Great cast guys. Nice guest appearances - I enjoyed the guest appearances. I enjoy collaborations between PureMTGO writers/podcasters.
In terms of Modern, I am not at all surprised that there were no bans for Modern. I disagree with Josh that there was anything that stood out as needing to be banned. There are decks in Modern that can combo before Turn 4 but generally they aren't all that consistent and that is where you actually have a problem. Nothing has proved particularly dominant. I thought it was particularly interesting that we have seen Elf Company and Merfolk win Grand Prix events.
Splinter Twin is probably the card that is flying closest to the banhammer - I don't think they would ever just ban Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite because it's not a real answer if Splinter Twin is the problem. It would definitely weaken the deck but it's never been an approach WOTC have taken - and rightfully so for the most part. If the problem is Splinter Twin then ban Twin. I imagine the same would apply to Joe's idea for restricting Chalice of the Void.
Not being douchey, honestly thanking you. I will say though:
I should have mentioned that the Rooftop storm adds two each time, but pay two mana for your second casting of a 7 mana commander is still epic. In fact, it has to get hosed 4 times for it to cost only one mana more than its original CMC, which is epic.
Brago has pro creatures yes, but you can still flicker the aura, just not brago. Maybe I misspoke about that, but the actual AURA doesnt have procreatures, so you can flicker it and reattach it to brago for the next time it attacks, as you say.
As for skullbriar, these articles are long, and get written and re-written, and I proof them tons of times, but as the author, am apt to miss something here or there. please allow a simple mistake like saying hand instead of command zone, as it was unintentional!
I am not sure if it works on MTGO, but the combo of rooftop storm + zombie commander should not work. The additional cost should still get added, if you follow the rules. That is, the commander is free the first time, cost 2 the second and 4 the third and so on.
I do know that the Brago + Unquestioned Authority combo on the other hand does not work as stated.
First of all, Brago cannot target himself if he got Unquestioned Authority. One of the things protection stops is targeting. If we considered Pentarch Ward (assuming blue or white was not choosen) or better yet Traveler's Cloak instead we would run into the problem that if we flickered both Brago and the aura, the aura could not go back on Brago. The problem is that you put everything into play at once and you need to put auras on something which is in play just before the aura enters play (that is, the aura is never not attached to anything and therefore you need to put it on something just before it enters play). Hence, you cannot flicker Brago AND the aura.
If you want a combo with Brago pick Strionic Resonator. That plus 2 artifact mana gives you infinite flickers. Artifact mana works great with Brago anyway.
Regarding Skullbriar and Varolz it should say that you could put it back into command zone not hand.
One thing I've found that really helps me concentrate is any kind of instrumental music. You just want some sort of background noise that you aren't really going to pay attention to. The Black Mages and Deadmau5 are two of my favorites for this. It's something I picked up from a WoW buddy when we were pushing for server firsts. It really helped for that and I've continued to use it to great effect ever since.
It takes me forever to listen to Podcasts these days, for various reasons. So I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get around to listening and making this comment.
About the MTG artist complain RE: artist pay- I read the book "So, Do you Wear a Cape?" by Titus Chalk (I really do recommend it to anyone with the seven bucks to spare). In the book, I learned all about how artists were procured for MTG.
Jesper Myrfors (who I'd love to interview, and you should also try to get) got his job as the original art director because he was the person responsible for getting original art/artists.
You see, Jesper sat in MTG meetings, pre-printing/pre-launch meetings, where the topic of how to illustrate the cards came up. The powers that be knew that they didn't have much money, but the photocopied clip art from the playtest cards wouldn't cut it. To save cash, the idea WOTC had was to buy second and third-use rights to existing artwork! Basically, they figured all they could afford was to do stuff like go get an illustration of a Bugbear from a 1983 D&D book and buy that picture.
Jesper knew that there was something special about Magic, and the idea of using recycled art was abhorrent to him. Luckily, Jesper was a student at the Cornish School of Art in Seattle at the time. He talked his friends into taking jobs at Wizards to paint for this new card game. Since WotC had little cash, the initial deal they agreed to was a small cash payment (don't quote me, but I think it was only 50$), but in addition each artist would receive royalties and a stock payment.
These young, starving artist/students took the small payments for their efforts with the chance that the royalties wouldn't be worth anything. Then the game blew up, and after a while Wizards decided that the original business arraignment no longer suited them, so they changed how they paid artists from that point on.
That's what I assume the artist you mentioned was complaining about, the one-time cash payment model that has been used since the late 90's.
Without choosing a side or anything, I'd like to add that Jesper Myrfors is WAY more responsible for the fact that we're still playing magic all these years later than anyone gives him credit for. I can't imagine someone paying 15k for a Black Lotus with a third-generation B roll image used on it. He also designed the entire card layout, front and back. The "M" Magic logo is his design, and all the mana symbols.
Thanks for providing the community with a killer podcast guys! I'm so happy with the direction the show is heading in! It's always been great, but now it's awesome! :D
I don't exactly understand why you say Sword of the Animist will be good for decks whose curve tops at CMC 4-5. You can't attack with the Sword before turn 3, which means you're going to untap in turn 4 with 5 lands, if all goes as planned, which is merely a 1-turn acceleration you could achieve in many better ways. And it also means you need necessarily to have had a turn-1 drop for it to work (and you spent the entirety of your first 3 turns setting up that attack), a creature that either will probably die in the attack (turning it into a Sakura-Tribe Elder, essentially), or was already a mana dork, in which case the Sword's acceleration is semi-pointless.
I think it's more of a card for midrange decks with curve-topper at 6 or 7, or for landfall decks (it's very likely landfall will be back in Battle for Zendikar, it seems they're setting up for it everywhere).
I'm not as excited as you are about Jace. Instead, I share the same enthusiasm Mike Flores and Patrick Chapin showed in their podcast about Nissa, that they called the best card in the set by far. She surely should be in the top 5.
Once this sticks on the table, it is very difficult to deal with. The self-exile negates most removal, first strike/lifelink make battle difficult and the tapping effect negates blockers/attackers.
From the source it looks like there is a lot of excess word "code" aka garbage inserted where the image should be. Maybe Josh can fiddle with it.
==edit==
http://www.mtgotraders.com/store/media/ <---this is the culprit. Server script cut off the img name. Probably because it has the wrong permissions set (403 error if you click the link.)
The word garbage just made it harder to see.
Anyway I am a fan of Narset and Myth Realized both though not of the UW Control Standard archetype. That said I would love to see Monastery Mentor in there as a 2-3 of. Welcome to puremtgo.com, keep em coming.
I'm glad to see that your article came out. With each passing week, using the editor gets easier, quicker, and you learn how to do cool things with it. I see that you've already got a lot down, so that's great. If you have any questions, the writers here are very helpful. I simply could not produce the content that I do without the advice and guidance I've received from the regular contributors.
Also, for anyone wondering why I'm not running cards like Dragonlord Ojutai, Elspeth or something else as my finisher over Myth Realized, keep in mind this is also meant as a semi budget deck. Either Ojutai or Elspeth would drive this deck towards $200 on MTGO.
My meeting went 3 hours over time, so I arrived at Skyline around 6:30 pm. As you probably guessed by now then I did not see you there. I could not even get my iPhone to connect to the wireless at Skyline, so I was without a connection all day.
I hope you manage to find a good laptop. It sounds like you just have all the luck! Maybe you can buy back your own laptop at a Black market somewhere.
If you want an image of a card to come up you just have to type (pic=CARDNAME) and that will link the image from the MTGOTraders website. I assume that is what you were trying to achieve earlier in the article. It won't work for any Magic Origins cards just yet - though you can always copy and paste images into your articles if you like.
Nice article. I haven't played Standard for a while but DTK Standard does seem like fun and I like your list and ideas for the future.
Ha! Guess we missed each other, then. If you've followed the action on Twitter, you know my laptop got stolen (along with my wallet and deododorant?!?), I hadda sell off my Magic cards, and I was getting my [REDACTED] together again.
Now it's Wednesday morning. I'll be hanging out at the shelter til after breakfast, and have no plans other than waiting for mail, and seeing if I can find a good used lappy for 200EU. (what I got for my cards)
Apparently someone decided that I have to attend a meeting all Tuesday. However, Wednesday afternoon I will just be waiting for my return flight. I will look out for you around 5pm. If that is a bad time for you then I will just do some sightseeing. What to see in Frankfurt?
I love the article. It's in-depth, informative, and it's about the best format ever (my personal bias)! I'm glad to have another Vintage writer to bounce ideas off.
I only have one suggestion: Go to reddit's mtgvintage subreddit and The Mana Drain and post links for your articles. People can't read what they don't know about. I was shy at first about sharing my work, but once I started sharing it I realized that people like it.
Keep up the good work Wappla!
P.S. I also enjoy the work of Elizabeth Moss on Madmen. :)
I bet if your Golden Guys deck ran some Wraths, that Merfolk match up would have improved a lot. I'm sorry I missed commenting on this earlier. I like your thought of checking power level rather than budget though building for the MTGO meta makes that harder, since there doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground anymore between garbage and tier 1-2. I've said it before and I will say it again, despite Modern having a very fertile ground for breeding fun decks people still bring only what they are reasonably certain of winning tourneys with even in Just For Fun.
That wasn't always the case but it became the case very quickly after the format fully fledged. (2012+)
If you ban twin, would you need to ban Kiki-Jiki as well, or leave him in as a permitted option for the decks?
Great cast guys. Nice guest appearances - I enjoyed the guest appearances. I enjoy collaborations between PureMTGO writers/podcasters.
In terms of Modern, I am not at all surprised that there were no bans for Modern. I disagree with Josh that there was anything that stood out as needing to be banned. There are decks in Modern that can combo before Turn 4 but generally they aren't all that consistent and that is where you actually have a problem. Nothing has proved particularly dominant. I thought it was particularly interesting that we have seen Elf Company and Merfolk win Grand Prix events.
Splinter Twin is probably the card that is flying closest to the banhammer - I don't think they would ever just ban Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite because it's not a real answer if Splinter Twin is the problem. It would definitely weaken the deck but it's never been an approach WOTC have taken - and rightfully so for the most part. If the problem is Splinter Twin then ban Twin. I imagine the same would apply to Joe's idea for restricting Chalice of the Void.
Magic is featured in another, non-Jesse related "real world/nonmagic" media outlet: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/10/magic-the-gathering-po... -- just came across it today
Not being douchey, honestly thanking you. I will say though:
I should have mentioned that the Rooftop storm adds two each time, but pay two mana for your second casting of a 7 mana commander is still epic. In fact, it has to get hosed 4 times for it to cost only one mana more than its original CMC, which is epic.
Brago has pro creatures yes, but you can still flicker the aura, just not brago. Maybe I misspoke about that, but the actual AURA doesnt have procreatures, so you can flicker it and reattach it to brago for the next time it attacks, as you say.
As for skullbriar, these articles are long, and get written and re-written, and I proof them tons of times, but as the author, am apt to miss something here or there. please allow a simple mistake like saying hand instead of command zone, as it was unintentional!
I am not sure if it works on MTGO, but the combo of rooftop storm + zombie commander should not work. The additional cost should still get added, if you follow the rules. That is, the commander is free the first time, cost 2 the second and 4 the third and so on.
I do know that the Brago + Unquestioned Authority combo on the other hand does not work as stated.
First of all, Brago cannot target himself if he got Unquestioned Authority. One of the things protection stops is targeting. If we considered Pentarch Ward (assuming blue or white was not choosen) or better yet Traveler's Cloak instead we would run into the problem that if we flickered both Brago and the aura, the aura could not go back on Brago. The problem is that you put everything into play at once and you need to put auras on something which is in play just before the aura enters play (that is, the aura is never not attached to anything and therefore you need to put it on something just before it enters play). Hence, you cannot flicker Brago AND the aura.
If you want a combo with Brago pick Strionic Resonator. That plus 2 artifact mana gives you infinite flickers. Artifact mana works great with Brago anyway.
Regarding Skullbriar and Varolz it should say that you could put it back into command zone not hand.
Interesting info on the magic art origins. Thanks for sharing.
That sounds like solid advice, I appreciate it.
One thing I've found that really helps me concentrate is any kind of instrumental music. You just want some sort of background noise that you aren't really going to pay attention to. The Black Mages and Deadmau5 are two of my favorites for this. It's something I picked up from a WoW buddy when we were pushing for server firsts. It really helped for that and I've continued to use it to great effect ever since.
As per usual entertaining and informative. :D Nice read, nice formating.
It takes me forever to listen to Podcasts these days, for various reasons. So I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get around to listening and making this comment.
About the MTG artist complain RE: artist pay- I read the book "So, Do you Wear a Cape?" by Titus Chalk (I really do recommend it to anyone with the seven bucks to spare). In the book, I learned all about how artists were procured for MTG.
Jesper Myrfors (who I'd love to interview, and you should also try to get) got his job as the original art director because he was the person responsible for getting original art/artists.
You see, Jesper sat in MTG meetings, pre-printing/pre-launch meetings, where the topic of how to illustrate the cards came up. The powers that be knew that they didn't have much money, but the photocopied clip art from the playtest cards wouldn't cut it. To save cash, the idea WOTC had was to buy second and third-use rights to existing artwork! Basically, they figured all they could afford was to do stuff like go get an illustration of a Bugbear from a 1983 D&D book and buy that picture.
Jesper knew that there was something special about Magic, and the idea of using recycled art was abhorrent to him. Luckily, Jesper was a student at the Cornish School of Art in Seattle at the time. He talked his friends into taking jobs at Wizards to paint for this new card game. Since WotC had little cash, the initial deal they agreed to was a small cash payment (don't quote me, but I think it was only 50$), but in addition each artist would receive royalties and a stock payment.
These young, starving artist/students took the small payments for their efforts with the chance that the royalties wouldn't be worth anything. Then the game blew up, and after a while Wizards decided that the original business arraignment no longer suited them, so they changed how they paid artists from that point on.
That's what I assume the artist you mentioned was complaining about, the one-time cash payment model that has been used since the late 90's.
Without choosing a side or anything, I'd like to add that Jesper Myrfors is WAY more responsible for the fact that we're still playing magic all these years later than anyone gives him credit for. I can't imagine someone paying 15k for a Black Lotus with a third-generation B roll image used on it. He also designed the entire card layout, front and back. The "M" Magic logo is his design, and all the mana symbols.
Thanks for providing the community with a killer podcast guys! I'm so happy with the direction the show is heading in! It's always been great, but now it's awesome! :D
I don't exactly understand why you say Sword of the Animist will be good for decks whose curve tops at CMC 4-5. You can't attack with the Sword before turn 3, which means you're going to untap in turn 4 with 5 lands, if all goes as planned, which is merely a 1-turn acceleration you could achieve in many better ways. And it also means you need necessarily to have had a turn-1 drop for it to work (and you spent the entirety of your first 3 turns setting up that attack), a creature that either will probably die in the attack (turning it into a Sakura-Tribe Elder, essentially), or was already a mana dork, in which case the Sword's acceleration is semi-pointless.
I think it's more of a card for midrange decks with curve-topper at 6 or 7, or for landfall decks (it's very likely landfall will be back in Battle for Zendikar, it seems they're setting up for it everywhere).
I'm not as excited as you are about Jace. Instead, I share the same enthusiasm Mike Flores and Patrick Chapin showed in their podcast about Nissa, that they called the best card in the set by far. She surely should be in the top 5.
Sword of the Animist is a bomb in limited though.
Once this sticks on the table, it is very difficult to deal with. The self-exile negates most removal, first strike/lifelink make battle difficult and the tapping effect negates blockers/attackers.
From the source it looks like there is a lot of excess word "code" aka garbage inserted where the image should be. Maybe Josh can fiddle with it.
==edit==
http://www.mtgotraders.com/store/media/ <---this is the culprit. Server script cut off the img name. Probably because it has the wrong permissions set (403 error if you click the link.)
The word garbage just made it harder to see.
Anyway I am a fan of Narset and Myth Realized both though not of the UW Control Standard archetype. That said I would love to see Monastery Mentor in there as a 2-3 of. Welcome to puremtgo.com, keep em coming.
I'm glad to see that your article came out. With each passing week, using the editor gets easier, quicker, and you learn how to do cool things with it. I see that you've already got a lot down, so that's great. If you have any questions, the writers here are very helpful. I simply could not produce the content that I do without the advice and guidance I've received from the regular contributors.
Keep 'em coming!
Ah ok. Yes, I have noticed that with some recent cards. Not sure what the cause of the problem is though.
Also, for anyone wondering why I'm not running cards like Dragonlord Ojutai, Elspeth or something else as my finisher over Myth Realized, keep in mind this is also meant as a semi budget deck. Either Ojutai or Elspeth would drive this deck towards $200 on MTGO.
Thank you, Oliver. Not sure why the pics came up as broken links because I did use the (pic=cardname). I'll have to go back and double-check.
My meeting went 3 hours over time, so I arrived at Skyline around 6:30 pm. As you probably guessed by now then I did not see you there. I could not even get my iPhone to connect to the wireless at Skyline, so I was without a connection all day.
I hope you manage to find a good laptop. It sounds like you just have all the luck! Maybe you can buy back your own laptop at a Black market somewhere.
Hey! Always nice to see new writers on the site.
If you want an image of a card to come up you just have to type (pic=CARDNAME) and that will link the image from the MTGOTraders website. I assume that is what you were trying to achieve earlier in the article. It won't work for any Magic Origins cards just yet - though you can always copy and paste images into your articles if you like.
Nice article. I haven't played Standard for a while but DTK Standard does seem like fun and I like your list and ideas for the future.
Ha! Guess we missed each other, then. If you've followed the action on Twitter, you know my laptop got stolen (along with my wallet and deododorant?!?), I hadda sell off my Magic cards, and I was getting my [REDACTED] together again.
Now it's Wednesday morning. I'll be hanging out at the shelter til after breakfast, and have no plans other than waiting for mail, and seeing if I can find a good used lappy for 200EU. (what I got for my cards)
Apparently someone decided that I have to attend a meeting all Tuesday. However, Wednesday afternoon I will just be waiting for my return flight. I will look out for you around 5pm. If that is a bad time for you then I will just do some sightseeing. What to see in Frankfurt?
I love the article. It's in-depth, informative, and it's about the best format ever (my personal bias)! I'm glad to have another Vintage writer to bounce ideas off.
I only have one suggestion: Go to reddit's mtgvintage subreddit and The Mana Drain and post links for your articles. People can't read what they don't know about. I was shy at first about sharing my work, but once I started sharing it I realized that people like it.
Keep up the good work Wappla!
P.S. I also enjoy the work of Elizabeth Moss on Madmen. :)
I bet if your Golden Guys deck ran some Wraths, that Merfolk match up would have improved a lot. I'm sorry I missed commenting on this earlier. I like your thought of checking power level rather than budget though building for the MTGO meta makes that harder, since there doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground anymore between garbage and tier 1-2. I've said it before and I will say it again, despite Modern having a very fertile ground for breeding fun decks people still bring only what they are reasonably certain of winning tourneys with even in Just For Fun.
That wasn't always the case but it became the case very quickly after the format fully fledged. (2012+)
An excellent if lengthy analysis of the paradigm shift of the format.
As for the new cards, isn't there a white instant that has some promise to be interesting?