I've played many more Momir matches lately, and I'm probably going to write a followup article to this, but here's my opinions on landdrops.
You want to have Islands in your deck, but you want them in your hand until turn 4. Temporal Adept, Nightscape Master and Sunscape Master are the most obvious creatures where you need blue mana to activate their Visara abilities, and you need multiple Islands to activate them. Plains rarely help you, but also rarely hurt you, and I am never unhappy about having a Plains in play. But, the white mana rarely gets used, unless you hit a tapper in the early turns. Obviously, these generic rules are just guidelines, but that is my thought process.
My initial impression is that your deck is overloaded on 3-drops. Have you thought about Kor Skyfisher. I think he'd be better than the 2/2 haste flyer. He's cheaper (and has fewer color requirements). He gives you another way to reuse all your ETB triggers, and he's a 2/3, which is quite relevant in Pauper.
blue is bad, white is somewhat better, benthic behemoth anyone?
anyway, good article, although i believe erman might have even given us the ultimate in momir guide, you can search it out, really details each mana cost.
personally, i drop a 1cc, 2cc, maybe a 3 or 4 depending on the 1 and 2, skip 5 due to leveler, 6 is dragon money, 7 is too risky with phage always skip if i can, and of course 8 is great. 9 isnt bad, but 8 is where its at
Why do you value islands higher than plains? I tend to find that there are more white activated abilities than blue ones, and (perhaps more importantly), there are infinitely more islandwalkers than plainswalkers!
I tend to keep my islands in hand unless I get a creature with a blue activated ability.
Thanks for the article. I've been playing a lot of Momir, and losing way more than 50%, and I think your analysis of 8 drops explains why. I've been skipping 1 and 2 drops on the draw, to try and get to the 9 drops. While there are some great 9 drops I tend I fall far enough behind in the damage race that only Blazing Archon can help me, whereas, while 8 drop may hit a dud, there's enough great 8 drops to make it worth playing more than one.
One question for anyone techy out there... Gatherer shows 2 versions of Kuro, Pitlord (CoK and Divine Vs Demonic). Does this mean that if I go for a 9 drop, I'm twice as likely to hit Kuro than to hit Inkwell Leviathan, for example?
Finally does anyone know of a spreadsheet (or way to export data to a spreadsheet) to get all MTGO creatures by CMC with text and stats? I tried exporting through MTGO deck screen, but could only get their names.
I often go for a zero drop on my first turn in the hopes of hitting a Dryad Arbor. You might get an Ornithopter or a Phyrexian Walker which are OK blockers, or you might waste your turn on a Phyrexian Marauder. The Arbor gambit isn't as reliable as it once was since a lot of new cards like the Kobolds and Shield Sphere have appeared recently.
Rene, welcome to the puremtgo family! This is a fine start. I recommend that you have someone proof your future articles before you submit them. I noticed a number of missing or incorrectly spelled words and strange phrasings which probably indicates English isn't your first tongue. We appreciate any sharing at all but it helps to be able to read through the article without noticing glaring mistakes or having to translate passages. Everyone who writes makes typos so please don't feel badly about this commentary. Just take away the lesson, that you need to be more thorough in your editing. (As do many of us.)
Great article, thanks! I never really understood the Momir format but I do now :)
However I do have one question... Why exactly do you need to skip creating a creature if you want to hit 8-drops? Is it because you need to have a card in hand to discard on turn 8, when you have 8 mana?
Flicker Teeg is actualy Death and Taxes shell splashing green almost like gw beats does in Vintage for Grips,Pridemage,Teeg and Tarmo.
Has pretty fair match ups vs Gobos,Merfs,Burn and can even out swarm Pox.
I'd trade that for Jace, if Oliver and you signed it... :D i was listening to Limited Resources when you were telling this story and i was so freaking excited for your son. Kudos!
Ajani vengeant dropped cos of the foil ala draft events which gave out free pr2 foiled ajani.. not cos it's seeing less play.. lol
for some reason (probably the supply of it) ajani maintained a really high price prior to this at like 21 (even without seeing that much play)..
One thing to remember about both Crab and Ascension is that they change in value quite quickly based on the format! While I'd never put crab in a 60-carder, you CAN get through 40 card decks with just a bit of help. Even if all it does is put a couple of your opponent's bombs in the graveyard early, that's usually fine as 40-carders don't usually have a good way to exploit the graveyard.
I will personally attest that Ascension is ridiculous in THG. There is a huge difference in that card going live for you on turn 4 versus turn 6. As others have said, it also does force opponents to make bad trades to keep it from going active.
I've played many more Momir matches lately, and I'm probably going to write a followup article to this, but here's my opinions on landdrops.
You want to have Islands in your deck, but you want them in your hand until turn 4. Temporal Adept, Nightscape Master and Sunscape Master are the most obvious creatures where you need blue mana to activate their Visara abilities, and you need multiple Islands to activate them. Plains rarely help you, but also rarely hurt you, and I am never unhappy about having a Plains in play. But, the white mana rarely gets used, unless you hit a tapper in the early turns. Obviously, these generic rules are just guidelines, but that is my thought process.
Your comments to game 5 and 8, are a perfect example of what is wrong with the casual room.
My initial impression is that your deck is overloaded on 3-drops. Have you thought about Kor Skyfisher. I think he'd be better than the 2/2 haste flyer. He's cheaper (and has fewer color requirements). He gives you another way to reuse all your ETB triggers, and he's a 2/3, which is quite relevant in Pauper.
Lots of votes for Bob...........anyone care to guess the Top 5?
I'll give you a hint, Bob is in the Top 5!
1. Tarmo
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
blue is bad, white is somewhat better, benthic behemoth anyone?
anyway, good article, although i believe erman might have even given us the ultimate in momir guide, you can search it out, really details each mana cost.
personally, i drop a 1cc, 2cc, maybe a 3 or 4 depending on the 1 and 2, skip 5 due to leveler, 6 is dragon money, 7 is too risky with phage always skip if i can, and of course 8 is great. 9 isnt bad, but 8 is where its at
I've been curious about the root cause for weeks. Thanks, Tarmotog.
I have an excel spreadsheet. I will try to get it online soon.
Why do you value islands higher than plains? I tend to find that there are more white activated abilities than blue ones, and (perhaps more importantly), there are infinitely more islandwalkers than plainswalkers!
I tend to keep my islands in hand unless I get a creature with a blue activated ability.
Hi
Thanks for the article. I've been playing a lot of Momir, and losing way more than 50%, and I think your analysis of 8 drops explains why. I've been skipping 1 and 2 drops on the draw, to try and get to the 9 drops. While there are some great 9 drops I tend I fall far enough behind in the damage race that only Blazing Archon can help me, whereas, while 8 drop may hit a dud, there's enough great 8 drops to make it worth playing more than one.
One question for anyone techy out there... Gatherer shows 2 versions of Kuro, Pitlord (CoK and Divine Vs Demonic). Does this mean that if I go for a 9 drop, I'm twice as likely to hit Kuro than to hit Inkwell Leviathan, for example?
Finally does anyone know of a spreadsheet (or way to export data to a spreadsheet) to get all MTGO creatures by CMC with text and stats? I tried exporting through MTGO deck screen, but could only get their names.
Cheers
I often go for a zero drop on my first turn in the hopes of hitting a Dryad Arbor. You might get an Ornithopter or a Phyrexian Walker which are OK blockers, or you might waste your turn on a Phyrexian Marauder. The Arbor gambit isn't as reliable as it once was since a lot of new cards like the Kobolds and Shield Sphere have appeared recently.
Rene, welcome to the puremtgo family! This is a fine start. I recommend that you have someone proof your future articles before you submit them. I noticed a number of missing or incorrectly spelled words and strange phrasings which probably indicates English isn't your first tongue. We appreciate any sharing at all but it helps to be able to read through the article without noticing glaring mistakes or having to translate passages. Everyone who writes makes typos so please don't feel badly about this commentary. Just take away the lesson, that you need to be more thorough in your editing. (As do many of us.)
Precisely. Momir is partly about randomness and partly about resource management.
He plays Terramorphic Expanse but forgot to add them to the decklist, but if I add 4 of them he plays 66. So I guess his decklist isnt correct.
Why no terramorpic expanses?
3 islands for 6 blue cards seems abit to few imo
Great article, thanks! I never really understood the Momir format but I do now :)
However I do have one question... Why exactly do you need to skip creating a creature if you want to hit 8-drops? Is it because you need to have a card in hand to discard on turn 8, when you have 8 mana?
We must be from the same tribe Ryan. You could be my doppleganger ><
Great article as usual!
Flicker Teeg is actualy Death and Taxes shell splashing green almost like gw beats does in Vintage for Grips,Pridemage,Teeg and Tarmo.
Has pretty fair match ups vs Gobos,Merfs,Burn and can even out swarm Pox.
il
I'd trade that for Jace, if Oliver and you signed it... :D i was listening to Limited Resources when you were telling this story and i was so freaking excited for your son. Kudos!
This might be the best article i have ever read. You write like it's an adventure novel.
Brilliant. I got sucked right into it
Bob is obviously the number two creature as he's often the number 1 in a given format.
Well, they were replaced by Threads of Disloyalty, and I never drew the Threads so I'm not sure that it mattered.
Ajani vengeant dropped cos of the foil ala draft events which gave out free pr2 foiled ajani.. not cos it's seeing less play.. lol
for some reason (probably the supply of it) ajani maintained a really high price prior to this at like 21 (even without seeing that much play)..
One thing to remember about both Crab and Ascension is that they change in value quite quickly based on the format! While I'd never put crab in a 60-carder, you CAN get through 40 card decks with just a bit of help. Even if all it does is put a couple of your opponent's bombs in the graveyard early, that's usually fine as 40-carders don't usually have a good way to exploit the graveyard.
I will personally attest that Ascension is ridiculous in THG. There is a huge difference in that card going live for you on turn 4 versus turn 6. As others have said, it also does force opponents to make bad trades to keep it from going active.
Am I missing something? How do you get your MTGO screen to have that layout?! Looks so much better...anyone?