3-3 is pretty good with that build. I like the Naya or Jund ideas with a splash for a 4th color. Domain is streching it I think. The Mace has always done well for me even with 3 colors. The Parasite is too fragile to be worth it. How did your games go? Did you ever crack off the Knight!??
White should be one of the main colours. I'd get the land count down to 16 or 17 and rely more on the basic land cyclers. The land cyclers allow you to get greedy with both the amount of land you run and the variety. Use them. But be ready to mulligan.
I think you run mostly with Naya, splashing for Jund Charm and Rhox War Monk. You want to be able to run your Domain cards, like the two Dragonsoul Knights. Toxic Iguanar and Spore Burst don't impress me, and Tukatongue Thallid is just bad.
What this card pool lacks in removal, it can make up for in aggression and some quality threats. It also has the mana to make it work, and some gas to make it go. I'd take this card pool over a random card pool anytime.
Now that I've heard the rest of the discussion, I'd like to comment on the section about anonymous comments. One of the things that I would like to preserve here is the ability to comment on things without logging in. It's very important because the site currently doesn't have much to offer a person for logging in except for tracking comments that you have read / are new and posting articles. Most of the readers aren't going to write an article for the site (although it would be great if they did!) so it is often just a lot faster to comment without logging in.
Anonymity creates the types of people who can say things like the BDM-faker did say, but it was fairly obvious that it wasn't the real BDM due to the tone. As the site becomes more popular, we may implement some more measures such as comment moderation for new posters and punishments for people who have posted bad things in the past. I don't think that the site is at the level that it needs this type of advanced moderation though. The site is indeed built on Drupal so there are a lot of options available if it comes to that point.
I'm always trying to improve the site, and there will be some significant improvements in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Not a direct comment on ur deck,just a general thought on pauper.i made top 8 with mu aggro,and in 8 rounds never played against a similiar deck!plus i told myself even if i had no chance of top 8ing id still play out all my matches,which is saying something bcuz in the standard champs i was so put off by all the dex i went 1-1 drop,bak to bed lol.Just goes to show the environment is very interesting,and as this top 8 showed,mbc isnt wrecking it as far as i can see.
Very very strange. I'll check my audio settings before the next recording to see if I can track down why it's splitting the audio like this... *grumble*
Yea I have sebastian on the right and erik on the left as well. It's kindof offputting at first especially if you have headphones on, but if you have them on speakers it helps to distinguish them a little more. I would prefer some of the other person in the other channel though at least.
It is one way that you can guarantee that the people will not have widely different levels though, as you can change the volume of each person separately.
Yes,
This article seems a bit short. It seems more like an exercise in building a sealed deck...
I'm surprised you didn't play the Manaforce Mace in your deck. I would think that would be an auto-include in just about any deck you'd make.
Also, I think Manaplasm and Mycoloth are pretty good. I'm not sure what kind of bombs you are expecting to get, but you can't exactly get a Elspeth or a Broodmate Dragon in every limited event you play in..
I probably would have played WG with small splashes of red for Rakeclaw, Bull Cerodon, and Magma Spray, and blue for Waveskimmer and Rhox War Monk. You have the landcyclers and land for it. If you focused on White/Green, I think you could have done well with an early game Exalted Squire rush followed by a splash big creatures.
The rules for the non-budget contest don't have any restriction on rares, land or otherwise. Therefore, the aforementioned UG deck could only be submitted for the non-budget contest.
The second draft looks like it woulda been a really good draft for Jund shard. IMO... Mycoloth... Rockslide Elemental... Goblin Deathraiders.. etc. Wow... lot's of token generators too
I (and many others I suspect) can't build anything from the way your pool is presented. Have you seen the way Sadin presents pools on the mothership? It is a much easier representation. Another option would be a screen shot from MtgO - blown up, obv.
I don't like the toxic iguanar or the kederect parasite at all. 1/1's need to be better than that for me to play - i.e. squires or nacatls (and I usually only play nacatls if I can get full value from them).
Your pool isn't the greatest; I would have gone Naya - with your gleams and the spire/bant panorama I looked at possible splashes, only jund charm looked acceptable and it alone wasn't enough.
So a straight, if uninspiring, Naya build.
On a side note, I have been in Reborn beta - on MtgO it is so hard to build a deck when - even if you shrink the 'deck' portion of the interface - the multicolored pile is longer than your screen. Very irritating.
This would be a great article, but it's so short! If you're only going to include information from one tournament, how about some match reports? I hit the end, and was like, "That's it?"
Yes, I think we've reached the same conclusions about the direction in which Kaleidoscope will go post Alara Reborn. However I just think it's a bit silly to put so much emphasis on Anathemancer.
From your intro it seems like you feel that card alone is going to change the format drastically.
5-Color Control is going to be harder to play because of the huge infusion of quality cards that speeds up the game and also fill in some gaps in many of the 2-3 color decks. 5-color was able to do well because it was able to sacrifice speed for large spells with a huge impact on the game such as Oversoul of Dusk, Cruel Ultimatum, and Teferi's Moat. That becomes quite a bit harder with all of the speed and power that is going to be added to the format including Pridemage, Bloodbraid Elf, the blades, Putrid Leech, and yes, Anathemancer.
Basically, when all of the color combinations get a lot of good cards, the disparity between the power of the cards in 5-color and the power of the cards in the 2 and 3 color decks shrinks, thus making the consistency of the mana base a bigger issue, giving those 2-3 color decks a better game against 5-color decks regardless of Anathemancer.
I'm glad to see you recant at least a little bit on your rather extreme "All my decks from now on will contain only eight nonbasics."
As potent as Anathemancer is, he's really not as potent at hosing people who play nothing but nonbasics as Ghost Quarter is... Let's face it, Strip Mine is better than one-half of price of progress with flashback. That aside, the presence of the occasional basic-heavy deck limits the potency of both ultimately.
What really makes Anathemancer less worrisome to me is the fact that alongside the new nonbasic hoser we are also getting a Cranial Extraction variant, which should be outstanding for stripping those irritating anathemancers dead in the water. (Remember, it hits the graveyard too, so unearth is essentially negated as well.)
For that reason, I still disagree that 5 color is dead. there's just too much potency to be had from putting all the best cards in the format together.
I also completely remember that screenshot, and with a bit of tuning (say a counter in place of firespout) I think that you'd be perfectly comfortable with your opponent trying to make an anathemancer.
That said, Anathemancer is certainly going to be a powerful card, just not format-warping in the way you appear to be expecting. Don't get me wrong; he deserves and will see play; he just won't turn off 5 color lists or even nonbasic-heavy lists to the extent you indicate.
Taking master of etherium over agony warp is a huge mistake IMO, and passing the Mycoloth (huge huge bomb, especially against naya/bant) is just... unbelievable. The drafter to your right took an uncommon over mycoloth, which I simply cannot understand. There is no uncommon in the set better than mycoloth, not tower gargoyle, bull cerodon, skeletonize, etc
I'd probably then take jund charm for jund or 5cc with 3 excellent picks already
forcing esper is very hard, you'll succeed maybe 30% of the time. Sanctum gargoyles are the backbone of the deck, and any esper player will take them over just about everything else. I generally don't enter esper until I get PASSED a sanctum gargoyle
I also almost never take ultimatums, even cruel ultimatum. They're too hard to cast, especially since I rarely play obelisks. I would take knight of the skyward eye over that ultimatum
Yeah, insistence on killing planeswalkers is one of the most common mistakes done in this format. Often you have to realise that attacking your opponent's planeswalkers will just lead to you not hitting his life points and him getting to make good use of the other versions of the legendary-like walkers he has in hand. This is particularly true of Elspeth of course, but sometime you might consider it for other walkers, even Ajani can stay reasonable quite some time.
Actually I spend a lot of time for making my articles more appealing and easy to read. I'm glad to know that this effort of mine is noticed by careful eyes.
Tri-color or even four color decks are excellent. In Part II, I talk about the deck I'm currently playing in 2mans which is a four color deck and which is still undefeated. I talk about the future of it with Anathemancer in mind. I say in that part that I might continue playing that deck as it is with the 24 nonbasics I'm currently playing because ..... (well let's end the spoilers here).
In my previous article I have a screenshot somewhere in the middle of the article. I was playing against a GWu deck and I took the screenshot just before the game ended. Please take a look at it. Imagine me playing an Anathemancer at that point (or my opponent playing one). That will tell you why I'm afraid of it so much.
Although I haven't just been working purely on the Johnny side of Kaleidoscope. If I had the werewithal to join the K-scope queues, it is likely I would have done so. I've spent the past months playing against, and in a number of cases beating, decks that people were testing for the queues before the format was officially legal. I've examined firsthand the various strategies people have been using to win packs. I accept your analysis as fully valid, and acknowledge your experiences in the queues, but I am not speaking solely from a position of casual ignorance.
One of the reasons I've tried these combos is because I like experimenting with the format: Putting the combo into a deck and seeing if I can win with it. It entertains me for a while, then I move on to other decks, other ideas. I would say that I *do* try to break it, every which way I can, as this column has chronicled over the years, but in a way that adds to the charm of the format rather than detracting from it. It isn't abouut creating the best deck and grinding everyone else down with it until a better deck can be developed. It's about *Fun.* As Felorin alluded to, it's about doing something cool that may well win a lot of games then moving on, but having a chance to do those really cool things is a boon to the format. It's a Timmy/Johnny thing, to touch upon the overused psychographics.
3-3 is pretty good with that build. I like the Naya or Jund ideas with a splash for a 4th color. Domain is streching it I think. The Mace has always done well for me even with 3 colors. The Parasite is too fragile to be worth it. How did your games go? Did you ever crack off the Knight!??
Horribly built.
White should be one of the main colours. I'd get the land count down to 16 or 17 and rely more on the basic land cyclers. The land cyclers allow you to get greedy with both the amount of land you run and the variety. Use them. But be ready to mulligan.
I think you run mostly with Naya, splashing for Jund Charm and Rhox War Monk. You want to be able to run your Domain cards, like the two Dragonsoul Knights. Toxic Iguanar and Spore Burst don't impress me, and Tukatongue Thallid is just bad.
What this card pool lacks in removal, it can make up for in aggression and some quality threats. It also has the mana to make it work, and some gas to make it go. I'd take this card pool over a random card pool anytime.
Not a direct comment on ur deck,just a general thought on pauper.i made top 8 with mu aggro,and in 8 rounds never played against a similiar deck!plus i told myself even if i had no chance of top 8ing id still play out all my matches,which is saying something bcuz in the standard champs i was so put off by all the dex i went 1-1 drop,bak to bed lol.Just goes to show the environment is very interesting,and as this top 8 showed,mbc isnt wrecking it as far as i can see.
Very very strange. I'll check my audio settings before the next recording to see if I can track down why it's splitting the audio like this... *grumble*
Yes,
This article seems a bit short. It seems more like an exercise in building a sealed deck...
I'm surprised you didn't play the Manaforce Mace in your deck. I would think that would be an auto-include in just about any deck you'd make.
Also, I think Manaplasm and Mycoloth are pretty good. I'm not sure what kind of bombs you are expecting to get, but you can't exactly get a Elspeth or a Broodmate Dragon in every limited event you play in..
I probably would have played WG with small splashes of red for Rakeclaw, Bull Cerodon, and Magma Spray, and blue for Waveskimmer and Rhox War Monk. You have the landcyclers and land for it. If you focused on White/Green, I think you could have done well with an early game Exalted Squire rush followed by a splash big creatures.
The rules for the non-budget contest don't have any restriction on rares, land or otherwise. Therefore, the aforementioned UG deck could only be submitted for the non-budget contest.
Not the greatest pool I've ever seen but I think I would have gone for the Jund shard like you did. Did the Dragonsoul Knight pay off for you?
The second draft looks like it woulda been a really good draft for Jund shard. IMO... Mycoloth... Rockslide Elemental... Goblin Deathraiders.. etc. Wow... lot's of token generators too
I (and many others I suspect) can't build anything from the way your pool is presented. Have you seen the way Sadin presents pools on the mothership? It is a much easier representation. Another option would be a screen shot from MtgO - blown up, obv.
I don't like the toxic iguanar or the kederect parasite at all. 1/1's need to be better than that for me to play - i.e. squires or nacatls (and I usually only play nacatls if I can get full value from them).
Your pool isn't the greatest; I would have gone Naya - with your gleams and the spire/bant panorama I looked at possible splashes, only jund charm looked acceptable and it alone wasn't enough.
So a straight, if uninspiring, Naya build.
On a side note, I have been in Reborn beta - on MtgO it is so hard to build a deck when - even if you shrink the 'deck' portion of the interface - the multicolored pile is longer than your screen. Very irritating.
This would be a great article, but it's so short! If you're only going to include information from one tournament, how about some match reports? I hit the end, and was like, "That's it?"
i can't hear sabastian
Yes, I think we've reached the same conclusions about the direction in which Kaleidoscope will go post Alara Reborn. However I just think it's a bit silly to put so much emphasis on Anathemancer.
From your intro it seems like you feel that card alone is going to change the format drastically.
5-Color Control is going to be harder to play because of the huge infusion of quality cards that speeds up the game and also fill in some gaps in many of the 2-3 color decks. 5-color was able to do well because it was able to sacrifice speed for large spells with a huge impact on the game such as Oversoul of Dusk, Cruel Ultimatum, and Teferi's Moat. That becomes quite a bit harder with all of the speed and power that is going to be added to the format including Pridemage, Bloodbraid Elf, the blades, Putrid Leech, and yes, Anathemancer.
Basically, when all of the color combinations get a lot of good cards, the disparity between the power of the cards in 5-color and the power of the cards in the 2 and 3 color decks shrinks, thus making the consistency of the mana base a bigger issue, giving those 2-3 color decks a better game against 5-color decks regardless of Anathemancer.
Can you give examples of which cards to take out when bringing in cards from the sideboard for the various matches?
I'm glad to see you recant at least a little bit on your rather extreme "All my decks from now on will contain only eight nonbasics."
As potent as Anathemancer is, he's really not as potent at hosing people who play nothing but nonbasics as Ghost Quarter is... Let's face it, Strip Mine is better than one-half of price of progress with flashback. That aside, the presence of the occasional basic-heavy deck limits the potency of both ultimately.
What really makes Anathemancer less worrisome to me is the fact that alongside the new nonbasic hoser we are also getting a Cranial Extraction variant, which should be outstanding for stripping those irritating anathemancers dead in the water. (Remember, it hits the graveyard too, so unearth is essentially negated as well.)
For that reason, I still disagree that 5 color is dead. there's just too much potency to be had from putting all the best cards in the format together.
I also completely remember that screenshot, and with a bit of tuning (say a counter in place of firespout) I think that you'd be perfectly comfortable with your opponent trying to make an anathemancer.
That said, Anathemancer is certainly going to be a powerful card, just not format-warping in the way you appear to be expecting. Don't get me wrong; he deserves and will see play; he just won't turn off 5 color lists or even nonbasic-heavy lists to the extent you indicate.
They are forthcoming, I promise.
-Alex
wheres the 92 player decklist? pretty pls?
Ouch, what happened second draft?
Taking master of etherium over agony warp is a huge mistake IMO, and passing the Mycoloth (huge huge bomb, especially against naya/bant) is just... unbelievable. The drafter to your right took an uncommon over mycoloth, which I simply cannot understand. There is no uncommon in the set better than mycoloth, not tower gargoyle, bull cerodon, skeletonize, etc
I'd probably then take jund charm for jund or 5cc with 3 excellent picks already
forcing esper is very hard, you'll succeed maybe 30% of the time. Sanctum gargoyles are the backbone of the deck, and any esper player will take them over just about everything else. I generally don't enter esper until I get PASSED a sanctum gargoyle
I also almost never take ultimatums, even cruel ultimatum. They're too hard to cast, especially since I rarely play obelisks. I would take knight of the skyward eye over that ultimatum
Yeah, insistence on killing planeswalkers is one of the most common mistakes done in this format. Often you have to realise that attacking your opponent's planeswalkers will just lead to you not hitting his life points and him getting to make good use of the other versions of the legendary-like walkers he has in hand. This is particularly true of Elspeth of course, but sometime you might consider it for other walkers, even Ajani can stay reasonable quite some time.
Thank you.
Actually I spend a lot of time for making my articles more appealing and easy to read. I'm glad to know that this effort of mine is noticed by careful eyes.
LE
Thanks for the comments.
Tri-color or even four color decks are excellent. In Part II, I talk about the deck I'm currently playing in 2mans which is a four color deck and which is still undefeated. I talk about the future of it with Anathemancer in mind. I say in that part that I might continue playing that deck as it is with the 24 nonbasics I'm currently playing because ..... (well let's end the spoilers here).
In my previous article I have a screenshot somewhere in the middle of the article. I was playing against a GWu deck and I took the screenshot just before the game ended. Please take a look at it. Imagine me playing an Anathemancer at that point (or my opponent playing one). That will tell you why I'm afraid of it so much.
LE
Although I haven't just been working purely on the Johnny side of Kaleidoscope. If I had the werewithal to join the K-scope queues, it is likely I would have done so. I've spent the past months playing against, and in a number of cases beating, decks that people were testing for the queues before the format was officially legal. I've examined firsthand the various strategies people have been using to win packs. I accept your analysis as fully valid, and acknowledge your experiences in the queues, but I am not speaking solely from a position of casual ignorance.
One of the reasons I've tried these combos is because I like experimenting with the format: Putting the combo into a deck and seeing if I can win with it. It entertains me for a while, then I move on to other decks, other ideas. I would say that I *do* try to break it, every which way I can, as this column has chronicled over the years, but in a way that adds to the charm of the format rather than detracting from it. It isn't abouut creating the best deck and grinding everyone else down with it until a better deck can be developed. It's about *Fun.* As Felorin alluded to, it's about doing something cool that may well win a lot of games then moving on, but having a chance to do those really cool things is a boon to the format. It's a Timmy/Johnny thing, to touch upon the overused psychographics.