (thus anonymous).
Make it easy. Post a link in every article (if your goal is to grow your tourney)
The cool thing about ruinblaster is its easier to cast if u just wanna push dmg, sometimes you will have situations where you have a hasted ghast coming back and they didnt leave enough men back for 2 hasties. Also the fact that it can carry a basilisk collar is great. Naya is already a strong enough matchup that the amount you would gain vs reliquary with terrain outweighs the utility ruinblaster has across the board in multiple matchups.
My opinions of things change at a rapid pace. I will likely play one of the two decks at the Grand Prix this weekend, and testing in the next few days will make my decision or me. As of late, the online metagame has shifted more towards Scapeshift and random combo decks, which makes DDT much better than pure Thopter, since it is just faster.
If anything, I am giving you guys more up-to-date content than SCG, so I really have no idea what you are complaining about. IF I had written an article about the SAME deck for both sites, you guys would have called me out for it. What do you actually want me to do?
I hate to say it... tribal classic is just not a good format. I loved it for a long long time. But that was before classic had the depth in the pool. At this point you are trying to run a no-sideboard casual classic tournament that happens to require some themed creatures.
Your problem is that 'casual classic' has no consensus definition. You have unknowingly(?) started the journey down a path with no end. More has been written on what is casual than on how bad v3 is setup.
So, I've enjoyed reading your reports and hope you don't stop your event. I have little hope the frustration of power differences will ever fade... this is classic format and the range of 'casual' is massive.
Although... I like the idea of banning the prior weeks top 2-4 tribes... just to see a different tribe on top every week. best of luck
Anony- mouse
Your tribe will be Elder.
have you considered Roiling Terrain in the SB instead of Goblin Ruinblaster? From your discussion of why you include it, it seems equivalent in terms of casting cost and potentially capable of dealing more damage in one shot than a 2/2 with haste. The card seems almost two have printed at that cost at common to punish people overplaying fetchlands and Knight of the Reliquary.
have you considered Roiling Terrain in the SB instead of Goblin Ruinblaster. From your discussion of why you include it, it seems equivalent in terms of casting cost and potentially capable of dealing more damage in one shot than a 2/2 with haste. The card seems almost two have printed at that cost at common to punish people overplaying fetchlands and Knight of the Reliquary.
Nice article/videos aaron. Originally I dind't build the deck with budget in mind the fact that it is cheap is just gravy.
As Ryan said we did move more towards your sb plan towards the end of the tournament. When testing originally on modo we didn't see many stags out of the jund board. The bolt's are definitely better than terminates if they have stag as with the ld package u can keep them off of 6 mana for broodmate anyway and terminate/bolt are both good vs siege gang. The slave of bolas is excellent vs thrinax which as u noticed is the main problem in the matchup. When you sac it at end of turn you get the tokens not the jund player as someone pointed out. From the original list I'd recommend siding out the 3 black knight 1 blood ghast 2 basalisk collar 2 swamp 4 terminate for 4 ruinblaster 4 tectonic edge 3 quake 1 slave of bolas.
another reason i believe are system limitations. For some reason I do not think MTGO as a program possesses the necessary code to check the legality of a deck after sideboarding since even post-sideboard the deck would still need to contain 33% of a specific creature type.
Keep in mind that Tribal Wars Classic is not a new format. The concept is a player driven one and was developed over time through trial and error. The format that WotC adopted was the one honed through PRES by players who felt the spirit of the format should be different than Classic and other formats. I agree that it is a handicap but the idea of formats like this is to build within a stricture knowing that the difficulty is changed quite a bit by the strictures. Similar to runners wearing weights and exercisers using resistance. The lack of a sideboard means that your whole meta must be accounted for in the main deck. Tough to do and really tough when the meta is as fluid as it seems online. Dumb? Well I guess. Some people would say playing White Weenie is dumb. Or goblins or RDW or Jund etc. To each their own eh?
But it's the author's responsibility to keep internally and stylistically consistent, and not the editor's - it's really not too big of a deal at all, but for an author admittedly still trying to find his voice (and one who has turned in, ahem, 'questionably similar' content between the two sites in the past), it's probably something to avoid in the future.
I don't think it should affect the validity of the content of the articles though.
That sounds dumb. Why would WOTC do that?
I don't think Jund can currently make it in pauper. Tricolor with no rarelands is just slow and inconsistent, and the only awesome "Jund" card that you get to keep is Blightning. Even Terminate loses its greatness when the fattest target on the board is Mogg Flunkies.
I keep remembering things as I watch the videos. In r4g3 you say that Sign in Blood isn't that great on the draw but a cute play that you probably figured out is that it's great to sign on turn two if you're able to discard a bloodghast as a result of having 8 cards at eot.
One more thing I forgot until I watched all your videos. With reference to r3g3 when you blightning on turn 3 and he negates it. Against uw control you almost always want to save your blightnings for Jace. Unless they only have 2 cards left. Also I believe you blightninged in r3g1 the turn before he cast Jace. Blightning on a Jace is pretty backbreaking, especially when they tap out to play him and bounce a dork.