ill be honest i am unfamiliar wih "desolation row" but any means of consistently returning wrath effects to yourhand is definitely good. Another card to use there oculd be crystal shard and just adjust the mana base to include either the u/w and r/u dual or shock lands.
I personally am not a big fan of aggro and have posted my best results with control. With this said, I have to agree with the author that the format is tilted largely toward aggro. For example at first I thought it was crazy to run cards like blood seeker and vampire's bite. Since then I have learned that blood seeker is often quite good and vampire's bite is situationally amazing.
I admire your impact on the classic community David and thanks for the great article. Ausgezeichnet!
i got sidetracked by the pictures of the full-art lands.. Does anybody know if these have different "rarities"? For each basic land type, I seem to have 3-4 copies of 2 specific arts, and none of the others...
Technically, they haven't officially called it anything. I call it 3.5 because it will run on top of the current infrastructure. Which is why they are still working on fixing stuff like the collection server and stuff.
Is English your second language? I really mean no offense, but your spelling/grammar is terrible. Couldn't you maybe let someone edit your article before posting it? Or at least run it through a spell checker?
Much, much better than what we have now. The focus is on the cards rather than a bunch of other stuff and the increased playing area allows for a scene closer to paper magic (rather than the cramped view we now have).
It does look nice. I hope in the end everything is laid out cleanly and everything is obvious. The chat window looks small but there appears to be a slider that allows you to shrink the "hand" box to allow more room for the chat window.
A sneak peak from my interview:
Multiplayer is being worked in from the ground up. There will be some unique challenges with it from the new UI, but it should be getting the proper attention in V3.5. :)
I've looked over the 5k decklists a few times now, and I see a lot of aggro, and a lot of creatures with p/t of 3 and below. This keeps leading me to think that 4xRhox War Monk, 4xStoic Angel seems like the start of a powerful decklist. If either of these creatures sticks on the board, you should be winning against the massive aggro variety, so maybe hindering light would make the cut, with wrath of cashgrab, and baneslayers at the top of the curve. Against time-sieve, I guess you'd need to be boarding a pile of counterspells, and you'd probably have quasali pridemage in the main somewhere.
Obviously that's just an idea, but it does seem well positioned?
Come on, MED block?! Are you serious. I'm dying to play classic, such a cool format. But the investment threshold as you mentioned is a big issue for not doing so. But I rather prefer playing claasic with a bad deck tham MED block with a rather average one.
And about the article, I think the classic overview was really needed since its a MODO only format. Good job.
I have to disagree on World Queller applications for classic. A five mana creature should have a really big imediate impact on the board to be played on classic and/or some sort of card advantage bulit in (Lark, Hulk). Waiting a whole turn to start attacking permanents is probably not good enough for classic play. Stick to Braids if trying to redo a stax on classic format.
Well I simply put in Frost Marshes. I didn't consider Zendikar lands as they weren't out yet when I was writing and Underground River takes you 1 life, which I think everyone agrees Drowned Catacomb is better (when don't you have Island or swamp on the field).
And on the seconds part of your comment, I agree completely. Megrim decks will always be pain in the neck to fight against, but I just wish they would be more competitive in tournament tables.
That is an awful lot of mass-removal in your giants deck (18 mass-removal spells!!!!!)! I played something quite similar in tsp-lor standard, and have a couple of reccomendations;
I can't see any particular reason not to be running 3-4 Brion Stoutarms. I ran 4, because he is a legend, but your opponent will kill him as soon as he hits play anyway (and if they don't then you're probably doing fine!). I'd probably sub him in for sulfurous blast or pyroclasm, as he does a similarly good job of stemming aggro-rushes.
I'd also reccommend testing silence, or perhaps moonhold, as in my experience the deck just folds to any kind of vague combo (unless it's slow enough to distrupt through austere command), maybe a disenchant type spell?
I might be tempted to go:
-4 pyroclasm
-3 sulfurous blast
-1 giant harbinger
+4 Brion Stoutarm
+4 Lightning Helix
I guess maybe oblivion ring does some work against combo?
MED Block-Only could be fun but you (or another Classic writer) should write a few articles about the format and convince people that the format can also be played without the duals and Force of Wills (competitively of course). After all, those are the main cards that prevent people from entering the format in the first place.
You should present a few (actually more than a few) solid decks that don't run FoW and/or 10 duals. I briefly looked at some options, saw Mono Black Weenie for example but then saw Moat as well. Black Weenie can't destroy Moat (as far as I know) and thus it isn't a solid option in my opinion.
If you can show people some good decks worthy of trying, then I guess many people would show up for the event. If you can't convince people, however, then I'm afraid you guys will be playing against... well... you guys!
If you want this to be an In-Clan organization than it's fine but otherwise you should talk a little bit about the format and some cheaper decks. They don't have to be equivalent to Pauper decks of course but I'm sure that you get the idea (Like Red/White Aggro with 4x Plateau and then some other affordable cards for example, if such a deck exists. Or Green/White weenie with Armageddon and some mana elfs).
ill be honest i am unfamiliar wih "desolation row" but any means of consistently returning wrath effects to yourhand is definitely good. Another card to use there oculd be crystal shard and just adjust the mana base to include either the u/w and r/u dual or shock lands.
there is a difference between under-extension and holding a couple of cards in hand so that you have game post-wrath
I personally am not a big fan of aggro and have posted my best results with control. With this said, I have to agree with the author that the format is tilted largely toward aggro. For example at first I thought it was crazy to run cards like blood seeker and vampire's bite. Since then I have learned that blood seeker is often quite good and vampire's bite is situationally amazing.
I admire your impact on the classic community David and thanks for the great article. Ausgezeichnet!
i got sidetracked by the pictures of the full-art lands.. Does anybody know if these have different "rarities"? For each basic land type, I seem to have 3-4 copies of 2 specific arts, and none of the others...
Opposition Orb was a largely unsuccessful attempt to replace Squirrel Prison. Fun if it worked but dismal otherwise.
and ophidian how could i forget the draw go creature
I just want to say adding in the Stonecloaker part of the Desolation Row combo helps a lot against dredge/recursion combos.
Technically, they haven't officially called it anything. I call it 3.5 because it will run on top of the current infrastructure. Which is why they are still working on fixing stuff like the collection server and stuff.
Is English your second language? I really mean no offense, but your spelling/grammar is terrible. Couldn't you maybe let someone edit your article before posting it? Or at least run it through a spell checker?
Why don't they call it v4?
Well, they still made many borders wider than they need, but it's a lot cleaner and seem more usable.
Much, much better than what we have now. The focus is on the cards rather than a bunch of other stuff and the increased playing area allows for a scene closer to paper magic (rather than the cramped view we now have).
Savor the moment and luminarch ascension? I don't get it.
Oh my.
It does look nice. I hope in the end everything is laid out cleanly and everything is obvious. The chat window looks small but there appears to be a slider that allows you to shrink the "hand" box to allow more room for the chat window.
A sneak peak from my interview:
Multiplayer is being worked in from the ground up. There will be some unique challenges with it from the new UI, but it should be getting the proper attention in V3.5. :)
I detest those stupid pop-up exiled and revelaed zones, so this is all good for me!
I've looked over the 5k decklists a few times now, and I see a lot of aggro, and a lot of creatures with p/t of 3 and below. This keeps leading me to think that 4xRhox War Monk, 4xStoic Angel seems like the start of a powerful decklist. If either of these creatures sticks on the board, you should be winning against the massive aggro variety, so maybe hindering light would make the cut, with wrath of cashgrab, and baneslayers at the top of the curve. Against time-sieve, I guess you'd need to be boarding a pile of counterspells, and you'd probably have quasali pridemage in the main somewhere.
Obviously that's just an idea, but it does seem well positioned?
i read about 500 pages of fantasy a week and if i cant bust out my vocabulary every now and then whats the point?
Come on, MED block?! Are you serious. I'm dying to play classic, such a cool format. But the investment threshold as you mentioned is a big issue for not doing so. But I rather prefer playing claasic with a bad deck tham MED block with a rather average one.
And about the article, I think the classic overview was really needed since its a MODO only format. Good job.
I have to disagree on World Queller applications for classic. A five mana creature should have a really big imediate impact on the board to be played on classic and/or some sort of card advantage bulit in (Lark, Hulk). Waiting a whole turn to start attacking permanents is probably not good enough for classic play. Stick to Braids if trying to redo a stax on classic format.
Multiplayer shot please.
:)
Well I simply put in Frost Marshes. I didn't consider Zendikar lands as they weren't out yet when I was writing and Underground River takes you 1 life, which I think everyone agrees Drowned Catacomb is better (when don't you have Island or swamp on the field).
And on the seconds part of your comment, I agree completely. Megrim decks will always be pain in the neck to fight against, but I just wish they would be more competitive in tournament tables.
Thx~
Klemzo~
And here's my Giants build:
24 Lands
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Ancient Amphitheater
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Reflecting Pool
4x Rugged Prairie
20 Creatures
4x Brion Stoutarm
4x Desolation Giant
4x Wandering Graybeard
4x Taurean Mauler
4x Ivory Giant
16 Other Spell
4x Wrath of God
4x Pyroclasm
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Lightning Helix
LE
That is an awful lot of mass-removal in your giants deck (18 mass-removal spells!!!!!)! I played something quite similar in tsp-lor standard, and have a couple of reccomendations;
I can't see any particular reason not to be running 3-4 Brion Stoutarms. I ran 4, because he is a legend, but your opponent will kill him as soon as he hits play anyway (and if they don't then you're probably doing fine!). I'd probably sub him in for sulfurous blast or pyroclasm, as he does a similarly good job of stemming aggro-rushes.
I'd also reccommend testing silence, or perhaps moonhold, as in my experience the deck just folds to any kind of vague combo (unless it's slow enough to distrupt through austere command), maybe a disenchant type spell?
I might be tempted to go:
-4 pyroclasm
-3 sulfurous blast
-1 giant harbinger
+4 Brion Stoutarm
+4 Lightning Helix
I guess maybe oblivion ring does some work against combo?
MED Block-Only could be fun but you (or another Classic writer) should write a few articles about the format and convince people that the format can also be played without the duals and Force of Wills (competitively of course). After all, those are the main cards that prevent people from entering the format in the first place.
You should present a few (actually more than a few) solid decks that don't run FoW and/or 10 duals. I briefly looked at some options, saw Mono Black Weenie for example but then saw Moat as well. Black Weenie can't destroy Moat (as far as I know) and thus it isn't a solid option in my opinion.
If you can show people some good decks worthy of trying, then I guess many people would show up for the event. If you can't convince people, however, then I'm afraid you guys will be playing against... well... you guys!
If you want this to be an In-Clan organization than it's fine but otherwise you should talk a little bit about the format and some cheaper decks. They don't have to be equivalent to Pauper decks of course but I'm sure that you get the idea (Like Red/White Aggro with 4x Plateau and then some other affordable cards for example, if such a deck exists. Or Green/White weenie with Armageddon and some mana elfs).
LE
not really the set is lackluster not that many cards will make eternal lists. really the set is weaksauce