I've lost exactly 1 game in well over 100 because of not having one. Had 2 Griselbrands in hand, rolled the dice, and the 3rd was the actual bottom card of my deck.
I used to play 1 Gaea's Blessing when my list had only 1 Show and Tell and 2 Griselbrand in the maindeck. I had one of each in the sideboard and I was siding those in literally in every match up taking Gaea's Blessing out when I did that. Obviously Show and Tell gets better when people bring hate but it's still good in the first game so I decided to just move them maindeck. That means cutting Gaea's Blessing, otherwise I start having too many cards that are just good when I'm comboing (Blessing does cycle and that's the main reason I prefer it over Journey).
I have lost the ability to "just win" several games because I don't have Blessing, but I don't think I have actually lost a single game because of it yet (I might be forgetting but if it did happen it wasn't more than once or twice). I do remember a game where I missed most of my deck and almost everything relevant. I still had Time Walk and I would easily win the match if I drew it but I didn't after drawing 7 cards and playing Ponder with 4 cards left and ended up winning with 0 cards in the library. Getting an extra turn would have been much safer because he had some way to gain life, Deathrite Shaman I think.
I wouldn't mind trying 1 Misdirection in my list but I haven't had much trouble with Decay. It is a really good answer but it's not that common because BUG decks are not very popular.
You don't miss the miser's Gaea's Blessing/Memory's Journey that is common in Oath lists? I've sided mine out before, but I've always felt like I wanted it some of the time.
Of course, some hands it just doesn't matter. My ability to draw "I win" hands declined enough that I've put the deck on the back burner.
I even had two Misdirection in my list once, and Abrupt Decay always got the best of me.
My cold streak of 10 events was mostly playing Modern with 1, maybe 2 Vintage events.
There are mainly 2 reasons I haven't been putting Vintage:
1) It's the format I've written the most, so I wanted to give it a break.
2) I have been playing it less often due to real life stuff.
Also when I go 1-2 or 0-2, I drop (or forget to drop and timeout or concede the match), so it's less matches played. I guess this one is also just 3 matches, but that leads me to the next point:
I have put some 2-2s in the past. The minimum I want to do is 3 rounds in an article but when I do poorly I prefer putting the 2-2s as it appears as a do or bust in the last round and I think that's more interesting.
I do try not to put the ones I steamroll my opponents often but sometimes it's cool to show what is the best a deck can do.
I'm surprised to see you put up Vintage again - I guess your cold streaks of not moneying in like 10 events in a row is over? Actually I'm more surprised you are never putting up any of these 1-3 events, as it would be interesting to learn from mistakes as well. It's boring to see how you steamroll people and how you advertise your deck as amazing, when in fact you never show us how it works on a cold streak and how games cannot end in your favor.
I think that Standard is perfectly healthy right now. Has DTK flipped the metagame on its head? Certainly. Is it broken? I would actually argue just the opposite; the format is healthier and more strategically diverse than it has been since KTK came into the picture. I'm sure this sounds strange given how "diverse" and "dynamic" it was previously. Let me say that I think it was neither. Fully 90% of the decks played could be lumped into 2 broad categories: G/x Midrange and R/x Aggro. The "evolution" of which was really just the Midrange decks trying to "out-midrange" each other. In comparison, the current metagame is equal-ish parts Control, Aggro, and Midrange.
What DTK really did was change the paradigm of Standard. Where KTK and FRF were all about accelerating into cards than went over the top of whatever your opponent was doing, DTK is all about efficiency and threat/answer density. The top 3 decks of the format all share one thing in common. They supply a steady stream of efficient and impactful cards. None of them are unbeatable or broken in the way that Academy, Affinity, Delver, or Caw-Blade were. But, as you pointed out, they do stomp all over the previous best decks that are a lot of air and a few big payoffs.
Thanks for the feedback. I actually tossed up whether to write this deck up before doing so, but thought that being honest about my experience and analysis of the deck would be of use and interest. Far more so imo than Martin Juza's article, linked here, which was posted only this week and seemed to strongly recommend not only playing the deck but playing the version posted here that doesn't even try to do things like play genesis hydra or maindeck xenagos to combat the Omni-present UB decks.
I actually have gwyned as a buddy. I was actually able to join mpdc then fall asleep before it started. It is really hard to play at that time. I hope i can play next week if my eyes would let me be awake at that time. I might try to sleep early and just wake up in the middle of the night so i could join. Tnx again.
What the frig? No wonder when I searched I didn't find your articles! OMG what a terrible terrible oversight. Even reading it now it looks like Planeswalker because it's so ingrained in my mind.
I really had fun. W must do the rubber match this week or weekend!
Hooray, the list is a fake, since Splinter Twin is in at rare! Two more hits for me!
As for number-crunching, I'll compare to both of my lists:
Splinter Twin is 129 (149 Main set, ~133 NC-corrected set)
Spellskite is 230 (233 Main set, ~223-233 NC-corrected set)
Obviously this isn't an explicit analysis, but there are two main keys:
1. Splinter Twin would need to move up 4 slots (assuming the Red cuts are all alphabetically before Splinter Twin--I have it tentatively as Ridge Rannet, Concussive Bolt, Lava Hounds, and Hell's Thunder, so that works), which feels like a lot of cards (there are ~200 cards after Splinter Twin alphabetically, ~140 in the range)--stuff like adding New Benalia to White (or Oboro to Blue) could also help.
2. Spellskite is really early, considering there are more artifacts than I thought (though around 200 artifacts are after Spellskite alphabetically, and most in the range)--expect a lot of lands; remember I already have 13 lands in the set.
MPDC should be 2am in your time, if I got it right. Join #mpdc on MTGO a bit earlier so you can be sure. Also, add rremedio1 and gwyned to your buddy list if you need further help.
It was a pleasure to help you test and be featured in your article. I will be posting this list in an upcoming article. For the record it is Plainswalker not Planeswalker :) Just a nod to my affinity for white mana :)
Also, I've started the ME1 article, and I'm finding it really hard to get to my desired word count (spoilers: it's a really bad design). If there's anything you want to know about the design, let me know!
You're right. I didn't see that line. I also should've let the clique resolve in round 4 before casting violent outburst. That was pretty embarrassing. I was just so happy he tapped out that I rushed it. Lol
Some play advice: When attacked by two Goblin Guides with a cycler in hand, after the first one hits nothing you can always cycle the card for a chance of getting a land.
The Affinity deck is its own worst enemy sometimes, just how the deck goes.
You can draw the nuts and faceroll or flood out just like any other deck.
Though it gets rather infuriating when you keep a solid opener and then draw all of your remaining lands in one solid row with a deck that runs around 16.
Especially when it happens in a streak of game consecutively.
Alex - thanks for the note. Good point with reference to adding more explanation - that's a hard balance to strike.
With respect to affinity, I really hate trying to predict the deck; after a lot of trend-watching, it seems to go from boom to bust and back with no rhyme nor reason. I'm going to be crunching the matchup numbers for the various rogue decks tonight - will be interesting to see how that plays into your Goblins theory.
(somewhat later - good call on the Goblins - looks like the white and red decks ate Affinity's lunch; 4-1 for Goblins, 3-1 for Jeskai Caw Blade, 2-0 for Wu Tokens, 1-0 for Boros Kitty, 0-1 for WW, 1-1 for W Tokens; total of 11-4).
(I feel like I did some analysis there, but maybe I should separate it out into a "bottom line" somewhere).
Yeah, having Griselbrand out, not much else matters.
I always hated milling my timewalk AND my Yagwill though, the blessing made that much more unlikely. Space it tight though.
I've lost exactly 1 game in well over 100 because of not having one. Had 2 Griselbrands in hand, rolled the dice, and the 3rd was the actual bottom card of my deck.
I used to play 1 Gaea's Blessing when my list had only 1 Show and Tell and 2 Griselbrand in the maindeck. I had one of each in the sideboard and I was siding those in literally in every match up taking Gaea's Blessing out when I did that. Obviously Show and Tell gets better when people bring hate but it's still good in the first game so I decided to just move them maindeck. That means cutting Gaea's Blessing, otherwise I start having too many cards that are just good when I'm comboing (Blessing does cycle and that's the main reason I prefer it over Journey).
I have lost the ability to "just win" several games because I don't have Blessing, but I don't think I have actually lost a single game because of it yet (I might be forgetting but if it did happen it wasn't more than once or twice). I do remember a game where I missed most of my deck and almost everything relevant. I still had Time Walk and I would easily win the match if I drew it but I didn't after drawing 7 cards and playing Ponder with 4 cards left and ended up winning with 0 cards in the library. Getting an extra turn would have been much safer because he had some way to gain life, Deathrite Shaman I think.
I wouldn't mind trying 1 Misdirection in my list but I haven't had much trouble with Decay. It is a really good answer but it's not that common because BUG decks are not very popular.
You don't miss the miser's Gaea's Blessing/Memory's Journey that is common in Oath lists? I've sided mine out before, but I've always felt like I wanted it some of the time.
Of course, some hands it just doesn't matter. My ability to draw "I win" hands declined enough that I've put the deck on the back burner.
I even had two Misdirection in my list once, and Abrupt Decay always got the best of me.
"... before succumbing to the almost mirror."
Someday when I do pass from this mortal coil, I hope the cause is something just as fantastic.
My cold streak of 10 events was mostly playing Modern with 1, maybe 2 Vintage events.
There are mainly 2 reasons I haven't been putting Vintage:
1) It's the format I've written the most, so I wanted to give it a break.
2) I have been playing it less often due to real life stuff.
Also when I go 1-2 or 0-2, I drop (or forget to drop and timeout or concede the match), so it's less matches played. I guess this one is also just 3 matches, but that leads me to the next point:
I have put some 2-2s in the past. The minimum I want to do is 3 rounds in an article but when I do poorly I prefer putting the 2-2s as it appears as a do or bust in the last round and I think that's more interesting.
I do try not to put the ones I steamroll my opponents often but sometimes it's cool to show what is the best a deck can do.
I'm surprised to see you put up Vintage again - I guess your cold streaks of not moneying in like 10 events in a row is over? Actually I'm more surprised you are never putting up any of these 1-3 events, as it would be interesting to learn from mistakes as well. It's boring to see how you steamroll people and how you advertise your deck as amazing, when in fact you never show us how it works on a cold streak and how games cannot end in your favor.
Thanks. Wizards archived it. I fixed the link in this week's article.
Looks exciting Blippy! abstrakt66, cronin, and youhavenogame should all be participating!
Zach
I think that Standard is perfectly healthy right now. Has DTK flipped the metagame on its head? Certainly. Is it broken? I would actually argue just the opposite; the format is healthier and more strategically diverse than it has been since KTK came into the picture. I'm sure this sounds strange given how "diverse" and "dynamic" it was previously. Let me say that I think it was neither. Fully 90% of the decks played could be lumped into 2 broad categories: G/x Midrange and R/x Aggro. The "evolution" of which was really just the Midrange decks trying to "out-midrange" each other. In comparison, the current metagame is equal-ish parts Control, Aggro, and Midrange.
What DTK really did was change the paradigm of Standard. Where KTK and FRF were all about accelerating into cards than went over the top of whatever your opponent was doing, DTK is all about efficiency and threat/answer density. The top 3 decks of the format all share one thing in common. They supply a steady stream of efficient and impactful cards. None of them are unbeatable or broken in the way that Academy, Affinity, Delver, or Caw-Blade were. But, as you pointed out, they do stomp all over the previous best decks that are a lot of air and a few big payoffs.
Thanks for the feedback. I actually tossed up whether to write this deck up before doing so, but thought that being honest about my experience and analysis of the deck would be of use and interest. Far more so imo than Martin Juza's article, linked here, which was posted only this week and seemed to strongly recommend not only playing the deck but playing the version posted here that doesn't even try to do things like play genesis hydra or maindeck xenagos to combat the Omni-present UB decks.
Great write-up; nice to see someone willing to go out there and say "don't do this."
I'm surprised that the "Ach! Hans, run!" deck isn't running any of the exploit creatures like Vulturous Aven.
I actually have gwyned as a buddy. I was actually able to join mpdc then fall asleep before it started. It is really hard to play at that time. I hope i can play next week if my eyes would let me be awake at that time. I might try to sleep early and just wake up in the middle of the night so i could join. Tnx again.
Just shoot me a message when you see me on and I will be glad to help you test more.
What the frig? No wonder when I searched I didn't find your articles! OMG what a terrible terrible oversight. Even reading it now it looks like Planeswalker because it's so ingrained in my mind.
I really had fun. W must do the rubber match this week or weekend!
I'm so sorry about the spelling. ;)
Hooray, the list is a fake, since Splinter Twin is in at rare! Two more hits for me!
As for number-crunching, I'll compare to both of my lists:
Splinter Twin is 129 (149 Main set, ~133 NC-corrected set)
Spellskite is 230 (233 Main set, ~223-233 NC-corrected set)
Obviously this isn't an explicit analysis, but there are two main keys:
1. Splinter Twin would need to move up 4 slots (assuming the Red cuts are all alphabetically before Splinter Twin--I have it tentatively as Ridge Rannet, Concussive Bolt, Lava Hounds, and Hell's Thunder, so that works), which feels like a lot of cards (there are ~200 cards after Splinter Twin alphabetically, ~140 in the range)--stuff like adding New Benalia to White (or Oboro to Blue) could also help.
2. Spellskite is really early, considering there are more artifacts than I thought (though around 200 artifacts are after Spellskite alphabetically, and most in the range)--expect a lot of lands; remember I already have 13 lands in the set.
MPDC should be 2am in your time, if I got it right. Join #mpdc on MTGO a bit earlier so you can be sure. Also, add rremedio1 and gwyned to your buddy list if you need further help.
Apparently your link to the announcement about leagues is wrong.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/MTGO/articles/archive/magic-online-leagues-u...
It was a pleasure to help you test and be featured in your article. I will be posting this list in an upcoming article. For the record it is Plainswalker not Planeswalker :) Just a nod to my affinity for white mana :)
I accidentally forgot a couple links in my article:
Design Spreadsheet for Version 7.1:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AsxKKvGkw8skoCE3hiTOAPGrUYrNaW2Q...
Number-Crunching Notes:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzbjSS4r8hXjaE05UjNGc0dwYlU/view?usp=sh...
Also, I've started the ME1 article, and I'm finding it really hard to get to my desired word count (spoilers: it's a really bad design). If there's anything you want to know about the design, let me know!
You're right. I didn't see that line. I also should've let the clique resolve in round 4 before casting violent outburst. That was pretty embarrassing. I was just so happy he tapped out that I rushed it. Lol
Some play advice: When attacked by two Goblin Guides with a cycler in hand, after the first one hits nothing you can always cycle the card for a chance of getting a land.
The Affinity deck is its own worst enemy sometimes, just how the deck goes.
You can draw the nuts and faceroll or flood out just like any other deck.
Though it gets rather infuriating when you keep a solid opener and then draw all of your remaining lands in one solid row with a deck that runs around 16.
Especially when it happens in a streak of game consecutively.
But, Random is random.
Alex - thanks for the note. Good point with reference to adding more explanation - that's a hard balance to strike.
With respect to affinity, I really hate trying to predict the deck; after a lot of trend-watching, it seems to go from boom to bust and back with no rhyme nor reason. I'm going to be crunching the matchup numbers for the various rogue decks tonight - will be interesting to see how that plays into your Goblins theory.
(somewhat later - good call on the Goblins - looks like the white and red decks ate Affinity's lunch; 4-1 for Goblins, 3-1 for Jeskai Caw Blade, 2-0 for Wu Tokens, 1-0 for Boros Kitty, 0-1 for WW, 1-1 for W Tokens; total of 11-4).
(I feel like I did some analysis there, but maybe I should separate it out into a "bottom line" somewhere).
Robby - thanks so much!