You are, at some level, both right. Individual mythics are twice as rare as individual rares in that you're only twice as likely to see Siege-Gang as to see Baneslayer Angel -- but that's because there are so many more 'traditional' rares. If you look at any given pack and say 'what are the odds this booster has a mythic rare in it?', the odds for *that* are 1 in 8. The latter is the more relevant answer for spreadsheet purposes, though, as when you 'roll the dice' to decide which table you should look in for the rare slot, you only want to check the mythic table one time in eight.
I'd go with Dark Confidant. I think that Tarmogoyf is exceptionally powerful in classic, but with the rotation of the fetchlands and cycling lands, tarmogoyf will essentially have -1/-1 for the up-coming extended season. So I think goyf is more conditional. Bob is always the bomb.
Wrath of God, Fracturing Gust, Any number of other sweepers. White has lots of answers to affinity. The question is...can you cast them in time, and do you put them in main or play matches and side them in? Also while I dig that you limited yourself to $5.00 budget that really isn't realistic in playing even casual extended. You may come across decks that you can beat with your deck (mine included sometimes as I love making junky decks) but usually you will encounter every type of sleazy combo and trick under the extended sun. People take a lot of pride in showing off their combos. For instance just today I had several players show me combos and then brag about their originality. I didn't correct them. The idea is let them have their fun. New Affinity is not nearly as broken as Morradin affinity but it still is tricky once the masters come down.
I definitely would have added in another unmake taken out the dawn charms (fun but meh) added in an additional disenchant or 2 maybe switched the priests for soul wardens which while not as aggressive help you race and annoy most aggro players. You are playing a control deck. You don't need to beat down 20 points before they manage to stabilize. You need to stabilize before they manage to do 20. I might also switch some of the creatures around. Battlegrace Angel is a must answer threat. If it is allowed to remain on the table you will just win any race. More of those...less Serras.
Luminous Angel is too expensive. Again less of those more Battlegraces. I also would toss out reya and akroma because I think they are total Timmy cards but if you think you can find a way to get them into play by all means keep them. But More Blinding Angels would be better in their place. Id take out the Angels of mercy and put in Riftmarked Knights which are relatively cheap and if you don't need them in a hurry they bring a hard to deal with friend. I am not at all certain any of this is possible with just $5, but it is possible with just a bit more.
Also Knight of the White Orchid is a nice monowhite card. Get it out early and you ramp your mana up a notch. Late and its still a 2/2 first striker.
"In conjunction with the reduction of set sizes, Wizards will also be introducing a new level of rarity called mythic rare. The mythic rare cards will appear in approximately 1 out of every 8 booster packs instead of a rare".
When I started doing my spreadsheets I had always heard the 1 in 7 from other players, and from my own pack distribution it has always seemed better than 1 in 7 (or I am just lucky). Anyways I had used 1 in 7 since they came out and only when about to submit this article did I see a post about 1 in 8 and actually checked what the facts were. I just didn't feel like going back and starting over. :-) I have updated my own spreadsheets though for 1 in 8 for the future.
P1P2 I prefer Panorama as fixing is paramount to a turn 3 Thoctor
P1P5 Cylian Elf > Cannonist in your deck and would have given you another early drop
P2P1 Trailblazer is the pick I like, as you are already solidly 3 colors with only 1 fixer in obelisk
P2P2 w/ panorama in your pile I would have take Ignight Disorder
P2P4 I would prefer Outlander here as I would expect my 5 slot to be filled with beef, and to this point you have no drops before turn 3
P3P4 with no combat tricks so far I prefer Might for sure
P3P11 Armorguard for me, as he is less of a dead draw late game, but i can see wanting to lower your curve
For the record I always buy a 4x common and 4x uncommon set of each new expansion, and would definitely be in the market for this. I'd pay a bit of a premium if I could get this all in one shot without having to add 4x of each card to a cart...
Something I generally do is pick up a chunk of bot credits and fill out the commons I need/want after the first week or two of the events.
The prices are low and I can fill the sets out on my own time. It's quick and pretty cheap since bot credits are usually a bit lower than tickets and you can get them for less than 1 USD.
Welder and lackey are situationally good, and they are only good in 1 deck each (Stax and Goblins)--There are very few decks that don't benefit from some Tarmogoyf beatdown or some extra cards drawn. Thus, I would rank Tarm and Confidant above them both
First off, great article. I agree with almost all of the points mentioned in the article and the following posts. I play primarily online, but do play in pre-releases and with my kids using intro packs. My two cents about both formats:
Online
- Pro: Ability to play when I'm able. I'm a parent of two elementary school age future PT gravytrainers (*smiles*) and have Mondays and Tuesdays off. Being able to play when they are at school during those days is something I can't do in paper Magic.
- Con: Bugs, misclicks, missed stops, etc. Just today I lost a close 3rd game of a draft match because of a bug or misclick (I'm not sure which). The point is, this particular 3-point swing wouldn't have happened in a paper game.
Paper
- Pro: IRL tourney experience. Real Magic events are almost like a convention. Yeah, you have to be able to tolerate some of the unpleasant players (stereotypes are true, but rarer than it may seem by reading some articles). Players are generally much friendlier IRL. It is not that people are necessarily mean online, but the majority are just silent.
- Con: Schedule conflicts. Friday nights and Saturdays just do not work for me. This is when the majority of sanctioned paper magic is played.
The bottom line is that I'm thankful for both versions. Since I usually play limited, having two options is not a problem for me. I certainly appreciate why a primarily constructed player might hate the fact that they need 2 sets of cards to play in both versions.
one othr good point for MTGO vs paper i forgot to mention : to manage the amount of counters in some games... To calculate P/T of some creature (Lord of extinction in example, or simply of a tarmo), the number of spell in Storm, the number of token (worm harvest in example) is sometime a pain and need time to change dice at each step... it is not that complicate, but with MTGO you stay focused on the game and this is much better !
Pox is amazingly powerful, i like this deck so much : this is the only deck with which i am feeling to control the board without running blue, and technicaly it is pretty interesting to play. I distinguish 2 different build : aggro style (closer to eva green but different as you well mentioned) and control style (usualy with stuff like Pox, rack and sometime totem instead of tarmo/green stuff). There are also some try with loam, that seems interesting (it is closer to loam.dek anyway but in BG). My favorite version (but maybe not the most powerful version) is the controlish version by far.
This article is pretty interesting because, even if the basis is almost the same each time (discard, smallpox, tomb, crucible), it shows many variation of the deck can support (from epochariste to cursed scroll ...). This is paradoxal to observe that this archetype is currently not running ... pox anymore, which gave its name to the deck (even if its little bro smallpox is still there as well).
Running vs this deck could be extemly frustating i also agree ... as vs any very good deck, isnt it ?
Btw, congratulations de Dunkle because if the deck is powerful, it also requires a lot of skill to push it as many time to top8. really gg to you. And ty to whiffy for this article (i especially enjoyed the comparative with Eva Green and the history part).
This is an entertaining article, I had fun reading it. If you can get the probability for drawing a foil you should use random.org to sample a number out of a normed range and nest the possible foil in each generated pack.
I don't think sanity grinding is better than the U/B mill decks, but only because of haunting echoes, which you don't seem to run? I haven't tested them though, just speculation based on being bummed by echoes in the past. On a seperate note, does nobody edit these articles? It seems pretty clear that where it says "(pic=Captain of the Watch)", the author wanted a pcture of captain of the watch. And there are bracketed cardnames throughout. Or is that just my browser?
You are, at some level, both right. Individual mythics are twice as rare as individual rares in that you're only twice as likely to see Siege-Gang as to see Baneslayer Angel -- but that's because there are so many more 'traditional' rares. If you look at any given pack and say 'what are the odds this booster has a mythic rare in it?', the odds for *that* are 1 in 8. The latter is the more relevant answer for spreadsheet purposes, though, as when you 'roll the dice' to decide which table you should look in for the rare slot, you only want to check the mythic table one time in eight.
This deck has 99 problems, but the Wild Mongrel ain't one.
I'd go with Dark Confidant. I think that Tarmogoyf is exceptionally powerful in classic, but with the rotation of the fetchlands and cycling lands, tarmogoyf will essentially have -1/-1 for the up-coming extended season. So I think goyf is more conditional. Bob is always the bomb.
Superman was killed by Psycatog quite a while back.
Wrath of God, Fracturing Gust, Any number of other sweepers. White has lots of answers to affinity. The question is...can you cast them in time, and do you put them in main or play matches and side them in? Also while I dig that you limited yourself to $5.00 budget that really isn't realistic in playing even casual extended. You may come across decks that you can beat with your deck (mine included sometimes as I love making junky decks) but usually you will encounter every type of sleazy combo and trick under the extended sun. People take a lot of pride in showing off their combos. For instance just today I had several players show me combos and then brag about their originality. I didn't correct them. The idea is let them have their fun. New Affinity is not nearly as broken as Morradin affinity but it still is tricky once the masters come down.
I definitely would have added in another unmake taken out the dawn charms (fun but meh) added in an additional disenchant or 2 maybe switched the priests for soul wardens which while not as aggressive help you race and annoy most aggro players. You are playing a control deck. You don't need to beat down 20 points before they manage to stabilize. You need to stabilize before they manage to do 20. I might also switch some of the creatures around. Battlegrace Angel is a must answer threat. If it is allowed to remain on the table you will just win any race. More of those...less Serras.
Luminous Angel is too expensive. Again less of those more Battlegraces. I also would toss out reya and akroma because I think they are total Timmy cards but if you think you can find a way to get them into play by all means keep them. But More Blinding Angels would be better in their place. Id take out the Angels of mercy and put in Riftmarked Knights which are relatively cheap and if you don't need them in a hurry they bring a hard to deal with friend. I am not at all certain any of this is possible with just $5, but it is possible with just a bit more.
Also Knight of the White Orchid is a nice monowhite card. Get it out early and you ramp your mana up a notch. Late and its still a 2/2 first striker.
According to Wotc Mythics are actually 1 in 8 boosters by the official announcement here:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/20080602
"In conjunction with the reduction of set sizes, Wizards will also be introducing a new level of rarity called mythic rare. The mythic rare cards will appear in approximately 1 out of every 8 booster packs instead of a rare".
When I started doing my spreadsheets I had always heard the 1 in 7 from other players, and from my own pack distribution it has always seemed better than 1 in 7 (or I am just lucky). Anyways I had used 1 in 7 since they came out and only when about to submit this article did I see a post about 1 in 8 and actually checked what the facts were. I just didn't feel like going back and starting over. :-) I have updated my own spreadsheets though for 1 in 8 for the future.
RagMan
P1P2 I prefer Panorama as fixing is paramount to a turn 3 Thoctor
P1P5 Cylian Elf > Cannonist in your deck and would have given you another early drop
P2P1 Trailblazer is the pick I like, as you are already solidly 3 colors with only 1 fixer in obelisk
P2P2 w/ panorama in your pile I would have take Ignight Disorder
P2P4 I would prefer Outlander here as I would expect my 5 slot to be filled with beef, and to this point you have no drops before turn 3
P3P4 with no combat tricks so far I prefer Might for sure
P3P11 Armorguard for me, as he is less of a dead draw late game, but i can see wanting to lower your curve
Thanks again for the write-up.
___helper_monkey on MODO
For the record I always buy a 4x common and 4x uncommon set of each new expansion, and would definitely be in the market for this. I'd pay a bit of a premium if I could get this all in one shot without having to add 4x of each card to a cart...
green?
Tarmogoyf is easily the best blue creature ever printed.
As whiffy stated himself: "M10 killed Superman".
RIP Clark Kent.
Something I generally do is pick up a chunk of bot credits and fill out the commons I need/want after the first week or two of the events.
The prices are low and I can fill the sets out on my own time. It's quick and pretty cheap since bot credits are usually a bit lower than tickets and you can get them for less than 1 USD.
Welder and lackey are situationally good, and they are only good in 1 deck each (Stax and Goblins)--There are very few decks that don't benefit from some Tarmogoyf beatdown or some extra cards drawn. Thus, I would rank Tarm and Confidant above them both
First off, great article. I agree with almost all of the points mentioned in the article and the following posts. I play primarily online, but do play in pre-releases and with my kids using intro packs. My two cents about both formats:
Online
- Pro: Ability to play when I'm able. I'm a parent of two elementary school age future PT gravytrainers (*smiles*) and have Mondays and Tuesdays off. Being able to play when they are at school during those days is something I can't do in paper Magic.
- Con: Bugs, misclicks, missed stops, etc. Just today I lost a close 3rd game of a draft match because of a bug or misclick (I'm not sure which). The point is, this particular 3-point swing wouldn't have happened in a paper game.
Paper
- Pro: IRL tourney experience. Real Magic events are almost like a convention. Yeah, you have to be able to tolerate some of the unpleasant players (stereotypes are true, but rarer than it may seem by reading some articles). Players are generally much friendlier IRL. It is not that people are necessarily mean online, but the majority are just silent.
- Con: Schedule conflicts. Friday nights and Saturdays just do not work for me. This is when the majority of sanctioned paper magic is played.
The bottom line is that I'm thankful for both versions. Since I usually play limited, having two options is not a problem for me. I certainly appreciate why a primarily constructed player might hate the fact that they need 2 sets of cards to play in both versions.
Again ... great article. Keep up the good work.
Thanks!
The mill deck presented here, while a nice try, has one big issue.
It's going to just lose to pretty much everything that's even slightly competitive.
I'm a big fan of mill strategies (heck I've even been working on a K-Scope mill deck.
It's almost up to tier 2 1/2 level, not good enough for the queues yet though), and
I think there's a good mill deck out there for standard with M10. It's just going to
take some work to find it. Personally, I think it's going to take a blending of traditional
mill and some turbo-fog strategy to get it into the tier 2 level. (I don't think there's a
tier 1 mill deck out there, but I could easily be wrong...won't be the first time).
It's from Kindergarten Cop.
The best two creatures ever printed weren't mentioned in your list at all.
They are 1) Goblin Welder and 2) Goblin Lackey. Neither are yet online.
Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant round out the best 4, it's a long way down (to Psychatog) for #5.
Mythic Rares are actually 1/2 as common as rares, not 1/6th.
For every one M10 Jace printed, there are two M10 Warp Worlds printed.
one othr good point for MTGO vs paper i forgot to mention : to manage the amount of counters in some games... To calculate P/T of some creature (Lord of extinction in example, or simply of a tarmo), the number of spell in Storm, the number of token (worm harvest in example) is sometime a pain and need time to change dice at each step... it is not that complicate, but with MTGO you stay focused on the game and this is much better !
Pox is amazingly powerful, i like this deck so much : this is the only deck with which i am feeling to control the board without running blue, and technicaly it is pretty interesting to play. I distinguish 2 different build : aggro style (closer to eva green but different as you well mentioned) and control style (usualy with stuff like Pox, rack and sometime totem instead of tarmo/green stuff). There are also some try with loam, that seems interesting (it is closer to loam.dek anyway but in BG). My favorite version (but maybe not the most powerful version) is the controlish version by far.
This article is pretty interesting because, even if the basis is almost the same each time (discard, smallpox, tomb, crucible), it shows many variation of the deck can support (from epochariste to cursed scroll ...). This is paradoxal to observe that this archetype is currently not running ... pox anymore, which gave its name to the deck (even if its little bro smallpox is still there as well).
Running vs this deck could be extemly frustating i also agree ... as vs any very good deck, isnt it ?
Btw, congratulations de Dunkle because if the deck is powerful, it also requires a lot of skill to push it as many time to top8. really gg to you. And ty to whiffy for this article (i especially enjoyed the comparative with Eva Green and the history part).
Really enjoyed this, fascinating to see a how a deck / archetype evolves. I don't play classic (yet), but this has piqued my curiosity...
M10 pictures don't work yet, authors can test it out by clicking 'preview' as they're creating the article.
This is an entertaining article, I had fun reading it. If you can get the probability for drawing a foil you should use random.org to sample a number out of a normed range and nest the possible foil in each generated pack.
I don't think sanity grinding is better than the U/B mill decks, but only because of haunting echoes, which you don't seem to run? I haven't tested them though, just speculation based on being bummed by echoes in the past. On a seperate note, does nobody edit these articles? It seems pretty clear that where it says "(pic=Captain of the Watch)", the author wanted a pcture of captain of the watch. And there are bracketed cardnames throughout. Or is that just my browser?