"As part of this Wednesday’s build (April 8th) a change will be made in the MTGO ELO system. After this build, players will not be able to view any other player’s ELO rating. Players will still be able to view their own.
This change is being made as part of our ongoing review of our overall organized play system for Magic Online. None of our current tournament and championship programs use this rating in any way. In addition we have observed unhealthy behavior based on assumptions of other players and their rating. As with all of our systems, we will be observing the effect of this change and may make future changes as needed."
While this series might not have caused this change (maybe the ego of too many 1800s were hurt by losing to 1400s...), but indulge my ego that I had something to do with this!
My thoughts:
Ratings data mining can guide players towards events that they would feel would be competitively appropriate.
However,
***1) this information could be used so higher level players "optimize" their performance by attacking lower rated queues to get more QPs. That would ruin the intention of "entry level queues" such as 10E swiss draft. (see one million word's article from this week, he mentions that exact phenomenon)***
2) lower rated (i.e. <1500) may get discouraged seeing this data and stop playing.
3) this model assumes a minority of players use this data. If a large majority of players read it and act on it's data, WotC will have a very unstable player base from week to week.
All of those, I agree, are "unhealthy" and take away from the overall magic playing experience.
I'd like to ask whoever reads this from WotC if it would be possible to publish, at least through official channels, some indication for new players about where to start when it comes to tournaments (which formats, queues, etc.). However, I see there is some fun in trial and error (that is, try 4-3-2-2 and see you'd like swiss better, or the other way around). This series started during the Conflux Release events when hundreds of new tournament players were overwhelmed by choices, and some of which entered Conflux release event queues well over their competitive ability level.
I will continue to think about some of the more esoteric facets of the game, and might come up with another series in the future (I'll check with Wizards first next time to avoid any problems). Until then, I'll see you in game - gl hf
As was I..There wasn't a Jund deck in all those results, at least not pure Jund. There were a couple of 4 color decks which used a lot Jund cards like you were talking about above but definitely not the versions I was used to seeing pre-Conflux
Mudjai - Thats why i said splash of blue. With the splash that gives me the ability to put in for other decks. For example, If i'm playing that fun 5cc deck ill put in my countersqualls and cancels. Every deck can be beat, it's really up to the shuffler on who wins id say 85% of the time.
JUND VS XXXX
XXXX = NAYA
Grixis Charm and Jund Charms
XXXX = ESPER
Countersqualls, cancels and Jund Charms
XXXX = WHITE EXAULTED
Jund Charms, Vocanic Fallout
XXXX = 5CC
Countersqualls and cancels and banefire
Sideboards are huge when playing in the block, you never know what your going to be up against, always side for what your not putting in for your main. I'm not the best ala block player out there but i do spend 99% of my time getting ready for that next deck to break apart.
But as you can guess and as i stated above, Every deck can be beat. It's really up to the shuffler and it's up to your playing skills, Knowing when to play a card and when to hold it. My deck is ready for just about everything but it has it's holes just like every other deck out there. I'm just really surprised that Jund did not make it frequancey chaarts, other than well...other.
This format’s rules are simple. Nonland cards in your deck must be multicolored. This includes split and hybrid cards that are more than one color (not cards like Spectral Procession or Dead/Gone).
This is from the official announcement. Since it mentions Dead/Gone as not legal because both sides of the card are the same color but not Assault/Battery, I would think that Assault/Battery is legal.
Assault/Battery is allowed, it's a two colour card, although each side of the card is mono-coloured. The mono-red split cards (Bust/Break and similar) aren't allowed.
For red/black, you missed Riot Spikes at the 1cc slot. It can act as pump or removal, and I've used it to some effect in my mono-red Kaleidoscope deck.
I have seen relatively few 2 colour decks, as with all of the split cards and powerful 3 colour cards (notably Esper Charm and Woolly Thoctar) people tend to be playing first three, than splashing into four or even five colours.
Finally someone has posted something worth reading(I love to read all of the other things but this one hit's home to me). I've been playing nothing but the ALA block for a few months online. It seems that every other week the deck's are changing. I've been playing atleast 10 tourney games a day (yeah, i'm addicted!) It seems that once someone gets beat by a deck, they go out to buy that deck. CounterSquall should jump up in price only because of the frequancey it's used. I can't remember the last game i was in and that card wasn't played.
As for the Naya, I have the ability to join the rest, But this is what i've learned in the waves of the past few months, Find a deck that everyone is using(Watch alot of tourney practice games), Find it's killer. As for Naya...Jund with a pinch of Blue has proven to be the best run for your money. Nothing like a Violent Ultimatum to a creature and two walkers to just make the other player cry!
Very informative as always.
Im attending a block tournament before Reborn release and still don't really know what to pick.
5c control seems good in a non-defined metagame but Naya/Agressiv decks can be really fast with planeswalkers to deal with.
I was considering composing a similar list for my third Kaleidoscope article, although I'm glad someone else did so first. There are a couple of cards you didn't touch upon, but that's all right, it leaves more good material for future articles. Good stuff.
Well, lots of problems and I realize now that when I said to myself 'It shouldn't matter that I don't have my laptop with all the notes on it' I was being delusional. In explanation the final deck changed slightly in the final draft and apparently I cannot count. The 5cc deck is actually labeled Esper Control in my notes but doesn't make much difference when I didn't have them
hide/seek. for hide, there are a ton of enchantments in the format, making this handy, and I have been using seek in my B/W deck to great success. removing their 1 or 2 of and gaining 6-9 life ( especially off split cards, where it adds the casting costs). opponent has only 1 of some cool dangerous card? aww...too bad, I gained some life too.
I really think the B/W is the best choice against most of the format currently.
most of the players I see are splashing for pure/simple and hit/run
you,re being sarcastic right?i mean faeries have dominated standard for over a year now,but yes cards like vulcanic fallout(a pathetic card that could,ve as well been called "kill all faeries and punish the blossom user")and banefire say clearly that "faeries must die"
fallout is a laughable card seriously.
I may have angered the WotC gods...
It looks like this will be my last article covering this topic:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1172837
"As part of this Wednesday’s build (April 8th) a change will be made in the MTGO ELO system. After this build, players will not be able to view any other player’s ELO rating. Players will still be able to view their own.
This change is being made as part of our ongoing review of our overall organized play system for Magic Online. None of our current tournament and championship programs use this rating in any way. In addition we have observed unhealthy behavior based on assumptions of other players and their rating. As with all of our systems, we will be observing the effect of this change and may make future changes as needed."
While this series might not have caused this change (maybe the ego of too many 1800s were hurt by losing to 1400s...), but indulge my ego that I had something to do with this!
My thoughts:
Ratings data mining can guide players towards events that they would feel would be competitively appropriate.
However,
***1) this information could be used so higher level players "optimize" their performance by attacking lower rated queues to get more QPs. That would ruin the intention of "entry level queues" such as 10E swiss draft. (see one million word's article from this week, he mentions that exact phenomenon)***
2) lower rated (i.e. <1500) may get discouraged seeing this data and stop playing.
3) this model assumes a minority of players use this data. If a large majority of players read it and act on it's data, WotC will have a very unstable player base from week to week.
All of those, I agree, are "unhealthy" and take away from the overall magic playing experience.
I'd like to ask whoever reads this from WotC if it would be possible to publish, at least through official channels, some indication for new players about where to start when it comes to tournaments (which formats, queues, etc.). However, I see there is some fun in trial and error (that is, try 4-3-2-2 and see you'd like swiss better, or the other way around). This series started during the Conflux Release events when hundreds of new tournament players were overwhelmed by choices, and some of which entered Conflux release event queues well over their competitive ability level.
I will continue to think about some of the more esoteric facets of the game, and might come up with another series in the future (I'll check with Wizards first next time to avoid any problems). Until then, I'll see you in game - gl hf
Agreed, loved this article.
As was I..There wasn't a Jund deck in all those results, at least not pure Jund. There were a couple of 4 color decks which used a lot Jund cards like you were talking about above but definitely not the versions I was used to seeing pre-Conflux
Always great to hear other people write about 100C singleton - thanks for the article!
Still a nice read hammy. How far back does the archive go?
Mudjai - Thats why i said splash of blue. With the splash that gives me the ability to put in for other decks. For example, If i'm playing that fun 5cc deck ill put in my countersqualls and cancels. Every deck can be beat, it's really up to the shuffler on who wins id say 85% of the time.
JUND VS XXXX
XXXX = NAYA
Grixis Charm and Jund Charms
XXXX = ESPER
Countersqualls, cancels and Jund Charms
XXXX = WHITE EXAULTED
Jund Charms, Vocanic Fallout
XXXX = 5CC
Countersqualls and cancels and banefire
Sideboards are huge when playing in the block, you never know what your going to be up against, always side for what your not putting in for your main. I'm not the best ala block player out there but i do spend 99% of my time getting ready for that next deck to break apart.
But as you can guess and as i stated above, Every deck can be beat. It's really up to the shuffler and it's up to your playing skills, Knowing when to play a card and when to hold it. My deck is ready for just about everything but it has it's holes just like every other deck out there. I'm just really surprised that Jund did not make it frequancey chaarts, other than well...other.
This format’s rules are simple. Nonland cards in your deck must be multicolored. This includes split and hybrid cards that are more than one color (not cards like Spectral Procession or Dead/Gone).
This is from the official announcement. Since it mentions Dead/Gone as not legal because both sides of the card are the same color but not Assault/Battery, I would think that Assault/Battery is legal.
You don't complain much about the card prices, you come up with great articles. Fun to read and informative...
Bobby : sure, but how do you manage against other decks? You have to be sure to beat Naya and be atleast decent against control decks, or random ones.
Assault/Battery is allowed, it's a two colour card, although each side of the card is mono-coloured. The mono-red split cards (Bust/Break and similar) aren't allowed.
For red/black, you missed Riot Spikes at the 1cc slot. It can act as pump or removal, and I've used it to some effect in my mono-red Kaleidoscope deck.
I have seen relatively few 2 colour decks, as with all of the split cards and powerful 3 colour cards (notably Esper Charm and Woolly Thoctar) people tend to be playing first three, than splashing into four or even five colours.
Finally someone has posted something worth reading(I love to read all of the other things but this one hit's home to me). I've been playing nothing but the ALA block for a few months online. It seems that every other week the deck's are changing. I've been playing atleast 10 tourney games a day (yeah, i'm addicted!) It seems that once someone gets beat by a deck, they go out to buy that deck. CounterSquall should jump up in price only because of the frequancey it's used. I can't remember the last game i was in and that card wasn't played.
As for the Naya, I have the ability to join the rest, But this is what i've learned in the waves of the past few months, Find a deck that everyone is using(Watch alot of tourney practice games), Find it's killer. As for Naya...Jund with a pinch of Blue has proven to be the best run for your money. Nothing like a Violent Ultimatum to a creature and two walkers to just make the other player cry!
Love the talk on ALA BLOCK, keep them coming!
XixSPidERxiX
quote:
Why has Primalcrux has increased in price? Is their a new standard MGA deck, or is it being added to elves decks?
answer:
http://www.magic-league.com/deck/50819/standard_t2.html#All-In%20Green55247
I think Assault // Battery (and similar split cards) are not allowed in the format, unless both halves are multi-colored?
Ivo.
I love this article im really looking forward to next week.
Very informative as always.
Im attending a block tournament before Reborn release and still don't really know what to pick.
5c control seems good in a non-defined metagame but Naya/Agressiv decks can be really fast with planeswalkers to deal with.
I was considering composing a similar list for my third Kaleidoscope article, although I'm glad someone else did so first. There are a couple of cards you didn't touch upon, but that's all right, it leaves more good material for future articles. Good stuff.
Appreciate the kind words.
Appreciate the kind words.
Well, lots of problems and I realize now that when I said to myself 'It shouldn't matter that I don't have my laptop with all the notes on it' I was being delusional. In explanation the final deck changed slightly in the final draft and apparently I cannot count. The 5cc deck is actually labeled Esper Control in my notes but doesn't make much difference when I didn't have them
Thanks for the help
I thought this article was a great primer/intro to people (like me) who have no clue where to start with Kaleidoscope.
hide/seek. for hide, there are a ton of enchantments in the format, making this handy, and I have been using seek in my B/W deck to great success. removing their 1 or 2 of and gaining 6-9 life ( especially off split cards, where it adds the casting costs). opponent has only 1 of some cool dangerous card? aww...too bad, I gained some life too.
I really think the B/W is the best choice against most of the format currently.
most of the players I see are splashing for pure/simple and hit/run
you,re being sarcastic right?i mean faeries have dominated standard for over a year now,but yes cards like vulcanic fallout(a pathetic card that could,ve as well been called "kill all faeries and punish the blossom user")and banefire say clearly that "faeries must die"
fallout is a laughable card seriously.
23+20+17 = 60 its not 61 card deck :)
there's also 24 lands instead of the counted 23. I just played Mid Range Naya at a paper block tournament myself and managed to take second with it.
because the wizards anti-blue campaign has been marching steadily onward for many years now.