I wouldn't play lorescale Coatl in this deck. Its better in the countertop versions which have more land. 3 drops can be really hard to cast in this deck and mongoose being untargetable is huge. Also I like to hold my brainstorms and coatl makes me want to cast them earlier for +3+3 but also makes me more vulnerable to removal spells.
I feel like I have enough answers to opposing tarmogoyfs and coatls. I don't have enough answers to tombstalker w/o submerge but you do have some counters and sometimes you have to 2/1 yourself by trading 2 burn or burn+creature for it.
yeah our g3 was close. i did put you on lightning bolt + daze so I knew you'd be close to threshold, but didn't put you on lightning bolt + daze + daze. anyhow nice done, solid deck but i'd be too afraid to play with that deck =p
I beat him in pauper once and he called me the worst player ever. I think he shares his account with other ppl because I don't remember his English being that bad.
Force is a really good point and a definite factor in this play, can't believe I didn't think of that one. Solid analysis man, enjoyed reading your post.
hey ben, i wassent so sure about your match up with dredge but i just played your list 2x in 2mans against dredge and won both g2 and 3 of each match.
although i think that you have to factor in playskill into the percentages. not that these were bad players per se, but i doubt i should have won g3 of match 1 or g2 of match 2. there lack of format knowledge deff helped me pull it out. i think it should be closer to 80% g1 and 50/50 the other 2.
I would probably Hymn first against an opponent as a Force of Will test. Either he Forces the Hymn or hope that the Hymn will get the Force or make it uncastable. This would be against an opponent I think will have something I really want to Duress.
I think also against something like Belcher I'd go with the Hymn first as he doesn't run that many creatures (8 Spirit Guides total I think right) and the Duress will be more effective since you will already know what the Hymn is taking out. Like for instance you see Belcher/Mox/Mox/LED you probably Duress the Belcher, but if you Hymn two of the mana producers then you probably Duress the third.
I agree that against a creature based deck its almost alway correct to Duress first.
I like that, we should have more primers with matchups and sideboard tech as this is not legacy and a few matchups tho not wildly different are still not the same online. And yeah sica watu dude seems like an ass
Nice stuff as i always look forward to team Eternal articles.
One thing about Karmic Justice ,it is used in Legacy's Enchantress usually as a 1 maindeck with 1 sideboard. Look forward to the series BoB.
Very excited for you!!! Congrats on finding a wife that plays magic.
I have also hiked parts of the app. trail and remember staying in those little makeshift cabins. I saw one guy doing the whole trail that was running the whole thing and had half a sleeping bag, a tarp and a fishing pole. The day after I saw him it was -10 degrees and snowed 2 feet.
Wheel of Sun and Moon will definitely get a mention in the multi-colored article. I can appreciate your point though: a mono-white deckbuilder might not think to look at the multi-color section. I can certainly make cross-references for future articles, and might put a placeholder "(see multicolor)" for the first five articles. Karmic Justice can be situationally good, but it's hard to profit from it (unless multiples are in play) - they can always ignore it or prevent you from getting to three mana, or they can just combo out or beatdown. If you mean out of the sideboard against certain decks like Pox, I think that if I were in mono-White, I'd rather just have the cheaper Sacred Ground. Sorry, if I misconstrued your meaning, but I just don't see much value in the card.
hey ben nice to see a paper player online .do not pay too much attention to siewca guy top 8s a few times like i think it is 8 with pox and now he is a pro[sarcasm]. it is people like him that remind me of the droves of idiots on thesource forums and he says dumb things like ur bye for me that is in more part to do with not having to face players whom attend gp's so his results are skewered facing guys that are not pro level.
Ryan - Your articles are always awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time to write them. I'm a daddy of a 19 month old son, and I'm already eager to see what his interests are going to be. I'm hoping he's into sports and magic like his dad. He already seems to have a QB's arm, and is super smart. Thanks for sharing a bit of your personal side with us readers. Little things like that every once in awhile help us to connect with you even more. Looking forward to your next article. Thanks!
Strong Article indeed. Very enjoyable. Some of my earliest memories were of hiking with my Dad along the "Danger" trail in upstate NY which is a small 30mile section of the Apalachian trail running from (don't quote me) Peekskill to Fonstock state park. I only carried 30lbs or so but thats a lot for an 8 year old. (My dad is somewhere between a Johnny and Spike of hiking. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about flora/fauna in the NY/Conn/Mass areas. Particularly about mushrooms.
I sometimes miss being more active, hiking certainly is not for the sedentary. This almost inspires me to get out there again.
Excellent Article as always Godot. Your son sounds like a prodigy in the making :) 7 is probably the perfect time to catch him as it is an age of rapid learning and development. Thanks for the preview. Landfall does indeed seem to be terrific if its on your side of the board and terrifying on the other side.
Have you tried Lorescale in the Mongoose slot? Mongoose just seems very underpowered (and dont get me wrong I love mongoose) in a format where T2 4/5's and T3 5/5 abound.
On that note, do you feel that the ability to go to the head with Bolt and Fire/Ice justifies the inability to deal with opposing Tarmogoys/Lorescales/Tombstalkers? Seems like they could be very problematic.
As for Hedron crab, could serve as a nice reanimator deck enabler as well - it's 'target player' not opponent. Graveyard abuse is always fun, and can be surprising.
ugh, my gf will not give magic a chance. she loves stratgie games on the computer and x box and she will even diligently listen to me wax about tournament structures, prize payouts, and my articles. but she has repeatedly refused to let me teach her the game. sigh.
as steve said hold on tight to your s.o. especially if they play. otherwise just hold tight and hope that magic wont be a bad thing for the long hual.
hey there Ben, its really nice to see a legacy player that is actually good here in the digital world. I have an affinaty for thresh as it got me going in classic 2 years ago and helped build up my collection.
i also think that tempo thresh is the best "legacy" deck in classic but maybe its just me (and you) that think that. at any rate, i dont know what your exposure to the format is but if you continue to write for the site it would be great to have a longer article.
also if you decide to write again i would love to hear your pro/con for legacy/clasic.
Its good to see someone with real eternal format experience writing here, instead of some random talking about bad pauper decks.
Kudos, and a great start.
Also, i play a bit of real legacy, how does this beat zoo? I'm pretty sure I'm playing the matchup wrong.
I wouldn't play lorescale Coatl in this deck. Its better in the countertop versions which have more land. 3 drops can be really hard to cast in this deck and mongoose being untargetable is huge. Also I like to hold my brainstorms and coatl makes me want to cast them earlier for +3+3 but also makes me more vulnerable to removal spells.
I feel like I have enough answers to opposing tarmogoyfs and coatls. I don't have enough answers to tombstalker w/o submerge but you do have some counters and sometimes you have to 2/1 yourself by trading 2 burn or burn+creature for it.
You are one of the best writers for Magic around! Keep it up! And I hope your son gets better than you! LOL
i deffinatly got lucky against you. and even though i went 3-0 today i would still be wary as well.
next time you will block huh?
yeah our g3 was close. i did put you on lightning bolt + daze so I knew you'd be close to threshold, but didn't put you on lightning bolt + daze + daze. anyhow nice done, solid deck but i'd be too afraid to play with that deck =p
I beat him in pauper once and he called me the worst player ever. I think he shares his account with other ppl because I don't remember his English being that bad.
make that 3-0. but im going to stop pushing my luck. i got what i wanted . a me3 draft set for 6 tix. thx for making me try out the deck again.
Force is a really good point and a definite factor in this play, can't believe I didn't think of that one. Solid analysis man, enjoyed reading your post.
hey ben, i wassent so sure about your match up with dredge but i just played your list 2x in 2mans against dredge and won both g2 and 3 of each match.
although i think that you have to factor in playskill into the percentages. not that these were bad players per se, but i doubt i should have won g3 of match 1 or g2 of match 2. there lack of format knowledge deff helped me pull it out. i think it should be closer to 80% g1 and 50/50 the other 2.
just my 2 cents.
I would probably Hymn first against an opponent as a Force of Will test. Either he Forces the Hymn or hope that the Hymn will get the Force or make it uncastable. This would be against an opponent I think will have something I really want to Duress.
I think also against something like Belcher I'd go with the Hymn first as he doesn't run that many creatures (8 Spirit Guides total I think right) and the Duress will be more effective since you will already know what the Hymn is taking out. Like for instance you see Belcher/Mox/Mox/LED you probably Duress the Belcher, but if you Hymn two of the mana producers then you probably Duress the third.
I agree that against a creature based deck its almost alway correct to Duress first.
Just wanted to say your article brought a smile to my face as well :)
Nice primer also David Caplan has a pretty good primer for legacy tresh here.
http://www.magiceternal.com/wordpress/?p=18
I like that, we should have more primers with matchups and sideboard tech as this is not legacy and a few matchups tho not wildly different are still not the same online. And yeah sica watu dude seems like an ass
Nice stuff as i always look forward to team Eternal articles.
One thing about Karmic Justice ,it is used in Legacy's Enchantress usually as a 1 maindeck with 1 sideboard. Look forward to the series BoB.
I have also hiked parts of the app. trail and remember staying in those little makeshift cabins. I saw one guy doing the whole trail that was running the whole thing and had half a sleeping bag, a tarp and a fishing pole. The day after I saw him it was -10 degrees and snowed 2 feet.
Congrats! Nice article, welcome back from the trail.
Wheel of Sun and Moon will definitely get a mention in the multi-colored article. I can appreciate your point though: a mono-white deckbuilder might not think to look at the multi-color section. I can certainly make cross-references for future articles, and might put a placeholder "(see multicolor)" for the first five articles. Karmic Justice can be situationally good, but it's hard to profit from it (unless multiples are in play) - they can always ignore it or prevent you from getting to three mana, or they can just combo out or beatdown. If you mean out of the sideboard against certain decks like Pox, I think that if I were in mono-White, I'd rather just have the cheaper Sacred Ground. Sorry, if I misconstrued your meaning, but I just don't see much value in the card.
omg, you passed like 4 of these
hey ben nice to see a paper player online .do not pay too much attention to siewca guy top 8s a few times like i think it is 8 with pox and now he is a pro[sarcasm]. it is people like him that remind me of the droves of idiots on thesource forums and he says dumb things like ur bye for me that is in more part to do with not having to face players whom attend gp's so his results are skewered facing guys that are not pro level.
Ryan - Your articles are always awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time to write them. I'm a daddy of a 19 month old son, and I'm already eager to see what his interests are going to be. I'm hoping he's into sports and magic like his dad. He already seems to have a QB's arm, and is super smart. Thanks for sharing a bit of your personal side with us readers. Little things like that every once in awhile help us to connect with you even more. Looking forward to your next article. Thanks!
Strong Article indeed. Very enjoyable. Some of my earliest memories were of hiking with my Dad along the "Danger" trail in upstate NY which is a small 30mile section of the Apalachian trail running from (don't quote me) Peekskill to Fonstock state park. I only carried 30lbs or so but thats a lot for an 8 year old. (My dad is somewhere between a Johnny and Spike of hiking. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about flora/fauna in the NY/Conn/Mass areas. Particularly about mushrooms.
I sometimes miss being more active, hiking certainly is not for the sedentary. This almost inspires me to get out there again.
Excellent Article as always Godot. Your son sounds like a prodigy in the making :) 7 is probably the perfect time to catch him as it is an age of rapid learning and development. Thanks for the preview. Landfall does indeed seem to be terrific if its on your side of the board and terrifying on the other side.
Have you tried Lorescale in the Mongoose slot? Mongoose just seems very underpowered (and dont get me wrong I love mongoose) in a format where T2 4/5's and T3 5/5 abound.
On that note, do you feel that the ability to go to the head with Bolt and Fire/Ice justifies the inability to deal with opposing Tarmogoys/Lorescales/Tombstalkers? Seems like they could be very problematic.
Maybe he was being "ghetto"...?
As for Hedron crab, could serve as a nice reanimator deck enabler as well - it's 'target player' not opponent. Graveyard abuse is always fun, and can be surprising.
ugh, my gf will not give magic a chance. she loves stratgie games on the computer and x box and she will even diligently listen to me wax about tournament structures, prize payouts, and my articles. but she has repeatedly refused to let me teach her the game. sigh.
as steve said hold on tight to your s.o. especially if they play. otherwise just hold tight and hope that magic wont be a bad thing for the long hual.
hey there Ben, its really nice to see a legacy player that is actually good here in the digital world. I have an affinaty for thresh as it got me going in classic 2 years ago and helped build up my collection.
i also think that tempo thresh is the best "legacy" deck in classic but maybe its just me (and you) that think that. at any rate, i dont know what your exposure to the format is but if you continue to write for the site it would be great to have a longer article.
also if you decide to write again i would love to hear your pro/con for legacy/clasic.
Its good to see someone with real eternal format experience writing here, instead of some random talking about bad pauper decks.
Kudos, and a great start.
Also, i play a bit of real legacy, how does this beat zoo? I'm pretty sure I'm playing the matchup wrong.