Do the card images look kind of squished to anybody else? It looks like they all got assigned height and width attributes that are slightly off. I honestly don't know whether I did that, or whether the article system did it automatically, or what.
I think that Strategic Strongpoint would definitely undergo some tweaking in development, but I think it has a really good idea at its core.
Great first article. Just try to get a picture for your avatar up soon please. Let me know on the forums if you need help. Hope to see more articles from you in the future.
However just wanted to point out about the Ritual of the Lich card to Verbage that although it's a cool mechanic (living enchantments)... we have enchantment creatures now... check Future sight for them. Also I'm pretty sure you went over the limit for amount of text in a box lol
As for the Strategic Strongpoint card, its a card that lets you know it is coming. As for Vesuva, I was unaware of that card, but still it requires some work to make it fire off. You could easily have 4 Strategic Strongpoints in play but no win condition, since the condition can only trigger when the land comes into play. Broke? Oh yeah, all win conditions are broke when they force a win outside of the expected method.
And personally, I never thought I would win anyhoe :P. I rattled off 6 cards with win conditions in 20 minutes, and posted my best 3 ideas. Just fired off the top of my head without much analysis, except for the fading card, which became my worst entry!
Spawning Pit. It replaces Claws of Gix with a sacrific outlet that doesn't cost mana, and gives you a more useful effect. It makes tokens cheaper than most other alternatives. And its "downside" of sacrificing creatures is something your deck likes to do anyway! What's not to love? If you have Grave Pact out, you can even take the tokens it makes and sacrifice them right back into the pit, getting you one of the opponent's creatures & halfway to your next spawn.
Even more evil in your deck would be Tel-Jilad Stylus. With this out, anytime they get something of yours you don't want them to keep, you make it go away for free. Four of these would broaden the range of creatures you might be able to get away with using.
Genesis Chamber is another very cheap token maker. It gives them tokens too - but with Tel-Jilad Stylus, you can make theirs go away, and keep yours around. The tokens it makes are "controlled by them, owned by you" so the Stylus will kill them with a single tap.
Spawning Pit. It replaces Claws of Gix with a sacrific outlet that doesn't cost mana, and gives you a more useful effect. It makes tokens cheaper than most other alternatives. And its "downside" of sacrificing creatures is something your deck likes to do anyway! What's not to love? If you have Grave Pact out, you can even take the tokens it makes and sacrifice them right back into the pit, getting you one of the opponent's creatures & halfway to your next spawn.
Even more evil in your deck would be Tel-Jilad Stylus. With this out, anytime they get something of yours you don't want them to keep, you make it go away for free. Four of these would broaden the range of creatures you might be able to get away with using.
Genesis Chamber is another very cheap token maker. It gives them tokens too - but with Tel-Jilad Stylus, you can make theirs go away, and keep yours around. The tokens it makes are "controlled by them, owned by you" so the Stylus will kill them with a single tap.
This article is a work of art. We're going to have a really hard time coming close to it next month. On a personal note, I'm delighted you liked the flavor of my cards that much. Redemption also works on Poison counters and every other submitted card. Mirror of Victory (No relation to Meloku) is legendary to prevent the happenstance of them being in play on both sides at once, which could be awkward. Mirror of Victory, to my mind, is a great sideboard card for a control mirror in any given standard format. If you're playing the mirror, you may as well play the mirror. ;)
Okay, Strongpoint is really broken: #1 uncounterable win condition #2 Tolaria West, Vesuva*, Slyvan Scrying all in Standard #3 comes into play untapped
Like the idea but think it hugely unbalanced. Just make a U/G or mono U, load up on controlling cards and hope your opponent doesn't have enough trickbinds to beat you.
*Vesuva only works as copies 2&3, maybe wording on card doesn't specificity that the copy you just played has to be untapped, seems tha tis assumed. Overall good write up and I just hope Mental Trauma doesn't make it into the next Un set.
Might I suggest as an alternative rakdos riteknife
It takes you in a slightly different conection with the red instead of whit but might also offer fun option with desolation giant (obviously you alreay have desolation angel as an option)
Yeah I also have to say I'm confused, this looks awful imo it looked pretty good before. Couldn't find way to contact PureMTGO editing staff, so if you see this please get in touch with me. My email is in account details if you have access to that otherwise I'm iceage4life on MTGO. Would just like to check on why the article looks so radically different.
I'd stay away from the Dissension off-color creatures simply because, as you point out, the effect would be symmetrical. But I like the idea of the Lorwyn Champions and might try that out when Lorwyn is released online. Accursed Centaur seems like an interesting choice, too. I think I might try it out to see how it works. Of course, the opponent could just choose to sacrifice the centaur to itself, but I think it could end up working pretty well at times as you suggested--a way to sacrifice cards like the Bronze Bombshell and face-down Liege of the Pit.
Another way to break the synergy would be with the Lorwyn Champions. If your opponent doesn't have the right creature type, you'll get it right back at the end of their turn).
The Dissension off-color-mana creatures would be amusing too, although they would be symmetric. You could bounce Patagia Vipers and Court Hussars back and forth every turn.
Another whacky idea would be Accursed Centaur. You could use it to donate select creatures to your opponents (like Bombshell), and they would have to give stuff back to you when it comes into play.
The key piece to the classic version is Lion's Eye Diamond. Turn 1 gemstone mine, LED, Breakthrough discarding a dredger or two is a win almost always. Turn 1 Cephalid Coliseum, LED, Deep Analysis, Dredger is even better. However, that deck has no good ways to find LED and no good ways to win without it. On the other hand, Enlightened Tutor might be good. The main problem I've found is that I don't have enough space for anything.
Skeletal Vampire seems like an interesting way to go. If your opponent doesn't have black mana, then he couldn't get the advantage of extra bat tokens. On the flip side, it has the same issue as the Sengir Autocrat in that if you're controlling it and it dies, it will end up helping your opponent quite a bit. I think I'm looking more for cards that will either hurt your opponennt on the other side or else be useless or next to useless.
I really like the Vampiric Link idea. The downside is that I wouldn't have a chance to cast it before my opponent had one opportunity to attack me with the Liege of the Pit, but once I did, it would be handy.
Gleancrawler makes me nervous because A) It's relatively expensive (I'm getting hammered just trying to get out my 4 casting cost cards) and B) It could backfire if it died at the wrong time--giving my opponent a way to work around the Endless Whispers and shifting that symmetry back the other way. But if you try it out and it works well for you, please let me know.
I agree about the Dimir House Guards (worse case scenario, if you're afraid of your opponent getting it, is just to sacrifice it to itself right before casting Endless Whispers). And its Transmute ability is very helpful.
The Sengir Autocrat is helpful for tokens, but it's another card that can backfire on you--when it goes to your opponent, he gets the tokens, too.
Tendrils of Corruption seems like a solid removal choice. The life gain is helpful and it's another potential Transmute target for the Dimir House Guard. It would obviously be most useful if you went mono black, but it would be pretty helpful even in a black/white build.
I don't have any Scrying Sheets right now and adding a lot of snow land, too, (to make the Scrying Sheets more useful) would increase the financial cost of what's essentially a budget deck. If money was no object, I'd definitely try that out.
Oh, you mean Phage? Yes, I didn't even think about that. It's a little cruel, but that's a really good idea. I'll pick up a couple of copies and give that a try.
....because you would look like a real fool if you people knew who you were. Force of Will is not posted as having a current price of 1. The current price is posted as being 17. The change in price is 1. While, admittedly, the column headers do not exactly line up with the data, and at first glance it appears that the "1" falls under the "current price" header, it is apparent upon closer examination that, in fact, the "1" does fall under the "change in price" column. It is simply misaligned. The only intelligent thing about your comment was the fact that you posted as anonymous.....
'Tis better to be thought a fool...than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Glad people liked the article!
Do the card images look kind of squished to anybody else? It looks like they all got assigned height and width attributes that are slightly off. I honestly don't know whether I did that, or whether the article system did it automatically, or what.
I think that Strategic Strongpoint would definitely undergo some tweaking in development, but I think it has a really good idea at its core.
Great first article. Just try to get a picture for your avatar up soon please. Let me know on the forums if you need help. Hope to see more articles from you in the future.
Great Article
However just wanted to point out about the Ritual of the Lich card to Verbage that although it's a cool mechanic (living enchantments)... we have enchantment creatures now... check Future sight for them. Also I'm pretty sure you went over the limit for amount of text in a box lol
Great article. Loved reading it.
As for the Strategic Strongpoint card, its a card that lets you know it is coming. As for Vesuva, I was unaware of that card, but still it requires some work to make it fire off. You could easily have 4 Strategic Strongpoints in play but no win condition, since the condition can only trigger when the land comes into play. Broke? Oh yeah, all win conditions are broke when they force a win outside of the expected method.
And personally, I never thought I would win anyhoe :P. I rattled off 6 cards with win conditions in 20 minutes, and posted my best 3 ideas. Just fired off the top of my head without much analysis, except for the fading card, which became my worst entry!
A few more suggestions for the deck.
Spawning Pit. It replaces Claws of Gix with a sacrific outlet that doesn't cost mana, and gives you a more useful effect. It makes tokens cheaper than most other alternatives. And its "downside" of sacrificing creatures is something your deck likes to do anyway! What's not to love? If you have Grave Pact out, you can even take the tokens it makes and sacrifice them right back into the pit, getting you one of the opponent's creatures & halfway to your next spawn.
Even more evil in your deck would be Tel-Jilad Stylus. With this out, anytime they get something of yours you don't want them to keep, you make it go away for free. Four of these would broaden the range of creatures you might be able to get away with using.
Genesis Chamber is another very cheap token maker. It gives them tokens too - but with Tel-Jilad Stylus, you can make theirs go away, and keep yours around. The tokens it makes are "controlled by them, owned by you" so the Stylus will kill them with a single tap.
A few more suggestions for the deck.
Spawning Pit. It replaces Claws of Gix with a sacrific outlet that doesn't cost mana, and gives you a more useful effect. It makes tokens cheaper than most other alternatives. And its "downside" of sacrificing creatures is something your deck likes to do anyway! What's not to love? If you have Grave Pact out, you can even take the tokens it makes and sacrifice them right back into the pit, getting you one of the opponent's creatures & halfway to your next spawn.
Even more evil in your deck would be Tel-Jilad Stylus. With this out, anytime they get something of yours you don't want them to keep, you make it go away for free. Four of these would broaden the range of creatures you might be able to get away with using.
Genesis Chamber is another very cheap token maker. It gives them tokens too - but with Tel-Jilad Stylus, you can make theirs go away, and keep yours around. The tokens it makes are "controlled by them, owned by you" so the Stylus will kill them with a single tap.
Wow, that kicks ass. Nice job Evu.
This article is a work of art. We're going to have a really hard time coming close to it next month. On a personal note, I'm delighted you liked the flavor of my cards that much. Redemption also works on Poison counters and every other submitted card. Mirror of Victory (No relation to Meloku) is legendary to prevent the happenstance of them being in play on both sides at once, which could be awkward. Mirror of Victory, to my mind, is a great sideboard card for a control mirror in any given standard format. If you're playing the mirror, you may as well play the mirror. ;)
Okay, Strongpoint is really broken:
#1 uncounterable win condition
#2 Tolaria West, Vesuva*, Slyvan Scrying all in Standard
#3 comes into play untapped
Like the idea but think it hugely unbalanced. Just make a U/G or mono U, load up on controlling cards and hope your opponent doesn't have enough trickbinds to beat you.
*Vesuva only works as copies 2&3, maybe wording on card doesn't specificity that the copy you just played has to be untapped, seems tha tis assumed. Overall good write up and I just hope Mental Trauma doesn't make it into the next Un set.
yeah i enjoyed reading it as well. The three judges complimented eachother real well, had a tough one, an easy going one and one that was in between.
This article is the most awesome CCC report i've seen on any site ever. You guys keep stepping it up a notch every article. Great job!
Might I suggest as an alternative rakdos riteknife
It takes you in a slightly different conection with the red instead of whit but might also offer fun option with desolation giant (obviously you alreay have desolation angel as an option)
I personally highly enjoyed this article and hope I can play a few tribal matches myself while the account limits are down.
Yeah I also have to say I'm confused, this looks awful imo it looked pretty good before. Couldn't find way to contact PureMTGO editing staff, so if you see this please get in touch with me. My email is in account details if you have access to that otherwise I'm iceage4life on MTGO. Would just like to check on why the article looks so radically different.
nice job pureMTGO on ruining the formatting! I saw the draft, and it looked a hell of a lot better.
I'd stay away from the Dissension off-color creatures simply because, as you point out, the effect would be symmetrical. But I like the idea of the Lorwyn Champions and might try that out when Lorwyn is released online. Accursed Centaur seems like an interesting choice, too. I think I might try it out to see how it works. Of course, the opponent could just choose to sacrifice the centaur to itself, but I think it could end up working pretty well at times as you suggested--a way to sacrifice cards like the Bronze Bombshell and face-down Liege of the Pit.
Another way to break the synergy would be with the Lorwyn Champions. If your opponent doesn't have the right creature type, you'll get it right back at the end of their turn).
The Dissension off-color-mana creatures would be amusing too, although they would be symmetric. You could bounce Patagia Vipers and Court Hussars back and forth every turn.
Another whacky idea would be Accursed Centaur. You could use it to donate select creatures to your opponents (like Bombshell), and they would have to give stuff back to you when it comes into play.
Heh. I thought you were saying Gleancrawler would trigger when the creature dies. I guess it would trigger at the same time (both at end of turn).
Gleancrawler triggers at the end of your turn. It would not interact favorably with Endless Whispers at all.
The key piece to the classic version is Lion's Eye Diamond. Turn 1 gemstone mine, LED, Breakthrough discarding a dredger or two is a win almost always. Turn 1 Cephalid Coliseum, LED, Deep Analysis, Dredger is even better. However, that deck has no good ways to find LED and no good ways to win without it. On the other hand, Enlightened Tutor might be good. The main problem I've found is that I don't have enough space for anything.
Yeah that was the sense of my comment, i just didn't explain it cause it is a well known combo and then i thought everyone knew about it :-)
Skeletal Vampire seems like an interesting way to go. If your opponent doesn't have black mana, then he couldn't get the advantage of extra bat tokens. On the flip side, it has the same issue as the Sengir Autocrat in that if you're controlling it and it dies, it will end up helping your opponent quite a bit. I think I'm looking more for cards that will either hurt your opponennt on the other side or else be useless or next to useless.
I really like the Vampiric Link idea. The downside is that I wouldn't have a chance to cast it before my opponent had one opportunity to attack me with the Liege of the Pit, but once I did, it would be handy.
Gleancrawler makes me nervous because A) It's relatively expensive (I'm getting hammered just trying to get out my 4 casting cost cards) and B) It could backfire if it died at the wrong time--giving my opponent a way to work around the Endless Whispers and shifting that symmetry back the other way. But if you try it out and it works well for you, please let me know.
I agree about the Dimir House Guards (worse case scenario, if you're afraid of your opponent getting it, is just to sacrifice it to itself right before casting Endless Whispers). And its Transmute ability is very helpful.
The Sengir Autocrat is helpful for tokens, but it's another card that can backfire on you--when it goes to your opponent, he gets the tokens, too.
Tendrils of Corruption seems like a solid removal choice. The life gain is helpful and it's another potential Transmute target for the Dimir House Guard. It would obviously be most useful if you went mono black, but it would be pretty helpful even in a black/white build.
I don't have any Scrying Sheets right now and adding a lot of snow land, too, (to make the Scrying Sheets more useful) would increase the financial cost of what's essentially a budget deck. If money was no object, I'd definitely try that out.
Oh, you mean Phage? Yes, I didn't even think about that. It's a little cruel, but that's a really good idea. I'll pick up a couple of copies and give that a try.
....because you would look like a real fool if you people knew who you were. Force of Will is not posted as having a current price of 1. The current price is posted as being 17. The change in price is 1. While, admittedly, the column headers do not exactly line up with the data, and at first glance it appears that the "1" falls under the "current price" header, it is apparent upon closer examination that, in fact, the "1" does fall under the "change in price" column. It is simply misaligned. The only intelligent thing about your comment was the fact that you posted as anonymous.....
'Tis better to be thought a fool...than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.