The new charts are TERRIBLE. They lack contrast, the text is too small, and are much harder to read. Stop trying to make them look fancy and just make them readable.
Yeah Excel can do some fancy charts; I do this quite a bit. These are starting to look much better. One suggestion I have would be, for the overall set price chart to make the bars solid. They are not as readable when it is just the outline.
I dunno, I can expect an expected value, but not get the expected value that I expected. Maybe? No? Hmmm. Good point there.
I may just designate the promos with a "*promo*" after the card name as most of them are actually legitimate movements and should be tracked, I think. Actually, I think I might add a line to keep track of the promo cards as well, now that they are well over 100 tix for a 1x set... probably time to make the overall ham jones more generic and then break the details into separate charts, now that I think about it....
I don't like how you keep claiming that those who oppose a ban on Crypt Rats are ignoring you or misunderstanding your position. I honestly have not seen evidence of that. Rather, what I see are a lot of people simply disagreeing with you. In good faith, I'd like to try my best to summarize your argument:
Crypt Rats produce a "Tier 1" effect that no other card can produce. Only Swamps can produce Crypt Rats. Therefore, only Swamps can produce this particular effect.
A balanced format does not require a player to use one particular land type. Crypt Rats imbalances the format by effectively requiring a player to use Swamps (or else knowingly play a deck without access to the same "Tier 1" effect). Therefore, Crypt Rats should be banned.
I think the old HamJones was more legible, even if it wasn't as fancy looking.
The promos are really throwing a wrench in the column's gears. Maybe it'd be better to ignore them altogether? How relevant is the price progression of promo cards anyway? It'd be much more interesting to see the effect (if noticeable) the promos have on the regular version, I think. What would you (hypothetically) rather know, that Vindicate promos went from a placeholder price to 50$, or that regular Vindicates lost 3$ when the promos were released?
Finally, I don't think you can say "expected EV". Isn't that like saying "expected expected value"? Or does it make sense in a way I don't get?
Sideboard: (Really Rough, sorry...)
4x Recuperate (For Warrenless storm and Burn)
3x COP: Red (I hope I don't have to explain this one...)
2x COP: Black (To help my already nuts MBC matchup)
4x Martyr of Ashes (Vs. Aggro. Don't side out Red spells for it xD)
2x Grim Harvest (I really don't know why. But it's good, since all the creatures either have an activated effect [Martyr, Elder] or a CIP ability [Mulldrifter, coiling oracle])
But I'm reasonably sure control wouldn't even be a valid archetype in Standard without cryptic. It's just their card that solves everything. Yes, Crypt Rats is the same thing for MBC, but it's not integral to the deck itself as much as cryptic command is. It's just a good card, not a borken card like CC. Just my 2 cents.
Actually that's all excel 2003(I think, maybe 02?, it's an old version) but there appears to be a lot more that the charts can do than I ever new before this week.
Thanks to bubba0077 and Blade for sending out the challenge to make them look better, there's a lot of customization options I was completely ignorant about before.
Good interview, good stuff, and congrats to an MTGO-Only player for winning! That's actually what I was hoping to see happen.
Not that good paper players aren't appreciated on MTGO of course, but it's nice to see 'one of us' get the invite.
And I hope you're taking your GF to worlds! That should help ease the frustrations of you playing so much MTGO. :) Take care of her though, a woman that accepts an MTGO player addiction is few and far between!
The rules clearly state "no rare lands" for the budget contest. You are allowed rare lands in the non-budget competition, but that does not limit number of rares at all. Even if you are not using Shocklands or Pillars, rare lands are rare lands. I did not use Academy Ruins in my submission because it was rare. What is going on here?
I assume that this really wasn't BDM as its obvious from reading both articles they aren't the same and for one BDM doesn't even share the winning decklist. In fact the PureMTGO article is much more in depth and one could even assume, setting them side by side that the mothership's article was based on the PureMTGO. Not saying its true just Occam's Razor and all.
Yeah, I really need to figure out a faster way to differentiate the promo versions from the regular ones. Sorry for the confusion!
It's actually very typical of the dealers (not just MTGOTraders) to have pre-priced items below or above what they're real market value will be once they're available.
This way they can list them on their sites before they're available to be sold, but when they get them in stock they then update the price to what the market value is.
Again, sorry for the confusion and I'll see what I can do about linking them better in the future.
Yeah it was the promo version. We just had it priced at 6 by default and once it was released we changed the price to the true market price. Sorry for the confusion.
As you say the cascade decks look like a blast to play.
To bad that research//devolpement will count as a card with cmc less when 3 :/. It could have been amazing to start with 4 Restore balance and when move hypogenesis into the deck after your agro oppeonts starts to bite the dust... :)
Well, in my testing 5CC can easily be made to beat consistently just any of Naya versions (before or after Conflux which doesn't seem to change this matchup, and by any Naya version I mean I tested an awful lot). The thing is, it has to be very thightly played and constructed. Very "tiny" choices in the build or playing tactic can lead to a bad Naya-matchup. Reading 5CC decklists on MTGO i can tell you I can already see these mistakes all the time in the 5CC that top 8 (e.g. playing Courier's Capsule or Exotic Orchard), as some still seem to have good 5CC-build, I can only imagine they don't play them optimally. I'm afraid the modo Alara block isn't mature enough to grant a proper depiction of the real forces in play.
I predict much more 5CC success at the forthcoming pto tour. Q: And why, if I'm so good at this format, don't I rule MTGO-scene ? A: $$$
The new charts are TERRIBLE. They lack contrast, the text is too small, and are much harder to read. Stop trying to make them look fancy and just make them readable.
Yeah Excel can do some fancy charts; I do this quite a bit. These are starting to look much better. One suggestion I have would be, for the overall set price chart to make the bars solid. They are not as readable when it is just the outline.
paying tax on products in the mtgo store is governed by local laws. I know there is much more to this than what I just said. :/
i have never paid sales tax buying from the store. is this a state by state or country by country thing?
I dunno, I can expect an expected value, but not get the expected value that I expected. Maybe? No? Hmmm. Good point there.
I may just designate the promos with a "*promo*" after the card name as most of them are actually legitimate movements and should be tracked, I think. Actually, I think I might add a line to keep track of the promo cards as well, now that they are well over 100 tix for a 1x set... probably time to make the overall ham jones more generic and then break the details into separate charts, now that I think about it....
bladestk -
I don't like how you keep claiming that those who oppose a ban on Crypt Rats are ignoring you or misunderstanding your position. I honestly have not seen evidence of that. Rather, what I see are a lot of people simply disagreeing with you. In good faith, I'd like to try my best to summarize your argument:
Crypt Rats produce a "Tier 1" effect that no other card can produce. Only Swamps can produce Crypt Rats. Therefore, only Swamps can produce this particular effect.
A balanced format does not require a player to use one particular land type. Crypt Rats imbalances the format by effectively requiring a player to use Swamps (or else knowingly play a deck without access to the same "Tier 1" effect). Therefore, Crypt Rats should be banned.
Does that sound about right?
It would be interesting to see a chart for tickets I think
I think the old HamJones was more legible, even if it wasn't as fancy looking.
The promos are really throwing a wrench in the column's gears. Maybe it'd be better to ignore them altogether? How relevant is the price progression of promo cards anyway? It'd be much more interesting to see the effect (if noticeable) the promos have on the regular version, I think. What would you (hypothetically) rather know, that Vindicate promos went from a placeholder price to 50$, or that regular Vindicates lost 3$ when the promos were released?
Finally, I don't think you can say "expected EV". Isn't that like saying "expected expected value"? Or does it make sense in a way I don't get?
Someone wanted the deck so....
Creatures: 16
4x Sakura Tribe Elder
4x Coiling ORacle
4x Krosan Tusker
4x Mulldrifter
Spells: 19
4x Kodama's Reach
4x Exploding Borders
3x Tribal Flames
4x Rolling THunder
4x Resounding Thunder
Lands: 25
7x Forest
6x Mountain
5x Island
2x Plains
1x Swamp
4x Terramorphic expanse
Sideboard: (Really Rough, sorry...)
4x Recuperate (For Warrenless storm and Burn)
3x COP: Red (I hope I don't have to explain this one...)
2x COP: Black (To help my already nuts MBC matchup)
4x Martyr of Ashes (Vs. Aggro. Don't side out Red spells for it xD)
2x Grim Harvest (I really don't know why. But it's good, since all the creatures either have an activated effect [Martyr, Elder] or a CIP ability [Mulldrifter, coiling oracle])
But I'm reasonably sure control wouldn't even be a valid archetype in Standard without cryptic. It's just their card that solves everything. Yes, Crypt Rats is the same thing for MBC, but it's not integral to the deck itself as much as cryptic command is. It's just a good card, not a borken card like CC. Just my 2 cents.
Actually that's all excel 2003(I think, maybe 02?, it's an old version) but there appears to be a lot more that the charts can do than I ever new before this week.
Thanks to bubba0077 and Blade for sending out the challenge to make them look better, there's a lot of customization options I was completely ignorant about before.
:D
The new graphs are great. What did you make them in? It doesn't look like Excel (unless you switched to a newer version. Not sure what those can do).
Good interview, good stuff, and congrats to an MTGO-Only player for winning! That's actually what I was hoping to see happen.
Not that good paper players aren't appreciated on MTGO of course, but it's nice to see 'one of us' get the invite.
And I hope you're taking your GF to worlds! That should help ease the frustrations of you playing so much MTGO. :) Take care of her though, a woman that accepts an MTGO player addiction is few and far between!
Congrats again, and good look in Rome!
~Hammy
The rules clearly state "no rare lands" for the budget contest. You are allowed rare lands in the non-budget competition, but that does not limit number of rares at all. Even if you are not using Shocklands or Pillars, rare lands are rare lands. I did not use Academy Ruins in my submission because it was rare. What is going on here?
"I like Magic Online a lot as I tend to draft with my girlfriend by my side as we discuss card choices and deck building situations."
WTB this
I assume that this really wasn't BDM as its obvious from reading both articles they aren't the same and for one BDM doesn't even share the winning decklist. In fact the PureMTGO article is much more in depth and one could even assume, setting them side by side that the mothership's article was based on the PureMTGO. Not saying its true just Occam's Razor and all.
Good article though and an interesting read.
Yeah, I really need to figure out a faster way to differentiate the promo versions from the regular ones. Sorry for the confusion!
It's actually very typical of the dealers (not just MTGOTraders) to have pre-priced items below or above what they're real market value will be once they're available.
This way they can list them on their sites before they're available to be sold, but when they get them in stock they then update the price to what the market value is.
Again, sorry for the confusion and I'll see what I can do about linking them better in the future.
Maybe it's the promo version? I get confused when there is nothing to tell the reader if it is or not.
Also what happened to last weeks idea of a rolling 4 week price rather than just last week and this?
Good article tho.
As you say the cascade decks look like a blast to play.
To bad that research//devolpement will count as a card with cmc less when 3 :/. It could have been amazing to start with 4 Restore balance and when move hypogenesis into the deck after your agro oppeonts starts to bite the dust... :)
I hope you were joking! This is a completely different interview to the one in your article!
Nice job stealing this from my article you thief!
Cryptic Command must be an error. You never got one for 6$.
Any reason for cryptic command to jump such a leap?
Well, in my testing 5CC can easily be made to beat consistently just any of Naya versions (before or after Conflux which doesn't seem to change this matchup, and by any Naya version I mean I tested an awful lot). The thing is, it has to be very thightly played and constructed. Very "tiny" choices in the build or playing tactic can lead to a bad Naya-matchup. Reading 5CC decklists on MTGO i can tell you I can already see these mistakes all the time in the 5CC that top 8 (e.g. playing Courier's Capsule or Exotic Orchard), as some still seem to have good 5CC-build, I can only imagine they don't play them optimally. I'm afraid the modo Alara block isn't mature enough to grant a proper depiction of the real forces in play.
I predict much more 5CC success at the forthcoming pto tour. Q: And why, if I'm so good at this format, don't I rule MTGO-scene ? A: $$$