Is this article a joke? How do you cast Demigod of 22 lands while you're discarding them.
A dredge enabler that costs three, is a creature, and has to live a turn so you can discard one card not at instant speed? Think EXT was just broken.
To Make it a 3 for 3 the mono black deck seems unable to win. Its win cons are 8 2/xs that die to 8 spells the deck itself runs and two 4/4s? Oh and Edict over Smother is kinda awkward as the deck has 21 land and should expect to loose 2-5 per game to its own spells.
Over hyping a preview card=typical. Prodiving not one but three unplayable decks with it? That is going above and beyond the call of duty.
PS Think this guy will be unplayable but there could be a deck that wants him. Magus of the Moon is good because it shuts people out of the game, this guy in no way does that.
I do have a version of the card that does exactly what you commented "I think each side need to gets Zombie tokens equal to the creatures in their graveyards." However, that version wasn't what I was aiming for, I wanted a necromatic raise the dead from the cemetary type effect, and settled for this version.
The previous version was "Destroy all nonblack creatures. Then each player removes all creatures in his or graveyard from play. For each creature removed from a graveyard this way, that player puts a 2/2 black Zombie creature token into play under his or her control." Or something to that effect. I settled for more ease of play, since "Destroy all ..." has been done to death and is a bit annoying.
I agree that the 5Color list isn't great, and probably isn't even very applicable to Prismatic right now.
But I'll take a non-applicable attempt at balance over the negligence that we've had so far.
I really like the idea of Prismatic Singleton becoming the large deck format of competitive stuff. It's far easier to balance and mostly takes care of itself.
As a former member of the 5color ruling council, I recommend against importing the B&R list from 5color. 5color has had some very interesting debates, but the online and paper formats are very different. The paper format has only just gotten past the endless ante debate, and they are still undecided on how combo-tastic that format should be.
My recommendation would be to try to sanction prismatic singleton. It's far more interesting.
I think the biggest impact card for PDC out of MED2 will be Thermokarst. The ability to go turn one Mana Elf into turn two Karst will allow Trinity/Ponza style Green decks to emerge. Following up that assualt with a turn 3 Acid-Moss into Crabapple Cohort or Scuzzback Marauders could spell bad times for the mana hungry and counter light control decks running around Classic currently.
Man, I hated to see Detrivore banned from Prismatic, and I think it was a real blow to low-budget players. All those expensive nonbasic lands really give those Prismatic players who have them a huge advantage. Detrivore helps even the balance in a low-budget way, rewarding players who stick to basic lands. I'd really like to see him unbanned (and not restricted, either).
Why don't u play Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven, Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutor? (or force of will?) U can always gifts into a very powerful pile like:
breath of life, reveillark,body double, X or crucible of world, academy ruins, mindslaver, the land that returns dead lands (if you are insistent on getting the mindslaver lock)
I'm not very sure how it's like in multiplayer games but resolving a gifts ungiven is almost equal to a win in many cases in my opinion.
It was good, but I'd like to see more to it. For example, a section of a game replay, some anecdotes, anything. Just entertain me more :) Otherwise, good stuff.
Thanks for the update. It's been a little frustrating not to be getting regular updates on Magic Online--you'd think that they'd at least make these announcements readily availble somehow through the magicthegathering.com web site, but they're not doing that yet for some reason.
Have you seen any new updates on the status of From the Vault: Dragons and/or ME2? I haven't played in about a week (and the server's down now) so if there's some announcement up at login, I've missed it.
Ive played alot of EDH lately and got some suggestions if you are interrested. My strategy is to try to survive to the late game and then combo off (abit like you except that everybody I run into seames to have played me before so they try to take me out first ^^ - which might mean some of my suggestions aint true :/).
I would play ALL the blue/white Rav-block bounce lands. If you ever get to use them as accelration with Glacier you would be happy you incl them. If you ever need 1 more land you will be happy and so on. Their drawback is negliable in the format - I mean 1-2 mana in a turn out of 20 vs efficently playing 2 lands in 1 slot. That let me cheat something fierce on land count (36-37 - ok I do run quite abit of fetch instead but my curve(s) is/are way higher - 1 of the decks (the one with 37) needs 13 mana to really get going ^^).
Deserted Temple is pretty good too. Its acceleration with Glacier and colorfixing with bounce lands.
On a side note you are not playing white/blue artifact lands as a target for Trinket Mage?
Tithe is a pretty good land fetcher if you do need more lands.
If you want cheap defensive blue creatures nothing beats fatespinner (I havnt seen it atleast). Nearly everybody skips combat... :) For some wierd reasons it doesnt really generate any heat at all - I mean its not often the first thing to die after you play it, which is slightly wierd.
8½-tails is the best white cheap defensive creature (from my POW naturally) but it does generate a fearsome amount of heat.
Mystic Remora might be to scary but it does draw alot of cards for a relativ low investment (Compare it to mind's eye. It draws more cards per mana for the first 3-4 turns and you really do not need a mind's eye for longer anyway). On the other hand I would sooner take you out for having Mistmeadow witch then Remora - that might be just me tho.
Proteus Staff is pretty decent too - its abit like a multi use version of spin into myth - it naturally generate quite abit of "heat" tho but it does keep the fast generals off the table - remember its sorcery speed only tho :/
Sword of light and shadow is pretty good too. It doesnt do TOO much damage but gives you life (3 life is proberly better then a small blocker) and return a creature (which mean replacing the attacker) and ppl usually consider some of the other "super" equip better (clamp and jitte mainly) so it doesnt generate that much heat.
I would suggest Patron Wizard over Drowner of Secrets except it proberly generate far to much heat :/
I enjoyed the article. Very well written and your explanation of card choices and overall stratigy was very clear.
I know the title is"EDH for Tournament Players" but there was something in the article that I felt was incorrect. You say "Even as a casual player, I always play to win. I can't really understand the game other ways. If someone isn't playing to win, to me, it throws off the game for people who are, and Magic is most fun when everyone understands the goal." but I don't believe that's necessarily true.
People play Magic for different reasons (don't worry, I'm not going to get into the psychogenic R&D profiles) and winning, while it may factor into most players reasons, is not always the goal. And often time it is not even the primary goal. In fact, many of my most enjoyable games have been those where I knew the end result would be a loss for me because it ws the playing and interaction itself that was the most fun.
I think focusing on winning as the ultimate goal for tournament players is correct but for the majority of players it may not be the exclusive goal. I think that when Magic ceases to be fun that's when a player stops playing.
while mtgo is nice to play with due to the automatic features, the main element that gives mtg that certain flare is the level of intimacy involved between players, and that element is erased from the equation when playing online. i think when people play magic, they show a different side of who they are, a side you wouldn't see anywhere else, a side only other magic players see. it's quite difficult to explain unless you've experienced it first hand.
i don't know what it's like playing in tournaments and such, and i can imagine it can be quite stressful for some people. i'm just a casual player though and i don't play the game to prove a point (as i feel the general attitude in tournaments is probably lays in the vein of a "i'm better than you" type of enviroment). i play it in real life to relax, have fun and be wowed by people who are way better than me - but of course the taste of victory even in relaxed games is always unquestionably sweet.
magic the gathering is one of the few things that still makes human beings congregate to match wits face to face these days. being in the age where most human interaction and communication is done through bits of data, it's refreshing to know you can go somewhere on friday nights (or whenever your league nights are) to sit down with a group of people who share a common interest and love for something as simple as cardboard cards.
while mtgo is nice to play with due to the automatic features, the main element that gives mtg that certain flare is the level of intimacy involved between players, and that element is erased from the equation when playing online. i think when people play magic, they show a different side of who they are, a side you wouldn't see anywhere else, a side only other magic players see. it's quite difficult to explain unless you've experienced it first hand.
i don't know what it's like playing in tournaments and such, and i can imagine it can be quite stressful for some people. i'm just a casual player though and i don't play the game to prove a point (as i feel the general attitude in tournaments is probably lays in the vein of a "i'm better than you" type of enviroment). i play it in real life to relax, have fun and be wowed by people who are way better than me - but of course the taste of victory even in relaxed games is always unquestionably sweet.
magic the gathering is one of the few things that still makes human beings congregate to match wits face to face these days. being in the age where most human interaction and communication is done through bits of data, it's refreshing to know you can go somewhere on friday nights (or whenever your league nights are) to sit down with a group of people who share a common interest and love for something as simple as cardboard cards.
while mtgo is nice to play with due to the automatic features, the main element that gives mtg that certain flare is the level of intimacy involved between players, and that element is erased from the equation when playing online. i think when people play magic, they show a different side of who they are, a side you wouldn't see anywhere else, a side only other magic players see. it's quite difficult to explain unless you've experienced it first hand.
i don't know what it's like playing in tournaments and such, and i can imagine it can be quite stressful for some people. i'm just a casual player though and i don't play the game to prove a point (as i feel the general attitude in tournaments is probably lays in the vein of a "i'm better than you" type of enviroment). i play it in real life to relax, have fun and be wowed by people who are way better than me - but of course the taste of victory even in relaxed games is always unquestionably sweet.
magic the gathering is one of the few things that still makes human beings congregate to match wits face to face these days. being in the age where most human interaction and communication is done through bits of data, it's refreshing to know you can go somewhere on friday nights (or whenever your league nights are) to sit down with a group of people who share a common interest and love for something as simple as cardboard cards.
Is this article a joke? How do you cast Demigod of 22 lands while you're discarding them.
A dredge enabler that costs three, is a creature, and has to live a turn so you can discard one card not at instant speed? Think EXT was just broken.
To Make it a 3 for 3 the mono black deck seems unable to win. Its win cons are 8 2/xs that die to 8 spells the deck itself runs and two 4/4s? Oh and Edict over Smother is kinda awkward as the deck has 21 land and should expect to loose 2-5 per game to its own spells.
Over hyping a preview card=typical. Prodiving not one but three unplayable decks with it? That is going above and beyond the call of duty.
PS Think this guy will be unplayable but there could be a deck that wants him. Magus of the Moon is good because it shuts people out of the game, this guy in no way does that.
I do have a version of the card that does exactly what you commented "I think each side need to gets Zombie tokens equal to the creatures in their graveyards." However, that version wasn't what I was aiming for, I wanted a necromatic raise the dead from the cemetary type effect, and settled for this version.
The previous version was "Destroy all nonblack creatures. Then each player removes all creatures in his or graveyard from play. For each creature removed from a graveyard this way, that player puts a 2/2 black Zombie creature token into play under his or her control." Or something to that effect. I settled for more ease of play, since "Destroy all ..." has been done to death and is a bit annoying.
Gratz to AJ_Impy and Culex!
Huh, I could have sworn I saw a banner on the site mentioning that you were involved.
Well, I'll add an author's note to the article.
OOPS!
"There's a new site, sponsored by MTGOTraders called mtgobay for MTGO auctions"
I don't sponsor that site btw. :)
I agree that the 5Color list isn't great, and probably isn't even very applicable to Prismatic right now.
But I'll take a non-applicable attempt at balance over the negligence that we've had so far.
I really like the idea of Prismatic Singleton becoming the large deck format of competitive stuff. It's far easier to balance and mostly takes care of itself.
As a former member of the 5color ruling council, I recommend against importing the B&R list from 5color. 5color has had some very interesting debates, but the online and paper formats are very different. The paper format has only just gotten past the endless ante debate, and they are still undecided on how combo-tastic that format should be.
My recommendation would be to try to sanction prismatic singleton. It's far more interesting.
Just so ya know, I logged a couple of bugs I'm seeing in the forum. :)
I think the biggest impact card for PDC out of MED2 will be Thermokarst. The ability to go turn one Mana Elf into turn two Karst will allow Trinity/Ponza style Green decks to emerge. Following up that assualt with a turn 3 Acid-Moss into Crabapple Cohort or Scuzzback Marauders could spell bad times for the mana hungry and counter light control decks running around Classic currently.
-Alex
Man, I hated to see Detrivore banned from Prismatic, and I think it was a real blow to low-budget players. All those expensive nonbasic lands really give those Prismatic players who have them a huge advantage. Detrivore helps even the balance in a low-budget way, rewarding players who stick to basic lands. I'd really like to see him unbanned (and not restricted, either).
Er CoW is banned tarmo.
All the commenters have a point, but most importantly, it was a balanced article.
Why don't u play Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven, Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutor? (or force of will?)
U can always gifts into a very powerful pile like:
breath of life, reveillark,body double, X
or
crucible of world, academy ruins, mindslaver, the land that returns dead lands (if you are insistent on getting the mindslaver lock)
I'm not very sure how it's like in multiplayer games but resolving a gifts ungiven is almost equal to a win in many cases in my opinion.
Glad to see everything is up and running smoothly, welcome back.
It was good, but I'd like to see more to it. For example, a section of a game replay, some anecdotes, anything. Just entertain me more :) Otherwise, good stuff.
Thanks for the update. It's been a little frustrating not to be getting regular updates on Magic Online--you'd think that they'd at least make these announcements readily availble somehow through the magicthegathering.com web site, but they're not doing that yet for some reason.
Have you seen any new updates on the status of From the Vault: Dragons and/or ME2? I haven't played in about a week (and the server's down now) so if there's some announcement up at login, I've missed it.
Best article ever :P
Good to see PureMTGO back online.
Time has shown otherwise I suppose
*shrugs* I suppose for a first attempt it was decent although I disagreed with some of your picks
thanks for the comment
Ive played alot of EDH lately and got some suggestions if you are interrested. My strategy is to try to survive to the late game and then combo off (abit like you except that everybody I run into seames to have played me before so they try to take me out first ^^ - which might mean some of my suggestions aint true :/).
I would play ALL the blue/white Rav-block bounce lands. If you ever get to use them as accelration with Glacier you would be happy you incl them. If you ever need 1 more land you will be happy and so on. Their drawback is negliable in the format - I mean 1-2 mana in a turn out of 20 vs efficently playing 2 lands in 1 slot. That let me cheat something fierce on land count (36-37 - ok I do run quite abit of fetch instead but my curve(s) is/are way higher - 1 of the decks (the one with 37) needs 13 mana to really get going ^^).
Deserted Temple is pretty good too. Its acceleration with Glacier and colorfixing with bounce lands.
On a side note you are not playing white/blue artifact lands as a target for Trinket Mage?
Tithe is a pretty good land fetcher if you do need more lands.
If you want cheap defensive blue creatures nothing beats fatespinner (I havnt seen it atleast). Nearly everybody skips combat... :) For some wierd reasons it doesnt really generate any heat at all - I mean its not often the first thing to die after you play it, which is slightly wierd.
8½-tails is the best white cheap defensive creature (from my POW naturally) but it does generate a fearsome amount of heat.
Mystic Remora might be to scary but it does draw alot of cards for a relativ low investment (Compare it to mind's eye. It draws more cards per mana for the first 3-4 turns and you really do not need a mind's eye for longer anyway). On the other hand I would sooner take you out for having Mistmeadow witch then Remora - that might be just me tho.
Proteus Staff is pretty decent too - its abit like a multi use version of spin into myth - it naturally generate quite abit of "heat" tho but it does keep the fast generals off the table - remember its sorcery speed only tho :/
Sword of light and shadow is pretty good too. It doesnt do TOO much damage but gives you life (3 life is proberly better then a small blocker) and return a creature (which mean replacing the attacker) and ppl usually consider some of the other "super" equip better (clamp and jitte mainly) so it doesnt generate that much heat.
I would suggest Patron Wizard over Drowner of Secrets except it proberly generate far to much heat :/
I enjoyed the article. Very well written and your explanation of card choices and overall stratigy was very clear.
I know the title is"EDH for Tournament Players" but there was something in the article that I felt was incorrect. You say "Even as a casual player, I always play to win. I can't really understand the game other ways. If someone isn't playing to win, to me, it throws off the game for people who are, and Magic is most fun when everyone understands the goal." but I don't believe that's necessarily true.
People play Magic for different reasons (don't worry, I'm not going to get into the psychogenic R&D profiles) and winning, while it may factor into most players reasons, is not always the goal. And often time it is not even the primary goal. In fact, many of my most enjoyable games have been those where I knew the end result would be a loss for me because it ws the playing and interaction itself that was the most fun.
I think focusing on winning as the ultimate goal for tournament players is correct but for the majority of players it may not be the exclusive goal. I think that when Magic ceases to be fun that's when a player stops playing.
It's great to have the SOTP back! I noticed a few weird spacing errors but other than that is looks good.
while mtgo is nice to play with due to the automatic features, the main element that gives mtg that certain flare is the level of intimacy involved between players, and that element is erased from the equation when playing online. i think when people play magic, they show a different side of who they are, a side you wouldn't see anywhere else, a side only other magic players see. it's quite difficult to explain unless you've experienced it first hand.
i don't know what it's like playing in tournaments and such, and i can imagine it can be quite stressful for some people. i'm just a casual player though and i don't play the game to prove a point (as i feel the general attitude in tournaments is probably lays in the vein of a "i'm better than you" type of enviroment). i play it in real life to relax, have fun and be wowed by people who are way better than me - but of course the taste of victory even in relaxed games is always unquestionably sweet.
magic the gathering is one of the few things that still makes human beings congregate to match wits face to face these days. being in the age where most human interaction and communication is done through bits of data, it's refreshing to know you can go somewhere on friday nights (or whenever your league nights are) to sit down with a group of people who share a common interest and love for something as simple as cardboard cards.
while mtgo is nice to play with due to the automatic features, the main element that gives mtg that certain flare is the level of intimacy involved between players, and that element is erased from the equation when playing online. i think when people play magic, they show a different side of who they are, a side you wouldn't see anywhere else, a side only other magic players see. it's quite difficult to explain unless you've experienced it first hand.
i don't know what it's like playing in tournaments and such, and i can imagine it can be quite stressful for some people. i'm just a casual player though and i don't play the game to prove a point (as i feel the general attitude in tournaments is probably lays in the vein of a "i'm better than you" type of enviroment). i play it in real life to relax, have fun and be wowed by people who are way better than me - but of course the taste of victory even in relaxed games is always unquestionably sweet.
magic the gathering is one of the few things that still makes human beings congregate to match wits face to face these days. being in the age where most human interaction and communication is done through bits of data, it's refreshing to know you can go somewhere on friday nights (or whenever your league nights are) to sit down with a group of people who share a common interest and love for something as simple as cardboard cards.
while mtgo is nice to play with due to the automatic features, the main element that gives mtg that certain flare is the level of intimacy involved between players, and that element is erased from the equation when playing online. i think when people play magic, they show a different side of who they are, a side you wouldn't see anywhere else, a side only other magic players see. it's quite difficult to explain unless you've experienced it first hand.
i don't know what it's like playing in tournaments and such, and i can imagine it can be quite stressful for some people. i'm just a casual player though and i don't play the game to prove a point (as i feel the general attitude in tournaments is probably lays in the vein of a "i'm better than you" type of enviroment). i play it in real life to relax, have fun and be wowed by people who are way better than me - but of course the taste of victory even in relaxed games is always unquestionably sweet.
magic the gathering is one of the few things that still makes human beings congregate to match wits face to face these days. being in the age where most human interaction and communication is done through bits of data, it's refreshing to know you can go somewhere on friday nights (or whenever your league nights are) to sit down with a group of people who share a common interest and love for something as simple as cardboard cards.