PureMTGO has never been purely a strategy site. Heck, every day there are probably another 20 strategy articles that go up across a variety of sites. I think these types of articles are especially good at what they do: Entertain while looking at a different side of Magic. As an older player I especially enjoy these types of articles just because I haven't thought about a ton of these cards, that I used to play with, in a very long time. I appreciate seeing this kind of stuff especially because it's outside the normal box.
If it were written as a forum post believe me Cotton would not have had this published.
There is value in piece, I see them as a humor piece, and I think they are very well written. Yes it's out of place, it's not a strategy piece or a draft recap, but I like to offer different things.
We have a wide audience, that's why Pauper gets it's own day, and Modern is starting to get it's own day.
Not everything we publish is going to go over like gangbusters, but Cotton has written here long enough that I trust what he writes, if they were not successful pieces we would not be up to Antiquities now.
I stand behind my writers, and you're more than welcome to write as well, I know that I get plenty of feedback on the site from my emails and reddit, and this series goes over pretty well. It's nice to be ridiculous every so often!
Thank you for your feedback, it was much appreciated.
"It just seems to me that this is not the right place for this type of thing to be presented."
That's precisely how I feel about most draft/sealed deck reports. My point being every article is not for everyone. There are some of us who enjoy these articles by Cotton. Taste is diverse if nothing else.
I think his aim here is a combination of being humourous, being informative and also poking fun at WOTC's R&D who sometimes seem like they really get it and sometimes seem like they haven't learned a thing. Plus he may also be trying to get people to think about why cards exist, even if they don't fit the average Spike's dream of perfect cards.
I apologize in advance If I come across as being mean here, but I feel I need to get this off my chest.
I just really don't understand the purpose of these articles.
Are you trying to show how things have changed now that Wizards actually understands card/set design?
Are you trying to make people aware of older cards that they might not know about?
Are you trying to be funny? (I don't find them to be overly funny.)
Whichever of those (or whatever goal) you might be aiming for can easily be achieved wihout having to go through every card in the set.
Every time one of these articles has been posted, all I can see is that it's pure masturbation - it's done for you're own pleasure. I really don't see what kind of information is being presented in this article outside of listing the cards from older sets. I have made this comment in the past and I feel that I have to say it again. This just seems like it belongs on the forums at MTGSalvation and not as an article here.
I am in no way intending this as an attack on Cotton, I know he spends a lot of time on these and there definitely is value in looking back at old forgotten cards. It just seems to me that this is not the right place for this type of thing to be presented.
I probably just meant that i think its better in the format than the other versions of the color combination Ive seen that are control. It certainly has control elements but really it is a midrangey engine type deck. Which are always fun and tend to do well vs a good slew of the metagame.
Thanks for this article, I think it will really help our community grow :) Also thanks for mentioning my deck :) I do agree with you on Lightning Helix/Electrolyze inclusion (mostly Helix), however, can't find anything to cut, as creatures are needed for Blink and other spells do seem necessary too (with the addition of checklands my doubts about Izzet Charm went away - previously it was more difficult to have the right mana soon enough). I thought about cutting Bolts for Helixes, however, bolts are online sooner and that seems really important, especially with Champion of the Parish.
As for Blink being control deck - I can't really agree with that (though mentioning of it as "the best control deck" really strokes my ego), it's more of a midrange-grindy deck that tries to eek-out the card advantage over time, but can become quite aggressive with the right draw (although I've beaten several combo decks by attacking them to the death with 1/3, so maybe control it is...)
Thanks again for an amazing article!
-V.
@Matthew Battaglia
"I love thie idea of this format but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Is it hard to find casual/practice games? If you put heirloom in the comments do you find games or do people just not get it? I always wondered the same thing about silverblack"
Great to hear from you and that you're interested in our exclusive community =). I dont find it very difficult to find practice games. It does take a little work and patience sometimes but usually within 15 minutes I can find someone. The thing to do is to go to Gatherling.com to the metagame section and look at the usernames of the players from the last few events. Add these to your buddies list on MTGO and send them a message if theyre online. Once you get a good list of people on your buddy list it's not as difficult as you might imagine. (mileage may vary of course. I make no promises! KCCO)
Ya going over recent additions to the card pool is certainly a good element to include. I've done it in the past and certainly the next article I write will include it again. (I'm a sucker for requests).
If I could make a suggestion for another article topic, talk specifically about cards that just entered the card pool after the recent rotation/price drop and maybe even MMA. Wickedrh mentioned Champion of the Parish and obviously the Check Lands were a huuuuge boost to the format. I'm sure there are others too? Sometimes people want to keep using cards that rotated out, or want to see some new ideas you may be excited about.
Other than that, awesome job all of you for keeping your format alive and kicking!
in my more recent builds storm 5 with minds desire almost always does it, 4 most of the time. the odyssey eggs help a lot there. I like the deck a lot, and i felt confident when i did play it. does need a lot of practice and a little luck.
It is definetly one of the hardest decks to play. I was goldfishing with it abit in solitare mode and even then it takes lots of practice. Not having actual tutors like in legacy really hurts the deck as well.
I can only image it gets much harder with interactions or forcing to go off early. And unlike in legacy storm, a EtW for 4 is not a game winner. But as players get more experience with it, I guess it will be one of the top contenders in the format.
Thanks for the shoutout man, also good article. The last few times I've played the deck, I've either gotten color screwed, Mind's Desire has whiffed tremendously or I've gotten greedy for that extra storm and it cost me. The deck is definitely hard to play, but I think the deck will shine soon hopefully.
Would it be possible to add a bit to the pricing section? It could be helpful to see the total ticket cost of each set redemption. For example, a redemption of M14 would cost X this week, while a Theros redemption would cost Y, etc.
Tx Chris. Heirloom is like a building that keeps getting taller, each host is a floor of the building, if any of us hadnt been there the present activity wouldnt be possible. You were one of our better hosts and you know I sympathize with problems of time as I have the same challenges myself.
Im pretty excited about the format atm. Its picked up some pretty legit cards recently and it just feels deeper and more fun to play than ever.
Tx man, of course I only get around to it once in a blue moon so theres good reason for anyone to contribute to the article que to keep Heirloom media rolling. Grats on the recent bout of success. If not jealous Im pretty impressed. The way you built that deck is more impressive as I would never have thought to build it that way, and I cant argue with your success so its obviously a very strong build. I was using GSZ with devoted druid fauna shaman and quillspike with various toolbox cards to back up the combo plan in one deck which seemed fine, another of my builds was as an elfball card tin a deck that ran 8 green stone rain 4 mwonvuli acid moss, acidic slime, pelakka wurmand woodfall primus to end the game before the opp could get much mana. Its a great card in the format but it requires some testing and discipline i think to use optimally.
If weve learned anything in Heirloomits that straight aggro decks can never be counted out even when they appear to be down a bit. WW has some powerful starts atm.
Great article xaos. I have loved this format since it started 3 years ago and I am very happy that it is still running strong! I hosted the events for a while and if it would not have been for my work schedule changing I would still be hosting. There are a lot of competitive lists in the format and I still believe it is a wide open format. I am still waiting for a dominating Tron deck to make an appearance.
Thanks for the article and I hope to see more Heirloom articles on PureMTGO in the future!
Yay, I got mentioned and the deck is 3 out of 3 now :). I was actually working on a heirloom article as well but you beat me to it, but as long as we have heirloom articles I don't care.
This is definetly the most fun and innovation open format out there.
I totally agree with your opinion on UWR Blink being the best control deck, it has by far the most efficient and effective spells available. I always feel as the underdog when I face the blinkversion, the only times I won against are mostly when Taviscaron was mana screwed.
Champion of the Parish also deserves a nod I guess, I am starting to see alot more white decks with Champion these days. I very quickly gets out of bolt range si DoJ is the only answer most of the time.
It is a shame that we don't have that many game breaking green targets. The only playable one is Fauna Shaman. I am starting to wonder what would have happened if Tragtusk didn't jump on prizes at the last second.
Thanks, that sort of analysis from the perspective of a higher-rarity format is very valuable. This gives us another generality of the format we can consider each season and some specifics about how Dimir Mill works this time. Glad you liked!
Just want to note for all other readers, I am currently maintaining a pretty much daily blog about pretty much only Standard Pauper: http://cabelthepauper.blogspot.com/ Hope you enjoy that, too!
This is just my opinion, but I feel that the Dimir Mill deck excels because it offer the pilot a lot of 1 for 1 answers in a format where a lot of your opponents can only drop 1 creature per turn. In Standard/Standard Silverblack, there are enough good creatures where you can overwhelm the control player easily by going 1 drop, 1 drop 1 drop, or 1 drop, BTE BTE etc, and make the 1 for 1 removal too slow. The 1 for 1 removal isn't overly taxed because the mill will get rid of problematic cards in addition to keeping you alive, and then Crypt Incursion just gets insane late game. Other than the Dimir Mill deck having problematic draws, the only way to beat it is to present more than 1 threat at a time. Token generating cards or a swarm strategy would work best. Other than the mirror, no control deck can actually win (unless you go into sideboard tech) since Dimir Mill will always take the control role in that matchup, and it's a role it does quite well.
Glad you liked the article. The points on the color line graph bothered me, too, I was able to get the lines themselves to correspond with the colors, I'll have time to figure out how get the points to match. That and a couple other general formatting problems I see should be taken care of in January :-)
Wow, I do admire your energy, there's masses of detail to absorb here.
Can you possibly find a way to make the points on the color chart match the colors - following red for green and green for red gets a bit confusing.
PureMTGO has never been purely a strategy site. Heck, every day there are probably another 20 strategy articles that go up across a variety of sites. I think these types of articles are especially good at what they do: Entertain while looking at a different side of Magic. As an older player I especially enjoy these types of articles just because I haven't thought about a ton of these cards, that I used to play with, in a very long time. I appreciate seeing this kind of stuff especially because it's outside the normal box.
And you might not find them funny, but I do.
I like 'em cuz they're fun.
If it were written as a forum post believe me Cotton would not have had this published.
There is value in piece, I see them as a humor piece, and I think they are very well written. Yes it's out of place, it's not a strategy piece or a draft recap, but I like to offer different things.
We have a wide audience, that's why Pauper gets it's own day, and Modern is starting to get it's own day.
Not everything we publish is going to go over like gangbusters, but Cotton has written here long enough that I trust what he writes, if they were not successful pieces we would not be up to Antiquities now.
I stand behind my writers, and you're more than welcome to write as well, I know that I get plenty of feedback on the site from my emails and reddit, and this series goes over pretty well. It's nice to be ridiculous every so often!
Thank you for your feedback, it was much appreciated.
"It just seems to me that this is not the right place for this type of thing to be presented."
That's precisely how I feel about most draft/sealed deck reports. My point being every article is not for everyone. There are some of us who enjoy these articles by Cotton. Taste is diverse if nothing else.
I think his aim here is a combination of being humourous, being informative and also poking fun at WOTC's R&D who sometimes seem like they really get it and sometimes seem like they haven't learned a thing. Plus he may also be trying to get people to think about why cards exist, even if they don't fit the average Spike's dream of perfect cards.
I apologize in advance If I come across as being mean here, but I feel I need to get this off my chest.
I just really don't understand the purpose of these articles.
Are you trying to show how things have changed now that Wizards actually understands card/set design?
Are you trying to make people aware of older cards that they might not know about?
Are you trying to be funny? (I don't find them to be overly funny.)
Whichever of those (or whatever goal) you might be aiming for can easily be achieved wihout having to go through every card in the set.
Every time one of these articles has been posted, all I can see is that it's pure masturbation - it's done for you're own pleasure. I really don't see what kind of information is being presented in this article outside of listing the cards from older sets. I have made this comment in the past and I feel that I have to say it again. This just seems like it belongs on the forums at MTGSalvation and not as an article here.
I am in no way intending this as an attack on Cotton, I know he spends a lot of time on these and there definitely is value in looking back at old forgotten cards. It just seems to me that this is not the right place for this type of thing to be presented.
Tx Tavis,
I probably just meant that i think its better in the format than the other versions of the color combination Ive seen that are control. It certainly has control elements but really it is a midrangey engine type deck. Which are always fun and tend to do well vs a good slew of the metagame.
x-
Thanks for this article, I think it will really help our community grow :) Also thanks for mentioning my deck :) I do agree with you on Lightning Helix/Electrolyze inclusion (mostly Helix), however, can't find anything to cut, as creatures are needed for Blink and other spells do seem necessary too (with the addition of checklands my doubts about Izzet Charm went away - previously it was more difficult to have the right mana soon enough). I thought about cutting Bolts for Helixes, however, bolts are online sooner and that seems really important, especially with Champion of the Parish.
As for Blink being control deck - I can't really agree with that (though mentioning of it as "the best control deck" really strokes my ego), it's more of a midrange-grindy deck that tries to eek-out the card advantage over time, but can become quite aggressive with the right draw (although I've beaten several combo decks by attacking them to the death with 1/3, so maybe control it is...)
Thanks again for an amazing article!
-V.
@Matthew Battaglia
"I love thie idea of this format but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Is it hard to find casual/practice games? If you put heirloom in the comments do you find games or do people just not get it? I always wondered the same thing about silverblack"
Great to hear from you and that you're interested in our exclusive community =). I dont find it very difficult to find practice games. It does take a little work and patience sometimes but usually within 15 minutes I can find someone. The thing to do is to go to Gatherling.com to the metagame section and look at the usernames of the players from the last few events. Add these to your buddies list on MTGO and send them a message if theyre online. Once you get a good list of people on your buddy list it's not as difficult as you might imagine. (mileage may vary of course. I make no promises! KCCO)
X-
Ya going over recent additions to the card pool is certainly a good element to include. I've done it in the past and certainly the next article I write will include it again. (I'm a sucker for requests).
Tx for the friendly phrasing.
X-
If I could make a suggestion for another article topic, talk specifically about cards that just entered the card pool after the recent rotation/price drop and maybe even MMA. Wickedrh mentioned Champion of the Parish and obviously the Check Lands were a huuuuge boost to the format. I'm sure there are others too? Sometimes people want to keep using cards that rotated out, or want to see some new ideas you may be excited about.
Other than that, awesome job all of you for keeping your format alive and kicking!
in my more recent builds storm 5 with minds desire almost always does it, 4 most of the time. the odyssey eggs help a lot there. I like the deck a lot, and i felt confident when i did play it. does need a lot of practice and a little luck.
x-
It is definetly one of the hardest decks to play. I was goldfishing with it abit in solitare mode and even then it takes lots of practice. Not having actual tutors like in legacy really hurts the deck as well.
I can only image it gets much harder with interactions or forcing to go off early. And unlike in legacy storm, a EtW for 4 is not a game winner. But as players get more experience with it, I guess it will be one of the top contenders in the format.
Thanks for the shoutout man, also good article. The last few times I've played the deck, I've either gotten color screwed, Mind's Desire has whiffed tremendously or I've gotten greedy for that extra storm and it cost me. The deck is definitely hard to play, but I think the deck will shine soon hopefully.
I'll think about that. Should be relatively easy - I'll try.
Would it be possible to add a bit to the pricing section? It could be helpful to see the total ticket cost of each set redemption. For example, a redemption of M14 would cost X this week, while a Theros redemption would cost Y, etc.
Thank you for the great content!
I want to master all these techniques. The ideas are really helpful and good as well. - Matt Schilit
These videos are really helpful. I like it. I learned a lot from this. - Matt Schilit
Tx Chris. Heirloom is like a building that keeps getting taller, each host is a floor of the building, if any of us hadnt been there the present activity wouldnt be possible. You were one of our better hosts and you know I sympathize with problems of time as I have the same challenges myself.
Im pretty excited about the format atm. Its picked up some pretty legit cards recently and it just feels deeper and more fun to play than ever.
Tx man, of course I only get around to it once in a blue moon so theres good reason for anyone to contribute to the article que to keep Heirloom media rolling. Grats on the recent bout of success. If not jealous Im pretty impressed. The way you built that deck is more impressive as I would never have thought to build it that way, and I cant argue with your success so its obviously a very strong build. I was using GSZ with devoted druid fauna shaman and quillspike with various toolbox cards to back up the combo plan in one deck which seemed fine, another of my builds was as an elfball card tin a deck that ran 8 green stone rain 4 mwonvuli acid moss, acidic slime, pelakka wurmand woodfall primus to end the game before the opp could get much mana. Its a great card in the format but it requires some testing and discipline i think to use optimally.
If weve learned anything in Heirloomits that straight aggro decks can never be counted out even when they appear to be down a bit. WW has some powerful starts atm.
Great article xaos. I have loved this format since it started 3 years ago and I am very happy that it is still running strong! I hosted the events for a while and if it would not have been for my work schedule changing I would still be hosting. There are a lot of competitive lists in the format and I still believe it is a wide open format. I am still waiting for a dominating Tron deck to make an appearance.
Thanks for the article and I hope to see more Heirloom articles on PureMTGO in the future!
Yay, I got mentioned and the deck is 3 out of 3 now :). I was actually working on a heirloom article as well but you beat me to it, but as long as we have heirloom articles I don't care.
This is definetly the most fun and innovation open format out there.
I totally agree with your opinion on UWR Blink being the best control deck, it has by far the most efficient and effective spells available. I always feel as the underdog when I face the blinkversion, the only times I won against are mostly when Taviscaron was mana screwed.
Champion of the Parish also deserves a nod I guess, I am starting to see alot more white decks with Champion these days. I very quickly gets out of bolt range si DoJ is the only answer most of the time.
It is a shame that we don't have that many game breaking green targets. The only playable one is Fauna Shaman. I am starting to wonder what would have happened if Tragtusk didn't jump on prizes at the last second.
Keep up the good work,
Thanks, that sort of analysis from the perspective of a higher-rarity format is very valuable. This gives us another generality of the format we can consider each season and some specifics about how Dimir Mill works this time. Glad you liked!
Just want to note for all other readers, I am currently maintaining a pretty much daily blog about pretty much only Standard Pauper: http://cabelthepauper.blogspot.com/ Hope you enjoy that, too!
This is just my opinion, but I feel that the Dimir Mill deck excels because it offer the pilot a lot of 1 for 1 answers in a format where a lot of your opponents can only drop 1 creature per turn. In Standard/Standard Silverblack, there are enough good creatures where you can overwhelm the control player easily by going 1 drop, 1 drop 1 drop, or 1 drop, BTE BTE etc, and make the 1 for 1 removal too slow. The 1 for 1 removal isn't overly taxed because the mill will get rid of problematic cards in addition to keeping you alive, and then Crypt Incursion just gets insane late game. Other than the Dimir Mill deck having problematic draws, the only way to beat it is to present more than 1 threat at a time. Token generating cards or a swarm strategy would work best. Other than the mirror, no control deck can actually win (unless you go into sideboard tech) since Dimir Mill will always take the control role in that matchup, and it's a role it does quite well.
TL;DR: Dimir Mill is good.
Great article btw!
Glad you liked the article. The points on the color line graph bothered me, too, I was able to get the lines themselves to correspond with the colors, I'll have time to figure out how get the points to match. That and a couple other general formatting problems I see should be taken care of in January :-)
Wow, I do admire your energy, there's masses of detail to absorb here.
Can you possibly find a way to make the points on the color chart match the colors - following red for green and green for red gets a bit confusing.