Thanks, and don't worry, I had those same criticisms. Mammoth Umbra was definitely correct in that one pack over the slinger, and then sticking to white was definitely the safer play than veering into tunneler stuff and eventually into blue. It was less about knowing what was up and more about being willing to experiment.
When I first saw Gravitational Shift, I considered it more of a Gaea's Anthem/Glorious Anthem type of card. Sort of a win more card that wasn't entirely necessary. Most of the flyers in this deck are big and can hold their own without the bonus, even the tokens created by Ascension and Hoofprints. I guess the best use for it in this build would be to slow down weenie hordes, but the Moats do just a good a job. I know that people like the card in Isperia builds, but I just wanted to fit in some other cards as well. So I considered it, but discarded it pretty quickly. Maybe too quickly considering how popular it seems to be.
Thanks for your continued work, Godot. The massive amount of imagery is just one way in which your articles stand out from many of the other articles. And I know that's a direct result of your time spent.
On that note, I was prepared to give you a friendly chastising for taking weaker cards over the late Caravan Escorts and the Mammoth Umbra. But you didn't even end up playing white, and your R/U deck might have been short on playables had you made those picks. You obviously know what's up.
Most of those images are screenies right? Well if you are familiar with an image program it is not hard to produce them (alt-print screen is akin to control-c but it copies the current window to the buffer. from there it is a matter of control-v in the program and save to jpg or gif.) This process probably takes about 2mins per image if you have the rhythm of it down. Storing the images is not hard. Simply find a free image site, and upload them. The insertion takes a moment again if you have code set up for it(img tag place holder with an empty src tag where you want the image.) All told I imagine it probably took Godot 45 mins tops to insert the images in this article from scratch.
i dont about godot but most images can easily be added through a link on the "write article" page and then url's for the images from something like photobucket
im wuth you on this danger, IM tired of seeing crybabies..mainly wyrath...whine about the price of fow. Just play a non blue deck. Blue decks are fairly dumb anyways. PLay something fun like enchantress or zoo or something
Were there too many card choices to factor in Gravitational Shift in a flying-matters deck? When I play a white/blue fliers build, whether it's tribal-birds or an unspecific but chock full o' fliers deck, I usually am grateful for drawing Gravitational Shift.. just curious if you even considered it.
I find myself avoiding blue more and more these days because there's a connotation that if I put out an island it means I'm playing control-- and thus, I can just hear the groans over the Æthers of the internets.
I also prefer to hit f8 or f6 to speed things along, and try not play counters too often. When I do play blue, I try and play wacky decks that aren't what you normally expect from a bluemage, like random doppelganging and playing a sphinx tribal deck..
Very interesting article, I like hearing your classification instead of just the simple BREAD system. I would argue that Wooly Thoctar might be a fork though, especially with block packs. It has seemed to me that the block pack metagame has made it much tougher to draft just one shard, and most people combine Naya with either Jund or Esper, or all 5 colors together with heavy fixing. I think are many deck types the Thoctar can end up in.
Oh ok. I am a blue mage though I tend to not play counters because of the adverse reactions they get. I go for the softer or weirder ones since they raise less objections.
No, I just don't like having to worry about doing stuff on other peoples' turns. Here's a paragraph from my first article explaining my style:
"I don't tend to play many combos. You won't see me go infinite, at least not on purpose. I don't really use Counterspells, mainly because I would rather press F8 to speed things along during an opponent's turn. I avoid playing blue. As a matter of fact, I also noticed that a lot of my decks lack instants, or at least have very few. That's just my style, so that's what you should expect."
I don't really have a problem with others playing them though, and I definitely think they have their place.
Yea, I basically agree with it. However, the important thing to note is that in swiss you can win game 2 and 3 to get 2 packs but in 4-3-2-2 you HAVE to win the 1st one. I always play swiss, I hate the fact that 4-3-2-2 is the default for older formats, because most of them I've never played and I don't want to do a 4-3-2-2 for my 1st draft of a format ever.
"A completely stocked Fridge/Freezer complete with at least one TV Dinner or acceptable frozen delight."
The fridge that is "mine" is fully stocked with beer (at the moment with Newcastle, Heineken, Corona and Coors Light for the ladies), with some meat and leftover chili. Unfortunately, there are no frozen or TV dinners in it. Do I have to turn in my card?
When you say you aren't a fan of counters do you mean all counter magic or just the really unfair counters? Is it a matter of it being commander and counter magic not fitting in?
Unfortunately, Karmic Guide isn't in the list because it isn't available online at the moment. However, I think people will be happy when Urza's Legacy comes out online in a little while to add the card.
Glen Elandra Archmage is one that I probably should have mentioned in the section about counterspells. However, I'm not a big fan of counters, and don't even own the Archmage, so that's the main reason it wasn't included. I think it definitely is worth being in the deck if you like that kind of card though.
Luminarch Ascension has proven very valuable when playing online. I've managed to get it active early, mid and late game. It doesn't bring overwhelming hate like playing land destruction or Eldrazi does. I wouldn't recommend removing it.
Hoofprints can go out though. Takes longer to get multiple tokens, higher activation cost and can only be done at sorcery speed.
So when Legacy comes out, I would take out Hoofprints for Karmic Guide. And if you like Archmage, take out Commander Eesha for it.
Thanks, and don't worry, I had those same criticisms. Mammoth Umbra was definitely correct in that one pack over the slinger, and then sticking to white was definitely the safer play than veering into tunneler stuff and eventually into blue. It was less about knowing what was up and more about being willing to experiment.
When I first saw Gravitational Shift, I considered it more of a Gaea's Anthem/Glorious Anthem type of card. Sort of a win more card that wasn't entirely necessary. Most of the flyers in this deck are big and can hold their own without the bonus, even the tokens created by Ascension and Hoofprints. I guess the best use for it in this build would be to slow down weenie hordes, but the Moats do just a good a job. I know that people like the card in Isperia builds, but I just wanted to fit in some other cards as well. So I considered it, but discarded it pretty quickly. Maybe too quickly considering how popular it seems to be.
Thanks for your continued work, Godot. The massive amount of imagery is just one way in which your articles stand out from many of the other articles. And I know that's a direct result of your time spent.
On that note, I was prepared to give you a friendly chastising for taking weaker cards over the late Caravan Escorts and the Mammoth Umbra. But you didn't even end up playing white, and your R/U deck might have been short on playables had you made those picks. You obviously know what's up.
Most of those images are screenies right? Well if you are familiar with an image program it is not hard to produce them (alt-print screen is akin to control-c but it copies the current window to the buffer. from there it is a matter of control-v in the program and save to jpg or gif.) This process probably takes about 2mins per image if you have the rhythm of it down. Storing the images is not hard. Simply find a free image site, and upload them. The insertion takes a moment again if you have code set up for it(img tag place holder with an empty src tag where you want the image.) All told I imagine it probably took Godot 45 mins tops to insert the images in this article from scratch.
i find blue tediously boring to play with or against most times. Unless its an aggro deck or tutoring for a combo/draw, i avoid blue.
Please elaborate.
i dont about godot but most images can easily be added through a link on the "write article" page and then url's for the images from something like photobucket
It's really not that hard once you have it down.
im wuth you on this danger, IM tired of seeing crybabies..mainly wyrath...whine about the price of fow. Just play a non blue deck. Blue decks are fairly dumb anyways. PLay something fun like enchantress or zoo or something
Were there too many card choices to factor in Gravitational Shift in a flying-matters deck? When I play a white/blue fliers build, whether it's tribal-birds or an unspecific but chock full o' fliers deck, I usually am grateful for drawing Gravitational Shift.. just curious if you even considered it.
I find myself avoiding blue more and more these days because there's a connotation that if I put out an island it means I'm playing control-- and thus, I can just hear the groans over the Æthers of the internets.
I also prefer to hit f8 or f6 to speed things along, and try not play counters too often. When I do play blue, I try and play wacky decks that aren't what you normally expect from a bluemage, like random doppelganging and playing a sphinx tribal deck..
Very interesting article, I like hearing your classification instead of just the simple BREAD system. I would argue that Wooly Thoctar might be a fork though, especially with block packs. It has seemed to me that the block pack metagame has made it much tougher to draft just one shard, and most people combine Naya with either Jund or Esper, or all 5 colors together with heavy fixing. I think are many deck types the Thoctar can end up in.
I'm just curious how you include all of those images in your article without it taking a billion hours of work.
Don't forget Master of the Wild Hunt, in the same vein as Garruk, one of the manliest creatures in standard in years.
Oh ok. I am a blue mage though I tend to not play counters because of the adverse reactions they get. I go for the softer or weirder ones since they raise less objections.
No, I just don't like having to worry about doing stuff on other peoples' turns. Here's a paragraph from my first article explaining my style:
"I don't tend to play many combos. You won't see me go infinite, at least not on purpose. I don't really use Counterspells, mainly because I would rather press F8 to speed things along during an opponent's turn. I avoid playing blue. As a matter of fact, I also noticed that a lot of my decks lack instants, or at least have very few. That's just my style, so that's what you should expect."
I don't really have a problem with others playing them though, and I definitely think they have their place.
HA! I love it, great article. I just have one glaring issue with, very big... How could you write this without giving reference to POWERTHIRST!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs
Yea, I basically agree with it. However, the important thing to note is that in swiss you can win game 2 and 3 to get 2 packs but in 4-3-2-2 you HAVE to win the 1st one. I always play swiss, I hate the fact that 4-3-2-2 is the default for older formats, because most of them I've never played and I don't want to do a 4-3-2-2 for my 1st draft of a format ever.
I don't have a mancard. I was raised to believe in myself regardless of gender stereotypes.
Oh and this might not be a 5/5 but it is certainly better than a 2/5.
"A completely stocked Fridge/Freezer complete with at least one TV Dinner or acceptable frozen delight."
The fridge that is "mine" is fully stocked with beer (at the moment with Newcastle, Heineken, Corona and Coors Light for the ladies), with some meat and leftover chili. Unfortunately, there are no frozen or TV dinners in it. Do I have to turn in my card?
Great article!
When you say you aren't a fan of counters do you mean all counter magic or just the really unfair counters? Is it a matter of it being commander and counter magic not fitting in?
Save your deck build then load it into the deck editor and add lands. then save again and load into the draft editor and submit when ready.
Hey OCP-
Unfortunately, Karmic Guide isn't in the list because it isn't available online at the moment. However, I think people will be happy when Urza's Legacy comes out online in a little while to add the card.
Glen Elandra Archmage is one that I probably should have mentioned in the section about counterspells. However, I'm not a big fan of counters, and don't even own the Archmage, so that's the main reason it wasn't included. I think it definitely is worth being in the deck if you like that kind of card though.
Luminarch Ascension has proven very valuable when playing online. I've managed to get it active early, mid and late game. It doesn't bring overwhelming hate like playing land destruction or Eldrazi does. I wouldn't recommend removing it.
Hoofprints can go out though. Takes longer to get multiple tokens, higher activation cost and can only be done at sorcery speed.
So when Legacy comes out, I would take out Hoofprints for Karmic Guide. And if you like Archmage, take out Commander Eesha for it.
How do you specify Unhinged lands for a draft? That's pretty neat.