1. Watch your tenses. As you said it is grueling to wade through 15 or so games to distill the essence into a report so I give you that. But you need to take a little care not to switch back into "I did this" when your tone through out is "I draw x and then do this."
2. Mill is an iffy strategy even combined with counters. It isn't so much that the decks in casual are random. Which they are. It is that you may run into Gaea's Blessing and or Wheel of Sun and Moon main deck. Either of those spells disaster for your plan. I know that when the Mill decks were running rampant I had 4 blessings in my Desolation Row Deck just to stop the silliness. The BEST way to mill anyone is to stroke them to death. (Give them their deck in their hand.) Rather hard to do but it involves using Howling Mines, and every card that makes your opponent draw cards. Underworld Dreams becomes a somewhat viable secondary strategy if you do this. It isn't a great card considering the BBB cost but it should be playable and very cheap. Stroke of Genius is not online yet sadly but when it does expect an upsurge in Stroking Moma style decks. I for one loath being milled out as it is a frustrating thing to experience. On the other hand it usually is a signal that the Mill player is being passive and can be overrun by careful creature management.
Nice attempt with this deck. I think the Jace deck is certainly one of the better Precons for your buck out there. Sadly I don't own one as I have no money (same old song. :P)
I've found that Royal Assasin works really well with Sleep to tap down your oppenant's dudes and make sure they don't get up again. Also works well with Blinding Mage, the white tapper in M10.
Royal is a pain. :p He dies to Volcanic Fallout, Pyroclasm etc but he is still able to intimidate people quite bit. Back in the day we used to call cards like that Bolt bait. Because at the end of the turn you cast him he would be toasted by bolt or some other low cost removal card. I like cards like Royal Assassin because they do something extra besides their lowly 1/1 status would imply. Same with the Sorcerers. Really any card that taps to do something nasty. Anything you can abuse with an untap that creature card. I love Royal + Icy which is the direction I went (via BW control-recursion) in my extended version. That deck did very well in casual so I think he is mainly out of flavor for the very fact that he is old and thus overlooked. I wish I had cards like Profane Command, Wild Ricochet and Deathrender but I will make due with just my 4x Royals at 20 cents apiece. Thanks for pointing them out again. Id forgotten what fun they are. To quote Arlo; "I just want to kill, kill, kill!!!" :D
I liked the nice change of pace from the usual draft writeup. While I don't agree with some of your examples of great art (Torrent of Lava and the Volcanic Geyser), it was nice to read. Despite being an art lover myself, I often find that I ignore the art and think only about the text. Although occassionally someone will kill me with a foil, textless, Incinerate and I'll think "Oooo, how pretty" instead of the usual "Dammit."
I'm really glad you chose an artist whose work is realistic as that's one of my favorite styles. Most of my favorite cards have been the ones that look like they'll come right out of the cardboard and sit beside you.
PS: It would be awesome to play a classic game with gigantic moxes and power 9 cards, hah.
not so obvious if you don't download the podcast as I don't since I don't own an ipod and rarely enjoy listening to audio recordings on my pc. Thanks for pointing it out.
In my mind, Recluse gets cut because we don't need him in this deck. He is sorta removal, as you said, but his value generally jumps up when you need answers to opposing flyers (which green desperately needs, of course). As we're in blue, the need to control flyers is pretty much moot.
But of course, I'm not that good at actually drafting this set it seems, so I may not be the best person to use for M10 draft advice. :)
Very nice, I liked your last article and was waiting for this since then. Too bad cloak didn't work out as that was where I had placed my bet on before reading both articles. After your last article I even made a cloak/recursion royal deck but I had limited success and games I did win seemed to be on the backs of Shrikemaw, Corrupt, Liliana, or Profane.
My own new pet is Ethersworn Adjudicator as a bigger, meaner royal. He also has a horrid casting cost so I've had to find ways to cheat him out so I've been running a Thousand Year Elixir and Master Transmuter Artifact deck which I made room for Adjudicator. He goes along well with Sanctum Gargoyle, Sphinx Summoner, and of course Sharuum. The deck is just your STD artifact speed deck but being that I love Adjudicator so much it is nice that he fit right in.
I think I would pick Esence Scatter. I would also consider Deadly Recluse... It's kind of removal. Why it is a bad pick here? Nobody even considers it. :P
Sorry to hear about your fiscal losses there Hammy. But I bet you will make it back once things stabilize. I can't say I am not happy about the upgrade to trading but I really wish they would do more. Trading is the one aspect of the game that really doesn't work online atm it seems. For starters if you are just chatting in a normal room it is illegal to even mention if you think something is over priced or underrated ...ridiculous. Moderation not obliteration as the saying goes. Anyway why is Aj's email at the end of your article? lol.
I'm glad to see such a heated debate about the choice between Rise and Scatter. I definitely shows people's variance in playstyle, as well as everyone's choice at how they judge cards for their own deck/playstyle. It can really help to open other people's minds on other strategies and styles of play. I definitely think the Scatter is the more safe, controlling pick while Rise is the more aggresive pick, and I tend to play agressive rather than control.
You raise some good points.
Thank you for your comment.
P1P6 I'm not a huge fan of excommunicate, and don't consider it a signal when passing it. I rarely sleeve it up in my 40, and Essence Scatter is a better card. However, I probably could have taken the Minotaur or the Excommunicate and been fine.
p1 p10 Lava Axe is a big mistake there, I think all the other 4 cards (except the basic land) could have been better picks.
P2P1 I don't think I was actually going to play Red. I was looking to take the best card in the pack, Safe Passage while good isn't close to Earthquake (what I think I should have taken) and Goblin Artillery.
P2P2 I now understand that Blinding Mage is the pick here. No question. This was a mistake.
P2P3 looking back, I think the flyer might have been better here.
P2P5 I highly value Wall of Frost, and probably shouldn't so much. maybe a mistake, but not a terrible pick.
P2p7, duress is ok, if there isn't that game winning spell in hand, it blanks. I like ponder over duress still.
p2p8, yes the dilemna was drudge or sprite.
P2p10 at this point i knew i was playing white, not sure about my secondary color. I thought Black, but maybe blue.
p3p3 probably should have picked up the verdict over frosty.
p3p4 sage owl is not the correct pick here, i overvalue sage owl.
P3p5 with no soldier subtheme (which is terrible, I think it's because I got beat in one of my early drafts by a pikemaster, armorsmith, swordsmith, captain of the watch, and 3 tokens) consume spirit is the correct pick.
p3p6 I disagree, Looter flat out wins matches when unanswered. Verdict would be picked over Silvercoat here.
p3p8 I will never play an Acolyte, I would rather cut Dragon's Claw err, Runeclaw Bear than pick up an Acolyte.
Thanks again for your comments, I'm still adjusting to M2010, and clearly don't have my priorities straight in card choices. keep the comments coming.
Just because slang is popular in poker doesn't mean it's going to be easier to pick up on for a lot of Magic players too. I'd certainly never heard it before. It bothers me a bit that it has a slight negative connotation towards the other player, given that less mature gamers (not that we ever run into THOSE on Magic Online *cough*) are part of the continuing dynamic of learning whether to get too caught up in the desire to winning and be rude to fellow human beings, or to grow out of that. Then eventually growing old and dying and leaving the next generation of kids to go through it all over again. Given the tiny but non-zero amount of influence on that dynamic, the culture, and the community I'd rather see a more neutral world than "villain" used there. Imagine if our play by play of diplomatic negotiations involved calling the other side villain all the time. Oh wait, that was the Bush presidency, we already did that.
Not that I'd avoid reading the excellently written articles over it. But I'd prefer a different word there.
My first thought on the bonus excercise was Pacifism. Our first pack gives the several drafters downstream of us fine solid choices in red, green, blue and black, and just one marginal pick in white. If we try to start cutting blue, we still leave a pretty good snapping drake to go with the pack 1 drake and illusionary servant. We passed three solid green cards in pack 1, and we'd be passing two more here if we take one of the 3 green playables, not much of a signal there. Black we can cut off here, but we passed a bunch of it in pack 1. While pacifism isn't as good as Doom Blade, we can get several people downstream from us seeing that white is dry as a bone and unavailable, possibly setting us up for a lot of good stuff passed to us in pack 2. It's a good color with a lot of tricks.
On thinking about it a little more, I might consider the Safe Passage too. Thing is, everybody knows removal is good, not everybody knows yet what a blowout Safe Passage can be, so they might not take it to be as strong a signal as getting passed a Pacifism. Plus, people that are strong enough to play around Safe Passage (and/or saw it in game 1) can, well, play around Safe Passage. Or get you with evasion critters. Pacifism just plain does its job every time.
If I didn't go Pacifism I'm not 100% sure if I prefer the Air Elemental over the Doom Blade, or vice versa. Air Elemental is devalued a little by things like Serra Angel being out there (not to mention the occasional Baneslayer Angel). But he's still good. I like green black, but black likes a heavy color committment, and the Ant Queen is already a double-green committment. There is something to be said for taking the most powerful cards the first few picks in these strong packs, then see what colors are flowing after that to move in on a committment. Doom Blade is probably a little higher power than Air Elemental in this bomb-laden format.
Your comments are great! I'm really pleased to read all that and I'm glad that Nafiz made this interview with me.
I wouldn't be in this position without you guys! Thanks!
I also was happy to see Bouguereau's name mentioned, I've been a huge admirer of his ever since I got a poster of this painting at a local coffeehouse: Nymphs and Satyr
He has an interesting life story, and the history of how the art world ignored his work for much of the 20th century only to finally discover and appreciate it fully is amusing too. But man, almost nobody could paint like he could.
Arguably the biggest event in the life of classic. MED 1 was HUGE, with a birth, MED 2 was MASSIVE with the first day at school and our shiny duals... BUT AUGUST IS BEYOND MASSIVE...
Classic exists, is supported and has lots of love. In previous releases it was still growing (will still grow, but you know what I mean)... This is huge, and can't not be covered. If you don't want to read articles about Med3 and FTV:E... here's a tip.
My parents were both artists (my mom passed away in 2007) and I grew up appreciating the visual arts. I am not entirely certain I agree with the assertion that you must be born with talent. I think given the right teachers, patience and determination that as long as your basic senses are good (seeing, thinking, feeling etc) you should be able to produce fine art. Great Fine art requires intense training and skill. Baga would agree with this I think as his work shows all of the above.
It was nice to hear from an artist how they got started in magic though I have talked with several others and heard much the same story. I have done some amateur work, myself using pencils/markers etc but I don't have the skill, dedication or patience to make WoTC worthy pics. I certain don't work in the mediums required (oils. acrylics or watercolors on a grand scale). Also my interest waxes and wanes as I go through moods as an artist. On the other hand MSE is a great boon and makes it easier to see how my clumsy attempts of micro-drawings work in the proper frames.
Anyway fun article with many fine images.
The deck at the end has a land base entirely unBaga but for the Seaside Citadels. I guess you didn't count the lands as cards? :P
I like the idea of interviewing artists and hope you do this again. One of my favorite art couples is the Folios if you ever catch up to them. :)
Though now I am thinking I am missing a great deal that I simply wasn't aware of lol. I may have to knuckle under and download it.
Any other Master Decoy replica such as the Kamigawa versions I used in my deck.
1. Watch your tenses. As you said it is grueling to wade through 15 or so games to distill the essence into a report so I give you that. But you need to take a little care not to switch back into "I did this" when your tone through out is "I draw x and then do this."
2. Mill is an iffy strategy even combined with counters. It isn't so much that the decks in casual are random. Which they are. It is that you may run into Gaea's Blessing and or Wheel of Sun and Moon main deck. Either of those spells disaster for your plan. I know that when the Mill decks were running rampant I had 4 blessings in my Desolation Row Deck just to stop the silliness. The BEST way to mill anyone is to stroke them to death. (Give them their deck in their hand.) Rather hard to do but it involves using Howling Mines, and every card that makes your opponent draw cards. Underworld Dreams becomes a somewhat viable secondary strategy if you do this. It isn't a great card considering the BBB cost but it should be playable and very cheap. Stroke of Genius is not online yet sadly but when it does expect an upsurge in Stroking Moma style decks. I for one loath being milled out as it is a frustrating thing to experience. On the other hand it usually is a signal that the Mill player is being passive and can be overrun by careful creature management.
Nice attempt with this deck. I think the Jace deck is certainly one of the better Precons for your buck out there. Sadly I don't own one as I have no money (same old song. :P)
Is there an RSS feed to subscribe to the podcast? The MTGcast site hasn't gotten a new episode since episode 22, so that feed is useless.
No worries Paul. :)
I'm glad you can get something out of our efforts even without downloading the show!
I've found that Royal Assasin works really well with Sleep to tap down your oppenant's dudes and make sure they don't get up again. Also works well with Blinding Mage, the white tapper in M10.
Royal is a pain. :p He dies to Volcanic Fallout, Pyroclasm etc but he is still able to intimidate people quite bit. Back in the day we used to call cards like that Bolt bait. Because at the end of the turn you cast him he would be toasted by bolt or some other low cost removal card. I like cards like Royal Assassin because they do something extra besides their lowly 1/1 status would imply. Same with the Sorcerers. Really any card that taps to do something nasty. Anything you can abuse with an untap that creature card. I love Royal + Icy which is the direction I went (via BW control-recursion) in my extended version. That deck did very well in casual so I think he is mainly out of flavor for the very fact that he is old and thus overlooked. I wish I had cards like Profane Command, Wild Ricochet and Deathrender but I will make due with just my 4x Royals at 20 cents apiece. Thanks for pointing them out again. Id forgotten what fun they are. To quote Arlo; "I just want to kill, kill, kill!!!" :D
I liked the nice change of pace from the usual draft writeup. While I don't agree with some of your examples of great art (Torrent of Lava and the Volcanic Geyser), it was nice to read. Despite being an art lover myself, I often find that I ignore the art and think only about the text. Although occassionally someone will kill me with a foil, textless, Incinerate and I'll think "Oooo, how pretty" instead of the usual "Dammit."
I'm really glad you chose an artist whose work is realistic as that's one of my favorite styles. Most of my favorite cards have been the ones that look like they'll come right out of the cardboard and sit beside you.
PS: It would be awesome to play a classic game with gigantic moxes and power 9 cards, hah.
not so obvious if you don't download the podcast as I don't since I don't own an ipod and rarely enjoy listening to audio recordings on my pc. Thanks for pointing it out.
In my mind, Recluse gets cut because we don't need him in this deck. He is sorta removal, as you said, but his value generally jumps up when you need answers to opposing flyers (which green desperately needs, of course). As we're in blue, the need to control flyers is pretty much moot.
But of course, I'm not that good at actually drafting this set it seems, so I may not be the best person to use for M10 draft advice. :)
Very nice, I liked your last article and was waiting for this since then. Too bad cloak didn't work out as that was where I had placed my bet on before reading both articles. After your last article I even made a cloak/recursion royal deck but I had limited success and games I did win seemed to be on the backs of Shrikemaw, Corrupt, Liliana, or Profane.
My own new pet is Ethersworn Adjudicator as a bigger, meaner royal. He also has a horrid casting cost so I've had to find ways to cheat him out so I've been running a Thousand Year Elixir and Master Transmuter Artifact deck which I made room for Adjudicator. He goes along well with Sanctum Gargoyle, Sphinx Summoner, and of course Sharuum. The deck is just your STD artifact speed deck but being that I love Adjudicator so much it is nice that he fit right in.
RagMan
I think I would pick Esence Scatter. I would also consider Deadly Recluse... It's kind of removal. Why it is a bad pick here? Nobody even considers it. :P
I have got to um, get a better microphone, and, erm, improve my, erm... diction.
Aj was part of the podcast this week, so his email was left as part of the contact section.
Sorry to hear about your fiscal losses there Hammy. But I bet you will make it back once things stabilize. I can't say I am not happy about the upgrade to trading but I really wish they would do more. Trading is the one aspect of the game that really doesn't work online atm it seems. For starters if you are just chatting in a normal room it is illegal to even mention if you think something is over priced or underrated ...ridiculous. Moderation not obliteration as the saying goes. Anyway why is Aj's email at the end of your article? lol.
Hurray for 32 - 75 cap limit. Now I can trade my dual lands away w/o fear of getting ripped off... and move cards to my second account faster...
Wish I could have found my 4th Preeminent Captain before prices went up... them's the breaks.
I'm glad to see such a heated debate about the choice between Rise and Scatter. I definitely shows people's variance in playstyle, as well as everyone's choice at how they judge cards for their own deck/playstyle. It can really help to open other people's minds on other strategies and styles of play. I definitely think the Scatter is the more safe, controlling pick while Rise is the more aggresive pick, and I tend to play agressive rather than control.
Good discussion.
coming online at the same time? oy! thats too much!
oh dear wotc mtgo , at least comcast work right, riggghttt???
You raise some good points.
Thank you for your comment.
P1P6 I'm not a huge fan of excommunicate, and don't consider it a signal when passing it. I rarely sleeve it up in my 40, and Essence Scatter is a better card. However, I probably could have taken the Minotaur or the Excommunicate and been fine.
p1 p10 Lava Axe is a big mistake there, I think all the other 4 cards (except the basic land) could have been better picks.
P2P1 I don't think I was actually going to play Red. I was looking to take the best card in the pack, Safe Passage while good isn't close to Earthquake (what I think I should have taken) and Goblin Artillery.
P2P2 I now understand that Blinding Mage is the pick here. No question. This was a mistake.
P2P3 looking back, I think the flyer might have been better here.
P2P5 I highly value Wall of Frost, and probably shouldn't so much. maybe a mistake, but not a terrible pick.
P2p7, duress is ok, if there isn't that game winning spell in hand, it blanks. I like ponder over duress still.
p2p8, yes the dilemna was drudge or sprite.
P2p10 at this point i knew i was playing white, not sure about my secondary color. I thought Black, but maybe blue.
p3p3 probably should have picked up the verdict over frosty.
p3p4 sage owl is not the correct pick here, i overvalue sage owl.
P3p5 with no soldier subtheme (which is terrible, I think it's because I got beat in one of my early drafts by a pikemaster, armorsmith, swordsmith, captain of the watch, and 3 tokens) consume spirit is the correct pick.
p3p6 I disagree, Looter flat out wins matches when unanswered. Verdict would be picked over Silvercoat here.
p3p8 I will never play an Acolyte, I would rather cut Dragon's Claw err, Runeclaw Bear than pick up an Acolyte.
Thanks again for your comments, I'm still adjusting to M2010, and clearly don't have my priorities straight in card choices. keep the comments coming.
Just because slang is popular in poker doesn't mean it's going to be easier to pick up on for a lot of Magic players too. I'd certainly never heard it before. It bothers me a bit that it has a slight negative connotation towards the other player, given that less mature gamers (not that we ever run into THOSE on Magic Online *cough*) are part of the continuing dynamic of learning whether to get too caught up in the desire to winning and be rude to fellow human beings, or to grow out of that. Then eventually growing old and dying and leaving the next generation of kids to go through it all over again. Given the tiny but non-zero amount of influence on that dynamic, the culture, and the community I'd rather see a more neutral world than "villain" used there. Imagine if our play by play of diplomatic negotiations involved calling the other side villain all the time. Oh wait, that was the Bush presidency, we already did that.
Not that I'd avoid reading the excellently written articles over it. But I'd prefer a different word there.
My first thought on the bonus excercise was Pacifism. Our first pack gives the several drafters downstream of us fine solid choices in red, green, blue and black, and just one marginal pick in white. If we try to start cutting blue, we still leave a pretty good snapping drake to go with the pack 1 drake and illusionary servant. We passed three solid green cards in pack 1, and we'd be passing two more here if we take one of the 3 green playables, not much of a signal there. Black we can cut off here, but we passed a bunch of it in pack 1. While pacifism isn't as good as Doom Blade, we can get several people downstream from us seeing that white is dry as a bone and unavailable, possibly setting us up for a lot of good stuff passed to us in pack 2. It's a good color with a lot of tricks.
On thinking about it a little more, I might consider the Safe Passage too. Thing is, everybody knows removal is good, not everybody knows yet what a blowout Safe Passage can be, so they might not take it to be as strong a signal as getting passed a Pacifism. Plus, people that are strong enough to play around Safe Passage (and/or saw it in game 1) can, well, play around Safe Passage. Or get you with evasion critters. Pacifism just plain does its job every time.
If I didn't go Pacifism I'm not 100% sure if I prefer the Air Elemental over the Doom Blade, or vice versa. Air Elemental is devalued a little by things like Serra Angel being out there (not to mention the occasional Baneslayer Angel). But he's still good. I like green black, but black likes a heavy color committment, and the Ant Queen is already a double-green committment. There is something to be said for taking the most powerful cards the first few picks in these strong packs, then see what colors are flowing after that to move in on a committment. Doom Blade is probably a little higher power than Air Elemental in this bomb-laden format.
Your comments are great! I'm really pleased to read all that and I'm glad that Nafiz made this interview with me.
I wouldn't be in this position without you guys! Thanks!
I also was happy to see Bouguereau's name mentioned, I've been a huge admirer of his ever since I got a poster of this painting at a local coffeehouse: Nymphs and Satyr
He has an interesting life story, and the history of how the art world ignored his work for much of the 20th century only to finally discover and appreciate it fully is amusing too. But man, almost nobody could paint like he could.
Bring it.
Arguably the biggest event in the life of classic. MED 1 was HUGE, with a birth, MED 2 was MASSIVE with the first day at school and our shiny duals... BUT AUGUST IS BEYOND MASSIVE...
Classic exists, is supported and has lots of love. In previous releases it was still growing (will still grow, but you know what I mean)... This is huge, and can't not be covered. If you don't want to read articles about Med3 and FTV:E... here's a tip.
Don't.
Well written all round crew.
My parents were both artists (my mom passed away in 2007) and I grew up appreciating the visual arts. I am not entirely certain I agree with the assertion that you must be born with talent. I think given the right teachers, patience and determination that as long as your basic senses are good (seeing, thinking, feeling etc) you should be able to produce fine art. Great Fine art requires intense training and skill. Baga would agree with this I think as his work shows all of the above.
It was nice to hear from an artist how they got started in magic though I have talked with several others and heard much the same story. I have done some amateur work, myself using pencils/markers etc but I don't have the skill, dedication or patience to make WoTC worthy pics. I certain don't work in the mediums required (oils. acrylics or watercolors on a grand scale). Also my interest waxes and wanes as I go through moods as an artist. On the other hand MSE is a great boon and makes it easier to see how my clumsy attempts of micro-drawings work in the proper frames.
Anyway fun article with many fine images.
The deck at the end has a land base entirely unBaga but for the Seaside Citadels. I guess you didn't count the lands as cards? :P
I like the idea of interviewing artists and hope you do this again. One of my favorite art couples is the Folios if you ever catch up to them. :)
If we are going to crusade, we can't forget the Flippy Floppies.
Great article Whiffy - awesome. Love it.