Just a note to all you readers here if you haven't been informed elsewhere, Chains of Mephestopheles is now banned Online untill issues with it can be corrected. Make your metagame decisions thusly
You don't need to hit with rogues to Prowl out Earwig Squad or Auntie's Snitch. Facevaulter is not the best one drop around, so I can see replacing him with Prickly Boggart, but Knucklebone Witch is still really good even without lots of sac outlets and triggers the Prowl ability on the MOR cards just as well.
Thank you for your comments. The deck that beat your deck was also standard as Siege Gang Commander is not available in block. I am going to have to disagree with you though as far as the speed of block. In my experience, a good Kithkin deck, UB Control, or Faeries deck either overwhelms me, or has enough mana/counters to stop any combo that I try. Especially one using a 5 casting cost creature, 4 casting cost equipment, and a 4 casting cost creature, not to mention also having knucklebone withch to benefit from it. This of course is assumming that I also am able to get all of the pieces together.
After some more testing and your comments, I have decided to switch out 1x Oona's Prowler, 1x Fodder Launch, and 1x Eyeblight's Ending for:
2x Marsh Flitter, and 1x Thougtseize.
That will keep the curve basically the same, and help disrupt the opponent in order to land a Flitter, Mad Auntie or Wort. You are correct in the insane interaction Knucklebone Witch has with Marsh Flitter. Not to mention Mudbutton Torchrunner.
Knucklebone Witch + Mullbottom Torchrunner + Marsh Flitter + Siege Gang Commander just beat my STANDARD deck. Synergy between Flitter and Witch should not be underestimated. Block is slow enough for Flitter + Warren Pilferers + Warren Pilferers + Death Render to make Knucklebone Witch infinite.
Please consider taking out the non-goblin producing faeries/other creatures and putting goblins in the goblin deck.
You drastically underestimate the common archer in Limited. Its power to make life very, very difficult for the best limited archetype in the faeries. In my pre-release flight my 1st two opponents both had two each and blew me to pieces. 0-2 drop gg.
1) As IceAge said, there isn't much point to an overall price index. Much better would be a composite index or an evarge price index.
2) Force of will - You have it at 50. Perhaps the article is old, but uh, well let's just say you can get it for much less than 50 right now. Again, that could be a 24-48 hr thing.
I too liked the take on budget deck building.. much more intuitive then others that have come before it.. i love how your article series has grown to include a lot of content and it comes out weekly a winner is you!
I think the new DOW of magic will be usefull to help tell when the price of cards stabalize after the release of sets. Might be a nice addition to the state of the program.
I LOVE tracking 1x of each card. That said would it maybe make sense to track that and average price per card? With new sets coming out that will leap all over the place. Average price per set also would work. Average 1x set of a set is $127.70 right now at 31 sets not counting partial sets (IA/Allicances/Promos/Vanguards/Time Shifted.) No idea how many cards are online right now.
I like the tracking of uncommons too.
Oh and like the budget deck section, the way you do it is I think much better than BOAB's way of doing it. Would be cool to once in a while get a guest deckbuilder for that, have them work with pool you're building and add some of their favorites. No idea who might be willing to take up such a painful task. ;)
well many many many pro magic players love playing texas hold em poker.. which to me is the most luck based form of card playing known to man. To me, this is how multiplayer magic should be handled in a competitive form.. players win tables of players then go on to other tables until a winner emerges. just handle them the way online poker tournaments handle themselves.. its really the same game.. especially FFA magic you have to think about is it worth being aggressive or defensive..
so by making a blanket statement on a format that has yet to exist seems a little wrong. you may not like the way 2hg games are handled but I do. it puts the phrase "play with your friends" to the forefront rather then "go be an obnoxious pro tour jerk to everyone and act like you play better then everyone else" which is why I can not stand reading some of the "pro player" articles because they are so narrow in scope its like "if it isn't in a pro tour deck then i can be bothered at looking at it"..
2hg games are skill intensive.. you're telling me that the last 2hg limited pro tour wasn't a skill intensive tournament? someone took a strategy that no one was really looking at and won the tournament with it.. that takes some skill to figure out what people will and won't draft then have the balls to go all the way with it. it was actually the last protour that I enjoyed watching the coverage for. I liked seeing two "nobodys" come in and take it away from "the usual suspects".. anyways it seems to me wishes would be more valuable in a sanctioned FFA game if they had say a time limit to get cards rather then being just from the sideboard.. i'm just saying if WOTC wants to make a format sanctioning FFA magic they need to model it after poker.. because really.. thats what FFA magic is.. basically poker..
Have you seen MP in V3? It's awful at best, and they haven't even dedicated to leave that version on when they go live. GameZer0 asked the community if it should be left in despite being bad or turned off until it's better, so far, we don't know which path they're taking with it yet.
It's completely possible that it won't be in V3 even as a bad option.
just a bit confused... Who keeps saying no the multiplayer? As far as I know people who don't care for multiplayer do just that, not care. Not hate on it haha.
I'm a bit confused what exactly you're trying to say. I read a couple of sections to your argumentation. You say there are two types of players. Ok agreed. 2HG is going to be there eventaully. My response was on teh basis of actual prize support for 2HG, not casual 2HG. You also seem to attack competitive players, which I'm just confused about (your argument's coherence is somewhat lost between the anger).
So just clarifying. 2HG will be in 3.0. Feel better?
thank you for the interview hammy it was fun :) it gives a new point to these people who dont keep saying no to mulitplayer thanks for giveing us some voice looking forward to the next article
there are two types of players those who play for fun and those who play competitive , I dont care if 2hg is luck based its not a competitve format other than PRES and your ratings do not count, I for one will quit playing MTGO and sell my collection if 2hg goes away I play for fun and I am not a pro tour player or one of these other dumb players that play MTGO waste a ton of money on drafts and PE when you can buy singels way cheaper and they spend a bunch of money to give to wizards which cant make a proper v3 (no multiplater) and in the end no one cares becasue they are still not on the pro tour or playing in real life paper magic , I just believe really MTGO cannot really be played competivly its a big waste of money and I play for fun and 2hg should be there sorry.... and it makes me mad because I have invested thousands
I like the interview, and really like the new stats! I know, I'm a nerd that way but I don't much care. Just one suggestion though:
the price fluctuations will be influenced most by the new releases. to see their impact on the overall price it might be good to have a total card count to divide the current index by. Even then we'll probably see a big jump in the first three weeks due to the overly high value placed on the new cards.
Just have to say a couple of things.First, it's not a good idea to decide on a banned list for FFA without a bigger pool of players who are out to break the format :P . Else, one gets the "I lost this this and that deck" yesterday turn 2 at Darkwars etc., it should be banned obviously!
Also, my biggest gripe for the idea of multiplayer support, and a gripe shared by many pro tour players, and other competitive players is that the entire format of 2HG is just too luck based. What's happening right now is that you play one game. ONE GAME! That's why a lot of the cards that OH mentioned to be banned are even listed. It's hard to hate out archetypes without a sideboard. It makes control play hard haha. But it also makes 2HG sealed a bit of a huge risk as you aren't able to truly play a skill intensive game if you and your partner are both forced to mulligan to 5 (assuming the decks are correctly built) on the play. Wonder how Wizards would deal with this.
Hahaha! That's what I was forgetting. When I was typing up the article, I had wanted to liken Sensation Gorger to a specific broken red card, and Wheel of fortune was just that card.
I would suggest dropping one Anthem for another Tithe. To me, Mana Tithe is a card you want to have in your opening hand rather than multiple anthems. Did you test this way? With the amount of mana, Having 2x Celestial Guardian might be better than anthems too. Nice article btw.
Just a note to all you readers here if you haven't been informed elsewhere, Chains of Mephestopheles is now banned Online untill issues with it can be corrected. Make your metagame decisions thusly
You don't need to hit with rogues to Prowl out Earwig Squad or Auntie's Snitch. Facevaulter is not the best one drop around, so I can see replacing him with Prickly Boggart, but Knucklebone Witch is still really good even without lots of sac outlets and triggers the Prowl ability on the MOR cards just as well.
Thank you for your comments. The deck that beat your deck was also standard as Siege Gang Commander is not available in block. I am going to have to disagree with you though as far as the speed of block. In my experience, a good Kithkin deck, UB Control, or Faeries deck either overwhelms me, or has enough mana/counters to stop any combo that I try. Especially one using a 5 casting cost creature, 4 casting cost equipment, and a 4 casting cost creature, not to mention also having knucklebone withch to benefit from it. This of course is assumming that I also am able to get all of the pieces together.
After some more testing and your comments, I have decided to switch out 1x Oona's Prowler, 1x Fodder Launch, and 1x Eyeblight's Ending for:
2x Marsh Flitter, and 1x Thougtseize.
That will keep the curve basically the same, and help disrupt the opponent in order to land a Flitter, Mad Auntie or Wort. You are correct in the insane interaction Knucklebone Witch has with Marsh Flitter. Not to mention Mudbutton Torchrunner.
What would you like to see in the next article?
I like the building the collection idea. I have always thought if i had to start my collection over that I would choose to grab some solemns first.
Knucklebone Witch + Mullbottom Torchrunner + Marsh Flitter + Siege Gang Commander just beat my STANDARD deck. Synergy between Flitter and Witch should not be underestimated. Block is slow enough for Flitter + Warren Pilferers + Warren Pilferers + Death Render to make Knucklebone Witch infinite.
Please consider taking out the non-goblin producing faeries/other creatures and putting goblins in the goblin deck.
You drastically underestimate the common archer in Limited. Its power to make life very, very difficult for the best limited archetype in the faeries. In my pre-release flight my 1st two opponents both had two each and blew me to pieces. 0-2 drop gg.
So, I see two problems:
1) As IceAge said, there isn't much point to an overall price index. Much better would be a composite index or an evarge price index.
2) Force of will - You have it at 50. Perhaps the article is old, but uh, well let's just say you can get it for much less than 50 right now. Again, that could be a 24-48 hr thing.
Liked this profile, linking paper players and their online accounts is cool.
Also that decklist makes me want to play some Lorwyn Block :)
I too liked the take on budget deck building.. much more intuitive then others that have come before it.. i love how your article series has grown to include a lot of content and it comes out weekly a winner is you!
RE: PE finals splits there just isn't an option to split at all
I think the new DOW of magic will be usefull to help tell when the price of cards stabalize after the release of sets. Might be a nice addition to the state of the program.
I LOVE tracking 1x of each card. That said would it maybe make sense to track that and average price per card? With new sets coming out that will leap all over the place. Average price per set also would work. Average 1x set of a set is $127.70 right now at 31 sets not counting partial sets (IA/Allicances/Promos/Vanguards/Time Shifted.) No idea how many cards are online right now.
I like the tracking of uncommons too.
Oh and like the budget deck section, the way you do it is I think much better than BOAB's way of doing it. Would be cool to once in a while get a guest deckbuilder for that, have them work with pool you're building and add some of their favorites. No idea who might be willing to take up such a painful task. ;)
well many many many pro magic players love playing texas hold em poker.. which to me is the most luck based form of card playing known to man. To me, this is how multiplayer magic should be handled in a competitive form.. players win tables of players then go on to other tables until a winner emerges. just handle them the way online poker tournaments handle themselves.. its really the same game.. especially FFA magic you have to think about is it worth being aggressive or defensive..
so by making a blanket statement on a format that has yet to exist seems a little wrong. you may not like the way 2hg games are handled but I do. it puts the phrase "play with your friends" to the forefront rather then "go be an obnoxious pro tour jerk to everyone and act like you play better then everyone else" which is why I can not stand reading some of the "pro player" articles because they are so narrow in scope its like "if it isn't in a pro tour deck then i can be bothered at looking at it"..
2hg games are skill intensive.. you're telling me that the last 2hg limited pro tour wasn't a skill intensive tournament? someone took a strategy that no one was really looking at and won the tournament with it.. that takes some skill to figure out what people will and won't draft then have the balls to go all the way with it. it was actually the last protour that I enjoyed watching the coverage for. I liked seeing two "nobodys" come in and take it away from "the usual suspects".. anyways it seems to me wishes would be more valuable in a sanctioned FFA game if they had say a time limit to get cards rather then being just from the sideboard.. i'm just saying if WOTC wants to make a format sanctioning FFA magic they need to model it after poker.. because really.. thats what FFA magic is.. basically poker..
Have you seen MP in V3? It's awful at best, and they haven't even dedicated to leave that version on when they go live. GameZer0 asked the community if it should be left in despite being bad or turned off until it's better, so far, we don't know which path they're taking with it yet.
It's completely possible that it won't be in V3 even as a bad option.
just a bit confused... Who keeps saying no the multiplayer? As far as I know people who don't care for multiplayer do just that, not care. Not hate on it haha.
I'm a bit confused what exactly you're trying to say. I read a couple of sections to your argumentation. You say there are two types of players. Ok agreed. 2HG is going to be there eventaully. My response was on teh basis of actual prize support for 2HG, not casual 2HG. You also seem to attack competitive players, which I'm just confused about (your argument's coherence is somewhat lost between the anger).
So just clarifying. 2HG will be in 3.0. Feel better?
thank you for the interview hammy it was fun :) it gives a new point to these people who dont keep saying no to mulitplayer thanks for giveing us some voice looking forward to the next article
there are two types of players those who play for fun and those who play competitive , I dont care if 2hg is luck based its not a competitve format other than PRES and your ratings do not count, I for one will quit playing MTGO and sell my collection if 2hg goes away I play for fun and I am not a pro tour player or one of these other dumb players that play MTGO waste a ton of money on drafts and PE when you can buy singels way cheaper and they spend a bunch of money to give to wizards which cant make a proper v3 (no multiplater) and in the end no one cares becasue they are still not on the pro tour or playing in real life paper magic , I just believe really MTGO cannot really be played competivly its a big waste of money and I play for fun and 2hg should be there sorry.... and it makes me mad because I have invested thousands
I like the interview, and really like the new stats! I know, I'm a nerd that way but I don't much care. Just one suggestion though:
the price fluctuations will be influenced most by the new releases. to see their impact on the overall price it might be good to have a total card count to divide the current index by. Even then we'll probably see a big jump in the first three weeks due to the overly high value placed on the new cards.
Keep up the great work!
Wu
I love the "dow Jones" chart!
A great article as always Erik.
Just have to say a couple of things.First, it's not a good idea to decide on a banned list for FFA without a bigger pool of players who are out to break the format :P . Else, one gets the "I lost this this and that deck" yesterday turn 2 at Darkwars etc., it should be banned obviously!
Also, my biggest gripe for the idea of multiplayer support, and a gripe shared by many pro tour players, and other competitive players is that the entire format of 2HG is just too luck based. What's happening right now is that you play one game. ONE GAME! That's why a lot of the cards that OH mentioned to be banned are even listed. It's hard to hate out archetypes without a sideboard. It makes control play hard haha. But it also makes 2HG sealed a bit of a huge risk as you aren't able to truly play a skill intensive game if you and your partner are both forced to mulligan to 5 (assuming the decks are correctly built) on the play. Wonder how Wizards would deal with this.
Glad to see you didn't just get defensive about my comments. Nothing personal was intended.
Hahaha! That's what I was forgetting. When I was typing up the article, I had wanted to liken Sensation Gorger to a specific broken red card, and Wheel of fortune was just that card.
Thanks for the feedback.
Er, Crusader
I would suggest dropping one Anthem for another Tithe. To me, Mana Tithe is a card you want to have in your opening hand rather than multiple anthems. Did you test this way? With the amount of mana, Having 2x Celestial Guardian might be better than anthems too. Nice article btw.