You are absolutely correct, but it is the only threat you can guarantee to hit the board and may be your only threat. As you say, Mannequin is a big dog in this match
The faerie conclave plan isn't good against Sonic Boom because they run Desert. The best plan is to keep some pressure and hope to get to an Urza's Factory-dependant long game. Unfortunately that's not a great plan and you are a heavy underdog in the matchup.
Zatlkaj ran no Damnations in the deck and made the interesting choice of Draining Whelk instead which must have been a shock to anyone falling victim to it in Game 2.
It was indeed :(, i was playing against him in GP Krakow with UW control, and was flooded the entire game. Facing lethal damage on the board in knocked on the top of my deck which gave me sacred mesa, pretty much the only card that could save me. Immagine my face when he played the whelk.
I must say i like your deck improvements and match ups. Previously I struggled with Counters but after sideboard i usually win easily. After 25 matches in the tourney practice room of MTGO I was 23-2 the only 2 i lost 1 guy played 3x moss against me killing my lands if he would have only had 2 I would have been fine. 2nd game I lost to mana screw partly because I didnt mulligan when i should have.
Overall, this deck is sick and will be winning many std tournies to come.
There was a discussion about this in a thread on the MTGO boards. On 11/2 there should have 5 crashes (or 'unscheduled downtimes' if you prefer) and the server availablity figure should be 0.9111113.
This was proven from actual availability of login prompt. The servers pinged up but weren't available for users to log into.
considering not everyone has chainer's.. the only real advantage they have is that you can occasionally play them later (when tempest comes out Diabolic Edict is much better, because its an instant)
but really it doesn't matter right now if you play chainer's or cruel .. because most likely you won't be using the flashback ability.
I attempted to build a suicide black deck, and totally forgot about mutilates.
personally I disagree by not having Nantuko Shade in the deck.. I also like Hypnotic Spector's in the deck too,
I don't think Suicide Black will work much at all until Destiny drops us some Negators (they just rock the socks off of Control) even Masticore will work better.. but right now there just isn't a lot out there.. the only other thing I could mention is, where is Drain Life or Consume Spirit.. it just seems like it needs a better win condition then just a bunch of 2 cost guys.. 2 cost guys that arn't Nantuko Shades.. . anyways.. good article..
but flash is the best deck and until they can find a way to effectively neuter it better.. it will still be the best deck.
I removed the bold. For some reason some header tags were not closing. It's probably due to some copying and pasting. I just did </h2> in the source code right before it started so maybe that will fix the other ones too.
That was a really good read. Your writing style is improving dramatically. I can't speak to the technical points of the matchups but I will say that it looks right on target.
Actually, the random boldness is from the article editor. It's something that I struggle with every week in my column. I'm not sure what causes it to happen so randomly but it's a pain to prevent. I usually have to de-bold and save a few times before it takes.
Just sayin' :)
And yes, a good article.. of course, I'm partial to Black decks anyway. :)
I liked the commentary about the many interactions that are going on in the rooms. It seems that the community is really getting snippy with one another and I'm not exactly sure what's going on. Anger in games seems to be escalating continually and I wish I knew why.
"No slivers, no tribal, no LD, no Counters, no discard"... the list keeps growing and growing. Although it does show some insight into why Momir is so popular: rarrrr smash!
I like that blue deck of yours. I've been thinking about a mono blue burn deck for a little while now. Could be a lot of fun!
1) Please, for the love of whatever deity you believe in, cut out the bold.
2) You only mention combo when it's thrust in your face (that is, when you play against it). Flash is not only the best deck in the current metagame (at least in your opinion, as well as mine), it's the best deck in a vacuum in the format. I'd think it deserves more mention than you gave it.
However, the rest was great. Had it not been for those two, this'd have been a 5. (As it is, it's a 3.)
I probably wouldn't have taken the assault pick 2 for the same reason the person who opened it didn't take it. It's impossible to splash, and it really makes you force red from then on. The person who passed it probably wasn't worried about the signal, and he should know that you know this, so I don't think that necessarilty would have stopped him picking up red cards. I probably would have gone gravedigger or spined wurm, as they are both top picks in their colors, and both easily splashable. I think its just lucky that he actually wasn't in red. Your deck ended up ok, but mostly thanks to the bombs you got early in pack 3.
The Full Metagame is not just any theoretical metagame, it's what the metagame "should" be, as much as anything can be what the metagame "should" be. The current metagame is less "real" than the full metagame, even though it's what exists. Metagame decks, or decks that win by exploiting the popular decks as opposed to their own strength, are considered "bad" decks even though they win. Similar with Red Deck Wins and other straight aggro decks as long as Flash remains legal (which I hear is forever).
So you're saying aggro decks are bad because in some theortical metagame they would loose to combo? With Magic it is best to talk about the here and now. Also if you want an aggro deck that beats combo look no futher than Suicide Black (or Deadguy Ale).
Apologies for not answering sooner, I've been on vacation, but I wanted to stop in and look at feedback. I appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad that people are appreciating aggro's power. I don't write these to force aggro down everyone's throat, just highlight the reasons to play it. Also, regarding gobs, I agree that classic gobs plays somewhat different than gobs in ext. I don't play gobs very much, and I usually try to get someone else to play as them in testing, but I do agree with your observation.
Many of you are correct in that aggro decks can win tournaments. In a full classic metagame, which would have plenty of combo, they would not be viable. What we have is not said full classic metagame.
My other point that stands is that walkerdog did not adress combo at all in his article. He claims (if I interpret correctly) that aggro decks are good. They are not. They cannot be good unless they run enough disruption to stop combo. Winning does not make a deck good, winning against a range of good decks makes a deck good. Aggro decks cannot be good if they cannot beat good combo.
One person in a 28 person event playing Flash and maybe 3 or 4 more people playing ether Desire or Ideal does not mean you shouldn't play aggro. If there was alot of combo being run then you might not want to run aggro.
P.S. Second most numerous deck in GP Columbus t8 (GP Flash)? Suicide Black. Pretty sure that counts as aggro.
P.P.S. Wouldn't a Threshold list be better for aggro-control than a "half-hearted" update?
P.P.P.S. Who said none of those decks have disruption? You've never seen Affinity cast a Cabal Therapy after board? Never seen zoo cast Orim's Chant or Pyrostatic Pillar? Those decks might not have MD disruption and might not have much but to say they have no disruption is incorrect.
I enjoyed the article--thanks for the shoutout, too. I was a little disappointed not to see you try anything with my suggestions (I still think that Tel-Jilad Stylus and Riftsweeper might work nicely with this deck), but I guess that that just gives me incentive to try out my own version.
One thought I did have is that for a quirky, casual deck, some of the cards were pretty expensive: Wooded Foothills runs at $10.89 and Eternal Witness at $4.90. I think you addressed alternatives for Wooded Foothills, but other cheap card alternatives might be nice. Just a comment. Great article.
I totally agree about the picture issue. I had some really bad technichal issues when I wrote the article, and it wasn't fair to ask Josh to format all the pictures. My next article will probably be one of my own drafts since I have 11 credits left over, so I'l be able to give you a much more in depth game summary. Thank you very much for the advice though, I'll do my best to take all of it into account in my next article.
Basic Land: They changed that long before Protean Hulk came out, sometime in Urza's Block. Academy Rector was the culprit there.
Flash became a dominant deck in Classic because they recently, due to their new policy on power level errata, changed it back. They never have and, according to their policy, never will re-errata it, thus the combo will always work. They have restricted flash, however, but the deck still wins.
I don’t play classic, but didn’t they change the ruling on Flash to where the Protean Hulk Flash combo doesn’t work anymore. That’s just what I heard. No more 0 1st, 2nd, or 3rd turn wins for the deck anymore.
You are absolutely correct, but it is the only threat you can guarantee to hit the board and may be your only threat. As you say, Mannequin is a big dog in this match
The faerie conclave plan isn't good against Sonic Boom because they run Desert. The best plan is to keep some pressure and hope to get to an Urza's Factory-dependant long game. Unfortunately that's not a great plan and you are a heavy underdog in the matchup.
Zatlkaj ran no Damnations in the deck and made the interesting choice of Draining Whelk instead which must have been a shock to anyone falling victim to it in Game 2.
It was indeed :(, i was playing against him in GP Krakow with UW control, and was flooded the entire game. Facing lethal damage on the board in knocked on the top of my deck which gave me sacred mesa, pretty much the only card that could save me. Immagine my face when he played the whelk.
I must say i like your deck improvements and match ups. Previously I struggled with Counters but after sideboard i usually win easily. After 25 matches in the tourney practice room of MTGO I was 23-2 the only 2 i lost 1 guy played 3x moss against me killing my lands if he would have only had 2 I would have been fine. 2nd game I lost to mana screw partly because I didnt mulligan when i should have.
Overall, this deck is sick and will be winning many std tournies to come.
There was a discussion about this in a thread on the MTGO boards. On 11/2 there should have 5 crashes (or 'unscheduled downtimes' if you prefer) and the server availablity figure should be 0.9111113.
This was proven from actual availability of login prompt. The servers pinged up but weren't available for users to log into.
considering not everyone has chainer's.. the only real advantage they have is that you can occasionally play them later (when tempest comes out Diabolic Edict is much better, because its an instant)
but really it doesn't matter right now if you play chainer's or cruel .. because most likely you won't be using the flashback ability.
I attempted to build a suicide black deck, and totally forgot about mutilates.
personally I disagree by not having Nantuko Shade in the deck.. I also like Hypnotic Spector's in the deck too,
I don't think Suicide Black will work much at all until Destiny drops us some Negators (they just rock the socks off of Control) even Masticore will work better.. but right now there just isn't a lot out there.. the only other thing I could mention is, where is Drain Life or Consume Spirit.. it just seems like it needs a better win condition then just a bunch of 2 cost guys.. 2 cost guys that arn't Nantuko Shades.. . anyways.. good article..
but flash is the best deck and until they can find a way to effectively neuter it better.. it will still be the best deck.
I removed the bold. For some reason some header tags were not closing. It's probably due to some copying and pasting. I just did </h2> in the source code right before it started so maybe that will fix the other ones too.
That was a really good read. Your writing style is improving dramatically. I can't speak to the technical points of the matchups but I will say that it looks right on target.
Yeah I tried to cut the bold out, but the program was having no part of that. :(
Actually, the random boldness is from the article editor. It's something that I struggle with every week in my column. I'm not sure what causes it to happen so randomly but it's a pain to prevent. I usually have to de-bold and save a few times before it takes.
Just sayin' :)
And yes, a good article.. of course, I'm partial to Black decks anyway. :)
A nice article!
I liked the commentary about the many interactions that are going on in the rooms. It seems that the community is really getting snippy with one another and I'm not exactly sure what's going on. Anger in games seems to be escalating continually and I wish I knew why.
"No slivers, no tribal, no LD, no Counters, no discard"... the list keeps growing and growing. Although it does show some insight into why Momir is so popular: rarrrr smash!
I like that blue deck of yours. I've been thinking about a mono blue burn deck for a little while now. Could be a lot of fun!
Keep up the good work!
I have two complaints:
1) Please, for the love of whatever deity you believe in, cut out the bold.
2) You only mention combo when it's thrust in your face (that is, when you play against it). Flash is not only the best deck in the current metagame (at least in your opinion, as well as mine), it's the best deck in a vacuum in the format. I'd think it deserves more mention than you gave it.
However, the rest was great. Had it not been for those two, this'd have been a 5. (As it is, it's a 3.)
Good article, I was just wondering why you have Cruel Edict in place of Chainer's Edict. Isn't chainer's pretty much strictly superior?
I probably wouldn't have taken the assault pick 2 for the same reason the person who opened it didn't take it. It's impossible to splash, and it really makes you force red from then on. The person who passed it probably wasn't worried about the signal, and he should know that you know this, so I don't think that necessarilty would have stopped him picking up red cards. I probably would have gone gravedigger or spined wurm, as they are both top picks in their colors, and both easily splashable. I think its just lucky that he actually wasn't in red. Your deck ended up ok, but mostly thanks to the bombs you got early in pack 3.
The Full Metagame is not just any theoretical metagame, it's what the metagame "should" be, as much as anything can be what the metagame "should" be. The current metagame is less "real" than the full metagame, even though it's what exists. Metagame decks, or decks that win by exploiting the popular decks as opposed to their own strength, are considered "bad" decks even though they win. Similar with Red Deck Wins and other straight aggro decks as long as Flash remains legal (which I hear is forever).
So you're saying aggro decks are bad because in some theortical metagame they would loose to combo? With Magic it is best to talk about the here and now. Also if you want an aggro deck that beats combo look no futher than Suicide Black (or Deadguy Ale).
Apologies for not answering sooner, I've been on vacation, but I wanted to stop in and look at feedback. I appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad that people are appreciating aggro's power. I don't write these to force aggro down everyone's throat, just highlight the reasons to play it. Also, regarding gobs, I agree that classic gobs plays somewhat different than gobs in ext. I don't play gobs very much, and I usually try to get someone else to play as them in testing, but I do agree with your observation.
Many of you are correct in that aggro decks can win tournaments. In a full classic metagame, which would have plenty of combo, they would not be viable. What we have is not said full classic metagame.
My other point that stands is that walkerdog did not adress combo at all in his article. He claims (if I interpret correctly) that aggro decks are good. They are not. They cannot be good unless they run enough disruption to stop combo. Winning does not make a deck good, winning against a range of good decks makes a deck good. Aggro decks cannot be good if they cannot beat good combo.
One other question if pure aggro decks are not viable how did burn win the last Classic PE?
One person in a 28 person event playing Flash and maybe 3 or 4 more people playing ether Desire or Ideal does not mean you shouldn't play aggro. If there was alot of combo being run then you might not want to run aggro.
P.S. Second most numerous deck in GP Columbus t8 (GP Flash)? Suicide Black. Pretty sure that counts as aggro.
P.P.S. Wouldn't a Threshold list be better for aggro-control than a "half-hearted" update?
P.P.P.S. Who said none of those decks have disruption? You've never seen Affinity cast a Cabal Therapy after board? Never seen zoo cast Orim's Chant or Pyrostatic Pillar? Those decks might not have MD disruption and might not have much but to say they have no disruption is incorrect.
I enjoyed the article--thanks for the shoutout, too. I was a little disappointed not to see you try anything with my suggestions (I still think that Tel-Jilad Stylus and Riftsweeper might work nicely with this deck), but I guess that that just gives me incentive to try out my own version.
One thought I did have is that for a quirky, casual deck, some of the cards were pretty expensive: Wooded Foothills runs at $10.89 and Eternal Witness at $4.90. I think you addressed alternatives for Wooded Foothills, but other cheap card alternatives might be nice. Just a comment. Great article.
Combo... sweet sweet combo.
Not exactly combo, but Ichorid has a combo kill of turn 2/3 without disruption.
Desire/Tendrils can also go off very early, and once it gets lotus petal in a few months it will be a strong contender for sure.
I totally agree about the picture issue. I had some really bad technichal issues when I wrote the article, and it wasn't fair to ask Josh to format all the pictures. My next article will probably be one of my own drafts since I have 11 credits left over, so I'l be able to give you a much more in depth game summary. Thank you very much for the advice though, I'll do my best to take all of it into account in my next article.
Basic Land: They changed that long before Protean Hulk came out, sometime in Urza's Block. Academy Rector was the culprit there.
Flash became a dominant deck in Classic because they recently, due to their new policy on power level errata, changed it back. They never have and, according to their policy, never will re-errata it, thus the combo will always work. They have restricted flash, however, but the deck still wins.
I don’t play classic, but didn’t they change the ruling on Flash to where the Protean Hulk Flash combo doesn’t work anymore. That’s just what I heard. No more 0 1st, 2nd, or 3rd turn wins for the deck anymore.