Good Job Harry, I mean Hammy. lol
Always good info here .
The swim is always hard. I find myself feeling like that every time I try to take a bath.
Guess I need to practice more too. ô♪ô - Joe
Preaching to the choir on replays. They are the foundation of my column, and to be left stranded because of a typo has me steaming. The part that needs more attention, I think is:
"The system will instead get a tested and useful fix to the game server."
Is it just me, or are they basically saying the typo stuck some *other* change in that wasn't supposed to be there, but *happens* to work? That's crazy. "We accidentally put in a feature that wasn't supposed to go in yet; thank God it actually works, eh?"
Grrrr....still working on what to do about Tuesday's column...
Thanks for the great update, and grats on the triathlon, glad it didn't kill you. ;)
12 miles on a bike? No problem. That said, I'm 100% certain that the swim and run portions would have kicked my ass. Good on you for surviving to the finish. I'm sure you'll have a much better result next year with better preparation.
My burn lists always ahve access to 4 Vexing Shusher (at least 2 main) which the burn player can hold onto, if not much pressure, wait for about 5 mana, and protect all his burn spells in one turn. I also run 2-3 copies of Blood Moon as another hurdle for the above deck. Vortex is usually another must-answer,and I've also gotten value out a maindeck singleton Bridge in the matchup. My tutor burn list which splashed black for, heh, tutors, had access to a singleton Banefire in the board. I dunno, I always make CounterTop decks my #1 deck to beat whenever I make a burn list. Of course my Zoo matchup suffers.... :)
One of the problems I have with Daily Events is that not only do I have to manufacture the time to play them but it also has to be at a certain time.
I really lament the loss of Leagues as there were the answer to most of my time issues. Sure the structure had problems and it wasn't perfect but for some players there is no viable alternative.
I'll have to look into the Daily Event times and see what I can do.
The 8 man queues used to fire quite regularly. They've recently changed the prize structure/entry fee, and I have yet to see one fire since. I've read that there has been a migration of sealed players to the daily events, where you get to play 4 rounds for prizes, instead of 3 rounds in the swiss queues.
For myself, I found that there is a big difference in time committed to completing 3 rounds of sealed play, vs 4 rounds. Often a 3 rounder could be done in a 2.5 hours, with only 4 matches to complete in each round. When you start playing 4 rounds, with 16 players or more, the likelihood that you finish up under time (1 hour per round, including deck building) drops off alot.
I will be looking forward to leagues when they return. A great way to get good value for your online dollar, and to try out different cards and different builds.
The new account package also includes basic lands, which imho is a huge plus!
I remember starting out on mtgo and had to scramble/beg for some basic lands before i can even begin to make a fun deck.
My response was typed in a hurry and I don't think some of it was a clear as I wanted it to be.
I suspect that if we ever played against each other you would get a slightly less chatty game than you perhaps wanted but other than that there would be no issues. I may not be that chatty but I'll never knowingly blank an opponent out of malice. It might take me a while to respond whilst I try and think through my next play however.
We have different goals when playing but it appears that we would both respect the others point of view which is all you can really ask when playing random people online. Yes, there is no prize pressure in a casual game but it's my own personal demon that insist I still try to play the game out as best I can. I can't help that and I would hope that it doesn't spoil the game for my opponents. I'm usually nowhere near the casual room but I'm trying to play some multiplayer games and wouldn't want to loose prospective opponents without realising what the problem was. Actually that's why I'm spending so much time responding to that part of your article. It's very interesting to me to understand what is proper etiquete in a casual environment.
The point I think I failed to make very well about banned lists is the reason that I don't use them. In order for someone to spoil my enjoyment of the game enough to warrant being on a banned list they would have to be the sort of person that was breaking enough rules that they would stand a chance of being banned or suspended from the game itself. I would then leave that decision up to the games official representitives. Thankfully I've never found anyone that anti-social on MTG:O.
(There just has to be a load of spelling mistakes in this one!)
I don't swim at all. But I totally get the situation. You were pretty brave and a bit foolish to take on a challenge like that without preparation and I am glad it all worked out OK. This just illustrates very clearly why I don't play tourneys outside of limited and why I try to be careful what limited events I attend. Punting an event isn't hard if you a) Don't get proper sleep, b) don't practice or have preparation in the form of knowledge (print-runs, favorite picks etc) and if you c) aren't in the right frame of mind. You had the frame of mind and the sleep down (I assume) but your knowledge was sketchy. Even not having a solid goal would be ok if you'd been out there the week before swimming even a quarter mile which I am certain you will do next time. I like the analogy a lot even though I am way past my days of being an athletic jock (teens and 20s).
Re: Replays. At first I didn't care. Really who needs to watch old matches? But then I started thinking about the next time I draft or play sealed and want to write about it. The replays really work well for me in recalling how things went down. I think the worst part is that the ORCS are being told it was a technical reason not a clerical error, since they are passing that lie down to us in chats. I am not sure your rant was heated enough to really express how truly vile this is. It is one thing to have things not work properly when they are essentially part of the paid for product (drafts and constructed events in particular). Sometimes as you said things can not be helped. But to cover it up and lie about it is really dumb. Particularly when the truth comes out so easily after the fact.
I think this is beyond the normal behavior. I am still unhappy that they "upgraded" the version but didn't make it downwards compatible and essentially kicked a lot of their poorer customers offline for a year or two. That seems inexcusable to me. But that isn't really relevant now to me as I can play again. What bothers me now is that v2.5 seemed so much better in retrospect. I know there were more crashes on a regular basis but they didn't affect me as much. Now it seems the client crashes for no apparent reason in the middle of important actions. I miss the opportunity to play in leagues and other features that have not come online as promised. All that said I am glad the casual area is still free and is accessible 24/7 no matter how little I spend in a particular month. I guess that makes up for a lot.
RE card prices...still inscrutable to my uneducated eye but fun to look at anyway. Has Wargate finally just stabilized at .5? I still think it is an awesome card.
its looks to me like a new 5c cascade control but without wog not sure its even viable. im assuming that finland doesnt have a really big magic scene that it was prob a tourney about 1/5 the size of the nationals were but the metagame does seem to fit the big picture of the other 6 other than the fact no fae made t8.
@Splendid_Belt I still have my block list though I have also considered deleting it. I am not sure why I haven't except that it is a leap. I do think it can be dangerous to impose one's point of view on other people forcibly or even just coercively (cf: Evangelism) but I think teaching by example is the only true way to spread ideas like peace and respect. TELLING people doesn't really work unless you are preaching to the choir anyway. Some people just need a bit of convincing. But DOING something consistently over time does get results. My questions in the article concerning the ethics are just that. Questions. And I don't have any concrete answers. I put it out here to see what discussion it would stir up. Maybe I too should delete my block list and start over but I can't swear I won't block people as it is a defense against dealing with negativity.
@Jmason Lol! Yes I have encountered that comment. I don't know if it was the same incident but it was funny at the time.
@Paul7926 I respect your point of view. I disagree with some of it but I respect it. Concentrating on the game is something I more expect in tourney setting. I am a lot less chatty myself in Draft/Sealed than I am in casual games. My goals are completely different. I want packs/prizes if I am competing and the person I am playing against is playing for the same goal. I still try to maintain a modicum of courtesy and sportsmanship anyway so that my self-respect doesn't waver. It isn't hard for me to screw up and start kicking myself and being on tilt so to speak if I lose sight of who I am. Being a good sport and a positive thinker keeps this from happening.
On the other hand in casual I am there purely for the fun of it and there is absolutely no reason for me to interact with anyone who doesn't want to interact. Why even talk to someone who can't be bothered to say "hello?" As far as CoC violations. I don't think I have ever reported one. I have moderated chats and done the whole game staff thing so I know these things ARE taken seriously and honestly I think the sanctions sometimes outweigh the reason for them. I don't need to be the cause of someone being kicked off the game or losing product. That isn't to say I would never report something but it would have to be pretty earth shattering. By the way if there were typos I missed them. :)
@Lord_Erman I think I did that with net-deckers at first too, back in the very early days, but only if they also rude. I find your comment about trade interesting. I often WILL trade after a game if someone asks. I like trading. I may decline if I don't have the time but usually with "some other time maybe". But I totally get not wanting to be solicited. There are a lot of people who make trading a chore simply by not being well informed about card values or how to use the interface, and of course there are those who try to get something for nothing. Big pains in the rear those last. I put my personal likes dislikes in my description so that anyone inquisitive can see that yes I do occasionally play LD, Discard, counters etc and I do like to trade and I do block sullen nonchatters sometimes.
I caught FoW by hand as I was working on the article since I get the prices a day or two before it goes live. I noticed the huge drop and thought it deserved the extra response since, well, it's one of the most discussed cards on MTGO for the past year. ;)
My respect for swimmers quadrupled after Saturday. I always had respected them, but way, way, way more now. Next year I'll be under 30 minutes for a half mile, and if I can swing a full mile in less than 50 I'll probably go for the long course next year. I can already handle most of the other pieces... great times.
How is Mycosynth Golem the card that has dropped the most (by .75 tix) if FoW dropped like 10 bucks in a similar period? I can't reconcile the graph and the chart :S
I can't believe how hard it has been to enable fricking replays. It should be pretty obvious I think, yet every time they get them working they have to take them down a week later. A replay doesn't need rules enforcement, so you can have absolutly everything to play a replay IN THE CLIENT. Replay files should just be a series of instructions that the client downloads and uses to show what is basically a video! THERE IS NO REASON IT SHOULD IMPACT THE SERVER AT ALL. 1) make replays into a series of instructions that the client can process, 2) make the client capable of processing those instructions, 3) make it easy to save, manage and distribute replay files, 4) ???, 5) PROFIT.
Until recently, before even looking at my starting hand I was saying "Hello and good luck". But I saw that most of the players were not even responding to that. So I gave up doing that. Nowadays I say that if only the opponent says that first or if I play against someone I know.
I type "gg" only after a game I believe was really a good game. Win or loss doesn't matter. Was it really a good game? Did I have fun? Yes? So gg it is. No? Just right click and concede (or wait for the opponent to do that). Sometimes I even remember saying "vgg" because it was one of those epic games that happen once in a while.
I only block someone if he's rude. During my first days I was also blocking people who were playing netdecks in the casual room and/or playing LD in the casual room but I don't do that anymore. I just concede and move on.
I usually don't speak much during a game. I try to respond if the opponent says something but do so shortly most of the time. What can I say when my opponent is complaining about his 6th land in a row (or my 4th Oblivion Ring in a row)? Yes it is absurd and makes the game one sided and unfun but what does he want me to say about it? And I also never complain or whine when I get my 6th land in a row. Of course I curse the shuffler and say that out loud but I don't think that my opponent can "hear" that.
And no, I don't and won't trade after the game so just stop asking this please!
I think you kind of missed the most important (at least to me) topic of this week: how freaking badly the new DEs have influenced the chance of T8 tournaments firing. Apparently, the chance of most T8 events firing is 0 under the new system, which I find very unsatisfying. I can understand the reasoning behind the 4-round events and actually enjoy them in general, but fact is they feel much more like a 16-player constructed swiss queue than an actual tournament, which leaves almost no 'real' tournaments except the weekend PEs and the MOCS.
With sealed apparently being killed by the prize cut, T8 tourneys being killed by the 4-rounders (and the weird 32 players min rule), Pauper, Singleton and some other queues being lose-lose tournaments (because the prize given is almost unsellable or worth less than the entry fee) the state of organized play is really not good at the moment. However, I am positive that WotC is aware of that and fixing it (*thumbs up*). I just might happen to stop playing tourneys until that happens ...
I loved the vids, they made it alot easier to understand classic for me. I've been interested in getting into classic, probably playing Affinity or something that's not so expensive, and the vids were quite educational. Thanks!
Good Job Harry, I mean Hammy. lol
Always good info here .
The swim is always hard. I find myself feeling like that every time I try to take a bath.
Guess I need to practice more too. ô♪ô - Joe
Preaching to the choir on replays. They are the foundation of my column, and to be left stranded because of a typo has me steaming. The part that needs more attention, I think is:
"The system will instead get a tested and useful fix to the game server."
Is it just me, or are they basically saying the typo stuck some *other* change in that wasn't supposed to be there, but *happens* to work? That's crazy. "We accidentally put in a feature that wasn't supposed to go in yet; thank God it actually works, eh?"
Grrrr....still working on what to do about Tuesday's column...
Thanks for the great update, and grats on the triathlon, glad it didn't kill you. ;)
Wow, that seems really high. Most other junk rares from that set are 0.5-1.
12 miles on a bike? No problem. That said, I'm 100% certain that the swim and run portions would have kicked my ass. Good on you for surviving to the finish. I'm sure you'll have a much better result next year with better preparation.
hahaha
"I hated that birdbath too."
My burn lists always ahve access to 4 Vexing Shusher (at least 2 main) which the burn player can hold onto, if not much pressure, wait for about 5 mana, and protect all his burn spells in one turn. I also run 2-3 copies of Blood Moon as another hurdle for the above deck. Vortex is usually another must-answer,and I've also gotten value out a maindeck singleton Bridge in the matchup. My tutor burn list which splashed black for, heh, tutors, had access to a singleton Banefire in the board. I dunno, I always make CounterTop decks my #1 deck to beat whenever I make a burn list. Of course my Zoo matchup suffers.... :)
Thanks for the info.
One of the problems I have with Daily Events is that not only do I have to manufacture the time to play them but it also has to be at a certain time.
I really lament the loss of Leagues as there were the answer to most of my time issues. Sure the structure had problems and it wasn't perfect but for some players there is no viable alternative.
I'll have to look into the Daily Event times and see what I can do.
Thanks again for the info.
The 8 man queues used to fire quite regularly. They've recently changed the prize structure/entry fee, and I have yet to see one fire since. I've read that there has been a migration of sealed players to the daily events, where you get to play 4 rounds for prizes, instead of 3 rounds in the swiss queues.
For myself, I found that there is a big difference in time committed to completing 3 rounds of sealed play, vs 4 rounds. Often a 3 rounder could be done in a 2.5 hours, with only 4 matches to complete in each round. When you start playing 4 rounds, with 16 players or more, the likelihood that you finish up under time (1 hour per round, including deck building) drops off alot.
I will be looking forward to leagues when they return. A great way to get good value for your online dollar, and to try out different cards and different builds.
The new account package also includes basic lands, which imho is a huge plus!
I remember starting out on mtgo and had to scramble/beg for some basic lands before i can even begin to make a fun deck.
“I play real sports…not trying to be the best at exercising.”
-Kenny Powers
My response was typed in a hurry and I don't think some of it was a clear as I wanted it to be.
I suspect that if we ever played against each other you would get a slightly less chatty game than you perhaps wanted but other than that there would be no issues. I may not be that chatty but I'll never knowingly blank an opponent out of malice. It might take me a while to respond whilst I try and think through my next play however.
We have different goals when playing but it appears that we would both respect the others point of view which is all you can really ask when playing random people online. Yes, there is no prize pressure in a casual game but it's my own personal demon that insist I still try to play the game out as best I can. I can't help that and I would hope that it doesn't spoil the game for my opponents. I'm usually nowhere near the casual room but I'm trying to play some multiplayer games and wouldn't want to loose prospective opponents without realising what the problem was. Actually that's why I'm spending so much time responding to that part of your article. It's very interesting to me to understand what is proper etiquete in a casual environment.
The point I think I failed to make very well about banned lists is the reason that I don't use them. In order for someone to spoil my enjoyment of the game enough to warrant being on a banned list they would have to be the sort of person that was breaking enough rules that they would stand a chance of being banned or suspended from the game itself. I would then leave that decision up to the games official representitives. Thankfully I've never found anyone that anti-social on MTG:O.
(There just has to be a load of spelling mistakes in this one!)
I don't swim at all. But I totally get the situation. You were pretty brave and a bit foolish to take on a challenge like that without preparation and I am glad it all worked out OK. This just illustrates very clearly why I don't play tourneys outside of limited and why I try to be careful what limited events I attend. Punting an event isn't hard if you a) Don't get proper sleep, b) don't practice or have preparation in the form of knowledge (print-runs, favorite picks etc) and if you c) aren't in the right frame of mind. You had the frame of mind and the sleep down (I assume) but your knowledge was sketchy. Even not having a solid goal would be ok if you'd been out there the week before swimming even a quarter mile which I am certain you will do next time. I like the analogy a lot even though I am way past my days of being an athletic jock (teens and 20s).
Re: Replays. At first I didn't care. Really who needs to watch old matches? But then I started thinking about the next time I draft or play sealed and want to write about it. The replays really work well for me in recalling how things went down. I think the worst part is that the ORCS are being told it was a technical reason not a clerical error, since they are passing that lie down to us in chats. I am not sure your rant was heated enough to really express how truly vile this is. It is one thing to have things not work properly when they are essentially part of the paid for product (drafts and constructed events in particular). Sometimes as you said things can not be helped. But to cover it up and lie about it is really dumb. Particularly when the truth comes out so easily after the fact.
I think this is beyond the normal behavior. I am still unhappy that they "upgraded" the version but didn't make it downwards compatible and essentially kicked a lot of their poorer customers offline for a year or two. That seems inexcusable to me. But that isn't really relevant now to me as I can play again. What bothers me now is that v2.5 seemed so much better in retrospect. I know there were more crashes on a regular basis but they didn't affect me as much. Now it seems the client crashes for no apparent reason in the middle of important actions. I miss the opportunity to play in leagues and other features that have not come online as promised. All that said I am glad the casual area is still free and is accessible 24/7 no matter how little I spend in a particular month. I guess that makes up for a lot.
RE card prices...still inscrutable to my uneducated eye but fun to look at anyway. Has Wargate finally just stabilized at .5? I still think it is an awesome card.
its looks to me like a new 5c cascade control but without wog not sure its even viable. im assuming that finland doesnt have a really big magic scene that it was prob a tourney about 1/5 the size of the nationals were but the metagame does seem to fit the big picture of the other 6 other than the fact no fae made t8.
Some very good points made here.
@Splendid_Belt I still have my block list though I have also considered deleting it. I am not sure why I haven't except that it is a leap. I do think it can be dangerous to impose one's point of view on other people forcibly or even just coercively (cf: Evangelism) but I think teaching by example is the only true way to spread ideas like peace and respect. TELLING people doesn't really work unless you are preaching to the choir anyway. Some people just need a bit of convincing. But DOING something consistently over time does get results. My questions in the article concerning the ethics are just that. Questions. And I don't have any concrete answers. I put it out here to see what discussion it would stir up. Maybe I too should delete my block list and start over but I can't swear I won't block people as it is a defense against dealing with negativity.
@Jmason Lol! Yes I have encountered that comment. I don't know if it was the same incident but it was funny at the time.
@Paul7926 I respect your point of view. I disagree with some of it but I respect it. Concentrating on the game is something I more expect in tourney setting. I am a lot less chatty myself in Draft/Sealed than I am in casual games. My goals are completely different. I want packs/prizes if I am competing and the person I am playing against is playing for the same goal. I still try to maintain a modicum of courtesy and sportsmanship anyway so that my self-respect doesn't waver. It isn't hard for me to screw up and start kicking myself and being on tilt so to speak if I lose sight of who I am. Being a good sport and a positive thinker keeps this from happening.
On the other hand in casual I am there purely for the fun of it and there is absolutely no reason for me to interact with anyone who doesn't want to interact. Why even talk to someone who can't be bothered to say "hello?" As far as CoC violations. I don't think I have ever reported one. I have moderated chats and done the whole game staff thing so I know these things ARE taken seriously and honestly I think the sanctions sometimes outweigh the reason for them. I don't need to be the cause of someone being kicked off the game or losing product. That isn't to say I would never report something but it would have to be pretty earth shattering. By the way if there were typos I missed them. :)
@Lord_Erman I think I did that with net-deckers at first too, back in the very early days, but only if they also rude. I find your comment about trade interesting. I often WILL trade after a game if someone asks. I like trading. I may decline if I don't have the time but usually with "some other time maybe". But I totally get not wanting to be solicited. There are a lot of people who make trading a chore simply by not being well informed about card values or how to use the interface, and of course there are those who try to get something for nothing. Big pains in the rear those last. I put my personal likes dislikes in my description so that anyone inquisitive can see that yes I do occasionally play LD, Discard, counters etc and I do like to trade and I do block sullen nonchatters sometimes.
Thanks all for responding!
I caught FoW by hand as I was working on the article since I get the prices a day or two before it goes live. I noticed the huge drop and thought it deserved the extra response since, well, it's one of the most discussed cards on MTGO for the past year. ;)
My respect for swimmers quadrupled after Saturday. I always had respected them, but way, way, way more now. Next year I'll be under 30 minutes for a half mile, and if I can swing a full mile in less than 50 I'll probably go for the long course next year. I can already handle most of the other pieces... great times.
Thanks for the comments guys.
Burn is a bad matchup (supposedly) for Countertop because it is blazing fast and has cards that beat counterbalance (Fireblast, Lightning Jav, etc).
How is Mycosynth Golem the card that has dropped the most (by .75 tix) if FoW dropped like 10 bucks in a similar period? I can't reconcile the graph and the chart :S
I can't believe how hard it has been to enable fricking replays. It should be pretty obvious I think, yet every time they get them working they have to take them down a week later. A replay doesn't need rules enforcement, so you can have absolutly everything to play a replay IN THE CLIENT. Replay files should just be a series of instructions that the client downloads and uses to show what is basically a video! THERE IS NO REASON IT SHOULD IMPACT THE SERVER AT ALL. 1) make replays into a series of instructions that the client can process, 2) make the client capable of processing those instructions, 3) make it easy to save, manage and distribute replay files, 4) ???, 5) PROFIT.
Btw, I fixed your picture for you.
Nice job on the triathalon - and good article, as usual.
The top 8 of finnish nationals are on linked page:
http://mtg.bore.org/article.php?id=283
in short:
1. time sieve.dec
2. Kithkin.dec
3. Kithkin.dec
4. jund blood
5-8. 5cc, 5c elementals!, jund aggro and 5c blood ? (not sure on last one)
Why is burn "supposed" to be a bad matchup for countertop? You disrupt them then lock them out of the game, seems good.
A very nice and different SotP Hammy. I liked it a lot. Good job.
LE
Until recently, before even looking at my starting hand I was saying "Hello and good luck". But I saw that most of the players were not even responding to that. So I gave up doing that. Nowadays I say that if only the opponent says that first or if I play against someone I know.
I type "gg" only after a game I believe was really a good game. Win or loss doesn't matter. Was it really a good game? Did I have fun? Yes? So gg it is. No? Just right click and concede (or wait for the opponent to do that). Sometimes I even remember saying "vgg" because it was one of those epic games that happen once in a while.
I only block someone if he's rude. During my first days I was also blocking people who were playing netdecks in the casual room and/or playing LD in the casual room but I don't do that anymore. I just concede and move on.
I usually don't speak much during a game. I try to respond if the opponent says something but do so shortly most of the time. What can I say when my opponent is complaining about his 6th land in a row (or my 4th Oblivion Ring in a row)? Yes it is absurd and makes the game one sided and unfun but what does he want me to say about it? And I also never complain or whine when I get my 6th land in a row. Of course I curse the shuffler and say that out loud but I don't think that my opponent can "hear" that.
And no, I don't and won't trade after the game so just stop asking this please!
Well, that's pretty much all about me.
LE
I think you kind of missed the most important (at least to me) topic of this week: how freaking badly the new DEs have influenced the chance of T8 tournaments firing. Apparently, the chance of most T8 events firing is 0 under the new system, which I find very unsatisfying. I can understand the reasoning behind the 4-round events and actually enjoy them in general, but fact is they feel much more like a 16-player constructed swiss queue than an actual tournament, which leaves almost no 'real' tournaments except the weekend PEs and the MOCS.
With sealed apparently being killed by the prize cut, T8 tourneys being killed by the 4-rounders (and the weird 32 players min rule), Pauper, Singleton and some other queues being lose-lose tournaments (because the prize given is almost unsellable or worth less than the entry fee) the state of organized play is really not good at the moment. However, I am positive that WotC is aware of that and fixing it (*thumbs up*). I just might happen to stop playing tourneys until that happens ...
I loved the vids, they made it alot easier to understand classic for me. I've been interested in getting into classic, probably playing Affinity or something that's not so expensive, and the vids were quite educational. Thanks!