Ehmmm deity of scars HAS trample...
Nice article and nice deck. I don't think the deck is the most powerful choice (it is good mostly thanx to unmake and demigods that are better in other decks) but I'm very pleased to see people not running those stupid 4cc manabases in kaleidoskope. It was born as a good casual format, now it is just a bad extended format. Why did they ban anathemancer... whyyyyy!?!?!?
I'd try a more BR way with gougers and the rest. However the deck would climb in price.
Fortunately, the tribal changeling bug was eventually fixed some time ago. Ergo, they might get this right.
As far as legality in formats goes, 7th Crypt rats and Befoul are legal in Pauper alongside 10th Drudge Skeletons. It's one of the aspects of the format that Online can manage better than offline.
That's a good point about Wizards owning the kitchen table. But I don't think I'd want them to do anything about it. We can dream, but oh well. I'll accept that as part of digital Magic, along with players being unable to cheat or steal, automatic rules enforcement, and the rest. So maybe if we want a new format then we have to 'prototype' it in paper first? Especially if it's as messy as BYOS.
I agree with your negative assessment of Extended. It's kind of funny how too many cards in the pool start to 'eat' each other. FoW + Counterspell doesn't just 'eat' Cancel, the presence of fish.dec also prevents random junky aggro from appearing. (Okay, well, combo is really what prevents that. That's not my point.) I think it might be an exaggeration to say that Extended has more viable cards than Classic as a result, but I can see how it would seem that way. Classic and Legacy decks sure are piles of staples, but they also have a loose definition of staple. Seething Song and Nettle Sentinel are played, after all. Cards can "wake up" in Classic just like how dredge or Ichorid "woke up" Bazaar of Baghdad.
Of all the formats you mentioned, BYOS sounds the most interesting to me. But our choice of core sets might be a problem. Imagine if BYOS existed in paper. I can't choose Legends because it wasn't in a block. Boo. But I can pick Urza's block + Time Spiral block + Revised, can't I? This is inconvenient online. Ice Age and 6th edition are certainly valid choices and I think I should be able to use MED cards that represent those sets. Everyone on MTGO is a lapsed player anyway, right? We'll understand. Could I set the card filter to BYOS, select Urza's + Time Spiral + 5th edition, and pick the following 3 cards: 9th edition Thran Golem, Onslaught Akroma, and MED2 Necropotence? It's perfectly sane. But if tribal is still having problems with changelings then they'll never get this right.
I know the PDC community did a build your own std event last year I think.
Block wars sounds like a blast, especially since the price reductions inherent with a set rotation. You could probably build a killer cbs block deck for budget prices nowadays.
I want to again thank the author for putting the effort to write this very nice article. There seems to be interest in the format, and as one of the replies stated: pauper was already played before there was a filter (and queues) for it.
I'm willing to host some PREs with BYOS (I discussed this with Hamtastic some time ago). It would of course be great if I could get a sponsor for some small prizes, but even without I think people would come to try it out.
There is a chance this could happen, but that is what a B/R list would be for and also keep in mind that this format uses the Legacy banned list, which should help keep it in check.
I'm not sure the format needs to use the block banned lists other than to possibly do something about affinity.
I don't think they would have the MED sets count. They don't exist in Paper, and they aren't designed for something like this format in mind. You could use MED cards that are reprints from other sets though.
Cho mano is crazy good! You did great I think. I like the hate pick Persuasion. It's a total bomb in limited so it's obvious why you HAVE to take it. Great job on getting your QP's
I am glad someone has brought attention to the erroneous banned cards in singleton 100. This is easily my favorite MTGO format at this time, and has made 2 of my favorite decks completely unplayable. I have talked to customer support on numerous occasions and have received little more than a standard issue form letter. Completely unacceptable, and a great way to kill a fringe format that is barely starting to gain in popularity. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.
Blue/Green is an interesting combination for 10th. It's actually one combination that I have never drafted. Although, having the hindsight to look back on it, I think it would have done quite well. Maybe even more cards would have opened up, had I sent better signals and led others into Black or White earlier. Then again, their decks might have been stronger as well.
I think there were lots of mistakes in this draft, more than my usual set, and yes you can argue with results. Even though I won, I can and should improve my drafting to win more consistently in the future. This type of response is exactly what I was hoping for to help everyone learn about the draft of the article (this set is about to be a bit outdated).
Best of luck in all your final XXX drafts next week as we enter the final nix tix til M2010.
Wonderful as always but I think the reason why Diamond shed 12 tixs over its orginal value was the fact that this past week was tempest sealed week. For the 7th year thing. And I think alot of moxs may have got cracked in that....... I know I cracked one.... Also I do and don't like the new tournment structure for strong formats standred, Block its good. But fringe formats like classic we fill and fire daily hitting the min. But to get 33 is ruff to fill the big one then 10 tickets as a entry.
Awesome article. Byos seems like such a great format to me, and I recall when MaRo wrote about the invitational where it was used. Though I agree that it does seem somewhat prone to random broken combos (It would have a not insignificant portion of the classic card pool to pull from), and consequently would need to be monitored more carefully, the fact that you could play virtually any set you want and be decently competitive seems like a huge incentive to create the format. The only real problem I'd foresee with it would be corner cases like the master's edition sets (I, II, and soon III as well). Counting them as core sets might work, except that then the deck power level threshold leaps drastically (MED II Duals, Force of Will, Necro... you get the idea; and any of those could easily force the threshold of expenses into the realm of classic; meaning you haven't done anything but make a weird version of classic...).
Yeah.. I for some reason though min. players required was 33 on the new dailies... my bad. Although 35-40 is pretty reasonable for the smaller standard/block tournaments. I also agree with you this is a war on spikes. Unfortunately being a spike i feel kind of screwed by wotc. The payout change is also saddening because overall its a LOWERING in the general payout level. currently DEs pay 90 packs to t8, to get a comparable number we need around 43 players in the tournament. Now currently thats not too hard to conceive but these events firing hourly means more tournaments and they should all fire smaller... this is a pretty obvious money grab by wotc.
This is the beauty of the format; It gives things to every one. It allows people to play glory decks of old, it allows deck designers and endless opportunity, and it gives a use to many of those cards you have lying around that you know used to be good, but just cannot compete in Classic.
I really like this suggestion. It does not imply that the Specialty formats are in any way inferior. It just implies that they have special restrictions beyond the basic Core Formats.
I would love BYOS, not because I would go way deep into mixing and matching blocks for some perfect combination, but because it would make what I call my "Historical Standard" decks viable in a format other than Extended or Classic. I have so many Standard decks from throughout Magic just sitting there--massively underpowered for extended or classic, but not playable anywhere else. I hate that my current Standard decks are rendered competitively unplayable with each set rotation.
Standard, Extended, Block, and Classic/Vintage/Legacy - Core Formats
The Remaining Formats - Specialty Formats
This will give off the fact that there are special facets to these formats as opposed to the core formats, which are just bound by set legality and B&R lists.
Best one yet Hammy. Thanks for the extremely helpful links and the fun commentary. I am disappointed that my Wargates lost value this week after shooting up to 1.25! :) But at least they are still worth more than 2x what I got them for. Keep up the fine weeklies.
Ehmmm deity of scars HAS trample...
Nice article and nice deck. I don't think the deck is the most powerful choice (it is good mostly thanx to unmake and demigods that are better in other decks) but I'm very pleased to see people not running those stupid 4cc manabases in kaleidoskope. It was born as a good casual format, now it is just a bad extended format. Why did they ban anathemancer... whyyyyy!?!?!?
I'd try a more BR way with gougers and the rest. However the deck would climb in price.
No idea where the image went for the Inkfathom Infiltrator in the deck list it was showing when I submitted the article, Many apologies.
Fortunately, the tribal changeling bug was eventually fixed some time ago. Ergo, they might get this right.
As far as legality in formats goes, 7th Crypt rats and Befoul are legal in Pauper alongside 10th Drudge Skeletons. It's one of the aspects of the format that Online can manage better than offline.
That's a good point about Wizards owning the kitchen table. But I don't think I'd want them to do anything about it. We can dream, but oh well. I'll accept that as part of digital Magic, along with players being unable to cheat or steal, automatic rules enforcement, and the rest. So maybe if we want a new format then we have to 'prototype' it in paper first? Especially if it's as messy as BYOS.
I agree with your negative assessment of Extended. It's kind of funny how too many cards in the pool start to 'eat' each other. FoW + Counterspell doesn't just 'eat' Cancel, the presence of fish.dec also prevents random junky aggro from appearing. (Okay, well, combo is really what prevents that. That's not my point.) I think it might be an exaggeration to say that Extended has more viable cards than Classic as a result, but I can see how it would seem that way. Classic and Legacy decks sure are piles of staples, but they also have a loose definition of staple. Seething Song and Nettle Sentinel are played, after all. Cards can "wake up" in Classic just like how dredge or Ichorid "woke up" Bazaar of Baghdad.
Of all the formats you mentioned, BYOS sounds the most interesting to me. But our choice of core sets might be a problem. Imagine if BYOS existed in paper. I can't choose Legends because it wasn't in a block. Boo. But I can pick Urza's block + Time Spiral block + Revised, can't I? This is inconvenient online. Ice Age and 6th edition are certainly valid choices and I think I should be able to use MED cards that represent those sets. Everyone on MTGO is a lapsed player anyway, right? We'll understand. Could I set the card filter to BYOS, select Urza's + Time Spiral + 5th edition, and pick the following 3 cards: 9th edition Thran Golem, Onslaught Akroma, and MED2 Necropotence? It's perfectly sane. But if tribal is still having problems with changelings then they'll never get this right.
I have a question here.
Do you expect a climb of price of the ALA block after Zendikar release ? I think SHM-EVE had quite a climb after Shard of Alara.
I know the PDC community did a build your own std event last year I think.
Block wars sounds like a blast, especially since the price reductions inherent with a set rotation. You could probably build a killer cbs block deck for budget prices nowadays.
I want to again thank the author for putting the effort to write this very nice article. There seems to be interest in the format, and as one of the replies stated: pauper was already played before there was a filter (and queues) for it.
I'm willing to host some PREs with BYOS (I discussed this with Hamtastic some time ago). It would of course be great if I could get a sponsor for some small prizes, but even without I think people would come to try it out.
I like the journey of emptying your coffers, and thx for the shout out, I try.
There is a chance this could happen, but that is what a B/R list would be for and also keep in mind that this format uses the Legacy banned list, which should help keep it in check.
I'm not sure the format needs to use the block banned lists other than to possibly do something about affinity.
I don't think they would have the MED sets count. They don't exist in Paper, and they aren't designed for something like this format in mind. You could use MED cards that are reprints from other sets though.
Cho mano is crazy good! You did great I think. I like the hate pick Persuasion. It's a total bomb in limited so it's obvious why you HAVE to take it. Great job on getting your QP's
I am glad someone has brought attention to the erroneous banned cards in singleton 100. This is easily my favorite MTGO format at this time, and has made 2 of my favorite decks completely unplayable. I have talked to customer support on numerous occasions and have received little more than a standard issue form letter. Completely unacceptable, and a great way to kill a fringe format that is barely starting to gain in popularity. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.
Blue/Green is an interesting combination for 10th. It's actually one combination that I have never drafted. Although, having the hindsight to look back on it, I think it would have done quite well. Maybe even more cards would have opened up, had I sent better signals and led others into Black or White earlier. Then again, their decks might have been stronger as well.
I think there were lots of mistakes in this draft, more than my usual set, and yes you can argue with results. Even though I won, I can and should improve my drafting to win more consistently in the future. This type of response is exactly what I was hoping for to help everyone learn about the draft of the article (this set is about to be a bit outdated).
Best of luck in all your final XXX drafts next week as we enter the final nix tix til M2010.
Wonderful as always but I think the reason why Diamond shed 12 tixs over its orginal value was the fact that this past week was tempest sealed week. For the 7th year thing. And I think alot of moxs may have got cracked in that....... I know I cracked one.... Also I do and don't like the new tournment structure for strong formats standred, Block its good. But fringe formats like classic we fill and fire daily hitting the min. But to get 33 is ruff to fill the big one then 10 tickets as a entry.
Awesome article. Byos seems like such a great format to me, and I recall when MaRo wrote about the invitational where it was used. Though I agree that it does seem somewhat prone to random broken combos (It would have a not insignificant portion of the classic card pool to pull from), and consequently would need to be monitored more carefully, the fact that you could play virtually any set you want and be decently competitive seems like a huge incentive to create the format. The only real problem I'd foresee with it would be corner cases like the master's edition sets (I, II, and soon III as well). Counting them as core sets might work, except that then the deck power level threshold leaps drastically (MED II Duals, Force of Will, Necro... you get the idea; and any of those could easily force the threshold of expenses into the realm of classic; meaning you haven't done anything but make a weird version of classic...).
I think you have to be my most favorite writer right now. I look forward to Thursdays and Fridays for you articles.
Nice how you show what might be good/is good, and what to spend my money on.
As far as articles go, this one was spot on. It really made new system pretty readable. I don't always like your articles, but I always read them.
Somewhat how I feel. The BOYS seems particularly prone to brokeness though I guess I would have to see it in action first.
Problem is that there would be huge power difference between old standard decks and 'properly' designed byos decks.
I probably wouldn't play either of build your own gamemodes, because it would take forever to make good decks.
The block wars sound fun though. manageable card pools and not having to cross reference sets sounds easy fun.
Yeah.. I for some reason though min. players required was 33 on the new dailies... my bad. Although 35-40 is pretty reasonable for the smaller standard/block tournaments. I also agree with you this is a war on spikes. Unfortunately being a spike i feel kind of screwed by wotc. The payout change is also saddening because overall its a LOWERING in the general payout level. currently DEs pay 90 packs to t8, to get a comparable number we need around 43 players in the tournament. Now currently thats not too hard to conceive but these events firing hourly means more tournaments and they should all fire smaller... this is a pretty obvious money grab by wotc.
This is the beauty of the format; It gives things to every one. It allows people to play glory decks of old, it allows deck designers and endless opportunity, and it gives a use to many of those cards you have lying around that you know used to be good, but just cannot compete in Classic.
I really like this suggestion. It does not imply that the Specialty formats are in any way inferior. It just implies that they have special restrictions beyond the basic Core Formats.
I would love BYOS, not because I would go way deep into mixing and matching blocks for some perfect combination, but because it would make what I call my "Historical Standard" decks viable in a format other than Extended or Classic. I have so many Standard decks from throughout Magic just sitting there--massively underpowered for extended or classic, but not playable anywhere else. I hate that my current Standard decks are rendered competitively unplayable with each set rotation.
My suggestion on labelling:
Standard, Extended, Block, and Classic/Vintage/Legacy - Core Formats
The Remaining Formats - Specialty Formats
This will give off the fact that there are special facets to these formats as opposed to the core formats, which are just bound by set legality and B&R lists.
Best one yet Hammy. Thanks for the extremely helpful links and the fun commentary. I am disappointed that my Wargates lost value this week after shooting up to 1.25! :) But at least they are still worth more than 2x what I got them for. Keep up the fine weeklies.