Nice article, I just wished you had gone deeper in detail in the other matchups with atleast a sideboarding guide :) Maybe its something worth a follow up article?
but why would someone want to keep cracking packs for a $10 prize? I mean I love to win, but I can't imagine wanting to win so bad I'd keep buying packs
It seems like cracking a really bad pack will just be ignorable. Ooooh...no good commons, junk rare, uncommons from hell...yep that didn't happen. It is too bad there is no way to verify which packs are being opened.
Yeah I've been there. It gets aggravating when you are not obviously the main threat (someone has something out that breaks the game) and you get pounded anyway. Commander is as much about sociability as it is about strategy. I have seen totally harmless decks win because no one bothered them until they were suddenly unstoppable with a combo from hell. Also the art of whining is a subtle one in the game. Might have been better to take that guy aside and say "Hey Im really not the biggest threat, and as soon as Im gone you are next." or something to that effect.
I have no problem with someone picking up where I left off given the extended drought of Pauper coverage. I think that our articles can co-exist. I still plan to cover both PE and PRE (starting next week or, at the latest, the following week).
I will probably drop my deck spotlight, but I have been working on graphs for each archetype showing top 8 spots in the PE on a week by week basis. I will continue to focus on the overall winners rather than the whole field, so I think there is enough information to keep multiple articles covering pauper relevant.
Wow, I saw that they only had 2 decks done the night before they played, but had no idea Gavin did it all on his own. That's kind of crazy. The community won games with Uril, Azami and Zo-zu, which was an interesting choice, so at least there was that.
In fact you can put CSS directly into html source, as that is what it is designed for.
Cascading Style Sheets means that the code can be specified in a way that cascades (inner most code is most relevant).
1) use style tags and classes
a style tag should look like so (with rules in between open and close):
<style type='text/css' rel='stylesheet'>
...some rules here...
SAMPLETAG { some stuff here;}
.sampleClass { some stuff here;}
</style>
The above section should ideally be placed above the code it is to affect.
then your rules can be applied to the rest of the code as such.
<SAMPLETAG> content with applied ccs rules from above that formats all SAMPLETAG tags with the same style. I capitalized the tag name to indicate it is one of the basic tags (though in this case it isn't.) Replace it with BODY, P, A, BR, DIV, SPAN, TABLE, TBODY, TR, TD, etc.</SAMPLETAG>
and
<P class="sampleClass">This particular paragraph will be formated with the rules in the sampleClass class listed above.</P>
2) use inline styles for example:
<p style='text-indent:1em;'>This paragraph will be indented when you implement the code in an html page.</p>
In the above example I use the style attribute which applies to all container tags in HTML markup. These rules take precendent over the more general rules in the style tags.
Some things to note:
Class names in style tags are preceded by a . This indicates that the next rule set is for a class. Hence .sampleClass equates to class="sampleClass" in the tag you want affected by it.
All rule sets in css style tags are given inside these brackets: {} and are separated by ; This is essential.
Haha yeah my one-ofs do make the games more interesting. Will I draw that one card in the whole deck that can save me? Anyway thanks.
Yeah I get that they were the underdogs, but commander is not an unknown format to the community. The whole point of the ccc is to challenge our common knowledge. As it is I have to give Gavin huge props for designing ALL the constructed decks on no notice. It takes a perseverant soul to manage such a feat. I still don't understand how we managed to actually pull off a team win when the whole team seemed underenthused and completely uninspired.
Even so giving Nelson a deck like Asuza was really begging to fail. He's no doubt a great player but with a relatively unknown format to play he probably should have gotten something a little simpler and easier to pilot. I still think the Asuza deck is wrong. 59 lands is NEVER correct in commander. It is just begging to be mana flooded which makes it extremely luck dependent. Better to include multiple land search cards that bring what you need when you need it.
Fecundity should definitely be added. I know it was in there at one point in time, I think I must have accidentally taken it out. Other suggestions are great as well, thanks guys.
Thanks for the feedback. Again I apologize that the article was rushed, I was very eager to test the waters with this prototype but I had to post the article reasonably ahead of the next PE on Friday to keep the data relevant.
Oh and yes, the Affinity deck was an indirect hint at what might be a good meta choice. I tested the list in the last TPDC event and got in 1st place, not too shabby :)
As middleman pointed out, I think the crowning achievement of these articles will to show off the win/loss ratios of each deck's matchups in the metagame. This has never been undertaken before and should be a boon to the pauper community once it's up. It also involves recording the win/loss of every single match played in the 7 rounds of the PE plus the top8, so huge thanks to middleman for doing this.
kalandine - Good to hear. You were MIA for so long, but the pauper recaps that SpikeBoy and you have done are very useful so I decided to pick up where you guys left off.
Paul - I highly appreciate the suggestions, but unfortunately I can't pull it off yet. The limit of my html skills was whatever I taught myself to make a Beast Wars fan site when I was 9 and that's about it. CSS looks straightforward but I'm not sure how to implement it (can't put it in directly to html source can you?)
I've been looking at tutorials in my free time, but right now the most I can do reliably is analyze pre-done stuff and make changes to it. Building from scratch is way tougher for me.
Thanks for the comments. I'll probably just crack 5 packs of champions and see how the first season of this thing works out. If I find I have lots of time to play and there are ample opponents, I'll drop a bit more cash for the next one.
Card drawers I use in my Verdeloth deck not listed in your deck:
Fecundity (Seems perfect in your deck)
Mind's Eye (this has won me my last 2 games ... no one killed it, heh)
Slate of Ancestry (really pretty good ... sometimes it almost feels like you draw too many cards)
Collective Unconscious (with all of greens mana ramp ... the mana cost is usually not an issue)
Harmonize (boring but whatever)
Another couple cards that i was shocked to see missing were Fecundity and Beacon of Creation. I can almosy understand the lack of the beacon due to the low number of actual forests you run, though I think Fecundity would be awesome in this deck.
p.s. If i missed it i'm sorry i always have the hardest time reading commander decklists just due to the sheer size. And remembering what i did and did not see.
It's really not that big of a deal, they are just little pieces of digital cardboard. Most of the time when I think something is missing, it's because I forgot who I let borrow cards :D
Yeah I'd say Champions of Kamigawa is the best cheapest choice if you are on a budget. But you wont get the possibility of hitting a bomb rare with that set.
Thanks. I was not even thinking of the possible value within the packs. Alara reborn may be fun since I love multi colored decks. And would not mind picking up a few Bloodbraid's if possible. As far as tempest I'm highly unfamiliar with the block so I wouldnt be sure where to start build wise.
Well, I think I was annoyed because all I was drawing was land, and my first non-Commander spell of the game was stolen from me. But you're right, I did turn out to be the biggest threat.
I like your ideas about the Walls and Visionary, I hadn't even thought of those.
Forgot to rate the article.
Having looked up the cost of snow lands on mtgo, i have decided against it anyway!
Nice article, I just wished you had gone deeper in detail in the other matchups with atleast a sideboarding guide :) Maybe its something worth a follow up article?
two things:
1)http://jamuraa.com/pure/deck_new.php
2)wouldn't the abreviation for "The $4,000 solution" be T$4KS?
buying packs? no...but for those with old packs lying around? I know people who would.
but why would someone want to keep cracking packs for a $10 prize? I mean I love to win, but I can't imagine wanting to win so bad I'd keep buying packs
on the basis of lands i have a commander deck that runs 75ish lands.
It seems like cracking a really bad pack will just be ignorable. Ooooh...no good commons, junk rare, uncommons from hell...yep that didn't happen. It is too bad there is no way to verify which packs are being opened.
Yeah I've been there. It gets aggravating when you are not obviously the main threat (someone has something out that breaks the game) and you get pounded anyway. Commander is as much about sociability as it is about strategy. I have seen totally harmless decks win because no one bothered them until they were suddenly unstoppable with a combo from hell. Also the art of whining is a subtle one in the game. Might have been better to take that guy aside and say "Hey Im really not the biggest threat, and as soon as Im gone you are next." or something to that effect.
I have no problem with someone picking up where I left off given the extended drought of Pauper coverage. I think that our articles can co-exist. I still plan to cover both PE and PRE (starting next week or, at the latest, the following week).
I will probably drop my deck spotlight, but I have been working on graphs for each archetype showing top 8 spots in the PE on a week by week basis. I will continue to focus on the overall winners rather than the whole field, so I think there is enough information to keep multiple articles covering pauper relevant.
Wow, I saw that they only had 2 decks done the night before they played, but had no idea Gavin did it all on his own. That's kind of crazy. The community won games with Uril, Azami and Zo-zu, which was an interesting choice, so at least there was that.
In fact you can put CSS directly into html source, as that is what it is designed for.
Cascading Style Sheets means that the code can be specified in a way that cascades (inner most code is most relevant).
1) use style tags and classes
a style tag should look like so (with rules in between open and close):
<style type='text/css' rel='stylesheet'>
...some rules here...
SAMPLETAG { some stuff here;}
.sampleClass { some stuff here;}
</style>
The above section should ideally be placed above the code it is to affect.
then your rules can be applied to the rest of the code as such.
<SAMPLETAG> content with applied ccs rules from above that formats all SAMPLETAG tags with the same style. I capitalized the tag name to indicate it is one of the basic tags (though in this case it isn't.) Replace it with BODY, P, A, BR, DIV, SPAN, TABLE, TBODY, TR, TD, etc.</SAMPLETAG>
and
<P class="sampleClass">This particular paragraph will be formated with the rules in the sampleClass class listed above.</P>
2) use inline styles for example:
<p style='text-indent:1em;'>This paragraph will be indented when you implement the code in an html page.</p>
In the above example I use the style attribute which applies to all container tags in HTML markup. These rules take precendent over the more general rules in the style tags.
Some things to note:
Class names in style tags are preceded by a . This indicates that the next rule set is for a class. Hence .sampleClass equates to class="sampleClass" in the tag you want affected by it.
All rule sets in css style tags are given inside these brackets: {} and are separated by ; This is essential.
Hope this helps you a bit.
Haha yeah my one-ofs do make the games more interesting. Will I draw that one card in the whole deck that can save me? Anyway thanks.
Yeah I get that they were the underdogs, but commander is not an unknown format to the community. The whole point of the ccc is to challenge our common knowledge. As it is I have to give Gavin huge props for designing ALL the constructed decks on no notice. It takes a perseverant soul to manage such a feat. I still don't understand how we managed to actually pull off a team win when the whole team seemed underenthused and completely uninspired.
Even so giving Nelson a deck like Asuza was really begging to fail. He's no doubt a great player but with a relatively unknown format to play he probably should have gotten something a little simpler and easier to pilot. I still think the Asuza deck is wrong. 59 lands is NEVER correct in commander. It is just begging to be mana flooded which makes it extremely luck dependent. Better to include multiple land search cards that bring what you need when you need it.
Fecundity should definitely be added. I know it was in there at one point in time, I think I must have accidentally taken it out. Other suggestions are great as well, thanks guys.
Thanks for the feedback. Again I apologize that the article was rushed, I was very eager to test the waters with this prototype but I had to post the article reasonably ahead of the next PE on Friday to keep the data relevant.
Oh and yes, the Affinity deck was an indirect hint at what might be a good meta choice. I tested the list in the last TPDC event and got in 1st place, not too shabby :)
As middleman pointed out, I think the crowning achievement of these articles will to show off the win/loss ratios of each deck's matchups in the metagame. This has never been undertaken before and should be a boon to the pauper community once it's up. It also involves recording the win/loss of every single match played in the 7 rounds of the PE plus the top8, so huge thanks to middleman for doing this.
kalandine - Good to hear. You were MIA for so long, but the pauper recaps that SpikeBoy and you have done are very useful so I decided to pick up where you guys left off.
Paul - I highly appreciate the suggestions, but unfortunately I can't pull it off yet. The limit of my html skills was whatever I taught myself to make a Beast Wars fan site when I was 9 and that's about it. CSS looks straightforward but I'm not sure how to implement it (can't put it in directly to html source can you?)
I've been looking at tutorials in my free time, but right now the most I can do reliably is analyze pre-done stuff and make changes to it. Building from scratch is way tougher for me.
Good article.
Thanks for the comments. I'll probably just crack 5 packs of champions and see how the first season of this thing works out. If I find I have lots of time to play and there are ample opponents, I'll drop a bit more cash for the next one.
Card drawers I use in my Verdeloth deck not listed in your deck:
Fecundity (Seems perfect in your deck)
Mind's Eye (this has won me my last 2 games ... no one killed it, heh)
Slate of Ancestry (really pretty good ... sometimes it almost feels like you draw too many cards)
Collective Unconscious (with all of greens mana ramp ... the mana cost is usually not an issue)
Harmonize (boring but whatever)
Another couple cards that i was shocked to see missing were Fecundity and Beacon of Creation. I can almosy understand the lack of the beacon due to the low number of actual forests you run, though I think Fecundity would be awesome in this deck.
p.s. If i missed it i'm sorry i always have the hardest time reading commander decklists just due to the sheer size. And remembering what i did and did not see.
It's really not that big of a deal, they are just little pieces of digital cardboard. Most of the time when I think something is missing, it's because I forgot who I let borrow cards :D
ArchGenius is spot on with his choices as to the best value of packs content wise.
lol is that ME 1, 2 or 3 give or take a dual land.
Yeah I'd say Champions of Kamigawa is the best cheapest choice if you are on a budget. But you wont get the possibility of hitting a bomb rare with that set.
Thanks. I was not even thinking of the possible value within the packs. Alara reborn may be fun since I love multi colored decks. And would not mind picking up a few Bloodbraid's if possible. As far as tempest I'm highly unfamiliar with the block so I wouldnt be sure where to start build wise.
Well, I think I was annoyed because all I was drawing was land, and my first non-Commander spell of the game was stolen from me. But you're right, I did turn out to be the biggest threat.
I like your ideas about the Walls and Visionary, I hadn't even thought of those.