I am playing it and having a fair amount of luck. Though you missed some really great cards like tainted sigil and angels mercy. Overall the deck is very sound with a 2-3 mana curve.
Hmm, that's a good point, although not really fair to the person that cast it. I had it happen in a casual game, when my opponent cast it, and it wouldn't let me concede either.
Nice article, good clear game reports. You're right in what your deck lacked, but as others have said, it's still better than anything I've cobbled together in sealed. Mind you, that might just be my deck building abilities.
Oh, and it took me five articles before I found the online deck builder, so you're ahead of the curve...
Succinct and informative as ever. Thanks for the props too! Oh, and you mention not usually being allowed to vote for one another's articles for 'article of the week' - does that mean AJ can't win the coveted award any more? For shame!
@ LE - I'm jealous of the bronze skin - haven't had a relaxing beach holiday in years.
@ Paul - Thanks, hope your article gets published soon!
@ Anon - Elsewhere flask is great with the spells you mentioned, but mildly clunkier in that you need to draw both. But still very workable.
@Ragman - Yes I like the Fleshbag, but prefer him in a token deck where I can sac a 1/1. I felt like I had enough removal in my decklist already, but it would be a good answer to pro-black. Perhaps a sideboard choice.
@mysticknight232 - Thanks, the game reports take me a lot of time, so I'm glad they're appreciated!
@moerutora - Yes, Feudkiller's Verdict would be fun with Bond out. And I like Guardian Seraph, great against soldiers or elves.
Oh, it's Explosive Borders? No wonder they won't tell us. That ruins every format. But only for the caster, right? You just run out of time. It's not like Mox Diamond where you'd end the game and cause a bunch of redemption requests.
As I've asked to AJ at mtgo, I think you guys could elaborate on this during nxt episode. Another complimentar subject is the level of compettion during release events and such: do these events atract the season champs caliber players or do they seem more friendly to the less competitive players?
Congrats on the cast. Two more suggestions/questions:
1 - Why did you guys leave mtgcast?
2 - Do you know if there are more viewers the ocasinally print the articles Because the site doesnt offer frindly formatting.
I made a sanguine bond deck that would be in standard and it was quite fun. I didnt want to go monoblack cuz its not as fun as going 3 colors. I put in Feudkillers Verdict and Battlegrace angel as fun finishers with Guardian Seraph to be irritating. Fun deck overall but got bored of it. Might tweak it a little to be more irritating. Much more fun to lose to a Sanguine Bond than your overly played elves or kithikin. Lost so many times to such boring decks.
On a side note- losing to mono-black mill is not fun either. Its boring. Losing to Mind Funeral is fun though.
Quick answer is, no one knows yet. But that's summarizing a ton of thoughts.
Technically, MED2 wouldn't have been worth it. Except for a big exception: greedy hoarders.
Greedy hoarders were trying to corner the duals in MED2, WotC saw this and essentially subsidized the players to flood the market with duals as it went off sale. The upshot: it was super easy to turn a profit on MED2 thanks to that insane speculation demand. Of course, like most speculation demand the bubble burst and well, we're on our way down.
Had that NOT happened, the demand for the duals would have been pretty low, but on the upside, that speculation funded a LOT more people opening packs which means we have a higher supply now because of that. But, assuming that the greedy speculation hoarders don't get duped by WotC again, the prices should follow their typical curve of start high, dip, DROP, dip, stabilize... increase as it goes off sale. If, however, they DIDN'T learn their lesson that WotC gonna do what WotC gonna do, they will again subsidize players playing the MED3 queues.
It really boils down to the gullability of the speculative bot hoarders and if they want to pay us to play MED3 like they did MED2.
Good question, and I'm not entirely sure on the answer. It depends on how well the big ticket rares retain their value, and what their starting values will be. Obviously if you crack a dual or mana drain you have it made, but someone would need to crunch the figures to see if that'd be worth the investment.
brianhorn gives the plasm +6/+6 for 1G if you evoke it for extra beats...also tower above is nice +10/+10 and lets you roll over one of their creatures for GGG...shriekmaw also works well with the theme, +5/+5 and removal for 1B on evoke...gonna have to update my old plasm deck with the new cascade tech though! thanks for bringing back an old favorite!
Just wanted to say that i like the way these articles are set up. I enjoy seeing as many decks as i can and one can pretty much fill in the blanks for your opponents decklists with the information you provide. i like that and it helps to not only showcase your deck, but give people ideas about other decks that are out that. i know we can just go to the decklists of the week...but that doesn't tell you that whole story. thanks and happy writing!
RE Necro...well people are so used to the Skull as a symbol for it that seeing a sacrifice on a table does not fit well. I agree Necro is less jarring than Ball but it still looks out of place. Part of the problem is you think Necro you think death and destruction on a massive scale. Yes sacrifice is part of the theme but it is more about the extraction of power from yourself not some poor hapless victim. 'Sacrifice' the card would have benefited more from this artwork.
I drastically disagree w.r.t. the necropotence art. The new one looks like something is extracting power from something else, and the whole thing looks evil and creepyish. Hence necro-potence. The old necropotence art is just some guy in big bone armour. It's all just personal preference though, of course!
Hehe well imho most critics are not capable of critique. They simply criticize and rarely give well reasoned points of view going instead for the emotional comments. In addition I frown entirely on the idea posited by the standard critic that in order to give a good review a critic must state something negative about the reviewed piece. I think this is erroneous. Balance is all well and good and if something stinks, I guess it needs to be said. On the other hand saying it just because form says you must is ridiculous.
With all that said my critique of the Ball Lightning art is not entirely positive because as FG points out, its critical flaw is that it does not match the card. The picture itself isn't unpleasant or ugly in any way but it is rather odd. I do believe with an iconic card it is a challenge to find a way to describe it to be new and exciting and yet fill the needs of the card. How many ways are there to depict Ball Lighting as an elemental creature attacking you? A good few I think but I can see the artist being stumped for something original. It is also plausible that the art director just screwed up when assigning pics to cards and said to hell with it when crunch time came. Wouldn't be the first time it happened.
I also want to mention that the Green-White-Black version could be a Treefolk deck with Sapling of Colfenor as the main engine. Treefolk alone are scary but a few Sanguine Bonds (maybe even only one copy) would help dealing the final few points of damage.
Oh and the new pic - well, I'm showing off my new bronze skin :))).
So I think I'm in the "wait for the release" fraction, thank you very much. More on the subject of MED3: do you guys think the sealed queues for the set are profitable for someone who will only sell the prizes/rares/uncommons and only ocasionally keep a couple commons for pauper? I'm pretty much a standard/extended player, but as the set has some ridiculous rares I was wondering if the EV of sealed queues early in the release week is higher than that of constructed daily events.
Part of the prerelease 'prize' is the intangible of getting the cards first. It's a deliberate sliding scale of value over time, which also serves to reduce peak server load during the release. Those who want the highest expected value should wait for the release, those who just want access to the cards asap are those who go for the prerelease.
I always have a hard time discounting the tempo change by playing first and dropping turn 1 Nip, turn 2 Edge and swing for 4 with lifegain. There are only 4 or 5 1cc answers to that combo in STD.
I've even had games where I play Nip, my opponents first land comes in tapped and I drop double Edge on nip and swing for 7 on turn 2. If my opponent doesn't have a turn 2 answer it gets out of hand quick.
I know Nip is worthless to draw after say turn 3, I usually run Stillmoon Cavalier so that my Edge's past turn 3 are not wasted on late Nips.
Also a nice 3cc card to think about adding is Fleshbag Marauder. I know Infest is your best bet against the quick rush of soldiers/tokens/elves, but Fleshbag could save you from having to spend a Consume or Corrupt to take out a solo nasty bomb or a way to handle a solo pro black creature. I also like to run Incremental Blight, for mid/late uses against Broodmate and token, Baneslayer, etc.
There a wonderful tech that you can use to turn on a W/B Sanguine deck to max Tendrils, Corrupt, and even Consume Spirit... oh that secret tech is Elsewhere Flask.
Sanguine Santum
X4 Sanctum Gargoyle
X4 Tainted Sigil
X4 Elsewhere Flask
X2 Thopter Foundry
X2 Mistvein Borderpost
X2 Fieldmist Borderpost
X2 Dispeller's Capsule
X3 Sanguine Bond
X2 Kiss of the Amesha
X4 Tendrils of Corruption
X4 Corrupt
X2 Open the Vaults
X1 Invincible Hymn
X1 Liliana Vess
X4 Arcane Sanctum
X3 Island
X3 Plains
X13 Swamp
I am playing it and having a fair amount of luck. Though you missed some really great cards like tainted sigil and angels mercy. Overall the deck is very sound with a 2-3 mana curve.
I can't imagine not playing a card just because the art was bad. I'm appreciative of alot of the art, especially the lands, but not that much.
On a sidenote, whenever I play ball lightning I always shout: PLASMA PUMPKIN!
Hmm, that's a good point, although not really fair to the person that cast it. I had it happen in a casual game, when my opponent cast it, and it wouldn't let me concede either.
Ive won it before, so I can't complain. I'm glad we were able to point out Erik's work for once.
Nice article, good clear game reports. You're right in what your deck lacked, but as others have said, it's still better than anything I've cobbled together in sealed. Mind you, that might just be my deck building abilities.
Oh, and it took me five articles before I found the online deck builder, so you're ahead of the curve...
Succinct and informative as ever. Thanks for the props too! Oh, and you mention not usually being allowed to vote for one another's articles for 'article of the week' - does that mean AJ can't win the coveted award any more? For shame!
@ LE - I'm jealous of the bronze skin - haven't had a relaxing beach holiday in years.
@ Paul - Thanks, hope your article gets published soon!
@ Anon - Elsewhere flask is great with the spells you mentioned, but mildly clunkier in that you need to draw both. But still very workable.
@Ragman - Yes I like the Fleshbag, but prefer him in a token deck where I can sac a 1/1. I felt like I had enough removal in my decklist already, but it would be a good answer to pro-black. Perhaps a sideboard choice.
@mysticknight232 - Thanks, the game reports take me a lot of time, so I'm glad they're appreciated!
@moerutora - Yes, Feudkiller's Verdict would be fun with Bond out. And I like Guardian Seraph, great against soldiers or elves.
Oh, it's Explosive Borders? No wonder they won't tell us. That ruins every format. But only for the caster, right? You just run out of time. It's not like Mox Diamond where you'd end the game and cause a bunch of redemption requests.
Excellent as always guys!
As I've asked to AJ at mtgo, I think you guys could elaborate on this during nxt episode. Another complimentar subject is the level of compettion during release events and such: do these events atract the season champs caliber players or do they seem more friendly to the less competitive players?
Congrats on the cast. Two more suggestions/questions:
1 - Why did you guys leave mtgcast?
2 - Do you know if there are more viewers the ocasinally print the articles Because the site doesnt offer frindly formatting.
thomazalexandre on mtgo
I made a sanguine bond deck that would be in standard and it was quite fun. I didnt want to go monoblack cuz its not as fun as going 3 colors. I put in Feudkillers Verdict and Battlegrace angel as fun finishers with Guardian Seraph to be irritating. Fun deck overall but got bored of it. Might tweak it a little to be more irritating. Much more fun to lose to a Sanguine Bond than your overly played elves or kithikin. Lost so many times to such boring decks.
On a side note- losing to mono-black mill is not fun either. Its boring. Losing to Mind Funeral is fun though.
I love this question.
Quick answer is, no one knows yet. But that's summarizing a ton of thoughts.
Technically, MED2 wouldn't have been worth it. Except for a big exception: greedy hoarders.
Greedy hoarders were trying to corner the duals in MED2, WotC saw this and essentially subsidized the players to flood the market with duals as it went off sale. The upshot: it was super easy to turn a profit on MED2 thanks to that insane speculation demand. Of course, like most speculation demand the bubble burst and well, we're on our way down.
Had that NOT happened, the demand for the duals would have been pretty low, but on the upside, that speculation funded a LOT more people opening packs which means we have a higher supply now because of that. But, assuming that the greedy speculation hoarders don't get duped by WotC again, the prices should follow their typical curve of start high, dip, DROP, dip, stabilize... increase as it goes off sale. If, however, they DIDN'T learn their lesson that WotC gonna do what WotC gonna do, they will again subsidize players playing the MED3 queues.
It really boils down to the gullability of the speculative bot hoarders and if they want to pay us to play MED3 like they did MED2.
Good question, and I'm not entirely sure on the answer. It depends on how well the big ticket rares retain their value, and what their starting values will be. Obviously if you crack a dual or mana drain you have it made, but someone would need to crunch the figures to see if that'd be worth the investment.
brianhorn gives the plasm +6/+6 for 1G if you evoke it for extra beats...also tower above is nice +10/+10 and lets you roll over one of their creatures for GGG...shriekmaw also works well with the theme, +5/+5 and removal for 1B on evoke...gonna have to update my old plasm deck with the new cascade tech though! thanks for bringing back an old favorite!
Just wanted to say that i like the way these articles are set up. I enjoy seeing as many decks as i can and one can pretty much fill in the blanks for your opponents decklists with the information you provide. i like that and it helps to not only showcase your deck, but give people ideas about other decks that are out that. i know we can just go to the decklists of the week...but that doesn't tell you that whole story. thanks and happy writing!
"I know Nip is worthless to draw after say turn 3, I usually run Stillmoon Cavalier so that my Edge's past turn 3 are not wasted on late Nips."
Um...Stillmoon Cavalier has pro white and black. Edge of Divinity is white and black. I don't think those two play well together.
Bravo, the perfect answer.
RE Necro...well people are so used to the Skull as a symbol for it that seeing a sacrifice on a table does not fit well. I agree Necro is less jarring than Ball but it still looks out of place. Part of the problem is you think Necro you think death and destruction on a massive scale. Yes sacrifice is part of the theme but it is more about the extraction of power from yourself not some poor hapless victim. 'Sacrifice' the card would have benefited more from this artwork.
I drastically disagree w.r.t. the necropotence art. The new one looks like something is extracting power from something else, and the whole thing looks evil and creepyish. Hence necro-potence. The old necropotence art is just some guy in big bone armour. It's all just personal preference though, of course!
I do agree w.r.t. ball lightning..
Hehe well imho most critics are not capable of critique. They simply criticize and rarely give well reasoned points of view going instead for the emotional comments. In addition I frown entirely on the idea posited by the standard critic that in order to give a good review a critic must state something negative about the reviewed piece. I think this is erroneous. Balance is all well and good and if something stinks, I guess it needs to be said. On the other hand saying it just because form says you must is ridiculous.
With all that said my critique of the Ball Lightning art is not entirely positive because as FG points out, its critical flaw is that it does not match the card. The picture itself isn't unpleasant or ugly in any way but it is rather odd. I do believe with an iconic card it is a challenge to find a way to describe it to be new and exciting and yet fill the needs of the card. How many ways are there to depict Ball Lighting as an elemental creature attacking you? A good few I think but I can see the artist being stumped for something original. It is also plausible that the art director just screwed up when assigning pics to cards and said to hell with it when crunch time came. Wouldn't be the first time it happened.
I also want to mention that the Green-White-Black version could be a Treefolk deck with Sapling of Colfenor as the main engine. Treefolk alone are scary but a few Sanguine Bonds (maybe even only one copy) would help dealing the final few points of damage.
Oh and the new pic - well, I'm showing off my new bronze skin :))).
LE
So I think I'm in the "wait for the release" fraction, thank you very much. More on the subject of MED3: do you guys think the sealed queues for the set are profitable for someone who will only sell the prizes/rares/uncommons and only ocasionally keep a couple commons for pauper? I'm pretty much a standard/extended player, but as the set has some ridiculous rares I was wondering if the EV of sealed queues early in the release week is higher than that of constructed daily events.
Part of the prerelease 'prize' is the intangible of getting the cards first. It's a deliberate sliding scale of value over time, which also serves to reduce peak server load during the release. Those who want the highest expected value should wait for the release, those who just want access to the cards asap are those who go for the prerelease.
Have you guys looked at the disparity in prize support between the MED 3 Prerelease and the Release Events? Can anyone explain why that is so?
I always have a hard time discounting the tempo change by playing first and dropping turn 1 Nip, turn 2 Edge and swing for 4 with lifegain. There are only 4 or 5 1cc answers to that combo in STD.
I've even had games where I play Nip, my opponents first land comes in tapped and I drop double Edge on nip and swing for 7 on turn 2. If my opponent doesn't have a turn 2 answer it gets out of hand quick.
I know Nip is worthless to draw after say turn 3, I usually run Stillmoon Cavalier so that my Edge's past turn 3 are not wasted on late Nips.
Also a nice 3cc card to think about adding is Fleshbag Marauder. I know Infest is your best bet against the quick rush of soldiers/tokens/elves, but Fleshbag could save you from having to spend a Consume or Corrupt to take out a solo nasty bomb or a way to handle a solo pro black creature. I also like to run Incremental Blight, for mid/late uses against Broodmate and token, Baneslayer, etc.
RagMan
There a wonderful tech that you can use to turn on a W/B Sanguine deck to max Tendrils, Corrupt, and even Consume Spirit... oh that secret tech is Elsewhere Flask.
Sanguine Santum
X4 Sanctum Gargoyle
X4 Tainted Sigil
X4 Elsewhere Flask
X2 Thopter Foundry
X2 Mistvein Borderpost
X2 Fieldmist Borderpost
X2 Dispeller's Capsule
X3 Sanguine Bond
X2 Kiss of the Amesha
X4 Tendrils of Corruption
X4 Corrupt
X2 Open the Vaults
X1 Invincible Hymn
X1 Liliana Vess
X4 Arcane Sanctum
X3 Island
X3 Plains
X13 Swamp