Another good episode guys. I opted out of Rishadan Port from xkorpio's list because I couldn't think of a game position where I would have to tap down a land. Mana bases are so good right now with Workshop decks pushed out of the format that even Wasteland feels like a wasted slot. In fact, Wasteland was only useful to shut down other Wastelands from killing my Mutavaults. Card availability of Rishadan Port was not a problem ;)

Tarmogoyf wrecked me and I was reminded that no matter how good Fish may be against a perceived metagame, a big dumb green creature still stops it dead in its tracks without a lord for Islandwalk.

Waterfront Bouncer should have been more awesome than it was, and I wished it was a 2/2 split of Waterfront Bouncer and Merrow Reejery. Islandwalk is your primary win condition in this deck and without Islandwalk your dudes are bears. Holding Aether Vial on 2 was great, though. Bumping a Vial from 2 to 3 is always a big decision in traditional Fish builds.

Gilded Drake didn't come up but I thought it would be a nice sting on Oath which is the deck I expected in larger numbers than what appeared. Aether Spellbomb copied from xkorpio and while he may have had luck with them, Seal of Removal would have been better. Oh wait ... xkorpio is already ahead of me on that!

Fish is awesome. If WOTC prints another decent Merfolk at UU or less it could be a tier 1 contender for years to come.

-Paul

I've been a little out of touch the last few weeks. Why is shop out of the meta?

I'm not unsure abt which green creature to play. It's just that there is a real difference when I play goyfs and a dryad over all goyfs.
Splitting your characteristics of your threats helps you maneuvre around situations where one fails to be good anymore.

Take for example my advocation of my 2 standstill 2 ancestral vision nonbo in legacy for landstill (over a clean 4x of either) which i still stand by today if i am playing the same list.
A good card is only good in the context it is good in and there are situations whereby they fail to be as good. Goyf is generally stronger than dryad but the third goyf is nothing compared to the singular dryad which diversifies the way the game can be played without failing to provide a similar/better function in the situations whereby a dryad is indeed better than the goyf.

That aside, nice to see the podcast hit a milestone.
Hope that it continues to provide interesting classic discussions.
It's one of my weekly things i look forward to.

Also, I wonder where all the new classic players disappeared to. :(
I'm pretty sure the people who qualified for the champs wouldn't immediately liquify their decks...

As for B&R:

I played in the era of 4 Strip Mines. Never again, please - especially not in a format with Crucible and Thorns. Of course, if you really want Shops back, this might be a start. I agree that unrestricted Strip Mine would not break the format, but it could easily turn off enough players to keep events from ever firing. Same with Balance. Gettting wrecked by those cards over and over again is not fun.

Tinker gets too many broken things, and gets them too cheaply. Can't unrestrict. If you wonder what the format might be like, go read the coverage of PT New Orleans - a/k/a PT Tinker.

Consult is too good. Back circa 2000, I played a lot of Counterslivers. Consult was the best card in that deck - an instant speed tutor that puts the card in your hand for B is really, really good. It would be better now. Demonic Consultation is the second best spell costing B ever printed. (What's the best? - here's a hint: it will never, ever appear online. Answer below)

Wheel might be okay now, but not if Wizards intends to spread the release of the P9 over a couple sets, or over time. The only way it could be unrestricted now is if the plan is to have Classic convert immediatly to Vintage B&R once the P9 hits. Otherwise, keep wheel restricted so that releasing the P9 is easier, unless you want to boost Tendrils decks in the short run. (FWIW - my prophecy is that P9 will appear 6 months after the new version goes live, if it proves it can handle growth in the online player base.)

The one area where I could see some flexibility is Mana Vault, Mana Crypt and maybe even Sol Ring. In the event you covered, there was one Sol Ring and zero Vaults and Crypts. More importantly, the only cards that have multiple colorless mana in the casting costs were Jace, FoW, Gush and Yawg Will. These decks don't need double or triple colorless mana. What decks would? Shops would like them, but what could Shops cut for a non-threat, non-lock piece? Storm decks could try them - but colorless mana does not chain as well as RRR and BBB mana acceleration. The only deck that would be really happy with unresticted Vaults and Rings might be the mythical (so far) four Memory Jar deck, and that seems to prefer LEDs.

Just my $0.02.

PRJ

Best spell for B ever: Contract from Below.

I finally got around to listening to this and it was a pretty good one this week. I found myself mostly agreeing with Zach on the restricted list debate, but I am quite conservative when it comes to that list. Then again, although Andy was arguing some pretty crazy stuff (Strip Mine!? Tinker?!), I nevertheless liked that he qualified it with the statement that at the moment nothing needs to change, a sentiment I agree fully with.

So, as for me and PREs, I will not become a freeform tournament organizer, sorry. I think testing is fine and making videos could be interesting if we were to petition a change in the restricted list, but running a whole tournament in a non-existent format is not for me.