Funny line: "but I do mind the prospect of the Ranger leaping up into the air and swallowing my Pride,"
It's also funny that you mentioned Blind Assassin. I posted an article last week (STILL NOT PRINTED THOUGH... :() With a list for Tappassin which is the same general idea. The one I mentioned in your last Assassin article.
Btw on the subject of Battlegrace Angel I was thinking while reading on that match where your opponent kept bringing them that they would be better for you on your side of the table and lo at the bottom you added them. :D
NightAngel -- Llanowar Elf was necessary for mana fixing and acceleration, and while underwhelming and sometimes sided out, it filled the role well.
Metalman -- you are absolutely correct. Against the two-color fireball decks I should have ditched the green and went with a white/blue/black redesign. This would allow access to Celestial Purge, Negate, Flashfreeze, and Cancel. The main build was designed to beat three color decks, and this is where double slime was key. I'm not sure if such a design would have won the matches I lost, but I agree it was the way to go.
Kaizzer Budde -- there was no dragon in my pool. It had a phoenix, which is smaller and not as threatening.
MadSalad and others -- This was a solid pool but not spectacular. I realized I'd need to get very lucky to 9-0 with this pool, and obviously I wasn't able to do so. The main failing of the pool was I didn't have anything suited for the later mid-game against removal heavy decks. This was the key area where I lost all my matches. I basically needed a big blocker or something with a tempo swing here. A couple Giant Spiders, or a Serra Angel, or some Mind Controls. It needed to be x/4, able to block flyers, and defensive.
As to what separates the solid from the spectacular? Yes, the pool has great commons. It has above average uncommons, and three usable rares in color. What it doesn't have is a clear bomb 'game ender' card, and I don't count Armored Ascension, because it is easily a 2-1 in a field of awesome decks with good removal. Remember I'm playing against 335 people, at least 20 of which have Baneslayer. To be spectacular, the pool needed an Overrun, Planar Cleansing, or a playable mythic rare. Basically something to fill the hole of 'later mid-game' tempo recovery.
I experienced the nasty "Card interaction" in a game. Exploding Borders locks up the game when you search for the land. You can't concede, and you're forced to log out and back in.
But the cooooolest deck I faced featuring it was a crazy artifact deck. After he laid down a few borderposts, his first play was to cast traumatize. Oh great, another mill deck. Nope, he targeted himself. I was intrigued. Then i saw a couple copies of Open the Vault. Uh oh. Luckily, I had a Primal Command in hand, and shuffled him up.
Eventually I got him down to 4 or 5 life and he had cast a Senguine Bond. He was facing more than lethal, and I was sitting pretty at 20. Then he cast Filligree Angel to dome me for 34 damage... Did not see that coming. I guess I should've looked at his graveyard more carefully!
I congratulated him on his awesome win. Might not be as versatile as the presented decks, but it has a big johnny finish.
Thanks for the comments guys. I've just read JVL's take on the deck - glad I got my article in when I did! I like the idea of Ranger of Eos and Soul Wardens, might try it out, substituting Vess in for the Diabolic Tutor.
LE (nice new pic btw, scary, but nice) - I did look at G/B but discounted it as I couldn't imagine wanting to play it over the other two possibilities. However, you're right to bring it up, I should've at least acknowledged the possibilities.
In my opinion White-Black is the best way to go for Senguine Bond but I see that you missed the third option; Black-Green.
Senguine Bond is a 5 cost enchantment and green's mana production greatly helps playing it sooner. Also looking at green I see cards such as Doomgape, Drain the Well (works well against Mutavaults or fragile mana bases), Kitchen Finks obviously, Luminescent Rain if you play lots of Elves, Marrow Chomper most definately, Oracle of Nectars in the same deck with Luminescent Rain and Profane Command for multi purposes.
I think that if you are talking about Senguine Bond, then you should of course start with Mono-Black, then explore White-Black but also Green-Black as well. I would even try a White-Green-Black one.
I prefer Splendid Belt's take to JVL's. The friendlier writing style helps to draw you in, and I like the way SB is less dismissive of the different build options. Great work, SB.
In the interests of fairness, I should state that the Wizards community live chat is now up and running. Also, I wouldn't recommend sending email for me to Hamtastic. ;)
i totaly agree with you there. The fact Ball Lightning was an iconical card is not the reason why the new art isnt appreciated.
Strip Mine is a perfect example to me. This is probably one of the most iconical card ever, and the fact is that its new art is simply wonderful and appreciated by plenty of old mtg player as i am.
But yeah, sometime it this is inverse. That is the case of Ball lightning.
About the artists, i really believe it is as important (and even maybe more) to read critic as to read compliments. They need it to understand our feeling & feedback as clearly as possible. I see nothing bad to say "this is a bad art" because it is exactly what i am feeling when i see it.
It doesnt mean that the artist is bad anyway. It happens to the best also. It is only important they know some of us dont enjoy this art at all.
I’m going to stick by what I said in regards to the art work for Ball Lightning it is very poor when you consider it’s supposed to represent the card, it looks nothing like a ball of lightning. It’s a weird skull type thing.
The same can be said for the new FTV: Exiled Necropotence and Berserk art, again they could have been a lot better but the art work in my opinion failed to live up to the card.
I’m not saying all artists fall to improve on the original. The new art work for cards like Tinker, Channel, Merfolk Looter and the Divine Akroma Angel of Wrath are fantastic.
It may not be the artist though that’s causing the new art works to fail it could be the image description that Wizards is asking them try to fit in with.
But at the end of the day the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all I can do is give you my opinion.
Alas I sold my relatively huge collection (3k Jyhad cards + assorted V:TE cards) about 12 years ago. I had a decent collection across most of the Camarilla clans and could field almost any type of deck. But honestly after hundreds of games I started to be bored with it, partially because in multiplayer games politics plays such a crucial role that friendships really warp the game. There is no way around that without changing the rules and that doesn't seem a reasonable answer.
Very good point, however your taste in art might just be more sophisticated than the average magic player (who I think might be around 16-18 with us old foggies weighing the scale against the 7-8 year olds just starting to play.) That said people often do judge a card's art based on how valid it seems for the card's functionality. After all the art supplies a good portion of the fantasy element of the game. Visually speaking I find the old bolts much more recognizable than the newest ones. I think the art for the new ones are fine but don't look nearly as striking as the dark blue with a streak of whiteblue to represent the out of the dark strike.
I had plenty of good tournament cards back in the day and was competitive on the tournament scene (though not good compared to the many pros at my store) and still considered myself casual. I don't think the term casual means the same thing to many people. TheFerrett had a great article that Hammy linked to a month or two ago. In it he basically went to great lengths to explain why casual as a unified notion does not really exist. It is a term we use when we want a game that matches our particular play criteria. Personally I think of pros as being mainly non-casual players. I see most amateurs as being casual by default with a few being semi pros or wannabes. I think what best defines a casual player is the willingness to play anytime anywhere with nothing at stake but perhaps a bit of pride.
But there is a relatively large group of individuals who feel that if it has counters, land destruction, discard (all enmass, not just a few instances) it isn't casual. Some feel unstoppable combos are are uncasual. I am inclined to agree on one hand as the point of casual magic isn't to show off the latest infinite engine and how good you are at running it but for all players to have as much fun as is possible in the context of winning. Unstoppable Combos take out the fun and replace it with solitaire. Now if you are a decent player you are saying...unstoppable?? there's no such animal and you are right within a certain frame of reference. If you know the meta game might include combos that need to be disrupted (disenchant/counters/kill cards/discard/etc) you will include some necessary hate for them. The more hate you include though the less casual your deck becomes because you are unable to stray far from the metagame stipulations. This is the crux I think of what upsets casual players of the aforementioned group. They don't want to pre-sideboard. Heck they never want to see a sideboard much less think about one.
Well thats my two cents for this particular argument.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
I really don't know what I'm talking about, but it looks to me like you played really well. That deserves congratulations.
That's too bad about the X-1 people not making it. I'm surprised it's not like paper in that regard. But then again, they'd have to schedule some sort of "day 2" event, then have the normal top 8 event. But they could schedule them all back-to-back. I dunno.
The one 10th sealed i did my only bomb was overrun, all my rares were worthless in limited (and no $ either), and I had a total of ONE piece of removal....entangling vines. No bolts, pacifisms, anything. I still placed 14th though.
This pool while not being the "perfect" cardpool, is still amazing. A ton of removal and a very large pool of above average cards. if you had an overrun/fireball/win now card, then i think you probably wouldnt have lost a match.
maybe the snowpapermonkey is just angry that he doesn't own any shinies.
my trade binder and deck boxes burst of stuff which dominates/dominated competetive magic but still i consider myself as casual as one can be.
Funny line: "but I do mind the prospect of the Ranger leaping up into the air and swallowing my Pride,"
It's also funny that you mentioned Blind Assassin. I posted an article last week (STILL NOT PRINTED THOUGH... :() With a list for Tappassin which is the same general idea. The one I mentioned in your last Assassin article.
Btw on the subject of Battlegrace Angel I was thinking while reading on that match where your opponent kept bringing them that they would be better for you on your side of the table and lo at the bottom you added them. :D
Fun article.
NightAngel -- Llanowar Elf was necessary for mana fixing and acceleration, and while underwhelming and sometimes sided out, it filled the role well.
Metalman -- you are absolutely correct. Against the two-color fireball decks I should have ditched the green and went with a white/blue/black redesign. This would allow access to Celestial Purge, Negate, Flashfreeze, and Cancel. The main build was designed to beat three color decks, and this is where double slime was key. I'm not sure if such a design would have won the matches I lost, but I agree it was the way to go.
Kaizzer Budde -- there was no dragon in my pool. It had a phoenix, which is smaller and not as threatening.
MadSalad and others -- This was a solid pool but not spectacular. I realized I'd need to get very lucky to 9-0 with this pool, and obviously I wasn't able to do so. The main failing of the pool was I didn't have anything suited for the later mid-game against removal heavy decks. This was the key area where I lost all my matches. I basically needed a big blocker or something with a tempo swing here. A couple Giant Spiders, or a Serra Angel, or some Mind Controls. It needed to be x/4, able to block flyers, and defensive.
As to what separates the solid from the spectacular? Yes, the pool has great commons. It has above average uncommons, and three usable rares in color. What it doesn't have is a clear bomb 'game ender' card, and I don't count Armored Ascension, because it is easily a 2-1 in a field of awesome decks with good removal. Remember I'm playing against 335 people, at least 20 of which have Baneslayer. To be spectacular, the pool needed an Overrun, Planar Cleansing, or a playable mythic rare. Basically something to fill the hole of 'later mid-game' tempo recovery.
Thank you everyone for the comments.
I experienced the nasty "Card interaction" in a game. Exploding Borders locks up the game when you search for the land. You can't concede, and you're forced to log out and back in.
Senguine Bond is more played than you think.
But the cooooolest deck I faced featuring it was a crazy artifact deck. After he laid down a few borderposts, his first play was to cast traumatize. Oh great, another mill deck. Nope, he targeted himself. I was intrigued. Then i saw a couple copies of Open the Vault. Uh oh. Luckily, I had a Primal Command in hand, and shuffled him up.
Eventually I got him down to 4 or 5 life and he had cast a Senguine Bond. He was facing more than lethal, and I was sitting pretty at 20. Then he cast Filligree Angel to dome me for 34 damage... Did not see that coming. I guess I should've looked at his graveyard more carefully!
I congratulated him on his awesome win. Might not be as versatile as the presented decks, but it has a big johnny finish.
You don't mean "in lieu of". You mean "in the wake of".
Thanks for the comments guys. I've just read JVL's take on the deck - glad I got my article in when I did! I like the idea of Ranger of Eos and Soul Wardens, might try it out, substituting Vess in for the Diabolic Tutor.
LE (nice new pic btw, scary, but nice) - I did look at G/B but discounted it as I couldn't imagine wanting to play it over the other two possibilities. However, you're right to bring it up, I should've at least acknowledged the possibilities.
In my opinion White-Black is the best way to go for Senguine Bond but I see that you missed the third option; Black-Green.
Senguine Bond is a 5 cost enchantment and green's mana production greatly helps playing it sooner. Also looking at green I see cards such as Doomgape, Drain the Well (works well against Mutavaults or fragile mana bases), Kitchen Finks obviously, Luminescent Rain if you play lots of Elves, Marrow Chomper most definately, Oracle of Nectars in the same deck with Luminescent Rain and Profane Command for multi purposes.
I think that if you are talking about Senguine Bond, then you should of course start with Mono-Black, then explore White-Black but also Green-Black as well. I would even try a White-Green-Black one.
Just some thoughts.
LE
Nice article, talk about timing you managed to cover the same card as Jacob Van Lunen on the mother site today.
I'm with you on that one AJ, SB's article was a much better read.
I prefer Splendid Belt's take to JVL's. The friendlier writing style helps to draw you in, and I like the way SB is less dismissive of the different build options. Great work, SB.
In the interests of fairness, I should state that the Wizards community live chat is now up and running. Also, I wouldn't recommend sending email for me to Hamtastic. ;)
AJ_Impy AT Yahoo DOT com
i totaly agree with you there. The fact Ball Lightning was an iconical card is not the reason why the new art isnt appreciated.
Strip Mine is a perfect example to me. This is probably one of the most iconical card ever, and the fact is that its new art is simply wonderful and appreciated by plenty of old mtg player as i am.
But yeah, sometime it this is inverse. That is the case of Ball lightning.
About the artists, i really believe it is as important (and even maybe more) to read critic as to read compliments. They need it to understand our feeling & feedback as clearly as possible. I see nothing bad to say "this is a bad art" because it is exactly what i am feeling when i see it.
It doesnt mean that the artist is bad anyway. It happens to the best also. It is only important they know some of us dont enjoy this art at all.
I’m going to stick by what I said in regards to the art work for Ball Lightning it is very poor when you consider it’s supposed to represent the card, it looks nothing like a ball of lightning. It’s a weird skull type thing.
The same can be said for the new FTV: Exiled Necropotence and Berserk art, again they could have been a lot better but the art work in my opinion failed to live up to the card.
I’m not saying all artists fall to improve on the original. The new art work for cards like Tinker, Channel, Merfolk Looter and the Divine Akroma Angel of Wrath are fantastic.
It may not be the artist though that’s causing the new art works to fail it could be the image description that Wizards is asking them try to fit in with.
But at the end of the day the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all I can do is give you my opinion.
If you're pool isn't good, as you proclaim, I'd be interested to know what you think a good pool is...
Sure, you don't have a Master of the Wild Hunt or Baneslayer, (or a Planeswalker) but you have tons of solid cards, and good removal options.
I've played decks where my only removal was a Mage and a Vines.
I agree with your build and Slime plus Digger recursion = Good Game.
"Overrun 5 times is good."
Heh, quite the understatement.
Alas I sold my relatively huge collection (3k Jyhad cards + assorted V:TE cards) about 12 years ago. I had a decent collection across most of the Camarilla clans and could field almost any type of deck. But honestly after hundreds of games I started to be bored with it, partially because in multiplayer games politics plays such a crucial role that friendships really warp the game. There is no way around that without changing the rules and that doesn't seem a reasonable answer.
Spam bots are not really welcome. Sadly for you this isn't a blog so your inept scripting does not impress.
Very good point, however your taste in art might just be more sophisticated than the average magic player (who I think might be around 16-18 with us old foggies weighing the scale against the 7-8 year olds just starting to play.) That said people often do judge a card's art based on how valid it seems for the card's functionality. After all the art supplies a good portion of the fantasy element of the game. Visually speaking I find the old bolts much more recognizable than the newest ones. I think the art for the new ones are fine but don't look nearly as striking as the dark blue with a streak of whiteblue to represent the out of the dark strike.
No problem :)
I had plenty of good tournament cards back in the day and was competitive on the tournament scene (though not good compared to the many pros at my store) and still considered myself casual. I don't think the term casual means the same thing to many people. TheFerrett had a great article that Hammy linked to a month or two ago. In it he basically went to great lengths to explain why casual as a unified notion does not really exist. It is a term we use when we want a game that matches our particular play criteria. Personally I think of pros as being mainly non-casual players. I see most amateurs as being casual by default with a few being semi pros or wannabes. I think what best defines a casual player is the willingness to play anytime anywhere with nothing at stake but perhaps a bit of pride.
But there is a relatively large group of individuals who feel that if it has counters, land destruction, discard (all enmass, not just a few instances) it isn't casual. Some feel unstoppable combos are are uncasual. I am inclined to agree on one hand as the point of casual magic isn't to show off the latest infinite engine and how good you are at running it but for all players to have as much fun as is possible in the context of winning. Unstoppable Combos take out the fun and replace it with solitaire. Now if you are a decent player you are saying...unstoppable?? there's no such animal and you are right within a certain frame of reference. If you know the meta game might include combos that need to be disrupted (disenchant/counters/kill cards/discard/etc) you will include some necessary hate for them. The more hate you include though the less casual your deck becomes because you are unable to stray far from the metagame stipulations. This is the crux I think of what upsets casual players of the aforementioned group. They don't want to pre-sideboard. Heck they never want to see a sideboard much less think about one.
Well thats my two cents for this particular argument.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Susan
http://pay-dayadvance.net
I really don't know what I'm talking about, but it looks to me like you played really well. That deserves congratulations.
That's too bad about the X-1 people not making it. I'm surprised it's not like paper in that regard. But then again, they'd have to schedule some sort of "day 2" event, then have the normal top 8 event. But they could schedule them all back-to-back. I dunno.
The one 10th sealed i did my only bomb was overrun, all my rares were worthless in limited (and no $ either), and I had a total of ONE piece of removal....entangling vines. No bolts, pacifisms, anything. I still placed 14th though.
This pool while not being the "perfect" cardpool, is still amazing. A ton of removal and a very large pool of above average cards. if you had an overrun/fireball/win now card, then i think you probably wouldnt have lost a match.
Unfortunately, they took the incorrect payout away from me on monday. Does anyone still have the packs?
maybe the snowpapermonkey is just angry that he doesn't own any shinies.
my trade binder and deck boxes burst of stuff which dominates/dominated competetive magic but still i consider myself as casual as one can be.