I like the "card focus" :)
in addition to everything you mentioned, it would be great to have an article about all the "double cards" (understand : Fire/ice, Pure/simple ...) and their potential. I knew some of them,but recently i discovered a lot of these i didnt know at all. With Kal format, these cards would be in th hype i think.
i agree with you about many points on this analyzis.
About the article, interesting points but it is a bit too superficial to me. i would have liked more details.
About your stronghold wish list, i also agree but i am really surprised to not have seen Dream Halls ! This card is very interesting for casual players (many ways to make of it a centerpiece) but also maybe for some competitive play who will find a way to abuse of it in classic format. I like the concept of this card too much.
1. The limited daily events actually pay out 3 packs to T16 finishers.
2. The Elves deck are from German Nationals Qualifiers (Nationals season is in the summer), there is also an American-designed GW tokens deck using Overrun.
3. With the adjustment of Extended Cards (and Meddling Mage) the perfect time to join (ie invest into) Classic might be incoming.
4. My prediction of "under 100 qualified players for the first monthly Champs" seems to be moot already. Apparently there are more MTGO nerds than I expected.
you spot a very very important part of mtg strategy, and your explainations were very clear to me : i really enjoyed to read it.
It is funny, because i was recently in a situation where this question was fundamuntal (as it often is).
I was playing yesterday with a The Rock GBW and my opponent a Dredge build. The balance between urgency & importancy was crucial at each turn : his deck was much faster than mine. The choice of the spell to play could make me lost a precious tempo, or gaining enough time to breakdown the powerful dredge deck... My strategy was to resolve a creature in the fastest way i could, to destroy it in order to remove his birdges from below ASAP.
EX : in the second round (i won the first) i had 3 lands on the board, and my hand was something lile : Morning Tide, Kitchen Finks, Diabolic edict, land and tourach. I could play Morning tide which is pretty harmful for a dredge build. But there wasnt so many cards in his graveyard, although 1 bridge & 1 golgari were into ... but in a way, if i could resolve the Finks, i could play diabolic edict (but only during the next turn) to put it in a graveyard and so removing bridges (gaining also 2 life). Removing the golgari was "urgent" but removing bridges was more important imo. I choosed this second solution, and i won thank to that.
last comment : in your exemple with shivan/worship vs disenchant/royal i wont do the same hierarchy of priorities. Here would be my choice : 1. Use Royal Assassin to destroy the Shivan Dragon.2. Use Royal Assassin to destroy the Wind Drake.3. Use Disenchant to destroy Worship.4. Use Disenchant to destroy Raking Canopy.
because in the case, it would be better to erase all opponents threat which is more important and very urgent regarding your life, then clean up the enchanment. You cant loose directly because of a worship (it only prevents you from win), but you could loose because of the shivan or the drake ... Plus worship doent work without creatures ;)
It is a very consistent article ! Long a bit, but it does not matter because it also contains so many useful informations ...
Some comments :
I see only one missing point : the RDW match up.
RDW is often ran in PE with different build and i would be very interested in knowing how goblin is efficient against.
> Stompy dragon : i see a real threat in the first turns because of the 3sphere & chalice which could be really harmful for goblin.
> burn : here i see another threat in the volcanic fallout which is more & more played (uncounterable 2 damages is nice, and vs goblin it could be devastating)
> beat : i see no real reason to be scared of it, but maybe i'm wrong
Landstill MU is pretty hard for goblin i think. Chill is an very hard enchantment to play with vs this deck also ...
Thank you for the article, we need more as this one :)
Good article! I think the interview with Jimdownside was worth including. He basically said "Yeah, I just play what I'm comfortable with." Which everyone already knows to do, and it's not Goblins related. But why not include it?
Regardless of whats going on on the board if your not dead already you have a great shot of either gaining parody or gaining the edge
I laughed, in a good natured way. Not at you. P-A-R-I-T-Y. lol
If I could give this 6/5, I would. My ratings of these articles are kind of inflated because I never give anything less than a 3.
This article made me realize how often I just don't think. Silvan Library on turn 2? Better cards, right? Except for when my hand is already decent and I should just be executing it. (Nevermind that SL in a mana ramp deck is probably wrong. Testing has proven to me that my decks are piles.) I also always play the first Scapeshift whenever I draw it in my 8-post deck. That's probably also dumb at least some of the time. Off the top of my head, I bet I should be sitting there with Spell Burst doing nothing. At least.
I think the (Stromgald Cabal) example is correct now, whatever it said before. From your opening hand it looks urgent because it is a game breaker. And then on turn two it becomes even more urgent because turn 2 is the last counter-free turn. And you could say that it's important to play around the (Counterspell), but it's confusing to use the word important in that way. The only important (spg's meaning) thing about (Stromgald Cabal) is getting him online before turn 3. Which is co-incidentally the turn that (Counterspell) makes him extra-super duper urgent.
While Stingscourger can not save any of your creatures, it certainly deserves a one-of tutor spot to bounce pesky tarmogoyfs. Relic is a good way to stymie Tarmogoyf, but stingscourger can be tutored for in this deck. From my experience, one turn without the tarmogoyf in play makes all the difference for the goblin player
I always ran a RW Vial build in legacy (White for STP and disenchant out of the board). Besides Lackey, the main reason this deck does well is because of its wasteland, rishadan port denial strategy. This deck is certainly viable without the rishadan port.
I think my sideboard to combat combo consisted of:
+4 Thorn of Amethyst
My comments are assuming your monowhite deck is aggro since I haven't really seen any successful monowhite control decks that aren't stomped by MUC. Edict isn't going to deal with 24-26 creatures. There's really no answer to an SB'd in Obsidian Acolyte. Even against monowhite control I'd say edict is iffy (how creature light are they going?).
You are absolutely correct. I must have accidentally submitted an old section of this article.. I have done my best to contact the editors to fix it. Just to be clear: turn one Stromgald Cabal is important, but not urgent.
I think your analysis of the Stromgald Cabal is backward. You say he screams, "Get me in play, and you're winning this one! I can practically do it all by myself!" You claim this makes him urgent, but you proceed to give reasons why he's unimportant. A description like this makes him both urgent and important, but it's an inaccurate description. What he really screams is: "Get me in play, and you won't lose this one!". Not losing is an important part of winning, but turn one against a combo deck...not so urgent.
Hate to burst your bubble, but you aren't going to be saving any of your creatures from removal with a Stingscourger. He only returns creatures an opponent controls to hand.
No good monowhite deck will be losing to MBC any time soon. Order of Leitbur is a good MB in a MBC-ruled meta, a 2/1 that can certainly be 3/1 first strike takes out basically all creatures in this format even if the opponent isn't playing black. Then 3-4 Obsidian Acolyte on the SB, the ultimate card against MBC, lets you punch through their defenses, keeps yourself unattackable, and negate the effect of Tendrils.
If the deck isn't monowhite and only has COPB, sure I can see some flops, but it depends on how many evasive creatures they have vs. how many the MBC player can take out.
I agree with BoB...the article was a great read.... But the interview with Jimdownside was like opening a pack of med2 and getting a deep spawn....It was worth more unopened and sold to the dealers.....Maybe lackey will show up in the new FTV set....It was banned at one point and would look cool foiled...just a thought
I like the "card focus" :)
in addition to everything you mentioned, it would be great to have an article about all the "double cards" (understand : Fire/ice, Pure/simple ...) and their potential. I knew some of them,but recently i discovered a lot of these i didnt know at all. With Kal format, these cards would be in th hype i think.
take care
i agree with you about many points on this analyzis.
About the article, interesting points but it is a bit too superficial to me. i would have liked more details.
About your stronghold wish list, i also agree but i am really surprised to not have seen Dream Halls ! This card is very interesting for casual players (many ways to make of it a centerpiece) but also maybe for some competitive play who will find a way to abuse of it in classic format. I like the concept of this card too much.
A couple of points:
1. The limited daily events actually pay out 3 packs to T16 finishers.
2. The Elves deck are from German Nationals Qualifiers (Nationals season is in the summer), there is also an American-designed GW tokens deck using Overrun.
3. With the adjustment of Extended Cards (and Meddling Mage) the perfect time to join (ie invest into) Classic might be incoming.
4. My prediction of "under 100 qualified players for the first monthly Champs" seems to be moot already. Apparently there are more MTGO nerds than I expected.
you spot a very very important part of mtg strategy, and your explainations were very clear to me : i really enjoyed to read it.
It is funny, because i was recently in a situation where this question was fundamuntal (as it often is).
I was playing yesterday with a The Rock GBW and my opponent a Dredge build. The balance between urgency & importancy was crucial at each turn : his deck was much faster than mine. The choice of the spell to play could make me lost a precious tempo, or gaining enough time to breakdown the powerful dredge deck... My strategy was to resolve a creature in the fastest way i could, to destroy it in order to remove his birdges from below ASAP.
EX : in the second round (i won the first) i had 3 lands on the board, and my hand was something lile : Morning Tide, Kitchen Finks, Diabolic edict, land and tourach. I could play Morning tide which is pretty harmful for a dredge build. But there wasnt so many cards in his graveyard, although 1 bridge & 1 golgari were into ... but in a way, if i could resolve the Finks, i could play diabolic edict (but only during the next turn) to put it in a graveyard and so removing bridges (gaining also 2 life). Removing the golgari was "urgent" but removing bridges was more important imo. I choosed this second solution, and i won thank to that.
last comment : in your exemple with shivan/worship vs disenchant/royal i wont do the same hierarchy of priorities. Here would be my choice : 1. Use Royal Assassin to destroy the Shivan Dragon.2. Use Royal Assassin to destroy the Wind Drake.3. Use Disenchant to destroy Worship.4. Use Disenchant to destroy Raking Canopy.
because in the case, it would be better to erase all opponents threat which is more important and very urgent regarding your life, then clean up the enchanment. You cant loose directly because of a worship (it only prevents you from win), but you could loose because of the shivan or the drake ... Plus worship doent work without creatures ;)
Awesome article !!!
It is a very consistent article ! Long a bit, but it does not matter because it also contains so many useful informations ...
Some comments :
I see only one missing point : the RDW match up.
RDW is often ran in PE with different build and i would be very interested in knowing how goblin is efficient against.
> Stompy dragon : i see a real threat in the first turns because of the 3sphere & chalice which could be really harmful for goblin.
> burn : here i see another threat in the volcanic fallout which is more & more played (uncounterable 2 damages is nice, and vs goblin it could be devastating)
> beat : i see no real reason to be scared of it, but maybe i'm wrong
Landstill MU is pretty hard for goblin i think. Chill is an very hard enchantment to play with vs this deck also ...
Thank you for the article, we need more as this one :)
pingback: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=225.0
and if I did a better job, I have seen that you meant parity instead of flaking out for a paragraph while in spell check mode :(
Im the stone cold awful at spelling. but people seem to like me anyways lol.
Good article! I think the interview with Jimdownside was worth including. He basically said "Yeah, I just play what I'm comfortable with." Which everyone already knows to do, and it's not Goblins related. But why not include it?
Regardless of whats going on on the board if your not dead already you have a great shot of either gaining parody or gaining the edge
I laughed, in a good natured way. Not at you. P-A-R-I-T-Y. lol
If I could give this 6/5, I would. My ratings of these articles are kind of inflated because I never give anything less than a 3.
This article made me realize how often I just don't think. Silvan Library on turn 2? Better cards, right? Except for when my hand is already decent and I should just be executing it. (Nevermind that SL in a mana ramp deck is probably wrong. Testing has proven to me that my decks are piles.) I also always play the first Scapeshift whenever I draw it in my 8-post deck. That's probably also dumb at least some of the time. Off the top of my head, I bet I should be sitting there with Spell Burst doing nothing. At least.
I think the (Stromgald Cabal) example is correct now, whatever it said before. From your opening hand it looks urgent because it is a game breaker. And then on turn two it becomes even more urgent because turn 2 is the last counter-free turn. And you could say that it's important to play around the (Counterspell), but it's confusing to use the word important in that way. The only important (spg's meaning) thing about (Stromgald Cabal) is getting him online before turn 3. Which is co-incidentally the turn that (Counterspell) makes him extra-super duper urgent.
Ok I fixed the article, I must have accidentally pasted something from an old draft...
He's going to time you out. Ding.
Thanks! Found more info here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=sideboard/gpphi02/f...
Gary Wise is the pro player you referred to who aimed Shock at a creature when his opponent's life total was 2. I can't recal any more info, sorry.
go gobos . interesting that recruiter is banned in legacy
great article nice deck splits..and is he really the best gobo weilder in the world?
While Stingscourger can not save any of your creatures, it certainly deserves a one-of tutor spot to bounce pesky tarmogoyfs. Relic is a good way to stymie Tarmogoyf, but stingscourger can be tutored for in this deck. From my experience, one turn without the tarmogoyf in play makes all the difference for the goblin player
I always ran a RW Vial build in legacy (White for STP and disenchant out of the board). Besides Lackey, the main reason this deck does well is because of its wasteland, rishadan port denial strategy. This deck is certainly viable without the rishadan port.
I think my sideboard to combat combo consisted of:
+4 Thorn of Amethyst
Anyways, great article!!
My comments are assuming your monowhite deck is aggro since I haven't really seen any successful monowhite control decks that aren't stomped by MUC. Edict isn't going to deal with 24-26 creatures. There's really no answer to an SB'd in Obsidian Acolyte. Even against monowhite control I'd say edict is iffy (how creature light are they going?).
Heh, MBC has Edicts to deal with our Protection from Black guys...
and this ladies and gents is why we read cards.
You are absolutely correct. I must have accidentally submitted an old section of this article.. I have done my best to contact the editors to fix it. Just to be clear: turn one Stromgald Cabal is important, but not urgent.
I think your analysis of the Stromgald Cabal is backward. You say he screams, "Get me in play, and you're winning this one! I can practically do it all by myself!" You claim this makes him urgent, but you proceed to give reasons why he's unimportant. A description like this makes him both urgent and important, but it's an inaccurate description. What he really screams is: "Get me in play, and you won't lose this one!". Not losing is an important part of winning, but turn one against a combo deck...not so urgent.
Hate to burst your bubble, but you aren't going to be saving any of your creatures from removal with a Stingscourger. He only returns creatures an opponent controls to hand.
No good monowhite deck will be losing to MBC any time soon. Order of Leitbur is a good MB in a MBC-ruled meta, a 2/1 that can certainly be 3/1 first strike takes out basically all creatures in this format even if the opponent isn't playing black. Then 3-4 Obsidian Acolyte on the SB, the ultimate card against MBC, lets you punch through their defenses, keeps yourself unattackable, and negate the effect of Tendrils.
If the deck isn't monowhite and only has COPB, sure I can see some flops, but it depends on how many evasive creatures they have vs. how many the MBC player can take out.
That would be pretty nice.
Would be a good boost after DvD adds just Demonic Tutor to the classic card pool too.
I agree with BoB...the article was a great read.... But the interview with Jimdownside was like opening a pack of med2 and getting a deep spawn....It was worth more unopened and sold to the dealers.....Maybe lackey will show up in the new FTV set....It was banned at one point and would look cool foiled...just a thought