AS a fairly new player to MTG(O) world, I really enjoyed reading these articles. I have been on MTGO for last 2-3 months and don't think i've seen any of these decks before. I always love seeing ways that cards can be combo'd together as it gives me ideas of my own to try. Thanks for taking time to write about these decks. Nicely done.
Especially since the classic card pool continues to get polluted with more and more bad idea broken cards from yesteryear. Extended imho is a nice simple solution for a lot of formats. I'd love to play ext 100c singleton (heck, my current 100c singleton deck is ext legal i think).
I vote for build your own standard. I think this could be a format with a lot of different competitive decks...though WOTC will need to be active with the ban restricted list.
Those are some funky decks there. Affinistorm is probably the sort of deck that gets concessions from people who hate combo but it looks fun and complex. Izzetspike is a rarity. Im pretty certain I haven't seen anyone running that in years. It also seems rather budget which is cool. As you said old decks. :D Lots of fun.
Yes, this was a fairly easy draft. I find it interesting, however, that neither the quality of my opponent nor the quality of my deck have much bearing on how complex or compelling the individual decision points in a match are.
Even if I'm 85% to beat a given opponent, it still ends up being fascinating and useful to review the match and figure out how I could have made it 87.4%.
"Also I don't understand your play of pinging the elves in his upkeep."
I think that was a case of instinctively waiting, then realizing after I passed the turn that I shouldn't have waited and doing the next-best thing, which was pinging during upkeep.
Nice article. I love that you explain what you were thinking and why you would now make a different play. It's not a "Here's another draft win. I am a genius." article, which always makes me want to read it.
I'd like to see extended tribal at least promoted to the level where you could choose it as a game type. In fact, I'd like to see all of the varient game types be offered as standard, block, ext, leg, classic. Not for tournament play, but just to specify in the game type. I'm never sure why they don't just do this anyway, I mean, it can't involve much programming? It's surely just using .AND. between two format lists?
Thanks for this nice walkthrough.
It is amazing to me how your opponent round 3 got there. He could have made it much more difficult. When you were at 12, and played the minotaur, he should have simply tapped it (as you thought he would) still in your turn. Then you would have faced another 5 damage, going to 7, putting you more on a clock.
Also I don't understand your play of pinging the elves in his upkeep. Why not in your turn if you decide not to wait to the combat phase?
At end of your turn, he could have had a harms way, giant growth or glorius charge to save it. Glorious charge was in his deck.... Well, let him play it to protect his elf. In his upkeep however, this is a great play, as you are facing not 5, but 10 damage going to 2....
I see this more often, especially when you are raced out, it is better to use removal in your turn, as a pump spell will not only nullify your removal (especially when tapped out), but gives you even more set back.
But for the rest, nice deck. I agree, red is underdrafted as it is easily splashed, but with some determination even mone red can be a big winner.
this may help in your deck list formatting. Once you acquire the code from jamuraa's site(props man)return to your document and look for a button in the top left. It says source click this once and your document will go crazy but then insert the decklist code and then rehit the source button and it should process correctly.
One thing to add - there'll be no 'Out of the Blue' next week, as I take a barely deserved break on a sunny beach somewhere exotic. I'll be back with a vegeance the following week, fully recharged and with third degree sunburn.
As a frame of reference, snow-covered lands go for about .20 each. I would predict demand to be higher for Zen lands than snow lands, but Zen is probably going to outsell Coldsnap and ME2 combined, so supply will also be high.
I can't afford the Classic Dual lands, money cards or most constructed formats in general let alone think about 'bling' but I just have to get those Zen lands. I've wanted the Unhinged lands since they first came out but never managed it. It's not that I even like the art that much I just think that full frame lands look so much better.
I'm praying that Zen is so popular that it's drafted to death and that I can pick up the lands for the normal $0.02 that a basic land sells for. I can see me having to wait a bit past release to get them however.
The alternative would be to work on my game and stop loosing all my constructed queues and drafts....... OK, I'll wait! :o)
Replays were non-functioning for a while, then were intermittently functioning. As far as I know, it has been available since replays have been back.
It's fair in the sense that anyone can do it, but unfair in the sense that it's not exactly publicized, so that not everyone knows it can be done.
Part of me enjoys the scouting process, but I don't like that you either *have* to do it, or know that you are leaving an unused resource on the table. I'd like to see it go away, but as long as it's available, it's either scout, or accept that you aren't as prepared for your match as you could be.
Thanks. I agree with what Amar said in regards to focusing on blue, and might try it out.
In regards to Boomerang, I noted in the article that you can use Disperse for the same purpose to make the deck totally standard legal, but I did not feel like picking up a playset of functionally identical cards at the time.
I did not even realize that replay watching/scouting option was available. Wow, talk about cheese. I mean, I'm going to do in now too, because it seems like you have to to be competitive. But still - I'd much rather see it gone.
But don't put your deckbuilding skills down. Sure there are better builders but there are worse ones too and building decks is an artform. Sure some people are more talented naturally but it still takes effort and time and practice. (Make the deck, play with it, tune it, play with it some more, etc) Lots of practice. I like the things Amar has to say about the deck. Very true. Too many auras can dilute the power of the deck. And the wrong colored ones can be a bummer to draw into.
One thing I note is you mention Lorwyn leaving standard. But you are running boomerang which is extended, as Thatic notes. But you have unsummon x2 in the sideboard so it can't be them. Perhaps make a new deck, this time extended and see where that brings you. Feel free to pm me for a game on MODO.
I too, hence the 5* rating but I wanted more, perhaps being a little greedy because for me the format is new enough to want more depth in the advice given.
The thing is it seemed like an advertisement to increase the popularity of the all gold set Alara Reborn which while smart seems rather cynical to remove support after that. I guess They couldn't manage another gold set so soon, so perhaps it will be a few years before another sees the light of day, and the interval won't be a good time for the format. I never got into KScope because it seemed so narrow (and required an expensive mana base to boot) but I understand some people really enjoyed it.
Self-congratulate away Erik, this is fantastic news! Well done, and your excellent weekly articles deserve exactly this sort of recognition :)
AS a fairly new player to MTG(O) world, I really enjoyed reading these articles. I have been on MTGO for last 2-3 months and don't think i've seen any of these decks before. I always love seeing ways that cards can be combo'd together as it gives me ideas of my own to try. Thanks for taking time to write about these decks. Nicely done.
Especially since the classic card pool continues to get polluted with more and more bad idea broken cards from yesteryear. Extended imho is a nice simple solution for a lot of formats. I'd love to play ext 100c singleton (heck, my current 100c singleton deck is ext legal i think).
I vote for build your own standard. I think this could be a format with a lot of different competitive decks...though WOTC will need to be active with the ban restricted list.
Sleeved up your second version and it is an absolute blast to play with. Thanks for the article.
Those are some funky decks there. Affinistorm is probably the sort of deck that gets concessions from people who hate combo but it looks fun and complex. Izzetspike is a rarity. Im pretty certain I haven't seen anyone running that in years. It also seems rather budget which is cool. As you said old decks. :D Lots of fun.
Yes, this was a fairly easy draft. I find it interesting, however, that neither the quality of my opponent nor the quality of my deck have much bearing on how complex or compelling the individual decision points in a match are.
Even if I'm 85% to beat a given opponent, it still ends up being fascinating and useful to review the match and figure out how I could have made it 87.4%.
"Also I don't understand your play of pinging the elves in his upkeep."
I think that was a case of instinctively waiting, then realizing after I passed the turn that I shouldn't have waited and doing the next-best thing, which was pinging during upkeep.
Nice article. I love that you explain what you were thinking and why you would now make a different play. It's not a "Here's another draft win. I am a genius." article, which always makes me want to read it.
Certe. ;)
I'd like to see extended tribal at least promoted to the level where you could choose it as a game type. In fact, I'd like to see all of the varient game types be offered as standard, block, ext, leg, classic. Not for tournament play, but just to specify in the game type. I'm never sure why they don't just do this anyway, I mean, it can't involve much programming? It's surely just using .AND. between two format lists?
Thanks for this nice walkthrough.
It is amazing to me how your opponent round 3 got there. He could have made it much more difficult. When you were at 12, and played the minotaur, he should have simply tapped it (as you thought he would) still in your turn. Then you would have faced another 5 damage, going to 7, putting you more on a clock.
Also I don't understand your play of pinging the elves in his upkeep. Why not in your turn if you decide not to wait to the combat phase?
At end of your turn, he could have had a harms way, giant growth or glorius charge to save it. Glorious charge was in his deck.... Well, let him play it to protect his elf. In his upkeep however, this is a great play, as you are facing not 5, but 10 damage going to 2....
I see this more often, especially when you are raced out, it is better to use removal in your turn, as a pump spell will not only nullify your removal (especially when tapped out), but gives you even more set back.
But for the rest, nice deck. I agree, red is underdrafted as it is easily splashed, but with some determination even mone red can be a big winner.
Nice article !
If anybody is interested to learn more about the PPS format, come and visit our dedicated forum here : http://atfreeforum.com/pps
this may help in your deck list formatting. Once you acquire the code from jamuraa's site(props man)return to your document and look for a button in the top left. It says source click this once and your document will go crazy but then insert the decklist code and then rehit the source button and it should process correctly.
Thanks LE and Lpettro.
One thing to add - there'll be no 'Out of the Blue' next week, as I take a barely deserved break on a sunny beach somewhere exotic. I'll be back with a vegeance the following week, fully recharged and with third degree sunburn.
As a frame of reference, snow-covered lands go for about .20 each. I would predict demand to be higher for Zen lands than snow lands, but Zen is probably going to outsell Coldsnap and ME2 combined, so supply will also be high.
I can't afford the Classic Dual lands, money cards or most constructed formats in general let alone think about 'bling' but I just have to get those Zen lands. I've wanted the Unhinged lands since they first came out but never managed it. It's not that I even like the art that much I just think that full frame lands look so much better.
I'm praying that Zen is so popular that it's drafted to death and that I can pick up the lands for the normal $0.02 that a basic land sells for. I can see me having to wait a bit past release to get them however.
The alternative would be to work on my game and stop loosing all my constructed queues and drafts....... OK, I'll wait! :o)
Poetically unprejudiced posting this expose to conduct that I drop in on your blog daily.
Replays were non-functioning for a while, then were intermittently functioning. As far as I know, it has been available since replays have been back.
It's fair in the sense that anyone can do it, but unfair in the sense that it's not exactly publicized, so that not everyone knows it can be done.
Part of me enjoys the scouting process, but I don't like that you either *have* to do it, or know that you are leaving an unused resource on the table. I'd like to see it go away, but as long as it's available, it's either scout, or accept that you aren't as prepared for your match as you could be.
Thanks. I agree with what Amar said in regards to focusing on blue, and might try it out.
In regards to Boomerang, I noted in the article that you can use Disperse for the same purpose to make the deck totally standard legal, but I did not feel like picking up a playset of functionally identical cards at the time.
I did not even realize that replay watching/scouting option was available. Wow, talk about cheese. I mean, I'm going to do in now too, because it seems like you have to to be competitive. But still - I'd much rather see it gone.
Was this always here, or recently added?
Ah timing is critical. Welcome to Puremtgo Som.
But don't put your deckbuilding skills down. Sure there are better builders but there are worse ones too and building decks is an artform. Sure some people are more talented naturally but it still takes effort and time and practice. (Make the deck, play with it, tune it, play with it some more, etc) Lots of practice. I like the things Amar has to say about the deck. Very true. Too many auras can dilute the power of the deck. And the wrong colored ones can be a bummer to draw into.
One thing I note is you mention Lorwyn leaving standard. But you are running boomerang which is extended, as Thatic notes. But you have unsummon x2 in the sideboard so it can't be them. Perhaps make a new deck, this time extended and see where that brings you. Feel free to pm me for a game on MODO.
And so then boomerang is suposed to be Unsummon I imagine?
I can't speak for it's effectiveness in standard, so I'll leave that for others to comment on.
I too, hence the 5* rating but I wanted more, perhaps being a little greedy because for me the format is new enough to want more depth in the advice given.
The thing is it seemed like an advertisement to increase the popularity of the all gold set Alara Reborn which while smart seems rather cynical to remove support after that. I guess They couldn't manage another gold set so soon, so perhaps it will be a few years before another sees the light of day, and the interval won't be a good time for the format. I never got into KScope because it seemed so narrow (and required an expensive mana base to boot) but I understand some people really enjoyed it.