RE: Qasali clearly I mistook the deck for a wizards deck (lol shows how much(little) Ive played with the cards in that deck). But the point I was making is that the deck is somewhat defenseless against combo and dies to aggro with removal because you have no counter punch early on. Qasali Pridemage is one of those dual use cards that makes such decks work. (Sadly it isn't an Advisor.) Kjeldoran Outpost is a fun card but belongs in a counter/control style deck instead of a prison lock. It isn't fast enough to be a good win con. (Takes forever to actually kill.)
"Mana issues just happen and when you are playing well they are largely irrelevant". Are u kiddin me ? Lol. Seriously Paul, maybe in constructed you can get around the occasional mana imbalance, but in limited it is usually pretty fatal and has absolutely nothing to do with skill. I've had so many ridiculous mana situations like once I was playing 10 X land, 7 Y land, and i draw FIVE Y land and only one X. Etc etc. And in those situations skill has 0% with your chances of winning, except in one thing: when to mulligan. Even so, you might get a couple of unplayable hands on your way to mulligan to 5, and then just get smashed by card advantage.
Im not sure combos like countertop go on the same list as helm line. One is a control softlock that is hard to get just right and the other just wins the game.
I like the "Universe is punishing me" thought even though I read it at first as "pushing me" and that made more sense. I think in some sense after you come off a lost game it is harder to play the game calmly with detached perspective. Mana issues just happen and when you are playing well they are largely irrelevant but when you are error prone they matter greatly. Well that is my point of view. I don't think feeling badly because of it is a good response but I know sometimes you just have to let the feeling ride.
this deck is super casual. it revolves around a 4!!!! card combo to go the distance. it only has 4 hard counterspells. and it is in the format with the largest pool of cards to disrupt.
If your deck cant stall or have a chance to win against a 4 card combo then your deck is probabl;y pretty bad and u should re-evaluate either the deck or if you should be playing in the new players room or a different format.
that being said this is my interpertation of casual and i know other wont agree just like i diodnt but i had to throw my 2 cents out there.
like the idea there steve and its the first way i have seen to abuse the new card.
keep them coming.
ps. i would love to play my casual decks in cas/cas but i cant because i choose to actually play with my cards. sigh. if it cant compete in tournys then it cant compete as almost everybody crys foul when i pop a fetch land for a dual. i mean how good can baneslayer angel be in classic? yet people see a 36 dollar tag and whine(even though i payed 13 for them) -end rant
I used to play single player PC and console RPGs, and assign too much significance to my gold, experience, level, and hit points. Which are also just numbers, and when you stop playing that RPG they just get thrown away. But it's the illusion of progress that's a bit fun. My magic rating, like my old chess rating, does provide a semi-objective measurement of whether I'm getting better at the game, so I do like to see it go up. If I were a baseball player, I'd probably pay attention to my batting average throughout the season - just like a lot of the fans do. I try not to worry about it too much, but I do like watching it (especially when it goes up).
I agree about the Sparkmages. While they're better in theory in a deck with Prodigal Pyromancer and Goblin Artillery, I started taking them before the pingers even showed up, and I do like the Fiery Hellhound and regretted passing him. I ended up even seeing a 4th Sparkmage and passing that, and wouldn't run 3 if I had better creatures or real burn to fill those slots. And of course, the Fiery Hellhound becomes a great finisher if you pair him with a Stone Giant, which I didn't know I'd be getting in a later pick. Once the ground stalls begin, there's nothing like throwing a hound over everyone and pumping all your red mana into his firebreathing for the win.
I will admit, most every time I can remember building a deck with green in a draft, it was one of my initial colors, not one I switched into and ditched another color for. I think I might have switched into green once, and gotten a mediocre deck out of it. Green has plenty of depth of creatures that are reasonable to play and decent sized in combat. But it's mostly a "big, dumb, no evasion and tricks" color, so you need a plan early for what your other color is & what key card types you have to get, whether it's spiders, giant growth, entangling vines, removal in your other color, etc. Otherwise you can get something that looks playable, like one of those green/white decks, but can't quite win. You get some beef out before you die, but they manage to tap you, bounce you, and doomblade you just enough to slip in that fatal damage with their evasion creatures or whatever.
That said, if you get over a certain critical mass of green beef, sometimes you can just hammer in by outnumbering their removal and tricks with your mid-range creatures and fatties. That's kinda what happened to me round 3, game 1. I still agree with the pros who say that black, blue and white are the three strongest colors though, and any two of those three is solid. I would agree with your assessment too, that if you're gonna go green it should start early, so you get enough of the best green to actually win with. Tables with less skilled drafters may see you with more rivals for green too, as it has strong "Timmy appeal".
My list is extensive, yes, but I believe most of the list would beat "fair" decks. You just haven't seen the "second-tier" combos much yet because there's no reason to play them when you can run the first tier ones (why dredge your deck with Hermit Druid when you can do it with Cephalid Illusionist, for instance). If you just ban, say, Helm and Grindstone, I'm going to play Hypergenesis or Glimpse of Nature (subject to my budget). If you ban Hypergenesis, Grindstone, Helm, and Glimpse of Nature, I'll play Bomberman (LED/Salvagers) or go back to Cephalid Breakfast. And so forth.
@Bingobongo- I am terribly sorry my friend. My notes got jumbled up and I definitely mispook there. For all in question Bingo was playing the W/G Cleric Deck that won the FFA we played.
@ Scartore- Normally the win con has been Kjeldoran Outpost...Its slow but it works.
@Paul- The pridemage would be a good idea, however i am unsure what i would remove for it.
@ Lord Erman- That could be an idea to try though the sheer amount of vampires that would show is frightening.
@ Everyone regarding bannings- Great points from everyone. So far the only decks we have had issues with completely dominating events would be Helmline and grindstone. King's list while in-depth is slightly extensive as most of those cards have yet to create a serious effect. Restricting the cards to one copy would work for the people that currently play since i trust them. Any new players though would be a little harder to enforce.
oh and quillspike was a joke, i just ran it the week the issue came up and won on turn3 with it.
I enjoyed the article. The insight on what you are thinking and why you made a play is why I read your draft articles and that of another writer on this site. Thanks for the extra work.
Godot, do you have any methods/tips for calculating the mana base for decks in sealed play? I've pretty much been just running 17 lands and guesstimating what the color splits are going to be (I pretty much just always run 2 colors in sealed). I feel like there's probably got to be a better/more scientific way of figuring this out then what I'm currently doing.
The following form the basis of really strong combos capable of dropping into a tribal deck and dominating most "fair" creature decks:
Glimpse of Nature
Helm of Obedience (or Leyline of the Void)
Lion's Eye Diamond (with Auriok Salvagers)
Hypergenesis (with Cascade cards)
Restore Balance (with Cascade cards)
Counterbalance (with Top)
Sensei's Divining Top (with any cost reducer and/or Future Sight)
Bridge From Below/Cephalid Illusionist/Dread Return
Grindstone (with Painter's Servant)
Earthcraft (with Squirrel Nest)
Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek
Dark Depths/Vampire Hexmage
Goblin Charbelcher (with Goblin Recruiter)
Flash (with Protean Hulk)
Hermit Druid
Strip Mine/Crucible of Worlds
Scepter/Chant
Quillspike (with Devoted Druid, but this one isn't that scary)
and several more I'm just not thinking of right now...
You can argue with a few of these, but here's the point: If you're not planning to either ban nearly all of them, possibly excepting Quillspike and one or two others, or just leave the format alone, you should probably just go with GnomesofZurich's idea and restrict every nonland card that's out of tribe. I can't imagine it's THAT hard to enforce. If you don't, people will continue porting over Classic-level combos and grafting them on to tribal shells.
When I was following along I would also have put the Warpaint on the Bloodgast in R2G1. It negates the 2 for 1 possibility and gives a creature that can get through the Shieldmate without a land drop.
However in R2G2 I would have shot the Gladeheart with the Barrage instead of playing the Shortcutter and that would have turned out worse as he had the Vines.
On R2G1 I think I would have placed the pants on the bloodghast and attacked with it alone. But the difference is rlly minor as your opp was clearly backed against the wall with no options. Yes, war paint did make a difference there, but I'd rlly resist playing it unless I had no other choice. Ive done over 40 sealeds so far (no kidding) and have yet to use the war paint, or have it used against me and die because of it. Anyway, it worked, so it's all good.
I've found that whenever I make a play mistake that costs me the game, the next game I usually have serious mana issues, whether screw, flood or color problems. I feel that it is the universe punishing me - "I gave you the tools to win and you didn't use them so now just sit there and take the beating". It rlly gets me in a sour mood.
By the way, I forgot to say, I enjoy reading your posts!
I don't always agree with your card valuations or your color choices, but it's useful to see what other people are valuing things at.
Not only so I know what people are picking, but also to potentially see a card in a new light :)
The problem with Tribal Standard is that you don't have access to all of the tribes, you have access to the current crop of, often very linear, tribes that WotC is pushing in the latest block.
With regards to the combo cards: yes, something should be done to limit the power of these cards, as two card combos which have nothing to do with the tribe you're running are definitely outside the spirit of the format. If I wanted to play against them, I would be playing Classic. If I'm playing Tribal, it is because I want to be playing with decks that win primarily through their creatures. The prevalence of two-card combo decks in these events would deter me from entering them.
There was an interesting paper tribal format I saw rules for years ago, where the only cards permitted as a 4-of were those of your tribe's type or those with your tribes name contained in the name and/or rules text. Everything else was restricted. This would be difficult to implement online, but it was an interesting way of preserving the flavour of the format.
So I subscribe to this blog via Google Reader and read almost all of your draft posts.
I think you value Sparkmage Apprentice way too high.
You took it over Fiery Hellhound, Ponder and Wall of Frost.
I could agree with taking it over the Wall or Ponder, as I feel they are about equal to the Sparkmage, but the Hellhound is just a great creature and almost always can do some serious damage or kill something much larger.
I could see how all the green you were getting passed pushed you into drafting that Craw Wurm over Flash Freeze, Unsummon, the Spearhunter and the Wall.
I've fallen into the trap myself a few times, but have come to realize that unless you start out aggressively drafting green, and stay 100% committed to it as much as you can, you don't tend to end up with a good enough deck.
There is just something about green in M10 that cause people to avoid it at the beginning, but then when they see all these great creatures, pack after pack after pack, they end up drafting it. Most of the time this doesn't go so well. If I don't see Overrun or Might of Oaks or some other awesome green card in the first couple picks, I try and avoid it entirely the whole draft. Clearly if I start getting shipped bombs in green later on, or just see tons and tons of it after it's gone around the entire table, then I may switch into it, reluctantly.
So I would have stuck with red. Moving into a new color with a 6 mana cost two of which being GG is risky. The better pick would be Unsummon or the Spearhunter.
I'm always surprised at how much you value your rating.
It's just a number!
Yet you always seem pretty sad when you go down or your elated when it goes up.
What does it matter what your rating is?
This is my fault. I played in the tournament last Thursday, and after the tournament I did the replays for all of my matches and captured all the screens I was going to use. I wrote up the first match Thursday night. Then on Friday I went to finish up the tournament report and found that I had moved a screen capture picture around the 3rd match so everything I had cut-and-pasted after that was missing the bottom part of the picture. Since the tournament replay was no longer available I had a choice whether or not to go with the cut-off images or scrap the tournament report. I chose to continue with the cut-off pictures because all of the relevant information is still there.
In retrospect, for the hands, I should have simply recreated the hands in a table, but I was trying to get this tournament report finished while Zendikar release events are still running.
2) Click Buttons
Well, I just learned how to do the click button thing recently from Hamtastic via the forums, so I'm still looking at what I can do with them. The problem is that it needs to be added in the raw code section, therefore it takes a bit of time.
The "---------------------------" dividers actually help me to find where to put the tags in the code.
I'll look into attaching the links to an image of a button for my next article.
3) Minor Typos in the write-up
I wrote this article rather quickly because I wanted to have it posted before the end of the release tournaments. I would much rather have the "full of typos" critiques than the "why are you writing about Zendikar release events when they've been done for a while now" critiques.
Still, I don't take your critiques lightly, and I will spend more time hunting for typos. At least I can try to save Joshua some editing work.
RE: Qasali clearly I mistook the deck for a wizards deck (lol shows how much(little) Ive played with the cards in that deck). But the point I was making is that the deck is somewhat defenseless against combo and dies to aggro with removal because you have no counter punch early on. Qasali Pridemage is one of those dual use cards that makes such decks work. (Sadly it isn't an Advisor.) Kjeldoran Outpost is a fun card but belongs in a counter/control style deck instead of a prison lock. It isn't fast enough to be a good win con. (Takes forever to actually kill.)
"Mana issues just happen and when you are playing well they are largely irrelevant". Are u kiddin me ? Lol. Seriously Paul, maybe in constructed you can get around the occasional mana imbalance, but in limited it is usually pretty fatal and has absolutely nothing to do with skill. I've had so many ridiculous mana situations like once I was playing 10 X land, 7 Y land, and i draw FIVE Y land and only one X. Etc etc. And in those situations skill has 0% with your chances of winning, except in one thing: when to mulligan. Even so, you might get a couple of unplayable hands on your way to mulligan to 5, and then just get smashed by card advantage.
Im not sure combos like countertop go on the same list as helm line. One is a control softlock that is hard to get just right and the other just wins the game.
Extended maybe...but Standard imho is already a narrow enough pool.
Yes, I'd be interested in your rationale for manabase. I have my own but it's always nice to get additional analysis from an experienced player.
I like the "Universe is punishing me" thought even though I read it at first as "pushing me" and that made more sense. I think in some sense after you come off a lost game it is harder to play the game calmly with detached perspective. Mana issues just happen and when you are playing well they are largely irrelevant but when you are error prone they matter greatly. Well that is my point of view. I don't think feeling badly because of it is a good response but I know sometimes you just have to let the feeling ride.
this deck is super casual. it revolves around a 4!!!! card combo to go the distance. it only has 4 hard counterspells. and it is in the format with the largest pool of cards to disrupt.
If your deck cant stall or have a chance to win against a 4 card combo then your deck is probabl;y pretty bad and u should re-evaluate either the deck or if you should be playing in the new players room or a different format.
that being said this is my interpertation of casual and i know other wont agree just like i diodnt but i had to throw my 2 cents out there.
like the idea there steve and its the first way i have seen to abuse the new card.
keep them coming.
ps. i would love to play my casual decks in cas/cas but i cant because i choose to actually play with my cards. sigh. if it cant compete in tournys then it cant compete as almost everybody crys foul when i pop a fetch land for a dual. i mean how good can baneslayer angel be in classic? yet people see a 36 dollar tag and whine(even though i payed 13 for them) -end rant
I used to play single player PC and console RPGs, and assign too much significance to my gold, experience, level, and hit points. Which are also just numbers, and when you stop playing that RPG they just get thrown away. But it's the illusion of progress that's a bit fun. My magic rating, like my old chess rating, does provide a semi-objective measurement of whether I'm getting better at the game, so I do like to see it go up. If I were a baseball player, I'd probably pay attention to my batting average throughout the season - just like a lot of the fans do. I try not to worry about it too much, but I do like watching it (especially when it goes up).
I agree about the Sparkmages. While they're better in theory in a deck with Prodigal Pyromancer and Goblin Artillery, I started taking them before the pingers even showed up, and I do like the Fiery Hellhound and regretted passing him. I ended up even seeing a 4th Sparkmage and passing that, and wouldn't run 3 if I had better creatures or real burn to fill those slots. And of course, the Fiery Hellhound becomes a great finisher if you pair him with a Stone Giant, which I didn't know I'd be getting in a later pick. Once the ground stalls begin, there's nothing like throwing a hound over everyone and pumping all your red mana into his firebreathing for the win.
I will admit, most every time I can remember building a deck with green in a draft, it was one of my initial colors, not one I switched into and ditched another color for. I think I might have switched into green once, and gotten a mediocre deck out of it. Green has plenty of depth of creatures that are reasonable to play and decent sized in combat. But it's mostly a "big, dumb, no evasion and tricks" color, so you need a plan early for what your other color is & what key card types you have to get, whether it's spiders, giant growth, entangling vines, removal in your other color, etc. Otherwise you can get something that looks playable, like one of those green/white decks, but can't quite win. You get some beef out before you die, but they manage to tap you, bounce you, and doomblade you just enough to slip in that fatal damage with their evasion creatures or whatever.
That said, if you get over a certain critical mass of green beef, sometimes you can just hammer in by outnumbering their removal and tricks with your mid-range creatures and fatties. That's kinda what happened to me round 3, game 1. I still agree with the pros who say that black, blue and white are the three strongest colors though, and any two of those three is solid. I would agree with your assessment too, that if you're gonna go green it should start early, so you get enough of the best green to actually win with. Tables with less skilled drafters may see you with more rivals for green too, as it has strong "Timmy appeal".
yes but all his other lists are fow-free or anti-fow ! his last e.tutor zoobox deck 4-0'd the event.it is like the man is avoiding fows on purpose
My list is extensive, yes, but I believe most of the list would beat "fair" decks. You just haven't seen the "second-tier" combos much yet because there's no reason to play them when you can run the first tier ones (why dredge your deck with Hermit Druid when you can do it with Cephalid Illusionist, for instance). If you just ban, say, Helm and Grindstone, I'm going to play Hypergenesis or Glimpse of Nature (subject to my budget). If you ban Hypergenesis, Grindstone, Helm, and Glimpse of Nature, I'll play Bomberman (LED/Salvagers) or go back to Cephalid Breakfast. And so forth.
Ok looks like I have a lot to respond too.
@Bingobongo- I am terribly sorry my friend. My notes got jumbled up and I definitely mispook there. For all in question Bingo was playing the W/G Cleric Deck that won the FFA we played.
@ Scartore- Normally the win con has been Kjeldoran Outpost...Its slow but it works.
@Paul- The pridemage would be a good idea, however i am unsure what i would remove for it.
@ Lord Erman- That could be an idea to try though the sheer amount of vampires that would show is frightening.
@ Everyone regarding bannings- Great points from everyone. So far the only decks we have had issues with completely dominating events would be Helmline and grindstone. King's list while in-depth is slightly extensive as most of those cards have yet to create a serious effect. Restricting the cards to one copy would work for the people that currently play since i trust them. Any new players though would be a little harder to enforce.
oh and quillspike was a joke, i just ran it the week the issue came up and won on turn3 with it.
I enjoyed the article. The insight on what you are thinking and why you made a play is why I read your draft articles and that of another writer on this site. Thanks for the extra work.
Godot, do you have any methods/tips for calculating the mana base for decks in sealed play? I've pretty much been just running 17 lands and guesstimating what the color splits are going to be (I pretty much just always run 2 colors in sealed). I feel like there's probably got to be a better/more scientific way of figuring this out then what I'm currently doing.
The following form the basis of really strong combos capable of dropping into a tribal deck and dominating most "fair" creature decks:
Glimpse of Nature
Helm of Obedience (or Leyline of the Void)
Lion's Eye Diamond (with Auriok Salvagers)
Hypergenesis (with Cascade cards)
Restore Balance (with Cascade cards)
Counterbalance (with Top)
Sensei's Divining Top (with any cost reducer and/or Future Sight)
Bridge From Below/Cephalid Illusionist/Dread Return
Grindstone (with Painter's Servant)
Earthcraft (with Squirrel Nest)
Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek
Dark Depths/Vampire Hexmage
Goblin Charbelcher (with Goblin Recruiter)
Flash (with Protean Hulk)
Hermit Druid
Strip Mine/Crucible of Worlds
Scepter/Chant
Quillspike (with Devoted Druid, but this one isn't that scary)
and several more I'm just not thinking of right now...
You can argue with a few of these, but here's the point: If you're not planning to either ban nearly all of them, possibly excepting Quillspike and one or two others, or just leave the format alone, you should probably just go with GnomesofZurich's idea and restrict every nonland card that's out of tribe. I can't imagine it's THAT hard to enforce. If you don't, people will continue porting over Classic-level combos and grafting them on to tribal shells.
When I was following along I would also have put the Warpaint on the Bloodgast in R2G1. It negates the 2 for 1 possibility and gives a creature that can get through the Shieldmate without a land drop.
However in R2G2 I would have shot the Gladeheart with the Barrage instead of playing the Shortcutter and that would have turned out worse as he had the Vines.
Also changed my mind on sludge, it is a pretty good card, though it is a bit unreliable.
On R2G1 I think I would have placed the pants on the bloodghast and attacked with it alone. But the difference is rlly minor as your opp was clearly backed against the wall with no options. Yes, war paint did make a difference there, but I'd rlly resist playing it unless I had no other choice. Ive done over 40 sealeds so far (no kidding) and have yet to use the war paint, or have it used against me and die because of it. Anyway, it worked, so it's all good.
I've found that whenever I make a play mistake that costs me the game, the next game I usually have serious mana issues, whether screw, flood or color problems. I feel that it is the universe punishing me - "I gave you the tools to win and you didn't use them so now just sit there and take the beating". It rlly gets me in a sour mood.
By the way, I forgot to say, I enjoy reading your posts!
I don't always agree with your card valuations or your color choices, but it's useful to see what other people are valuing things at.
Not only so I know what people are picking, but also to potentially see a card in a new light :)
Ha i have hung, drawn and staked out your vampires all ready Flip
Your sad devotion to Vampires hasn't helped u conjour up a way to beat the allies yet...
lol
'but vampires ha i laugh in the face of the night creatures with my allies'
lol the only thing an allie is useful for is my Hexmage's next meal : )
The problem with Tribal Standard is that you don't have access to all of the tribes, you have access to the current crop of, often very linear, tribes that WotC is pushing in the latest block.
With regards to the combo cards: yes, something should be done to limit the power of these cards, as two card combos which have nothing to do with the tribe you're running are definitely outside the spirit of the format. If I wanted to play against them, I would be playing Classic. If I'm playing Tribal, it is because I want to be playing with decks that win primarily through their creatures. The prevalence of two-card combo decks in these events would deter me from entering them.
There was an interesting paper tribal format I saw rules for years ago, where the only cards permitted as a 4-of were those of your tribe's type or those with your tribes name contained in the name and/or rules text. Everything else was restricted. This would be difficult to implement online, but it was an interesting way of preserving the flavour of the format.
Really good write up; for me the length was fine. Describing your thought processes really helps others like myself improve our game. Thanks!
So I subscribe to this blog via Google Reader and read almost all of your draft posts.
I think you value Sparkmage Apprentice way too high.
You took it over Fiery Hellhound, Ponder and Wall of Frost.
I could agree with taking it over the Wall or Ponder, as I feel they are about equal to the Sparkmage, but the Hellhound is just a great creature and almost always can do some serious damage or kill something much larger.
I could see how all the green you were getting passed pushed you into drafting that Craw Wurm over Flash Freeze, Unsummon, the Spearhunter and the Wall.
I've fallen into the trap myself a few times, but have come to realize that unless you start out aggressively drafting green, and stay 100% committed to it as much as you can, you don't tend to end up with a good enough deck.
There is just something about green in M10 that cause people to avoid it at the beginning, but then when they see all these great creatures, pack after pack after pack, they end up drafting it. Most of the time this doesn't go so well. If I don't see Overrun or Might of Oaks or some other awesome green card in the first couple picks, I try and avoid it entirely the whole draft. Clearly if I start getting shipped bombs in green later on, or just see tons and tons of it after it's gone around the entire table, then I may switch into it, reluctantly.
So I would have stuck with red. Moving into a new color with a 6 mana cost two of which being GG is risky. The better pick would be Unsummon or the Spearhunter.
I'm always surprised at how much you value your rating.
It's just a number!
Yet you always seem pretty sad when you go down or your elated when it goes up.
What does it matter what your rating is?
1) Images cut off at the bottom
This is my fault. I played in the tournament last Thursday, and after the tournament I did the replays for all of my matches and captured all the screens I was going to use. I wrote up the first match Thursday night. Then on Friday I went to finish up the tournament report and found that I had moved a screen capture picture around the 3rd match so everything I had cut-and-pasted after that was missing the bottom part of the picture. Since the tournament replay was no longer available I had a choice whether or not to go with the cut-off images or scrap the tournament report. I chose to continue with the cut-off pictures because all of the relevant information is still there.
In retrospect, for the hands, I should have simply recreated the hands in a table, but I was trying to get this tournament report finished while Zendikar release events are still running.
2) Click Buttons
Well, I just learned how to do the click button thing recently from Hamtastic via the forums, so I'm still looking at what I can do with them. The problem is that it needs to be added in the raw code section, therefore it takes a bit of time.
The "---------------------------" dividers actually help me to find where to put the tags in the code.
I'll look into attaching the links to an image of a button for my next article.
3) Minor Typos in the write-up
I wrote this article rather quickly because I wanted to have it posted before the end of the release tournaments. I would much rather have the "full of typos" critiques than the "why are you writing about Zendikar release events when they've been done for a while now" critiques.
Still, I don't take your critiques lightly, and I will spend more time hunting for typos. At least I can try to save Joshua some editing work.
The situational analysis is great. Keep it up!