This is kind of a shock to me. I was talking about comics with Richie just a month or so ago. I had met him before, but went up with Yoshi to play a tournament early in the year or maybe last year and got to spend some time with him. He called me for tech support (his computer was having problems) and I remember spending a couple of hours helping him out. He's is/was a very nice guy and always had interesting stories to tell. Really going to miss you man.
Play around it if you think your opponent is playing it. Your Tarmogoyfs will survive it given adequate cards in the graveyard. Don't overextend yourself and hold some threats back.
RDW has less than a third the t8s of Big Mana. RDW is popular in the TP room but not in PEs (and the fact that it has a total of one good matchup keeps it out of t8s.)
You don't mention any of the decks bad matchups. Lark, mana ramp, and quick & toast will all be players online with Shadowmoor coming out. And I don't think elves wants to face any of them.
Yes looking back it is very funny: I have already admitted my error in misjudging this card - See comments at the end of an excellent Walkerdog article (http://www.puremtgo.com/articledisplay.asp?AID=1032). "Nice Article Walkerdog! I total underestimated bitterblossom when it was first released and even went as far as to say I thought it would never make a PE T8! Well this has already been disproved and since accepting my error in assessing this card, I have recently picked up 4 - and I must say I am impressed. "
I think it was with this knowledge that Iceage4Life posted here too!
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing"
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a fan of the Colossus except for in the mirror match. That's why you see me siding him out in a majority of the matchups. Removing Garruk is probably the better choice, as Garruk is way too slow for Standard right now. I like removing the Colossus against the fae, because he's so expensive and he just usually gets countered. But I see your point as valid. Next time I play faeries I'll try siding out the Garruk. Thanks for the advice.
A very good article. I remembered that someone was pretty adamant about Bitterblossom not being a good card in Classic, so I dug through the ClassicQuarter forums (Not to be mean, but I found the thread quite funny. ):
I thought that was a pretty funny thread, especially looking back on it from here. :P
Anywho, a very good article, and I'm starting to agree with Dangerlinto about the Clamp gettign out of control in Classic. Although based on how much help combo is going to be getting this fall it may be a moot point by then anyway.
Like i said before nice article there andy. I do unfortunatly hate you for putting elf clamp in the public eye though. lol. In all seriousness elf clamp is an ok choice very hand dependant, but the addition of blossom is good enough to actually make me nerves to play aginst a clamp deck. Previosly all you had to do to win the game was really just make sure a goyf dosent sit on the table but now an unanswered turn 2 blossom will give the deck the power boost it needed to keep tempo on its side. i feel like this deck has a lot of potential and just needs to figure out the correct 60 for its make up to be a powerplayer in the format.depending on what we get in med2 it will probably be one of the surviving archtypes going in to tempest ara classic.
I was skeptical at first about it in classic. Although I had overlooked clamp till whiffey mentioned the combo. Great article hammer this deck is dangerous to flash due to life gain and disruption. If flash cant win in the first three turns it probally will not win this match up. I took second thanks to one of these decks in my first top two appearence in classic.
Storm Control can be a tricky beast to play, you should refer to kehmesis play and sideboarding notes on the pdcmagic forum. It's not even bad against most control decks, but it is at a disadvantage when the opposition can gain a lot of life by abusing blink and grim harvest.
Great article! I really wish that they wouldn't have found out how awesome mirroweave was until AFTER it was out on MTGO. :( That could have been a jank rare priced card... *sigh*
Thanks for keeping us up to date with why our card prices are doing crazy things...
verdict is fine but it's not very often that you'll get BW to cast it properly on turn 2. 2B is much easier to cast in my opinion. 1 random discard wins life gain I guess since the deck isn't that short of life with baloth+hierarch+angel+primal command in the mix to counteract the damage from pain.
while I'm sure that the mana would fix itself by turn 3/4, I don't have confidence to say that I can cast BW consistently especially with blue in the mana mix and since green is the main color which the deck revolves around.
the pain from lands is the reason why vampiric tutor is ommitted from the deck despite its high power level.. but the pain has to be there to make sure the deck works properly.. which is why gerrard's verdict makes such a tempting candidate.. but I suppose the main reason to give it a pass lies in the fact that the deck is too overly stretched at the mana base that it would be near impossible to demand BW early. However, without blue in the mix, I definitely would consider more options like verdict but I guess I find Gifts Ungiven too powerful to not play in this deck.
abt the xx.dec, I pit(ted?) the ideas for the contest together and thought about how they would fare against each other. if best of 2/3, meddling mage would win imperious perfect but would still definitely lose to mishra's factory.dec as mishra's fac.dec can trade 60 lands for 40 bears and mishra's factory.dec is able to win a big number of other decks too.
but looking at the submissions, I figured tt imperious perfect.dec can maximize its mana usage better than other decks. Each copy makes every card in play bigger which makes it able to trump most of the other types of decks submitted, making it the overrall winner that doesn't lose to the major problems (or loopholes I'd say) in the impossible format.
that came down to imperfect knowledge i guess.. the point is that meddling mage has to know what to name. If you don't, you can't stop the first card. If you cast imperious perfect, you'll be able to keep making bears every turn to survive meddling mage beatdown and you'll be able to win many turns later when the number of meddling mages stop increasing. or so i think.
bloodstained mire is not there because it can only search for a "swamp" since I don't run red. I'm thinking about the mid-game here since it obviously doesn't matter in the early game and the deck should almost always make it into the mid-game..
Vindicate is in the deck already so if I would remove stupor, I'll probably put in something not mortify/putrefy. Maybe a wish I suppose.. to open up space for answers like harmonic sliver (probably not turn 3)/kitchen finks on turn 3?
Stupor usually gets what the person cannot cast (like some fat dumb powerful creature) so it might help animate dead? it gives you a clue as to what is happening in your opponent's hand too I suppose.
I personally don't like the discard elements of a rock deck because it doesn't make much sense unless u already have something threatening in play and if you don't, u're just wasting time. I suppose I need it here to see the effects of non-spot discard.
This is kind of a shock to me. I was talking about comics with Richie just a month or so ago. I had met him before, but went up with Yoshi to play a tournament early in the year or maybe last year and got to spend some time with him. He called me for tech support (his computer was having problems) and I remember spending a couple of hours helping him out. He's is/was a very nice guy and always had interesting stories to tell. Really going to miss you man.
Play around it if you think your opponent is playing it. Your Tarmogoyfs will survive it given adequate cards in the graveyard. Don't overextend yourself and hold some threats back.
RDW has less than a third the t8s of Big Mana. RDW is popular in the TP room but not in PEs (and the fact that it has a total of one good matchup keeps it out of t8s.)
Given the existence of a 3-mana 3-damage sweeper effect in the format, what would be the deck's optimal response to the decks running it?
Exactly! It's amazing how dynamic this game is, even in the Classic format. It makes things so much fun to see them change around as we get new cards!
Well written as always, overall I am not to sure how I'd approach the sideboarding..
But as a Timmy/Johnny I'd probably tend to keep the Colossus arround too.
I just mentioned the decks that were on Jamuraa's PE recap. In my journeys in the tournament practice room, I haven't faced any of those decks.
You don't mention any of the decks bad matchups. Lark, mana ramp, and quick & toast will all be players online with Shadowmoor coming out. And I don't think elves wants to face any of them.
Thank you for all the postivie feedback
Hammy/Iceman Re Blossom
Yes looking back it is very funny: I have already admitted my error in misjudging this card - See comments at the end of an excellent Walkerdog article (http://www.puremtgo.com/articledisplay.asp?AID=1032). "Nice Article Walkerdog! I total underestimated bitterblossom when it was first released and even went as far as to say I thought it would never make a PE T8! Well this has already been disproved and since accepting my error in assessing this card, I have recently picked up 4 - and I must say I am impressed. "
I think it was with this knowledge that Iceage4Life posted here too!
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing"
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a fan of the Colossus except for in the mirror match. That's why you see me siding him out in a majority of the matchups. Removing Garruk is probably the better choice, as Garruk is way too slow for Standard right now. I like removing the Colossus against the fae, because he's so expensive and he just usually gets countered. But I see your point as valid. Next time I play faeries I'll try siding out the Garruk. Thanks for the advice.
A very good article. I remembered that someone was pretty adamant about Bitterblossom not being a good card in Classic, so I dug through the ClassicQuarter forums (Not to be mean, but I found the thread quite funny. ):
http://classicquarter.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=816KW=bitterblossomPN=1
:)
I thought that was a pretty funny thread, especially looking back on it from here. :P
Anywho, a very good article, and I'm starting to agree with Dangerlinto about the Clamp gettign out of control in Classic. Although based on how much help combo is going to be getting this fall it may be a moot point by then anyway.
I ² that. Colossus also has "can't be blocked by bitterblossomtokens", which is quite relevant.
I also wouldn't side them out against merfolk, since they can become a 5/5 islandwalker thanks to an lord of atlantis on the other side of the table.
Like i said before nice article there andy. I do unfortunatly hate you for putting elf clamp in the public eye though. lol. In all seriousness elf clamp is an ok choice very hand dependant, but the addition of blossom is good enough to actually make me nerves to play aginst a clamp deck. Previosly all you had to do to win the game was really just make sure a goyf dosent sit on the table but now an unanswered turn 2 blossom will give the deck the power boost it needed to keep tempo on its side. i feel like this deck has a lot of potential and just needs to figure out the correct 60 for its make up to be a powerplayer in the format.depending on what we get in med2 it will probably be one of the surviving archtypes going in to tempest ara classic.
Still trying to figure out how you win so much...
I was skeptical at first about it in classic. Although I had overlooked clamp till whiffey mentioned the combo. Great article hammer this deck is dangerous to flash due to life gain and disruption. If flash cant win in the first three turns it probally will not win this match up. I took second thanks to one of these decks in my first top two appearence in classic.
Storm Control can be a tricky beast to play, you should refer to kehmesis play and sideboarding notes on the pdcmagic forum. It's not even bad against most control decks, but it is at a disadvantage when the opposition can gain a lot of life by abusing blink and grim harvest.
there is no way siding out colossus vs the fae is right. garruk should come out since garruk never survives the evasive faeries.
I hear this Bitterblossom card is good ;)
It's really a lot of fun. New formats are always awesome, and PDC is very fun.
PDC looks fun - congrats buddy
I am sorry I had not read it all :(
Great article! I really wish that they wouldn't have found out how awesome mirroweave was until AFTER it was out on MTGO. :( That could have been a jank rare priced card... *sigh*
Thanks for keeping us up to date with why our card prices are doing crazy things...
verdict is fine but it's not very often that you'll get BW to cast it properly on turn 2. 2B is much easier to cast in my opinion. 1 random discard wins life gain I guess since the deck isn't that short of life with baloth+hierarch+angel+primal command in the mix to counteract the damage from pain.
while I'm sure that the mana would fix itself by turn 3/4, I don't have confidence to say that I can cast BW consistently especially with blue in the mana mix and since green is the main color which the deck revolves around.
the pain from lands is the reason why vampiric tutor is ommitted from the deck despite its high power level.. but the pain has to be there to make sure the deck works properly.. which is why gerrard's verdict makes such a tempting candidate.. but I suppose the main reason to give it a pass lies in the fact that the deck is too overly stretched at the mana base that it would be near impossible to demand BW early. However, without blue in the mix, I definitely would consider more options like verdict but I guess I find Gifts Ungiven too powerful to not play in this deck.
abt the xx.dec, I pit(ted?) the ideas for the contest together and thought about how they would fare against each other. if best of 2/3, meddling mage would win imperious perfect but would still definitely lose to mishra's factory.dec as mishra's fac.dec can trade 60 lands for 40 bears and mishra's factory.dec is able to win a big number of other decks too.
but looking at the submissions, I figured tt imperious perfect.dec can maximize its mana usage better than other decks. Each copy makes every card in play bigger which makes it able to trump most of the other types of decks submitted, making it the overrall winner that doesn't lose to the major problems (or loopholes I'd say) in the impossible format.
Okay Gerrad's Verdict work? Much better spell than Stupor just harder to cast by a little.
As far as MM.dec loosing I'd assume these are matches not just a single game?
that came down to imperfect knowledge i guess.. the point is that meddling mage has to know what to name. If you don't, you can't stop the first card. If you cast imperious perfect, you'll be able to keep making bears every turn to survive meddling mage beatdown and you'll be able to win many turns later when the number of meddling mages stop increasing. or so i think.
bloodstained mire is not there because it can only search for a "swamp" since I don't run red. I'm thinking about the mid-game here since it obviously doesn't matter in the early game and the deck should almost always make it into the mid-game..
Vindicate is in the deck already so if I would remove stupor, I'll probably put in something not mortify/putrefy. Maybe a wish I suppose.. to open up space for answers like harmonic sliver (probably not turn 3)/kitchen finks on turn 3?
Stupor usually gets what the person cannot cast (like some fat dumb powerful creature) so it might help animate dead? it gives you a clue as to what is happening in your opponent's hand too I suppose.
I personally don't like the discard elements of a rock deck because it doesn't make much sense unless u already have something threatening in play and if you don't, u're just wasting time. I suppose I need it here to see the effects of non-spot discard.