Totally agree with all of these points, which is why I've given up paper Magic almost completely except for a stack of theme decks and booster packs in my closet for casual games.
You missed two points that are HUGE for me:
1. Replays. I LOVE watching replays. I can open up a Classic event and be happy watching replays of every single match in the tournament. I watch replays of whatever I can find while brushing my teeth in the morning.
2. For me, the biggest reason I love Magic Online is that I can play the game while laying in bed next to my girlfriend instead of in a card store with a bunch of not-so-well-kept dudes... but that's just me =)
You mean the panoramas??? Seriously?!?! If that happens, I will gladly consume an item of headgear of your choice!
I agree that EE will still see play, but I don't think it will be as universal as previous extended seasons, so I doubt it'll get back up towards 30 tickets.
Good call on Scroll Rack, I'm pretty embarrassed that I didn't even think of it! Not only is this one of my all time favorite cards, but it would just be perfect for this deck. Maybe I'll update the list and post it as an add-on to a future article...
No love for either Goblin Recruiter (to stack your deck ready for the Ringleader) or Goblin Sharpshooter (as a tutorable 1-off to help thin out all those Elves that turn up from time to time.)?
I'm not sure taking out Earwig squad is correct. I think that jester's capping your opponent might be very valuable in the current metagame as some of the decks run very few win conditions.
Good call with ee and ruins, cant believe i did not throw it on there! Ranger and Knight are more for standard/extended play. Ranger costing 4 and being a dood, I dont think he'll see classic play, maybe legacy after a split? However you are right about him being cheap. WW is going to be a viable strat in standard in about a week. In extended I fully expect it to replace zoo once we lose our beloved sac lands.
I would be suprised if we dont see alara block fetch lands in extended this year. Color me crazy, but i think it will happen, which is the knights reason for inclusion. EE will be used in u/b and g/b control decks regardless to kill things like jitte and goyf.
"how much did pillar of the paruns rise to when kaleidoscope started up?"
pillar was around 1 tix and climb to 5 the first week ...and now the price at mtgotraders is around 8,5 ! (it is the current price on the market currently)
skill borrower is a creature which generated a large interest in my mind. Your list of potential potent card with it is pretty nice, but there are some cards i would like to add into :
1) Psychatog : probably the best combinaison(except sensi you mentioned as well) i found to abuse of skill borrower. We all know that psycha is one of the best creature ever printed, but revealing it on the top of your library thank to skill borrower is like to give to psychatog a "Haste & +0/+1" free ability on it. It is insanely good and often provide a winning turn...
2) Atog & Arcbound ravager : less powerful than psycha in many case, but in a straight artifact deck, it is a real bomb on the board.
3) Royal assassin : well, to kill a tapped creature at instant speed is really good, especially because you dont need to add any mana to take advantage of its ability... Plus RA is playable in many decks
4) Nantuko shade : it is rare to run the shade outside a monoblack deck, but if it's the case, borrower is pretty cool with it
5) Ith : it is a secondary choice, but to transmute your borrower into a Maze of Ith is pretty handy sometime, especially with sensei around ...
Actually, the loss of fetchlands and cycling lands in extended means that KotR might not be worth much, unless it shows up in classic somewhere. I'll still get a set, as it's cool.
I think ranger of eos, gifts ungiven and maybe forbidden orchard are the cards with the potential to gain you lots of tickets here. Out of interest, how much did pillar of the paruns rise to when kaleidoscope started up?
Hers's my version based on Skill Borrower and Elvish Piper. It uses Top and worldy Tutor to bring Godsire to the top of the deck for Skill Borrower which can be triggered twice using Puppeteer, then dropped into play with Elvish Piper. You can even use the Borrower when Piper is on top of the deck. I've not tested it as I dont have the Godsire's at present.
Remember that the loss of fetchlands in extended means that decks will not be able to just splash a colour of 1 land. Therefore, I wouldn't expect engineered explosives to get back up to 30 tix, as you're not going to be able to access 3-4 colours as easily. In fact, i'm not sure the price on that one will rise at all.
I will be searching out sets of KotR and Gifts ungiven if i can find them at these prices. I reckon I'll be able to sell them on come extended season, at a decent profit. Not so sure about confidant, I think the naya colours will have aggro locked up in extended for a while, what with nacatl and stuff..
I think the mix with reanimator makes the deck more diverse and fun to play, but I think it would be more consistent if instead you solved the "drawing action cards" issue with a mix of Brainstorms / Scroll Racks, specially the latter. Scroll Rack even is an artifact to combo with the Borrower.
No. They are still just as rare (1 in 8 packs). As the set is smaller you could argue you are likely to see them same mythics more regularly, however this doesn't stand up as there are more mythics than any other set!
I think it depends a lot on the person if they can separate this kind of things easily or not (this is not a dig at anyone that doesn't have this ability - I'm just saying I believe it depends on the person).
When I play in any sanctioned events, I believe I am a "Spike". I have my preferences, but due to limited time I actively choose to play sanctioned only when my preference matches something that is viable - but when I make that choice, I act like a "Spike" (i.e. I don't try to force my preferences to be viable when they are not).
If I were a "full-time" dedicated player I shouldn't and couldn't have strong preferences - I would need to play what deck was best for each event. As I don't have time for "full-time" dedication, having such preferences ends up working to save me time (and won't affect my competitiveness negatively, as long as I'm aware of this and am realistic about the competitiveness of the preferred decks in a format - styles which I am usually familiar on how to play, so I can also gain time by the existing familiarity).
This does not stop me from enjoying decks with interesting, non-competitive synergies in casual play (what usually stops me from enjoying casual play are griefers, but that is a known problem).
Excluding cases where shuffle effects are involved (and there are plenty of pauper decks that do not have shuffle effects), you don't actually "gain" much if anything by playing the Rats when it "hurts more". Imagine the time when Rats "hurts" is turn 5 (imagine that is when he misses his needed 5th land drop). If you played Rats turn 3, when turn 5 arrives the player will still be hurting, because he only gets the card (in this case the land) the following turn anyway, or one turn later than otherwise.
So indeed, Rats is brutal when the player is lacking a resource. But the brutality is not dependent on when the Rats hits - even if it hits before the opponent is lacking the resource, it will be effective with rare exceptions. And that is part of why Chittering is so good.
Really interesting read, and I liked the extra mile you went to give it a budget makeover. I've always enjoyed reanimation decks, and Skill Borrower is a great fit here (though I agree with one of the comments above, that she's not really the main theme).
i like the concept of this serie as it is very useful for any player joining mtg/specific formats & it is also a good basis to discuss about mtg's staples. Plus i like how it looks.
Some comments about the cards of this article :
> Tombstalker : it is a bomb, not less. It is so useful that i am surprised it is not more expansive. I ould argue also it is a very good Plan B in control/combo decks MD or SB (as it was into necrospike archetype).
> FoW / fetch lands : simply absolutly required to play classic/eternal format.
> Counterbalance : the best control tool currently available.
> EE : i would only add to your comment how awesome this removal engine is with academy ruins ...
> Forbidden Orchard : take it now ! Oath would be released in december ... did you remember what happend to pillar of parun when kscope was lauched ... ?
> Gift : awesome card even if it is difficult to pay its mana cost in classic with the tool currently available. But it is the basis of many awesome control deck from ext to vintage.
> Dark conf : it is a fantastaic and one of the best card advantage engine.
> Ranger of eos : its ability is attractive, but i dont know if it could be played in classic however because of its CMC. That being said, the card is cheap so why not ?
> Knight of the WS : an interesting card i agree. Its first strike ability makes this card playable. But i still prefer tithe ... and land tax as well
> Knight of reliquary : Yes ! So cheap and a very good guy ! take it, now or later, it will be really useful and a big beater !
I'm looking at the Phyrexian Devourer as printed, and it doesn't look like it should check its power during the resolution of its activated ability. But yet the oracle wording does. Someone call MaGo! I think he might change it during the next Oracle update if someone pointed it out. Unless I'm reading the printed card wrong.
One cool play with Skill Borrower is that you can (theoretically) move a Top to the top of your deck, then tap the Skill Borrower to draw the top. Like in response to removal or something.
Breaking Skill Borrower is surprisingly hard. All you need to find is a card with a nice activated ability whose cost lies entirely in bringing the permanent into play. OR, you need to find a card that would be amazing if its triggered and static abilities were blanked while leaving its activated abilities untouched. It shouldn't be hard. But yet it is.
I'm a little disappointed that the best Skill Borrower deck out there has a reanimation subtheme, but whatcha gonna do? It makes sense with all the fancy creatures.
Totally agree with all of these points, which is why I've given up paper Magic almost completely except for a stack of theme decks and booster packs in my closet for casual games.
You missed two points that are HUGE for me:
1. Replays. I LOVE watching replays. I can open up a Classic event and be happy watching replays of every single match in the tournament. I watch replays of whatever I can find while brushing my teeth in the morning.
2. For me, the biggest reason I love Magic Online is that I can play the game while laying in bed next to my girlfriend instead of in a card store with a bunch of not-so-well-kept dudes... but that's just me =)
You mean the panoramas??? Seriously?!?! If that happens, I will gladly consume an item of headgear of your choice!
I agree that EE will still see play, but I don't think it will be as universal as previous extended seasons, so I doubt it'll get back up towards 30 tickets.
Good call on Scroll Rack, I'm pretty embarrassed that I didn't even think of it! Not only is this one of my all time favorite cards, but it would just be perfect for this deck. Maybe I'll update the list and post it as an add-on to a future article...
It's still morning! I'll have it up before noon.
As far as your goblins deck goes....
No love for either Goblin Recruiter (to stack your deck ready for the Ringleader) or Goblin Sharpshooter (as a tutorable 1-off to help thin out all those Elves that turn up from time to time.)?
I'm trolling the site looking for your state of the program. I get grumpy when it's not up in the morning!
I'm not sure taking out Earwig squad is correct. I think that jester's capping your opponent might be very valuable in the current metagame as some of the decks run very few win conditions.
http://www.mtgotraders.com/store/CHK_Gifts_Ungiven.html
There are 27 of them at these prices (2 tix) :)
Great article Eddie!
Now comments to your comments :P
Good call with ee and ruins, cant believe i did not throw it on there! Ranger and Knight are more for standard/extended play. Ranger costing 4 and being a dood, I dont think he'll see classic play, maybe legacy after a split? However you are right about him being cheap. WW is going to be a viable strat in standard in about a week. In extended I fully expect it to replace zoo once we lose our beloved sac lands.
I would be suprised if we dont see alara block fetch lands in extended this year. Color me crazy, but i think it will happen, which is the knights reason for inclusion. EE will be used in u/b and g/b control decks regardless to kill things like jitte and goyf.
"how much did pillar of the paruns rise to when kaleidoscope started up?"
pillar was around 1 tix and climb to 5 the first week ...and now the price at mtgotraders is around 8,5 ! (it is the current price on the market currently)
five star article : report is pretty clear, and explaination really interesting. Great job !
Again & again awesome article from you :)
skill borrower is a creature which generated a large interest in my mind. Your list of potential potent card with it is pretty nice, but there are some cards i would like to add into :
1) Psychatog : probably the best combinaison(except sensi you mentioned as well) i found to abuse of skill borrower. We all know that psycha is one of the best creature ever printed, but revealing it on the top of your library thank to skill borrower is like to give to psychatog a "Haste & +0/+1" free ability on it. It is insanely good and often provide a winning turn...
2) Atog & Arcbound ravager : less powerful than psycha in many case, but in a straight artifact deck, it is a real bomb on the board.
3) Royal assassin : well, to kill a tapped creature at instant speed is really good, especially because you dont need to add any mana to take advantage of its ability... Plus RA is playable in many decks
4) Nantuko shade : it is rare to run the shade outside a monoblack deck, but if it's the case, borrower is pretty cool with it
5) Ith : it is a secondary choice, but to transmute your borrower into a Maze of Ith is pretty handy sometime, especially with sensei around ...
Take care & waiting for your next article.
Actually, the loss of fetchlands and cycling lands in extended means that KotR might not be worth much, unless it shows up in classic somewhere. I'll still get a set, as it's cool.
I think ranger of eos, gifts ungiven and maybe forbidden orchard are the cards with the potential to gain you lots of tickets here. Out of interest, how much did pillar of the paruns rise to when kaleidoscope started up?
Hers's my version based on Skill Borrower and Elvish Piper. It uses Top and worldy Tutor to bring Godsire to the top of the deck for Skill Borrower which can be triggered twice using Puppeteer, then dropped into play with Elvish Piper. You can even use the Borrower when Piper is on top of the deck. I've not tested it as I dont have the Godsire's at present.
4 Skill Borrower
4 Elvish Piper
4 Godsire
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
1 Progenitus
3 Vigor
3 Puppeteer
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Worldly Tutor
4 Savannah
4 Taiga
9 Island
4 Flooded Grove
1 Forest
1 Pendelhaven
Remember that the loss of fetchlands in extended means that decks will not be able to just splash a colour of 1 land. Therefore, I wouldn't expect engineered explosives to get back up to 30 tix, as you're not going to be able to access 3-4 colours as easily. In fact, i'm not sure the price on that one will rise at all.
I will be searching out sets of KotR and Gifts ungiven if i can find them at these prices. I reckon I'll be able to sell them on come extended season, at a decent profit. Not so sure about confidant, I think the naya colours will have aggro locked up in extended for a while, what with nacatl and stuff..
i see tomby there getting a revival of sorts in extended....duress,thoughtsieze,gifts ..trinketstalker anyone?
I think the mix with reanimator makes the deck more diverse and fun to play, but I think it would be more consistent if instead you solved the "drawing action cards" issue with a mix of Brainstorms / Scroll Racks, specially the latter. Scroll Rack even is an artifact to combo with the Borrower.
Missed a standard version, here's one of mine:
4 Seaside Citadel
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Skill Borrower
4 Progenitus
2 Gilt-Leaf Seer
4 Dramatic Entrance
6 Island
7 Forest
2 Forest
3 Arcanis the Omnipotent
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Bloom Tender
4 Elvish Piper
4 Godsire
2 Seedcradle Witch
1 Flooded Grove
4 Yavimaya Coast
No. They are still just as rare (1 in 8 packs). As the set is smaller you could argue you are likely to see them same mythics more regularly, however this doesn't stand up as there are more mythics than any other set!
I think it depends a lot on the person if they can separate this kind of things easily or not (this is not a dig at anyone that doesn't have this ability - I'm just saying I believe it depends on the person).
When I play in any sanctioned events, I believe I am a "Spike". I have my preferences, but due to limited time I actively choose to play sanctioned only when my preference matches something that is viable - but when I make that choice, I act like a "Spike" (i.e. I don't try to force my preferences to be viable when they are not).
If I were a "full-time" dedicated player I shouldn't and couldn't have strong preferences - I would need to play what deck was best for each event. As I don't have time for "full-time" dedication, having such preferences ends up working to save me time (and won't affect my competitiveness negatively, as long as I'm aware of this and am realistic about the competitiveness of the preferred decks in a format - styles which I am usually familiar on how to play, so I can also gain time by the existing familiarity).
This does not stop me from enjoying decks with interesting, non-competitive synergies in casual play (what usually stops me from enjoying casual play are griefers, but that is a known problem).
Excluding cases where shuffle effects are involved (and there are plenty of pauper decks that do not have shuffle effects), you don't actually "gain" much if anything by playing the Rats when it "hurts more". Imagine the time when Rats "hurts" is turn 5 (imagine that is when he misses his needed 5th land drop). If you played Rats turn 3, when turn 5 arrives the player will still be hurting, because he only gets the card (in this case the land) the following turn anyway, or one turn later than otherwise.
So indeed, Rats is brutal when the player is lacking a resource. But the brutality is not dependent on when the Rats hits - even if it hits before the opponent is lacking the resource, it will be effective with rare exceptions. And that is part of why Chittering is so good.
Ivo.
Really interesting read, and I liked the extra mile you went to give it a budget makeover. I've always enjoyed reanimation decks, and Skill Borrower is a great fit here (though I agree with one of the comments above, that she's not really the main theme).
Looking forward to the Ward of Bones article!
i like the concept of this serie as it is very useful for any player joining mtg/specific formats & it is also a good basis to discuss about mtg's staples. Plus i like how it looks.
Some comments about the cards of this article :
> Tombstalker : it is a bomb, not less. It is so useful that i am surprised it is not more expansive. I ould argue also it is a very good Plan B in control/combo decks MD or SB (as it was into necrospike archetype).
> FoW / fetch lands : simply absolutly required to play classic/eternal format.
> Counterbalance : the best control tool currently available.
> EE : i would only add to your comment how awesome this removal engine is with academy ruins ...
> Forbidden Orchard : take it now ! Oath would be released in december ... did you remember what happend to pillar of parun when kscope was lauched ... ?
> Gift : awesome card even if it is difficult to pay its mana cost in classic with the tool currently available. But it is the basis of many awesome control deck from ext to vintage.
> Dark conf : it is a fantastaic and one of the best card advantage engine.
> Ranger of eos : its ability is attractive, but i dont know if it could be played in classic however because of its CMC. That being said, the card is cheap so why not ?
> Knight of the WS : an interesting card i agree. Its first strike ability makes this card playable. But i still prefer tithe ... and land tax as well
> Knight of reliquary : Yes ! So cheap and a very good guy ! take it, now or later, it will be really useful and a big beater !
I'm looking at the Phyrexian Devourer as printed, and it doesn't look like it should check its power during the resolution of its activated ability. But yet the oracle wording does. Someone call MaGo! I think he might change it during the next Oracle update if someone pointed it out. Unless I'm reading the printed card wrong.
One cool play with Skill Borrower is that you can (theoretically) move a Top to the top of your deck, then tap the Skill Borrower to draw the top. Like in response to removal or something.
Breaking Skill Borrower is surprisingly hard. All you need to find is a card with a nice activated ability whose cost lies entirely in bringing the permanent into play. OR, you need to find a card that would be amazing if its triggered and static abilities were blanked while leaving its activated abilities untouched. It shouldn't be hard. But yet it is.
I'm a little disappointed that the best Skill Borrower deck out there has a reanimation subtheme, but whatcha gonna do? It makes sense with all the fancy creatures.