...is that Kaleidoscope requires multicolored artifacts, limiting you to Reaper King, Transguild Courier and three blocks' worth of Esper, with a minimum casting cost of 2 in all those cases. Is it possible? Certainly: I have an idea for a Johnny build using Pyrrhic Revival and Hag Hedge-Mage with 5 X/2 Artifact creatures, but there's remarkably little wiggle room to run such a deck in such a way that it would win. I'll see if I can build one after Alara Reborn comes out. Bear in mind that ARB will be coming out in May online, and Kaleidoscope is slated for April: As such, there is scope for K-articles using what we have now.
As for a control build, I'm definitely not writing it off. I've seen, and worked on, quite a few effective control builds these past weeks, but the trick is finding a consistently successful option. This is a format without Wrath of God, and with only a handful of potential wrath analogues. What we do have relies on damage (Branching Bolt, Savage Twister, Jund Charm, ARB Lavalaunche), a given manacost (Culling Sun, Punishment, Void) or 7+ mana and a deck built around the effect (Worldpurge, Din of the Fireherd, ARB Soulquake). There is no one card that could take Wooly Thoctar, Boartusk Liege and Oversoul of Dusk all off the board simultaneously before turn 5. (It can be finessed with more than one: Mirrorweave on a Plaxcaster Frogling will do it but needs 2 specific cards.) Once there is a definite control archetype, I'll be sure to showcase it. I agree with spg, they need time to be refined.
And yes, I'm not entirely convinced by how the deck presentation came out, but this won't be a problem here on in.
This is pretty much business as usual for new formats.. It's a lot easier to figure out the problem them to figure out the solutions. Control decks usually develop after aggro decks.
In all of the Kaleidoscope articles I have seen so far on PureMTGO nobody has said much about a true control build. I think people are writing it off way too soon. I am currently piloting a 5 color control deck that has very little problem with a quick aggro deck. Aggro is for sure the dominant archetype in the outing, but everone would be foolish to forget about control alltogether.
interesting approach of the format, but i really think speaking about Kal format before ALA reborn is a bit too early... sure there are interesting highlights & propositions, but in all existing sets, ALA reborn would be THE most important set. An example ? Take a look to this card which was spoiled these last days :
Time Sieve
UB
Artifact
T, Sacrifice five artifact : take an extra turn after this one.
An entire deck could be build only around this card. It also could radicaly change your perception & the possibilities of the Kal format...
If you add a new GB planeswalker & Meddling Mages (and many other surprises like that), you obtain a huge diffence between what we are expecting about Kal format and what it will really be.
all that being said, your article is interesting
maybe just an effort on deck presentation for the look :)
i am not a specialist of this format, but i am playing it sometime with some "home made" competitive decks.
I enjoyed your reasonning and the way you explained your points of view.
There is only one i dont agree : pithing needle. Sure it does not have the same role than it had in classic, but it remains to me a crazy good card against a lot of unexpected situations. I ran recentlyURB unearth, Gbw Treefolk and 5C control. In my first build i choose to not play needle. But once i began to match up, i was really REALLY harmed to not be able to play it.
Some examples where this simple CMC1 artifact is VERY useful : Elspeth, Ajani, Bolas, any capsule, fulminator mage, relic of prog., any equipement (especially sigil & lox warham), mutavault, scepters, any fetch lands, mogg fanatic ... and the list could go on !
You could annhilate a concept on Turn 1 only by playing needle (especialy if your opponent's deck is Planeswalker oriented... which is pretty often the case !).
Even i understood your optimization search, i think you should run needle. Running needle is almost never a bad thing (unless you are playing Chalice/trinisphere, which is impossible in standard).
only my opinion
for your next article : it would be great to have more than 1 deck improvement. however i guess the work needed to write this kind of article, it is just a suggestion to increase the interest of it.
Glad you like the Series =D. I'm working on the final installment now...I hope to explore some different types of articles before ALR starts to kick in - but we'll see.
And yes, the appropriate form of protection does indeed keep a creature safe from planeswalkers and their targeted abilities. However, Bolas's ultimate does not target a creature, it targets a player, so there might be situations when your opponent doesn't have a choice but to sacrifice such a creature, or they may want to for other reasons.
If you take Lord Erman's suggestion, perhaps you can approach Alara Reborn from a two-drop, three-drop, (etc.) angle when you get to the creature article...
I like this series, btw, keep up the good work (when you can find the time, LOL).
Question though, does protection from blue, red or black make those outlanders immune from Nicol Balos, planeswalker's abilities?
This used to be the case, but is no longer allowed.
Moderators are now forbidden (as in, they lose their job) from playing in rated events. This is part of the whole WizO fallout around the time of the Gleemax snafu.
There were quite a few major, major changes to the rules for moderators at that time, which we found out when one 'went rogue' and told the world via the messageboards when it happened.
Essentially, all moderators (ORC's) are paid employees, and have to be residents of the USA and have to sign non-disclosure agreements and have to forgo any and all rated events be they paper or online. None of that has been officially stated, but we were informed of it when it happened by a disgruntled ex-WizO.
The days of getting revenge moderated are long gone.
I used to be of the school of thought that "don't want none? don't start none" was an acceptable and safe way to go online, however the moderators are all players themselves, and you're kidding yourself if you think they are unbiased. I was muted for 24 hours once for responding to trash talk in a like manner, while the guy who started it (and actually reported ME for responding) went unpunished. Clearly a case where he had an Adept/ORC in his pocket (or was one himself).
I agree with wizards that every effort must be made to limit the trash-talking that goes on unabated on MTGO. I can understand where this behavior might be allowed at events/tournaments where you're trying to set your opponents off thier game but it goes beyond that to the point that it would get someone DQ'ed in a paper event. Why should MTGO be held to any standard less than this?
My child (11) plays under my account and I don't want him subjected to this kind of abusive behavior, just because he makes a mistake or may play a little slowly at times. He's typically in the casual room where you would think it's a more relaxed atmosphere, of course it's not. I'm always close by and will and have reported these idiots to wizards.
I applaud WOTC for at least making a step in the right direction.
There is no actual information about the way WotC CS handles reports, but I'll offer some hearsay and conjecture based on what people have admitted to and what WotC CS has said publicly.
When WotC gets a report they add it to a list of incidents (you can email them and ask them for your conduct history. I was surprised to see that I had some conduct history, actually).
There are also levels of actions. There are mutings (which we've seen in the rooms) and x hour bans and 24 hour bans and longer bans as well (we know this because people have complained about being banned after arguing with Adepts/ORC's, etc). We don't know what the criteria/threshold is for Customer Support before they start to take action, and what constitutes bad enough behavior for them to take action, but it does happen, and only will happen with regularity if the people involved are reported when they go past the level of smack-talk.
Again, this is all just pieced together from public posts and information, but it seems to be accurate as near as I can tell.
Is there anyone out there that can tell us what happens when one gets reported? Just curious what the wordage from WOTC looks like and how many times it takes to get booted.
As far as I can tell it is a related glitch to the sideboard glitch in 100 singleton. Basically the legality for 100 singleton was not changed at all, therefore sideboards weren't added and Stronghold was not made legal. I think we'll just have to wait until the next update on Wednesday.
I'm surprised some people think it is "babyish", "snitching", "weak" to report that sort of behavior. I start to wonder if some of the people that think so negatively about reporting such behavior are actually behaving that way on occasion. This particular example is way beyond "regular" trash talking to throw the opponent's game off.
I'm not saying everyone should report it either, but I mostly don't say it because reporting it is a bit of trouble as it is, so players that aren't personally bothered by this don't have responsibility to make MTGO a better environment (WotC does, however, and they really should make reporting harassment easier). Even though I don't think Hamtastic was obligated to report the behavior, I'm very glad he did it.
I do it myself and I hope more and more people do it, even if jerks will be jerks at least they may be forced to not act like jerks online, and maybe players that get really put off by that sort of stuff will stick around MTGO (which is ultimately better for everyone).
I pay good money to play this game, and I expect to find it a pleasant experience. I do not expect to be badmouthed by some semi-literate yahoo. Banter and ragging are fine. "DIAF", or any reference to my family are not.
I would not tolerate it in my home, I would not tolerate it in my local cardstore, I would not tolerate it at a tournament, and I will not tolerate it online.
I picked up a Volrath's Stronghold yesterday for my janky rock deck.
And even though it says that it is valid in the deck editor... it still says that it is an "Illegal Card" and won't let me start a game.
I sent a glitch report to Wizards, but geesh... would have been nice if they would have tested a little bit before releasing the set.
This reminds of when MED2 came out and Necropotence allowed your opponent to see the artwork of the card you drew. That still baffles me because that was one of the main reasons to buy the set beyond the rare lands. All it would have taken was 1 match between testers to discover something was wrong.
Tarmotog-Good article. I like your suggestion of Karmic Justice. I have toyed with it before, but never really used it due to me thinking it was a sideboard card. Hopefully with this weds update they will allow 100 card singleton to have a sideboard. I already have some solid ideas of what to put in there.
it amazing : a winner is always a lucky guy :D
When i am playing poker, i observe exactly the same phenomen : guys who are winning have always the good draw at the good moment, the well bluff at the well moment. Funny, because these same lucky guys are also almost all the time in final rounds ... ...
... well, is it so complicate to admit they played better than we do ??? Isnt this "luck" exactly the skill the complaining guys are looking for ?
For sure luck is important, sometimes it could provide an unexpected win. Btw, when a player had a real lucky draw, it often admits it...
My philosophy in 3 sentences :
The key to be experienced is to be defeated.
The key of fair-play is to be respectful.
The key of enjoying mtg is to understand both of these 2 previous keys.
I am playing the most part of time in classic, and hopefuly, in classic this kind of situation doent happen so often. My advice when it happens : exactly what hamtastic did. Keep control, keep the faith and report when abused.
i really enjoyed the way you presented this article, it well shows the way to join the competitive community.
maybe you might do the same for classic format... even if it could be longer ^^
if meddling mages are released, it would definitely be a great new for the community, even if i already bought my PS playsets at an higher price that it would be.
Meddling mages, Silence (which be released in core set 2010), ALA planeswalkers and maybe some other surprises from reborn would provide to standard format very interesting control stuffs which could be affordable for a reasonnable budget...
...is that Kaleidoscope requires multicolored artifacts, limiting you to Reaper King, Transguild Courier and three blocks' worth of Esper, with a minimum casting cost of 2 in all those cases. Is it possible? Certainly: I have an idea for a Johnny build using Pyrrhic Revival and Hag Hedge-Mage with 5 X/2 Artifact creatures, but there's remarkably little wiggle room to run such a deck in such a way that it would win. I'll see if I can build one after Alara Reborn comes out. Bear in mind that ARB will be coming out in May online, and Kaleidoscope is slated for April: As such, there is scope for K-articles using what we have now.
As for a control build, I'm definitely not writing it off. I've seen, and worked on, quite a few effective control builds these past weeks, but the trick is finding a consistently successful option. This is a format without Wrath of God, and with only a handful of potential wrath analogues. What we do have relies on damage (Branching Bolt, Savage Twister, Jund Charm, ARB Lavalaunche), a given manacost (Culling Sun, Punishment, Void) or 7+ mana and a deck built around the effect (Worldpurge, Din of the Fireherd, ARB Soulquake). There is no one card that could take Wooly Thoctar, Boartusk Liege and Oversoul of Dusk all off the board simultaneously before turn 5. (It can be finessed with more than one: Mirrorweave on a Plaxcaster Frogling will do it but needs 2 specific cards.) Once there is a definite control archetype, I'll be sure to showcase it. I agree with spg, they need time to be refined.
And yes, I'm not entirely convinced by how the deck presentation came out, but this won't be a problem here on in.
Interesting deck. I would've loved to see some game reports, though. How is Impromptu Raid working out for you?
This is pretty much business as usual for new formats.. It's a lot easier to figure out the problem them to figure out the solutions. Control decks usually develop after aggro decks.
In all of the Kaleidoscope articles I have seen so far on PureMTGO nobody has said much about a true control build. I think people are writing it off way too soon. I am currently piloting a 5 color control deck that has very little problem with a quick aggro deck. Aggro is for sure the dominant archetype in the outing, but everone would be foolish to forget about control alltogether.
interesting approach of the format, but i really think speaking about Kal format before ALA reborn is a bit too early... sure there are interesting highlights & propositions, but in all existing sets, ALA reborn would be THE most important set. An example ? Take a look to this card which was spoiled these last days :
Time Sieve
UB
Artifact
T, Sacrifice five artifact : take an extra turn after this one.
An entire deck could be build only around this card. It also could radicaly change your perception & the possibilities of the Kal format...
If you add a new GB planeswalker & Meddling Mages (and many other surprises like that), you obtain a huge diffence between what we are expecting about Kal format and what it will really be.
all that being said, your article is interesting
maybe just an effort on deck presentation for the look :)
i am not a specialist of this format, but i am playing it sometime with some "home made" competitive decks.
I enjoyed your reasonning and the way you explained your points of view.
There is only one i dont agree : pithing needle. Sure it does not have the same role than it had in classic, but it remains to me a crazy good card against a lot of unexpected situations. I ran recentlyURB unearth, Gbw Treefolk and 5C control. In my first build i choose to not play needle. But once i began to match up, i was really REALLY harmed to not be able to play it.
Some examples where this simple CMC1 artifact is VERY useful : Elspeth, Ajani, Bolas, any capsule, fulminator mage, relic of prog., any equipement (especially sigil & lox warham), mutavault, scepters, any fetch lands, mogg fanatic ... and the list could go on !
You could annhilate a concept on Turn 1 only by playing needle (especialy if your opponent's deck is Planeswalker oriented... which is pretty often the case !).
Even i understood your optimization search, i think you should run needle. Running needle is almost never a bad thing (unless you are playing Chalice/trinisphere, which is impossible in standard).
only my opinion
for your next article : it would be great to have more than 1 deck improvement. however i guess the work needed to write this kind of article, it is just a suggestion to increase the interest of it.
Nice work & nice article :)
Did you find your wins with this deck more due to the suprise factor or due to the power of the deck? What have you struggled against?
Glad you like the Series =D. I'm working on the final installment now...I hope to explore some different types of articles before ALR starts to kick in - but we'll see.
And yes, the appropriate form of protection does indeed keep a creature safe from planeswalkers and their targeted abilities. However, Bolas's ultimate does not target a creature, it targets a player, so there might be situations when your opponent doesn't have a choice but to sacrifice such a creature, or they may want to for other reasons.
If you take Lord Erman's suggestion, perhaps you can approach Alara Reborn from a two-drop, three-drop, (etc.) angle when you get to the creature article...
I like this series, btw, keep up the good work (when you can find the time, LOL).
Question though, does protection from blue, red or black make those outlanders immune from Nicol Balos, planeswalker's abilities?
Finishing up my 1st year (so a 1L still).
I'll bemoan it from time to time, but I agree, it is really not all bad - just a lot of work.
law school is great. what year are you?
This used to be the case, but is no longer allowed.
Moderators are now forbidden (as in, they lose their job) from playing in rated events. This is part of the whole WizO fallout around the time of the Gleemax snafu.
There were quite a few major, major changes to the rules for moderators at that time, which we found out when one 'went rogue' and told the world via the messageboards when it happened.
Essentially, all moderators (ORC's) are paid employees, and have to be residents of the USA and have to sign non-disclosure agreements and have to forgo any and all rated events be they paper or online. None of that has been officially stated, but we were informed of it when it happened by a disgruntled ex-WizO.
The days of getting revenge moderated are long gone.
I used to be of the school of thought that "don't want none? don't start none" was an acceptable and safe way to go online, however the moderators are all players themselves, and you're kidding yourself if you think they are unbiased. I was muted for 24 hours once for responding to trash talk in a like manner, while the guy who started it (and actually reported ME for responding) went unpunished. Clearly a case where he had an Adept/ORC in his pocket (or was one himself).
I agree with wizards that every effort must be made to limit the trash-talking that goes on unabated on MTGO. I can understand where this behavior might be allowed at events/tournaments where you're trying to set your opponents off thier game but it goes beyond that to the point that it would get someone DQ'ed in a paper event. Why should MTGO be held to any standard less than this?
My child (11) plays under my account and I don't want him subjected to this kind of abusive behavior, just because he makes a mistake or may play a little slowly at times. He's typically in the casual room where you would think it's a more relaxed atmosphere, of course it's not. I'm always close by and will and have reported these idiots to wizards.
I applaud WOTC for at least making a step in the right direction.
There is no actual information about the way WotC CS handles reports, but I'll offer some hearsay and conjecture based on what people have admitted to and what WotC CS has said publicly.
When WotC gets a report they add it to a list of incidents (you can email them and ask them for your conduct history. I was surprised to see that I had some conduct history, actually).
There are also levels of actions. There are mutings (which we've seen in the rooms) and x hour bans and 24 hour bans and longer bans as well (we know this because people have complained about being banned after arguing with Adepts/ORC's, etc). We don't know what the criteria/threshold is for Customer Support before they start to take action, and what constitutes bad enough behavior for them to take action, but it does happen, and only will happen with regularity if the people involved are reported when they go past the level of smack-talk.
Again, this is all just pieced together from public posts and information, but it seems to be accurate as near as I can tell.
Is there anyone out there that can tell us what happens when one gets reported? Just curious what the wordage from WOTC looks like and how many times it takes to get booted.
Wednesday.
Does anyone know when the Divine vs Demonic duel set comes online?
As far as I can tell it is a related glitch to the sideboard glitch in 100 singleton. Basically the legality for 100 singleton was not changed at all, therefore sideboards weren't added and Stronghold was not made legal. I think we'll just have to wait until the next update on Wednesday.
Thank you for reporting that guy Hamtastic.
I'm surprised some people think it is "babyish", "snitching", "weak" to report that sort of behavior. I start to wonder if some of the people that think so negatively about reporting such behavior are actually behaving that way on occasion. This particular example is way beyond "regular" trash talking to throw the opponent's game off.
I'm not saying everyone should report it either, but I mostly don't say it because reporting it is a bit of trouble as it is, so players that aren't personally bothered by this don't have responsibility to make MTGO a better environment (WotC does, however, and they really should make reporting harassment easier). Even though I don't think Hamtastic was obligated to report the behavior, I'm very glad he did it.
I do it myself and I hope more and more people do it, even if jerks will be jerks at least they may be forced to not act like jerks online, and maybe players that get really put off by that sort of stuff will stick around MTGO (which is ultimately better for everyone).
It is not
"all good"
"what you should expect"
"commonplace"
and it is certainly not the case that
"noone gets offended"
I pay good money to play this game, and I expect to find it a pleasant experience. I do not expect to be badmouthed by some semi-literate yahoo. Banter and ragging are fine. "DIAF", or any reference to my family are not.
I would not tolerate it in my home, I would not tolerate it in my local cardstore, I would not tolerate it at a tournament, and I will not tolerate it online.
I picked up a Volrath's Stronghold yesterday for my janky rock deck.
And even though it says that it is valid in the deck editor... it still says that it is an "Illegal Card" and won't let me start a game.
I sent a glitch report to Wizards, but geesh... would have been nice if they would have tested a little bit before releasing the set.
This reminds of when MED2 came out and Necropotence allowed your opponent to see the artwork of the card you drew. That still baffles me because that was one of the main reasons to buy the set beyond the rare lands. All it would have taken was 1 match between testers to discover something was wrong.
Tarmotog-Good article. I like your suggestion of Karmic Justice. I have toyed with it before, but never really used it due to me thinking it was a sideboard card. Hopefully with this weds update they will allow 100 card singleton to have a sideboard. I already have some solid ideas of what to put in there.
Just some comments about this :
it amazing : a winner is always a lucky guy :D
When i am playing poker, i observe exactly the same phenomen : guys who are winning have always the good draw at the good moment, the well bluff at the well moment. Funny, because these same lucky guys are also almost all the time in final rounds ... ...
... well, is it so complicate to admit they played better than we do ??? Isnt this "luck" exactly the skill the complaining guys are looking for ?
For sure luck is important, sometimes it could provide an unexpected win. Btw, when a player had a real lucky draw, it often admits it...
My philosophy in 3 sentences :
The key to be experienced is to be defeated.
The key of fair-play is to be respectful.
The key of enjoying mtg is to understand both of these 2 previous keys.
I am playing the most part of time in classic, and hopefuly, in classic this kind of situation doent happen so often. My advice when it happens : exactly what hamtastic did. Keep control, keep the faith and report when abused.
Rageous out ! ;)
i really enjoyed the way you presented this article, it well shows the way to join the competitive community.
maybe you might do the same for classic format... even if it could be longer ^^
if meddling mages are released, it would definitely be a great new for the community, even if i already bought my PS playsets at an higher price that it would be.
Meddling mages, Silence (which be released in core set 2010), ALA planeswalkers and maybe some other surprises from reborn would provide to standard format very interesting control stuffs which could be affordable for a reasonnable budget...
let's see, but many sweet signs :)