I am surrounded by water yet never wet.
I am broken yet wholly in tact.
I am besieged in more ways than one, but worries I have none.
I am an artist, and I draw perfectly.
I am a drawer, but nothing is stored in me.
I am consecrated to power, yet my power wanes.
I am the envy of Oracles, yet I am not from Theros.
I have rotated away but I still see play.
I command the cryptic, yet I am not a Cryptic Command.
My bride is all white, yet she is not my wife.
What am I?
If you guessed correctly that I am a Consecrated Sphinx + Moat combo (a combo I loved in Tribal Wars!), then you can go ahead and draw a card. If however you are playing on Magic Online, sorry you will not be able to draw a card even if you guessed correctly!.
I look forward to reading what you come up with. I'm sure the site would love for you to write an in depth article on it. You are the expert, after all, so it'd be better for you to write it than Pete.
We must hear about the gatherer/oracle next opinion section please.
How it isnt absurd to know what is written below each card in the format on gatherer.com .
How this isnt an overwhelming mitigating circumstance in almost every case of (potential) stalling in wpn matches.
Lets hear about that please.
Hear about how certain cards (you have to read the whole gatherer to know which) doesnt do what they say, OR, doesnt say what they do (there is a difference), and how a certain cr paragraph kicks in when a certain OTHER card is present -------> now you can start multiplying card numbers with each other in gatherer to get combinations of possibilities that isnt in any way supposed to create long thinking periods / stalling.
......how this isnt the biggest stall of ALL in the whole MtG world, including kitchen tables. Wotc is the source, ppl loose respect for wpn, judges and players crash at events.
...
Come to think of it, gatherer.wizards.com is actually the ultimate proof that the Comprehensive Rules actually isnt a functioning document for magic playing.
I think the views counter is broken, which I believe it has been an issue in the past as well. This article has ten times the views of others from the same time period, so I think that is what has happened.
Although the risk of making limited supply cards is greater, the freedom of WotC to make FRESH, balanced limited environments outweighs this, IMO.
I agree with Pete that the retail price of the packs make a large difference in the preconceived images of the set, no matter how well designed it is for limited play. Would Innistrad or Dominaria been as interesting at release if the pack price were higher? Not likely! People tend to look first at the EV and think the fun of the format is a bonus. WotC (and the supply of MtG cards) would do better if they kept the introductory price lower and went more for repeat business, because the set is a blast to play.
The trick WotC has to juggle is: How do you make a fair environment when you need to increase the supply of unfair cards?
Love it! I think I would have taken Poison-Tip Archer at P1P6, even though RG seemed like the right base. I have not been around to splash, or even double splash due to the dual lands in this format.
hearts, if you wanna hear about it, why don't you write it?
Pete will write what he wants to, and you seem to think there is an ULTRA MK level of conspiracy among wotc and judges, so please feel free to write it, and get it out of your system.
Yes Flagstones is ending up not being needed the more I test. I will be having some thoughts on Mono White Devotion coming very soon. I am hoping to have it built within a week or 2. Then I can test against you. Tron hate will be there :)
Decks that win often not necessarily are the "best" decks. It depends on what we mean by that adjective. Sometimes decks win a lot because they're played a lot, and they're played a lot because they're simpler to pilot. Complicate decks that require a lot of decisions and take a long time to win are stressful to play with, and this is a factor for pros in long tournaments. It's quite possible you lose one of your last rounds of the day simply because you're mentally exhausted by all the math and strategy and decision-making your deck requires.
Another factor is what players like better, which of course doesn't mean the same for everyone, and it might average based on different considerations than just the absolute strength of the deck. Those figures include semi-pro players ending top 8 in competitive MTGO leagues and who maybe chose simpler, familiar decks because they don't trust their chances with the newer, more complicated ones. Also, let's keep in mind MTGO punishes decks that eat a lot of clock time.
All this to say, maybe KCI *is* the best deck in the meta, when you take in considerations all the possible matchups and its overall odds at winning, and yet it's not the most played one, therefore it's not statistically the most winning one.
I do not understand how "less complexity" is a(n) (good) argument when talking combat-dmg on the stack, interrupts and so forth. MtG is all about complexity from the beginning. If things were about dragon/goblin/merfolk pictures and/or role playing they would play dungeons and dragons or other.
A conversation about MtG with a new player, whether in 1997 or 2016, would necessarily have to go "takes a lot to learn but is very fun" if you wanted to be honest with the person.
By removing the things mentioned in post on top they have removed 50 percent of the "soul" of mtg, things that could be learned once and then known forever.
Things that act as stress factors in games like mtg is *new* things, which happen every new prerelease, completely unnecessarily, new abilities and so forth. Getting recruitment/new players to mtg is not helped with "I can go to the prerelease and win because some things are new and then I can win almost as fast as the experienced ones.", people just dont think like this.
The amount of things that have been thrown at mtg, by "design"(I call them card-makerers) and then scrapped for all future sets is insane, and stupid, and have caused a lot of trouble for judges and players.
Herein lies a riddle:
I am surrounded by water yet never wet.
I am broken yet wholly in tact.
I am besieged in more ways than one, but worries I have none.
I am an artist, and I draw perfectly.
I am a drawer, but nothing is stored in me.
I am consecrated to power, yet my power wanes.
I am the envy of Oracles, yet I am not from Theros.
I have rotated away but I still see play.
I command the cryptic, yet I am not a Cryptic Command.
My bride is all white, yet she is not my wife.
What am I?
If you guessed correctly that I am a Consecrated Sphinx + Moat combo (a combo I loved in Tribal Wars!), then you can go ahead and draw a card. If however you are playing on Magic Online, sorry you will not be able to draw a card even if you guessed correctly!.
I look forward to reading what you come up with. I'm sure the site would love for you to write an in depth article on it. You are the expert, after all, so it'd be better for you to write it than Pete.
Haha that makes 2 of us!
I can't wait for M19 to go away, TBH :P
I would love to see some love for Entourage of Trest! ^^
We must hear about the gatherer/oracle next opinion section please.
How it isnt absurd to know what is written below each card in the format on gatherer.com .
How this isnt an overwhelming mitigating circumstance in almost every case of (potential) stalling in wpn matches.
Lets hear about that please.
Hear about how certain cards (you have to read the whole gatherer to know which) doesnt do what they say, OR, doesnt say what they do (there is a difference), and how a certain cr paragraph kicks in when a certain OTHER card is present -------> now you can start multiplying card numbers with each other in gatherer to get combinations of possibilities that isnt in any way supposed to create long thinking periods / stalling.
......how this isnt the biggest stall of ALL in the whole MtG world, including kitchen tables. Wotc is the source, ppl loose respect for wpn, judges and players crash at events.
...
Come to think of it, gatherer.wizards.com is actually the ultimate proof that the Comprehensive Rules actually isnt a functioning document for magic playing.
Thank you Pete for speaking out against M25.
Let's hope that in this 2018 (the "Year of the Feedback" as WotC put it) they will finally learn and correct their policy errors.
Yeah the bug that hits the view counter is back!
I have sent the appropriate emails.
I think the views counter is broken, which I believe it has been an issue in the past as well. This article has ten times the views of others from the same time period, so I think that is what has happened.
Although the risk of making limited supply cards is greater, the freedom of WotC to make FRESH, balanced limited environments outweighs this, IMO.
I agree with Pete that the retail price of the packs make a large difference in the preconceived images of the set, no matter how well designed it is for limited play. Would Innistrad or Dominaria been as interesting at release if the pack price were higher? Not likely! People tend to look first at the EV and think the fun of the format is a bonus. WotC (and the supply of MtG cards) would do better if they kept the introductory price lower and went more for repeat business, because the set is a blast to play.
The trick WotC has to juggle is: How do you make a fair environment when you need to increase the supply of unfair cards?
Nice article, thanks.
How could there be only 1,600 reads and 2 comments despite all the mothership support? Hope more people see this article.
Love it! I think I would have taken Poison-Tip Archer at P1P6, even though RG seemed like the right base. I have not been around to splash, or even double splash due to the dual lands in this format.
hearts, if you wanna hear about it, why don't you write it?
Pete will write what he wants to, and you seem to think there is an ULTRA MK level of conspiracy among wotc and judges, so please feel free to write it, and get it out of your system.
Lets hear about the warning and DQ intstructions/guidelines for judges next time please.
IMO the silver showcase was good television!
Does "recover" mean "it is worth less this week than last week?"
If so then it recovered
Love the SHOW AND TELL part, great work guys!
Yes Flagstones is ending up not being needed the more I test. I will be having some thoughts on Mono White Devotion coming very soon. I am hoping to have it built within a week or 2. Then I can test against you. Tron hate will be there :)
Decks that win often not necessarily are the "best" decks. It depends on what we mean by that adjective. Sometimes decks win a lot because they're played a lot, and they're played a lot because they're simpler to pilot. Complicate decks that require a lot of decisions and take a long time to win are stressful to play with, and this is a factor for pros in long tournaments. It's quite possible you lose one of your last rounds of the day simply because you're mentally exhausted by all the math and strategy and decision-making your deck requires.
Another factor is what players like better, which of course doesn't mean the same for everyone, and it might average based on different considerations than just the absolute strength of the deck. Those figures include semi-pro players ending top 8 in competitive MTGO leagues and who maybe chose simpler, familiar decks because they don't trust their chances with the newer, more complicated ones. Also, let's keep in mind MTGO punishes decks that eat a lot of clock time.
All this to say, maybe KCI *is* the best deck in the meta, when you take in considerations all the possible matchups and its overall odds at winning, and yet it's not the most played one, therefore it's not statistically the most winning one.
Kindly noted, makes a lot of sense.
I do not understand how "less complexity" is a(n) (good) argument when talking combat-dmg on the stack, interrupts and so forth. MtG is all about complexity from the beginning. If things were about dragon/goblin/merfolk pictures and/or role playing they would play dungeons and dragons or other.
A conversation about MtG with a new player, whether in 1997 or 2016, would necessarily have to go "takes a lot to learn but is very fun" if you wanted to be honest with the person.
By removing the things mentioned in post on top they have removed 50 percent of the "soul" of mtg, things that could be learned once and then known forever.
Things that act as stress factors in games like mtg is *new* things, which happen every new prerelease, completely unnecessarily, new abilities and so forth. Getting recruitment/new players to mtg is not helped with "I can go to the prerelease and win because some things are new and then I can win almost as fast as the experienced ones.", people just dont think like this.
The amount of things that have been thrown at mtg, by "design"(I call them card-makerers) and then scrapped for all future sets is insane, and stupid, and have caused a lot of trouble for judges and players.
Hi everyone :)
Damage effects on the stack I do miss, actually - I liked using Mogg Fanatic a lot
Oh there are plenty of ways, I just decided to cut some of them.
Cool beans! Your story parallels mine some ways.