As Anon stated above, Probe is a key card in MBCu Control, arguably the best deck in Pauper and has been under-valued for quite a while now. It's price is just now starting to catch up to other chase Invasion commons such as Armadillo Cloak or Exclude which see much less play.
I have a non-foil Dirtcowl Wurm in my PR2 tab, I think it was one of the cards given out with a certain event pack or something. So presumably it's the foil promo Dirtcowl that's uber-rare.
I stopped by the two computers by the info booth out front the first day, and this guy said I could get some free MTGO stuff by confirming my account info with some large bald guy who wasn't there just then, but I should look for later. Every time I went by those two computers outside the convention hall the rest of the weekend, there was no such person by those computers, nor were the computers even running Magic Online any more & the people hanging around them were non-wizards-staff.
Maybe he meant I needed to talk to a guy at the booth itself and not sitting at those computers, there was the bald guy there who gave me my free Treva foil, but he wasn't large! Well I got every other kind of freebie and handout at the Pro Tour, guess I don't mind missing out on one. Never did get over to play in the Magic Online Live either, too many paper events and things to watch and do.
Awesomeness! Thank you for getting this interview.
So the Invitational was killed because it cost too much? I'm assuming the expense was flying all the players to a central location to hold the event. Which is understandable, but it's too bad because I really liked the event and the prize. Of course then they go and hold the Community Cup on MTGO's budget. I wonder if there is some way MaRo could re-establish the Invitational on a budget? If only there were some way (besides the forbidden program) to play a game of Magic between two or more players in remote locations? Think... think...
Digital Un-set: don't use any paper Un-cards. I thought they were released only in English because they didn't translate well? A digital unset should do the interesting things that the avatars do, like Mormir/Johira/Stonehewer, and use jokes that MTGO players would get.
When I first started scanning the comments of this I noticed all the negative anonymous posters then I noticed the positive posters. Interesting responses. (I love the fact that some of the anon posts were totally the opposite of each other.) I agree that taking a non-traditional course of action in draft is definitely worth any wincing one may do in reading about potentially sub-par picks. Don't let the negativity get to you but do keep in mind the criticisms. The replays failing is just a fact of MODO. Nothing we can do it about it. (Darned gremlins and squirrels!) But it may help to take a few notes (on paper or in notepad) during a game just to jog your memory after it is over so that you can at least give a decent sketch of the game. Also keep in mind that we don't know what you are thinking unless you tell us. Verbose is better than terse to get this across. Keep writing and playing!
Ooooh. The video play at the end is really all I needed to know to be excited about this. I have to say, I was severely (almost beyond words) disappointed in V3's inability to handle low end users when it came out. I've got a decent machine now but my old machine was not terrible either (for a low end) but it was completely unable to handle anything past logging in on V3. This looks like a terrific step forward. I am curious to see how trading and the collection in general is handled. Thanks for this Erik good beats! :) *5 stars if that were available*
I really enjoyed the article and it would have been nice to have some more info on the matches but the replays were down for those, but even with that I thought you made up for it with your pick analysis. I probably would have selected the stone giants over the cards you picked as I am a big fan.
I feel like people are missing the point of this article, I felt like you showed a draft that did not go as planned but you salvaged it by going with a non traditional strategy. If people just want to see drafts where you get passed the nuts that can be fun but not as informative. I appreciated this article very much and thought it was a good primer on how to be open to new strategies during a draft. Good job and I hope to see more articles from you soon.
Great Article. From where I sit as a classic 2hg player, this is also my deck type of choice, and for all of the well articulated reasons on the article - it is versatile, can go aggro and win turn 3, can go long game and win turn 15 if it has to. However, in the 2hg version the winter orbs are an absolute essential. It provides protection from ramp decks, and even burn decks... well darn, pretty much anything that doesn't have a 6/6 or bigger on the board, and has no split second removal. It makes daze stupidly good (already being good of course). And I play 16 lands also, and am never mana screwed. Ponder and Brainstorm are just amazing, both tutors, and faciliate the win con. The snake is more often JUST WIN than the dryad, but both get big. In 2hg I would also keep the tarmo's as dropping too many beaters can leave you open.
I think the mistake you're making with Stone Giant is thinking about it as a Hill Giant with an ability, when what it actually is is a very solid combat creature. Being 4 toughness is massively relevant. This allows it to survive combat with every common creature except Craw Wurm, Rhino and Berserkers.
I'm fine with crypt rats being out there. My biggest beef is teachings, which, if they resolve one, they have answers for pretty much everything you can cast. Crypt rats are so far from broken.
I started wondering when you said maye go mono red and then passes 2 jacals. In any other build they are complete jank, but in p mono red they can be very nice and since they are concidered jank you get them down to 14th pick. That archetype requires a bunch of jacals, raging goblins and trumpet blasts, all of which go late. Of course you didnt see any jacals 3rd pack, so it kinda kills my point, but something to keep in mind next time you draft:)
And yep, giant is good, the 4 toughness is important for red.
Well, MED3 wasn't drafted as heavily as ZEN will be. I bet we'll see bigger numbers for ZEN than for m10, although the fetches will have much more value than the M10 duals ever did.
I just thank god you didnt start picking the raging goblins...
I understand the seismic strike over blinding mage in p1p2 and you justified it well
but after that i could seriously stopped reading...
Borderland ranger... not over stone giant and assassinate... and that pack had awakener druid. This is the turning point for me since you said you had been considering signals to give to other players and the signal you gave them was... «gosh... i dont know wtf am i doing here»
and then I read:
Another 2/1. Giant Spider is certainly better but with so few green I'm actually considering going mono red here!
after 2 picks I read:
already had naturalize but it means nothing if I play monored but I was still hoping for more green next pack so I took the fog
Are you Tyler Durden? Seriously that right there just doesnt make any sense... so you are hoping for green but you let a spider just pass right trough ya.
ill stop now... I think the other players just mentioned the other obvious mistakes.
You should have gone into blue/red atleast. Gree/Red is just horrifically inexcusabily bad, while blue/red is pretty damn sick with the removal, and the control, espcially with those 3/4 giants. Ice cages, cancels, mindspring, looters, wind drakes, essence scatter, and that djinn you unexpectedly got pack 2. Just some things to keep in mind, I would have also snatched up the blinding mage as a possibility into splashing white and hoping to wheel some decent white cards.
You mean pick 3 not 4. I agree that black is stronger but I don't agree that I sent more signals that green would be open and black not. In the first pack there were: blue: looter and drake (which I would be happy with any as a first pick), black: tendrils and mind rot (which I would be happy with tendrils as a first pick) and green: slime, visionary and vines (I would only be happy with slime as a first pick). I would take looter, tendrils and drake over slime. Pack 2 I only passed the 2/1 black flier as relevant so in terms os signals black and blue should be on my left before green.
Llanowar over giant and lava axe: it's too early for lava axe. It doesn't fit in every deck and I'll have more chances of getting it. And I may be underrating the giant but I wouldn't pick hill giant over llanowar so at the time and without knowing how good its ability could be I took llanowar. Turns out stone giant wheeled so I can't be that wrong here.
Thanks for your comment. It's comments like yours that makes it worthwhile. Almost every article has those kind of non-constructive criticism that doesn't help at all but gladly there are also comments like yours.
your match descriptions are lacking depth, like i stated earlier, because all they do is dictate a play-by-play of the spells cast and events that happened. i drew a comparison to godot because we have no idea whether your decisions in the match were correct, what cards you drew which would impact your decision, etc. maybe it's just me, i want that kind of information. albeit there is some value in telling us how the matches played out, but it doesn't do much.
part of a writer is taking criticism and you're doing it well. cheers.
MED3 is not a really great example because the duals for MED3 are only usable in classic and 100CS which has a much much smaller demand/player base than Standard and Zendikar Block will have.
I think the duals from M2010 is a better price example, however I don't think the market will be as flooded with Zendikar as it was with M2010.
Assuming that more than four of each Commander Deck have been sold, then there are more copies of them than the dirtcowl that the deck designers/namers were given.
IIRC, four copies of the non-foil dirtcowls exit (or maybe it's the foil version...)
Wow! For some reason I did not expect it to look so slick...My faith is renewed.
As Anon stated above, Probe is a key card in MBCu Control, arguably the best deck in Pauper and has been under-valued for quite a while now. It's price is just now starting to catch up to other chase Invasion commons such as Armadillo Cloak or Exclude which see much less play.
I have a non-foil Dirtcowl Wurm in my PR2 tab, I think it was one of the cards given out with a certain event pack or something. So presumably it's the foil promo Dirtcowl that's uber-rare.
I stopped by the two computers by the info booth out front the first day, and this guy said I could get some free MTGO stuff by confirming my account info with some large bald guy who wasn't there just then, but I should look for later. Every time I went by those two computers outside the convention hall the rest of the weekend, there was no such person by those computers, nor were the computers even running Magic Online any more & the people hanging around them were non-wizards-staff.
Maybe he meant I needed to talk to a guy at the booth itself and not sitting at those computers, there was the bald guy there who gave me my free Treva foil, but he wasn't large! Well I got every other kind of freebie and handout at the Pro Tour, guess I don't mind missing out on one. Never did get over to play in the Magic Online Live either, too many paper events and things to watch and do.
now i saw the requirements involve vista...would there be any issue running windows 7 or is that assumed?
Awesomeness! Thank you for getting this interview.
So the Invitational was killed because it cost too much? I'm assuming the expense was flying all the players to a central location to hold the event. Which is understandable, but it's too bad because I really liked the event and the prize. Of course then they go and hold the Community Cup on MTGO's budget. I wonder if there is some way MaRo could re-establish the Invitational on a budget? If only there were some way (besides the forbidden program) to play a game of Magic between two or more players in remote locations? Think... think...
Digital Un-set: don't use any paper Un-cards. I thought they were released only in English because they didn't translate well? A digital unset should do the interesting things that the avatars do, like Mormir/Johira/Stonehewer, and use jokes that MTGO players would get.
thats wacky that the blue hurricane is dirtcowl wurm. take that fow!
Good job fatman. Good article.
When I first started scanning the comments of this I noticed all the negative anonymous posters then I noticed the positive posters. Interesting responses. (I love the fact that some of the anon posts were totally the opposite of each other.) I agree that taking a non-traditional course of action in draft is definitely worth any wincing one may do in reading about potentially sub-par picks. Don't let the negativity get to you but do keep in mind the criticisms. The replays failing is just a fact of MODO. Nothing we can do it about it. (Darned gremlins and squirrels!) But it may help to take a few notes (on paper or in notepad) during a game just to jog your memory after it is over so that you can at least give a decent sketch of the game. Also keep in mind that we don't know what you are thinking unless you tell us. Verbose is better than terse to get this across. Keep writing and playing!
Ooooh. The video play at the end is really all I needed to know to be excited about this. I have to say, I was severely (almost beyond words) disappointed in V3's inability to handle low end users when it came out. I've got a decent machine now but my old machine was not terrible either (for a low end) but it was completely unable to handle anything past logging in on V3. This looks like a terrific step forward. I am curious to see how trading and the collection in general is handled. Thanks for this Erik good beats! :) *5 stars if that were available*
I really enjoyed the article and it would have been nice to have some more info on the matches but the replays were down for those, but even with that I thought you made up for it with your pick analysis. I probably would have selected the stone giants over the cards you picked as I am a big fan.
I feel like people are missing the point of this article, I felt like you showed a draft that did not go as planned but you salvaged it by going with a non traditional strategy. If people just want to see drafts where you get passed the nuts that can be fun but not as informative. I appreciated this article very much and thought it was a good primer on how to be open to new strategies during a draft. Good job and I hope to see more articles from you soon.
3 of them - I got one, and the two other winners got one. I stupidly sold mine for around 45 tix. :) Probably could have got much more...
Man u were drafting against noobs...lol.....
Pack 3 pick 5: they passed SLEEP ...................... WFT!!!!!
u were drafting against ur sister lol
Glad you like it carl :D
Great Article. From where I sit as a classic 2hg player, this is also my deck type of choice, and for all of the well articulated reasons on the article - it is versatile, can go aggro and win turn 3, can go long game and win turn 15 if it has to. However, in the 2hg version the winter orbs are an absolute essential. It provides protection from ramp decks, and even burn decks... well darn, pretty much anything that doesn't have a 6/6 or bigger on the board, and has no split second removal. It makes daze stupidly good (already being good of course). And I play 16 lands also, and am never mana screwed. Ponder and Brainstorm are just amazing, both tutors, and faciliate the win con. The snake is more often JUST WIN than the dryad, but both get big. In 2hg I would also keep the tarmo's as dropping too many beaters can leave you open.
Props again fatman good job.
I think the mistake you're making with Stone Giant is thinking about it as a Hill Giant with an ability, when what it actually is is a very solid combat creature. Being 4 toughness is massively relevant. This allows it to survive combat with every common creature except Craw Wurm, Rhino and Berserkers.
I'm fine with crypt rats being out there. My biggest beef is teachings, which, if they resolve one, they have answers for pretty much everything you can cast. Crypt rats are so far from broken.
I started wondering when you said maye go mono red and then passes 2 jacals. In any other build they are complete jank, but in p mono red they can be very nice and since they are concidered jank you get them down to 14th pick. That archetype requires a bunch of jacals, raging goblins and trumpet blasts, all of which go late. Of course you didnt see any jacals 3rd pack, so it kinda kills my point, but something to keep in mind next time you draft:)
And yep, giant is good, the 4 toughness is important for red.
Well, MED3 wasn't drafted as heavily as ZEN will be. I bet we'll see bigger numbers for ZEN than for m10, although the fetches will have much more value than the M10 duals ever did.
I just thank god you didnt start picking the raging goblins...
I understand the seismic strike over blinding mage in p1p2 and you justified it well
but after that i could seriously stopped reading...
Borderland ranger... not over stone giant and assassinate... and that pack had awakener druid. This is the turning point for me since you said you had been considering signals to give to other players and the signal you gave them was... «gosh... i dont know wtf am i doing here»
and then I read:
Another 2/1. Giant Spider is certainly better but with so few green I'm actually considering going mono red here!
after 2 picks I read:
already had naturalize but it means nothing if I play monored but I was still hoping for more green next pack so I took the fog
Are you Tyler Durden? Seriously that right there just doesnt make any sense... so you are hoping for green but you let a spider just pass right trough ya.
ill stop now... I think the other players just mentioned the other obvious mistakes.
You should have gone into blue/red atleast. Gree/Red is just horrifically inexcusabily bad, while blue/red is pretty damn sick with the removal, and the control, espcially with those 3/4 giants. Ice cages, cancels, mindspring, looters, wind drakes, essence scatter, and that djinn you unexpectedly got pack 2. Just some things to keep in mind, I would have also snatched up the blinding mage as a possibility into splashing white and hoping to wheel some decent white cards.
You mean pick 3 not 4. I agree that black is stronger but I don't agree that I sent more signals that green would be open and black not. In the first pack there were: blue: looter and drake (which I would be happy with any as a first pick), black: tendrils and mind rot (which I would be happy with tendrils as a first pick) and green: slime, visionary and vines (I would only be happy with slime as a first pick). I would take looter, tendrils and drake over slime. Pack 2 I only passed the 2/1 black flier as relevant so in terms os signals black and blue should be on my left before green.
Llanowar over giant and lava axe: it's too early for lava axe. It doesn't fit in every deck and I'll have more chances of getting it. And I may be underrating the giant but I wouldn't pick hill giant over llanowar so at the time and without knowing how good its ability could be I took llanowar. Turns out stone giant wheeled so I can't be that wrong here.
Thanks for your comment. It's comments like yours that makes it worthwhile. Almost every article has those kind of non-constructive criticism that doesn't help at all but gladly there are also comments like yours.
your match descriptions are lacking depth, like i stated earlier, because all they do is dictate a play-by-play of the spells cast and events that happened. i drew a comparison to godot because we have no idea whether your decisions in the match were correct, what cards you drew which would impact your decision, etc. maybe it's just me, i want that kind of information. albeit there is some value in telling us how the matches played out, but it doesn't do much.
part of a writer is taking criticism and you're doing it well. cheers.
MED3 is not a really great example because the duals for MED3 are only usable in classic and 100CS which has a much much smaller demand/player base than Standard and Zendikar Block will have.
I think the duals from M2010 is a better price example, however I don't think the market will be as flooded with Zendikar as it was with M2010.
Assuming that more than four of each Commander Deck have been sold, then there are more copies of them than the dirtcowl that the deck designers/namers were given.
IIRC, four copies of the non-foil dirtcowls exit (or maybe it's the foil version...)