It says the winner will be announced no later than yesterday, so was it? Where will it be announced (here, wizards.com, some as of yet unknown to me site)? Thanks!
Affinistorm was such a cool deck! It's neat how broken mechanic + broken mechanic = diluted enough for the casual room. And your combo is answerable at sorcery speed. And you're swinging with creatures. That's playing fair. I wish people wouldn't concede so hastily. Turn 1 Nettle Sentinel? If I follow it up with a Glimpse of Nature, then concede. But if I play a River Boa?
I thought you were afk putting quest counters on your expedition in the woods? :)
I can't think of any MTGO reporter I'd rather be there in your place. That's awesome that Wizards would find someone with your enthusiasm to do it. It's like someone said "Hey, since MTGO players are going to high level events now, we should send someone to report specifically about MTGO." - "Oh yeah, let's Worth." - "Nah, let's send Erik to do it! I think he'd like it." That's pretty awesome of Wizards.
I have to disagree on the "noninteractive" comment referring to counters. However Evacuation works nicely vs Hypergenesis, and Living End. Living End is also vulnerable to graveyard removal (Haunting Echoes works pretty well for that) Restore Balance is trickier. Sacrifice helps a little vs Balance effects but really if your opponent cascades into it you are probably going to take a hit on your land, creatures and cards in hand unless you have a way to stop the spell.
The problem is, it is a hard to stop combo if you aren't willing to play counters. If you don't want to play against it just tell the player thanks, good game and go on to the next game. No one is keeping you in it. Hope that helps.
Merit-Lage can still be Path to Exile'd, bounced, or stolen (via blue). Considering that the combo is only in Extended, this combo hardly seems like it's "totally broken", as Extended decks have very many ways to deal with powerful permanents, let alone creatures.
Great article, I enjoyed. I would add I guarantee some of those texts are incomplete or incorrect or WOTC is going to have a quite a time with errata explaining the functions of some of those cards.
Keep up the good work.
A two-mana two-card combo that ends the game the turn it comes online (T3 Usually) is strong. Add that to the fact that one of the pieces is uncounterable and that the other piece is itself a decent aggro creature and I think we may see Merit-Lage swinging for 20 in the TP room as well.
That is indeed true. There is already a lot of people disgusting this, as there is so many Mythics in Zendikar, and Mythics are known to be atleast 5$+ each. Now as Zendikar has tons of really great Mythics, like Goblin, Iona, Lotus Cobra, Mindbreak Trap and others, it seams reasonable that they all are expensive, which means more money for Wizards and more money for all people dealing with this kind of stuff.
It is true that for casual players and those on low budget this would be a problem and hopefully, Lotus Cobra and such won't reach prices anywhere near Baneslayer Angel. I really, really hope so.
Congratulations Hammy,
Honestly they couldn't have picked a nicer guy. I usually don't follow the pro tour, but I'll probably tune in just to see your take on it.
Also, I didn't know you were from Minnesota too.
"This is from my local paper players in upper Minnesota. "
Finally, it seems relatively confirmed that people are opening Moxes and other old cards in Zendikar packs. Of course these occurrences seem very very rare. This begs the question of how this will transfer to Magic Online, and is this how the power 9 is going to be added to Magic Online.
It says the winner will be announced no later than yesterday, so was it? Where will it be announced (here, wizards.com, some as of yet unknown to me site)? Thanks!
So I eat you?
Thank you :)
No-one? Meh. I do. So your argument is invalid.
Affinistorm was such a cool deck! It's neat how broken mechanic + broken mechanic = diluted enough for the casual room. And your combo is answerable at sorcery speed. And you're swinging with creatures. That's playing fair. I wish people wouldn't concede so hastily. Turn 1 Nettle Sentinel? If I follow it up with a Glimpse of Nature, then concede. But if I play a River Boa?
I thought you were afk putting quest counters on your expedition in the woods? :)
I can't think of any MTGO reporter I'd rather be there in your place. That's awesome that Wizards would find someone with your enthusiasm to do it. It's like someone said "Hey, since MTGO players are going to high level events now, we should send someone to report specifically about MTGO." - "Oh yeah, let's Worth." - "Nah, let's send Erik to do it! I think he'd like it." That's pretty awesome of Wizards.
I have to disagree on the "noninteractive" comment referring to counters. However Evacuation works nicely vs Hypergenesis, and Living End. Living End is also vulnerable to graveyard removal (Haunting Echoes works pretty well for that) Restore Balance is trickier. Sacrifice helps a little vs Balance effects but really if your opponent cascades into it you are probably going to take a hit on your land, creatures and cards in hand unless you have a way to stop the spell.
The problem is, it is a hard to stop combo if you aren't willing to play counters. If you don't want to play against it just tell the player thanks, good game and go on to the next game. No one is keeping you in it. Hope that helps.
Does anyone have advice on how to cope with a deck that abuses cascade/suspend? I find these decks to be super-annoying / non-interactive.
Please dont say "counterspells". I consider them non-interactive as well.
All the more reason we should require people to make an account if they are going to make a comment.
jordan bush smells like poo
jordan bush is full of poo
klemzo eats poo XD
Merit-Lage can still be Path to Exile'd, bounced, or stolen (via blue). Considering that the combo is only in Extended, this combo hardly seems like it's "totally broken", as Extended decks have very many ways to deal with powerful permanents, let alone creatures.
I, for one, am not worried about this combo.
Great article, I enjoyed. I would add I guarantee some of those texts are incomplete or incorrect or WOTC is going to have a quite a time with errata explaining the functions of some of those cards.
Keep up the good work.
A two-mana two-card combo that ends the game the turn it comes online (T3 Usually) is strong. Add that to the fact that one of the pieces is uncounterable and that the other piece is itself a decent aggro creature and I think we may see Merit-Lage swinging for 20 in the TP room as well.
Or unsummon/repeal
Translation: once Zendikar is online, you must pack path to exile or somesuch if you want to play extended in the casual room.
Sorry guys for the spam... for some reason, I thought he was in Odyssey.
That is indeed true. There is already a lot of people disgusting this, as there is so many Mythics in Zendikar, and Mythics are known to be atleast 5$+ each. Now as Zendikar has tons of really great Mythics, like Goblin, Iona, Lotus Cobra, Mindbreak Trap and others, it seams reasonable that they all are expensive, which means more money for Wizards and more money for all people dealing with this kind of stuff.
It is true that for casual players and those on low budget this would be a problem and hopefully, Lotus Cobra and such won't reach prices anywhere near Baneslayer Angel. I really, really hope so.
Thx~
Klemzo
Vampire hexhunter forms a 2 card combo.
(Sac to remove all counters from target permanents)
It combos with this guy from Zendikar:
Vampire Hexmage
BB
Creature - Vampire Shaman
Uncommon
First strike
Sacrifice Vampire Hexmage: Remove all counters from target permanent.
2/1
Anyone know why Dark Depths took such a big jump in price?
A shame you couldn't at least open a money card. I appreciate you taking the time to write this up -- enjoyable for me to read.
Congratulations Hammy,
Honestly they couldn't have picked a nicer guy. I usually don't follow the pro tour, but I'll probably tune in just to see your take on it.
Also, I didn't know you were from Minnesota too.
"This is from my local paper players in upper Minnesota. "
Finally, it seems relatively confirmed that people are opening Moxes and other old cards in Zendikar packs. Of course these occurrences seem very very rare. This begs the question of how this will transfer to Magic Online, and is this how the power 9 is going to be added to Magic Online.
I enjoy your writing and podcasts here. Hope you keep the standard up.