To be honest I already have an Eldrazi/Nissa GW deck in mind but for ZEN Block. But now that you mentioned Goldmane + Joraga, I think I can also try a Standard version.
funny thing about this: I have complained about this multiple times, to different orcs, and to customer service through email. Each time i am told the same thing. Any lag is on my end, and there is no clicklag for the go first button ever.
So after they fix the clicklag (not that they ever will), it would also be nice to see a public apoligy to all the people whom they lied to about the cause.
I already started my testing for Part II and all I can say is that if you liked this one at least a bit, you'll definately love the next one.
And JustSin, yes, this theme would have been also nice for you too... on a second thought, what's keeping you from doing your own version? :). "Anything But... Sin" maybe? :).
Any thoughts on a Gw build? Ajani Goldmane + Joraga Warcaller seems like it would be sweet, at least in theory. Swap in Noble Hierarchs for the Lanowar elves and some duals and I don't think it would stretch the mana base too badly.
Back in the day when we had 3D avatars I loved my Stalking Tiger portrait. Now my favorite avatar's calm and cool gaze has been replaced by another tiger's look of surprise, fear, and constipation. Where's the justice?!
I'm amazed by how aesthetically pleasing your articles always are. The pacing of short paragraphs and pictures makes it an easy and fun read. When I search for ways to spruce up my own articles, I first take a look at you and Godot's archive. I also like the concept you're using for this article series. Keep up the great work!
personally im going to have to take credit for my idea on maelstrom pulse, unfortunately i was in the school computer lab printing out my bus tickets for this weekend and never signed on. :(
I would love to know what they working on and how they are prioritizing. It wouldn't even have to be months/years off. Just show us what's coming up in the queue. Of course, they will bend towards money-making features, but it'd be nice to know that they may be listening to our issues and be planning for them.
"10. Three weeks late – prereleases are postreleases"
I'm sure this could be done, but WotC is very worried about leaks and anything that jeopardizes that will be heavily scrutinized.
"9. Classifieds – or should I say _____.CLASSIFIEDS._____"
Months ago I remember someone from WotC say that it might be possible to implement a feature with the classifieds where they would bring people on your buddy list to the top of the listings. They have so far been unable to make even this small improvement. What makes you think they are capable of doing all of the stuff you would like them to do with the classifieds?
"8. Buddies and Block list – the world is not as black and white as enemies and allies"
I can see this requiring a bit of programming and with the current system it would clog up the interface quite a bit until the user interface redesign is implemented.
"7. The collection binder – putting all your eggs in one basket"
Once again, I think this would require a significant effort in the programming department, and it's still much much much easier to construct a deck online and manage your cards online than it is with real paper cards.
"6. The "Casual" Room – what is Casual?"
This is the easiest fix in your list. However I don't think anything can stop people from complaining about who they are matched up against. You can't make everyone happy with this issue no matter how you slice it.
"5. Clans – needs more Scottish symbols and caber-tossing"
It would require a lot of programming and testing to improve clans in any significant way. Why bother when hardly anyone uses clans to begin with. It is not directly related to the money making events that WotC provides. (Yes, I'm playing devil's advocate here)
"4. PEs A trifecta of problems."
WotC is already working on redesigning the user interface. I think we're just going to have to wait for it.
"3. PRE (Player-run Event) Support – read: almost none"
If PREs become more popular, wouldn't they start to pull people away from sanctioned tournaments? After all most of us have limits to the ammount of time we have to spend playing Magic Online.
"2. Queues can't take multiple inputs"
I want this more than anyone, but I think this is just beyond WotC's capabilities at the moment. I was told that even something as simple as switching 2-man queue prize payouts to even out the ammount of Zendikar and Worldwake packs from week to week would be something that would be difficult to implement. I would understand if a WotC employee told me it was something that may not want to do for various reasons, but they said it would be difficult to implement, meaning there is very very very little that WotC can do in this reguard. I think it's hard enough to get WotC to change tournament prizes to what they should be in the first place when a new set comes out. Multiple options for entrance fees is something that WotC would do if they were capable of doing it with their current resources.
"1. Chat & The Dock"
Hopefully the user interface redesign will fix this. Either way, it's something they are already working on, so why harp too loudly about it.
It's more complicated than "happy customers are paying customers" Economics plays a lot into it. Most brick and mortar card shops could make their paying customers a lot happier by adding Leather recliners, poker felt tables, and huge wide screen televisions to their shops. However that's probably not a real great investment for them.
@Anonymous #1: Splashing a tiny piece of black for Maelstrom Pulse is actually an idea which sounds good and worthy of testing. 4x Verdant Catacombs could easily go in the deck (or make it 3 or 2), and then one single Swamp would be enough to do the trick. One single Swamp will be all the addition to the manabase in reality and I think that this might work.
@Anonymous #2: I personally don't like Omnath... yet! But Rise of the Eldrazi might change my point of view.
The last time I played a Mono Green deck was back in Time Spiral Block days. After that I never played one. So this was a nice change for me.
@lackhand: Devour won me more than a few ALA drafts too. And by the way, the very first Eldrazi Green deck did include Mycoloth in its sideboard. I didn't tested it but maybe I should have.
Thanks again for the comments, I do appreciate them all.
I'm building a very similar Zen block deck right now, with Arbor elf, Leatherback baloth, Nissa and her followers, and Joraga Warcaller. Unfortunatelly I sold off my two copies of Eldrazi monument a few months ago when they were at 5 tix each, I may try to buy them back now.
I'm also trying a couple of Avengers and Terastodons, just for the fun of having some more fat on the board, and Bestial menace but this one hasn't performed according to expectations, though.
Thanks so much guys, I had an old account I never used which I knew had some tix on it, so I transferred them along with the M10 booster they give to new accounts over my main account. Then I figured, what the hey I'll crack the M10 pack....low and behold Baneslayer!!
I say fix the freaking lag first, then move onto bigger things.
While all those things suck, nothing pisses me off more than Lag!
That draft thing is so spot on, last night I joined a med123 draft with nix packs. I sat in the queue and watched as the nix tix draft fired. I guess I could of paid 16 tickets and bought the packs, but I think 15 tickets was enough (I scrubbed out, but luckily pulled Underground Sea!)
I also agree on the casual debate.......Can we rename the room to "I have nothing better to do with my free time other than whine about which cards you are playing."
Great Article Danger......let's see if anyone listens.
I love the devour mechanic, and won many limited events in Shards block with it. But it just isn't that good in constructed. When you're facing decks packing so much removal, you can almost guarantee you're setting yourself up for a 2-for-1.
Gluttonous Slime is cute, but really only a decent trick so that you still have a guy on board when they try to remove one. Vines of Vastwood is a far better way to trump removal.
That being said, I think there is one devour creature worth considering. Mycoloth. You wouldn't play him until your Eldrazi Monument was out, but once that happens you're not so worried about him getting removed. Plus, the sheer number of tokens produced by a Mycoloth is ridiculous enough to win games even without the help of the monument and anything else that might pump the tokens (Oran-Rief). You wouldn't want many in the deck, but it might be worth trying.
Happy customers are paying customers. And the whole point of the article was to bring to light changes that are all both doable and either barriers to more dollars or gateway to more dollars from MTGO.
Jamuraa - I too have run MANY PREs. In fact I wrote the first article on them here a couple of year ago.
What PREs need is to get away from manual pairing via some guy in a chat room with DCI-R. And no- it's not hard for YOU, but it's a major impediment to getting enw players to participate in them - the constant questions, the repeated mistakes ("oops I forgot to make it a match, what do we do now", "Oh I didn't know it was supposed to be a timed game"). Even the constant "what are the standings? - Ok if I beat player x and he loses in 3 games to play Y, will I make top 8?"
A very simple PRE system will go a long way to making PREs work far better than they do now.
As for prizes - you can feel free to give away prizes for whatever you want - it is only the SYSTEM that won't give away prizes (you know, like a sanctioned event does). For example, if you want to have a PRE where the winner gets a Foil that's great - but the system won't pay that out - you will. Just like PREs today.
PREs are crazy underreprsented on MTGO. I hope you haven't become comfortable with the status quo.
Great article, I agree there are a lot of good and bad things with the current system, and you'll never be able to solve everyones problems. A couple other things I would like to see changed would be:
Adding some extra game types, or another layer of drop down for game types. I play a lot of standard pauper in the casual rooms, and it is tough to get another standard pauper opponent (even though there are quite a few out there). You can either play a standard game and put in the game description "pauper" or play a pauper game description "standard". Either way, you will probably get the game you want less than 50% of the time, because no one reads game descriptions. Having a Format menu and a Set Legality menu (so you could select "pauper" and Standard" or "commander" and "extended") would make my life easier.
As far as the casual room goes, I think there should just be an extra room or two, so you could have "levels". Some people want to play their Vamp or Jund list in a single game or with a few suboptimal tweaks that they particularly like, others like to play budget or "theme" decks. I think everyone's enjoyment level would go up if they could more accurately select the level of deck they want to play against.
And bring back leagues. (even if that goes against the title of the article).
To be honest I already have an Eldrazi/Nissa GW deck in mind but for ZEN Block. But now that you mentioned Goldmane + Joraga, I think I can also try a Standard version.
Good thinking!
Thanks.
LE
funny thing about this: I have complained about this multiple times, to different orcs, and to customer service through email. Each time i am told the same thing. Any lag is on my end, and there is no clicklag for the go first button ever.
So after they fix the clicklag (not that they ever will), it would also be nice to see a public apoligy to all the people whom they lied to about the cause.
Thanks for the kind words guys.
I already started my testing for Part II and all I can say is that if you liked this one at least a bit, you'll definately love the next one.
And JustSin, yes, this theme would have been also nice for you too... on a second thought, what's keeping you from doing your own version? :). "Anything But... Sin" maybe? :).
Thanks again.
LE
Any thoughts on a Gw build? Ajani Goldmane + Joraga Warcaller seems like it would be sweet, at least in theory. Swap in Noble Hierarchs for the Lanowar elves and some duals and I don't think it would stretch the mana base too badly.
one thing i wouldnt mind seeing, though no-one has mentioned it, so maybe i am alone.... a way to delete or shred cards from my binder
stupid 850 snow swamps, maybe i drafted med2 too much
this is definitely a series theme that I can get into.. in fact I'm jealous I didn't think of it first! lol
Back in the day when we had 3D avatars I loved my Stalking Tiger portrait. Now my favorite avatar's calm and cool gaze has been replaced by another tiger's look of surprise, fear, and constipation. Where's the justice?!
I'm amazed by how aesthetically pleasing your articles always are. The pacing of short paragraphs and pictures makes it an easy and fun read. When I search for ways to spruce up my own articles, I first take a look at you and Godot's archive. I also like the concept you're using for this article series. Keep up the great work!
personally im going to have to take credit for my idea on maelstrom pulse, unfortunately i was in the school computer lab printing out my bus tickets for this weekend and never signed on. :(
I can tell you that they told me the list of things WoTC would like to do is longer than any list we'd come up with. And I believe them.
I would love to know what they working on and how they are prioritizing. It wouldn't even have to be months/years off. Just show us what's coming up in the queue. Of course, they will bend towards money-making features, but it'd be nice to know that they may be listening to our issues and be planning for them.
Or am I sniffing too much glue again?
"10. Three weeks late – prereleases are postreleases"
I'm sure this could be done, but WotC is very worried about leaks and anything that jeopardizes that will be heavily scrutinized.
"9. Classifieds – or should I say _____.CLASSIFIEDS._____"
Months ago I remember someone from WotC say that it might be possible to implement a feature with the classifieds where they would bring people on your buddy list to the top of the listings. They have so far been unable to make even this small improvement. What makes you think they are capable of doing all of the stuff you would like them to do with the classifieds?
"8. Buddies and Block list – the world is not as black and white as enemies and allies"
I can see this requiring a bit of programming and with the current system it would clog up the interface quite a bit until the user interface redesign is implemented.
"7. The collection binder – putting all your eggs in one basket"
Once again, I think this would require a significant effort in the programming department, and it's still much much much easier to construct a deck online and manage your cards online than it is with real paper cards.
"6. The "Casual" Room – what is Casual?"
This is the easiest fix in your list. However I don't think anything can stop people from complaining about who they are matched up against. You can't make everyone happy with this issue no matter how you slice it.
"5. Clans – needs more Scottish symbols and caber-tossing"
It would require a lot of programming and testing to improve clans in any significant way. Why bother when hardly anyone uses clans to begin with. It is not directly related to the money making events that WotC provides. (Yes, I'm playing devil's advocate here)
"4. PEs A trifecta of problems."
WotC is already working on redesigning the user interface. I think we're just going to have to wait for it.
"3. PRE (Player-run Event) Support – read: almost none"
If PREs become more popular, wouldn't they start to pull people away from sanctioned tournaments? After all most of us have limits to the ammount of time we have to spend playing Magic Online.
"2. Queues can't take multiple inputs"
I want this more than anyone, but I think this is just beyond WotC's capabilities at the moment. I was told that even something as simple as switching 2-man queue prize payouts to even out the ammount of Zendikar and Worldwake packs from week to week would be something that would be difficult to implement. I would understand if a WotC employee told me it was something that may not want to do for various reasons, but they said it would be difficult to implement, meaning there is very very very little that WotC can do in this reguard. I think it's hard enough to get WotC to change tournament prizes to what they should be in the first place when a new set comes out. Multiple options for entrance fees is something that WotC would do if they were capable of doing it with their current resources.
"1. Chat & The Dock"
Hopefully the user interface redesign will fix this. Either way, it's something they are already working on, so why harp too loudly about it.
It's more complicated than "happy customers are paying customers" Economics plays a lot into it. Most brick and mortar card shops could make their paying customers a lot happier by adding Leather recliners, poker felt tables, and huge wide screen televisions to their shops. However that's probably not a real great investment for them.
well for what its worth i was still passed one in www 4322 4th pick so i feel its not the next bsa.
Thanks for the comments.
@Anonymous #1: Splashing a tiny piece of black for Maelstrom Pulse is actually an idea which sounds good and worthy of testing. 4x Verdant Catacombs could easily go in the deck (or make it 3 or 2), and then one single Swamp would be enough to do the trick. One single Swamp will be all the addition to the manabase in reality and I think that this might work.
@Anonymous #2: I personally don't like Omnath... yet! But Rise of the Eldrazi might change my point of view.
The last time I played a Mono Green deck was back in Time Spiral Block days. After that I never played one. So this was a nice change for me.
@lackhand: Devour won me more than a few ALA drafts too. And by the way, the very first Eldrazi Green deck did include Mycoloth in its sideboard. I didn't tested it but maybe I should have.
Thanks again for the comments, I do appreciate them all.
LE
I'm building a very similar Zen block deck right now, with Arbor elf, Leatherback baloth, Nissa and her followers, and Joraga Warcaller. Unfortunatelly I sold off my two copies of Eldrazi monument a few months ago when they were at 5 tix each, I may try to buy them back now.
I'm also trying a couple of Avengers and Terastodons, just for the fun of having some more fat on the board, and Bestial menace but this one hasn't performed according to expectations, though.
Because Squee's +3 handsize exists and is not a typo
That if that's the only good thing that comes out of this article, ever - I'll still think it was worth it.
Thanks so much guys, I had an old account I never used which I knew had some tix on it, so I transferred them along with the M10 booster they give to new accounts over my main account. Then I figured, what the hey I'll crack the M10 pack....low and behold Baneslayer!!
I say fix the freaking lag first, then move onto bigger things.
While all those things suck, nothing pisses me off more than Lag!
That draft thing is so spot on, last night I joined a med123 draft with nix packs. I sat in the queue and watched as the nix tix draft fired. I guess I could of paid 16 tickets and bought the packs, but I think 15 tickets was enough (I scrubbed out, but luckily pulled Underground Sea!)
I also agree on the casual debate.......Can we rename the room to "I have nothing better to do with my free time other than whine about which cards you are playing."
Great Article Danger......let's see if anyone listens.
I love the devour mechanic, and won many limited events in Shards block with it. But it just isn't that good in constructed. When you're facing decks packing so much removal, you can almost guarantee you're setting yourself up for a 2-for-1.
Gluttonous Slime is cute, but really only a decent trick so that you still have a guy on board when they try to remove one. Vines of Vastwood is a far better way to trump removal.
That being said, I think there is one devour creature worth considering. Mycoloth. You wouldn't play him until your Eldrazi Monument was out, but once that happens you're not so worried about him getting removed. Plus, the sheer number of tokens produced by a Mycoloth is ridiculous enough to win games even without the help of the monument and anything else that might pump the tokens (Oran-Rief). You wouldn't want many in the deck, but it might be worth trying.
Good article.
Happy customers are paying customers. And the whole point of the article was to bring to light changes that are all both doable and either barriers to more dollars or gateway to more dollars from MTGO.
Jamuraa - I too have run MANY PREs. In fact I wrote the first article on them here a couple of year ago.
What PREs need is to get away from manual pairing via some guy in a chat room with DCI-R. And no- it's not hard for YOU, but it's a major impediment to getting enw players to participate in them - the constant questions, the repeated mistakes ("oops I forgot to make it a match, what do we do now", "Oh I didn't know it was supposed to be a timed game"). Even the constant "what are the standings? - Ok if I beat player x and he loses in 3 games to play Y, will I make top 8?"
A very simple PRE system will go a long way to making PREs work far better than they do now.
As for prizes - you can feel free to give away prizes for whatever you want - it is only the SYSTEM that won't give away prizes (you know, like a sanctioned event does). For example, if you want to have a PRE where the winner gets a Foil that's great - but the system won't pay that out - you will. Just like PREs today.
PREs are crazy underreprsented on MTGO. I hope you haven't become comfortable with the status quo.
Agreed, this turns into an auto refund every time, but this would really piss me off if it happened in T8 of a big event.
Let's revolt!
Great article, I agree there are a lot of good and bad things with the current system, and you'll never be able to solve everyones problems. A couple other things I would like to see changed would be:
Adding some extra game types, or another layer of drop down for game types. I play a lot of standard pauper in the casual rooms, and it is tough to get another standard pauper opponent (even though there are quite a few out there). You can either play a standard game and put in the game description "pauper" or play a pauper game description "standard". Either way, you will probably get the game you want less than 50% of the time, because no one reads game descriptions. Having a Format menu and a Set Legality menu (so you could select "pauper" and Standard" or "commander" and "extended") would make my life easier.
As far as the casual room goes, I think there should just be an extra room or two, so you could have "levels". Some people want to play their Vamp or Jund list in a single game or with a few suboptimal tweaks that they particularly like, others like to play budget or "theme" decks. I think everyone's enjoyment level would go up if they could more accurately select the level of deck they want to play against.
And bring back leagues. (even if that goes against the title of the article).