• State of the Program - January 28th 2009   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I should have read the article more attentively! :) I guess I am a speculator and not a hoarder. I am the proud owner of 40 Quietus Spike, queue everyone’s laughter. If anyone’s in the market for them give me a shout! :D

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Burn is one of the top decks, no question.
    The issue then becomes "is it a good call for this weekend's PE?"
    I don't think it is, mostly because it is a very known factor and having to face round after round of Riftwatchers/Tendrils/Spellbombs could be tiresome. Yes, some will rise to the top, but I have a feeling that Burn is a very risky pick for Sunday's festivities.
    In a 4 man queue, you are far more likely to be able to dodge hate and "just win" than in a 5+ round PE.
    Just my thoughts,

    -Alex

  • State of the Program - January 28th 2009   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Is not part of the problem the lack of a relatively cheap bot software to enable players to make available their surplus cards? I know I’m not alone in having a large amount of extra cards that since the move to v3 have been sitting doing nothing because Yatbot has not been ported over. I often wonder how many cards are sitting unsold and unplayed in similar accounts. If they could be put back in the market, then there would be an increase in supply at least.

  • State of the Program - January 28th 2009   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Well there is a huge difference between speculation and hoarding. Speculators are trying to buy up something that they think is going to sell for more down the line due to other factors, and hoarders are trying to drive up the price of something by just owning a huge amount of the supply.

    I don't think anyone would consider buying an extra playset hoarding. Hoarding is what's happening, for some bizarro reason, to Natural Order right now.

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago
    WW

    White Weenie can have a very good matchup against MBC, as Order of Leitbur can really ruin their day.
    If you curve out against Grand Entrance, it is very hard for them to win before they can get Longbow Shenanigans active against you.

    -Alex

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    The problem is that the only card I see myself adding in is Thunderbolt and I actually prefer 2 dmg for R than 3 dmg for 1R regardless of the reusability of the bolt.

  • State of the Program - January 28th 2009   16 years 20 weeks ago

    To be honest I don't really understand all this negativity towards speculators. In some cases 'hoarders' will make a quick buck, in others they will lose out. Considering there is quite a large spread between the buy and sell prices of most cards it seems like the risk to reward ratio would keep most potential hoarders in check. I'd like to know what mtgotraders considers to be hoarding from a number specific perspective. If I buy an excess of 4 of the same card in the hope of reselling them for more am I a hoarder? Personally I enjoy watching the card market fluctuate and do my best to buy low and sell high to try and reduce my overall cost of building a collection.

    Regards,

    Nicholas (3soteric)

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago
    re

    nice article :)

    i liked the insight on the pauper metagame, it seems it's flourishing alot on MTGO these days.

    i have to agree on the flaring pain against the prevention shields, it's a good sb card.
    on the firebolt subject, maybe tweak the numbers a bit? 4 firebolt does seem too many. 2 or 3 looks like the right number, but hey i haven't tested the deck, so... :)

  • State of the Program - January 28th 2009   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Its actually a bad thing for MTGO since it can in fact kill a Format. Im just wondering if WoC could do something about it but just seems a way to hurt the program without anything "illegal" being done.

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    The Pyroblasts where on my current drop list but how do you do against Affinity? 4 Smash just dont seem enough to me.
    I see how Fiery Temper is good on the paper against discard but how often its really that good? Just seems a wasted slot on the Side.
    I Agree on the Relic plan, it was one I wanted to try too to see if it was worth it.

  • State of the Program - January 28th 2009   16 years 20 weeks ago
    Honestly the only semi solution I can think of is to create a list of hoarders and never buy/sell from/to them. These guys raid my bots all the time and I'm going to start blocking them all as to discourage their actions. Hoarding is a major problem and the people that do it need to be called out IMO.
  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Can White Weene have a decent mu against Grand Entrance or MBC? Their creatures seem better as well as their cards.

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    My current sideboard is

    3x Flaring Pain
    4x Smash to Smithereens
    4x Fiery Temper
    4x Relic of Progentis

    I found that I wasn't needing/using Martyr of Ashes and that Pyroblast doesn't do any damage to MUC and I was facing more discard decks and recursive Sunbeam Spellbombs. Relic is good at preventing Flashback and graveyard recursion. Fiery Temper replaces the Marauders because the discard decks usually have chump blockers and 3 damage for R is better than 2 damage for 1R. Also, MUC doesn't like it when you Smash the Spire Golems.

    Time to go do 3 to the head.

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Im using SnagIt , since its a freeware but most of people I know recomend Camtasia.

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Hi,

    Could you please let me know what you are using to record your games in a movie format?

    Thanks

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    I haven't decided yet, but I'm looking at:

    White Weenie - Aggressive, decent answers for the metagame. I wish I could come up with a better removal package for it vs. Affinity, this is still being explored. Dust to Dust is great, as are Unmake and Oblivion Ring. But it is all fairly expensive and clunky to toss out there.

    Affinity - It can just win out of nowhwere.

    MBC - Very strong. I'd have to prep a gameplan for MUC - maybe that is just Raven's Crime and/or Duress.

    Esper Blink - I'm not sure if this is the name that others go by. Basically Black/Blue/White blink. This deck has some amazingly powerful cards, I only worry about its slow and inconsistent start as it is fairly equal across 3 colors.

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Thanks Paul. Your feedback is great motivation to keep the articles flowing. Maybe next time I display a gauntlet like this I can try to address more of the decks by getting right to the point with each. I'll keep it in mind - thanks again.

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Thanks Blandestk. I love analyzing the prominent strategies. The problem is balancing my free time with writing about it and playing. It would be great to sit down and create a bunch of articles and further breakdown, but it would cut into my game time. :-)

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    My numbers were showing the actual # that I saw, followed by the percent of the total that this represented. Hopefully the way that I posted the information wasn't confusing or misleading.

    You might notice too that the totals for the decks in the 'overall' will not match those in the week-by-week breakdown. This is because if I saw a deck only once in one of those weeks, I counted it as a 1-off there; even if it belonged to one of the prominent archetypes.

    Thanks for the read & reply. :-)

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    The Deck you say to be grand entrance appears to be Orhzov or Esper Blink. Grand entrance uses a similar trinket stragety but relies on tempo and phyrexian walkers for easy ninjas.

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Great reading and a great insight into a format i have never played.

    Made me wanna try it out!

    Pretty nice touch with the videos there

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Great article, great deck, I've been playing with it for quite a while and it really is one of the fastest, more agressive pauper decks.

    Seeing the discussion about flaring pain, I'm with blandestk, just one COP red or a prismatic strands is good enough to make you lose so a place in the sideboard for it SHOULD be warranted (I say should as I've never playtested it). I do believe in this moment grand entrance and/or some variation of mono black are the vast majority of the field, though i do reckon MUC as a strong deck

    Again, nice article, well written, nice videos, they do add a LOT to understanding what you try to explain.

    Nice to see a new face around here

    Hope to read more from you soon

  • Pauper Burn's Guide to Victory   16 years 20 weeks ago
    RE

    I liked the article a lot, might try it out soon.
    I'll try out the Flaring Pain and probably add some graveyard hate to the sideboard as well.

    Thanks for the great walkthrough! Keep it up!

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    What deck will you play at the PE?

  • A Pauper Premier Event Primer   16 years 20 weeks ago

    Nice, informative and a style that I like reading. Would have liked to see the breakdown done on all the popular decks and it's a shame you lost the Affinity stuff. Still, that is certainly not a criticism. Keep the articles coming.