You're dead wrong about grixis, it was great in AAA and fairly underdrafted in AAC so you'll get good stuff late. RB creatures are weak in conflux, but the good blue creatures and removal more than makes up for it.
and there are definitely partial compensations if you've already won product
It is nasty that there is no way to block an opponent from thrash talking. I even asked an ORC about it (after getting 'n00bed' by two opponents en suite), he said it's being looked into :) makes me as a software engineer wonder what's so difficult about no showing messages of blocked opponents.
Anyway, I really love that you kicked this guy's ass. For some reason, I, too, ALWAYS win when people complain about my luck, tell me I'm such a n00b, advise me to stop wasting tix and go to the casual room. Always. So far, I have yet to lose a single game after being trashed by an opponent for playing 'bad'.
If someone joining classic want to get an overview of Stronghold, well, here is the place to be !
I also like the wall of tears for its bounce effect ;)
They definitely take into consideration if you won any boosters on the draft you're filing a refund request for.
I've had my request fully denied when I managed to make it to the finals of the draft (winning 3 boosters), despite missing the first 13 picks of booster #2. I've also only received a partial refund ($7) when I lost in the 2nd round of a 4-3-2-2 that froze on me.
Hi great article by the way.
I´m not 110% sure but I think you get the full refund no matter how many games you win.
You could even win the whole draft. The thing is you pay to play magic not to win, so if you miss picks in your draft you don´t get to do a "normal" draft like you would in paper-magic, so they pay the refund no matter the actual outcome of the draft. As I said I´m not a 100% sure so it would be nice if someone who knows for sure could confirm/correct my statement. And go on !!
Having drafted excessively in prior years (stopped during Lorwyn/Morningtide on MODO to take a leave of absence), I commend your ability to trudge on for those QPs. I really enjoyed this article a lot and despite your losses, I wish you the best on future drafts!
I really enjoy this deck. I agree about the fact that merfolk seems to be a better deck in our current meta, but our recent matchUP showed a pretty nice effiency however. I think that with some optimizations, this deck could be really interesting (and in a legacy format, it would be playable & competitive for sure).
I agree with whiffy. In this combo meta merfolk deck does a better job. Not only because of cursecatcher, but the consistency in general. Plus, many merfolk builds run additional disruption like wasteland and spellstutter sprite. Still I like the counter slivers idea and I think it can be competitive and fun. Thank you, the writer, for sharing your insights in this format.
You know, if I were a snob, which I'm not... I could say that the top writers here don't provide articles nearly as good as reading articles by Luis Scott Vargas, Patrick Chapin, etc. if you want to raise your game from "level 7" to "level 8" and win Pro Tour events. But you know, raising your skill to level 4 or 5 or 6 is relevant to a lot of people too - more people overall, akshully.
Likewise, you could say "this guy's article isn't good for raising your skills to level 5 like the other writers here could help you do". To which I say - GOOD! Some people out there are more interested in how to get from level 1 to level 2, or from 2 to 3. Plus having articles from people at more different points in the evolution of their play skill AND play style puts more variety and interest into the reading material here. Which is great.
People who ONLY want to read "what's the very very very very best way to win standard/extended/classic right now" have a very narrow range of interests. While I read the articles they do, and get valuable ideas from those articles, I would get bored as hell if that were the only type of article around.
Yeah, some of those cards are "bad" if you are Mr. Ultra-Spike. If you ever play Magic for fun, all those cards have their place and a lot of 'em are powerful in the right circumstances. Whether that be a meta that's shifted a certain way, the casual room, Elder Dragon Highlander (aka Commander), etc. I would certainly run Hallowed Burial in a singleton format where you only can have one wrath, and I'd throw in Austere Command too. I also have to say, owning 3 Hallowed Burial in Paper that I've ripped in packs, I am always paying attention whether the metagame at my local Friday Night Magic shifts enough towards unearth, persist, retrace, and/or any other graveyard shenanigans. If that happens - I'm gonna definitely have some Hallowed Burial at least in sideboard. I also have to say Hallowed has application against Indestructible (more relevant lately with Elspeth!), and it's even potentially better to have your own creatures swept that way if your deck has more in the way of creature tutoring than it has raise dead effects. Don't get me wrong, Wrath is a better card overall & if you want to win that trip to Rome or your next local PTQ, it's the four-of to have. But lots of cards have their place, whether it's budget as he said, casual, a less competitive environment like your local FNM, etc. Saying "playing that card makes you lame" doesn't make me think he's lame for playing it, it makes me think you're lame for being narrowminded and thinking that playing the top spikey tournament-quality builds is the ONLY thing Magic is about.
As for Magister Sphinx - I can't tell you how much fun I've had going end of turn, Master Transmuter bounces mindstone and puts out Sphinx, you're at 10. My turn, I untap and swing for 5 in the air. You're on a 1 turn clock sir, do you have an answer in hand or on top of your deck? Yes, it's Johnnyish. But johnnys deserve articles too, and that deck does win a fair amount - it was designed by no less than Steve Sadin for an article on wizards.com, and I had to build a version and play it. Singletons of Magister, Sharuum, Platinum Angel and Grim Poppet, four Sphinx Summoners that can find them - great deck. I'd rather be reading that Steve Sadin article - EVEN THOUGH IT DARED RUN MAGISTER SPHINX - than a whiny "this article sucks" comment. Any day.
Faerie Conclave has won me games against decks with sorcery-speed anti-creature measures that could keep all my regular creatures off the board, too. I think it's the second best 10th edition man-land after Treetop Village, and definitely worth running in some types of decks. Besides sometimes it's, you know - FUN.
Hibernation Sliver is amazing... He and Crystaline are the only two I care about in pretty much every matchup as the opposing player. If you're not running both of them, I'm not worried about the deck very much.
I have noticed that in todays classic counterslivers is a much worse option then merfolk. They play very similarly the oinly difference your giveing up mana denial and a force spike on legs. If necro and ant werent around i would say slivers are better but they are so for now i beleieve that folk are the better counterslivers deck (that just felt so wrong typing) also engineered explosives absolutely ruins your day which is a good reason to run hibernation.
Now that you have one of your favs online you should join the daily events and let her rip.
I think you're wrong about Hibernation Sliver, the card is amazing. People do block in classic. They also play lots of Engineered Explosives, which is pretty devastating when all 20 of your creatures cost 2 mana.
Using both Wells, Rain of tears and Polluted bonds, with Fulminator Mage, the evoke LD creature and Torrent of Souls to recur both, backed up by Incendiary command. It is doable, but much relies on nonbasics.
Magister Sphinx? 14 lands that come into play tapped? mogg fanatics & scullers in the sideboard? c'mon Jim.......I'm the worst std in MTGO history and even I think your deck-building is horrendous! LOL Milkshake, how can you say he knows the meta?
You're dead wrong about grixis, it was great in AAA and fairly underdrafted in AAC so you'll get good stuff late. RB creatures are weak in conflux, but the good blue creatures and removal more than makes up for it.
and there are definitely partial compensations if you've already won product
It is nasty that there is no way to block an opponent from thrash talking. I even asked an ORC about it (after getting 'n00bed' by two opponents en suite), he said it's being looked into :) makes me as a software engineer wonder what's so difficult about no showing messages of blocked opponents.
Anyway, I really love that you kicked this guy's ass. For some reason, I, too, ALWAYS win when people complain about my luck, tell me I'm such a n00b, advise me to stop wasting tix and go to the casual room. Always. So far, I have yet to lose a single game after being trashed by an opponent for playing 'bad'.
Good article!! Thanks
Seriously, is this off sale already?
Doing all three original shadow tribes would have felt a bit contrived: I wanted something with a different pace to it.
If someone joining classic want to get an overview of Stronghold, well, here is the place to be !
I also like the wall of tears for its bounce effect ;)
I think him dissing your mountaineer, then having to waste removal on it, is the ultimate revenge :)
They definitely take into consideration if you won any boosters on the draft you're filing a refund request for.
I've had my request fully denied when I managed to make it to the finals of the draft (winning 3 boosters), despite missing the first 13 picks of booster #2. I've also only received a partial refund ($7) when I lost in the 2nd round of a 4-3-2-2 that froze on me.
Hi great article by the way.
I´m not 110% sure but I think you get the full refund no matter how many games you win.
You could even win the whole draft. The thing is you pay to play magic not to win, so if you miss picks in your draft you don´t get to do a "normal" draft like you would in paper-magic, so they pay the refund no matter the actual outcome of the draft. As I said I´m not a 100% sure so it would be nice if someone who knows for sure could confirm/correct my statement. And go on !!
Having drafted excessively in prior years (stopped during Lorwyn/Morningtide on MODO to take a leave of absence), I commend your ability to trudge on for those QPs. I really enjoyed this article a lot and despite your losses, I wish you the best on future drafts!
I love the last draft. It feels great to beat these morons.
we used to play a B/W en-Kor deck it used Wall of Souls to deal damage back to them.
for the Thalakos?
I really enjoy this deck. I agree about the fact that merfolk seems to be a better deck in our current meta, but our recent matchUP showed a pretty nice effiency however. I think that with some optimizations, this deck could be really interesting (and in a legacy format, it would be playable & competitive for sure).
Seeya man & waiting the next articles :)
I agree with whiffy. In this combo meta merfolk deck does a better job. Not only because of cursecatcher, but the consistency in general. Plus, many merfolk builds run additional disruption like wasteland and spellstutter sprite. Still I like the counter slivers idea and I think it can be competitive and fun. Thank you, the writer, for sharing your insights in this format.
You know, if I were a snob, which I'm not... I could say that the top writers here don't provide articles nearly as good as reading articles by Luis Scott Vargas, Patrick Chapin, etc. if you want to raise your game from "level 7" to "level 8" and win Pro Tour events. But you know, raising your skill to level 4 or 5 or 6 is relevant to a lot of people too - more people overall, akshully.
Likewise, you could say "this guy's article isn't good for raising your skills to level 5 like the other writers here could help you do". To which I say - GOOD! Some people out there are more interested in how to get from level 1 to level 2, or from 2 to 3. Plus having articles from people at more different points in the evolution of their play skill AND play style puts more variety and interest into the reading material here. Which is great.
People who ONLY want to read "what's the very very very very best way to win standard/extended/classic right now" have a very narrow range of interests. While I read the articles they do, and get valuable ideas from those articles, I would get bored as hell if that were the only type of article around.
Yeah, some of those cards are "bad" if you are Mr. Ultra-Spike. If you ever play Magic for fun, all those cards have their place and a lot of 'em are powerful in the right circumstances. Whether that be a meta that's shifted a certain way, the casual room, Elder Dragon Highlander (aka Commander), etc. I would certainly run Hallowed Burial in a singleton format where you only can have one wrath, and I'd throw in Austere Command too. I also have to say, owning 3 Hallowed Burial in Paper that I've ripped in packs, I am always paying attention whether the metagame at my local Friday Night Magic shifts enough towards unearth, persist, retrace, and/or any other graveyard shenanigans. If that happens - I'm gonna definitely have some Hallowed Burial at least in sideboard. I also have to say Hallowed has application against Indestructible (more relevant lately with Elspeth!), and it's even potentially better to have your own creatures swept that way if your deck has more in the way of creature tutoring than it has raise dead effects. Don't get me wrong, Wrath is a better card overall & if you want to win that trip to Rome or your next local PTQ, it's the four-of to have. But lots of cards have their place, whether it's budget as he said, casual, a less competitive environment like your local FNM, etc. Saying "playing that card makes you lame" doesn't make me think he's lame for playing it, it makes me think you're lame for being narrowminded and thinking that playing the top spikey tournament-quality builds is the ONLY thing Magic is about.
As for Magister Sphinx - I can't tell you how much fun I've had going end of turn, Master Transmuter bounces mindstone and puts out Sphinx, you're at 10. My turn, I untap and swing for 5 in the air. You're on a 1 turn clock sir, do you have an answer in hand or on top of your deck? Yes, it's Johnnyish. But johnnys deserve articles too, and that deck does win a fair amount - it was designed by no less than Steve Sadin for an article on wizards.com, and I had to build a version and play it. Singletons of Magister, Sharuum, Platinum Angel and Grim Poppet, four Sphinx Summoners that can find them - great deck. I'd rather be reading that Steve Sadin article - EVEN THOUGH IT DARED RUN MAGISTER SPHINX - than a whiny "this article sucks" comment. Any day.
Faerie Conclave has won me games against decks with sorcery-speed anti-creature measures that could keep all my regular creatures off the board, too. I think it's the second best 10th edition man-land after Treetop Village, and definitely worth running in some types of decks. Besides sometimes it's, you know - FUN.
Hibernation Sliver is amazing... He and Crystaline are the only two I care about in pretty much every matchup as the opposing player. If you're not running both of them, I'm not worried about the deck very much.
I have noticed that in todays classic counterslivers is a much worse option then merfolk. They play very similarly the oinly difference your giveing up mana denial and a force spike on legs. If necro and ant werent around i would say slivers are better but they are so for now i beleieve that folk are the better counterslivers deck (that just felt so wrong typing) also engineered explosives absolutely ruins your day which is a good reason to run hibernation.
Now that you have one of your favs online you should join the daily events and let her rip.
I think you're wrong about Hibernation Sliver, the card is amazing. People do block in classic. They also play lots of Engineered Explosives, which is pretty devastating when all 20 of your creatures cost 2 mana.
or descriptions/explanations, too ?
I will do my best too add a detailed explanation into why we went with a deck.
Using both Wells, Rain of tears and Polluted bonds, with Fulminator Mage, the evoke LD creature and Torrent of Souls to recur both, backed up by Incendiary command. It is doable, but much relies on nonbasics.
I dont think so.
Indeed it is.
Enough said.
Magister Sphinx? 14 lands that come into play tapped? mogg fanatics & scullers in the sideboard? c'mon Jim.......I'm the worst std in MTGO history and even I think your deck-building is horrendous! LOL Milkshake, how can you say he knows the meta?