For anyone who cares, here is my current Merfolk deck:
9x Island
2x Plains
2x Glacial Fortress
3x Faerie Conclave
4x Wanderwine Hub
1x Karakas
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4x Merfolk Sovereign
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Merrow Reejerey
4x Riptide Pilferer
4x Silvergill Adept
2x Sygg, River Guide
4x Counterspell
4x Cryptic Command
4x Dissipate
4x Oblivion Ring
I too run a Merfolk control deck and it has done very well. If you look at Lord Erman's article on his Cleric deck, I believe the loss to the Merfolk deck was mine. I point this out to indicate that control is viable - that game could have gone either way and I certainly took away a lesson concerning Karakas from it (thanks LE).
I am working on a Faerie control deck that should be viable in classic tribal as well.
I am looking forward to the Classic Tribal Wars league. For those who haven't heard of it, check out www.worldofkedoria.com.
I don't see any reason to ban leyline rather than helm. Leyline is a valid option in lots of none-combo decks (maybe as a tutorable answer to the dredge deck?), wheras helm does nothing but combo.
In the first tribal combocalypse I ran a snakes list pretty similar to yours, but tuned much more to beat aggro (repulse, remand, sakura-tribe elder, sosuke's summons), which I thought was going to be the probably meta (how wrong I was....). repulse, remand, brainstorm and cryptic command combine with lorescale coatl to turn the game around very quickly once you manage to stem the aggro bleeding, and sosuke's summons (now with oran-rief tech!) with the plethora of 2-mana CA snakes for the early game meant that the deck was pretty effective against aggro.
Against combo, I see no reason to run snakes over merfolk (mystic snake is not enough reason!), who can have similar or greater capacity for countermagic, whilst also getting bigger guys at the low-cost end of the spectrum (so they can cast them and keep counter-mana up). And if the decision wasn't easy enough, the three or four test games I've played show that the snakes vs merfolk matchup is pretty even (sosuke's summons is very strong here) UNLESS merfolk can draw and resolve lord of atlantis, in which case it is a blow-out in merfolks favour. Neither deck is hugely quick off the blocks, so merfolk have plenty of time to find cpt. Islandwalk, and overall, I think the matchup is pretty heavily in merfolk's favour.
Cats is sooo aggressive, I love it. Shame I can't afford the zoo mana-base it requires!
I have been very surprised that nobody's turned up with fairies yet. It seems like that deck would have great matchups all around (possible exception of merfolk. I'm not sure how that one plays out as both sides are essentially unblockable in the matchup but fairies have more countermagic, where merfolk have the lords. Seems like bitterblossom would be the key card?).
Great article and great read. I love the Queller deck.
I'd like to comment on the common-land cycle for Zen. As a limited player, I've been a huge fan of these. The two elements of tension they create are 1.) the ability to splash off-color lands for their effects but not disrupt your mana base and 2.) when to drop them if everything is not great. I've worked with a couple of black-white drafts with quick beats and have loved the red land. Turn 1 Lynx, turn two Teetering Peaks is a beating of a way to start. Follow it with Kor Skyfisher to replay the Teetering ... wow, welcome to 12 life on my turn 3. It is straightforward for red-white but being able to do that in a black-white deck requires deck construction skill and offers interesting possibilities. The other element, timing, is challenging when you've got a slower hand and not enough lands in hand to time things perfectly. I've got a four drop and four lands, one of which is a Soaring Seacliff. I'd much rather cast my creature on turn 4 and then give him flying on turn 5, but on turn 3 do I roll the dice and hope I draw into another land or play it out without a good target and guarentee I have a non-flier active on turn 5? I like these puzzles. If you haven't tried them in Limited, they may surprise you in what they bring to the game.
The draft description was hilarious. Oh, I've been there so many times. Getting all sorts of crazy mixed signals, switching colors, begging for any playable warm body. :)
I'm pretty sure you still always take day of judgment if you're in white, no matter how aggro you're feeling.
I have read a few limited reviews extolling predatory urge recently, and am feeling a bit stupid, having drafted it a couple of times, but never actually put it into my 40. I still feel like it needs some very specific things to go right for it to be playable (if only troll ascetic were in zendikar!).
What's going on with all the html code, by the way?
Excellent work Steve, quickly becoming one of my favorite writers.
On Casual/not Casual. Room descriptions are fine, but people can also be abusive with them. I remember back in Ravinca era standard people would ask for "no counters" and then drop Simic Sky Swallowers on you.
One definition of casual for me, and this is just me, is this: Casual means I can play a bad deck if I want to. Just a pile of Jank that I thew together on a whim because I thought it might work. I can toss together a pile and wander into the casual room and get a FRIENDLY game. And no matter what else, the FRIENDLY can't be overstated. So much of this debate could be solved with the modicum of social skills I learned fron Fred Rogers as a kid.
I have no idea how you could have watched infi games from me considering the fact that I've only played a couple of casual games + a few matches to complete the mymtgo.com tournament over the past 1+ month, using at most 3 diff decks over the entire course of time on my Tarmotog acc...
1 to test the extent of which a uw control can be crippled deckwise, 1 to play my official games and one to see whether or not the deck I put up works as advertised.
At the "weekend challenges", I've thus far played 2 decks, t8ing in all but one (that I've entered) although never once have I won it so you might not want to find me regarding winning the event.
I'm sure you're a great player who understands the format in its entirety, having just started playing competitively. Unfortunately for the master, we don't have anything more we can add to what you already know.
If you want some to see some written works, you can hang around here or go to mtgoacademy unless you want to start up your own website.
Decklists are not hard to find esp since you can get a list of all of those at mymtgo.com's group.
Also, you've already seen oran-rief recluse, so there's no guarantee that the one aggressive creature you have is going to be getting in for any damage anyway. I would ship it back, as you really need 2 mountains off the top in your first 3 turns for it to go anywhere.
I think it's fine, personally. You'll find you get a lot of people telling you that it's "not casual" if you run out any powerful card. I get it for casting gifts ungiven in extended. I'm using it to set up Toshiro Umezawa guys! TOSHIRO #%*(#"% UMEZAWA!
I agree with you here. May I suggest that you NEVER head into the multiplayer room. You will be blocked into oblivion if you even think of acidic sliming one of the infinite number of cloudposts..
I have ranted on this many times before, but the multiplayer room on mtgo has essentially just become battle of the big-mana, because all of it's natural predators (i.e. LD or discard, or some kind of combo) are "not casual". but dropping sundering titan in the midst of 5 consecutive turns (from timestretch, of course) somehow falls within the bounds of casual. /End rant (for now).
nice article steve, I think the first decklist is mis-titled though!
Hey there, Mr. Jahn! In case you read this, I'm really flattered that you would quote me in your profile here. We here at The Mana Pool are glad you enjoy the show and wish you good luck smashing the WotC folks!
Thanks LE. What do you mean by mass removal for UG? Evacuation? Thats the only thing that comes to mind. I ran a cats deck in casual yesterday and ran into a Mono Blue Fish deck that resembled Voltron. (all fish that pumped each other or made my lands Islands and walked through for the win.) Nary a counterspell in sight. I wonder if that isn't better if you can field enough of the buggers to swamp your opponents. I am finding Tribal to very strange as formats go. Thought about signing up for the league but it seems you need to be very selective with color (no 5c Elementals for me.) I would most certainly run the above deck if I had the lands but for now Elementals is my strongest deck. Cats has some funky surprises in it but just randomly loses to things.
I enjoyed the article a lot and it was obvious that Strip Mine was a mistake.
A few words about counterspells in Tribal Wars: They exist and I do use them too (as in Merfolk). I win against *almost* every deck, from all sorts of combo decks to any mid range deck but keep losing to Goblins and Elves; basically to decks that can *almost* play their entire hand in one turn.
So if you want to play counterspells in the format, make sure that you pack some mass removal against those decks. But against others, you will do just fine.
http://mymtgo.com/view_deck.php?did=1249 here is the fixed list. (Minus Land Tax, Enlightened Tutor, and Wasteland for the cards mentioned because I don't own those yet.)
http://mymtgo.com/view_deck.php?did=1250 this is the 3 color bantgeddon deck I made a few days after writing this article which seemed to pilot more effectively. The 5 color deck above is more fun but it is nice to actually get the deck working. Counters help keep the deck on keel but also make it far less casual though still not in a tier. I had some practice games with Louigi (the winner of the mymtgo.com Wave Tourney) with him playing various decks against these and the 3 color did much much better winning a few games.
Again my apologies for the incompletedness of this article...it was not my intention for it to be published without the changes. I wish it were possible to edit your articles after the fact.
Immediately block? Well that's your choice but seriously in 100s it is not the same thing as doing it in a tight 60 card standard deck. It merely gives you somewhat of a breather from pressure usually and time maybe to play out some threats. Yes it can soft lock a game you are already in a position to win but it is not without risks being symmetrical. In any case this deck does somewhat cross the line and I am careful to play it only where I know the person is prepared for whatever I may use against them.
Titanic is just not worth it normally. It either is massive over kill and you are winning anyway or it is so expensive it leaves you open for all kinds of reprisals or just plain counters.
That was just hillarious! Not a russian folk artist. Thats a pic of me about 6 years ago. Strip Mine was a complete error. Not in the CC but I am rooting for them. And I hope we (the community) are kicking butt.
I agree with most of your comments about the casual room. I spend most of my time there testing out random decks, and I've also encountered a bit of whining there. Completely unexpected: I brought my standard mill deck to a game IN THE TOURNAMENT PRACTICE ROOM, and this guy started calling me a coward when he saw the crabs come out, and again when I exiled one of his permanents, and then he let out some hateful angry tirade before quitting. Did I mention that was in the tournament practice room?
Anyway I find there are some fun casual games to be had in the Pauper format. There's the occasional belching goblin deck or black control going on, but there are also a lot of quirky and fun decks being played.
I love the Queller deck you posted above. I went ahead and built it almost identical to your build, but subbed out the Ant Queens for some random single rares I've got - Uril the Mistwalker, Hellkite Charger, Rampaging Baloths, and Iona Shield of Emeria. Uril might not belong in this deck without enchantments, but the two fliers each won a game single-handedly for me. I also opted for some zendikar uncommon life-gain duals rather than those rupture spires. Oh, and SUMMONING TRAP is great for seeking out a Queller or even getting a decent discount on Iona or other expensive bombs, even if there isn't a single counter in the enemy deck.
Won a bunch of matches with this deck, and then went up against a player using almost exclusively cards from the MTGO new account pack. And I'll be darned if he didn't Act of Treason my Queller and then sac it to his Vampire Aristocrat!
I've got a set of Path to Exile, but I might consider adding Vines of Vastwood before Path, in order to protect those precious World Quellers once they're out there, as well as some of the other fatties that are vulnerable to cheap kills.
Some Keeper of Progenitus could be real nice with any of the Hydras and with Fireball, for double pumping action, and Drum Hunter might also be a nice source of card advantage.
I agree with most of your comments about the casual room. I spend most of my time there testing out random decks, and I've also encountered a bit of whining there. Completely unexpected: I brought my standard mill deck to a game IN THE TOURNAMENT PRACTICE ROOM, and this guy started calling me a coward when he saw the crabs come out, and again when I exiled one of his permanents, and then he let out some hateful angry tirade before quitting. Did I mention that was in the tournament practice room?
Anyway I find there are some fun casual games to be had in the Pauper format. There's the occasional belching goblin deck or black control going on, but there are also a lot of quirky and fun decks being played.
I love the Queller deck you posted above. I went ahead and built it almost identical to your build, but subbed out the Ant Queens for some random single rares I've got - Uril the Mistwalker, Hellkite Charger, Rampaging Baloths, and Iona Shield of Emeria. Can't remember the fourth. Uril might not belong in this deck without enchantments, but the two fliers each won a game single-handedly for me. I also opted for some zendikar uncommon life-gain duals rather than those rupture spires. Oh, and SUMMONING TRAP is great for seeking out a Queller or even getting a decent discount on Iona or other expensive bombs, even if there isn't a single counter in the enemy deck.
Won a bunch of matches with this deck, and then went up against a player using almost exclusively cards from the MTGO new account pack. And I'll be darned if he didn't Act of Treason my Queller and then sac it to his Vampire Aristocrat!
I've got a set of Path to Exile, but I might consider adding Vines of Vastwood before Path, in order to protect those precious World Quellers once they're out there, as well as some of the other fatties that are vulnerable to cheap kills.
Some Keeper of Progenitus could be real nice with any of the Hydras and with Fireball, for double pumping action, and Drum Hunter might also be a nice source of card advantage.
I don't think it would be that hard to write a Magic AI. It's a hard problem, but so is chess... Approach it logically and you can probably come up with a game-playing robot pretty easily.
But its already been done to play magic at a AI level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_%28MicroProse%29
Now just update rules update the AI. Make it run alittle diffrent now into a bot. Hmmm.... Why even have a look ahead factor.. Granted yes its part of it but if its doing statisticly the best play at during each phase of each turn. Hmmm... I will admit im no programmer nore did I ever claim to be one. Matter of fact im a accountant. But the fact that you can attach a AI to the game of magic already has been proven you can do.
For anyone who cares, here is my current Merfolk deck:
9x Island
2x Plains
2x Glacial Fortress
3x Faerie Conclave
4x Wanderwine Hub
1x Karakas
1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4x Merfolk Sovereign
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Merrow Reejerey
4x Riptide Pilferer
4x Silvergill Adept
2x Sygg, River Guide
4x Counterspell
4x Cryptic Command
4x Dissipate
4x Oblivion Ring
I too run a Merfolk control deck and it has done very well. If you look at Lord Erman's article on his Cleric deck, I believe the loss to the Merfolk deck was mine. I point this out to indicate that control is viable - that game could have gone either way and I certainly took away a lesson concerning Karakas from it (thanks LE).
I am working on a Faerie control deck that should be viable in classic tribal as well.
I am looking forward to the Classic Tribal Wars league. For those who haven't heard of it, check out www.worldofkedoria.com.
I don't see any reason to ban leyline rather than helm. Leyline is a valid option in lots of none-combo decks (maybe as a tutorable answer to the dredge deck?), wheras helm does nothing but combo.
In the first tribal combocalypse I ran a snakes list pretty similar to yours, but tuned much more to beat aggro (repulse, remand, sakura-tribe elder, sosuke's summons), which I thought was going to be the probably meta (how wrong I was....). repulse, remand, brainstorm and cryptic command combine with lorescale coatl to turn the game around very quickly once you manage to stem the aggro bleeding, and sosuke's summons (now with oran-rief tech!) with the plethora of 2-mana CA snakes for the early game meant that the deck was pretty effective against aggro.
Against combo, I see no reason to run snakes over merfolk (mystic snake is not enough reason!), who can have similar or greater capacity for countermagic, whilst also getting bigger guys at the low-cost end of the spectrum (so they can cast them and keep counter-mana up). And if the decision wasn't easy enough, the three or four test games I've played show that the snakes vs merfolk matchup is pretty even (sosuke's summons is very strong here) UNLESS merfolk can draw and resolve lord of atlantis, in which case it is a blow-out in merfolks favour. Neither deck is hugely quick off the blocks, so merfolk have plenty of time to find cpt. Islandwalk, and overall, I think the matchup is pretty heavily in merfolk's favour.
Cats is sooo aggressive, I love it. Shame I can't afford the zoo mana-base it requires!
I have been very surprised that nobody's turned up with fairies yet. It seems like that deck would have great matchups all around (possible exception of merfolk. I'm not sure how that one plays out as both sides are essentially unblockable in the matchup but fairies have more countermagic, where merfolk have the lords. Seems like bitterblossom would be the key card?).
Great article and great read. I love the Queller deck.
I'd like to comment on the common-land cycle for Zen. As a limited player, I've been a huge fan of these. The two elements of tension they create are 1.) the ability to splash off-color lands for their effects but not disrupt your mana base and 2.) when to drop them if everything is not great. I've worked with a couple of black-white drafts with quick beats and have loved the red land. Turn 1 Lynx, turn two Teetering Peaks is a beating of a way to start. Follow it with Kor Skyfisher to replay the Teetering ... wow, welcome to 12 life on my turn 3. It is straightforward for red-white but being able to do that in a black-white deck requires deck construction skill and offers interesting possibilities. The other element, timing, is challenging when you've got a slower hand and not enough lands in hand to time things perfectly. I've got a four drop and four lands, one of which is a Soaring Seacliff. I'd much rather cast my creature on turn 4 and then give him flying on turn 5, but on turn 3 do I roll the dice and hope I draw into another land or play it out without a good target and guarentee I have a non-flier active on turn 5? I like these puzzles. If you haven't tried them in Limited, they may surprise you in what they bring to the game.
Again, thanks for the article.
The draft description was hilarious. Oh, I've been there so many times. Getting all sorts of crazy mixed signals, switching colors, begging for any playable warm body. :)
I'm pretty sure you still always take day of judgment if you're in white, no matter how aggro you're feeling.
I have read a few limited reviews extolling predatory urge recently, and am feeling a bit stupid, having drafted it a couple of times, but never actually put it into my 40. I still feel like it needs some very specific things to go right for it to be playable (if only troll ascetic were in zendikar!).
What's going on with all the html code, by the way?
Excellent work Steve, quickly becoming one of my favorite writers.
On Casual/not Casual. Room descriptions are fine, but people can also be abusive with them. I remember back in Ravinca era standard people would ask for "no counters" and then drop Simic Sky Swallowers on you.
One definition of casual for me, and this is just me, is this: Casual means I can play a bad deck if I want to. Just a pile of Jank that I thew together on a whim because I thought it might work. I can toss together a pile and wander into the casual room and get a FRIENDLY game. And no matter what else, the FRIENDLY can't be overstated. So much of this debate could be solved with the modicum of social skills I learned fron Fred Rogers as a kid.
I have no idea how you could have watched infi games from me considering the fact that I've only played a couple of casual games + a few matches to complete the mymtgo.com tournament over the past 1+ month, using at most 3 diff decks over the entire course of time on my Tarmotog acc...
1 to test the extent of which a uw control can be crippled deckwise, 1 to play my official games and one to see whether or not the deck I put up works as advertised.
At the "weekend challenges", I've thus far played 2 decks, t8ing in all but one (that I've entered) although never once have I won it so you might not want to find me regarding winning the event.
I'm sure you're a great player who understands the format in its entirety, having just started playing competitively. Unfortunately for the master, we don't have anything more we can add to what you already know.
If you want some to see some written works, you can hang around here or go to mtgoacademy unless you want to start up your own website.
Decklists are not hard to find esp since you can get a list of all of those at mymtgo.com's group.
Also, you've already seen oran-rief recluse, so there's no guarantee that the one aggressive creature you have is going to be getting in for any damage anyway. I would ship it back, as you really need 2 mountains off the top in your first 3 turns for it to go anywhere.
I think it's fine, personally. You'll find you get a lot of people telling you that it's "not casual" if you run out any powerful card. I get it for casting gifts ungiven in extended. I'm using it to set up Toshiro Umezawa guys! TOSHIRO #%*(#"% UMEZAWA!
I agree with you here. May I suggest that you NEVER head into the multiplayer room. You will be blocked into oblivion if you even think of acidic sliming one of the infinite number of cloudposts..
I have ranted on this many times before, but the multiplayer room on mtgo has essentially just become battle of the big-mana, because all of it's natural predators (i.e. LD or discard, or some kind of combo) are "not casual". but dropping sundering titan in the midst of 5 consecutive turns (from timestretch, of course) somehow falls within the bounds of casual. /End rant (for now).
nice article steve, I think the first decklist is mis-titled though!
Hey there, Mr. Jahn! In case you read this, I'm really flattered that you would quote me in your profile here. We here at The Mana Pool are glad you enjoy the show and wish you good luck smashing the WotC folks!
Thanks LE. What do you mean by mass removal for UG? Evacuation? Thats the only thing that comes to mind. I ran a cats deck in casual yesterday and ran into a Mono Blue Fish deck that resembled Voltron. (all fish that pumped each other or made my lands Islands and walked through for the win.) Nary a counterspell in sight. I wonder if that isn't better if you can field enough of the buggers to swamp your opponents. I am finding Tribal to very strange as formats go. Thought about signing up for the league but it seems you need to be very selective with color (no 5c Elementals for me.) I would most certainly run the above deck if I had the lands but for now Elementals is my strongest deck. Cats has some funky surprises in it but just randomly loses to things.
Zdrastvuyte* Mr. Russian Folk Singer,
I enjoyed the article a lot and it was obvious that Strip Mine was a mistake.
A few words about counterspells in Tribal Wars: They exist and I do use them too (as in Merfolk). I win against *almost* every deck, from all sorts of combo decks to any mid range deck but keep losing to Goblins and Elves; basically to decks that can *almost* play their entire hand in one turn.
So if you want to play counterspells in the format, make sure that you pack some mass removal against those decks. But against others, you will do just fine.
LE
*means "Hello"
http://mymtgo.com/view_deck.php?did=1249 here is the fixed list. (Minus Land Tax, Enlightened Tutor, and Wasteland for the cards mentioned because I don't own those yet.)
http://mymtgo.com/view_deck.php?did=1250 this is the 3 color bantgeddon deck I made a few days after writing this article which seemed to pilot more effectively. The 5 color deck above is more fun but it is nice to actually get the deck working. Counters help keep the deck on keel but also make it far less casual though still not in a tier. I had some practice games with Louigi (the winner of the mymtgo.com Wave Tourney) with him playing various decks against these and the 3 color did much much better winning a few games.
Again my apologies for the incompletedness of this article...it was not my intention for it to be published without the changes. I wish it were possible to edit your articles after the fact.
Immediately block? Well that's your choice but seriously in 100s it is not the same thing as doing it in a tight 60 card standard deck. It merely gives you somewhat of a breather from pressure usually and time maybe to play out some threats. Yes it can soft lock a game you are already in a position to win but it is not without risks being symmetrical. In any case this deck does somewhat cross the line and I am careful to play it only where I know the person is prepared for whatever I may use against them.
Titanic is just not worth it normally. It either is massive over kill and you are winning anyway or it is so expensive it leaves you open for all kinds of reprisals or just plain counters.
That was just hillarious! Not a russian folk artist. Thats a pic of me about 6 years ago. Strip Mine was a complete error. Not in the CC but I am rooting for them. And I hope we (the community) are kicking butt.
Holy crap?! I thought this was diff thread about deck con. hahahahaha.
I agree with most of your comments about the casual room. I spend most of my time there testing out random decks, and I've also encountered a bit of whining there. Completely unexpected: I brought my standard mill deck to a game IN THE TOURNAMENT PRACTICE ROOM, and this guy started calling me a coward when he saw the crabs come out, and again when I exiled one of his permanents, and then he let out some hateful angry tirade before quitting. Did I mention that was in the tournament practice room?
Anyway I find there are some fun casual games to be had in the Pauper format. There's the occasional belching goblin deck or black control going on, but there are also a lot of quirky and fun decks being played.
I love the Queller deck you posted above. I went ahead and built it almost identical to your build, but subbed out the Ant Queens for some random single rares I've got - Uril the Mistwalker, Hellkite Charger, Rampaging Baloths, and Iona Shield of Emeria. Uril might not belong in this deck without enchantments, but the two fliers each won a game single-handedly for me. I also opted for some zendikar uncommon life-gain duals rather than those rupture spires. Oh, and SUMMONING TRAP is great for seeking out a Queller or even getting a decent discount on Iona or other expensive bombs, even if there isn't a single counter in the enemy deck.
Won a bunch of matches with this deck, and then went up against a player using almost exclusively cards from the MTGO new account pack. And I'll be darned if he didn't Act of Treason my Queller and then sac it to his Vampire Aristocrat!
I've got a set of Path to Exile, but I might consider adding Vines of Vastwood before Path, in order to protect those precious World Quellers once they're out there, as well as some of the other fatties that are vulnerable to cheap kills.
Some Keeper of Progenitus could be real nice with any of the Hydras and with Fireball, for double pumping action, and Drum Hunter might also be a nice source of card advantage.
I agree with most of your comments about the casual room. I spend most of my time there testing out random decks, and I've also encountered a bit of whining there. Completely unexpected: I brought my standard mill deck to a game IN THE TOURNAMENT PRACTICE ROOM, and this guy started calling me a coward when he saw the crabs come out, and again when I exiled one of his permanents, and then he let out some hateful angry tirade before quitting. Did I mention that was in the tournament practice room?
Anyway I find there are some fun casual games to be had in the Pauper format. There's the occasional belching goblin deck or black control going on, but there are also a lot of quirky and fun decks being played.
I love the Queller deck you posted above. I went ahead and built it almost identical to your build, but subbed out the Ant Queens for some random single rares I've got - Uril the Mistwalker, Hellkite Charger, Rampaging Baloths, and Iona Shield of Emeria. Can't remember the fourth. Uril might not belong in this deck without enchantments, but the two fliers each won a game single-handedly for me. I also opted for some zendikar uncommon life-gain duals rather than those rupture spires. Oh, and SUMMONING TRAP is great for seeking out a Queller or even getting a decent discount on Iona or other expensive bombs, even if there isn't a single counter in the enemy deck.
Won a bunch of matches with this deck, and then went up against a player using almost exclusively cards from the MTGO new account pack. And I'll be darned if he didn't Act of Treason my Queller and then sac it to his Vampire Aristocrat!
I've got a set of Path to Exile, but I might consider adding Vines of Vastwood before Path, in order to protect those precious World Quellers once they're out there, as well as some of the other fatties that are vulnerable to cheap kills.
Some Keeper of Progenitus could be real nice with any of the Hydras and with Fireball, for double pumping action, and Drum Hunter might also be a nice source of card advantage.
I don't think it would be that hard to write a Magic AI. It's a hard problem, but so is chess... Approach it logically and you can probably come up with a game-playing robot pretty easily.
But its already been done to play magic at a AI level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_%28MicroProse%29
Now just update rules update the AI. Make it run alittle diffrent now into a bot. Hmmm.... Why even have a look ahead factor.. Granted yes its part of it but if its doing statisticly the best play at during each phase of each turn. Hmmm... I will admit im no programmer nore did I ever claim to be one. Matter of fact im a accountant. But the fact that you can attach a AI to the game of magic already has been proven you can do.
Great interview, thank you for doing this.
Did you just agree with yourself?