I had a lot of fun playing this, and managed to stick a t1 pithing needle naming bazaar of baghdad against FMIALC in our game two. Regrettably, he was able to draw into a land to play a Putrid Imp before I could muster a second pithing needle or a significant offence.
For anyone interested in the GRw Landfall deck, I'd note that the Minotaurs do, in fact, seem to be too cute; I'd definitely take them out and replace them with the Gladehearts, which can be pretty amazing in race situations (and you're pretty much always in a race situation.)
Sorry about that Shard I wanted to do this one quick as I was already in the process of writing my normal article. You'll have to do week 7 and 9 in your next one : )
I'm glad to see everything went well. The article was great...even though it came out before the seventh one...oh well. Congrats to everyone for showing up and for FatMan winning. I will see everyone next week.
It was fun (and I like the little boxing/wrestling? analogy here). I wish there was a better way to pair off opponents than single elimination with 10 players leading to byes. It felt awkward to wait around and watch as Imporid tore up the battlefield in 2 turns each game, only to know I had no choice but to face it the next round because of the way the pairings worked. Not that I minded playing FMIALC. He was courteous and encouraging. I was a bit dumbfounded to see such high level deck here though I guess from past reports of seals I've not been in it was to be expected. As I said to FMIALC it was like bringing space cannon to a tennis match.
Not sure I understand your question. I certainly am not claiming that any of these Pauper decks are better than Tier 1 Standard decks. I am merely reporting on what are the leading contenders in the new Standard Pauper season and drawing some comparisons between the two formats.
Just a quick update to my Borosfall list - I swapped in 3 Glorious Charge for the 3 Seismic Shudder in the Main deck, and swapped out the 3 Journey to Nowhere for the 3 Seismic Shudder in the Sideboard. With a bunch of 1/1s running around, Glorious Charge might actually be decent...
Lightly butter a 10 by 12-inch baking sheet or casserole dish and set aside.
In the top of a double boiler, or in a metal bowl set over a pot of boiling water, melt the semisweet chocolate, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula. Add the nuts (or cherries) and stir well. Pour the chocolate into the buttered dish, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.
Melt the white chocolate in the top of a double-boiler, stirring occasionally. Spoon melted white chocolate on top of melted semisweet chocolate, then run a knife back and forth to create a random marbled effect.
When chocolate is cooled and has hardened, cut or break into pieces of desired size.
5 useful things Oath of Druids Accomplish in limited
5. Actual milling potential espcially when you're ahead enough on creatures. Remember, those cards have to go into the graveyard
4. its a two for one card advantage, and you can adjust your deck to playing with it. Play a creature and draw a card seems pretty nice
3. Blue is extremely top heavy in the limited environment, great way to get around its counters
2. Play it within the first 6 turns of the game
1. You get to ensure that any creature you do draw has the potential to be a bomb creature, or any creature oath plays has the potential to be a bomb creature because you thin your own deck out of less significant creatures at the time.
I did make a mistake with Gaea's blessing, it was in weatherlight, for some reason I always think its in stronghold, not sure why, but my mind is fuzzy with sets occassionally. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I'm working on part 2 as I speak.
I held off a for along time on buying Masters of the Wild Hunt at around 4 tix, because I was waiting for it to dip just a bit lower. Clearly that was a big mistake.
RE: Maindeck Lightcaster: I couldn't pull that trigger given that I had a solid creature base without it. A Gray Ogre for WWW is pretty awful, and I hate taking that risk when I have other serviceable creatures to run instead.
It's an interesting question though because it is so fantastic against black. How many black decks can I expect to face if I intend to make the finals? Surely one, maybe two. How much of an edge do I gain against black with a game-one lightcaster, and how much of an adge do I lose against non-black with a game-one lightcaster instead of my worst maindeck creature? Hey Shaterri, do some math on this one or something, would ya?
RE: Sky Ruin Drake: agree with Metalman, it's really a solid creature. Blue is in a weird position in Zendikar. It has some aggressive, evasive guys, but it can't keep up with red and black without doing some blocking at some point. A turn-five drake can block basically anything without intimidate then join back in on offense when the blue mage switches from control to aggro.
RE: raredrafting: Given my vocal endorsement of the Swiss format for its status as the slowest bleed of Magic Online limited, I certainly have no problem with raredrafting. WIthout my columnist hat on, I'm always trying to make the pick that produces the most return, be that via matches won or secondary market. I play 84s looking for column material, though, and I will raredraft less when I may be doing a walkthrough.
RE: Nimbus Wings: I acknowledge that Nimbus Wings, Goblin War Paint, Savage Silhouette, and Vampire's Bite all have more value in Zendikar than they would in slower formats. (See the comments in my article on the Zendikar prerelease where I defend my decision to run Goblin War Paint.) All-in approaches that exchange (or risk) card disadvantage for extra damage are going to be more viable in a fast environment, where it's less about who has ground out some extra cards and more about who can deal 20 the fastest.
That being said, I didn't like Nimbus Wings for the deck because in white-blue, I expect most of my key attackers to already have flying, and the ones that don't to have 2 power, which really reduces it's potential impact given the 2:1 risks. I can see running it in white-red where launching a Shatterskull Giant or Ruinous Minotaur can be worth 5+ damage.
Very insightful, thanks! I, too, love to share constructive criticism on drafts in an effort to establish what could have been done differently, and I will take your comments to heart.
I had a lot of fun playing this, and managed to stick a t1 pithing needle naming bazaar of baghdad against FMIALC in our game two. Regrettably, he was able to draw into a land to play a Putrid Imp before I could muster a second pithing needle or a significant offence.
lol, week 7 is done but i had some tests this week in microeconomics so it didnt get finished til thursday. Thanks again though for covering.
For anyone interested in the GRw Landfall deck, I'd note that the Minotaurs do, in fact, seem to be too cute; I'd definitely take them out and replace them with the Gladehearts, which can be pretty amazing in race situations (and you're pretty much always in a race situation.)
Sorry about that Shard I wanted to do this one quick as I was already in the process of writing my normal article. You'll have to do week 7 and 9 in your next one : )
I'm glad to see everything went well. The article was great...even though it came out before the seventh one...oh well. Congrats to everyone for showing up and for FatMan winning. I will see everyone next week.
It was fun (and I like the little boxing/wrestling? analogy here). I wish there was a better way to pair off opponents than single elimination with 10 players leading to byes. It felt awkward to wait around and watch as Imporid tore up the battlefield in 2 turns each game, only to know I had no choice but to face it the next round because of the way the pairings worked. Not that I minded playing FMIALC. He was courteous and encouraging. I was a bit dumbfounded to see such high level deck here though I guess from past reports of seals I've not been in it was to be expected. As I said to FMIALC it was like bringing space cannon to a tennis match.
It would be nice as a NON-pauper player to see how the decks interact in practice. I think that's what was meant.
Not sure I understand your question. I certainly am not claiming that any of these Pauper decks are better than Tier 1 Standard decks. I am merely reporting on what are the leading contenders in the new Standard Pauper season and drawing some comparisons between the two formats.
Did you test them against Tier 1 decks like Jund?
Just a quick update to my Borosfall list - I swapped in 3 Glorious Charge for the 3 Seismic Shudder in the Main deck, and swapped out the 3 Journey to Nowhere for the 3 Seismic Shudder in the Sideboard. With a bunch of 1/1s running around, Glorious Charge might actually be decent...
to be fair though, I just copy pasted it from the food networks site.
Did you really give a recipe for...
1. melting chocolate
2. incorporating ANYTHING into it
3. letting it regain it's solidity
???
Just checking :)
that was full of epic win, best post edit in the history of pure!!
Roflmao...pure evil Josh. If I was able to eat sweets that could kill me.
Sounds delicious! I'll have to make a batch for the holidays.
Promo Duress and Swords are excellent. Wish the textless Terminates from this month had been achievable for the non-dealer types, though.
This person had nothing of value to say, so I edited it.
I have something of value to go with though, here is a recipe for a delish bar
* 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened
* 1 1/2 pounds semisweet chocolate, chopped
* 1 1/2 cups toasted macadamia, pistachio, or cashew nuts, or 1 1/2 cups dried cherries
* 12 ounces white chocolate, chopped
Directions
Lightly butter a 10 by 12-inch baking sheet or casserole dish and set aside.
In the top of a double boiler, or in a metal bowl set over a pot of boiling water, melt the semisweet chocolate, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula. Add the nuts (or cherries) and stir well. Pour the chocolate into the buttered dish, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula.
Melt the white chocolate in the top of a double-boiler, stirring occasionally. Spoon melted white chocolate on top of melted semisweet chocolate, then run a knife back and forth to create a random marbled effect.
When chocolate is cooled and has hardened, cut or break into pieces of desired size.
Enjoy!
Posted edited by JXC
Hamtastic,
I play alot of Zen Block Con right now, if you want to test with me sometime just message me and ill be happy to play.
MTGO - dammnnitdan
Thanks!
5 useful things Oath of Druids Accomplish in limited
5. Actual milling potential espcially when you're ahead enough on creatures. Remember, those cards have to go into the graveyard
4. its a two for one card advantage, and you can adjust your deck to playing with it. Play a creature and draw a card seems pretty nice
3. Blue is extremely top heavy in the limited environment, great way to get around its counters
2. Play it within the first 6 turns of the game
1. You get to ensure that any creature you do draw has the potential to be a bomb creature, or any creature oath plays has the potential to be a bomb creature because you thin your own deck out of less significant creatures at the time.
I did make a mistake with Gaea's blessing, it was in weatherlight, for some reason I always think its in stronghold, not sure why, but my mind is fuzzy with sets occassionally. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I'm working on part 2 as I speak.
What the heck has made Greater Auramancy jump up?
I held off a for along time on buying Masters of the Wild Hunt at around 4 tix, because I was waiting for it to dip just a bit lower. Clearly that was a big mistake.
too bad. thanks for the help tho.
No. Just the emails according to the ORC who answered this question in chat the other day.
is there a WotC website where you can check on the status of your points to stay current w/ where you are?
Thanks for the comments, all.
RE: Maindeck Lightcaster: I couldn't pull that trigger given that I had a solid creature base without it. A Gray Ogre for WWW is pretty awful, and I hate taking that risk when I have other serviceable creatures to run instead.
It's an interesting question though because it is so fantastic against black. How many black decks can I expect to face if I intend to make the finals? Surely one, maybe two. How much of an edge do I gain against black with a game-one lightcaster, and how much of an adge do I lose against non-black with a game-one lightcaster instead of my worst maindeck creature? Hey Shaterri, do some math on this one or something, would ya?
RE: Sky Ruin Drake: agree with Metalman, it's really a solid creature. Blue is in a weird position in Zendikar. It has some aggressive, evasive guys, but it can't keep up with red and black without doing some blocking at some point. A turn-five drake can block basically anything without intimidate then join back in on offense when the blue mage switches from control to aggro.
RE: raredrafting: Given my vocal endorsement of the Swiss format for its status as the slowest bleed of Magic Online limited, I certainly have no problem with raredrafting. WIthout my columnist hat on, I'm always trying to make the pick that produces the most return, be that via matches won or secondary market. I play 84s looking for column material, though, and I will raredraft less when I may be doing a walkthrough.
RE: Nimbus Wings: I acknowledge that Nimbus Wings, Goblin War Paint, Savage Silhouette, and Vampire's Bite all have more value in Zendikar than they would in slower formats. (See the comments in my article on the Zendikar prerelease where I defend my decision to run Goblin War Paint.) All-in approaches that exchange (or risk) card disadvantage for extra damage are going to be more viable in a fast environment, where it's less about who has ground out some extra cards and more about who can deal 20 the fastest.
That being said, I didn't like Nimbus Wings for the deck because in white-blue, I expect most of my key attackers to already have flying, and the ones that don't to have 2 power, which really reduces it's potential impact given the 2:1 risks. I can see running it in white-red where launching a Shatterskull Giant or Ruinous Minotaur can be worth 5+ damage.
Very insightful, thanks! I, too, love to share constructive criticism on drafts in an effort to establish what could have been done differently, and I will take your comments to heart.