I've tried to experiment with what I do in my articles from what I have learned in my college classes. I might as well put those classes to use if I am not healthy enough to work outside the home yet! I think a SWOT matrix is easy to read, digest and figure out, and can be a useful tool when talking about specific decks
Nice write-up. I loved the SWOT analysis (maybe you could provide a section that dreams up potential remedies to address perceived weaknesses as well). Mastering Elves makes one a better magic player, for sure. Everyone should experiment with it some.
Ah, thank you. So you can't do it afterwards, you have to do it right when you finished upload. (EDIT: No, it was just that I needed to verify my account!)
I once put music on the videos (you get a huge selection of public domain stuff to choose from), maybe I should start doing it regularly.
Don't call Consecrated "dark side". Consecrated is beyond good and evil. She comes with the format, like Command Tower!
Yeah that really clears it up. I totally get the wrong guess based on past experience + fetch. No help for that really right? Also sometimes you just fail to grab the initiative even if you do get the right plan going.
I've actually had a somewhat decent amount of success with Zur, to the point where I wouldn't cut him. I definitely made a conscious decision to cut down on copies, though, just because he's expensive and has awkward color requirements. Also, with 2 copies, he's there if you need him, but also fairly easy to Brainstorm away if you don't.
I haven't had any troubles resolving him through countermagic and he generally wins the game if my opponent doesn't have a Swords right there (I think I've lost once when I resolved and untapped with him). (Most Classic decks aren't running any unconditional hard counters outside of 4 Force of Will these days.)
I don't know how big of a fan I'd be of Enlightened Tutor. It's a decent card that I've definitely used before, but the card disadvantage kind of sucks and it's weak against Misstep and CotV @1, so it's really at it's best against a linear deck without a lot of interaction like Dredge or Affinity, IMO.
Karakas and Jace are annoying, but I rarely run into a deck with more than 1 or 2 copies of those cards and I can switch to the Geist plan, if necessary (I agree Geist is the best creature in this deck). As for Tangle Wire, it's just always a problem when it hits the board, Zur or not, unfortunately.
Spell Snare, I feel, is awesome in Vintage where 2cc cards matter more whereas in Classic I think it's just too narrow. I definitely wouldn't cut Mana Drain or Steel Sabotage for it. The acceleration from Drain (Drain into Jace is still one of the best plays in Classic) and the versatility to bounce a Blightsteel or counter a Tangle Wire/Lodestone Golem that Sabotage gives you are too important, IMO. Snare might be better than Drain in a Tempo/Fish-style list, though.
Under the thumbnail options that are provided after you upload the video, there's another option for "Custom Thumbnail" that you can hit to upload a jpeg. So you just gotta find an image you like to upload. It makes things look pretty good.
Haha, the Dark Side has its allure sometimes. Consecrated Sphinx primarily...
I had missed the Lost Truths-graveyard interaction to get Sphinxes in the yard. That might well make LD more justifiable over Supreme Verdict (though the extra mana could be crucial), and Command could stop some combo game plans you might be otherwise weak against, though I still stand behind Shackles as clearly more powerful than all.
Generally, yes. (And I'm referring to the flying rather than the occasional flicker.) But three artifacts aren't too hard to come by, especially in a tribe with other artifact creatures, and a colour with one of the finest anti-creature artifacts in the game.
Yeah, I don't think I would ever play Conundrum Sphinx in Commander. Then again, I don't usually play any creature in Commander under 6 CMC (if any at all, now that I think of it) that doesn't come with some utility angle. Even Thrun looks mostly pointless to me.
And of course Ambassador works better when you target a 99-card deck with a potential large number of useful creatures (did I name Duplicant? Terastodon? A finisher?). But I still can't get behind how convoluted the mechanic for Isperia 1.0 is, and what the flavor of it is even supposed to be. (Then again, it's the same block that gave us Haunt, which experienced MTG players use as a campfire story to scare newbies.)
Halfway through I stopped because I needed to comment concerning Magister Sphinx. Typically the "Becomes 10 life" ability works in your favor whether it is to get you BACK to 10 or put your opponent within sudden death range.
Also I noticed some odd grammar errors:
"And why did Magic wait so much before making Sphinx the blue equivalent of Angel, Demon and Dragon?" "...wait so long..." would be better.
"The things you'll end up playing for free when you cast her risk to be pretty beefy..." "Risk to be" is really not how this phrasing should go. Better is "...cast her are likely to be pretty beefy...". Risk indicates a strong negative. And this phrasing is an incorrect usage because of the infinitive "to be".
"...you even risk to give the opponent their life back!" the problem here is the "to give" part. "Risk giving" is better. (gerund vs infinitive verb form)
"It might also come the case where you use her to save yourself... " This is quite awkward. Better would be: "There might come a case where..."
"Possibly because I didn't see him played yet, neither in Commander nor in regular constructed formats." "...didn't see him played yet..." should be "...haven't seen him played yet..." also the "neither,nor" negative should instead be the positive "either, or" since otherwise you would have a double negative. (The not in didn't or haven't is the first negative.)
I won't pick apart the entire article. These just jumped out at me. I will be happy to help you proof your articles if you so desire. Just email me the copy you want proofed and I'll try and be helpful.
==Edit==
I'd like to point out that while I did find a number of errors in this article I don't think that reflects on your ability Kuma. You generally write some of the best articles on the site and perhaps in the game. Without your hard work there would be a huge gap to fill. And one of the reasons I've felt comfortable not writing much is because I don't see the need.
The errors within this particular article were anomalous which is why I pointed them out. I hope you understand how well regarded you are for the work you do.
The pictures as thumbnails in the YouTube videos look great! I need to jump on that train, how do you do that? I only see the choices between different points in the video.
Great article as usual. And Magister Sphinx in Commander: that's the allure of the Dark Side. :P
I've tried to experiment with what I do in my articles from what I have learned in my college classes. I might as well put those classes to use if I am not healthy enough to work outside the home yet! I think a SWOT matrix is easy to read, digest and figure out, and can be a useful tool when talking about specific decks
Nice write-up. I loved the SWOT analysis (maybe you could provide a section that dreams up potential remedies to address perceived weaknesses as well). Mastering Elves makes one a better magic player, for sure. Everyone should experiment with it some.
I was wearing a helmet and carrying an air raid siren all week.
Haha, being at the end of the week I was really hoping no one would drop the S.P.H.I.N.X. bomb before me!
Ah, thank you. So you can't do it afterwards, you have to do it right when you finished upload. (EDIT: No, it was just that I needed to verify my account!)
I once put music on the videos (you get a huge selection of public domain stuff to choose from), maybe I should start doing it regularly.
Don't call Consecrated "dark side". Consecrated is beyond good and evil. She comes with the format, like Command Tower!
We need to do more pop culture references. Sometimes I feel Magic players only play Magic all day and don't know anything else!
I'm just glad somebody finally made some Venture Bros references!!
Bonus points if the custom thumbnail is a hand drawn doodle.
Yeah that really clears it up. I totally get the wrong guess based on past experience + fetch. No help for that really right? Also sometimes you just fail to grab the initiative even if you do get the right plan going.
Thanks!
Indeed it is.
This is nice. I learned a lot from this one. I can't wait to try this game already. - Charles Brennan
Awesome deck awesome cards simply one of the finest things out there and magic the gathering is just awesome!. - Feed the Children
Dryad Arbor is banned from non-Dryad decks today (Pure), right?
I've actually had a somewhat decent amount of success with Zur, to the point where I wouldn't cut him. I definitely made a conscious decision to cut down on copies, though, just because he's expensive and has awkward color requirements. Also, with 2 copies, he's there if you need him, but also fairly easy to Brainstorm away if you don't.
I haven't had any troubles resolving him through countermagic and he generally wins the game if my opponent doesn't have a Swords right there (I think I've lost once when I resolved and untapped with him). (Most Classic decks aren't running any unconditional hard counters outside of 4 Force of Will these days.)
I don't know how big of a fan I'd be of Enlightened Tutor. It's a decent card that I've definitely used before, but the card disadvantage kind of sucks and it's weak against Misstep and CotV @1, so it's really at it's best against a linear deck without a lot of interaction like Dredge or Affinity, IMO.
Karakas and Jace are annoying, but I rarely run into a deck with more than 1 or 2 copies of those cards and I can switch to the Geist plan, if necessary (I agree Geist is the best creature in this deck). As for Tangle Wire, it's just always a problem when it hits the board, Zur or not, unfortunately.
Spell Snare, I feel, is awesome in Vintage where 2cc cards matter more whereas in Classic I think it's just too narrow. I definitely wouldn't cut Mana Drain or Steel Sabotage for it. The acceleration from Drain (Drain into Jace is still one of the best plays in Classic) and the versatility to bounce a Blightsteel or counter a Tangle Wire/Lodestone Golem that Sabotage gives you are too important, IMO. Snare might be better than Drain in a Tempo/Fish-style list, though.
Thanks for reading and leaving feedback.
I learned a lot from these techniques. Good thing i saw this one. - Charles Brennan
Under the thumbnail options that are provided after you upload the video, there's another option for "Custom Thumbnail" that you can hit to upload a jpeg. So you just gotta find an image you like to upload. It makes things look pretty good.
Haha, the Dark Side has its allure sometimes. Consecrated Sphinx primarily...
I had missed the Lost Truths-graveyard interaction to get Sphinxes in the yard. That might well make LD more justifiable over Supreme Verdict (though the extra mana could be crucial), and Command could stop some combo game plans you might be otherwise weak against, though I still stand behind Shackles as clearly more powerful than all.
Hello Yokohama. Let the battle begin!!! This will be an eating battle for sure. - Phillip Elden
It is all about winning baby. Everybody loves winners. - Phillip Elden
Generally, yes. (And I'm referring to the flying rather than the occasional flicker.) But three artifacts aren't too hard to come by, especially in a tribe with other artifact creatures, and a colour with one of the finest anti-creature artifacts in the game.
Yeah, I don't think I would ever play Conundrum Sphinx in Commander. Then again, I don't usually play any creature in Commander under 6 CMC (if any at all, now that I think of it) that doesn't come with some utility angle. Even Thrun looks mostly pointless to me.
And of course Ambassador works better when you target a 99-card deck with a potential large number of useful creatures (did I name Duplicant? Terastodon? A finisher?). But I still can't get behind how convoluted the mechanic for Isperia 1.0 is, and what the flavor of it is even supposed to be. (Then again, it's the same block that gave us Haunt, which experienced MTG players use as a campfire story to scare newbies.)
Halfway through I stopped because I needed to comment concerning Magister Sphinx. Typically the "Becomes 10 life" ability works in your favor whether it is to get you BACK to 10 or put your opponent within sudden death range.
Also I noticed some odd grammar errors:
"And why did Magic wait so much before making Sphinx the blue equivalent of Angel, Demon and Dragon?" "...wait so long..." would be better.
"The things you'll end up playing for free when you cast her risk to be pretty beefy..." "Risk to be" is really not how this phrasing should go. Better is "...cast her are likely to be pretty beefy...". Risk indicates a strong negative. And this phrasing is an incorrect usage because of the infinitive "to be".
"...you even risk to give the opponent their life back!" the problem here is the "to give" part. "Risk giving" is better. (gerund vs infinitive verb form)
"It might also come the case where you use her to save yourself... " This is quite awkward. Better would be: "There might come a case where..."
"Possibly because I didn't see him played yet, neither in Commander nor in regular constructed formats." "...didn't see him played yet..." should be "...haven't seen him played yet..." also the "neither,nor" negative should instead be the positive "either, or" since otherwise you would have a double negative. (The not in didn't or haven't is the first negative.)
I won't pick apart the entire article. These just jumped out at me. I will be happy to help you proof your articles if you so desire. Just email me the copy you want proofed and I'll try and be helpful.
==Edit==
I'd like to point out that while I did find a number of errors in this article I don't think that reflects on your ability Kuma. You generally write some of the best articles on the site and perhaps in the game. Without your hard work there would be a huge gap to fill. And one of the reasons I've felt comfortable not writing much is because I don't see the need.
The errors within this particular article were anomalous which is why I pointed them out. I hope you understand how well regarded you are for the work you do.
Sphinx of the Chimes will live forever!!!
The pictures as thumbnails in the YouTube videos look great! I need to jump on that train, how do you do that? I only see the choices between different points in the video.
Great article as usual. And Magister Sphinx in Commander: that's the allure of the Dark Side. :P