theres a problem with that mox analegy. its not strongholds fault that the set really sucks lol. there is no money card besides for mox to be there. i guarentee when we get urza it will not have 1 card over 20 tix prob not even 1 over 15. why cause the set has 4-5 money cards instead of 1. its just how it goes. i think if the p9 were released in such a way my idea would be 5 duels MED3 5 power lands MED4 workshop, bazzar,library, tabernacle, maze?, and then med 5 5 mox's and then med 6 the other 4 power so that even spread of powerful cards to not make a 1 card set again.
I've read this comment about three times and remain thoroughly confused.
Did you actually *read* the MTGO thread? I ask because if you actually did you'd probably notice something. The vast majority of the posters on the MTGO forums don't like the changes. In fact, the concerns voiced in the MTGO thread are the EXACT same as every other criticism thread thus far. The only major difference is that instead of useless and irrelevant hyperbole that flows through the other threads. That's it. It's the same complaints just focused and thought out instead of constant complaints about the new rules by people who don't even remotely understand the current ones.
I'm sorry that you feel so jaded against the MTGO community that you can't see the difference between balanced discussion or shills.
This is by far the best article i have read on pure in a long time. Keep up the great work! Hope to get more related articles on past concepts and deck ideas and how they can translate into the current meta.
I did give you constructive criticism: you're wrong and you should play more. I can't get more constructive than that, you're not posting your plays or your draft, you're simply giving wrong valuations
1. I can't argue this any more. Stormblade is simply more useful. You're not helping new players if you tell them grimblade is overall a stronger card than stormblade. It's sometimes better but that's like saying shock is better than lightning bolt because you could get mindslavered. Most players would simply agree that if mana is not a problem, stormblade is much better in most situations which makes it a better card
2. If you're writing an article about evaluating cards, you should make sure those evaluations make sense. Anathemancer will never do more than 1 damage in 99% of games while the godtracker can be a 23rd card. There are very few nonbasic lands (ie not posts) that stay in play for more than a turn
3. I've played with it. Twice. It doesn't do that much to the game state, it's simply too conditional and will often feel like you're down a creature
4. 3 for 3/1 flier is already good, and it fits in quite well in UW aggro decks. 1 toughness does not make it bad, the same way that it doesn't make stinger bad. Fight to the death is not a good card. Being good in some situations does not make the card good. Readers don't need people telling them when a card will be good, they need a fair evaluation of the card as a pick
5. Yes, defiler is a double edged sword but it's much much stronger than broodmother. The ability is good for you because 1) opponent sacs first and 2) you can build your deck/board around it and 3) you're the one with the multicolored 5/5 flier. Broodmother is harder to cast than predator dragon (which is already very difficult to cast on turn 6), and doesn't immediately change the game state. Defiler is a bomb just by being a 5/5, broodmother is mostly a hard to cast 4/4 that I'd take removal over
How childish of you to suggest that I can't criticize you because I don't have the time to write full articles. I've never laid an egg, yet I can tell you how they taste. Articles need to contain truth, and your's contains very little. I'll stop criticizing you once you start paying attention to what you write
*sigh* I would like CONSTRUCTIVE criticism only please.
1.For stormblade vs. Grimblade, read above.
2.They both suck, so does it really matter? At least anathemancer might at least shock them upon entering play. Godtracker is just...no.
3. You've obviously never actually played against it then. Bant players generally already take things like infiltrators and war monks. Guess how much fun those are to fight against with finest hour in play?
4. Jund sojourners. All I have to say to aven mimeomancer. Thanks for the cantrips. REad above explination for fight to the death and for sledge Same concept applies. Mimeomancer IS good if you can support it with an endless swarm of dudes, but unless we're not playing with the same shuffler, that doesn't happen often. If you find some way to make the shuffler cooperate, by all means, tell me.
5. Err...Slow? Granted, it's not horribly easy to drop broodmother, but I'd rather have her then defiler...She can instantly trade for defiler with her token, and defiler also has the potential to be a double edged sword. Have you ever had a crystallized defiler on your side of the field? I have and it's certainly not much fun. Repeat same with broodmother. Still an advantageous scenario.
I'm changing my system to 1-10, and if your going to criticize me, at least try acting like more then an impetuous child when you do it. WE all work hard her to give our readers articles they can enjoy, and I no less then any other. Like I tell anyone who criticizes writer here, try taking our job before criticizing us.
As an avid Kaleidoscope player I can attest to the insane value of Bituminous Blast. Bloodbraid Elf is only really good in a crazed aggro variant. Don't get me wrong; she's still an absolutely bonkers card, it just doesn't have a proper home at the moment...
Bituminous Blast, on the other hand is quite possibly the nuttiest card in the format. Depending on your build it can potentially be a 5 mana counterspell that burns out a creature for no extra cost. Playing Bituminous Blast on a Swans of Brynn Argol is quite possibly the most ridiculous play in the format. Just trust me though: cascading into a lightning helix or anathemancer, even lightning angel, is just downright insanity.
First of all, It's difficult to rate cards on a five point system. I'm changing it to a ten point simply because it makes it too difficult to rate cards with smaller levels of change.
I'm sorry, I'm new to writing articles, and your input is appreciated. Now on to the cards.
Rating cards is alot of a matter of playing style. I actually DO believe that Grixis grimblade is better then Stormblade as he generates awkward blocking situations and makes it much more difficult for your opponent to retaliate. I naturally lean toward defensive, control style play (THoug hall my best moments have been when playing aggresively...). Thus I prefer grimblde to stormblade. And he doesn't give my opponent a cantrip for blowing it away.
Behemoth sledge: THe concept of a 1 rating is something so overwhelming you can't possibly think of not taking it due to it's power/simplicity to use and relevancy. I think of the shining example of this is in Alra block would be something like Battlegrace angel or Uril the misstalker. Both have an absolutely absurd power level, and battlegrace is immediately relevent, while Uril is almost unremovable. I myself maindeck artifact hate int his format, so sledge loses points there. Plus sledge requires a creature to actually do anything, which also lowers it's rating. I'm not saying sledge isn't an amazing card.
I say thresher is harder in draft just because Esper itself is extremely overdrafted, at least in the Swiss and 4-3-2-2 queues. I'm not sure what the 8-4 metagame is. I personally really like arsenal thresher, though not his mana cost...
Filigree angel just gives you life, and that's what I fel the problem with it is. I'd take it if I had ALOT of artifacts but...meh. ONe thing you must realize is that these are totally objective ratings of the card by itself. Any card in these sets (except the poor cathartic adept) is good in SOME situation. Hell, i've gotten beaten down by vicious shadows before. That doesn't make it good.
Fight to the Death is good. Just try it someday. I thought it sucked too, but if you think about it, it can turn a hopeless bord situation into an at least even one. It's not really good for offense, but defensively it can wipe away their good (And hard to remove, I"m looking at you Uril and Wall of denial) dudes from the field at the cost of a card and say..a saproling token. If you lock yourself into card advantage, you can't really play this game to it's fullest.
most of your ratings are off and don't even correspond to your rating system...
stormblade is way better than grimblade
godtracker is better than anathemancer in limited
finest hour is not that bomby
fight to the death is not better than something like aven mimeomancer
if you've played with both defiler of souls and broodmother, you should know that defiler is 10x easier to cast and much more relevant in most games because of how slow the broodmother is
sorry, but the 1-5 system doesn't really work and you should play a lot more before writing articles or evaluating cards you've barely played with
"I have no idea why this card was printed"
Me neither, save that matbe there is a card coming up in Zendikar that you can break it with. If it didn't skip the draw step It would combo great with Lyzolda the Bloodwitch.
Nice article,i think in the next PE,format will turn too control decks,i``m not sure at 100% but the decks i`m seeing in queues and in casual,make i think about that.
The great thing about MTGO is that you can edit the card text, so the wording changes don't have to effect you. We have a discussion about it over on the gleemax forums with directions on how to do it if anyone's interested.
This card gets very little respect, as it came out in Mirrodin surrounded by equipment, so it actually was a pretty terrible card in that environment. In tenth edition, it does very well against cards like Wall of Air, Drudge Skeletons, Phantom Warrior, Cloud Elemental.. actually it shuts down most evasion creatures. It's not very good against Green, but for it's casting cost, it's playability, and the fact that it goes very late, it is definitely an under rated card. Obviously if you are in black, you pick all the common removal over this, but it does allow a deck to slide towards the mono black end of things, one of my favorite archetypes in 10th if available.
Just wanted to point out a few things. I've drafted this format alot and feel like I have a good idea of pick orders and card ratings overall. Anyway first of all you have Grixis Grimblade as a 2 and Esper Stormblade as a 2.5 I'm just going to assume that's a mistake. Also I have to say that I think Behemoth Sledge is a 1. I don't ever see myself passing it although strangely enough in all the times I've drafted I've never opened it or been passed it yet however that has allowed me to lose otherwise unloseable games to that one card. I'd be willing to splash it in esper if I have the fixing and only really see myself not considering it if I was in Grixis. Also when you say that it's easier to get an artifact heavy sealed pool than in draft I have to disagree since I've had at least 4 drafts with 15+ artifacts and Arsenal Thresher becomes a great creature in that deck but even with around 10 I would consider him solid. Another rating I don't agree with is Filigree Angel. The card is more than playable although definitely not a bomb. Everytime I've seen it played it's gained at least 9 life and it's also a 4/4 flyer to eventually fly in for the win. It does however cost 8 and most of the time you want something that costs 8 to win you the game especially in this format but from my experience it isn't terrible. Also although I haven't played with or against Fight to the Death I have to assume it's as bad as I think it is. Maybe if it was in Jund colours and you had Necrogenesis but even chumpblocking and using this card you're still 2for1ing yourself so I really don't like it but I guess I could be wrong.
Surprisingly I didn't see someone mention this yet: July 4th is Independence Day in the US. This will probably decrease attendance due to vacations and barbecues, etc.
This was the first classic deck i built like 2 years ago.
its a shame that its just outside of tournament playabilaty.
I bet if we had black vise unrestricted we could get it going though.
mine was u/w for filtering and card draw
Wow, your articles are incredibly comprehensive and chock full of content; this is about ten times the length of the other articles that show up on PureMTGO. You should get paid ten times as much for this, no?
theres a problem with that mox analegy. its not strongholds fault that the set really sucks lol. there is no money card besides for mox to be there. i guarentee when we get urza it will not have 1 card over 20 tix prob not even 1 over 15. why cause the set has 4-5 money cards instead of 1. its just how it goes. i think if the p9 were released in such a way my idea would be 5 duels MED3 5 power lands MED4 workshop, bazzar,library, tabernacle, maze?, and then med 5 5 mox's and then med 6 the other 4 power so that even spread of powerful cards to not make a 1 card set again.
I've read this comment about three times and remain thoroughly confused.
Did you actually *read* the MTGO thread? I ask because if you actually did you'd probably notice something. The vast majority of the posters on the MTGO forums don't like the changes. In fact, the concerns voiced in the MTGO thread are the EXACT same as every other criticism thread thus far. The only major difference is that instead of useless and irrelevant hyperbole that flows through the other threads. That's it. It's the same complaints just focused and thought out instead of constant complaints about the new rules by people who don't even remotely understand the current ones.
I'm sorry that you feel so jaded against the MTGO community that you can't see the difference between balanced discussion or shills.
This is by far the best article i have read on pure in a long time. Keep up the great work! Hope to get more related articles on past concepts and deck ideas and how they can translate into the current meta.
I did give you constructive criticism: you're wrong and you should play more. I can't get more constructive than that, you're not posting your plays or your draft, you're simply giving wrong valuations
1. I can't argue this any more. Stormblade is simply more useful. You're not helping new players if you tell them grimblade is overall a stronger card than stormblade. It's sometimes better but that's like saying shock is better than lightning bolt because you could get mindslavered. Most players would simply agree that if mana is not a problem, stormblade is much better in most situations which makes it a better card
2. If you're writing an article about evaluating cards, you should make sure those evaluations make sense. Anathemancer will never do more than 1 damage in 99% of games while the godtracker can be a 23rd card. There are very few nonbasic lands (ie not posts) that stay in play for more than a turn
3. I've played with it. Twice. It doesn't do that much to the game state, it's simply too conditional and will often feel like you're down a creature
4. 3 for 3/1 flier is already good, and it fits in quite well in UW aggro decks. 1 toughness does not make it bad, the same way that it doesn't make stinger bad. Fight to the death is not a good card. Being good in some situations does not make the card good. Readers don't need people telling them when a card will be good, they need a fair evaluation of the card as a pick
5. Yes, defiler is a double edged sword but it's much much stronger than broodmother. The ability is good for you because 1) opponent sacs first and 2) you can build your deck/board around it and 3) you're the one with the multicolored 5/5 flier. Broodmother is harder to cast than predator dragon (which is already very difficult to cast on turn 6), and doesn't immediately change the game state. Defiler is a bomb just by being a 5/5, broodmother is mostly a hard to cast 4/4 that I'd take removal over
How childish of you to suggest that I can't criticize you because I don't have the time to write full articles. I've never laid an egg, yet I can tell you how they taste. Articles need to contain truth, and your's contains very little. I'll stop criticizing you once you start paying attention to what you write
*sigh* I would like CONSTRUCTIVE criticism only please.
1.For stormblade vs. Grimblade, read above.
2.They both suck, so does it really matter? At least anathemancer might at least shock them upon entering play. Godtracker is just...no.
3. You've obviously never actually played against it then. Bant players generally already take things like infiltrators and war monks. Guess how much fun those are to fight against with finest hour in play?
4. Jund sojourners. All I have to say to aven mimeomancer. Thanks for the cantrips. REad above explination for fight to the death and for sledge Same concept applies. Mimeomancer IS good if you can support it with an endless swarm of dudes, but unless we're not playing with the same shuffler, that doesn't happen often. If you find some way to make the shuffler cooperate, by all means, tell me.
5. Err...Slow? Granted, it's not horribly easy to drop broodmother, but I'd rather have her then defiler...She can instantly trade for defiler with her token, and defiler also has the potential to be a double edged sword. Have you ever had a crystallized defiler on your side of the field? I have and it's certainly not much fun. Repeat same with broodmother. Still an advantageous scenario.
I'm changing my system to 1-10, and if your going to criticize me, at least try acting like more then an impetuous child when you do it. WE all work hard her to give our readers articles they can enjoy, and I no less then any other. Like I tell anyone who criticizes writer here, try taking our job before criticizing us.
As an avid Kaleidoscope player I can attest to the insane value of Bituminous Blast. Bloodbraid Elf is only really good in a crazed aggro variant. Don't get me wrong; she's still an absolutely bonkers card, it just doesn't have a proper home at the moment...
Bituminous Blast, on the other hand is quite possibly the nuttiest card in the format. Depending on your build it can potentially be a 5 mana counterspell that burns out a creature for no extra cost. Playing Bituminous Blast on a Swans of Brynn Argol is quite possibly the most ridiculous play in the format. Just trust me though: cascading into a lightning helix or anathemancer, even lightning angel, is just downright insanity.
-Dr. T-Rex
First of all, It's difficult to rate cards on a five point system. I'm changing it to a ten point simply because it makes it too difficult to rate cards with smaller levels of change.
I'm sorry, I'm new to writing articles, and your input is appreciated. Now on to the cards.
Rating cards is alot of a matter of playing style. I actually DO believe that Grixis grimblade is better then Stormblade as he generates awkward blocking situations and makes it much more difficult for your opponent to retaliate. I naturally lean toward defensive, control style play (THoug hall my best moments have been when playing aggresively...). Thus I prefer grimblde to stormblade. And he doesn't give my opponent a cantrip for blowing it away.
Behemoth sledge: THe concept of a 1 rating is something so overwhelming you can't possibly think of not taking it due to it's power/simplicity to use and relevancy. I think of the shining example of this is in Alra block would be something like Battlegrace angel or Uril the misstalker. Both have an absolutely absurd power level, and battlegrace is immediately relevent, while Uril is almost unremovable. I myself maindeck artifact hate int his format, so sledge loses points there. Plus sledge requires a creature to actually do anything, which also lowers it's rating. I'm not saying sledge isn't an amazing card.
I say thresher is harder in draft just because Esper itself is extremely overdrafted, at least in the Swiss and 4-3-2-2 queues. I'm not sure what the 8-4 metagame is. I personally really like arsenal thresher, though not his mana cost...
Filigree angel just gives you life, and that's what I fel the problem with it is. I'd take it if I had ALOT of artifacts but...meh. ONe thing you must realize is that these are totally objective ratings of the card by itself. Any card in these sets (except the poor cathartic adept) is good in SOME situation. Hell, i've gotten beaten down by vicious shadows before. That doesn't make it good.
Fight to the Death is good. Just try it someday. I thought it sucked too, but if you think about it, it can turn a hopeless bord situation into an at least even one. It's not really good for offense, but defensively it can wipe away their good (And hard to remove, I"m looking at you Uril and Wall of denial) dudes from the field at the cost of a card and say..a saproling token. If you lock yourself into card advantage, you can't really play this game to it's fullest.
Remember, path to exile is a 2-for-1 technically.
Yeah that's what I assumed, I didn't think you'd be able to make any card do whatever you want =)
I was talking about the purely ascetic changes.
most of your ratings are off and don't even correspond to your rating system...
stormblade is way better than grimblade
godtracker is better than anathemancer in limited
finest hour is not that bomby
fight to the death is not better than something like aven mimeomancer
if you've played with both defiler of souls and broodmother, you should know that defiler is 10x easier to cast and much more relevant in most games because of how slow the broodmother is
sorry, but the 1-5 system doesn't really work and you should play a lot more before writing articles or evaluating cards you've barely played with
Hey Hammy,
the MTGO release calendar was mentioned heavily in this article. Where can we view it?
Correction:
You can edit how the card appears to you. The game server will still play the card as it would with official MTG errata.
"I have no idea why this card was printed"
Me neither, save that matbe there is a card coming up in Zendikar that you can break it with. If it didn't skip the draw step It would combo great with Lyzolda the Bloodwitch.
Again, with typical WOTC efficiency, we have learned absolutely nothing useful. Way to go, Worth and Wotc.
If Black Vise hits MTGO I'll work on the deck with you, I bet we can make it work
Thanks for the feedback man, I appreciate it!
I had absolutely no idea that you could do that, pretty cool!
Nice article,i think in the next PE,format will turn too control decks,i``m not sure at 100% but the decks i`m seeing in queues and in casual,make i think about that.
Hey Josh.. you sure deck 5 was vjsmoke's? it sure looks like the one i submitted...not that it matters since it didn't win.
The great thing about MTGO is that you can edit the card text, so the wording changes don't have to effect you. We have a discussion about it over on the gleemax forums with directions on how to do it if anyone's interested.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1202845
This card gets very little respect, as it came out in Mirrodin surrounded by equipment, so it actually was a pretty terrible card in that environment. In tenth edition, it does very well against cards like Wall of Air, Drudge Skeletons, Phantom Warrior, Cloud Elemental.. actually it shuts down most evasion creatures. It's not very good against Green, but for it's casting cost, it's playability, and the fact that it goes very late, it is definitely an under rated card. Obviously if you are in black, you pick all the common removal over this, but it does allow a deck to slide towards the mono black end of things, one of my favorite archetypes in 10th if available.
Just wanted to point out a few things. I've drafted this format alot and feel like I have a good idea of pick orders and card ratings overall. Anyway first of all you have Grixis Grimblade as a 2 and Esper Stormblade as a 2.5 I'm just going to assume that's a mistake. Also I have to say that I think Behemoth Sledge is a 1. I don't ever see myself passing it although strangely enough in all the times I've drafted I've never opened it or been passed it yet however that has allowed me to lose otherwise unloseable games to that one card. I'd be willing to splash it in esper if I have the fixing and only really see myself not considering it if I was in Grixis. Also when you say that it's easier to get an artifact heavy sealed pool than in draft I have to disagree since I've had at least 4 drafts with 15+ artifacts and Arsenal Thresher becomes a great creature in that deck but even with around 10 I would consider him solid. Another rating I don't agree with is Filigree Angel. The card is more than playable although definitely not a bomb. Everytime I've seen it played it's gained at least 9 life and it's also a 4/4 flyer to eventually fly in for the win. It does however cost 8 and most of the time you want something that costs 8 to win you the game especially in this format but from my experience it isn't terrible. Also although I haven't played with or against Fight to the Death I have to assume it's as bad as I think it is. Maybe if it was in Jund colours and you had Necrogenesis but even chumpblocking and using this card you're still 2for1ing yourself so I really don't like it but I guess I could be wrong.
Surprisingly I didn't see someone mention this yet: July 4th is Independence Day in the US. This will probably decrease attendance due to vacations and barbecues, etc.
This was the first classic deck i built like 2 years ago.
its a shame that its just outside of tournament playabilaty.
I bet if we had black vise unrestricted we could get it going though.
mine was u/w for filtering and card draw
Wow, your articles are incredibly comprehensive and chock full of content; this is about ten times the length of the other articles that show up on PureMTGO. You should get paid ten times as much for this, no?