One loud and mighty 'Ha-Zaa!' for Lord Erman!!! This article could appear in ANY online or printed source for MTG news. Layout, flow, connection of ideas, tone, relevance to the reader, accessibility...need I continue? Any employee interviewing with me for a position which would require articulate prose could submit this EXACT article as proof of writing mastery, regardless of the position applied for. Don’t take this compliment lightly – I work with some very sharp people (earning six figures and who have graduate degrees) who can’t do work with anywhere near this level of professionalism. With more presentations like this, Lord Erman WILL BE my number one MTGO read. Great Stuff!!!
Thanks for your comments. Having an university degree of literature&art really helps me when I write. Although English is not my native tongue, writing in any language is more or less based on the same rules like how and when to use a comma or quotation marks or more generally, long paragraphs are boring for the reader or telling is good but if possible showing is better etc... Also I don't like scrolling left or right when reading an article and I care a lot about it when I write. Whether the stuff I write about is entertaining or not, is up to the reader of course.
Thanks for giving me more ideas and more incentives to refine my deck. The problem really is my skills, I get excited with a cool deck and start making mistakes. Pilot error will destroy even the best made composition.
Morkje: Technically, all the creatures can beat, but they are not really very good at it. Frogling is the second best of a bad lot, with Solifuge the only one that would ever win a slot in a beatdown deck on his own merits. And I probably should have said something like "spend mana to deal with Sulfur Elemental and Rift Bolt and ...." Control decks are going to Last Gasp or Electrolyze it. It's not countering, per se, but it still takes mana and a card to get rid of it.
m' Lord: You may be right. A lot of good decks focus on strange interactions of combos - and work. Rift/Slide from years bacl, Affinity, Martyr / Procalamation, Dragonstorm - they all used strange interactions, but they all focused on using them in ways that won the game or controlled the baord. Doubling Season just "focused" on Doubling Season.
I believe that FOCUS is the key word, both when building a deck and when playing it. Cards like Doubling Season are traps that lure people into building "cool decks". And when it's cool, then it's focus is being cool rather than winning. And that makes the difference between tier1 decks and the rest. Tier1 decks, no matter what their strategy is, are focused on what they are doing or what they plan to do. And I think that those 2 decks above are very good examples to that.
Mindless Automaton and Plaxcaster Frogling are not great beatdown creatures on their own.
Automation isnt a beatmacine indeed, but the frogling is a 3 mana 3/3 creature, which by your own definition ( power equel or higher than casting cost) is pretty good for beatdown.
Oh, and about you opponent nt having enough mana to counter both the sulfur elemental and the suspended rift bolts.
Elemental has Split Second, he cant counter it if he wanted too.
Very good article and very true. I must say it's so much more fun playing those decks that when they do win your like man i had 3 20/20 creatures out but at the same time those decks rarely go as planned and by the time you get the cool stuff our your opponent has stomped your butt into the ground.
Its nice to see that someone is thinking outside the box. You are a true Johnny and I commend you for your unique ideas. So far the only tribal decks I've made online are a standard merfolk and classic rats. I guess I technically have a goblin tribal deck but it is a total spike deck that deserves tournament play. I have the cards to make elves and zombies/clerics, etc. but everytime I try to commit to making them, I get bored with the decklist and make another random standard deck I wanna try out in the casual rooms. Keep up the good work. My old personal favorite tribe would have to be vampires. Not sure why I just thought of that but man does that take me back a ways :D.
Thanks for the comments folks. Corrupt is something I thought of, but I decided to keep it out because I wanted to focus on white and green. @ Impy - that combo's pretty evil, but it is a two-card deal, which makes it a tad bit weaker.
After more than a decade of playing Magic, I have never played in a Tribal War format - but you have convinced me! It is obvious from your article that there are some inventive and fun ways to approach the format - before now, I had always thought of Tribal as "35 Elves or Knights....Go!". Thanks for the inspiration!
A slightly more evil all swamps-Karma idea is using Nightcreep on an Isochron Scepter. You avoid even the chance of taking Karma burn, whilst locking out most of their mana unless they're playing monoblack. Fill your deck with protection from black and you're laughing.
Psst... fix some of the links... In regards to hellion.dec, that idea is quite popular nowadays ^^ a friend of mine recently won a standard 8man w/ a R/W version of the deck in a Standard touranment. Definitely a lot of potential there. Also it would have been awesome if you had provided a more indepth reason for the grades you gave the stuff...
A GOOD READ WAS HOPING TO FIND A DECK BREAKING CHRONOZOA I KNOW A BUNCH OF PEOPLE ARE WORKING ON IT AND THERE IS ENOUGH IN THE BLOCK THAT EFFECTS THE COUNTERS THAT IT HAS TO BE DO ABLE SO I WILL EAGERLY WAIT OR VILE ON THE TASK MYSELF (WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE 3 MORE DAYS!) AS FOR THE HELLION DECK IT SIMPLY SCREAMS STUFFY DOLL.
Nice deck evolution and cliff notes on the magic 'personalities."
However I think that you did not adequately define a rouge deck. It seems to me that you feel a rogue deck is simply a deck that is not one of an established archetype in a particular metagame.
I think that is just not fair enough for real rogue decks. A rogue deck is not merely a pet deck. It is a deck that attempts to exploit a known metagame. It may not be as 'powerful' as known archetypes, but due to good matchups against the expected decks, and the element of surprise (which you covered), it has a certain edge to it.
The GOTG comments were dead on. Someone once said GOTG was auto 4 of in a deck with white. NO! WW builds I played only had 2 and I never really liked them to much and of late they are hated on so much anyways.
Being a player who played alot of cloak, the deck always seemed confilicted to me. Was it aggro or combo. Both? Why play bonespliter instead of morningstar? Mono green with splash white for cloak seems like a better pure aggro play. Congrats on your win. I hope our Rats play testing helped you in the finals.
Just want to say that I agree with the analysis of GotG for the most part. I have never even considered it for my aggro decks (especially boros) and always frown on the inside when someone casts one in their aggro R/W deck. Congrats on your win btw.
One loud and mighty 'Ha-Zaa!' for Lord Erman!!! This article could appear in ANY online or printed source for MTG news. Layout, flow, connection of ideas, tone, relevance to the reader, accessibility...need I continue? Any employee interviewing with me for a position which would require articulate prose could submit this EXACT article as proof of writing mastery, regardless of the position applied for. Don’t take this compliment lightly – I work with some very sharp people (earning six figures and who have graduate degrees) who can’t do work with anywhere near this level of professionalism. With more presentations like this, Lord Erman WILL BE my number one MTGO read. Great Stuff!!!
Thanks for your comments. Having an university degree of literature&art really helps me when I write. Although English is not my native tongue, writing in any language is more or less based on the same rules like how and when to use a comma or quotation marks or more generally, long paragraphs are boring for the reader or telling is good but if possible showing is better etc... Also I don't like scrolling left or right when reading an article and I care a lot about it when I write. Whether the stuff I write about is entertaining or not, is up to the reader of course.
Good stuff Erman. I love the layout (something I need to work on) and the recurring article "Rogue Play" theme. Keep up the good work!
One of the best articles on the site and very fun to read and I really love how you use the pictures, etc to keep it fun and interesting.
I felt compelled to comment that I had great fun reading this article.
Thanks for writing it.
Thanks for giving me more ideas and more incentives to refine my deck. The problem really is my skills, I get excited with a cool deck and start making mistakes. Pilot error will destroy even the best made composition.
Scottsmusic
Morkje: Technically, all the creatures can beat, but they are not really very good at it. Frogling is the second best of a bad lot, with Solifuge the only one that would ever win a slot in a beatdown deck on his own merits. And I probably should have said something like "spend mana to deal with Sulfur Elemental and Rift Bolt and ...." Control decks are going to Last Gasp or Electrolyze it. It's not countering, per se, but it still takes mana and a card to get rid of it.
m' Lord: You may be right. A lot of good decks focus on strange interactions of combos - and work. Rift/Slide from years bacl, Affinity, Martyr / Procalamation, Dragonstorm - they all used strange interactions, but they all focused on using them in ways that won the game or controlled the baord. Doubling Season just "focused" on Doubling Season.
I believe that FOCUS is the key word, both when building a deck and when playing it. Cards like Doubling Season are traps that lure people into building "cool decks". And when it's cool, then it's focus is being cool rather than winning. And that makes the difference between tier1 decks and the rest. Tier1 decks, no matter what their strategy is, are focused on what they are doing or what they plan to do. And I think that those 2 decks above are very good examples to that.
Cool article but some mistakes,
Mindless Automaton and Plaxcaster Frogling are not great beatdown creatures on their own.
Automation isnt a beatmacine indeed, but the frogling is a 3 mana 3/3 creature, which by your own definition ( power equel or higher than casting cost) is pretty good for beatdown.
Oh, and about you opponent nt having enough mana to counter both the sulfur elemental and the suspended rift bolts.
Elemental has Split Second, he cant counter it if he wanted too.
Nice article, just wanted to point it out
Very good article and very true. I must say it's so much more fun playing those decks that when they do win your like man i had 3 20/20 creatures out but at the same time those decks rarely go as planned and by the time you get the cool stuff our your opponent has stomped your butt into the ground.
Its nice to see that someone is thinking outside the box. You are a true Johnny and I commend you for your unique ideas. So far the only tribal decks I've made online are a standard merfolk and classic rats. I guess I technically have a goblin tribal deck but it is a total spike deck that deserves tournament play. I have the cards to make elves and zombies/clerics, etc. but everytime I try to commit to making them, I get bored with the decklist and make another random standard deck I wanna try out in the casual rooms. Keep up the good work. My old personal favorite tribe would have to be vampires. Not sure why I just thought of that but man does that take me back a ways :D.
Thanks for the comments folks. Corrupt is something I thought of, but I decided to keep it out because I wanted to focus on white and green. @ Impy - that combo's pretty evil, but it is a two-card deal, which makes it a tad bit weaker.
I wanted to say that I really do enjoy your articles. Not my type of decks perhaps, but the article is nice to read. Keep it comin'.
After more than a decade of playing Magic, I have never played in a Tribal War format - but you have convinced me! It is obvious from your article that there are some inventive and fun ways to approach the format - before now, I had always thought of Tribal as "35 Elves or Knights....Go!". Thanks for the inspiration!
Nice article, unique ideas for future deckbuilding and overall fascinating. Thumbs up.
A slightly more evil all swamps-Karma idea is using Nightcreep on an Isochron Scepter. You avoid even the chance of taking Karma burn, whilst locking out most of their mana unless they're playing monoblack. Fill your deck with protection from black and you're laughing.
If you ever want to break Spellshift, try matching it up with Eye of the Storm :D
Psst... fix some of the links... In regards to hellion.dec, that idea is quite popular nowadays ^^ a friend of mine recently won a standard 8man w/ a R/W version of the deck in a Standard touranment. Definitely a lot of potential there. Also it would have been awesome if you had provided a more indepth reason for the grades you gave the stuff...
sorry for the caps writing on my cell and the auto text is putting everything in caps (no auto writer this time)
A GOOD READ WAS HOPING TO FIND A DECK BREAKING CHRONOZOA I KNOW A BUNCH OF PEOPLE ARE WORKING ON IT AND THERE IS ENOUGH IN THE BLOCK THAT EFFECTS THE COUNTERS THAT IT HAS TO BE DO ABLE SO I WILL EAGERLY WAIT OR VILE ON THE TASK MYSELF (WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE 3 MORE DAYS!) AS FOR THE HELLION DECK IT SIMPLY SCREAMS STUFFY DOLL.
I like the Hellion.dec, but one thing I want to point out about the Karma.dec is that Corrupt is your friend when all your lands are swamps ;-)
Nice deck evolution and cliff notes on the magic 'personalities."
However I think that you did not adequately define a rouge deck. It seems to me that you feel a rogue deck is simply a deck that is not one of an established archetype in a particular metagame.
I think that is just not fair enough for real rogue decks. A rogue deck is not merely a pet deck. It is a deck that attempts to exploit a known metagame. It may not be as 'powerful' as known archetypes, but due to good matchups against the expected decks, and the element of surprise (which you covered), it has a certain edge to it.
The GOTG comments were dead on. Someone once said GOTG was auto 4 of in a deck with white. NO! WW builds I played only had 2 and I never really liked them to much and of late they are hated on so much anyways.
Being a player who played alot of cloak, the deck always seemed confilicted to me. Was it aggro or combo. Both? Why play bonespliter instead of morningstar? Mono green with splash white for cloak seems like a better pure aggro play. Congrats on your win. I hope our Rats play testing helped you in the finals.
Just want to say that I agree with the analysis of GotG for the most part. I have never even considered it for my aggro decks (especially boros) and always frown on the inside when someone casts one in their aggro R/W deck. Congrats on your win btw.
The Princes of Pauper Blog is a great place for Standard PDC.