Maybe, someday, the MTGO community will be large enough that it can fracture into a million little subgroups with their own likes and dislikes, and we can have a room for the no counter folks, and a room for the coordinated 2HG folks, and on and on.
We aren't there yet. We are not even close.
The simple fact is that the Magic Online community is small enough that we have to worry wether formats - and the game itself - can survive. It will if we let it grow, and the ony way to do that is to welcome new players, and not do things to piss off the existing players. We all still need to be civil, polite even, and respect each other's wishes - if for no other reason than because we - as the MTGO community - cannot afford to have too many players leave in discuss.
Yes, I know that lots of you can be complete assholes at times. You don't need to prove it. Play nice. It's not just a good idea, it's the only way we can make the game prosper.
first, i love to see your article every week, more than any other article about MTGO.
i love to see your price charts, too. is there any way you can expand this category without having too much work? i mean, on a weekly basis it is interesting especially when worlds is going to be held soon, i expect some cards going up in price pretty fast. but often i think it might be more interesting to see a two- or four-week span to see longterm differences. for example, when day 1 of berlin went on, tezzeret gained i think almost 300% (from 4 to almost 16 tix) but since then it lost gradually and now it is back at 4 tix. this, you could show in a longterm chart and i think it is very interesting... well, at least for me :)
I had no idea the card was Gifts GIVEN.. pls forgive me there =x I was always under the impression that it was a silver bordered gifts ungiven..
Just came back from being "removed from the world" so I will need to get back to MTGO with Tempest updates.
LE >> I would go with the crowd to suggest cards like kjeldoran outpost/ decree of justice to go into ur dec.. but on the other hand, small removals like judge unworthy or sunlance go up in value so u might wanna try those
good article JP but deck isn't what your making it to be. i have played against this deck with numerous decks and i always come on top.
MUTC can own this deck with wail, last gasp, and unmakes making it difficult for you to do anything plus numerous counters to prevent you from trying to get ahead. as for ashcoat he is cake compared to EE or spire golems that he isn't even a threat to deal with.
MUC with all the bounces and counters plus illusions like EE, Spire, shaper parasite MGA has no real chance unless you get flooded badly.
RDW is to fast it will prevent any of your threats from blocking with goblin initiate and if you actually do have some threats it will get burned with incinerate. rdw is faster than MGA
There is no reason to play Treva's Charm. Stomphowler/Elder is very effective enchant destruction. If that's not enough then Krosan Grip/Nantuko Vigilante/V.Zealot are all superior.
If you're not green, I'd probably still play Ronom Unicorn before Esper Charm.
I'm also annoyed that certain combo decks are infeasable online. I bought the Enduring Renewals just in case the problem is fixed in a future version. But I'll wait until then. Going through a loop even 20 times is a major pain. And if your opponent doesn't know what an auto-yield is, forget about it.
The Helix excited me right from the moment it was first spoiled. But I imagined using it in a slow draw-go kind of deck. Maybe gain some life, bury some permanents, give yourself shroud or play a moat effect, and put 2-6 counters on each turn. Infinite mana is obvious and great too. I didn't know there were any standard legal combos, actually. Thanks for showing me that.
The extended version of this deck has many more possibilities, right?
I didn't think this deck was good. Maindeck Naturalize is a mistake in this format, maindeck Relic is when you need another card. And double Sigil Blessing on the splash is pretty awk. Your druids also didn't have much to accelerate you into with the deck only having 3 fatties.
I think the deck's biggest issue is it did not have a strong late game fattie plan and it also did not have an agressive early game plan. I find naya decks need one or the other unless they just have very strong cards (your r1 opponent).
Also I think p1p1 Ranger is fine though Magma Spray is probably the choice. Ranger doesn't force you into bant as he is best in Naya with access to Nacatals and Squires.
ive done pretty similar deck with your deck just like a month ago..but my deck is very very low on budget..
I didn't use bloom tender, instead, i use keeper of progenitus, and prismatic omen.. I use helix just as another way to win, I got, Oona queen of the fae, Helix Pinnacle, few dawnglow infusion, doubling cube and filgree sage.. sadly it rarely worked out.. but im kinda happy to see the concept of the deck..oh, and i use mistmeadow witch too, i use her ability to phase out my keeper of progenitus on my opponent turn..
I'm mostly a casual player (hard to block off the time neccesary to play in tourneys, but the new pauper queues may change that). but I loves Cogs style dex and have been having a blast with yours.
Changes i've played with
Negate instead of Memory lapse agaimst burn and MBC (corrupts are killers)
Faerie squadron instead of Cloud sprite cuz thy're just a lil more useful.
I've also played with the new (old) soltari footsoldiers to get another unblockable on the field.
I also find the longbow just sits there in a lot of matches. Its much more useful in a black splashed dec attached to a Tidehollow strix. But the black splash can make your draws really inconsistent.
Jund Charm and Infest are actually not that bad against Fae if you can get them off at the right time. Maybe I've just been playing against horrible Fae players, but they consistently bring in a Scion and I can Jund their whole board.
Caldera Hellion was given as an example that a deck which is even particularly bad has some cards which were meant to be against Faeries - I didn't build the deck or advocate it against anything except possibly WW or Token Elves.
The reason that Faeries is such a powerful deck is because it is Aggro-Control, and it does that particularly well because of the Bitterblossom Tokens and Mistbind Clique which can win the game by them selves. There is a reason that some Faerie decks pack a Ponder in their list - it's to find Bitterblossom on turn 2 much more consistently.
Pick 4 of Pack 3 I definitely would have taken the Panorama over the Visionary. I feel like mana consistency is very important in Shards drafts, as you're always in at least 3 colors, and the more fixing you can get via Panoramas and tri-lands, the better, because then it doesn't eat into your "real" card slots. As a 1/1, the Visionary is basically only a cantrip anyway, so just about the same purpose is served by a Panorama anyway, in addition to fixing your mana.
But it is an answer to faeries. Is it a particularly good one? Not sure, as the guy gets wrecked by Terror and Cryptic Command, but if it resolves, their board is cleared of everything but Mistbind. Jun Charm is outstanding against Fae, and Infest is really good at doing the same things that Hellion does.
Have you ever played against faeries? Actually, have you ever played current standard even? I have to laugh when you say caldera hellion is an answer to faeries??? And apparently jund charm and infest are solutions, wow. LOL. Last I checked faeries wasn't an agro deck.
Bam! Another great article. "Budgetize" is NOW a word, and I take credit for the trademark. It is a perfect fit for what you do to your decks for the really casual crowd. You are the man! Email me at coach_jacobs@yahoo.com and I'll give you my screen name / chat with you about casual decks. Good job brother.
A word of caution, this deck requires a lot of practice or a top class player. I have won some very satisfying victories with it, however I went 1-9 practicing for the new queues. There are sometimes too many permutations for easy decision making.
Nice article Tyler! I am always glad to see one of my pet decks get some love. I tried writing a primer on the deck myself with Evu's help. You can find it here: http://www.pdcmagic.com/articles/my-grand-entrance-into-pdc.shtml if you like. It has most of my insights from trying the deck out.
Thanks for writing about the deck! I agree that it's a good choice for a metagame heavy with burn and MUC.
To clear up a common misconception: the deck called "Burn Range" is not mono-red burn. It was my name for a mono-red aggro deck with a 20/20/20 land/creatures/spells configuration that had a large "burn range", i.e., could burn an opponent out from a high life total. Nobody plays it these days because there is too much life gain, not to mention Piracy Charm and Hydroblast, in the metagame. Though with Mogg Fanatic now legal, I've been thinking about dusting it off.
If you're talking about mono-red burn, just call it "Burn". It's a name that needs no explanation.
About your card choices: I like the idea of Holy Light in the sideboard; how is it working out for you? Very early builds of GE actually had Exclude, but as you say, it's win-more, and kind of expensive. That slot is now Memory Lapse. My biggest quibble with the article is with your suggestion to move Longbow to the sideboard. Longbow takes up only a single slot and gives you such incredible utility in return. It's a key card in some match-ups, including the mirror and green-based aggro. Maybe you're right, and it just isn't optimal in the current metagame, but I would definitely think hard about that decision.
Maybe, someday, the MTGO community will be large enough that it can fracture into a million little subgroups with their own likes and dislikes, and we can have a room for the no counter folks, and a room for the coordinated 2HG folks, and on and on.
We aren't there yet. We are not even close.
The simple fact is that the Magic Online community is small enough that we have to worry wether formats - and the game itself - can survive. It will if we let it grow, and the ony way to do that is to welcome new players, and not do things to piss off the existing players. We all still need to be civil, polite even, and respect each other's wishes - if for no other reason than because we - as the MTGO community - cannot afford to have too many players leave in discuss.
Yes, I know that lots of you can be complete assholes at times. You don't need to prove it. Play nice. It's not just a good idea, it's the only way we can make the game prosper.
first, i love to see your article every week, more than any other article about MTGO.
i love to see your price charts, too. is there any way you can expand this category without having too much work? i mean, on a weekly basis it is interesting especially when worlds is going to be held soon, i expect some cards going up in price pretty fast. but often i think it might be more interesting to see a two- or four-week span to see longterm differences. for example, when day 1 of berlin went on, tezzeret gained i think almost 300% (from 4 to almost 16 tix) but since then it lost gradually and now it is back at 4 tix. this, you could show in a longterm chart and i think it is very interesting... well, at least for me :)
keep up the good work
I disagree. RDW wins by sticking a martyr and getting 2+ men at a time. Otherwise, it gets out-raced.
I had no idea the card was Gifts GIVEN.. pls forgive me there =x
I was always under the impression that it was a silver bordered gifts ungiven..
Just came back from being "removed from the world" so I will need to get back to MTGO with Tempest updates.
LE >> I would go with the crowd to suggest cards like kjeldoran outpost/ decree of justice to go into ur dec.. but on the other hand, small removals like judge unworthy or sunlance go up in value so u might wanna try those
Thnx again to all for ur support. =)
good article JP but deck isn't what your making it to be. i have played against this deck with numerous decks and i always come on top.
MUTC can own this deck with wail, last gasp, and unmakes making it difficult for you to do anything plus numerous counters to prevent you from trying to get ahead. as for ashcoat he is cake compared to EE or spire golems that he isn't even a threat to deal with.
MUC with all the bounces and counters plus illusions like EE, Spire, shaper parasite MGA has no real chance unless you get flooded badly.
RDW is to fast it will prevent any of your threats from blocking with goblin initiate and if you actually do have some threats it will get burned with incinerate. rdw is faster than MGA
Very enjoyable article.
There is no reason to play Treva's Charm. Stomphowler/Elder is very effective enchant destruction. If that's not enough then Krosan Grip/Nantuko Vigilante/V.Zealot are all superior.
If you're not green, I'd probably still play Ronom Unicorn before Esper Charm.
I'm also annoyed that certain combo decks are infeasable online. I bought the Enduring Renewals just in case the problem is fixed in a future version. But I'll wait until then. Going through a loop even 20 times is a major pain. And if your opponent doesn't know what an auto-yield is, forget about it.
The Helix excited me right from the moment it was first spoiled. But I imagined using it in a slow draw-go kind of deck. Maybe gain some life, bury some permanents, give yourself shroud or play a moat effect, and put 2-6 counters on each turn. Infinite mana is obvious and great too. I didn't know there were any standard legal combos, actually. Thanks for showing me that.
The extended version of this deck has many more possibilities, right?
Oops. Faerie Squadrons don't fly! Not as a one drop.
"With God as my witness, I thought Faerie Squadrons could fly" Arthur Carlson as Magic player.
good article jam and nice decklist from jxclaytor keep up the good work guys
I didn't think this deck was good. Maindeck Naturalize is a mistake in this format, maindeck Relic is when you need another card. And double Sigil Blessing on the splash is pretty awk. Your druids also didn't have much to accelerate you into with the deck only having 3 fatties.
I think the deck's biggest issue is it did not have a strong late game fattie plan and it also did not have an agressive early game plan. I find naya decks need one or the other unless they just have very strong cards (your r1 opponent).
Also I think p1p1 Ranger is fine though Magma Spray is probably the choice. Ranger doesn't force you into bant as he is best in Naya with access to Nacatals and Squires.
First of all, nice article..
ive done pretty similar deck with your deck just like a month ago..but my deck is very very low on budget..
I didn't use bloom tender, instead, i use keeper of progenitus, and prismatic omen.. I use helix just as another way to win, I got, Oona queen of the fae, Helix Pinnacle, few dawnglow infusion, doubling cube and filgree sage.. sadly it rarely worked out.. but im kinda happy to see the concept of the deck..oh, and i use mistmeadow witch too, i use her ability to phase out my keeper of progenitus on my opponent turn..
I'm mostly a casual player (hard to block off the time neccesary to play in tourneys, but the new pauper queues may change that). but I loves Cogs style dex and have been having a blast with yours.
Changes i've played with
Negate instead of Memory lapse agaimst burn and MBC (corrupts are killers)
Faerie squadron instead of Cloud sprite cuz thy're just a lil more useful.
I've also played with the new (old) soltari footsoldiers to get another unblockable on the field.
I also find the longbow just sits there in a lot of matches. Its much more useful in a black splashed dec attached to a Tidehollow strix. But the black splash can make your draws really inconsistent.
Jund Charm and Infest are actually not that bad against Fae if you can get them off at the right time. Maybe I've just been playing against horrible Fae players, but they consistently bring in a Scion and I can Jund their whole board.
Caldera Hellion was given as an example that a deck which is even particularly bad has some cards which were meant to be against Faeries - I didn't build the deck or advocate it against anything except possibly WW or Token Elves.
The reason that Faeries is such a powerful deck is because it is Aggro-Control, and it does that particularly well because of the Bitterblossom Tokens and Mistbind Clique which can win the game by them selves. There is a reason that some Faerie decks pack a Ponder in their list - it's to find Bitterblossom on turn 2 much more consistently.
Pick 4 of Pack 3 I definitely would have taken the Panorama over the Visionary. I feel like mana consistency is very important in Shards drafts, as you're always in at least 3 colors, and the more fixing you can get via Panoramas and tri-lands, the better, because then it doesn't eat into your "real" card slots. As a 1/1, the Visionary is basically only a cantrip anyway, so just about the same purpose is served by a Panorama anyway, in addition to fixing your mana.
Thanks for the kind words man!
Faeries isn't an agro deck. Clearing the board doesn't actually "do" anything. Infest is about as good vs faeries as it is vs 5 color control.
But it is an answer to faeries. Is it a particularly good one? Not sure, as the guy gets wrecked by Terror and Cryptic Command, but if it resolves, their board is cleared of everything but Mistbind. Jun Charm is outstanding against Fae, and Infest is really good at doing the same things that Hellion does.
Hey man, mind posting your Extended list? I'd love to see it...
Bam! Another great article. "Budgetize" is NOW a word, and I take credit for the trademark. It is a perfect fit for what you do to your decks for the really casual crowd. You are the man! Email me at coach_jacobs@yahoo.com and I'll give you my screen name / chat with you about casual decks. Good job brother.
- Jacobs
Terror will only hit the broodmate token. Just saying....
I have an extended Helix Pinicle deck that is just great fun. Thanks for an idea for a standard version!!!!
A word of caution, this deck requires a lot of practice or a top class player. I have won some very satisfying victories with it, however I went 1-9 practicing for the new queues. There are sometimes too many permutations for easy decision making.
Nice article Tyler! I am always glad to see one of my pet decks get some love. I tried writing a primer on the deck myself with Evu's help. You can find it here: http://www.pdcmagic.com/articles/my-grand-entrance-into-pdc.shtml if you like. It has most of my insights from trying the deck out.
Thanks for writing about the deck! I agree that it's a good choice for a metagame heavy with burn and MUC.
To clear up a common misconception: the deck called "Burn Range" is not mono-red burn. It was my name for a mono-red aggro deck with a 20/20/20 land/creatures/spells configuration that had a large "burn range", i.e., could burn an opponent out from a high life total. Nobody plays it these days because there is too much life gain, not to mention Piracy Charm and Hydroblast, in the metagame. Though with Mogg Fanatic now legal, I've been thinking about dusting it off.
If you're talking about mono-red burn, just call it "Burn". It's a name that needs no explanation.
About your card choices: I like the idea of Holy Light in the sideboard; how is it working out for you? Very early builds of GE actually had Exclude, but as you say, it's win-more, and kind of expensive. That slot is now Memory Lapse. My biggest quibble with the article is with your suggestion to move Longbow to the sideboard. Longbow takes up only a single slot and gives you such incredible utility in return. It's a key card in some match-ups, including the mirror and green-based aggro. Maybe you're right, and it just isn't optimal in the current metagame, but I would definitely think hard about that decision.