I've played both Raddman and Nara's decks, and they are both great decks. Props for them both putting original twists in powerhouses! And congrats from the excellent PE placings, as well. Hopefully I'll be able to play in this coming PE, and I can give Walkerdog some Standstill love, as that's what I've been working on for the last week or two.
And as always, thanks for the great article and classic-love!
try the equip avatar with a RG agro deck with like 14 lands and 4x boreal 4x llanowar 4x gargadon 4x mogg war marshal 4x that new tap 3 elves add GGG and 4x llanowar mentor. im on beta too and have a deck that is more like t3.5 average on godfish using that as the base.
largebrandon: I think you're thinking of Vulshok Battlemaster, which coincidentally also has haste! Mirrodin has 4-5 cool equipment creatures which you can find by searching for equipment and filtering by creature spells in either Gatherer or MODO.
Dreager_Ex: Maralen encourages you to play a singleton deck, but you'll still want 4x of certain cards. For example, if you are playing Knoll Storm, you still want 4x Rite of Flame, Knoll, Lotus Bloom and Dragonstorm, but may only want 1x of Pyromancer's Swath or Molten Slagheaps.
Also, as an addendum, Omgoozle made T8 this week with Slumming It again, so the deck is putting up consistent results.
I'm liking the Free BoP on the thopter! Very cool! I think it is neat that you can end up with a LOT of Equipment in play. Isn't there an ext that puts all equipment on him:? That'd be neat.
seemed way way too short.. too much reliance on flashy graphs.. would like to see some alternate ways to combat the metagame (say rouge decks that would work against the major players of the format) a lot of what is covered here iceage does in his oddball roundup.. so make it a little more deviant by including deck lists and rouge decks..
The questions for the interview were made over a month ago, before the conversation on prize changes had started. However, I doubt there is much more than what he has already said there about the possibility of 'draft packs' in lieu of boosters. We DO know that prizes on v3 will be more flexible.
As far as I know, the announced changes to leagues are still in the plans when leagues arrive (there hasn't been any statement to the contrary). However, given that the changes were announced a long time ago (well over a year, maybe two), it might be nice to get confirmation on that.
Next week i will have a few decklist and a walk through of a RBg build me and a freind are working on. Time was short and i wanted to get it in before today. As for calling everything RDW rather than Mono R Burn, RDW just has a better ring to it.
Great interview - you touched a few matters that i didnt see b4
i Hope V3 will lunch with a minimum technical issues
one thing i would ask if given a chance..
Q
does WOTC plan to change the prizes structure
like tweaking the number of packs given or maybe even give store credit for you to decide (whice is far better then packs).
or just letting us know if that option (aka prizes structure)
is more flexible now ...
i know Worth open a thread about it some time ago on the mtgo forums. but he didnt say anything new in it ...
one more thing i would ask.
still i would like to know if they have a plan to attract new players
hate playing league sharks :).......
and i wanted also to thank you -as a new player -your guides helped me a lot..
p.s sorry for bad grammer english is not my native tongue..
honstly how much enchantment removal does a normal deck run? And if the person has no idea what your playing wouldnt they waste it on Enchantress's Presence? Also oblivion stone isnt that highly played most black decks run damnation or one of the other mass removals instead so extirpate wouldnt be able to hit the shared unless they played discard. Enchantress of fate maybe a weak build if your ready for it but how often do you know what the opp is playing before you play them?
"No one really expects Shared Fate and I can thus often outplay opponents"
this is why i don't like that build. It's something based just on shared fate and just on the fact "maybe they won't expect it". This is a weak "win condition" and it would be destroyed in any game that uses a sideboard (while we know that the 90% of games in the casual room are one match only).
"And it is blast to play, maybe not for opponent but for me at least."
and this is the second reason: you've said you have not found many shared fate players... well, if you had and if you had gone against builds like the arc-slogger one, you would have said "wow, what a nice deck", but if you had gone against builds like the enchantress (or counters) one, you would have said "Nooooooooooo this is soooooo boring"! it's like milling decks that try to mill you 1 card each turn, or monoblucontrol: these are decks that maybe are fun for the one that plays them, but not for the opponent (this could change if in the casual room sideboards were used, but again, they are not).
It was an interesting article, but I thought I would point out that your Removed Fate build above has 7 Shared Fate in it; 4 at the top, and 3 between Counterspell and Magma Jet. I assume that you intended for another card to go into one of those slots.
Enchantress build is actually one of my favourite decks. While it may not be as effective as Arc-Slogger build, it does use Fate itself very efficiently. And it is blast to play, maybe not for opponent but for me at least. No one really expects Shared Fate and I can thus often outplay opponents, even those playing counters.
And thanks for the site editor (JXClaytor) for making those neatlooking decklist formats/tables.
Hi, nice article, well written and with good advices in deck building.
I admit that leveler plus shared fate is very famous but it's nice to see a deck list that actually uses up decent cards and includes arc-slogger. I like it and think you've made a good work :)
On the other hand, I totally hate your enchantress list, it summons dark nightmares of boring games: no win condition? nothing but card drawing? oh wait, shared fate is gone so we have nothing to win with? Lists like that can win just because players in the casual room are simply not so clever, you find enchantress or similar decks every day you play, and nobody packs mass enchantment removal even if they do not play any ench. A list like the enchantress one is something that dies to anything that removes the board (oblivion stone is played a lot), bouncing lands (cloudskate anybody?), weenie fire (pyroclasm?) and against players with library removal (ok, scour is not played, but extirpate is). Plus, counters eat it. Turbofog is ugly, sharedfog is even worse :)
... I can't believe I forgot about him! You're right, he's a solid staple for green decks. Really good stats for the price. The other card that I should have considered for that slot is Primal Command, especially in a deck with Eternal Witness.
Love the staple system! However, if you plan on investing in a 5-mana Green staple card to answer enchantments in a casual format where you're also running Diamond Valley, the card you're looking for is Indrik Stomphowler. That's a 5-stapler card.
I also just want to add that this is an incredible series packed with tons of useful info, and it's much appreciated.
Pete, I am a big fan of your writing, but I don't get the point of this series. If I wanted Lorwyn Block ideas and decklists, I'd much rather read all the articles you specifically ignored and get the actual decklists of successful decks not just your guesses. If I wanted to see the evolution of an idea, it'd be much more useful to get more detail about your games and the process by which you tweaked one deck to make it better. Seems to me that the big potential for a fresh take on a format from an outsider is the potential to come up with an interesting rogue deck, but you've given us kithkin and Mannequin control so far. I guess this seems more like something I'd read in the blogs over at TCGPlayer than a front-page article here. Maybe I'm missing something...
I've played both Raddman and Nara's decks, and they are both great decks. Props for them both putting original twists in powerhouses! And congrats from the excellent PE placings, as well. Hopefully I'll be able to play in this coming PE, and I can give Walkerdog some Standstill love, as that's what I've been working on for the last week or two.
And as always, thanks for the great article and classic-love!
try the equip avatar with a RG agro deck with like 14 lands and 4x boreal 4x llanowar 4x gargadon 4x mogg war marshal 4x that new tap 3 elves add GGG and 4x llanowar mentor. im on beta too and have a deck that is more like t3.5 average on godfish using that as the base.
largebrandon: I think you're thinking of Vulshok Battlemaster, which coincidentally also has haste! Mirrodin has 4-5 cool equipment creatures which you can find by searching for equipment and filtering by creature spells in either Gatherer or MODO.
Dreager_Ex: Maralen encourages you to play a singleton deck, but you'll still want 4x of certain cards. For example, if you are playing Knoll Storm, you still want 4x Rite of Flame, Knoll, Lotus Bloom and Dragonstorm, but may only want 1x of Pyromancer's Swath or Molten Slagheaps.
Also, as an addendum, Omgoozle made T8 this week with Slumming It again, so the deck is putting up consistent results.
Im not sure if you pointed it out well enough but the the Moonsong avatar they basically want you to play a singleton deck =/
Which I hate to the utmost... but at least you will have no problem comboing out
I'm liking the Free BoP on the thopter! Very cool! I think it is neat that you can end up with a LOT of Equipment in play. Isn't there an ext that puts all equipment on him:? That'd be neat.
seemed way way too short.. too much reliance on flashy graphs.. would like to see some alternate ways to combat the metagame (say rouge decks that would work against the major players of the format) a lot of what is covered here iceage does in his oddball roundup.. so make it a little more deviant by including deck lists and rouge decks..
The questions for the interview were made over a month ago, before the conversation on prize changes had started. However, I doubt there is much more than what he has already said there about the possibility of 'draft packs' in lieu of boosters. We DO know that prizes on v3 will be more flexible.
As far as I know, the announced changes to leagues are still in the plans when leagues arrive (there hasn't been any statement to the contrary). However, given that the changes were announced a long time ago (well over a year, maybe two), it might be nice to get confirmation on that.
The best deck is one with nothing
Next week i will have a few decklist and a walk through of a RBg build me and a freind are working on. Time was short and i wanted to get it in before today. As for calling everything RDW rather than Mono R Burn, RDW just has a better ring to it.
Great interview - you touched a few matters that i didnt see b4
i Hope V3 will lunch with a minimum technical issues
one thing i would ask if given a chance..
Q
does WOTC plan to change the prizes structure
like tweaking the number of packs given or maybe even give store credit for you to decide (whice is far better then packs).
or just letting us know if that option (aka prizes structure)
is more flexible now ...
i know Worth open a thread about it some time ago on the mtgo forums. but he didnt say anything new in it ...
one more thing i would ask.
still i would like to know if they have a plan to attract new players
hate playing league sharks :).......
and i wanted also to thank you -as a new player -your guides helped me a lot..
p.s sorry for bad grammer english is not my native tongue..
some decklists would be nice
Thanks bubba. Between you and hammy I feel like a baby cradled in it's parents arms. ;p
honstly how much enchantment removal does a normal deck run? And if the person has no idea what your playing wouldnt they waste it on Enchantress's Presence? Also oblivion stone isnt that highly played most black decks run damnation or one of the other mass removals instead so extirpate wouldnt be able to hit the shared unless they played discard. Enchantress of fate maybe a weak build if your ready for it but how often do you know what the opp is playing before you play them?
How did you get hold of every single deck type during the swiss, with replays disabled ?
And RDW != Mono R Burn, yes the name might not be that catchy, but calling everything with a heavy red base RDW becomes rather irritating.
"No one really expects Shared Fate and I can thus often outplay opponents"
this is why i don't like that build. It's something based just on shared fate and just on the fact "maybe they won't expect it". This is a weak "win condition" and it would be destroyed in any game that uses a sideboard (while we know that the 90% of games in the casual room are one match only).
"And it is blast to play, maybe not for opponent but for me at least."
and this is the second reason: you've said you have not found many shared fate players... well, if you had and if you had gone against builds like the arc-slogger one, you would have said "wow, what a nice deck", but if you had gone against builds like the enchantress (or counters) one, you would have said "Nooooooooooo this is soooooo boring"! it's like milling decks that try to mill you 1 card each turn, or monoblucontrol: these are decks that maybe are fun for the one that plays them, but not for the opponent (this could change if in the casual room sideboards were used, but again, they are not).
Thanks for the notification. I missed it, the card in question were Careful Consideration and it is now fixed.
It was an interesting article, but I thought I would point out that your Removed Fate build above has 7 Shared Fate in it; 4 at the top, and 3 between Counterspell and Magma Jet. I assume that you intended for another card to go into one of those slots.
Thanks for the feedback. It is appreciated. :)
Enchantress build is actually one of my favourite decks. While it may not be as effective as Arc-Slogger build, it does use Fate itself very efficiently. And it is blast to play, maybe not for opponent but for me at least. No one really expects Shared Fate and I can thus often outplay opponents, even those playing counters.
And thanks for the site editor (JXClaytor) for making those neatlooking decklist formats/tables.
Hi, nice article, well written and with good advices in deck building.
I admit that leveler plus shared fate is very famous but it's nice to see a deck list that actually uses up decent cards and includes arc-slogger. I like it and think you've made a good work :)
On the other hand, I totally hate your enchantress list, it summons dark nightmares of boring games: no win condition? nothing but card drawing? oh wait, shared fate is gone so we have nothing to win with? Lists like that can win just because players in the casual room are simply not so clever, you find enchantress or similar decks every day you play, and nobody packs mass enchantment removal even if they do not play any ench. A list like the enchantress one is something that dies to anything that removes the board (oblivion stone is played a lot), bouncing lands (cloudskate anybody?), weenie fire (pyroclasm?) and against players with library removal (ok, scour is not played, but extirpate is). Plus, counters eat it. Turbofog is ugly, sharedfog is even worse :)
The way broken one: Chains of Mephistopholopholopholes. :)
Anvil is still available for play in Classic.
FTFA:
Chains of Mephistopheles + Anvil of Bogardan
*update* This card has been banned in Classic until it is resolved.
Which card was banned? Chains or Anvil?
I chuckled at the swingline, as Office Space is one of my favorite movies.
... I can't believe I forgot about him! You're right, he's a solid staple for green decks. Really good stats for the price. The other card that I should have considered for that slot is Primal Command, especially in a deck with Eternal Witness.
A good idea for the deck though, that's for sure!
Thanks!
Love the staple system! However, if you plan on investing in a 5-mana Green staple card to answer enchantments in a casual format where you're also running Diamond Valley, the card you're looking for is Indrik Stomphowler. That's a 5-stapler card.
I also just want to add that this is an incredible series packed with tons of useful info, and it's much appreciated.
Pete, I am a big fan of your writing, but I don't get the point of this series. If I wanted Lorwyn Block ideas and decklists, I'd much rather read all the articles you specifically ignored and get the actual decklists of successful decks not just your guesses. If I wanted to see the evolution of an idea, it'd be much more useful to get more detail about your games and the process by which you tweaked one deck to make it better. Seems to me that the big potential for a fresh take on a format from an outsider is the potential to come up with an interesting rogue deck, but you've given us kithkin and Mannequin control so far. I guess this seems more like something I'd read in the blogs over at TCGPlayer than a front-page article here. Maybe I'm missing something...