Hello everybody and welcome to Rogue Play. Last week I said that the articles are the mirrors of their authors. And I also said that by just reading my articles, you can see one very important thing about me; and that is the fact that I love everything that is new to me. I must taste it if it's food (and that's a very bad habit of mine as you can also tell from my picture), I must read it if it's a book, I must listen to it if it's music, I must see it if it's a place or a piece of art... and I must play it if it's Magic.
And as expected from me, the moment I heard about Standard Singleton, I jumped into it without even thinking a millisecond about it. I am already playing 100 Card Singleton from time to time (hey; I Top-16'ed in mymtgo.com's tournament!) and the whole idea of "Highlander" was something I always liked. And strangely or as expected (I'm still not sure which one yet), I liked this 60 card version more than the 100 card one.
But even though this is another Highlander format, there are many differences between the two. And in this article I will talk about those differences a bit and will give you some ideas for building your very first Standard Singleton deck.
But first things first...
ENTERING THE FORMAT
There are two fundamental differences between this new Singleton format and the one we used to play.
1- Now we need sixty cards instead of a hundred.
2- We use the Standard card pool.
At first glance these two differences look very nice; at least for players with low/limited budget. Collecting a hundred high quality cards from the Classic card pool could be a serious problem for some. And by playing forty cards less, this problem is solved right at the beginning in this new format.
Well, look at things from the brighter side: At least one copy is enough and you won't bother collecting the other three copies!
But all those things are irrelevant for competitive Standard players. They already have everything they need. But players of the other formats could experience some problems. For instance I never saw a Classic decklist containing Day of Judgment and/or Baneslayer Angel. And if some Classic enthusiast collecting only the staples of his beloved format wants to enter Standard Singleton, he all of a sudden faces the fact that he must invest in those Standard cards if he wants to compete in the format.
In summary I can tell you that this isn't a budget friendly format on its own but if you are already a Standard player, you will have no difficulties whatsoever entering the format; because you already have everything needed and playing this new format requires ZERO investment for you.
NEW TO SINGLETON?
If your answer is yes, then there are (more than) a few things you should learn about the whole concept. The most important thing is that you can't play your spells the way you used to do in other Constructed formats. In Standard, you don't mind spending one of your four Maelstrom Pulses on a single unimportant target for example. In Singleton, this might cost you the game. In every game you should try and get the most out of every card in your deck because you won't be seeing those cards again in that game.
And the other very important thing is that you should search for cards with similar effects. There will be only one Naturalize in your deck to deal with artifacts and enchantments. If you used to play four of that card, then you should now find three other cards that can deal with those permanents. And the real problem is that those new cards you will find won't be cards and they will now mess with your mana curve.
Hey! Nobody said it will be easy!
One of the other most important things is to maximize your "income" from your cards in Singleton. One for one is okay most of the time (as in "I counter your Woolly Thoctar with my Essence Scatter and spend one card to deal with one problem") but in Singleton, you should try to select cards that give you two for one or even more for one. What do I mean? I actually mean these types of cards:
There are of course many such cards. So with Double Negative or with Mindbreak Trap, you counter more than one spell. In reality you actually consume only one card whereas your opponent consumes two or maybe even three cards in return. To play Broodmate Dragon you pay but you get two creatures for that price. You again consume one card, but you get two creatures.
And finally in Standard Singleton you simply can't play some of your favorite strategies; for example Turbo Fog. I have one such deck for Standard with sixteen Fog effects (well okay, it's twelve plus four Sleeps) and in Singleton it is unfortunately not possible to play the deck. And some other tribal strategies such as Goblins, also don't work. As a side note, there are nineteen Goblin creatures in the format and some such as Wandering Goblins, Tuktuk Grunts or Dragon's Herald are already useless for an effective Tier-1 Goblin Tribal deck.
So what to play?!
Sadly I cannot answer that question for you. But I can help you with something else; something more important. I can help you building a deck for the format. If you start adding all the creatures you like to your deck, and add some random removal and also some lands, unfortunately that won't be something more than a "pile". In Singleton, deck building requires some skill and careful attention (to many things).
In this article dear readers, I will be showing you how to build a deck from the scratch. I will show you two different ways of deck building and plus one other alternate way. All three require different tactics and in this article I will be presenting them to you.
Let's not waste more time and start with the first deck.
DECK BUILDING ESSENTIALS
Section I:
How to build a Mana Ramp Deck
As I said, in this article I will show you how to build a few specific deck types for Standard Singleton and Mana Ramp will be our first deck. Mana Ramp decks in Standard are currently my favorite ones, be it Jund Mana Ramp or Naya. If you have the right cards, you can do some really devastating things on your turn three with such a deck and in this first section I will talk about how to "translate" that strategy into Standard Singleton.
First of all I know that not everybody is equally familiar with the Standard terminology and therefore allow me to start by explaining what "Mana Ramp" means.
Every turn we are allowed to play a land and considering we don't miss a land drop and play one every turn, we can play a card that costs on our fifth turn. But Mana Ramp decks can play that card on their third turn with some special cards such as these:
So the main goal is to play high cost cards during early turns of the game. You can play a Woolly Thoctar on your second turn, or play your Ajani Vengeant on your third turn with this strategy. You can even play your Baneslayer Angel on turn three as well as your Broodmate Dragon on turn three in some special cases and with some special cards.
A Standard Mana Ramp deck normally has at least eight extra mana cards. In Extended, players like to play Wall of Roots together with Into the North for example. And in Standard we can always play Birds of Paradise and Trace of Abundance; even a few extra copies of Lotus Cobra won't hurt. But we can't play four Birds of Paradises and four Harrows in Standard Singleton for example and therefore we have to find some other cards.
And the second big question for a Mana Ramp deck is this: What to do with all that mana? Yes we can produce some high amount of mana but we have to put it into good use, right?
Our aim is turn three. We must do something game changing on turn three. That is important. And therefore we will have some really high quality four cost cards in our deck. But sometimes we get lucky. We play a turn one mana creature and then a turn two mana sorcery. This means that we must also be prepared to play five cost cards on our turn three. So we must have such cards in our deck too.
Okay, let's go step by step. First the mana producing cards.
Naya Mana Ramp
An Under Construction Standard Singleton Deck by Nafiz Erman
Now we have enough ways to generate extra mana. If everything goes as planned, we will be able to play a four cost card on turn three. If everything goes very well, then will be able to play a five cost card on turn three instead.
Now we should choose our monsters and other threats.
Captured Sunlight and Mycoid Shepherd: Actually I foresee that the format will be a very Aggro dominated format and therefore lifegain will be very important. But you know what: I miss my Kitchen Finks so much!
Spellbreaker Behemoth: Counterspells do exist in the format as in Cruel Control and/or Esper Control but the real bargain here is to get a 5/5 creature for a mere four mana.
From the Sideboard:
Kor Sanctifiers and Goblin Ruinblaster: We will be adding those two cards to our sideboard and depending on our opponent's deck, we will be bringing them in. A turn three Goblin Ruinblaster blasting the opponent's Arcane Sanctum would be very devastating I can imagine.
Day of Judgment: Sometimes the opponent will swarm us with his army. We cannot allow him that. A reset button is always a good option to have.
FIVE COST MONSTERS:
Chandra Nalaar: Our fifth planeswalker. Most of the time she will act as removal but her ultimate nuke'em all ability is also very nice indeed.
Thornling, Uril, the Miststalker: Both are excellent creatures and I would be more than happy to cast any one of them on my turn three.
From the Sideboard:
Caldera Hellion: Mini Wrath spells are always important. Especially when the opponent is trying to swarm you with a bunch of small creatures and/or 1/1 tokens. And those Mini Wrath spells are especially good if they leave a 4/4 or a 5/5 body behind.
Of course our deck will not be all about four cost and five cost cards. There will be definitely other good cards too. You may successfully play your Baneslayer Angel on turn three and there is always the possibility that she might get Terminated at the end of your turn. Therefore we should continue putting our opponent under pressure. If our four or five cost creature dies, we should then play a six cost one the next turn. Such as these:
Rampaging Baloths: Another fine six cost creature. It's definitely in.
From the Sideboard:
Realm Razer: You know how devastating it is against Control decks.
Summoning Trap: What? You just countered my Mycoid Shepherd? How dare you?! Now look what's coming. Say hallo to my Rampaging Baloths! You can also side this one in even though your opponent isn't playing counterspells.
Four and five cost creatures we already covered above and so I move onto three and two cost cards.
Woolly Thoctar: A very simple beast. Preferably played on turn two for even more destructive effects.
Behemoth Sledge: This is another must-have card for the deck.
Qasali Pridemage: A little bit enchantment/artifact hate in the main deck is always good. And besides, this creatures is more than a "Disenchant on legs".
Relic of Progenitus against decks that like to use their graveyards and Pithing Needle mainly against opposing "planar walkers". And finally I have Nature's Spiral because of reasons mentioned above.
Okay, the deck is finished now. Let's add our lands too and take a look at it one final time.
Okay dear readers, you saw how to build a Mana Ramp deck for the format. The deck itself by the way, is still in the testing process and I might chance a few things here and there. But this was an example deck of course. For example, I know that I should have one Ranger of Eos somewhere along with some efficient one drops such as Scute Mob and Wild Nacatl, but as I said, the decklist is not that important. The important thing here is how to build a Mana Ramp deck.
So you basically start by adding at least eight mana sources and then add your four cost cards and your five costs ones to the deck. Those four cost and five cost cards are the most important cards in your deck. As I said, your aim is to do something game changing on turn three. This could be a planeswalker or Baneslayer Angel. And then you select the cards that will help you in the long run such as Enlisted Wurm and finally add your removal. As a side note, some Mana Ramp decks like to play some even bigger monsters such as Empyrial Archangel, but that is a little bit more Control-ish version of this strategy.
You can use this formula to build a Jund Mana Ramp deck or a four color one. Alternatively for a more aggressive approach, you can remove the planeswalkers and add more creatures. Also you can add two more mana cards too if you think eight is not enough. I know that there are very good Tier-1 Mana Ramp decks out there with ten extra mana sources. Harrow, Oracle of Mul Daya, Exploding Borders and even Khalni Heart Expedition might then be helpful to you.
Now we all understood how to build a Mana Ramp deck, let's move onto the second part of this article. Which is...
DECK BUILDING ESSENTIALS
Section II:
How to transform a known deck into Singleton
In this second part of the article we will take an already tested and approved Tier-1 Standard deck and we will transform it into a Standard Singleton deck.
Jack Wang recently won with this deck starcitygames.com's Standard tournament and as it is a proven Tier-1 deck for the format, this will be the deck we will work on. Do we actually like the deck? No we don't, but that's not important now. Let's assume that we do.
To be able to work on the deck, we should first examine it closely. Here's the deck's breakdown:
CREATURES
One Drops: None.
Two Drops: Four copies.
Three Drops: Four copies.
Four Drops: Four Copies.
Five Drops: None.
Six Drops: Three Copies.
OTHER SPELLS
The deck has two planeswalkers, fourteen removal and four utility cards (as in Blightning).
Okay let's look at the deck after removing those four ofs, the sideboard and the lands.
Jund Aggro
An Under Construction Standard Singleton Deck by Nafiz Erman
This is what we have. And please note that this isn't a Mana Ramp deck so we don't need any Birds of Paradises and/or Llanowar Elves in this deck.
So let's start with creatures. The original deck doesn't have any one drops. But our version will have one such creature. We will have Scute Mob. This little fella isn't that useful during early game but Scute "the Cute" Mob really shines during late game.
Then for two drops we already have Putrid Leech from the original deck list. We will add Elvish Visionary and Lotus Cobra to the deck as they both have their own uses. The elf gives us card advantage and can then be sacrificed to a "greater predator" later. And the cobra gives us mana.
As three drops we already have Sprouting Thrinax and we will add two other three cost creature to the deck which are Great Sable Stag and Vampire Nighthawk. The latter is such an excellent creature and I cannot think of a reason why a deck that has access to Black mana won't play it. And you should already know why the green glowing-eyed Elk is such a useful creature.
We of course keep Blightning and then we add first Quest for the Gravelord to the deck. We have tons of removal in deck and it won't be that hard to fill this with counters.
RED: Looking at the original deck's sideboard I see four Jund Charms and one Pyroclasm. It seems that the pilot was really scared of tiny little annoying creatures. And that's the reason we will have Pyroclasm, Caldera Hellion and Earthquake in our sideboard. We will also have Goblin Ruinblaster for blasting some nonbasic lands.
MULTICOLOR:Jund Charm for more Pyroclasm effect as well as graveyard hate, Necrogenesis against Aggro decks (we should put those dead creatures into good use, right?), Anathemancer against greedy mana bases and Goblin Outlander against White.
And that's the end of section two. We took a successful deck and transformed it into a Standard Singleton deck. I may have missed a few good cards (Marisi's Twinclaws maybe?) and made a few other mistakes but the deck wasn't the point; the important part was the technique.
With this technique, you can always create yourself some good Standard Singleton decks. Take the popular Naya Lotus Angel deck for example or any version of Aggro, and turn it into a Standard Singleton deck by yourself.
Okay we are now finished with the second part and so we move to the final one.
DECK BUILDING ESSENTIALS
Section III:
Netdecking!
You may like it or not; netdecking is a very good way of "obtaining" a deck. Just don't play in the very first and maybe in the second event of the given format, follow the results through www.dailymtg.com, see what's winning and simply copy/paste it!
If netdecking is your thing, then in this section you will definitely find something for your taste. Let's start with the winner:
This is the winner of the first Standard Singleton tournament. Actually it looks very similar to my approach above. The one thing I don't have in my deck is Ranger of Eos and thus those Hydras. I personally always prefer real monsters over monster wannabes and therefore prefer playing Uril, the Miststalker over Protean Hydra anyday (and lose to the hydra afterwards!). But apparently eddie112, who is also a clanmate of mine, is not thinking like me.
His sideboard is also different than mine; he has two traps and Mold Adder! This for example is a creature I would never play myself. I also have difficulties understanding Ethersworn Canonist in his sideboard as it is actually a card that will hurt himself the most but hey; this is the winning list! I'm sure my clanmate did some proper testing before entering the tournament.
This above deck actually shows us one thing and that is the fact that Mana Ramp is a very good strategy for Standard Singleton. Next we have this one:
I'm a huge fan of Jund meets Naya decks and I believe that the combination of those four colors is the best option in today's Standard. And obviously gamemaster32 thought so too and with his deck, he managed to finish the first tournament in second place.
I'm seeing both Great Sable Stag and Dauntless Escort in his main deck which is understandable but I'm also seeing Ethersworn Canonist in his sideboard which I really don't understand. But as I said above too, don't mind me; these are wining decks.
Even though this deck is a little bit too light on removal for my taste, I can also see the aggressive power of its creatures and their high quality. It seems that the pilot gave up on removal in order to put his opponents under some real pressure with his creatures.
And the third deck I want to show you from the first event is this:
Apparently the pilot doesn't have any Zendikar cards but even without them, he managed to pilot this Esper Control deck to a successful third place in the event (which actually only proves the high skill level of the pilot). Somewhere above I said that I foresee that the format will be heavily dominated by Aggro decks. The first event proved that this was true but it also showed that there is still hope for Control players (such as yours truly). Even though the Esper shard in ALA Block was a total disappointment for me, it is still true that the color combination of is the deadliest of all color combinations. And this above deck proves that fact.
I will personally and most definately try this above deck by adding some Zendikar cards and see what happens.
WRAP UP
Okay dear readers, that's all for this week from Rogue Play. I hope you enjoyed the article and found it useful. If you like Mana Ramp decks, now you know how to build one for Standard Singleton. You now also know how to transform your beloved Standard deck into a Standard Singleton one. And finally if you're not a deckbuilder but still want to try the format, I gave you three interesting decks from the first event to satisfy all your netdecking needs. You can also find the rest of the decks from Top-8 here.
NEXT WEEK ON ROGUE PLAY
Back to the Core
Last week I had a poll and asked which formats the readers want to read from me about and Standard Singleton got the most votes. But the runner up in that poll was Core Set Constructed and that format also received a significant amount of votes. That actually made me happy because I enjoyed that format a lot and next week I will be going Back to the Core and I will be talking about the meta a little bit, as well as some new and fresh rogue decks possibilities.
I disagree with the statement that Standard Singleton is better than 100 singleton but we each have our own opinions and they both have good selling points.
You mention that you can't transfer Goblins and Turbo-Fog to Standard Singleton because there aren't enough substitutes available to make that strategy work. I think you really understate this idea. I believe there are about equal numbers of decks that can and can't be transferred to a standard singleton format.
For instance, Jund, Naya, WG, Grixis, Esper, Mono-red, and Bant can probably be transferred because they focus on a broader topic.
Nissa-Elves, Hedron Mill decks, Vampires, Goblins, White Weenie/Soldiers/Kor, Ball Lightning Burn, and Valakut can't be transferred because they depend too much on too few cards.
Terrific article. After playing a good bit of EDH with friends, I could see where this format could be pretty fun. I still prefer 100-card singleton due to the variety of cards (which lets me please the Timmy and Johnny in me, while Spike gets a little loving too), but this could be an OPTION to say the least for limited budget players trying to break into standard. Of course, I can't shell out $35+ for a singleton Baneslayer, but I want to give it a try one day.
I am really not interested in singleton standard but you do make a very compelling case. In fact your article points up where my collection has some strengths (singleton standard legal cards being more common in it) and makes it a tempting idea to at least start building and see where it goes. This article delivered on your promise and didn't disappoint. Id hit you for 6 but 5 is max.
Thanks guys for the comments (and the fireballs!!).
I liked this version of singleton more, mainly because it requires 60 cards to play. Deck building is easier and the consistency of decks is higher. Yes I know that highlander formats ment to be random and that's the beauty of them. But the 100 card version is a little bit too random for my taste and one must play too many cards (tutors) to make it less random.
But of course after tasting that sweet "aroma" of Classic, this new Standard version might be a little bit tasteless for some, but at least it's worth to give it a try. In summary I personally think that a format called "60 Card Classic Singleton" would be the best of all Singleton formats(so yes, I still believe that 60>100).
And ArchGenius I have a few things to say about your article and now I'm moving there to write them.
I have tried Standard Singleton. Its nice to be forced to play different cards. However, I find it difficult for me to play more than 2 games in a row in the Standard Singleton format.
I just find myself getting bored quickly with it. I still play it from time to time, but I still fine 100 Card more fun.
100 Card Singleton has a very dedicated and large player base. At first I thought that they would jump into this new Singleton but apparently most of them are still fond to their Classic decks.
Give the format some time; I'm sure in the very near future it will have its own player base. And yes, I too have difficulties playing 2 games in a row now but I hope it will be better in time.
Personally there are two reasons why I prefer to 100CS over Standard Singleton. (Although I'm planning on playing both.)
1) 100 Singleton caters to the people who have favorite cards and want to keep playing them. A lot of the standard cards are a bit too new for some of us to have any kind of attachment to them. With 100 Singleton I can still play favorite cards like Meloku, Sword of Fire and Ice, Animate Dead, Zur, Imperial Recruiter, and others without worrying about losing to a turn 3 combo deck that would normally kill me every game in regular classic.
2) 100 Singleton has some of the most complex game situations imagineable. This makes some of the play decisions as challenging as a game of chess. Even mundane decisions like which land to get with a fetchland can be a decision with game determining ramifications. When you have a deck full of tutors and somewhere over 20 targets for those tutors, you know it's going to be an interesting game based on the choices each player makes.
Standard Singleton just seems a bit more basic in comparison. With few viable tutors and somewhat limited choices for viable decks, it seems closer to Standard with weak substitutions rather than 100 Classic Singleton.
I'm not saying I won't play. I'm just saying that I still prefer 100 singleton. Thank you very much....
I have to admit, you've made a tempting case for 60 card Standard singleton! I can definitely see a couple of decks I'd love to put together for the format, and I'll have to poke around and see what comes together.
One small note I feel like I have to correct: Double Negative and Mindbreak Trap are essentially never card advantage; what they do, and what's relevant, is that they keep your opponent from gaining card advantage on you in turn. Double Negative countering Bloodbraid Elf and a cascaded-into spell isn't actually a 2-for-1 in that you haven't spent one card from your hand to counter two cards from their hand; instead, you've spent one card to keep them from functionally turning one card from their hand into two cards. Still important, but different (IMHO) than you portrayed it. (And in my experience, I've *never* actually countered two non-cascade spells on the stack with Double Negative where I couldn't have just countered one instead.)
I find that people with tournament level 100 card singleton decks are using the causal room a lot. In the long run this will keep more players from entering the format. I know that it can be difficult to find games in the tourney practice room, but that's because I just played three guys in a row in the casual room with tourney level decks.
my 2cents worth,
mullaccm
You touched upon a very important subject actually.
The situation is this: The tournament practice room is now the place to test Tier-1 decks for mainstream formats. Such as Standard, Classic, Pauper etc... Most of the players there only test those formats and it is almost impossible to start a game for, say, Core Set Constructed there.
On the other hand, Casual Room is always very crowded and it is a lot easier to start a game for any format. And that's the reason why people use the Casual Room to test Tier-1 decks for those "exotic" formats. And I won't lie; I'm doing that too.
Time is generally scarce for most of us and no one wants to wait forever just to start a game. And that's the main reason why people use the Casual Room to test decks.
I'm not saying it's right by the way. If Casual Room will be the place to test Tier-1 decks, where then people will test their casual decks for those exotic formats?
I think that people should first try the TP Room and if that fails, they may come to the Casual Room but they should advertise their game as "Tier-1" or "Serious" or something. If they say nothing and play their Tier-1 decks, then it's wrong.
I only use the casual room for solotaire games. For some reason they don't have the option of a solotaire game in the tournament practice room. If you end up watching me play a series of solotaire games to test the mana of one of my decks, I apologize. I'm not trying to scare people away......
I agree that tournament decks should be tested against other tournament decks in the tournament practice room. It's not much fun for either side to face unfair practice games.
I don't play my Tier 1 100CS decks in Casual anymore, it has gotten reasonable enough to find testing games in TP for that purpose.
I find that mis-clasification of Tier 1 decks is probably the largest culprit of people complaining about Tier 1 decks in Casual. That is to say that people claim a deck is Tier 1 when it is in reality not. This may happen for any number of reasons, losing badly to a deck, seeing several high priced rares in a row without knowing the rest of the deck contents, having the opponents deck seem like your one unwinnable matchup, or some other skewed perspective. Many times this will happen with decks like MBC or Mono Blue all counter decks, which are far and away not Tier 1 decks, but can eat other casual decks for breakfast at times. Where should people play those decks? The Casual Room is the only appropriate place, since they are likely not practicing for tournaments with those decks and it will just waste the time of players that are.
That is an interesting perspective. The problem is, defining what Tier 1 in 100s IS. Not all top 8 decks qualify and rogue builds with a few minor but significant changes can also be not tier 1 yet not quite casual either. Imho the ability to just win the first few turns makes a deck slightly more than casual. That is my opinion but I think it is shared by many. Now of all of us you might have a better insight into what is what because you did those spreadsheets for the CC but does that mean anything you didn't consider for them isn't playable in a tourney? (A waste of time?) I played against 2 of those decks by the way with a decidedly casual red deck and rolled over them. One of the decks was Crosis which I understand was scratched but the other was WW which in theory should just win vs red. My point is how does one figure out whether their deck is tier 1, 2, x? Not even thinkable as a tier? I mean common sense will rule out some cards as being completely bad but even with the obvious chaff out of the way there are plenty of cards that are situationally awesome and otherwise not so much.
This is precisely why I avoid one-on-one matches in the casual room altogether. Casual is such a nebulous term that I just can't wrap my mind around what it would take to make to make a deck that is truly "casual" without it being simply random and bad.
Budget is something I can understand. Budget has rules that I can obey and use to construct a deck I like to play. A lot of people can't afford the expensive rares and don't want to play against people who use those cards because it makes the game lopsided and not fun for either player.
But casual is so much different than that.
I could make a PAUPER 100CS deck with nothing but basic lands, and I would still feel uncomfortable playing it in the casual room because I'm sure I'd end up playing against someone who would see me playing a couple of good cards like Lightning Bolt, Incinerate, and Burst Lightning, and accuse me of not playing a casual deck.
I don't play matches in the casual room because it seems like I have to bend over backwards to make everyone happy.
Players in the Tournament Practice room seem to be much more understanding of a deck that isn't quite equal to their expectations in terms of power level.
Really? From the accounts Ive heard if you bring a sub par deck you get yelled at pretty fiercely in TP. No pleasing anyone. I don't even try. I let people know ahead of time (by setting the table) what I am interested in. If people don't want to see counters, not my problem. I said "Competitive" or "Bring your best" or whatever. That isn't always true actually particularly with extended format I just bring a laid back deck and play to socialize or just have fun. But the point is, know your opponent or at least let them know who you are (aren't).
i hope ur article makes people interested in making standard singleton fire - seeing as it only fired once thus far. if it does start firing i attribute it to you. wotc owes you big ;)
cards and they will now mess with your mana curve.
16 Comments
Very informative article.
I disagree with the statement that Standard Singleton is better than 100 singleton but we each have our own opinions and they both have good selling points.
You mention that you can't transfer Goblins and Turbo-Fog to Standard Singleton because there aren't enough substitutes available to make that strategy work. I think you really understate this idea. I believe there are about equal numbers of decks that can and can't be transferred to a standard singleton format.
For instance, Jund, Naya, WG, Grixis, Esper, Mono-red, and Bant can probably be transferred because they focus on a broader topic.
Nissa-Elves, Hedron Mill decks, Vampires, Goblins, White Weenie/Soldiers/Kor, Ball Lightning Burn, and Valakut can't be transferred because they depend too much on too few cards.
Terrific article. After playing a good bit of EDH with friends, I could see where this format could be pretty fun. I still prefer 100-card singleton due to the variety of cards (which lets me please the Timmy and Johnny in me, while Spike gets a little loving too), but this could be an OPTION to say the least for limited budget players trying to break into standard. Of course, I can't shell out $35+ for a singleton Baneslayer, but I want to give it a try one day.
Can't wait to see Core Constructed!
I am really not interested in singleton standard but you do make a very compelling case. In fact your article points up where my collection has some strengths (singleton standard legal cards being more common in it) and makes it a tempting idea to at least start building and see where it goes. This article delivered on your promise and didn't disappoint. Id hit you for 6 but 5 is max.
Thanks guys for the comments (and the fireballs!!).
I liked this version of singleton more, mainly because it requires 60 cards to play. Deck building is easier and the consistency of decks is higher. Yes I know that highlander formats ment to be random and that's the beauty of them. But the 100 card version is a little bit too random for my taste and one must play too many cards (tutors) to make it less random.
But of course after tasting that sweet "aroma" of Classic, this new Standard version might be a little bit tasteless for some, but at least it's worth to give it a try. In summary I personally think that a format called "60 Card Classic Singleton" would be the best of all Singleton formats(so yes, I still believe that 60>100).
And ArchGenius I have a few things to say about your article and now I'm moving there to write them.
Thanks again for the comments.
LE
I have tried Standard Singleton. Its nice to be forced to play different cards. However, I find it difficult for me to play more than 2 games in a row in the Standard Singleton format.
I just find myself getting bored quickly with it. I still play it from time to time, but I still fine 100 Card more fun.
100 Card Singleton has a very dedicated and large player base. At first I thought that they would jump into this new Singleton but apparently most of them are still fond to their Classic decks.
Give the format some time; I'm sure in the very near future it will have its own player base. And yes, I too have difficulties playing 2 games in a row now but I hope it will be better in time.
LE
Personally there are two reasons why I prefer to 100CS over Standard Singleton. (Although I'm planning on playing both.)
1) 100 Singleton caters to the people who have favorite cards and want to keep playing them. A lot of the standard cards are a bit too new for some of us to have any kind of attachment to them. With 100 Singleton I can still play favorite cards like Meloku, Sword of Fire and Ice, Animate Dead, Zur, Imperial Recruiter, and others without worrying about losing to a turn 3 combo deck that would normally kill me every game in regular classic.
2) 100 Singleton has some of the most complex game situations imagineable. This makes some of the play decisions as challenging as a game of chess. Even mundane decisions like which land to get with a fetchland can be a decision with game determining ramifications. When you have a deck full of tutors and somewhere over 20 targets for those tutors, you know it's going to be an interesting game based on the choices each player makes.
Standard Singleton just seems a bit more basic in comparison. With few viable tutors and somewhat limited choices for viable decks, it seems closer to Standard with weak substitutions rather than 100 Classic Singleton.
I'm not saying I won't play. I'm just saying that I still prefer 100 singleton. Thank you very much....
I have to admit, you've made a tempting case for 60 card Standard singleton! I can definitely see a couple of decks I'd love to put together for the format, and I'll have to poke around and see what comes together.
One small note I feel like I have to correct: Double Negative and Mindbreak Trap are essentially never card advantage; what they do, and what's relevant, is that they keep your opponent from gaining card advantage on you in turn. Double Negative countering Bloodbraid Elf and a cascaded-into spell isn't actually a 2-for-1 in that you haven't spent one card from your hand to counter two cards from their hand; instead, you've spent one card to keep them from functionally turning one card from their hand into two cards. Still important, but different (IMHO) than you portrayed it. (And in my experience, I've *never* actually countered two non-cascade spells on the stack with Double Negative where I couldn't have just countered one instead.)
I find that people with tournament level 100 card singleton decks are using the causal room a lot. In the long run this will keep more players from entering the format. I know that it can be difficult to find games in the tourney practice room, but that's because I just played three guys in a row in the casual room with tourney level decks.
my 2cents worth,
mullaccm
You touched upon a very important subject actually.
The situation is this: The tournament practice room is now the place to test Tier-1 decks for mainstream formats. Such as Standard, Classic, Pauper etc... Most of the players there only test those formats and it is almost impossible to start a game for, say, Core Set Constructed there.
On the other hand, Casual Room is always very crowded and it is a lot easier to start a game for any format. And that's the reason why people use the Casual Room to test Tier-1 decks for those "exotic" formats. And I won't lie; I'm doing that too.
Time is generally scarce for most of us and no one wants to wait forever just to start a game. And that's the main reason why people use the Casual Room to test decks.
I'm not saying it's right by the way. If Casual Room will be the place to test Tier-1 decks, where then people will test their casual decks for those exotic formats?
I think that people should first try the TP Room and if that fails, they may come to the Casual Room but they should advertise their game as "Tier-1" or "Serious" or something. If they say nothing and play their Tier-1 decks, then it's wrong.
LE
I only use the casual room for solotaire games. For some reason they don't have the option of a solotaire game in the tournament practice room. If you end up watching me play a series of solotaire games to test the mana of one of my decks, I apologize. I'm not trying to scare people away......
I agree that tournament decks should be tested against other tournament decks in the tournament practice room. It's not much fun for either side to face unfair practice games.
I don't play my Tier 1 100CS decks in Casual anymore, it has gotten reasonable enough to find testing games in TP for that purpose.
I find that mis-clasification of Tier 1 decks is probably the largest culprit of people complaining about Tier 1 decks in Casual. That is to say that people claim a deck is Tier 1 when it is in reality not. This may happen for any number of reasons, losing badly to a deck, seeing several high priced rares in a row without knowing the rest of the deck contents, having the opponents deck seem like your one unwinnable matchup, or some other skewed perspective. Many times this will happen with decks like MBC or Mono Blue all counter decks, which are far and away not Tier 1 decks, but can eat other casual decks for breakfast at times. Where should people play those decks? The Casual Room is the only appropriate place, since they are likely not practicing for tournaments with those decks and it will just waste the time of players that are.
That is an interesting perspective. The problem is, defining what Tier 1 in 100s IS. Not all top 8 decks qualify and rogue builds with a few minor but significant changes can also be not tier 1 yet not quite casual either. Imho the ability to just win the first few turns makes a deck slightly more than casual. That is my opinion but I think it is shared by many. Now of all of us you might have a better insight into what is what because you did those spreadsheets for the CC but does that mean anything you didn't consider for them isn't playable in a tourney? (A waste of time?) I played against 2 of those decks by the way with a decidedly casual red deck and rolled over them. One of the decks was Crosis which I understand was scratched but the other was WW which in theory should just win vs red. My point is how does one figure out whether their deck is tier 1, 2, x? Not even thinkable as a tier? I mean common sense will rule out some cards as being completely bad but even with the obvious chaff out of the way there are plenty of cards that are situationally awesome and otherwise not so much.
This is precisely why I avoid one-on-one matches in the casual room altogether. Casual is such a nebulous term that I just can't wrap my mind around what it would take to make to make a deck that is truly "casual" without it being simply random and bad.
Budget is something I can understand. Budget has rules that I can obey and use to construct a deck I like to play. A lot of people can't afford the expensive rares and don't want to play against people who use those cards because it makes the game lopsided and not fun for either player.
But casual is so much different than that.
I could make a PAUPER 100CS deck with nothing but basic lands, and I would still feel uncomfortable playing it in the casual room because I'm sure I'd end up playing against someone who would see me playing a couple of good cards like Lightning Bolt, Incinerate, and Burst Lightning, and accuse me of not playing a casual deck.
I don't play matches in the casual room because it seems like I have to bend over backwards to make everyone happy.
Players in the Tournament Practice room seem to be much more understanding of a deck that isn't quite equal to their expectations in terms of power level.
Really? From the accounts Ive heard if you bring a sub par deck you get yelled at pretty fiercely in TP. No pleasing anyone. I don't even try. I let people know ahead of time (by setting the table) what I am interested in. If people don't want to see counters, not my problem. I said "Competitive" or "Bring your best" or whatever. That isn't always true actually particularly with extended format I just bring a laid back deck and play to socialize or just have fun. But the point is, know your opponent or at least let them know who you are (aren't).
i hope ur article makes people interested in making standard singleton fire - seeing as it only fired once thus far. if it does start firing i attribute it to you. wotc owes you big ;)