Bad as Shaku is, the clear wheatless chaff in its category is a five-way tie between Adventurer's Guildhouse and friends - lands that not only have a frigging useless ability, but don't even tap for colorless mana.
Really Cotton I must take exception to your claim about Biovisionary. Not only did I play with him in the casual room I posted a pic of winning with him in my last article...
You definitely make some good points there. I'm not sure that enchantment removal is main deckable in this format. The gods are immune to all but the white exiling one and bestow basically isn't a constructed mechanic so the main targets are going to be the weapons (which will probably not be more than 2 or maximum 3 per deck because legendary) and chained to the rocks, which I think will be in a fairly narrow range of decks. Certainly it can lead to some blowouts, but I don't think enchantment removal will be as good in block constructed as it will be in limited, simply because in limited it also hits bestow creatures.
Also, dont forget that nylea's presence is a cantrip, so having it removed doesn't technically cost you a card. All you lose when presence is destroyed is the fixing, which may or may not be relevant in a particular game state but will rarely be worth a card.
It is definitely insanely cheap. It limits you from even picking up decent budget dual lands.
But it is also kind of freeing because it forces you to play cards you don't normally play and try strategies you wouldn't gravitate towards.
Sure, sometimes you hang out your budget shingle and people ignore it and go fetch-dual-go on turn 1, but you know not to care if you lose to those people and you just look for a new opponent in a few minutes.
10 tickets seems insanely cheap. I've made a couple of 20 ticket decks in the past, and those were tough enough to do. My guess is that the competition in the 1v1 arena would be tougher too.
First of all, the fact that you used a picture of DJ Lance Rock in your article automatically gives you 5 fireballs. And you have him saying his catch phrase at the end of the episode too! My kids have outgrown Yo Gabba Gabba, but I do remember those days.
Blanka has been interesting. I've only seen it be successful in multiplayer once, and he wasn't really the focus of the deck at all. I can see how he'd be better in 1v1 though. Fun stuff.
Chained to the rocks is interesting to me - certainly powerful in abstract - but it seems as though it could be bad. Given the format I think most decks will at least have access to enchantment removal (which would be especially bad if you used Nylea's Presence on a non-mountain - yay getting 3 for 1'ed!). If chained to the rocks is played, I don't think Peak Eruption would be unreasonable as a sideboard option, especially if you don't normally have enchantment removal. Peak eruption on a Nylea's Presence'd "mountain" seems especially brutal.
I usually played many of these. I'm not a Pro. Sometimes I would win a lot (Zendikar and Scars of Mirrodin I remember being very good for me), some I wouldn't do that great (RTR is one I remember), most I would be about even excluding the cards and one of the core sets (M10 or M11) I lost like 200 tix and decided to never play core set limited again.
Even when I didn't come out ahead, they were still fun, unless the format was really bad like those core sets. I played them because they were fun and they weren't a waste of money.
Now these are a waste of money. If I end up 3-1 in every single one I play (which simply won't happen because sometimes you get screw/flood, sometimes you face a very good deck, sometimes your pool sucks), I still lose money.
An event where 3-1 is a loss of money is an event I simply won't play and I hope everyone does the same. I really hope to see the number of events fired as a whole in the releases gets reduced drastically.
As for the PEs they are still not worth it because with the prize increase (and the prize decrease on the 16players) they will have even more players. PEs as a whole need to change the payout based on the number of players, otherwise they are not worth it.
I appreciate your interpretation of Worth's statement. I'm not sure I buy his statement, or your interpretation of it, but even if I do, it still seems pretty crappy for the majority of the player base. As I see it, the really good players with enough time are doing the PE's now and I guess benefitting? That's a small portion of the player base though I would think. Then you have the casual players who are winning more in the swiss sealeds because the sharks are gone... but the payout sucks, so there still likely coming out on a lesser EV. Then you have everyone else like you (and me) who either stop doing the swiss sealeds or keep doing them at a lower EV. WotC is banking on the latter if you ask me.
Really it's hard for me to see this as anything more than just an increase in the cost to play limited Magic for the average player, which goes perfectly in line with pretty much every other change they've made over the past year or so.
It isn't really about budget. It is about power. And not the 9. There are cards that just give you a ton of synergy for their cost. The problem is, when a card becomes good enough its price rises to match its popularity. This means if you make a format excluding all the "rich kid" cards you will simply put off for a few weeks/months the inevitability of decks becoming too expensive again. Only since you now own all the pricy cards, it is you and yours that are the "rich kids." And someone else calls for a budget format...
This scenario doesn't quite play out this way in Tribal Wars Legacy because let's face it, the format isn't popular. Not even a little bit. Those of us who enjoy it, do so from a niche. Which is great. Like minds and all. But we have to face the fact that we either play it rough or we go home. There is NO middle ground. The special events where some cards are banned for that event are only different in that they make people think before they build their overpowered decks. The top decks are always going to be insane. Now that doesn't mean you can't play to win without having a huge budget. It means you have to build smart and play smarter. (CF: Anything AJ has built recently.)
In reply to that Facebook comment from Ryan, there are currently about 20 million budget-based PRE's, I don't see any value in doing that with tribal. Especially since budget decks already have reasonable success here, not even limited to Goblins. IIRC, there was pauper tribal special events in the pre-2010 era, and I recall AJ remarking that they were not successful in creating a diverse field.
I guess I feel like the main predator of Affinity is Oath, not Stax. Certainly, they can get the god hand where they have 2 Chalices and go first, but I feel like it's a pretty positive matchup for Affinity without any sideboarding necessary. That being said, I think I like Wurmcoil more than Hellkite. I feel like the latter is a bit too slow and also has the drawback of getting shut off by Null Rod. Good luck though. I always enjoy watching your videos.
Thanks for the shout-out, guys. Obviously, it would have been nice to make Top 8, but given the fact that it was basically my first tourney and my deck was not very well-suited for what this tourney's meta ended up being, I feel pretty good about getting 9th.
For the community deck, I actually like Path better as removal, just because you are running 3 Arbiters and 3 Mindcensors MD. I'd also highly recommend Misstep, I almost always enjoyed having them when I ran my mono-white deck. Mana Tithe is kind of interesting, too. I wouldn't have thought about it, but it does synergize well with the mana-denial strategy and could catch some people off guard. Don't know if I'd run 4, but it could be interesting to run 1 or 2. For the sideboard, I think you should run Wear/Tear and REB.
UPDATE on "The Champion Challenge". It's currently on hold, because the reworking was causing issues that I didn't think about (in the 5 minutes before submitting in which I impulsively decided to change that damn thing). We'll get a new ruling next week.
I supposed you guys missed that split second when goyfs were under 50 tix.
Or Urborg, Yawgmoth's Tomb?
Bad as Shaku is, the clear wheatless chaff in its category is a five-way tie between Adventurer's Guildhouse and friends - lands that not only have a frigging useless ability, but don't even tap for colorless mana.
Unless you have an Honor-Worn Shaku in play.
Keep in mind, everybody, that this is a reprint from a year back, so that people can get a good primer on RGD draft.
You had me at Emily Dickinson mashed with Pokemon.
Really Cotton I must take exception to your claim about Biovisionary. Not only did I play with him in the casual room I posted a pic of winning with him in my last article...
You definitely make some good points there. I'm not sure that enchantment removal is main deckable in this format. The gods are immune to all but the white exiling one and bestow basically isn't a constructed mechanic so the main targets are going to be the weapons (which will probably not be more than 2 or maximum 3 per deck because legendary) and chained to the rocks, which I think will be in a fairly narrow range of decks. Certainly it can lead to some blowouts, but I don't think enchantment removal will be as good in block constructed as it will be in limited, simply because in limited it also hits bestow creatures.
Also, dont forget that nylea's presence is a cantrip, so having it removed doesn't technically cost you a card. All you lose when presence is destroyed is the fixing, which may or may not be relevant in a particular game state but will rarely be worth a card.
Sasaya is useless? I guess you never played against a Sasaya Commander deck. If you stumble upon one, don't play that table, just watch.
And Silent Arbiter is actually a good sideboard card. I've used it with success to stop aggro in my Pod decks.
Woah wait. So the Sylvan Library + Abundance for the "free" Ancestral Recall isn't going to work anymore unless I pay the eight life anyway?
It is definitely insanely cheap. It limits you from even picking up decent budget dual lands.
But it is also kind of freeing because it forces you to play cards you don't normally play and try strategies you wouldn't gravitate towards.
Sure, sometimes you hang out your budget shingle and people ignore it and go fetch-dual-go on turn 1, but you know not to care if you lose to those people and you just look for a new opponent in a few minutes.
10 tickets seems insanely cheap. I've made a couple of 20 ticket decks in the past, and those were tough enough to do. My guess is that the competition in the 1v1 arena would be tougher too.
First of all, the fact that you used a picture of DJ Lance Rock in your article automatically gives you 5 fireballs. And you have him saying his catch phrase at the end of the episode too! My kids have outgrown Yo Gabba Gabba, but I do remember those days.
Blanka has been interesting. I've only seen it be successful in multiplayer once, and he wasn't really the focus of the deck at all. I can see how he'd be better in 1v1 though. Fun stuff.
My favorite combo with War Barge is Master Transmuter. Add a bunch of mana and make their whole team go poof....
Chained to the rocks is interesting to me - certainly powerful in abstract - but it seems as though it could be bad. Given the format I think most decks will at least have access to enchantment removal (which would be especially bad if you used Nylea's Presence on a non-mountain - yay getting 3 for 1'ed!). If chained to the rocks is played, I don't think Peak Eruption would be unreasonable as a sideboard option, especially if you don't normally have enchantment removal. Peak eruption on a Nylea's Presence'd "mountain" seems especially brutal.
Some ideas (some belong in the sideboard):
Swords to Plowshares
Path to Exile
Enlightened Tutor
Wear & Tear
Shattering Blow
Abolish
Artifact Blast
Electrostatic Bolt
Guttural Response
Lightning Bolt
Red Elemental Blast
Rack and Ruin
Yay, with Cloudpost gone now everyone is playing UB control! How exciting and original! The meta has surely benefited greatly from this switcheroo!
Sigh.
My results lately haven't been great, but I've looked good doing it.
I usually played many of these. I'm not a Pro. Sometimes I would win a lot (Zendikar and Scars of Mirrodin I remember being very good for me), some I wouldn't do that great (RTR is one I remember), most I would be about even excluding the cards and one of the core sets (M10 or M11) I lost like 200 tix and decided to never play core set limited again.
Even when I didn't come out ahead, they were still fun, unless the format was really bad like those core sets. I played them because they were fun and they weren't a waste of money.
Now these are a waste of money. If I end up 3-1 in every single one I play (which simply won't happen because sometimes you get screw/flood, sometimes you face a very good deck, sometimes your pool sucks), I still lose money.
An event where 3-1 is a loss of money is an event I simply won't play and I hope everyone does the same. I really hope to see the number of events fired as a whole in the releases gets reduced drastically.
As for the PEs they are still not worth it because with the prize increase (and the prize decrease on the 16players) they will have even more players. PEs as a whole need to change the payout based on the number of players, otherwise they are not worth it.
I appreciate your interpretation of Worth's statement. I'm not sure I buy his statement, or your interpretation of it, but even if I do, it still seems pretty crappy for the majority of the player base. As I see it, the really good players with enough time are doing the PE's now and I guess benefitting? That's a small portion of the player base though I would think. Then you have the casual players who are winning more in the swiss sealeds because the sharks are gone... but the payout sucks, so there still likely coming out on a lesser EV. Then you have everyone else like you (and me) who either stop doing the swiss sealeds or keep doing them at a lower EV. WotC is banking on the latter if you ask me.
Really it's hard for me to see this as anything more than just an increase in the cost to play limited Magic for the average player, which goes perfectly in line with pretty much every other change they've made over the past year or so.
It isn't really about budget. It is about power. And not the 9. There are cards that just give you a ton of synergy for their cost. The problem is, when a card becomes good enough its price rises to match its popularity. This means if you make a format excluding all the "rich kid" cards you will simply put off for a few weeks/months the inevitability of decks becoming too expensive again. Only since you now own all the pricy cards, it is you and yours that are the "rich kids." And someone else calls for a budget format...
This scenario doesn't quite play out this way in Tribal Wars Legacy because let's face it, the format isn't popular. Not even a little bit. Those of us who enjoy it, do so from a niche. Which is great. Like minds and all. But we have to face the fact that we either play it rough or we go home. There is NO middle ground. The special events where some cards are banned for that event are only different in that they make people think before they build their overpowered decks. The top decks are always going to be insane. Now that doesn't mean you can't play to win without having a huge budget. It means you have to build smart and play smarter. (CF: Anything AJ has built recently.)
In reply to that Facebook comment from Ryan, there are currently about 20 million budget-based PRE's, I don't see any value in doing that with tribal. Especially since budget decks already have reasonable success here, not even limited to Goblins. IIRC, there was pauper tribal special events in the pre-2010 era, and I recall AJ remarking that they were not successful in creating a diverse field.
I guess I feel like the main predator of Affinity is Oath, not Stax. Certainly, they can get the god hand where they have 2 Chalices and go first, but I feel like it's a pretty positive matchup for Affinity without any sideboarding necessary. That being said, I think I like Wurmcoil more than Hellkite. I feel like the latter is a bit too slow and also has the drawback of getting shut off by Null Rod. Good luck though. I always enjoy watching your videos.
Michael
Thanks for the shout-out, guys. Obviously, it would have been nice to make Top 8, but given the fact that it was basically my first tourney and my deck was not very well-suited for what this tourney's meta ended up being, I feel pretty good about getting 9th.
For the community deck, I actually like Path better as removal, just because you are running 3 Arbiters and 3 Mindcensors MD. I'd also highly recommend Misstep, I almost always enjoyed having them when I ran my mono-white deck. Mana Tithe is kind of interesting, too. I wouldn't have thought about it, but it does synergize well with the mana-denial strategy and could catch some people off guard. Don't know if I'd run 4, but it could be interesting to run 1 or 2. For the sideboard, I think you should run Wear/Tear and REB.
Michael
Definitely need StP in the Community Build. Best removal there is.
UPDATE on "The Champion Challenge". It's currently on hold, because the reworking was causing issues that I didn't think about (in the 5 minutes before submitting in which I impulsively decided to change that damn thing). We'll get a new ruling next week.