I've played a lot of burn in modern and I have to disagree about Vexing Devil. The vast majority of the time it is 4 damage to the face, and when it's not it delays the opponent or makes them take 3 (fetch into shock so they can kill it turn 1). Vexing Devil is essentially the one punisher card that is good enough to play. As you pointed out, patience can be key, and in my experience is that is what it takes against UWR decks and generally I've ended up about 55/45 against them. It sounds strange but in that match up it is much better for the burn deck to wait and appropriately time their spells. Wait for them to revelation and hit them for 12 or such.
UWR is very much a fringe player, though. It only placed in reported dailies about twice pre-BNG and hasn't placed at all post. It suffers from a lack of a wrath (retribution isn't playable unless you can ramp into it imo) and only one unconditional removal spell, chained, that doesn't actually hit two of the guys you want it to (polis crusher and stormbreath). Fated conflagration no doubt helps, but triple red in a deck that wants to cast dissolve and elspeth seems pretty rough.
Right now, all that's really going for the colour combination is steam augury, I think you're best of waiting until Journey to get the UR scryland and probably playing straight izzet, particularly if there's a playable planeswalker in those colours.
I am also playing that deck casually and having a lot of fun with it! I'd like to see an update, although I have a feeling that the next set will be even kinder to it, with Keranos and the UR Scry Land.
I quite like this! I too have seen myself fall into the trap of worrying way too much about EV. I still think it is more fun to win than lose, but I've tried to forego some of the EV for actual find (e.g., playing Swiss drafts). There is some "EV" in enjoying the game as well.
I think that is true! A large part of it was likely inexperience with the format. I think the strategy would have worked a lot better if I could have mixed in some hard removal from black, but obviously it didn't quite happen that way. You do raise an important point - the type of removal that you have matters.
The disconnecting is just part of the game, especially since people have real lives when they're at home. It's annoying, but you learn to deal with it.
The rules manager on MTGO is practically the best thing about it. I know I would have a hard time remembering every trigger that can happen in a Commander game.
Love the deck build. I'm going to incorporate some of your (better) ideas into mine. I was trying to run Varolz in with mine, which was nice when it hit but sucked when it didn't. Nothing like having a Death's Shadow stuck in your hand the entire game.
Thank you! Yes, Akroan Skyguard is the card. While it is the Wingsteed Rider of the set, I don't think there is an analog to Gray Merchant or Nessian Asp, which is unfortunate since they were both premier commons in Theros.
I assume both will put a strain on tickets either way, I believe the THS Championships were about the same entry fee and only paying out to 3-2 and up. I got lucky and went 3-2 in my first 4 until I got the 4-1 in the 5th, so I ended up breaking even in the end with some good luck. I think I'll just do 1 or 2 PTQQs at a time until I feel I'm good enough to chain them.
I'm not a big fan of Premier Sealed, even when I was consistently 3-1/4-0ing THS Dailies. They take too much time in my opinion for not a lot of gain. I'd rather just do 2 dailies in that amount of time
This is my first puremtgo.com post. I think I've watched just about every one of your vids in the past week and have (obviously) found them to be awesome to watch. I'm not an MTGO player, but love playing commander @ the kitchen table w/ buds whenever we can find the time. I have to say, the game play and deck construction on MTGO as well as the actual game play is really dynamic and really appreciate how MTGO 'knows' the rules and applies (or at least gives you the option to apply) the triggers per the rules. One thing that I find really annoying is how players will just drop out in the middle (or end) of a game (Derevi Game 2). Again - really appreciate the vids (esp the live ones) and look forward to more.
Good stuff as always! I think Ryan Spain has/had a theory about analogs once we get to Block sets, which is similar to some of the points that you raised. So now instead of seeing 2 Wingsteed Riders in a pool we might see a Wingsteed Rider and an Akroan Skyguard (that's the card, correct?). The trick is to figure out what the proper analogs are, which means spending some time with the set and going through some repetitions.
I like your idea of chaining qualifier events. However a bad run could really put a strain on tickets. Personally, I will likely forego the PTQ quals and wait for the BNG Championships, which I believe are in April.
I also played in a Premier Sealed last weekend. They had trouble firing, but were great EV if they did. I thought my pool was pretty lackluster, but I was still able to grind through and win 5 packs at 4-4.
If a card is going to cause problems for MTGO then it needs to be retemplated until it doesn't. Killing it should not be on the table unless the idea is so outlandish that it can't be implemented even with proper templating. In that case it is likely the card doesn't work in paper either.
As to ownership the change was not that you own permanents that you control (otherwise homeward path and its ilk would be useless) but that you own any tokens created under your control. This was a change made to unbreak Warp World.
I had stored away my collection back in 1996 and just found it. I ended up selling a bunch of cards on ebay and a few MTG sites. I'm in my quickbooks account looking at what I made from them and pretty shocked at the totals. Our long island cpa is blown away by how much they sell for.
Hey guys, I'm glad you liked this one. Paul, I actually do like the new client. I don't even have the other one installed anymore. Yes it still needs some improvement but generally speaking I can say that I find it quite nice.
Beautiful! I've been working on breaking Agent of the Fates in a tribal context lately, coming up with a different recursion engine. This, however, is magnificent.
I was in the middle of commenting on this and my keyboard died so I am starting over. Interestingly AJ and I have been discussing heroic so this is very apropos. As per usual excellent stuff. I will say that the reason you are seeing tougher opponents in "casual" has to do with the increase in players and the change from "Casual Decks, Casual Play" to "Just for Fun" which many players think means "Play the best cards you have" myself included. The difference with me being, I still try and brew roguish decks.
And I think the term "casual" as controversial as ever, is really misplaced as a label for decks. Better to talk about Casual players vs Competitive players. Also about Aggro players vs Timmy. Timmy is both interested in flashy stuff and large monsters yes, but he isn't against running smaller creatures (or lower cost creatures.) It is very possible to run into Aggro Timmies and Midranged Spikes.
As for Hidden Strings it is definitely a go to card for a lot of strategies nowadays. I've been seeing it everywhere. But the reasons vary quite a bit. You can stick it on an unblockable to ramp your mana, you can use it to make Inspired creatures more interesting. Of course Heroic creatures are the main beneficiaries but mainly those are getting the voltron treatment. (Lots of auras + a few bodies.) And while I have seen a few voltron decks with Triton Fortune Hunter there aren't many and they aren't as tuned as yours.
It is of interest to me that your screenshots all show you on the beta client. If you can stand it, it gives me hope that some day, I too may as well.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can do in the future. As for replays vs. Live games, I get a lot of people liking both sides, but this is usually the only way I can do them. Glad you like it tho.
I've played a lot of burn in modern and I have to disagree about Vexing Devil. The vast majority of the time it is 4 damage to the face, and when it's not it delays the opponent or makes them take 3 (fetch into shock so they can kill it turn 1). Vexing Devil is essentially the one punisher card that is good enough to play. As you pointed out, patience can be key, and in my experience is that is what it takes against UWR decks and generally I've ended up about 55/45 against them. It sounds strange but in that match up it is much better for the burn deck to wait and appropriately time their spells. Wait for them to revelation and hit them for 12 or such.
Also, Volcanic Fallout doesn't kill Norin.
I really love the first list. It's really one of a kind. I kind of have all the cards in it too. - James Cullem
Ill behavior? Wow, this game gets stranger and stranger. The motley of individuals makes me think twice. - James Cullem
Recubing sounds so complicated. However, it is anything but complicated. - James Cullem
Viewing it will be risky? Well, I don't know what it is going to happen. - James Cullem
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I did take a look at it pre-BNG:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/around-block-37-uwr-control-broken-metagame
UWR is very much a fringe player, though. It only placed in reported dailies about twice pre-BNG and hasn't placed at all post. It suffers from a lack of a wrath (retribution isn't playable unless you can ramp into it imo) and only one unconditional removal spell, chained, that doesn't actually hit two of the guys you want it to (polis crusher and stormbreath). Fated conflagration no doubt helps, but triple red in a deck that wants to cast dissolve and elspeth seems pretty rough.
Right now, all that's really going for the colour combination is steam augury, I think you're best of waiting until Journey to get the UR scryland and probably playing straight izzet, particularly if there's a playable planeswalker in those colours.
Yes, ur scryland will be good, but uwr w/out uw scryland worked anyway!
I am also playing that deck casually and having a lot of fun with it! I'd like to see an update, although I have a feeling that the next set will be even kinder to it, with Keranos and the UR Scry Land.
I quite like this! I too have seen myself fall into the trap of worrying way too much about EV. I still think it is more fun to win than lose, but I've tried to forego some of the EV for actual find (e.g., playing Swiss drafts). There is some "EV" in enjoying the game as well.
I will look forward to more!
Any idea about uwr in ths block? I played ur deck w/out bng and that deck was very good!
I think that is true! A large part of it was likely inexperience with the format. I think the strategy would have worked a lot better if I could have mixed in some hard removal from black, but obviously it didn't quite happen that way. You do raise an important point - the type of removal that you have matters.
The disconnecting is just part of the game, especially since people have real lives when they're at home. It's annoying, but you learn to deal with it.
The rules manager on MTGO is practically the best thing about it. I know I would have a hard time remembering every trigger that can happen in a Commander game.
Glad you like the vids man!
Love the deck build. I'm going to incorporate some of your (better) ideas into mine. I was trying to run Varolz in with mine, which was nice when it hit but sucked when it didn't. Nothing like having a Death's Shadow stuck in your hand the entire game.
Thank you! Yes, Akroan Skyguard is the card. While it is the Wingsteed Rider of the set, I don't think there is an analog to Gray Merchant or Nessian Asp, which is unfortunate since they were both premier commons in Theros.
I assume both will put a strain on tickets either way, I believe the THS Championships were about the same entry fee and only paying out to 3-2 and up. I got lucky and went 3-2 in my first 4 until I got the 4-1 in the 5th, so I ended up breaking even in the end with some good luck. I think I'll just do 1 or 2 PTQQs at a time until I feel I'm good enough to chain them.
I'm not a big fan of Premier Sealed, even when I was consistently 3-1/4-0ing THS Dailies. They take too much time in my opinion for not a lot of gain. I'd rather just do 2 dailies in that amount of time
This is my first puremtgo.com post. I think I've watched just about every one of your vids in the past week and have (obviously) found them to be awesome to watch. I'm not an MTGO player, but love playing commander @ the kitchen table w/ buds whenever we can find the time. I have to say, the game play and deck construction on MTGO as well as the actual game play is really dynamic and really appreciate how MTGO 'knows' the rules and applies (or at least gives you the option to apply) the triggers per the rules. One thing that I find really annoying is how players will just drop out in the middle (or end) of a game (Derevi Game 2). Again - really appreciate the vids (esp the live ones) and look forward to more.
Good stuff as always! I think Ryan Spain has/had a theory about analogs once we get to Block sets, which is similar to some of the points that you raised. So now instead of seeing 2 Wingsteed Riders in a pool we might see a Wingsteed Rider and an Akroan Skyguard (that's the card, correct?). The trick is to figure out what the proper analogs are, which means spending some time with the set and going through some repetitions.
I like your idea of chaining qualifier events. However a bad run could really put a strain on tickets. Personally, I will likely forego the PTQ quals and wait for the BNG Championships, which I believe are in April.
I also played in a Premier Sealed last weekend. They had trouble firing, but were great EV if they did. I thought my pool was pretty lackluster, but I was still able to grind through and win 5 packs at 4-4.
If a card is going to cause problems for MTGO then it needs to be retemplated until it doesn't. Killing it should not be on the table unless the idea is so outlandish that it can't be implemented even with proper templating. In that case it is likely the card doesn't work in paper either.
As to ownership the change was not that you own permanents that you control (otherwise homeward path and its ilk would be useless) but that you own any tokens created under your control. This was a change made to unbreak Warp World.
I had stored away my collection back in 1996 and just found it. I ended up selling a bunch of cards on ebay and a few MTG sites. I'm in my quickbooks account looking at what I made from them and pretty shocked at the totals. Our long island cpa is blown away by how much they sell for.
Maybe one just has to stay away from the game for a couple of years and then come back to appreciate the new client through a fresh perspective. :)
Hey guys, I'm glad you liked this one. Paul, I actually do like the new client. I don't even have the other one installed anymore. Yes it still needs some improvement but generally speaking I can say that I find it quite nice.
Beautiful! I've been working on breaking Agent of the Fates in a tribal context lately, coming up with a different recursion engine. This, however, is magnificent.
I was in the middle of commenting on this and my keyboard died so I am starting over. Interestingly AJ and I have been discussing heroic so this is very apropos. As per usual excellent stuff. I will say that the reason you are seeing tougher opponents in "casual" has to do with the increase in players and the change from "Casual Decks, Casual Play" to "Just for Fun" which many players think means "Play the best cards you have" myself included. The difference with me being, I still try and brew roguish decks.
And I think the term "casual" as controversial as ever, is really misplaced as a label for decks. Better to talk about Casual players vs Competitive players. Also about Aggro players vs Timmy. Timmy is both interested in flashy stuff and large monsters yes, but he isn't against running smaller creatures (or lower cost creatures.) It is very possible to run into Aggro Timmies and Midranged Spikes.
As for Hidden Strings it is definitely a go to card for a lot of strategies nowadays. I've been seeing it everywhere. But the reasons vary quite a bit. You can stick it on an unblockable to ramp your mana, you can use it to make Inspired creatures more interesting. Of course Heroic creatures are the main beneficiaries but mainly those are getting the voltron treatment. (Lots of auras + a few bodies.) And while I have seen a few voltron decks with Triton Fortune Hunter there aren't many and they aren't as tuned as yours.
It is of interest to me that your screenshots all show you on the beta client. If you can stand it, it gives me hope that some day, I too may as well.
Simply astounding. I'm loving this. I have GOT to throw this one together and give it a whirl for myself!
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see what I can do in the future. As for replays vs. Live games, I get a lot of people liking both sides, but this is usually the only way I can do them. Glad you like it tho.