It can't use Shadows over Innistrad, since the Modern Masters sets have strict "first-printed" rules within the range, and as I said, the range only goes up to Magic Origins. Eternal Masters is a whole different beast, which didn't really have a range (and thus will be a pain to make next year--the only things I'll feel comfortable keeping out haven't even been released yet (heck, maybe I'm supposed to put DFC's there, even if all of them are Modern-legal--watch the set size when they announce it in six months).
Thank you for the comment. I hope you play games you like and play against people that are nice.
This article is meant for those players that want to achieve something in the competitive world. It is more of a reminder that there are things we should watch out for and that there are many things a player needs to learn in order to become good at Competitive REL events and later Professional REL events. But following what is this in article is good for just a GP appearance or other big premier event (SCG Open/TCGPlayer Open) because all this can be applied during that single event and it helps. Participating at one event like this and having this in mind can be very eye-opening (you most probably don't need that, but many players do). Everything comes down to 'what we can learn from our experience'.
At first when Magic started to be played where I live, it was more of a pro player community than any other player community. Later new players came and tried to get on the pro tour as well. The competition was high and many wanted to be good but often they struggled because they did not have enough self-discipline. At the time of DCI Rating things were different and the events mattered way more. They were also way more stressful than now, a loss against not so good player was the most dreaded thing. One was trying for a month to get few points of rating and then he lost 16 in one match. It was not uncommon to drop from an event with 4-0 just to keep above 1950 rating. In our community, there are many promising players and some players that can technically play well and could be better but they are often blinded by their ego and by the fact that knowing the metagame and deck is all they need to know. They do not want to learn more because they don't think they even can. One thing is that many do not take the opponent into account when they play. The other is already mentioned self-discipline and the last is often the ego. Many players aren't critical about themselves and think they are 'the best players in the world'. Many Standard players are like this for some reason and I would recommend them playing a different format so they could learn more and see that they can utterly fail in a different environment.
Unfortunately being a good player also means to be able to deal with stress and be able to focus for long periods of time (during which a person needs to make many decisions) and this is something that is required. It is one of the crucial skills. If someone is incapable of this they can't compete at PT level. But it is something that can be learned. Everything comes with a price and it is up to us to see if we like it or not and if there are compromises we can make. I always liked big tournaments and those are usually played at Competitive REL and it's were competitive players gather. I used to play in those because it's there were I could play good games. The stress was a small price to pay, but now with a trauma from my past surfacing it's a big problem. So I can understand you. It's certainly not pleasant.
We all have different reasons why we play Magic and each of us has different play style and expectations. Some people are happy playing Magic at a kitchen table, some go to local events just to have fun and socialize, some go to a pub to play EDH or Cube, some play because of the competitive aspect of the game. I talked to some pros and was quite surprised that for many of them Magic was just means to be competitive and be good at something (later that involves winning money and those players leave Magic for other games - poker for example or even Hearthstone). It wasn't because they became dazzled by the game. Our community has primarily players that play because they like winning and like the competitive aspect. Some are just grinders, some strive for more. Finding a single player that would come there for fun is rather rare. This is one of the reasons I like PureMTGO. MODO is like the 'most competitive environment' for many. I've read mentions of that everywhere. All the warnings that the level of the players is higher than at your LGS etc. In a way it may be true for many, but not for those that grew up in the community I was a part of. If you take even the 1-2 players here from limited and let them play at a GP, they will have way better results than majority of the players there. But PureMTGO is different because it gathers those players that really love the game and play it for fun and for the sake of those players I hope WotC won't kill all the 'casual' but organized play on modo.
edit: 1-2 players, I meant those that come to an event and end up with 1-2 record (or 1-x).
I stopped playing major events when I was still relatively a young man but even then I found my tourney endurance on the low side. After 3-4 rounds all I really want to do is go do something unstressful or at least without any real pressure. On top of that I found myself crashing pretty hard after 6-7 rounds of constant play. 10 round days were impossible. Even if I had a good deck, knew it well, I often hamstrung myself before even starting. In addition I found that I didn't get the same level of joy out of the game at that level of competition. Sure it's great to win in tourney against a good/great player. Even sweeter when you're sure that normally they are much better than you. But for me it was ruined by the stress of it and KNOWING intuitively that I'd sabotaged my chances by not being at my best.
I used to relish competition when I was a teen/20 something. I might have been a little over the top aggression wise back then but as I grew older, more and more I found I didn't like the feeling I got from being in super competitive situations. I suspect at least some of that was the "shoot foot" syndrome you describe above. I also was in a large pond with much bigger fish (NGNY had tons and tons of great players, semi pros and pros and not very many scrubs.)
Heh, while you went way more in depth then I will here, I agree with all of your points.
Although from most of my testing, if we are in game 3 and you are on the play, there is no doubt you have an advantage, but it also depends on how quickly you can kill me. Once I get to turn 5, if I at the end of turn was able to use a Teachings to find a Moment's Peace and I can get tron assembled, it can become quite a street fight.
Active Player = Whose turn it is. Non Active Player = whose turn it is not.
AP: Battle ?
NAP: ... yes.
...nothing happens for too long time.
Judge: NAP is DQed for stalling because he is the one who had priority for the too long period during which no game action was made.
There's several cards that count the number of players, or the number of players matching a characteristic: Oreskos Explorer, Surveyor's Scope, Benediction of Moons, Anya, Merciless Angel, Adriana, Captain of the Guard.
I see everything through Bogle-colored glasses (so I guess I have white, green and hybrid-blue colored glasses?), because only one thing is relevant to me in Pauper: How does my opponent's deck cope against Bogles.
In summary, the Bogles player will be neither happy nor sad to face Murasa Tron. Murasa Tron is slighly favored in the matchup, although not by a huge margin. It is not a David vs Goliath matchup by any means. For those interested in this matchup, this is what you can roughly expect to see:
Game 1: Bogles is highly favoured (roughly 75% win rate), and even higher if the Bogles pilate won the die roll. Your removal is mostly a blank to my hexproof creatures. You will soon find yourself staring down a huge, trampling, lifelinking, first-striking creature before your combo goes off. You pack it in and move to Game 2.
Game 2: You are favored. Quite significantly so (roughly around 75% win rate for Murasa Tron, which is ironic because that's roughly my percentage win rate in Game 1). Your deck brings in 2 Serene Hearts, 1 Diabolic Edict, 1 Moment's Peace and 1 Echoing Truth to replace some bricks like Flame Slash. Meanwhile I bring in only a lone copy of Flaring Pain to combat your (now) two copies of Moment's Peace, siding out a Lifelink. You also have the Mystical Teachings from your maindeck to fetch your silver bullet from the sideboard (Serene Heart) which will be devastating to the Bogles player. As the game progresses, I will soon reach the breaking point, either by seeing your combo or seeing a Serene Heart. I pack it in and move on to Game 3.
Game 3: You are favored again, but not to the same extent as in Game 2 because I will likely be on the play in Game 3. If I mulligan here, the game swings further in your favour. If we both mulligan, the game is still in your favor because Bogles tends to mulligan worse than Murasa Tron because I need a critical mass of combo pieces, and because I have less card draw/selection than you. Once mulligan decisions are locked in, we are off to the races! I will try to pressure you and assemble a "Slippery Voltron" before you can meaningfully react. Your chances of drawing a Serene Heart in time is less than 50%. By this time our hearts are racing because the match could swing in either direction! By my Turn 4, I am nearing the final stretch of the race-track, and can see the finish line in sight! I take comfort that your "non-Serene Heart" disruption will not be able to stop a decent 7-card opening hand from the Bogles deck, especially if I try to encourage you to counter my Armadillo Cloak or Ethereal Armor rather than my Ancestral Mask (+ Rancor combo). I hope and pray that your Sea Gate Oracle, Forbidden Alchemies or evoked Mulldrifters do not find a Serene Heart before my Turn 5. Thankfully most of those cards require you to tap out, allowing me to safely slam down my Ancestral Mask which is the most impactful card from my end. The flip side is that your Mystical Teachings (searching for Serene Heart) can be fast enough to save you if you have slowed me down in the preceding turns. You can alternatively go for your combo kill after slowing me down because I have zero disruption for your combo. I must race it or die on the spot. If I win this Game 3 and cross the finish line, I say GG and breathe a huge sigh of relief that the bogles managed to slip through your fingers this time!!
In summary, Murasa Tron is no joke at all. It is a deck that demands respect from the bogles. Arctic Ghost, in your testing, did you feel the same way from the perspective of Murasa Tron?
while this is annoying pressing F2 while the window is out of focus or when you have cursor in the chat simply does nothing. When you notice that 1 is in the chat window you know that you need to click on the duel screen and press 1 again...
you can set the hotkeys back to the previous function keys if you want in account/input settings.
Here are some notes for cards left out:
Undaunted: I'm assuming "# of players remaining in the game" isn't something MTGO keeps track of, and these cards aren't particularly great when the number of players maxes out at four anyway.
Manifold Insights: This would certainly require a new interface, and for something that won't be played in competitive, it isn't worth it.
Voting cards: I'm assuming each vote card is hard-coded, and implementing voting is much harder than it looks.
Spy Kit: This combos with all the Conspiracies that have you name a card, then give that card a bonus (aka it's almost entirely for limited, outside of edge cases like Biovisionary).
(also, the (online: ##) notes broke when ## is less than 100).
I agree and I'm pretty sure Hearts will not be forthcoming with any information, but rather be happy to stay in their conspiracy theory world over alternative facts. However, should he or she be willing to provide further details, I will be willing to listen in private.
the delay does not need to be that big. Usually streamers set some kind of delay for their streams but my configuration can run with 12 seconds delay.
it is still a lot but if someone would want to help me when playing on Magic Online they could. I watched few streams were there were more people in the room giving advice to the player or discussing plays etc...
and I also know that some players play PTQ Finals like this. What can we do about this?
Impractical and slow. The thing is it does not really need to be obvious and usually you don't need to be guided through the match. Just from time to time a player needs an advice or opinion on something. Many players take a lot of time to actually do something in a game of Magic. Some lag, some multitable, some do whatever else they want in the meantime and in premier events it often takes long time till priority is passed.
It can't use Shadows over Innistrad, since the Modern Masters sets have strict "first-printed" rules within the range, and as I said, the range only goes up to Magic Origins. Eternal Masters is a whole different beast, which didn't really have a range (and thus will be a pain to make next year--the only things I'll feel comfortable keeping out haven't even been released yet (heck, maybe I'm supposed to put DFC's there, even if all of them are Modern-legal--watch the set size when they announce it in six months).
Thank you for the comment. I hope you play games you like and play against people that are nice.
This article is meant for those players that want to achieve something in the competitive world. It is more of a reminder that there are things we should watch out for and that there are many things a player needs to learn in order to become good at Competitive REL events and later Professional REL events. But following what is this in article is good for just a GP appearance or other big premier event (SCG Open/TCGPlayer Open) because all this can be applied during that single event and it helps. Participating at one event like this and having this in mind can be very eye-opening (you most probably don't need that, but many players do). Everything comes down to 'what we can learn from our experience'.
At first when Magic started to be played where I live, it was more of a pro player community than any other player community. Later new players came and tried to get on the pro tour as well. The competition was high and many wanted to be good but often they struggled because they did not have enough self-discipline. At the time of DCI Rating things were different and the events mattered way more. They were also way more stressful than now, a loss against not so good player was the most dreaded thing. One was trying for a month to get few points of rating and then he lost 16 in one match. It was not uncommon to drop from an event with 4-0 just to keep above 1950 rating. In our community, there are many promising players and some players that can technically play well and could be better but they are often blinded by their ego and by the fact that knowing the metagame and deck is all they need to know. They do not want to learn more because they don't think they even can. One thing is that many do not take the opponent into account when they play. The other is already mentioned self-discipline and the last is often the ego. Many players aren't critical about themselves and think they are 'the best players in the world'. Many Standard players are like this for some reason and I would recommend them playing a different format so they could learn more and see that they can utterly fail in a different environment.
Unfortunately being a good player also means to be able to deal with stress and be able to focus for long periods of time (during which a person needs to make many decisions) and this is something that is required. It is one of the crucial skills. If someone is incapable of this they can't compete at PT level. But it is something that can be learned. Everything comes with a price and it is up to us to see if we like it or not and if there are compromises we can make. I always liked big tournaments and those are usually played at Competitive REL and it's were competitive players gather. I used to play in those because it's there were I could play good games. The stress was a small price to pay, but now with a trauma from my past surfacing it's a big problem. So I can understand you. It's certainly not pleasant.
We all have different reasons why we play Magic and each of us has different play style and expectations. Some people are happy playing Magic at a kitchen table, some go to local events just to have fun and socialize, some go to a pub to play EDH or Cube, some play because of the competitive aspect of the game. I talked to some pros and was quite surprised that for many of them Magic was just means to be competitive and be good at something (later that involves winning money and those players leave Magic for other games - poker for example or even Hearthstone). It wasn't because they became dazzled by the game. Our community has primarily players that play because they like winning and like the competitive aspect. Some are just grinders, some strive for more. Finding a single player that would come there for fun is rather rare. This is one of the reasons I like PureMTGO. MODO is like the 'most competitive environment' for many. I've read mentions of that everywhere. All the warnings that the level of the players is higher than at your LGS etc. In a way it may be true for many, but not for those that grew up in the community I was a part of. If you take even the 1-2 players here from limited and let them play at a GP, they will have way better results than majority of the players there. But PureMTGO is different because it gathers those players that really love the game and play it for fun and for the sake of those players I hope WotC won't kill all the 'casual' but organized play on modo.
edit: 1-2 players, I meant those that come to an event and end up with 1-2 record (or 1-x).
I stopped playing major events when I was still relatively a young man but even then I found my tourney endurance on the low side. After 3-4 rounds all I really want to do is go do something unstressful or at least without any real pressure. On top of that I found myself crashing pretty hard after 6-7 rounds of constant play. 10 round days were impossible. Even if I had a good deck, knew it well, I often hamstrung myself before even starting. In addition I found that I didn't get the same level of joy out of the game at that level of competition. Sure it's great to win in tourney against a good/great player. Even sweeter when you're sure that normally they are much better than you. But for me it was ruined by the stress of it and KNOWING intuitively that I'd sabotaged my chances by not being at my best.
I used to relish competition when I was a teen/20 something. I might have been a little over the top aggression wise back then but as I grew older, more and more I found I didn't like the feeling I got from being in super competitive situations. I suspect at least some of that was the "shoot foot" syndrome you describe above. I also was in a large pond with much bigger fish (NGNY had tons and tons of great players, semi pros and pros and not very many scrubs.)
Great advice.
We also do not know that it is true apart from someone on an internet forum using a fake account posting such drivel without proof.
Do not claim what you do not know to be true.
Ok so this is not a thing that actually happened.
.
Should it have happened ?
Where did this happen at?
Heh, while you went way more in depth then I will here, I agree with all of your points.
Although from most of my testing, if we are in game 3 and you are on the play, there is no doubt you have an advantage, but it also depends on how quickly you can kill me. Once I get to turn 5, if I at the end of turn was able to use a Teachings to find a Moment's Peace and I can get tron assembled, it can become quite a street fight.
Active Player = Whose turn it is. Non Active Player = whose turn it is not.
AP: Battle ?
NAP: ... yes.
...nothing happens for too long time.
Judge: NAP is DQed for stalling because he is the one who had priority for the too long period during which no game action was made.
There's several cards that count the number of players, or the number of players matching a characteristic: Oreskos Explorer, Surveyor's Scope, Benediction of Moons, Anya, Merciless Angel, Adriana, Captain of the Guard.
Thanks for this article.
I see everything through Bogle-colored glasses (so I guess I have white, green and hybrid-blue colored glasses?), because only one thing is relevant to me in Pauper: How does my opponent's deck cope against Bogles.
In summary, the Bogles player will be neither happy nor sad to face Murasa Tron. Murasa Tron is slighly favored in the matchup, although not by a huge margin. It is not a David vs Goliath matchup by any means. For those interested in this matchup, this is what you can roughly expect to see:
Game 1: Bogles is highly favoured (roughly 75% win rate), and even higher if the Bogles pilate won the die roll. Your removal is mostly a blank to my hexproof creatures. You will soon find yourself staring down a huge, trampling, lifelinking, first-striking creature before your combo goes off. You pack it in and move to Game 2.
Game 2: You are favored. Quite significantly so (roughly around 75% win rate for Murasa Tron, which is ironic because that's roughly my percentage win rate in Game 1). Your deck brings in 2 Serene Hearts, 1 Diabolic Edict, 1 Moment's Peace and 1 Echoing Truth to replace some bricks like Flame Slash. Meanwhile I bring in only a lone copy of Flaring Pain to combat your (now) two copies of Moment's Peace, siding out a Lifelink. You also have the Mystical Teachings from your maindeck to fetch your silver bullet from the sideboard (Serene Heart) which will be devastating to the Bogles player. As the game progresses, I will soon reach the breaking point, either by seeing your combo or seeing a Serene Heart. I pack it in and move on to Game 3.
Game 3: You are favored again, but not to the same extent as in Game 2 because I will likely be on the play in Game 3. If I mulligan here, the game swings further in your favour. If we both mulligan, the game is still in your favor because Bogles tends to mulligan worse than Murasa Tron because I need a critical mass of combo pieces, and because I have less card draw/selection than you. Once mulligan decisions are locked in, we are off to the races! I will try to pressure you and assemble a "Slippery Voltron" before you can meaningfully react. Your chances of drawing a Serene Heart in time is less than 50%. By this time our hearts are racing because the match could swing in either direction! By my Turn 4, I am nearing the final stretch of the race-track, and can see the finish line in sight! I take comfort that your "non-Serene Heart" disruption will not be able to stop a decent 7-card opening hand from the Bogles deck, especially if I try to encourage you to counter my Armadillo Cloak or Ethereal Armor rather than my Ancestral Mask (+ Rancor combo). I hope and pray that your Sea Gate Oracle, Forbidden Alchemies or evoked Mulldrifters do not find a Serene Heart before my Turn 5. Thankfully most of those cards require you to tap out, allowing me to safely slam down my Ancestral Mask which is the most impactful card from my end. The flip side is that your Mystical Teachings (searching for Serene Heart) can be fast enough to save you if you have slowed me down in the preceding turns. You can alternatively go for your combo kill after slowing me down because I have zero disruption for your combo. I must race it or die on the spot. If I win this Game 3 and cross the finish line, I say GG and breathe a huge sigh of relief that the bogles managed to slip through your fingers this time!!
In summary, Murasa Tron is no joke at all. It is a deck that demands respect from the bogles. Arctic Ghost, in your testing, did you feel the same way from the perspective of Murasa Tron?
while this is annoying pressing F2 while the window is out of focus or when you have cursor in the chat simply does nothing. When you notice that 1 is in the chat window you know that you need to click on the duel screen and press 1 again...
you can set the hotkeys back to the previous function keys if you want in account/input settings.
Thanks Paul. Good to know that Chris K is now the Head Honcho of Magic Online.
The new sticky keys are horrible and lead to less chat interaction.
You say something in chat, then press "1" to Okay something, the "1" goes into chat. Never had that with using "F1"
Here are some notes for cards left out:
Undaunted: I'm assuming "# of players remaining in the game" isn't something MTGO keeps track of, and these cards aren't particularly great when the number of players maxes out at four anyway.
Manifold Insights: This would certainly require a new interface, and for something that won't be played in competitive, it isn't worth it.
Voting cards: I'm assuming each vote card is hard-coded, and implementing voting is much harder than it looks.
Spy Kit: This combos with all the Conspiracies that have you name a card, then give that card a bonus (aka it's almost entirely for limited, outside of edge cases like Biovisionary).
(also, the (online: ##) notes broke when ## is less than 100).
I agree and I'm pretty sure Hearts will not be forthcoming with any information, but rather be happy to stay in their conspiracy theory world over alternative facts. However, should he or she be willing to provide further details, I will be willing to listen in private.
I thought for sure it was in a Masters Edition.
Or rather our bad for not linking to an outside source for that one.
Well I knew it wasn't, I mean we did discuss that they are ONLY in Ice Age...
I don't know about you but I'm astounded by that revelation.
I didn't think to check the picture this week, because I assumed that it would work so for that I am sorry.
I think that the real news is that Onyx Talisman is not on MTGO.
Just wanted to point out that Chris K is in Worth's actual position.
the delay does not need to be that big. Usually streamers set some kind of delay for their streams but my configuration can run with 12 seconds delay.
it is still a lot but if someone would want to help me when playing on Magic Online they could. I watched few streams were there were more people in the room giving advice to the player or discussing plays etc...
and I also know that some players play PTQ Finals like this. What can we do about this?
Impractical and slow. The thing is it does not really need to be obvious and usually you don't need to be guided through the match. Just from time to time a player needs an advice or opinion on something. Many players take a lot of time to actually do something in a game of Magic. Some lag, some multitable, some do whatever else they want in the meantime and in premier events it often takes long time till priority is passed.