You start this article by saying classic isn't broken, and then try to tackle what you call "myths".
Magic has many colors that are supposed to balance each other out, such that people can play any color or style deck and have a chance of winning.
It's broken if you have to limit your deck to using a few strategies and colors where anything else will get creamed in round 2 (xcuse me, round 3 if they aren't lucky enough to start with tutor to get their flash card)
I played green and completely dominated with it on DOTPW, ranking really high in that well controlled and balanced environment.
I decided to try MTGO and then classic because some of my green deck cards weren't legal in standard. I went around to the bots and started buying green cards and was amazed at all the different ones with different abilities. Some were arbitrarily expensive (especially so, since they aren't even capable of winning apparently) and others were strangely cheap.
None of the green abilities were overpowered though, even though I didn't use them for deck management reasons it was cool to see all the flash regen, reach, etc enchantments and creatures with cool abilities.
I probably spent 50 bucks creating an awesome well balanced hand.
My first game I had an amazing hand that would have creamed anything on DOTPW (pretty much do every hand by design). He creams me in like turn 2, only having 2 mana. First he casts a spell that prevents me from reacting for one of the mana. Then he exiles a creature from his hand to get it back. He uses flash (2 mana) to call proto beast, which summons three more creatures upon dying since he was too broke (on purpose) to pay the flash cost. One is a creature that hastes another creature which sacrifices his library cards until it finds a basic land, which he does not have, so it sacrifices his whole library. At this point, some creatures come into battle from his graveyard per their abilities. He then sacrifices three creatures to pay the flashback cost of a spell which lets him pick a creature from the graveyard to bring back. He then calls a trample zombie that gets strength from exiling graveyard creatures, which has haste attached from an enchant that is free to reattach to strong creatures from the graveyard. He exiles creatures till the zombie has 28 strength.
Can I figure a way around this so I can win before he does? Of course I can. Am I going to? Of course not. This is not a game at this point, it's just stupid. I want my money back for all the cards I bought.
I can't believe I completely left out flaring pain, thank for pointing that out. You better spell it right next time though or you'll get your boys chopped off by an angry mobb!
You can please some of the people all the time, and you can please all the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time. Thanks for readin guys!
Deck thinning may help, but the delay caused by terramorphic expanse runs counter to the ideas of the deck. Also bear in mind Martial Coup: It only acts as a wrath when you his seven mana. Swapping in an Onslaught painland is a possibility, or maybe a set of Flagstones of Trokair. Something that still enables you to curve out without interruption. What would you take out for Tithe?
Good question. Thematically, Restless Apparition: It's the most tenuous 'Banshee' in the deck, for all its synergy with the game plan. Banshee is suboptimal: For 4 mana, you get a 0/1 where you can spend 2 mana to emulate a shadow guildmage or 5 mana for an orcish artillery damage distribution. On the plus side it's repeatable removal, trading life and mana for dead creatures, but it's exceedingly inefficient. I'd rejig the deck to accomodate it, dropping the green, adding in Urborg tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, Loxodon Warhammer or another source of lifelink, and drop the infestations for Wayfarer's bauble.
Most of the storm decks I've seen these days are either running empty the warrens main or grapeshot + flairing pain. Any storm deck not running flairing pain is just setting itself up for a prismatic/safe passage, is it not?
Fair enough about the bat being better, but my point is more that you don't need to go to black yet for a marginal guy, because you aren't committed in any way. If you are looking to go black (which I wouldn't blame anyone for), then the bat is fine.
Completely disagree about Windstorm. There *are* that many fliers out there. The 3 best colors in the format all have playable to great fliers, and even as a 1:1, Windstorm is rock solid. And when you face the inevitable WU deck with like 10 flyers all maxing out at 4 toughness, you are *really* happy you have a Windstorm.
As was noted, Villain is the standard for going over poker hands online. It is completely accepted as the de facto way to describe the hand and has no implication on the other player.
Hero/villain is just how it's done, and it translates (like lots of things) great for going over Magic "spots" (more poker lingo). (A spot simply meaning a situation or dilemma within the game).
As a poker player myself, I for one appreciate greatly the translation as it makes it simpler for me to read and understand what is going on.
It's pretty nitty to fold just cause your villain equity is that low imo.
Flametongue Kavu is a beatstick from what I remember. It is an absolute killer vs a lot of creatures as that 4 damage kills a majority of good creatures. Volcanic Fallout is a great sweeper and is not counterable. Nevinyrral's disk is a great way for red to get rid of inconvenient enchantments/creatures with shroud. Cursed Scroll works well in a sligh red deck as it provides a repeatable (nonred) damage source that becomes good when your hand gets low in resources. No Lightning bolts or Fireballs? How 'bout Kaervek's Torch or Disintegrate? I realize some of these card selections put you into the classic realm but is that really bad since you are playing casual anyway?
nice madness deck. Fot the chandra deck i saw one major mistake (depends on when you wrote this though). Incinerate is in the deck instead of lightning bolt.
Would have taken the Tower Gargoyle P1p1. Tower Gargoyle is a bomb in itself and passing strix and capsule does not hint that esper is open. Jungle Shrine P1p1 is a complete joke
Was that constructed or limited? I have a hard time thinking that TT was ever preferable to Patrol Hound in a limited deck needing discard outlets.
There were edge cases where discard outlets were so important to an OTJ limited deck that TT was playable as an enabler if the pool was lacking superior discard outlets, but the overwhelming majority of the time you saw it T1, you were up against a beginning/less-skilled player.
That's very much like Jackal Familiar, really...there are probably some weird scenarios where a skilled player would be running it, but odds are that when you see it T1, you are up against a less-skilled player.
Ancient Grudge still gives me a card if you blow up the Chromatic Star. Most smart Storm players will save their spheres for that reason alone.
Star reads "when it's put into a graveyard, draw a card"
Sphere reads "add 1 mana of any color, draw a card"
So, by all means, let grudge be your only answer, because if that's all you're bringing, then it's gonna get ugly... for you, I mean... :P
Actually, when you check legality in the deck builder it shows up all kird apes as legal for pauper. The Promo card is common and is now released. Before it was kird ape wasn't allowed. I haven't run it in a tourney yet to test that way though.
Well, I played Tireless Tribe in my GW Madness deck and I did quite good with it. Only reason I didnt make T8 at a HUGE GP in Ohio was a play mistake in the final match of the final round. In theory he sucks but in that format he was better than the 2/2 discard for first strike guy. You needed that discard outlet in the GW deck but w/e, looking back I'd still call that card terrible even though it worked.
You have to realize that if you're planning on "publishing" an article for a widely reviewed site, the first couple of items you have to nail down are:
1. Grammar.
2. Spelling.
Anything less causes readers to discount the message you are trying to articulate in your article. Overall, it's a nice read, but if you keep these items in mind next time you'll have a much more positive response.
I would encourage you to write anyways. This is the internet where every anonymous douche can sit at home and bash whatever and whoever they like. Even the most eloquent and thought provoking writing will net a few jerks who disagree just because they can. Some writers on the site obviously have a following and don't get bashed as much but I've seen it all on here.
In the end you have to ignore the flames, take some of the criticism to heart and continue writing since it does pay off. I've wrote only 2 articles but I will say it was worth it, and it can help you build a bit of a thicker skin reading how people nit pick your article apart.
Wow, I have a couple of articles in the works but now I'm having second thoughts. After trying my hand at writing an article for here, I have a new found appreciation for all the work that goes into putting 1500+ words together and getting your point across.
If these attacks are what I can expect then I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. Constructive criticism is a wonderful thing, but an anonymous slamming is childish and cowardly.
At any rate, thanks for the nice article and for taking the time to put it together.
You start this article by saying classic isn't broken, and then try to tackle what you call "myths".
Magic has many colors that are supposed to balance each other out, such that people can play any color or style deck and have a chance of winning.
It's broken if you have to limit your deck to using a few strategies and colors where anything else will get creamed in round 2 (xcuse me, round 3 if they aren't lucky enough to start with tutor to get their flash card)
I played green and completely dominated with it on DOTPW, ranking really high in that well controlled and balanced environment.
I decided to try MTGO and then classic because some of my green deck cards weren't legal in standard. I went around to the bots and started buying green cards and was amazed at all the different ones with different abilities. Some were arbitrarily expensive (especially so, since they aren't even capable of winning apparently) and others were strangely cheap.
None of the green abilities were overpowered though, even though I didn't use them for deck management reasons it was cool to see all the flash regen, reach, etc enchantments and creatures with cool abilities.
I probably spent 50 bucks creating an awesome well balanced hand.
My first game I had an amazing hand that would have creamed anything on DOTPW (pretty much do every hand by design). He creams me in like turn 2, only having 2 mana. First he casts a spell that prevents me from reacting for one of the mana. Then he exiles a creature from his hand to get it back. He uses flash (2 mana) to call proto beast, which summons three more creatures upon dying since he was too broke (on purpose) to pay the flash cost. One is a creature that hastes another creature which sacrifices his library cards until it finds a basic land, which he does not have, so it sacrifices his whole library. At this point, some creatures come into battle from his graveyard per their abilities. He then sacrifices three creatures to pay the flashback cost of a spell which lets him pick a creature from the graveyard to bring back. He then calls a trample zombie that gets strength from exiling graveyard creatures, which has haste attached from an enchant that is free to reattach to strong creatures from the graveyard. He exiles creatures till the zombie has 28 strength.
Can I figure a way around this so I can win before he does? Of course I can. Am I going to? Of course not. This is not a game at this point, it's just stupid. I want my money back for all the cards I bought.
I can't believe I completely left out flaring pain, thank for pointing that out. You better spell it right next time though or you'll get your boys chopped off by an angry mobb!
You can please some of the people all the time, and you can please all the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time. Thanks for readin guys!
Deck thinning may help, but the delay caused by terramorphic expanse runs counter to the ideas of the deck. Also bear in mind Martial Coup: It only acts as a wrath when you his seven mana. Swapping in an Onslaught painland is a possibility, or maybe a set of Flagstones of Trokair. Something that still enables you to curve out without interruption. What would you take out for Tithe?
Good question. Thematically, Restless Apparition: It's the most tenuous 'Banshee' in the deck, for all its synergy with the game plan. Banshee is suboptimal: For 4 mana, you get a 0/1 where you can spend 2 mana to emulate a shadow guildmage or 5 mana for an orcish artillery damage distribution. On the plus side it's repeatable removal, trading life and mana for dead creatures, but it's exceedingly inefficient. I'd rejig the deck to accomodate it, dropping the green, adding in Urborg tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, Loxodon Warhammer or another source of lifelink, and drop the infestations for Wayfarer's bauble.
Most of the storm decks I've seen these days are either running empty the warrens main or grapeshot + flairing pain. Any storm deck not running flairing pain is just setting itself up for a prismatic/safe passage, is it not?
Fair enough about the bat being better, but my point is more that you don't need to go to black yet for a marginal guy, because you aren't committed in any way. If you are looking to go black (which I wouldn't blame anyone for), then the bat is fine.
Completely disagree about Windstorm. There *are* that many fliers out there. The 3 best colors in the format all have playable to great fliers, and even as a 1:1, Windstorm is rock solid. And when you face the inevitable WU deck with like 10 flyers all maxing out at 4 toughness, you are *really* happy you have a Windstorm.
As was noted, Villain is the standard for going over poker hands online. It is completely accepted as the de facto way to describe the hand and has no implication on the other player.
Hero/villain is just how it's done, and it translates (like lots of things) great for going over Magic "spots" (more poker lingo). (A spot simply meaning a situation or dilemma within the game).
As a poker player myself, I for one appreciate greatly the translation as it makes it simpler for me to read and understand what is going on.
It's pretty nitty to fold just cause your villain equity is that low imo.
the Promo version is common.
I would have included Lightning Bolt over Incinerate but the price was still sitting at $1.50 when I wrote the article.
Flametongue Kavu is a beatstick from what I remember. It is an absolute killer vs a lot of creatures as that 4 damage kills a majority of good creatures. Volcanic Fallout is a great sweeper and is not counterable. Nevinyrral's disk is a great way for red to get rid of inconvenient enchantments/creatures with shroud. Cursed Scroll works well in a sligh red deck as it provides a repeatable (nonred) damage source that becomes good when your hand gets low in resources. No Lightning bolts or Fireballs? How 'bout Kaervek's Torch or Disintegrate? I realize some of these card selections put you into the classic realm but is that really bad since you are playing casual anyway?
nice madness deck. Fot the chandra deck i saw one major mistake (depends on when you wrote this though). Incinerate is in the deck instead of lightning bolt.
For the Vet deck why not toss in 4 terramorphic expanses and or tithes?
When I was editing this today, I changed it in the rough draft but not in the final copy. I'll be changing it asap
Great article as always.
You're my favourite writer on this site, and I love the detailed and strategic descriptions you make of the games. Love the villain thing also lol.
Keep up the great work, to me you're honestly among the top limited article writers I've ever read!
look at the post board section. it's there... "hindering touch"
Would have taken the Tower Gargoyle P1p1. Tower Gargoyle is a bomb in itself and passing strix and capsule does not hint that esper is open. Jungle Shrine P1p1 is a complete joke
Was that constructed or limited? I have a hard time thinking that TT was ever preferable to Patrol Hound in a limited deck needing discard outlets.
There were edge cases where discard outlets were so important to an OTJ limited deck that TT was playable as an enabler if the pool was lacking superior discard outlets, but the overwhelming majority of the time you saw it T1, you were up against a beginning/less-skilled player.
That's very much like Jackal Familiar, really...there are probably some weird scenarios where a skilled player would be running it, but odds are that when you see it T1, you are up against a less-skilled player.
I found it to be a good read. Although I feel you left out the Storm counterspell from scourge... I can't remember then name right now though.
Ancient Grudge still gives me a card if you blow up the Chromatic Star. Most smart Storm players will save their spheres for that reason alone.
Star reads "when it's put into a graveyard, draw a card"
Sphere reads "add 1 mana of any color, draw a card"
So, by all means, let grudge be your only answer, because if that's all you're bringing, then it's gonna get ugly... for you, I mean... :P
Actually, when you check legality in the deck builder it shows up all kird apes as legal for pauper. The Promo card is common and is now released. Before it was kird ape wasn't allowed. I haven't run it in a tourney yet to test that way though.
Well, I played Tireless Tribe in my GW Madness deck and I did quite good with it. Only reason I didnt make T8 at a HUGE GP in Ohio was a play mistake in the final match of the final round. In theory he sucks but in that format he was better than the 2/2 discard for first strike guy. You needed that discard outlet in the GW deck but w/e, looking back I'd still call that card terrible even though it worked.
-M
You have to realize that if you're planning on "publishing" an article for a widely reviewed site, the first couple of items you have to nail down are:
1. Grammar.
2. Spelling.
Anything less causes readers to discount the message you are trying to articulate in your article. Overall, it's a nice read, but if you keep these items in mind next time you'll have a much more positive response.
I would encourage you to write anyways. This is the internet where every anonymous douche can sit at home and bash whatever and whoever they like. Even the most eloquent and thought provoking writing will net a few jerks who disagree just because they can. Some writers on the site obviously have a following and don't get bashed as much but I've seen it all on here.
In the end you have to ignore the flames, take some of the criticism to heart and continue writing since it does pay off. I've wrote only 2 articles but I will say it was worth it, and it can help you build a bit of a thicker skin reading how people nit pick your article apart.
RagMan
Wow, I have a couple of articles in the works but now I'm having second thoughts. After trying my hand at writing an article for here, I have a new found appreciation for all the work that goes into putting 1500+ words together and getting your point across.
If these attacks are what I can expect then I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. Constructive criticism is a wonderful thing, but an anonymous slamming is childish and cowardly.
At any rate, thanks for the nice article and for taking the time to put it together.