Re: Volt Charge vs Grim Affliction - I think this is really close. I would usually pick affliction, as I don't feel like red decks can usually make much use of the proliferate on volt charge. In this case though, I'd prefer the volt charge, as there's really nothing else red in the pack, and I would expect parasitic implant to go somewhere within the next few picks. In any case, I agree with your viral drake pick, as I love that guy.
I am interested in why you completely ignored 2 glistener elves in pack 1? At the time you only had lost leonin as non-blue spells, and I definitely would have been looking at moving into green or black if possible, but you seemed to dismiss the elves out of hand? Are you just not a fan of infect decks with as little removal as U/G?
I was going to post a comment describing a complete classification system for applications of the Sundial and how it interacts with other cards and mechanics, but I deleted it. Instead I'll just agree with StealthBadger's comment above that it's a damned complicated card to include in a core set.
The one part of the whole classification idea that I do want to mention, though, to address his comment, is that there are various different wordings for things that happen generally in the end step. Each of the different ways of wording things is actually handled in a slightly different way by the game mechanics and it's probably very confusing to players to figure out which one applies in any given situation, and how the Sundial will interact with that.
Here's how I understand the various templates:
"until end of turn" effects (eg, Giant Growth) or "this turn" effects (eg, Writ of Passage) don't use the stack or triggers so the Sundial doesn't interact with them at all
"at the beginning of your next end step" sets up a one-time trigger, which uses the stack. When these triggers are on the stack you can use the Sundial to ignore them and you'll never have to worry about them again. If you end your turn before the end step, the triggers will come back when you next have an end step.
"at the beginning of the next end step" is also a one-time trigger, and if it happens to go on the stack at the end of your turn, you can use the Sundial to stop it from resolving. As with the "your next end step" template, if you end your turn before your end step then it merely delays the trigger from resolving. For example: Kiki-Jiki, Corpse Dance.
"at the beginning of the end step" (no "next") sets up a trigger that puts an effect on the stack at the beginning of each end step, not just yours. If you use the Sundial with these effects any time in your own turn, you avoid the effect in your turn, but they will still trigger at the end of each of your opponents' end steps. For example: Pestilence, Minion Reflector.
I think they're the only four flavours of "end of turn" effects, so if you can understand those you should be able to understand how any given card should interact with the Sundial.
Unearth deserves a special mention. It's a combination of "your next end step" and "if this leaves play, exile it" effects. So as with Kiki-Jiki or Corpse dance, as above, you can stop the one-time trigger that would cause you to exile it at the end of your own turn. The Sundial can't help with the other exiling clause, though, so if the creature dies or is bounced (though not, as an aside, if it's phased out) then it's exiled instead of going to those other zones.
The only fly in the ointment for trying to figure out what each card should do when interacting with the Sundial is that the way that cards have been templated has changed over time. For example, you have a picture of Killer Instinct, and is says "sacrifice it at end of turn". You'd have to check with gatherer or in the client to find the current wording which is "at the beginning of the next end step" which is a one-time trigger (= good with Sundial) and not an "every turn" one as the printed card would suggest on first reading. The same goes for Kiki-Jiki. The mismatch between printed and Oracle text is a bit annoying but on the whole it's probably better to have clear templating and errata to bring printed cards into line with the Oracle text, even if that's not what's printed on the card. Let's hope they don't do a "Winter Orb" on Kiki-Jiki and friends to errata them back to being what's actually printed on the card, or else a lot of the Sundial's combo potential gets wiped out. So my final point in this long post is just to make sure you check the oracle text/game client text rather than the printed text.
FTFY - could you recommend a decent video editor? Something free woudl be great, but even something affordable. Paying several hundred for Vegas isn't realistic. So what works?
I agree with you both in a normal game play situation Gush first to discover the unknowns is the best play and increases your change of winning. I now see the point that Whiffy makes in comment 1 that the randomness of the Gush draw is problematic to the puzzle. I agree with Etriol that cracking the delta first is the correct line and that you should find underground sea and that is what I present in my solution. It is pretty tricky to design a puzzle (at least harder than I thought) but thinking about the design and solution will hopefully be a useful excerise in tuning ones Magic skills. I thought about telling you which cards were on top of your library but A that is even more artificial and was easily circumvented by sacrificing the delta and triggering a shuffle. I wish there was a mechanism to create a game state in client and then to play it out but sadly it there is not and it would be unplausible to start game after game or muligan into the correct hand.
I agree with you both in a normal game play situation Gush first to discover the unknowns is the best play and increases your change of winning. I now see the point that Whiffy makes in comment 1 that the randomness of the Gush draw is problematic to the puzzle. I agree with Etriol that cracking the delta first is the correct line and that you should find underground sea and that is what I present in my solution. It is pretty tricky to design a puzzle (at least harder than I thought) but thinking about the design and solution will hopefully be a useful excerise in tuning ones Magic skills. I thought about telling you which cards were on top of your library but A that is even more artificial and was easily circumvented by sacrificing the delta and triggering a shuffle. I wish there was a mechanism to create a game state in client and then to play it out but sadly it there is not and it would be unplausible to start game after game or muligan into the correct hand.
Hey bro that game 2 showed amazing patience with your back to the wall you pulled threw, that uw deck you played was very good and you def get mad props for taking him down. On top of winning 4 straight was flat out amazing man, and like i said bro you helped me become a much better drafter, i use to rare draft cause i was never good at it but thanks to you i have improved my rating a lot. and thanks for the shout out it means a lot to me. I would love to hit up a draft with you and put my new skills to the test. again great post.
Paul, and I agree that readership is contributory, but let's not get too far into the "no customers=no games/sites/etc" matra..I worked restaurants for 12 years and understand that concept as an extreme whole is true, but will also never come to pass..there will always be readers/customers. You said it best with the critique vs. criticism line, so I'll leave it at that.
PS...good luck on your life re-evaluation/situation, etc. hope everything works out well for you and yours.
Great article. I knew there were lots of shenanigans surrounding this card, I just didn't realize how many. The good thing is that someone builds a Commander deck around Sundial an Into the Core or Return to Dust should be a pretty effective neuter.
Yeah I know the feeling ....but...readership IS a contribution if a passive one. The people who take the time to read and listen should have a voice in the content a little. (Not much.) I think Whiffy does a fine job but then I am not terribly into videos so I may not be the best critic. I, for one am glad when someone points out areas I need to improve but I guess there is a fine line between critique and negative criticism people cross sometimes in order to get their message across.
I agree 2 fireballs seems low even with those comments in mind.
I just had time to think about puzzle #1, and I must do some other things now, so that's the only one I'll comment.
I think you could start by tapping your two lands and casting gush. You'd not lose any extra resource with that line of play and you'd get to see two more cards before you have to make a decision regarding what to tutor up for with demonic tutor.
Usually, when I face the uncertain and I know I'll play at least two cards and one of the cards is a draw effect, I begin drawing extra cards, so that I can take a better/more informed decision.
I must give you 5 fireballs, because I really enjoy Magic puzzles. I'll read the other two later tonight.
thats a big article for one card. I like how psychic vortex was mentioned. thats my favorite card. my pic of all the combos would be the phyrexian dread cuz the combo can go in any color scheme. plus the last set is phyrexian. i hope karn does somthing bout those guys...
I also have been staring and staring at sundial as my #1 pick from m12 (at least for my style of play).
My main combo with it will be Sneak Attack however. Just far far too good to pass up. I gave great thought to the Final Fortune on a stick, but I got that combo out of my system with Magosi, the Waterveil.
There is no reason to play Demonic Tutor before Gush, and you do it twice.
You need to find three cards for this scenario to work out: Fastbond, Yawgmoth's Will, and Tendrils. You're using Tutor to find one, then Gushing, then using Tutor again to find another, then Gushing again, and hoping that somewhere in there you drew the third, or a way to get it. You should Gush first in both cases, because your chances of drawing one of the three cards you need are higher when there are more of them in your deck, and even if you don't, you'll have more information about what you have to work with.
I really like your articles and your angle for deck building.
Nice comprehensive look at this very unique card. If nothing else, when I see this card now I will know someone has shenanigans. It sort of forces removal due to the under costed brokenness it allows you. The only problem I can see, potentially and aside from artifact removal, is actually getting it in hand.
and pounding the keyboard in my retort to FTFY...I just don't see how someone who contributes nothing has any room to question someone else's knowledge and then only rate it at 2 fireballs(not a huge deal, but I guess the comment combined with the rating alludes to contempt) Rereading it, if they would have just said "Hey whiffy, could you edit out...blah blah... I don't think it would have bothered me as much..the first part of his/her comment just comes off as snide.
Thanks for all the well wishes guys. I am actually doing ok physically now. Walking my step mom's Labadoodle puppy takes a lot of my energy but has helped me gain some of my wind back and the country living up here is a nice change of pace from city life. Unfortunately that means I am away from my usual stuff and no modo...:/ but I will be still here and reading articles, etc. :D
Because it's Magic, and it's interesting. Old formats are some of the most interesting, because you don't get to see them any more. Of course they're not relevant, but there are tons of other articles on this site covering M12/NMS drafting right now. Not every article can be for every person, and I'm sorry that this one wasn't for you.
Re: Volt Charge vs Grim Affliction - I think this is really close. I would usually pick affliction, as I don't feel like red decks can usually make much use of the proliferate on volt charge. In this case though, I'd prefer the volt charge, as there's really nothing else red in the pack, and I would expect parasitic implant to go somewhere within the next few picks. In any case, I agree with your viral drake pick, as I love that guy.
I am interested in why you completely ignored 2 glistener elves in pack 1? At the time you only had lost leonin as non-blue spells, and I definitely would have been looking at moving into green or black if possible, but you seemed to dismiss the elves out of hand? Are you just not a fan of infect decks with as little removal as U/G?
Ha - Only 6 months to go Mike :-)
I was going to post a comment describing a complete classification system for applications of the Sundial and how it interacts with other cards and mechanics, but I deleted it. Instead I'll just agree with StealthBadger's comment above that it's a damned complicated card to include in a core set.
The one part of the whole classification idea that I do want to mention, though, to address his comment, is that there are various different wordings for things that happen generally in the end step. Each of the different ways of wording things is actually handled in a slightly different way by the game mechanics and it's probably very confusing to players to figure out which one applies in any given situation, and how the Sundial will interact with that.
Here's how I understand the various templates:
"until end of turn" effects (eg, Giant Growth) or "this turn" effects (eg, Writ of Passage) don't use the stack or triggers so the Sundial doesn't interact with them at all
"at the beginning of your next end step" sets up a one-time trigger, which uses the stack. When these triggers are on the stack you can use the Sundial to ignore them and you'll never have to worry about them again. If you end your turn before the end step, the triggers will come back when you next have an end step.
"at the beginning of the next end step" is also a one-time trigger, and if it happens to go on the stack at the end of your turn, you can use the Sundial to stop it from resolving. As with the "your next end step" template, if you end your turn before your end step then it merely delays the trigger from resolving. For example: Kiki-Jiki, Corpse Dance.
"at the beginning of the end step" (no "next") sets up a trigger that puts an effect on the stack at the beginning of each end step, not just yours. If you use the Sundial with these effects any time in your own turn, you avoid the effect in your turn, but they will still trigger at the end of each of your opponents' end steps. For example: Pestilence, Minion Reflector.
I think they're the only four flavours of "end of turn" effects, so if you can understand those you should be able to understand how any given card should interact with the Sundial.
Unearth deserves a special mention. It's a combination of "your next end step" and "if this leaves play, exile it" effects. So as with Kiki-Jiki or Corpse dance, as above, you can stop the one-time trigger that would cause you to exile it at the end of your own turn. The Sundial can't help with the other exiling clause, though, so if the creature dies or is bounced (though not, as an aside, if it's phased out) then it's exiled instead of going to those other zones.
The only fly in the ointment for trying to figure out what each card should do when interacting with the Sundial is that the way that cards have been templated has changed over time. For example, you have a picture of Killer Instinct, and is says "sacrifice it at end of turn". You'd have to check with gatherer or in the client to find the current wording which is "at the beginning of the next end step" which is a one-time trigger (= good with Sundial) and not an "every turn" one as the printed card would suggest on first reading. The same goes for Kiki-Jiki. The mismatch between printed and Oracle text is a bit annoying but on the whole it's probably better to have clear templating and errata to bring printed cards into line with the Oracle text, even if that's not what's printed on the card. Let's hope they don't do a "Winter Orb" on Kiki-Jiki and friends to errata them back to being what's actually printed on the card, or else a lot of the Sundial's combo potential gets wiped out. So my final point in this long post is just to make sure you check the oracle text/game client text rather than the printed text.
Draw Mox Sapphire and Repeal and win.... whoops. Wrong format.
FTFY - could you recommend a decent video editor? Something free woudl be great, but even something affordable. Paying several hundred for Vegas isn't realistic. So what works?
I agree with you both in a normal game play situation Gush first to discover the unknowns is the best play and increases your change of winning. I now see the point that Whiffy makes in comment 1 that the randomness of the Gush draw is problematic to the puzzle. I agree with Etriol that cracking the delta first is the correct line and that you should find underground sea and that is what I present in my solution. It is pretty tricky to design a puzzle (at least harder than I thought) but thinking about the design and solution will hopefully be a useful excerise in tuning ones Magic skills. I thought about telling you which cards were on top of your library but A that is even more artificial and was easily circumvented by sacrificing the delta and triggering a shuffle. I wish there was a mechanism to create a game state in client and then to play it out but sadly it there is not and it would be unplausible to start game after game or muligan into the correct hand.
I agree with you both in a normal game play situation Gush first to discover the unknowns is the best play and increases your change of winning. I now see the point that Whiffy makes in comment 1 that the randomness of the Gush draw is problematic to the puzzle. I agree with Etriol that cracking the delta first is the correct line and that you should find underground sea and that is what I present in my solution. It is pretty tricky to design a puzzle (at least harder than I thought) but thinking about the design and solution will hopefully be a useful excerise in tuning ones Magic skills. I thought about telling you which cards were on top of your library but A that is even more artificial and was easily circumvented by sacrificing the delta and triggering a shuffle. I wish there was a mechanism to create a game state in client and then to play it out but sadly it there is not and it would be unplausible to start game after game or muligan into the correct hand.
and I have missed Hammys articles more than actual gameplay. Rest in Peace.
First you sacrifice Delta to minimize chances of drawing lands from Gush.
@apaulogy
Thanks for the kind words... I recorded 2 drafts tonight for next week, I managed to rip a tezz again finally. Pretty stoked on that
@eldarock
Thanks again bud. The absolute best feeling about writing is knowing it might have a positive effect on ppl
Hey bro that game 2 showed amazing patience with your back to the wall you pulled threw, that uw deck you played was very good and you def get mad props for taking him down. On top of winning 4 straight was flat out amazing man, and like i said bro you helped me become a much better drafter, i use to rare draft cause i was never good at it but thanks to you i have improved my rating a lot. and thanks for the shout out it means a lot to me. I would love to hit up a draft with you and put my new skills to the test. again great post.
Paul, and I agree that readership is contributory, but let's not get too far into the "no customers=no games/sites/etc" matra..I worked restaurants for 12 years and understand that concept as an extreme whole is true, but will also never come to pass..there will always be readers/customers. You said it best with the critique vs. criticism line, so I'll leave it at that.
PS...good luck on your life re-evaluation/situation, etc. hope everything works out well for you and yours.
Great article. I knew there were lots of shenanigans surrounding this card, I just didn't realize how many. The good thing is that someone builds a Commander deck around Sundial an Into the Core or Return to Dust should be a pretty effective neuter.
Keep the ccc videos coming! (you do have more right?) :D
Yeah I know the feeling ....but...readership IS a contribution if a passive one. The people who take the time to read and listen should have a voice in the content a little. (Not much.) I think Whiffy does a fine job but then I am not terribly into videos so I may not be the best critic. I, for one am glad when someone points out areas I need to improve but I guess there is a fine line between critique and negative criticism people cross sometimes in order to get their message across.
I agree 2 fireballs seems low even with those comments in mind.
Great article as always LE...Yeah Sundial seems like an oddball at first and then wow...the tricks! oye... :D
I just had time to think about puzzle #1, and I must do some other things now, so that's the only one I'll comment.
I think you could start by tapping your two lands and casting gush. You'd not lose any extra resource with that line of play and you'd get to see two more cards before you have to make a decision regarding what to tutor up for with demonic tutor.
Usually, when I face the uncertain and I know I'll play at least two cards and one of the cards is a draw effect, I begin drawing extra cards, so that I can take a better/more informed decision.
I must give you 5 fireballs, because I really enjoy Magic puzzles. I'll read the other two later tonight.
thats a big article for one card. I like how psychic vortex was mentioned. thats my favorite card. my pic of all the combos would be the phyrexian dread cuz the combo can go in any color scheme. plus the last set is phyrexian. i hope karn does somthing bout those guys...
I also have been staring and staring at sundial as my #1 pick from m12 (at least for my style of play).
My main combo with it will be Sneak Attack however. Just far far too good to pass up. I gave great thought to the Final Fortune on a stick, but I got that combo out of my system with Magosi, the Waterveil.
Fun Article,
Thanks for the read
There is no reason to play Demonic Tutor before Gush, and you do it twice.
You need to find three cards for this scenario to work out: Fastbond, Yawgmoth's Will, and Tendrils. You're using Tutor to find one, then Gushing, then using Tutor again to find another, then Gushing again, and hoping that somewhere in there you drew the third, or a way to get it. You should Gush first in both cases, because your chances of drawing one of the three cards you need are higher when there are more of them in your deck, and even if you don't, you'll have more information about what you have to work with.
I have just been floundering lately. Good to see someone doing well.
I think I have lost 4 straight....I did open a Tezzeret and a foil Mox Opal though.
I really like your articles and your angle for deck building.
Nice comprehensive look at this very unique card. If nothing else, when I see this card now I will know someone has shenanigans. It sort of forces removal due to the under costed brokenness it allows you. The only problem I can see, potentially and aside from artifact removal, is actually getting it in hand.
Great article, sir.
and pounding the keyboard in my retort to FTFY...I just don't see how someone who contributes nothing has any room to question someone else's knowledge and then only rate it at 2 fireballs(not a huge deal, but I guess the comment combined with the rating alludes to contempt) Rereading it, if they would have just said "Hey whiffy, could you edit out...blah blah... I don't think it would have bothered me as much..the first part of his/her comment just comes off as snide.
Thanks for all the well wishes guys. I am actually doing ok physically now. Walking my step mom's Labadoodle puppy takes a lot of my energy but has helped me gain some of my wind back and the country living up here is a nice change of pace from city life. Unfortunately that means I am away from my usual stuff and no modo...:/ but I will be still here and reading articles, etc. :D
Because it's Magic, and it's interesting. Old formats are some of the most interesting, because you don't get to see them any more. Of course they're not relevant, but there are tons of other articles on this site covering M12/NMS drafting right now. Not every article can be for every person, and I'm sorry that this one wasn't for you.