Thanks for the tips! I will definitely be trying it out with my girlfriend.
I got 5 beginner decks (one of each color) that I made from only portal cards. I think portal cards have vibrant art and simple mechanics. I was able to get her to play about 2 and half games before she got bored.
Another time I brought over couple of the Here I Rule halfsie promo decks over for her to try out, she would tease me about them but wouldn't actually sit down to play a game.
I'm curious as to your current opinion of Gruul Draz Vampire. I was never very thrilled with the card and reluctantly put it in as the 23 card in my sealed deck yesterday. I was never excited to see it early, and in sealed, since black is so deep, the Intimidate ability didn't make that much of a difference in most late games.
I can see the Vampire being useful in a very aggressive draft deck, but it just doesn't seem that great in sealed.
Thanks for the shout out, it was awesome to play someone "famous". I was actually about to concede when the stupid thing crashed, and all I could think was: "Oh God, I have to get back online so he doesn't think I disconnected on purpose." Thankfully it turned out to not be my crappy computer, and was the server crashing.
So after paying 30 tix, and going 0-2, I got to keep the 6 packs of cards and got back 33 tix. That's a blessing in disguise for someone that sucks like me.
Hopefully I'll get to play Godot again, so I can see if I make an article worthy blunder or maybe accidentally make an awesome play.
I think you are often too greedy with your cards. Not satisfied with 2-for-1, too fixed with kicking the mosquitoe, wanting too much out of the mind sludge. Personally, I'd have burned the eel on sight. You were lowish in life and it threatens to attack for 4 (or more! he's playing green) every turn, giving you a 3-turns clock at best.
Kinda envious that you got both Nixilis and the chief in that first pool *and* got a refund on top!
wow, much better than steve's normal articles...lol j/k. Great article though future Mrs. Gargolinski. Lots of great tips though i may have to make have to go as far as promising horrible things like shopping or chick flicks to get mine to play.
You guys shouldn't forget that some Turbo Fog decks run 7 and some others run 8 counterspells. And no, the pilot doesn't waste them on your creatures. He saves it for the cards you mentioned like Thought Hemorrhage or Unstable Footing or Maelstrom Pulse etc... You just can't play all your spells freely against the deck.
And secondly some really smart players play the traditional Turbo Fog deck in the first game and mill you and win. You side out all your useless removals for the second game and bring in all your Disenchant-like spells or Thought Hemorrhages but he takes out his Howling Mines & Font of Mythoses and brings in Baneslayer Angels and Guardian Seraphs. And while you try to hurt him with your Thought Hemorrhages naming Howling Mine which isn't in the deck anymore, he wins the second game with those flyers when all your Terminates and Bituminous Blasts are in your sideboard!
Considering all of these, I still think that Turbo Fog is still an excellent choice for the current meta. I will definately try it once I have my Zendikar cards needed for the deck.
Ah... I only wanted to use a few words to exaggerate that deck's ability to generate mana and apparently I exaggerated it a little bit more than I intended to. And it seems that some readers found it disturbing somehow.
Of course I heard about a card called Land Tax. Of course I know everything there is to know about Temple of the False God or Eternal Dragon. But hey, it isn't such a biggie!
I thank you all for taking your time and reading my articles throughoutly. I thank you all once more and even more sincerely for commenting. And as I said above, I ment no harm and wanted to show things a tiny little bit(!) bigger than they normally are, but it seems that my exaggeration was a little bit too much and I'm sorry for that.
Okay, let's enjoy and discuss the rest of the article :)!
If TurboFog ever starts to gain traction, it will be pretty quickly bought down to size with Unstable Footing. With many of the midrange Jund/Naya/Bant decks dominating the format at the moment, it often only takes one attack.
is it that hard to put the cardnames under the draftpictures? without it u cant read the articles decently on a mobile device....i asked for it a while agon and then they were there for a couple of draftwalkthroughs and now its not there... again..
I don't get much time to play anymore but I really like playing in the sealed events because the payout is so good. I would like to see you or some other writer here cover triple Zen sealed if anyone else has any interest.
I'm surprised to see that you went UB in almost all of your events as I saw blue as the weakest color in Zen but I guess if you have enough flyers it would work.
I went 3-1 with a GW deck that leaned on the landfall mechanic heavily with 3x Steppe Lynx, Grazing Gladeheart, Explorer's Scope, Harrow, and a bunch of pump lands. I ended up losing in the finals to mana screw and a 5/5 shrouded flyer (the only true bomb in the format). I had a Day of Judgment but I only saw it once in the nine games I played and it wasn't the game I needed it in (vs Sphinx boy).
I would like to see some Zen archetypes discussed as you have obviously hit upon something with UB and I think GW has some synergy. Anyone have any thoughts?
One last thing, why doesn't anyone split? This is like the third time I have asked someone to split in the finals but everyone says no. Meh.
sway of the stars in dragon ball is semi rediculos. it is not that hard to reset the game at 10 life with a full grip and 10 power of elves on the board
I'm also wondering about the MWC "Its ability to generate mana is unheard of from any other White decks in history" comment — specifically, what does this white deck have that actually lets it generate mana? I'm not sure 'Play 28 lands' qualifies as an unheard-of ability... especially when you consider that the MWC decks back in Onslaught block, for instance, had Temple of the False God as a sort of accelleration to their big spells, *and* had Eternal Dragon to make sure that they literally found a Plains every single turn in the late game. That's not to say that this is a bad deck, of course, just that I think you're really missing the merits of the deck and what makes it tick.
you need more direct damage to combat all the fog effects. you'd need to hold pulses for luminarch ascension or the angel tokens too. for an aggro deck it's still a hard matchup.
Honestly, Turbofog is probably a good choice, but you can't actually beat Thought Hemorrhage. If they get an aggressive draw against you and use Maelstrom Pulse to kill Howling Mine, you can also be in a lot of trouble. Expect the Jund decks to sideboard Vithian Renegades if TurboFog becomes a popular deck.
I have a question: As the Standard meta is shifting more and more towards to Aggro these days, I would like to know what you think of Turbo Fog post Zendikar. Do you think it has a chance? I haven't started playing serious Standard after rotation yet but at least in theory it seems as a good option to me.
It was my pleasure talking to you and sharing the work we have done so far. I wanted to take a minute to recognize and thank the people who are working hard on the UI redesign. Most importantly the core team: Graeme Hopkins, Scott Okumura and Pamela Ansman-Wolfe. People who contributed significantly or supported us are: Alexis Janson, Ryan Dhuse, Madeleine Schweikart, Gordon Culp and Daryl Nichols. Also several members of the R&D team including Erik Lauer and Mike Turian.
Thanks for the tips! I will definitely be trying it out with my girlfriend.
I got 5 beginner decks (one of each color) that I made from only portal cards. I think portal cards have vibrant art and simple mechanics. I was able to get her to play about 2 and half games before she got bored.
Another time I brought over couple of the Here I Rule halfsie promo decks over for her to try out, she would tease me about them but wouldn't actually sit down to play a game.
Good Article as always.
I'm curious as to your current opinion of Gruul Draz Vampire. I was never very thrilled with the card and reluctantly put it in as the 23 card in my sealed deck yesterday. I was never excited to see it early, and in sealed, since black is so deep, the Intimidate ability didn't make that much of a difference in most late games.
I can see the Vampire being useful in a very aggressive draft deck, but it just doesn't seem that great in sealed.
Thanks for the shout out, it was awesome to play someone "famous". I was actually about to concede when the stupid thing crashed, and all I could think was: "Oh God, I have to get back online so he doesn't think I disconnected on purpose." Thankfully it turned out to not be my crappy computer, and was the server crashing.
So after paying 30 tix, and going 0-2, I got to keep the 6 packs of cards and got back 33 tix. That's a blessing in disguise for someone that sucks like me.
Hopefully I'll get to play Godot again, so I can see if I make an article worthy blunder or maybe accidentally make an awesome play.
I think you are often too greedy with your cards. Not satisfied with 2-for-1, too fixed with kicking the mosquitoe, wanting too much out of the mind sludge. Personally, I'd have burned the eel on sight. You were lowish in life and it threatens to attack for 4 (or more! he's playing green) every turn, giving you a 3-turns clock at best.
Kinda envious that you got both Nixilis and the chief in that first pool *and* got a refund on top!
Great article!
I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend who didn't have a problem with me playing magic and even learned to play it herself.
I would think the inability to roght click would be a deal breaker, considering how often it is used.
wow, much better than steve's normal articles...lol j/k. Great article though future Mrs. Gargolinski. Lots of great tips though i may have to make have to go as far as promising horrible things like shopping or chick flicks to get mine to play.
You guys shouldn't forget that some Turbo Fog decks run 7 and some others run 8 counterspells. And no, the pilot doesn't waste them on your creatures. He saves it for the cards you mentioned like Thought Hemorrhage or Unstable Footing or Maelstrom Pulse etc... You just can't play all your spells freely against the deck.
And secondly some really smart players play the traditional Turbo Fog deck in the first game and mill you and win. You side out all your useless removals for the second game and bring in all your Disenchant-like spells or Thought Hemorrhages but he takes out his Howling Mines & Font of Mythoses and brings in Baneslayer Angels and Guardian Seraphs. And while you try to hurt him with your Thought Hemorrhages naming Howling Mine which isn't in the deck anymore, he wins the second game with those flyers when all your Terminates and Bituminous Blasts are in your sideboard!
Considering all of these, I still think that Turbo Fog is still an excellent choice for the current meta. I will definately try it once I have my Zendikar cards needed for the deck.
LE
Ah... I only wanted to use a few words to exaggerate that deck's ability to generate mana and apparently I exaggerated it a little bit more than I intended to. And it seems that some readers found it disturbing somehow.
Of course I heard about a card called Land Tax. Of course I know everything there is to know about Temple of the False God or Eternal Dragon. But hey, it isn't such a biggie!
I thank you all for taking your time and reading my articles throughoutly. I thank you all once more and even more sincerely for commenting. And as I said above, I ment no harm and wanted to show things a tiny little bit(!) bigger than they normally are, but it seems that my exaggeration was a little bit too much and I'm sorry for that.
Okay, let's enjoy and discuss the rest of the article :)!
LE
If TurboFog ever starts to gain traction, it will be pretty quickly bought down to size with Unstable Footing. With many of the midrange Jund/Naya/Bant decks dominating the format at the moment, it often only takes one attack.
is it that hard to put the cardnames under the draftpictures? without it u cant read the articles decently on a mobile device....i asked for it a while agon and then they were there for a couple of draftwalkthroughs and now its not there... again..
I don't get much time to play anymore but I really like playing in the sealed events because the payout is so good. I would like to see you or some other writer here cover triple Zen sealed if anyone else has any interest.
I'm surprised to see that you went UB in almost all of your events as I saw blue as the weakest color in Zen but I guess if you have enough flyers it would work.
I went 3-1 with a GW deck that leaned on the landfall mechanic heavily with 3x Steppe Lynx, Grazing Gladeheart, Explorer's Scope, Harrow, and a bunch of pump lands. I ended up losing in the finals to mana screw and a 5/5 shrouded flyer (the only true bomb in the format). I had a Day of Judgment but I only saw it once in the nine games I played and it wasn't the game I needed it in (vs Sphinx boy).
I would like to see some Zen archetypes discussed as you have obviously hit upon something with UB and I think GW has some synergy. Anyone have any thoughts?
One last thing, why doesn't anyone split? This is like the third time I have asked someone to split in the finals but everyone says no. Meh.
ok due to midterms and such the previous two weeks 3 and 4 are combined in my next article.
sway of the stars in dragon ball is semi rediculos. it is not that hard to reset the game at 10 life with a full grip and 10 power of elves on the board
I'm also wondering about the MWC "Its ability to generate mana is unheard of from any other White decks in history" comment — specifically, what does this white deck have that actually lets it generate mana? I'm not sure 'Play 28 lands' qualifies as an unheard-of ability... especially when you consider that the MWC decks back in Onslaught block, for instance, had Temple of the False God as a sort of accelleration to their big spells, *and* had Eternal Dragon to make sure that they literally found a Plains every single turn in the late game. That's not to say that this is a bad deck, of course, just that I think you're really missing the merits of the deck and what makes it tick.
You also have to add in accommodations and the $2,000 that all invitational players got for playing in the event. Comes up to be a pretty decent sum.
you need more direct damage to combat all the fog effects. you'd need to hold pulses for luminarch ascension or the angel tokens too. for an aggro deck it's still a hard matchup.
Nope. Hindering Light counters a spell, Kor Sanctifiers produces a triggered ability that allows you to destroy an artifact or enchantment.
Stifle would work.
Can you Hindering Light a kicked Kor Sanctifiers if it's targeting an artifact or enchantment you control? It seems like you can, but just not sure.
Yeah it is a bit contradictory, but often powerful cards get overrated, but that doesn't mean they still aren't decent-good.
She is overrated because she is fragile. But that just means she doesn't deserve the 30$+ price tag.
Honestly, Turbofog is probably a good choice, but you can't actually beat Thought Hemorrhage. If they get an aggressive draw against you and use Maelstrom Pulse to kill Howling Mine, you can also be in a lot of trouble. Expect the Jund decks to sideboard Vithian Renegades if TurboFog becomes a popular deck.
They have all the answers.
You do realise you referred to the same card as "severely overrated" AND "an auto-include" in the same article don't you?
Hello strongsad and welcome to puremtgo.
I have a question: As the Standard meta is shifting more and more towards to Aggro these days, I would like to know what you think of Turbo Fog post Zendikar. Do you think it has a chance? I haven't started playing serious Standard after rotation yet but at least in theory it seems as a good option to me.
LE
Missing recognition: Steve Pelikan
Hi Erik,
It was my pleasure talking to you and sharing the work we have done so far. I wanted to take a minute to recognize and thank the people who are working hard on the UI redesign. Most importantly the core team: Graeme Hopkins, Scott Okumura and Pamela Ansman-Wolfe. People who contributed significantly or supported us are: Alexis Janson, Ryan Dhuse, Madeleine Schweikart, Gordon Culp and Daryl Nichols. Also several members of the R&D team including Erik Lauer and Mike Turian.
We’ll keep you posted on our progress.
All the best,
Adriana.