Eldrazi is a creature type: this means with a type-changing effect, or with changelings, you can obtain massive discounts from this land. Imagine a deck built around cheap artifact creatures such as Myr or gnomes, or golems. Failing that, you can still crib swap for W or nameless inversion for B. In classic vanguard, this alongside Seshiro could make an entire deck free to play.
Let me know how you get on, I found the persist/conduit combo very powerful. I did play some other games after these and the deck does well on brute force.
I need to work on the Tezz build, I've not had the time yet.
I think implementing some kind of team atmosphere is very important for Magic Online. Team events and team support indirectly addresses the main problem Magic Online has when compared to paper magic, community.
The community and social nature of the game is very prevalent in paper magic and that was one of my favorite part of the game when I played paper magic. On magic online, its very difficult for most players to form any kind of social network because there isn't any tangible reason for one player to help another player out other than being "nice" or "generous." It's just as easy or even easier for players to be a jerk or ignore an opponent who they probably won't see again. This is less true with some of the specialty constructed formats because you see the same players over and over again, but at least in draft and sealed deck, you can probably forget the name of your opponent because it's unlikely you'll meet up with them again in the forseeable future.
Teams change this because every opponent is also a potential ally or teammate.
It sounds like 2-headed Giant would be very difficult to implement online, however what I think a good way to start team events would be a simple extension of individual play and 2-man queues.
For example in Zendikar Block, you would have 2 different 2 vs 2 queues, and each player would need 2 tickets to participate.
Zendikar Block Team A 2 vs 2 tournament queue
Zendikar Block Team B 2 vs 2 tournament queue
When both queues have 2 players the matches are started as follows
Team A Player 1 vs. Team B Player 1
Team A Player 2 vs. Team B Player 2
1) If both players from Team A win their matches, they both get a pack.
2) If both players from Team B win their matches, they both get a pack.
3) Otherwise the winners play a match against each other, with players from the winning team each getting a pack. (If you lost the first match, you can watch your teammate play round 2)
This adds a little more strategy to the metagame, if there is a Rock-Paper-Scissors metagame, you and your teammate probably want to play different decks so that you have a reasonable chance of getting a favorable match-up somewhere along the line.
If you've got suggestions on an alternate mana base, feel free to chime in. And, for the record, the "yummy antelope" is more about the fact that you gain life from it than some sort of "relationship" with it. Thanks for reading.
All 75 cards explained in imaginative detail. This article will surely be the benchmark for future discussions and must be addressed if people want to choose different routes.
Wouldnt you need some sort of voice communication have true team events. Not that you couldn't get free skype accounts and talk to people. But that was just one other thing I was thinking about. Doing team drafts, OMG team rochester drafts. Man I miss team events.
i think the deck was pretty cool, I def like the idea of the persist creatures in this deck, I wanna try it myself, but I'd imagine in some cases playing a larger number of games might change the resulting win % and i gotta say id like to see the other version you mention with Tezz
Thanks for writing the article with my question in mind. I only play online and not paper so I wasn't really aware of all the downsides to 2hg online tournament format but you make some great points. I'm hoping that the next major mtgo client build can accomodate these styles of tournament as my friend and I are ready to battle the best! haha
Alternatively, Eldrazi could be a supertype, like arcane. (Eye of Ugin uses the same templating as Long Forgotten Gohei, so I'm pretty sure this works)
That way, you could have Eldrazi instants, sorcerys, artifacts, enchantments and creatures (I don't think you could have an eldrazi land using supertypes).
That way you could have stuff like ghostfire as "Eldrazi instant".
I believe that this would work more or less the same as making it "tribal instant: Eldrazi", but ;
a) I don't know whether they're planning on using tribal outside of a block mechanic, and
b) i'm no rules expert!
I read somewhere on the WOTC website that Eye of Ugin definitely doesn't make Eldrazi Monument cost less to cast. As Lord Erman said we'll meet the Eldrazi in the next set, which makes sense as its called Rise of the Eldrazi.
I hesitate a bit to get oath as they are pretty expansive, but finaly i did and oath is a house !
CT version is very interesting.
About the creatures choice, i think Tyrant could have been mentioned : it is maybe not effective enough (as well much less than in vintage), but it however remains a serious threat imo : i tested it a lot recently and the ability to bounce opponent card is really handy (bridge, leyline, platinium...) especialy as you can use its ability as intant at the end of opponent's turn with a simple brainstorm, tutor, counter ... Plus it can kill as it remains a solid 5/5 flying, and it also allow to get a storm finish when you're running chrome moxen & crypt (even if you dont imprint any card for the mox).
Your deck DEFINITELY could've done with a Gilder Bairn, particularly considering it's a cheap card in both of the colors your deck ended up being, and it tends to function like a Coretapper on steroids even when you're not able to get it tapped every turn... all you need is one big one.
Also for Mirrodin Block Style Points, you could've gone with Dismantle as the old-timey way to double the counters on your reactor: Since it doesn't specify that the dismantled artifact needs to be destroyed to add that many counters, it functionally just doubles the counters on your Reactor. It's also useful for moving the counters stored up on an Energy Chamber en masse, but the way it's usually used is as a doubling effect from 10 to 20 after a few coretapper activations.
Always good to see Reactor out for a drive, though. I always did love that card.
Eldrazi will be a creature type. The rumors say that they will be very expensive-to-cast creatures and therefore we have Eye of Ugin. It gives a 2 discount for the colorless Eldrazi spells. That's all I know. Maybe they'll also print some Tribal Eldrazi spells too but that's a guess.
Eldrazi is a creature type: this means with a type-changing effect, or with changelings, you can obtain massive discounts from this land. Imagine a deck built around cheap artifact creatures such as Myr or gnomes, or golems. Failing that, you can still crib swap for W or nameless inversion for B. In classic vanguard, this alongside Seshiro could make an entire deck free to play.
Let me know how you get on, I found the persist/conduit combo very powerful. I did play some other games after these and the deck does well on brute force.
I need to work on the Tezz build, I've not had the time yet.
Yes Dismantle would have been very useful in this deck, to be honest I never new the card even existed until you mentioned it.
Yeah Gilder Bairn is nice but as you say you need a way to tap it first without attacking if you want to re-use him.
Such a pretty deck, i'm in awe staring at all these foils and can't even imagine how much your deck costs...
oh yea and the article was great too!
I think implementing some kind of team atmosphere is very important for Magic Online. Team events and team support indirectly addresses the main problem Magic Online has when compared to paper magic, community.
The community and social nature of the game is very prevalent in paper magic and that was one of my favorite part of the game when I played paper magic. On magic online, its very difficult for most players to form any kind of social network because there isn't any tangible reason for one player to help another player out other than being "nice" or "generous." It's just as easy or even easier for players to be a jerk or ignore an opponent who they probably won't see again. This is less true with some of the specialty constructed formats because you see the same players over and over again, but at least in draft and sealed deck, you can probably forget the name of your opponent because it's unlikely you'll meet up with them again in the forseeable future.
Teams change this because every opponent is also a potential ally or teammate.
It sounds like 2-headed Giant would be very difficult to implement online, however what I think a good way to start team events would be a simple extension of individual play and 2-man queues.
For example in Zendikar Block, you would have 2 different 2 vs 2 queues, and each player would need 2 tickets to participate.
Zendikar Block Team A 2 vs 2 tournament queue
Zendikar Block Team B 2 vs 2 tournament queue
When both queues have 2 players the matches are started as follows
Team A Player 1 vs. Team B Player 1
Team A Player 2 vs. Team B Player 2
1) If both players from Team A win their matches, they both get a pack.
2) If both players from Team B win their matches, they both get a pack.
3) Otherwise the winners play a match against each other, with players from the winning team each getting a pack. (If you lost the first match, you can watch your teammate play round 2)
This adds a little more strategy to the metagame, if there is a Rock-Paper-Scissors metagame, you and your teammate probably want to play different decks so that you have a reasonable chance of getting a favorable match-up somewhere along the line.
If you've got suggestions on an alternate mana base, feel free to chime in. And, for the record, the "yummy antelope" is more about the fact that you gain life from it than some sort of "relationship" with it. Thanks for reading.
Quote:
"I hope that you enjoyed the article!"
Yes I did kind sir. And welcome back.
LE
Have you looked at the flavor text for Ghostfire? It refers to the Eye of Ugin.
"Only those gifted with the eye of Ugin, the spirit dragon, can see his fiery breath."
Not sure if that means we'll see more cards like this, but I'm excited about the idea.
All 75 cards explained in imaginative detail. This article will surely be the benchmark for future discussions and must be addressed if people want to choose different routes.
Please stop calling the poor Grazing Gladeheart a "yummy antelope". We don't really want to know about your kinky relationships in articles.
Beyond that, I think the biggest surprise in the article was that your manabase didn't screw you. Congrats on your win.
Wouldnt you need some sort of voice communication have true team events. Not that you couldn't get free skype accounts and talk to people. But that was just one other thing I was thinking about. Doing team drafts, OMG team rochester drafts. Man I miss team events.
...and sorry about the double post.
One good thing about Treasure Hunt is that you know you will get at least one business spell, and you could get more if your lands are business.
I would also like to say that the editor still isn't doing his job.
One good thing about Treasure Hunt is that you know you will get at least one business spell, and you could get more if your lands are business.
I would also like to say that the editor still isn't doing his job.
i think the deck was pretty cool, I def like the idea of the persist creatures in this deck, I wanna try it myself, but I'd imagine in some cases playing a larger number of games might change the resulting win % and i gotta say id like to see the other version you mention with Tezz
Even though i don't play anyomre... Set reviews are still a cop out.
Enjoy the writing keep it up. Stuff like this is actually informative for those who still follow it slightly but are not active players.
Rich
Thanks for writing the article with my question in mind. I only play online and not paper so I wasn't really aware of all the downsides to 2hg online tournament format but you make some great points. I'm hoping that the next major mtgo client build can accomodate these styles of tournament as my friend and I are ready to battle the best! haha
Thanks again!
Cheers
Quagmire11 & Sirskills - 2hg Extended avid players (BRING THE GOODS!)
Alternatively, Eldrazi could be a supertype, like arcane. (Eye of Ugin uses the same templating as Long Forgotten Gohei, so I'm pretty sure this works)
That way, you could have Eldrazi instants, sorcerys, artifacts, enchantments and creatures (I don't think you could have an eldrazi land using supertypes).
That way you could have stuff like ghostfire as "Eldrazi instant".
I believe that this would work more or less the same as making it "tribal instant: Eldrazi", but ;
a) I don't know whether they're planning on using tribal outside of a block mechanic, and
b) i'm no rules expert!
I read somewhere on the WOTC website that Eye of Ugin definitely doesn't make Eldrazi Monument cost less to cast. As Lord Erman said we'll meet the Eldrazi in the next set, which makes sense as its called Rise of the Eldrazi.
Really nice article Whiffy.
I hesitate a bit to get oath as they are pretty expansive, but finaly i did and oath is a house !
CT version is very interesting.
About the creatures choice, i think Tyrant could have been mentioned : it is maybe not effective enough (as well much less than in vintage), but it however remains a serious threat imo : i tested it a lot recently and the ability to bounce opponent card is really handy (bridge, leyline, platinium...) especialy as you can use its ability as intant at the end of opponent's turn with a simple brainstorm, tutor, counter ... Plus it can kill as it remains a solid 5/5 flying, and it also allow to get a storm finish when you're running chrome moxen & crypt (even if you dont imprint any card for the mox).
great job, waiting for the next article.
Your deck DEFINITELY could've done with a Gilder Bairn, particularly considering it's a cheap card in both of the colors your deck ended up being, and it tends to function like a Coretapper on steroids even when you're not able to get it tapped every turn... all you need is one big one.
Also for Mirrodin Block Style Points, you could've gone with Dismantle as the old-timey way to double the counters on your reactor: Since it doesn't specify that the dismantled artifact needs to be destroyed to add that many counters, it functionally just doubles the counters on your Reactor. It's also useful for moving the counters stored up on an Energy Chamber en masse, but the way it's usually used is as a doubling effect from 10 to 20 after a few coretapper activations.
Always good to see Reactor out for a drive, though. I always did love that card.
Eldrazi will be a creature type. The rumors say that they will be very expensive-to-cast creatures and therefore we have Eye of Ugin. It gives a 2 discount for the colorless Eldrazi spells. That's all I know. Maybe they'll also print some Tribal Eldrazi spells too but that's a guess.
LE
first!
keep up the good work
-tolazytologin
Hmmm not likely. But then again Leicht is a fairly common Austrian surname. Never seen Dexter or I'd have known about that.
That was me. Remember always.