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By: whiffy, Georgios Efelis
Sep 08 2009 11:36am
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Hello there. Sorry about the lateness, but sometimes real life catches up to you. I had a pretty hectic week at work and with Classic being in a bit of limbo while we wait for Master's to start getting drafted in 2 short days I didn't really have any thing to get going with. On Friday I decided that I would waste a bunch of tickets on a Master's 3 pre-release. I did this for a few reasons, the most important being that it was my first exposure to the format. I am going to be hitting the 16 man sealed deck events very hard come Wednesday, and this was a perfect way to test the format. I did 17 M10 sealed events in a week, I plan on trying to double that number with Med 3 events. The average money rare will be going for close to double what it's actually worth in the first week. I want to open as many duals and Drains as possible to sell at silly prices, probably 20-30 a dual and 30ish for Drains. Then I can take any profits and buy the cards at a reasonable price line. I fully recommend this as it is a very good way to make some scratch if you have the time to churn out 2-3 events at a sitting. The other reason to do this event was to have some relevant content for you the reader.

I don't claim to be an expert at sealed deck, but I'm also not that bad at it either. I knew next to nothing about the format and figured going into it that beef would probably be the best way to win. So I joined the event that was just over 250 people. I excitedly wait for my pool and when I get it, I check out the rares and see if I won a lottery.......epic fail with the most expensive card of the 6 being The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Here is my pool.

WHITE
1 Shu Elite Companions
1 Alabaster Potion
2 Misfortune's Gain
1 False Defeat
1 Shu Soldier-Farmers
1 Shu Cavalry
1 Lightning Blow
1 Disenchant
2 Heal
2 Loyal Retainers
1 Cleanse
1 Exorcist
1 Ivory Guardians
1 Wall of Light
1 D'Avenant Archer
 
BLUE
2 Sun Ce, Young Conquerer
1 Benthic Explorers
2 Wu Warship
2 Wu Elite Cavalry
1 Labyrinth Minotaur
2 Wu Longbowman
1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
1 Infuse
1 Sun Quan, Lord of Wu
1 Force Spike
1 Strategic Planning
1 Forced Retreat
 
BLACK
1 Wei Elite Companions
1 Ghostly Visit
2 Wei Infantry
2 Evil Presence
2 Ghosts of the Damned
1 Demonic Torment
2 Wei Strike Force
1 Wei Night Raiders
1 Takklemaggot
1 Hellfire
2 Spirit Shackle
 
RED
1 Active Volcano
1 Anaba Spirit Crafter
1 Anaba Ancestor
2 Hurloon Minotaur
1 Kobold Taskmaster
1 Kobold Drill Sergeant
1 Fire Drake
1 Immolation
2 Fire Ambush
2 Blood Lust
 
GREEN
2 Giant Growth
1 Meng Huo's Horde
1 Wormwood Treefolk
1 Jungle Lion
1 Hunting Cheetah
1 Spoils of Victory
1 Fire Sprites
1 Living Plane
1 Trip Wire
GOLD, ARTIFACTS & LAND
1 Astrolabe
1 Nova Pentacle
1 Jerrard of the Closed Fist
1 Jedit Ojanen
1 Hunding Gjornersen
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Ramses Overdark
1 Urborg
1 Livonya Silone
1 The Lady of the Mountain
1 Knowledge Vault

 I'm not very confident in the fact that these cards will be linked when you read this so I am also going to add a text file that you can use to load my pool into your deck editor at the end of the article. You can zoom down to the end and Copy/Paste the text into notepad and save it to your desktop. Then go into your deck editor and load deck txt file. This will give you the entire pool right in front of you to at least familiarize your self with the cards, as most of them are being seen by the average player for the first time. 

Ok so right off the bat I can tell that  and  are the deepest colors as they have many more cards then the others. I checked out the artifacts for color fixing or ramping but sadly all I had was one Astrolabe and no Fellwar Stones or Sol Grails. Both and are far too shallow, although they both offer up some removal. looks tempting as a splash with 2xVolcanic Hammer and another three situational removal spells. has a few evasion guys, a Dark Banishing, some weenies, and a semi Wrath of God in Hellfire. I ultimately decided to go with the Horsemanship deck that was gift wrapped for me. I'll show you my build and then talk about it to show some of the mistakes I made and also some of the insane synergies that developed with the cards.

My little ponies

Creatures 17
1 Shu Elite Companions
1 Wall of Light
2 Wu Elite Cavalry
1 Shu Cavalry
1 Wu Warship
2 Wu Longbowman
1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
1 Jedit Ojanen
1 Sun Quan, Lord of Wu
1 Hunding Gjornersen
2 Sun Ce, Young Conquerer
2 Loyal Retainers
1 D'Avenant Archer
 

Spells 6
1 Ghostly Visit
1 Astrolabe
2 Misfortune's Gain
1 False Defeat
1 Forced Retreat
 

Lands 17
8 Island
7 Plains
2 Swamp

Side board
1 Strategic Planning
1 Wu Warship
1 Lightning Blow
1 Exorcist
1 Alabaster Potion
2 Heal
1 Infuse
1 Shu Soldier-Farmers
1 Benthic Explorers
1 Force Spike
1 Disenchant
1 Cleanse
1 Labyrinth Minotaur
1 Ivory Guardians
 

The master of ponies if you will, and my bomb.

My first mistake is that the Wu Warship in the main deck should have been the Strategic Planning. While the warship is an impressive 3/3 for 3 it didn't do much at all if my opponents weren't playing . I had opted to main deck it because my deck starts at 3 mana and this was a 3/3 for 3. I figured that it would come down and stymie any agro decks while being good against . Turns out that not much of anything happens on turn 1 or 2 of Med 3 sealed. Taking this into account I also believe that the D'Avenant Archer should have been Force Spike, as the pinger was never relevant since my game plan was to attack with unbloc and win before all there beef came online. The fact that I also have 2 Tims made it a little weak in comparison to being able to stunt there board if you are on the draw with the Spike.

So basically this is your standard flying deck in any other format. Your goal is to drop dudes that can't be blocked and ride tempo to the W. Unlike other formats this deck gets to run 3 reanimation spells in white. I have 6 legends in the deck that can be recurred with the Loyal Retainers. Two of them are gaming winning bombs two are nice big fat and the other two are some Man o' Wars on steroids. The False Defeat is also pretty nice as I can recycle my best guy again. Although I didn't know it when I submitted the deck, I was capable of turn 4 5/5's. On the draw I was able to skip a land drop and discard my Jedit and the following turn drop a land and use a Retainer to get my 5/5. It may be card disadvantage but getting a big fatty into play 3 turns early was worth it in both instances that the trick came up in.

I went for a small splash on the Ghostly Visit to favor consistency, but was sorely tempted to run the 2 Fire Ambush for a metric ton of removal. I played it safe and submitted and waited about 3 minutes for round 1 to start.

Round 1 archmage99 Fatties.
Game 1
The game kicks off with a turn 3 D'Avenent from my opponent and a Tim from me. He drops a Tracker that could threaten my pinger if he gets a second Forest. I drop my unblockable Ophidian upgrade and ping him. He makes a 2/2 with Glorious Anthem attached and swings in. I make another horsey man and start drawing cards while getting in for unblockable damages. He makes some fat and swings in again. I make my own fat in a 5/4 legend and swing in with the horse riders. His pumper is making life difficult and I take a huge chunk of damage and drop to 6. I crack back and take him to 13 after vomiting another two guys onto the table. He comes in again and I chump the fattie and kill his Tracker. My turn I go into the redzone again and make a post combat Retainer. He attacks me to 3 and makes a 6/6. I come in for lethal on the back of some ponies. 

Game 2 no sideboarding change.
My turn 3 2/2 gets Immolation(+2/-2), and my turn 4 2/3 gets a Fire Ambush. My Tim and 2nd 2/3 both stick and get in there while he ramps up to a 6cc 4/4 first striker. I untap and Misfortune's Gain it and serve. He makes a 5/5 and I put it back on his library with Forced Retreat and serve. He brings the Lady of the Mountain back into play and I just make a 3/3 and serve. He swings in twice while we both set up the board. Me with the card drawing machine and him with an Archer, the pumper and a removal spell for my pony rider.  I get in there and visit his now 6/6 with some ghosts. He gives me 4 life for my Ophidian but on my turn I reanimate it with a Retainer. I start dropping 5/5's and 5/4's and he is forced to chump away his team while I get to draw 2 a turn and he doesn't see any gas.
Win 2-0

Round 2 sonicthree good stuff
Game 1
I start the action with a turn 3 Tim, turn 4 Astrolabe and turn 5 Sun Quan turn 6 3/3 and finish the game on turn 7. My opponent played 2 swamps and a plains, discarding  Frost Giant, Lesser Werewolf, and Excorcist.

Game 2 -1 D'avenant Archer -1 Forced Retreat, +1 Cleanse +1 Exorcist.
This game starts off the same as last one with a turn 3 Tim and turn 4 Astrolabe. However my opponent makes his land drops and plays a 2/2 horsemanship with "discards a card" if it deals me damage. I play a 2/3 pony and he Misfortune's it and I discard a 5/5 legend. On my next turn I blow a Cleanse on it as I want to keep my hand. I make the legendary Ophidian and Sun Quan to his Koming, "Sleeping Dragon"(the 2/2 Anthem guy) and Exorcist. I play a 1/5 wall and the Man o war and get my 4/4 lost in an Eightfold Maze and then my 3/3 goes down to a Chain Lightning. I keep poking him for 2 damage and a card then lay out a 5/4 legend. He responds with Koming again and I come through again for 2  and vomit some dudes onto the table. He makes an Axelrod Gunnarson(5/5 trampler with a ping ability). I respond with some Misfortune and kill him.
Win 2-0

Round 3 Nihil198571 Control
Game 1 
I mull a 1 land hand, a 1 land hand , no land, no land, no land hand on the play and keep one with Plains and a 2/2 for 3. I quickly get run over.

Game 2 -1 D'Avenant Archer -1 Forced Retreat +1 Wu Warship +1 Cleanse
I keep a hand with 2 plains and a swamp and a few white cards He starts the action off with Sol Grail and a Crimson Manticore(2/2 flying). I make a 2/2 horse and a 3/3 horse while still being shy of islands. Fire Ambush kills my 3/3 and Immolation kills my 2/2. I get the 3/3 back with False Defeat and he makes a Coal Golem and a Boris Devilboon (2/2 pop out a 1/1 token for ). I Cleanse and drop him to 13. He responds with an attack to 9 and The Abyss. I sac my only guy and Misfortune his Coal golem. On his turn he has to sac his Manticore and we go into a stale mate. On turn 14 he makes his move with Gwendlyn Di Corci and a Corrupt Eunuchs. I respond with my 3/3 Man o war and a 2/3. He sacs his duder and Demonic Torments my 3/3. I sac it and swing for 2 dropping a 5/5 and a Loyal Retainer to the field. He Chain Lightnings my 1/1 and drops a 2/1 to chump. I sac my 2/3 and use a 2nd Retainer to recur my Man o war and swing in for 5 dropping him to 8. He untaps and drops a 2/1 and the Gwendlyn and passes. I Misfortune the legend after sacrificing the 5/5 and swinging in for 3 to put him at 9. We both sit back and sculpt our hands for a while when he makes another move with a Nicol Bolas and a Lesser Werewolf on turn 22. I get my other Bounce guy for his Bolas and play a Tim. He sacs his guy and plays Famine which is a 5cc deal 3 to everything. He wipes my board and ties us up at 6.  On my turn I unload 2x Wu Warship and a 2/3 horsemanship. He makes his Bolas and a 2/1. I don't draw an answer and I lose. I probably should have won this game, but I made a mistake bouncing Bolas instead of the Werewolf. If I hadn't we would have seen a game 3 where Disenchant would have been sided in.
Lose 0-2

Round 4 wedidit fatty control
Game 1
He gets a turn 2 Fellwar Stone which allows him to accelerate his Wei Night Raiders out(2/2 horse discard). I answer with Retainers. He makes a 2/1 horsemanship and I discard a Plains to his Raiders. I pump out a 2/3 and pass. He Makes a 4/5 and passes back. I add a 3/3 to the board and he wraths my team with a Famine then swings in for 4. I respond with a 5/4 legend but he has Dessert Twister to get in again dropping me to 7. I get my guy back with False Defeat and trade it next turn. He makes a 5/5 Lady of the Mountain and passes. I make a 5/5 Jedit and trade. He makes a 4/4 Sunastian Falconer and passes. I manage a D'Avenant and drop to 3. He makes an Elves of Deep Shadows too. I drop a 2/3 and he passes with no attack. I stabilize at 3 life and actually start getting damage in with my continual stream of Horsemanship guys. I am able to make a dude every time he does and send 1 in on horseback a turn slowly chipping away at his life untill he gets a 2nd Famine to kill me.

Game 2- 1 Wu Warship -1 Wu Longbowman -1 Astrolabe +1 Cleanse +1 Exorcist +1 Ivory Guardians
I start the game off with a turn 4 Jedit as a  response to his Carrion Ants. He offs it with a Ghostly Visit and swings in. I Misfortune his Ants and he Dessert Twisters my only Plains. I never draw another land and lose all the rest of my life to his 4/5. To bad for me as my hand was really juicy with a ton of ways to survive if I had gotten a few more lands.
Lose 0-2

Round 5 Pskonejott Horsemanship
Game 1
He starts off with a Tim and I answer with a 2/2 horsemanship. He makes an Archer and I follow suit. He then drops a 4/4 Horsemanship. Answer with a 1/5 wall and takes beats down to 10 when I activate my Astrolabe to get my first crack at blue mana which I use to Forced Retreat his Air Elemental. He then Remove Souls my own attempt at a Tim. He untaps and makes a 2/2 horsemanship guy. I crack back with a Wu Warship and a 2/3 pony rider. He makes his 4/4 again and I Ghostly Visit it and trade my 3/3 for his 2/2(Archer). I win the race at 6 life.

Game 2 -1 Wu Longbowman -1 Wall of Light +1 Wu Warship +1 Heal
I mulligan my first hand and proceed to draw only 5 spells and approximately 11 land before he is able to easily kill me. I started putting up a little bit of a fight but my lack of action allowed all his various 1 and 2 power guys to run all over my face.
 

Game 3
He gets a turn 3 2/2 and I answer it with a tim. I make an Astrolabe and attempt a turn 5 4/4 but he has the Remove Soul. I am content with playing my Man o war and bouncing his lone 2/2. He  Trip Wires my 3/3 and gets his 2/2 back. I use a Loyal Retainer to get my 4/4 bomb back, all the while pinging him. He makes a Hua Tuo, Honored Physician (1/2 for that puts dead critter back on top of your library). We start racing and the totals look like 6-11 my favor when I drop a Wu Warship. He makes his own 4/4 and I offer up the trade. He makes it and I Misfortune his green Volrath's Stronghold making the life totals 7-11. He makes a Reveka, Wizard Savant and I ping it and swing. He uses Reincarnation on his chump blocker to get his 4/4 back. I bounce it with my 3/3. On his turn he recasts it and passes. I ping it and attack with my 2 3/3's and he makes the trade. On his next turn he concedes.
Win 2-1

Round 6 RougeDesigner ramp
Game 1
He kicks things off on turn 1 with an Elves of Deep Shadow and a turn 2 Xira Arien (1/2 flying for and draw a card by paying its casting cost). I make a Wu Longbowman and it eats a Fire Ambush. I then Misfortune his personal Howling Mine and play a 2/3 that eats a Chain Lightning. I make a 2/2 and he answers with a Scryb Sprite and a 4/5. I try for a 3/3 and Ghostly Visit shuts me out of the game.

Game 2 -1 Wu Warship -1 D'Avenant Archer -1 Hunding Gjornersen +1 Cleanse +1 Exorcist +1 Ivory Guardian
He kicks things off with Scryb Sprite and beats in for two before I play a Wu Longbowman. He Ghostly Visits it and makes an Elves. I False Defeat back my pinger and pass. He makes a Lesser Werewolf and drops me to 14. I make a Man o war and ping his flyer. He Demonic Torments my 3/3 and swings for 1. I ping him and make a 2/3. He answers back with the Werewolf and passes. I drop a lowly 3/3 Ivory Guardian and come over for 2. He makes a Wormwood Treefolk(4/4 with landwalk). I Misfortune's Gain it and ping his 2/4 wolf before swinging with my guys dropping him to 16. He Dessert Twisters my pinger and I answer with a Forced Retreat on his Wolf. He replays the lycanthrope and passes. He has no action and I use my evasion guy to get him down to 5 before I drop my 4/4 and give all my dudes evasion for the win.

Game 3
He makes a turn 1 Scryb Sprite again and I make a turn 4 Jedit. I follow it up with a Tim and swing. He makes a 4/5 and I Forced Retreat it and ping his 1/1, then take him down to 10. He Recasts it and I Ghostly Visit it and take him to 4. He makes a 3/3 Tiger to chump my 5/5 tiger-man, and I drop a 2/3 and bring him to 3. He concedes on his next turn.
Win 2-1

So over all I went 4-2 which was good enough for 45th place and 2 packs of Med 3. I was a little disappointed with the fact that rounds 3 and 4 both had serious mana problems in them but am glad that I was at least able to get 2 packs even if they cost 15 tix each. 

I hope that you enjoyed my report of the pre-release and hope even more that you learned something from the event that you will be able to use. Good luck to all those who are going to be trying there hand at sealed deck and watch out for the penguin on a dual grabbing frenzy.

I would like to take a moment to talk about a recent article by Pete Jahn-   Legacy on MTGO - What MED IV Needs to Provide .

I would like to make a response to this article. I feel very strongly about this format split that is bound to happen, but I thought that the response deserved more then what I was willing to give when I read the article. On top of this I needed a few days to get my thoughts together as I almost posted very impassioned responses several times.

As a player that loves the format I think that Pete's ideas on how to start Legacy Online are both very bad for the format and the player base as well as for Wotc's pockets. There is currently not a huge difference in the card pools if we made a sub format out of Classic. The two formats would be nearly identical while forcing players to decide which one got there attention for the day, week, month or what have you.  Personally I think that bringing Legacy out to play now or within the year would most likely put Classic on a very dangerous path that would result in it completely dying out or absolutely needing the Power 9 to get it going again. Obviously we do not know if it is indeed coming, so putting a stress that may break the format for no good reason other then making  it a narrower format seems no good. Legacy is still missing a ton of cards if we want it to be perfectly portable and rushing a split early seems silly. From a business standpoint I can't possibly see them fracturing the player base and therefore there customer base before Urza's Block is completely online. Splitting the format will surely cut into pack sales of Med 4 and Urza's Block if some, half, or most of the eternal playerbase doesn't care about the Legacy banned cards that will be selling these sets. After all whats the point of printing cards like Fastbond, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mishra's Workshop, and so on and so forth if the format that they are being printed for is either on life support or waiting for the P9 shock paddles to resurrect it?  This is my humble opinion and one I feel strongly about as Classic is the way that I enjoy Modo the most.

Lastly I have a dozy of a spoiled Zendikar card. Sorry if you're trying to avoid Spoilers but I stated it in the little blurb of what the article is about. I will try to give you a little time to avoid the image though if you didn't know or changed your mind about seeing it.


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Blammo!!! Enemy fetch lands! Man I honestly didn't think they would pull the trigger so soon since I thought they would like to see how Extended rolled with out fetchlands, especially since they have dominated deck building for the last seven years. I guess we will have another seven of multicolored mana bases. This is exciting for Classic as it allows for even more proactive protection from Wasteland.  Let's look at Threshold for Instance. I can not possibly see how playing Polluted Delta or Flooded Strand over whatever the or (mana+ru) will be called is right. Now there is a strong reason to include a Forest in the deck as it can be searched out with the same fetch land that could also grab an Island. Also having 10 fetch lands that can grab any combination of basic lands may shake up mana bases and get players away from dual lands with out any serious repercussions on there ability to play many different colored spells. I am throughly delighted with this spoiler.

That's all I have for this week. Next week I will be going over some more Zendikar cards, as some of them are really exciting not only for Standard play but Classic as well. I'll see ya in Seven, whiffy out.

Georgios Efelis
whiffy penguin on modo and most boards
Member of Clan Magic Eternal

P.S. here is my text file of the sealed pool.

1 Hunding Gjornersen
1 False Defeat
2 Wu Elite Cavalry
2 Wu Longbowman
1 Lu Xun, Scholar General
1 D'Avenant Archer
1 Wu Warship
1 Sun Quan, Lord of Wu
1 Shu Cavalry
1 Wall of Light
2 Loyal Retainers
1 Plains
6 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Sun Ce, Young Conquerer
1 Forced Retreat
1 Astrolabe
8 Island
1 Sun Ce, Young Conquerer
2 Misfortune's Gain
1 Ghostly Visit
1 Shu Elite Companions
1 Jedit Ojanen

Sideboard
1 Ivory Guardians
1 Infuse
1 Immolation
2 Heal
2 Ghosts of the Damned
1 Wormwood Treefolk
1 Force Spike
1 Fire Sprites
1 Fire Drake
1 Demonic Torment
1 Exorcist
1 Wu Warship
1 Meng Huo's Horde
2 Wei Infantry
1 Jungle Lion
1 Shu Soldier-Farmers
2 Blood Lust
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Mountain
1 Cleanse
1 Urborg
1 Alabaster Potion
1 Active Volcano
1 The Lady of the Mountain
1 Takklemaggot
1 Strategic Planning
1 Plains
2 Spirit Shackle
1 Plains
1 Ramses Overdark
1 Hunting Cheetah
1 Livonya Silone
1 Living Plane
1 Wei Night Raiders
2 Hurloon Minotaur
2 Evil Presence
1 Spoils of Victory
1 Disenchant
1 Knowledge Vault
1 Hellfire
2 Fire Ambush
2 Wei Strike Force
1 Nova Pentacle
2 Giant Growth
1 Wei Elite Companions
1 Trip Wire
1 Benthic Explorers
1 Forest
1 Labyrinth Minotaur
1 Kobold Taskmaster
1 Kobold Drill Sergeant
1 Anaba Spirit Crafter
1 Anaba Ancestor
1 Jerrard of the Closed Fist
1 Lightning Blow
1 Island

13 Comments

wtf, you went 4-2 and only by dunkle_stille (not verified) at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 16:28
dunkle_stille's picture

wtf, you went 4-2 and only got 2 packs... that is really a lousy payout.

And yeah, no Classic / legacy split until Med 4 brings some real goodies, the formats wont differ that much ( though I might be wrong cause I never played with the Urza Cards ).

Yup by Anonymous (not verified) at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 17:12
Anonymous's picture

Im with you on the legacy split, whiff. Poiisbly killing classic to set up a pseudo-legacy format is not good business until Urza is out and the MED series is wrapped up.

Enemy Fetchlands are very nice, but I'm not really sure they will make much of an impact for those who are running duals anyway. Although they allow for 1-of basics and can technically smooth out manabases a bit, inreality I dont think very many people will even notice having slightly better saclands. There is really not very much we can do with them that we couldnt be without them anyway.

I agree with your points but by whiffy at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 17:24
whiffy's picture

I agree with your points but i really cant for the life of me seeing thresh decks playing strand over the gu fetch as a small example. it just makes so much more sense. on top of that it dosent really afect eternal formats so much but it will be awsome for 14 years of ext fetchlands and 2 more for std. the formats will be really nifty with those in it.

Great read. I have just one qualm... by FierceTable (not verified) at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 17:51
FierceTable's picture

Loved the article. That being said, I almost vomited when I saw the fourth misusage of the word 'there.' I realize grammar might not be a strong point, but you used the word 'there' eleven times and only used it properly five of those eleven.

I like what you have to say and the thought you've put into it, but I also appreciate when others take the time to get *their* point across clearly.

Qualification: by FierceTable (not verified) at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 18:07
FierceTable's picture

I suppose that post was a bit more harsh than I wanted. What I should have said is that you are good enough of a player and write clearly enough on the whole that you could possibly find your way into a 'paid to write' position at some point. A quick grammatical fix could increase your chances of that while keeping your anal readers happy. (For the record, I didn't know I was one of those readers, but apparently I am.)

you are 100% right. by whiffy at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 20:00
whiffy's picture

It's true. I realize that I use grammer horribly, it is the weakest part of my game followed closely by spelling. I recently did get an offer to write a 2nd column and while it may not pan out(computer issues) it got me to thinking that I should start taking some core english and creative writing classes. One of the things that I love doing is writing, I didn't know this untill I started up the lunch box though. Another thing I love is magic, 14 years and no end in sight means I would one day hope to land a gig somewhere in the wotc infrastructre, I am not a pro and im probably not good enough at the game to get into rad or any other aspects of making the game but I honestly feel like I could write articles on par with some of the wotc writing staff. All this being said I appreciate the harshness as while I feel I have gotten better I know I need to keep improving.
thanks for the time.

whiffy, I'd recommend picking by spg at Wed, 09/09/2009 - 08:30
spg's picture

whiffy,

I'd recommend picking up the book "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. It's a tiny little book of about 100 pages that is a must read for anyone interested in writing in the English language.

Actually you can read it online here:

http://www.bartleby.com/141/

thx much! by whiffy at Wed, 09/09/2009 - 13:29
whiffy's picture

really, awesome stuff steve thx.

On grammar by moerutora (not verified) at Tue, 09/08/2009 - 18:50
moerutora's picture

My grammar in Korean is probably better than my English due to the fact that I actually had to study the grammar and not be born to use it correctly. And in English there and their sound the same so I find that English fails in many aspects of what a language should be.

On to the article- I found it somewhat boring for me probably because I dont know what cards you are referencing to but I looked it up so no biggie. Also Im a player who was introduced to MTG around the time Tempest or Stronghold came out but didnt start buying my own cards till Saga/Legacy came out. Ever since then I love the Saga block in all it is. I still think its the best block. Cmon- Skittering Skirge. I love that card.

Fetchlands are always good.

I am not sure "fails" is the by Paul Leicht at Wed, 09/09/2009 - 00:10
Paul Leicht's picture

I am not sure "fails" is the word you want. English has plenty of vagaries and odd usages but so do most polyglot languages. Keep in mind its roots include Latin, French, German (Saxon, Angle and Jute), Norse, "Olde" English, Medieval English, American Idioms including indigenous tribal languages, Modern English and any number of culture references that have added to it over the centuries.

I don't think that makes it a failure as a language. It does make it a little tougher to learn. On the other hand it is probably a lot easier to learn than any of dozens of other languages. I remember learning Spanish grammar in school and wondering why the male nouns end in o and the female in a. That seemed entirely illogical to me.

If you want to talk about by Splendid Belt at Wed, 09/09/2009 - 05:53
Splendid Belt's picture

If you want to talk about tough languages to learn, try Croatian. I'm half Croat myself, and I still can't for the life of me sort the grammar out. English is widely accepted as one of the simpler languages to learn, but that probably owes a lot to its ubiquity (ie. switch on a radio or TV almost anywhere in the world and you get some instant exposure to it).

As for the article - I don't play Classic myself, but still read Whiffy every week, so he must be doing something right...

woot. by whiffy at Wed, 09/09/2009 - 13:29
whiffy's picture

hooray for my ego!

im glad you keep coming back and the feeling is mutal with out of the blue.

so my 1st sealed. by whiffy at Wed, 09/09/2009 - 23:10
whiffy's picture

Yea i epic failed in the prerelease as far as money rares but i epic win in my 1st sealed deck

mana drain
tropical island
bazaar of baghdad
foil zodiac dragon
rolling thunder to help win the games