Pox with strip mine is going to be scary, turn 1 dark ritual crucible, turn 2 vampric tutor/consultation strip mine. It sounds pretty rare, but it would be easy to set up over a few turns.
Assuming an ideal system where every card is opened by play in a 8-4 or swiss draft, each set of 36 boosters costs (24*3.99$ + 16 tix = ) 111,76$ to open. If every paper player bought cards by the box, they'd be paying only 99,99$ per booster box - and we're not even talking about an even ideal-ler system where players buy by the case.
Because we don't get cost reductions on bulk purchases (most of the time anyway), we are paying a lot more for our boosters than paper players, even taking into consideration how much easier it is to increase pack value by drafting. I don't think it would be fair to decrease payouts, and the end result would likely just be to decrease overall interest in the game - where's the advantage in increasing costs for both limited and constructed drafters? I'd say you'd just get fewer players interested in the game, and a lower rate of acquisition, for no benefit that I can see.
The big difference in card prizes in paper comes from two things, IMHO: 1) there is possibly a higher rate of boosters being opened "optimally" on MTGO, although I'm not certain that's actually true, since there are probably more dealers just buying cases and selling the content (not to mention immoral dealers cracking nothing but the good packs and selling the chafe) offline than online, 2) the dealers online are much more efficient and have fewer collateral costs, and more importantly, 3) there is probably a much higher proportion of limited-only players online. There is also 4) the way redemption lowers the cost of rares by leaving more rares in the system than mythics, but that's inevitable I think (unless they make redemption different).
I didn't really understand why you think higher prices are good, and for whom. They might be good for limited players, but, if they come at the expense of fewer prizes for limited players, it just balances itself out - lose on the prize payout, win on the card value, and raredraft more. Eventually, we'd get to a new equilibrium where the cost of drafting AND the cost of playing constructed are both slightly higher than they are now, but what have we gained? A more valuable collection for which we've paid more? We gain nothing on value, just lose on the amount of play you can get out of any given amount of money.
You could run borderposts instead of lands in the Vampire Nocturnus deck, since they're basically CITP colored lands. 8 might be too much as you're forced to mulligan hands with 2-3 borderposts and no lands, but 4-6 seems like it would be good.
I really don't like the green splash, you're just diluting your odds of having a black card on top to add cards that *might* put black cards on top. There are some cards in black that can put black cards on top of your library, like Footbottom Feast, Hag Hedge-Mage and Haunted Crossroads.
"Financial impacts of special products:
Speaking of special items... we have some MTGO only items coming up that will exist only on MTGO. Those being the Commander decks. What we'll have is essentially ultra-rare commons again for formats like Pauper. Cards like"
And thanks for wishing me luck in my M10 events. I apparently need all the luck I can get :rolleyes:
Moments Peace doesn't seem out of place in the green deck. Also Wurmcalling seems like fun. The Gauntlet of power deck seems like it might like Verdeloth the Ancient
ok i also did not realize it could only be two colors...its all my fault ive been away since eventide first got released...ive been trying to check up with whats going on before i get back into it monday
hmm...you know i think it might have been the lands in your decks..after seeing those i didnt bother looking at any other manabases. gold cards were always my favorites though.
$4.06 K-scope deck per mtgotraders.com 8/13/09 11pm pst.
Your not going to win any tourneys but I have this exact deck and it is fun to play, and with 8 LD spells can cause quite a bit of havok on k-scope decks during the mid game. Obviously if you wanted to spend the cash toss in Stillmoon, Deathbringer Liege, Divinity of Pride or other 5cc bombs (Demigod, Ghastlord etc) and keep it all black or spend even more cash on the lands and take it to a true k-scope colored deck.
If you do a search there was a K-scope article on pure not more than a few weeks ago that focused on a black/white deck if you want more indepth info.
I tried it in another deck, in a Dark Bant deck, and used 2 copies. That deck was consuming its cards very fast just because it was an aggro deck and Congregation at Dawn was my version of Ranger of Eos. I was fetching a Doran, a Rafiq and a Wilt-Leaf Liege with it most of the time.
So yes, in that deck it worked very well. However its true power can be seen when used with Cascade creatures. In this deck above I am not using more than 1 because testing showed that even 2 copies are too much. But in a deck with a lower mana curve, it can work as a charm (just as it did in my Dark Bant deck).
Actually no, Kaleidoscope doesn't cost anything more than other formats except the lands. Just look at my deck above. What money cards do you see there? All are uncommons and commons and cheap rares other than Maelstrom Pulses. And they can be replaced easily with Pure/Simples (uncommon). I haven't calculated but considering that you play Pure/Simple instead of Maelstrom Pulse, my above deck (without the lands) shouldn't cost more than $10.
And regarding lands: Yes they are all very nice. However if you scroll a little bit up, you will see a 5 Color/Aggro deck that is very successful right now and that has tons of Vivid lands. You can also try Alara's tri-lands. So as you see, even though Ravnica's shocklands are nice, they aren't a must. People play with Vivid lands and Top-8 EVERY week with them.
Congregation at Dawn seems brutal, even used early to set up Bloodbraid into Finks into (possibly) Pridemage. Just wondering if you tried playing with more than one and how that went for you.
The problem is what do you remove for latchkey since latchkey is a late game beater really, maybe the mulldrifters but it would be a hard choice.
I have seen Dream Stalkers in a pauper fae deck that worked well instead of rushing river (river is a bit more versatile though) however a 1/5 ground blocker for 2cc does help slow down a few decks early and help you bounce spellstutter late.
I also like Oona's Gatewarden sideboard for over aggro decks, its a turn 1 fae to help spellstutter but also wither helps control some of the early aggro.
is it just me or is kaleidoscope seriously the most expensive format ever...looks like fun but i have neither the cash or cards to play. maybe you could do any article on udget K-scope one time?
Nice article! Agree with lenney that more analysis of Fish/Skies/Aggro-Blue/whatever is certainly appreciated. It's one of those archetypes that pops up to claim a Top 8 here and there, but very much lacks an accepted "best" build.
Also agree on the Ponder/Brainstorm issue. These are cards that are at their strongest when one either has powerful cards you want to play more pseudo-copies of or when you have enough "free" shuffles that they can function as nearly draw-3s. Pauper in most instances lacks both of these things.
On the deck, the one thing I've often seen that you don't discuss is Latchkey Faerie. From the small amount of testing I've done with U-Aggro, Latchkey can be a very aggressive card advantage option. Thoughts?
First I must apologize, all the time I was thinking that were only two Deep Hours. I wouldn't even to bother asking someone to include Mistblade because hes a little underperforming.
I really like your suggestion on the Snag issue. But more important, I would like to congratulate you for your articles and contribution to pauper, but more important, the speed and quality of your articles feedback.
Vampire Nocturnus: If you are looking for a fantastic black thing for it, look no further than Ad Nauseum. You get to see what you will be putting in your hand before doing so and thus can decide with information.
Sounds like a good idea to me.. Aggro-control is very, very stingy on recources and is one of the hardest decks to play. IMO, you can't learn enough about Fish.
The play I suggested was tapping an attacker with Pestermite or blocking with a creature- nothing about untapping a Servant. I'm not sure how my sentence suggests that.
I was planning on providing more in depth analysis in a later article.
"Assuming the control role late, you can fog with a Pestermite or just set up a wall with a top end creature like Spire Golem or Illusionary Servant."
You can't actually perform this play as you would have to sacrifice Illusionary Servant if you targeted it with Pestermite's ability.
Otherwise it was an ok article. I felt you should have covered other builds as well or even previous versions. Not only that, but you didn't even give test games or really in depth explanations of the deck's matchups. Kind of lacking compared to your previous articles.
"The set has 70 or so rares. There are five duals. You can expect to get one roughly once every 25 drafts."
There are 5 duals. That means one in every 14 packs. You will open 14 packs in FIVE drafts, not TWENTY-FIVE
Pox with strip mine is going to be scary, turn 1 dark ritual crucible, turn 2 vampric tutor/consultation strip mine. It sounds pretty rare, but it would be easy to set up over a few turns.
Assuming an ideal system where every card is opened by play in a 8-4 or swiss draft, each set of 36 boosters costs (24*3.99$ + 16 tix = ) 111,76$ to open. If every paper player bought cards by the box, they'd be paying only 99,99$ per booster box - and we're not even talking about an even ideal-ler system where players buy by the case.
Because we don't get cost reductions on bulk purchases (most of the time anyway), we are paying a lot more for our boosters than paper players, even taking into consideration how much easier it is to increase pack value by drafting. I don't think it would be fair to decrease payouts, and the end result would likely just be to decrease overall interest in the game - where's the advantage in increasing costs for both limited and constructed drafters? I'd say you'd just get fewer players interested in the game, and a lower rate of acquisition, for no benefit that I can see.
The big difference in card prizes in paper comes from two things, IMHO: 1) there is possibly a higher rate of boosters being opened "optimally" on MTGO, although I'm not certain that's actually true, since there are probably more dealers just buying cases and selling the content (not to mention immoral dealers cracking nothing but the good packs and selling the chafe) offline than online, 2) the dealers online are much more efficient and have fewer collateral costs, and more importantly, 3) there is probably a much higher proportion of limited-only players online. There is also 4) the way redemption lowers the cost of rares by leaving more rares in the system than mythics, but that's inevitable I think (unless they make redemption different).
I didn't really understand why you think higher prices are good, and for whom. They might be good for limited players, but, if they come at the expense of fewer prizes for limited players, it just balances itself out - lose on the prize payout, win on the card value, and raredraft more. Eventually, we'd get to a new equilibrium where the cost of drafting AND the cost of playing constructed are both slightly higher than they are now, but what have we gained? A more valuable collection for which we've paid more? We gain nothing on value, just lose on the amount of play you can get out of any given amount of money.
You could run borderposts instead of lands in the Vampire Nocturnus deck, since they're basically CITP colored lands. 8 might be too much as you're forced to mulligan hands with 2-3 borderposts and no lands, but 4-6 seems like it would be good.
I really don't like the green splash, you're just diluting your odds of having a black card on top to add cards that *might* put black cards on top. There are some cards in black that can put black cards on top of your library, like Footbottom Feast, Hag Hedge-Mage and Haunted Crossroads.
Hammy, I think one of your sentences got cut off:
"Financial impacts of special products:
Speaking of special items... we have some MTGO only items coming up that will exist only on MTGO. Those being the Commander decks. What we'll have is essentially ultra-rare commons again for formats like Pauper. Cards like"
And thanks for wishing me luck in my M10 events. I apparently need all the luck I can get :rolleyes:
The affinity answer against warrens is of course krak-clan shaman.
Djinn of Wishes is amazing Vampire Nocturnus, the Avatar or the creature.
I like all of your articles and this gives a brilliant insight in Fish! I too would love to see a follow up, where you give some battle reports, etc.
Great article!
Moments Peace doesn't seem out of place in the green deck. Also Wurmcalling seems like fun. The Gauntlet of power deck seems like it might like Verdeloth the Ancient
These terrible images be honest! This is going to look at them at night and the nightmares will dream!
ok i also did not realize it could only be two colors...its all my fault ive been away since eventide first got released...ive been trying to check up with whats going on before i get back into it monday
hmm...you know i think it might have been the lands in your decks..after seeing those i didnt bother looking at any other manabases. gold cards were always my favorites though.
Ok here,
4x Unmake $0.15 each, $0.60
4x Nip Gwyllion $0.08 each, $0.32
4x Nightsky Mimic $0.08 each, $0.32
4x Mourning Thrull $0.03 each, $0.12
4x Evershrike $0.25 each, $1.00
4x Voracious Hatchling $0.15 each, $0.60
4x Edge of the Divinity $0.15 each, $0.60
2x Beckon Apparition $0.15 each, $0.30
4x Poison The Well $0.02 each, $0.08
4x Drain The Well $0.03 each, $0.12
22x Swamp free
$4.06 K-scope deck per mtgotraders.com 8/13/09 11pm pst.
Your not going to win any tourneys but I have this exact deck and it is fun to play, and with 8 LD spells can cause quite a bit of havok on k-scope decks during the mid game. Obviously if you wanted to spend the cash toss in Stillmoon, Deathbringer Liege, Divinity of Pride or other 5cc bombs (Demigod, Ghastlord etc) and keep it all black or spend even more cash on the lands and take it to a true k-scope colored deck.
If you do a search there was a K-scope article on pure not more than a few weeks ago that focused on a black/white deck if you want more indepth info.
RagMan
I tried it in another deck, in a Dark Bant deck, and used 2 copies. That deck was consuming its cards very fast just because it was an aggro deck and Congregation at Dawn was my version of Ranger of Eos. I was fetching a Doran, a Rafiq and a Wilt-Leaf Liege with it most of the time.
So yes, in that deck it worked very well. However its true power can be seen when used with Cascade creatures. In this deck above I am not using more than 1 because testing showed that even 2 copies are too much. But in a deck with a lower mana curve, it can work as a charm (just as it did in my Dark Bant deck).
LE
Actually no, Kaleidoscope doesn't cost anything more than other formats except the lands. Just look at my deck above. What money cards do you see there? All are uncommons and commons and cheap rares other than Maelstrom Pulses. And they can be replaced easily with Pure/Simples (uncommon). I haven't calculated but considering that you play Pure/Simple instead of Maelstrom Pulse, my above deck (without the lands) shouldn't cost more than $10.
And regarding lands: Yes they are all very nice. However if you scroll a little bit up, you will see a 5 Color/Aggro deck that is very successful right now and that has tons of Vivid lands. You can also try Alara's tri-lands. So as you see, even though Ravnica's shocklands are nice, they aren't a must. People play with Vivid lands and Top-8 EVERY week with them.
LE
Congregation at Dawn seems brutal, even used early to set up Bloodbraid into Finks into (possibly) Pridemage. Just wondering if you tried playing with more than one and how that went for you.
The problem is what do you remove for latchkey since latchkey is a late game beater really, maybe the mulldrifters but it would be a hard choice.
I have seen Dream Stalkers in a pauper fae deck that worked well instead of rushing river (river is a bit more versatile though) however a 1/5 ground blocker for 2cc does help slow down a few decks early and help you bounce spellstutter late.
I also like Oona's Gatewarden sideboard for over aggro decks, its a turn 1 fae to help spellstutter but also wither helps control some of the early aggro.
RagMan
is it just me or is kaleidoscope seriously the most expensive format ever...looks like fun but i have neither the cash or cards to play. maybe you could do any article on udget K-scope one time?
Nice article! Agree with lenney that more analysis of Fish/Skies/Aggro-Blue/whatever is certainly appreciated. It's one of those archetypes that pops up to claim a Top 8 here and there, but very much lacks an accepted "best" build.
Also agree on the Ponder/Brainstorm issue. These are cards that are at their strongest when one either has powerful cards you want to play more pseudo-copies of or when you have enough "free" shuffles that they can function as nearly draw-3s. Pauper in most instances lacks both of these things.
On the deck, the one thing I've often seen that you don't discuss is Latchkey Faerie. From the small amount of testing I've done with U-Aggro, Latchkey can be a very aggressive card advantage option. Thoughts?
First I must apologize, all the time I was thinking that were only two Deep Hours. I wouldn't even to bother asking someone to include Mistblade because hes a little underperforming.
I really like your suggestion on the Snag issue. But more important, I would like to congratulate you for your articles and contribution to pauper, but more important, the speed and quality of your articles feedback.
Keep slingn commons!
Vampire Nocturnus: If you are looking for a fantastic black thing for it, look no further than Ad Nauseum. You get to see what you will be putting in your hand before doing so and thus can decide with information.
Sounds like a good idea to me.. Aggro-control is very, very stingy on recources and is one of the hardest decks to play. IMO, you can't learn enough about Fish.
The play I suggested was tapping an attacker with Pestermite or blocking with a creature- nothing about untapping a Servant. I'm not sure how my sentence suggests that.
I was planning on providing more in depth analysis in a later article.
-Alex
"Assuming the control role late, you can fog with a Pestermite or just set up a wall with a top end creature like Spire Golem or Illusionary Servant."
You can't actually perform this play as you would have to sacrifice Illusionary Servant if you targeted it with Pestermite's ability.
Otherwise it was an ok article. I felt you should have covered other builds as well or even previous versions. Not only that, but you didn't even give test games or really in depth explanations of the deck's matchups. Kind of lacking compared to your previous articles.
p1p1 was wrong and then you had the chance to draft a decent to good gw deck but you felt a need to splash three extra colors.