Your comment was 100% valid. The prices in that article were 16 days old not 2 days old.
The following week's article pretended like there was no error and then commented on a weekly "trend" on a 14 day period. Had the second article merely stated the prices without noting changes then the error would have been restricted to one week. The error was not acknowledged so we had two erroneous articles.
"And note to the people complaining about accuracy".
I guess that is directed at me. It is totally fine to dismiss my complaint. But your standard explanation for price inaccuracy is not valid for the complaint I made.
Anyway, it is no longer an issue. Nice article and opinion section, I was hoping to read your opinion on that specific issue.
I can't stress enough how big Loxodon Warhammer was in Mirrodin limited. You could have a poor deck and a Warhammer and still win matches you had no business winning. In draft it was said that you take the Warhammer over anything else in the pack. It was just that good.
For sure! Don't miss the upcoming 'Pauperganda" show in April...details on the youtube page/ FB page for "pauperganda" - there's a contest going on now too...
I view Mirrodin as though, if Magic had died, it would have been the dusk, while Darksteel would be night (Fifth Dawn, contrarily, would be the sign of no more dawns). I tried not to misled by referring to Mirrodin block, but if I did, sorry.
I had forgotten about Molder Slug. Always valuable.
Mirrodin, itself, was not the set that nearly destroyed Magic. It was Darksteel that created the headaches. Darksteel had Ravager and Skullclamp, etc. Nitpicky, I know, but I was a playtester on Mirrodin. What we saw in Mirrodin wasn't broken, although we were not playtesting all of the cards, and development made some changes. (e.g. when we played with Disciple of the Vault, it cost 1B.)
Good overview of triple Mirrodin limited, but remember that half the set is artifacts, so Shatter and the like are this set's Doom Blades, and Molder Slug can be a bomb.
Which is quite interesting really since the artifact lands are sometimes worse than a basic, and they're only better versus black, or post-sideboard if you need life gain. I like how that gives one sideboard choice multiple different roles. You taught me there are 'combo' sideboard answers to be found, thank you:)
I'm running Simic currently, glad to see lotus petals in yours. Am I going to have to listen to the cast to find out why Tree of Tales? Emergency lifegain is my guess.
Pack one pick three I should have taken the Rampant Growth over the elves.
Pack one pick four I should have taken the flock over the elves.
I overvalue the heck out of ramp in core set, because I know me, I want to cast Craw Wurms and other giant dumb dumbs.
Giant Cockroach over Lure is a good hindsight pick.
Pick one pack 11 I went with Giant over Rampant Growth, and I think that's defensible, but I could have had both, that was a wood elf pack.
Pick two pack 3 should have taken confiscate, as that was a weak pack for me, and confiscate is a heck of a magic card in core
Pick two pack 5 should have been bog wraith over spider, but I did not think I was going to be in black at the time
I really liked my pack three picks. That pack seemed to solidify my draft, and had it been reversed with pack one, I think wood elves would not have seen my main
Ok, I pieced the imps together. They are faster and more consistent than I had thought. I started with Ranth's list (thanks, Romellos) and improved it majorly with +4 Chrome Mox and +2 Ancient Tomb and +1 Shizo (-7 Swamps) and improving the fatty package. In three games, I had turn 2 choice of fatty (via Entomb), t.2 fatty in hand (or t.3 choice), and t.1 fatty of choice (thanks to Mox). I had some mulls in there too, so it's obviously not too rosy, but the scry rule was just what the doctor ordered. I'm not saying it's the best thing since sliced bread or anything, but I no longer proactively support it for Underdog without a lot more evidence from other quarters. Sorry for having doubted. BoB
Thanks for the find, romellos. They Imps are more enabling than I had thought with 12 discard outlets within the tribe itself and 4 dredgers. Still, Iona is banned in Underdog, and most everything else liable to Reanimation strategies can be dealt with. Mihahitlor had 4 Natural Order and 4 Defense of the Heart in his list this past weekend in Underdog which is arguably as (more?) powerful and consistent at cranking out immediate wins with fatties as Reanimation. I'd still take Berserker over any version of Imps I've seen so far, but only testing would realize that for sure.
By the way, any purifications from those two 4-x lists? They look decently fair to me (Shackles probably the most unfair between them), but I just want to make sure.
Can you please submit the winning Imp decklist? It's not on Gatherling (more below).
Imp only has 31 members, putting it well into traditional Underdog status, and if anyone says Putrid Imp is a problem for enabling Reanimation, I can probably point out Tireless Tribe which is Underdog-legal, has the same mechanic at the same cost (1 to cast free to use), and is not played. Nomad requires a white splash, but this is nothing with modern mana bases, and Nomad is better suited to stem the opposing onslaught than Imp. On the other hand, Stinkweed Imp could be a good enabler for slots 5-8 of the tribe.
Both tribes - Giant and Imp - only have 1 win, neither of which was in the Gatherling era. I can't imagine either being favored against a typical Berserker build, which is kind of baseline for the Underdog format these days. During the Gatherling era Putrid Imp has only seen play 6 times, three of which were narrower Halloween fields, and one was Commander. In the other two, Regular events, it went 0-2 in an Imp deck and 4-1 as a 4x of in a Zombie deck.
The winning Underdog deck this past week, Skeletons, probably would have feasted on Imps with its 4x Leyline of the Void.
On the whole, I'd say let 'em in after having served a 3+ year penance and see what they are made of. For my part, I'm more concerned about Primeval Titan (Giant).
Krark's Thumb says, "If you would flip a coin, instead flip two coins and ignore one." It says nothing about losing a flip. So for Mana Clash, you would flip two coins and your opponent would flip one. You get to choose which of your two flips is more advantageous for you.
More importantly, since Knowledge Pool only triggers on spells cast from hand, Flashback gets around it, and since Ancient Grudge is already an important sideboard card (especially for Lantern, which that deck shares many similarities with), that's probably more likely than Eldrazi, which only show up in a couple decks (Tron, as well as the new Eldrazi deck going around)
Saffron talks about a budget version there that seems fine, but even if you want to keep the upgrade G/W, instead of the Bant version, MD Thrun and Sigarda can do surprising things.
The Pariah Combo deck has always been a fun idea, but I feel like that version isn't running enough creatures to actually make Pariah useful. It only works really well with Stuffy Doll, since BR and SM still die after taking 3 damage, even if you do get to redirect it. Maybe try to throw some good protection creatures in so you can become "immune" to some colors of damage completely? (MD Kor Firewalker + your own red spells + Pariah = Auto Burn win?) Also, no need for Incinerate in R/W; get some Lightning Helix in there.
You never "lose" flips with Mana Clash so Krark's Thumb never triggers. I'm living in Fort Wayne too, maybe we'll meet up sometime. - Bazaar of Baghdad on MTGO
My troll deck's first iteration. Definitely needs tuning.
Mono Green Land D
4 x Spreading Algae
2 x Dingus Egg
4 x Acidic Slime
4 x Beast Within
1 x Creepy Doll
3 x Bramblecrush
1 x Crucible of Worlds
4 x Reap and Sow
2 x Steel Hellkite
4 x Harrow
2 x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 x Icy Manipulator
1 x Scute Mob
2 x Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 x Retreat to Kazandu
1 x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 x Tectonic Edge
4 x Ghost Quarter
14 x Forest
2 x Sword of the Animist
Cool, I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with the deck. As much as I'd like to throw it together and get some reps in, I have almost none of the money cards and spent too much on Christmas presents. That said, if you can catch me on MODO, (TheKidsArentAlright on there too) I'd be more than happy to help test against Grixis or Twin.
Elspeth is a damned good card, and very well could be correct. I don't think you can afford to run both her and CoCo, and the only way to know for sure it to try them both.
Kitchen Finks, if you haven't played much with or against them, is deceptively powerful. Often it will trade 2-for-1 and gain 4 life in the process. Rhox may not die to Bolt, but he trades 1-for-1 with every other removal spell and has no immediate effect on the game. The beauty of Finks, on the other hand, is that you just don't care if they Bolt, Decay, Terminate or whatever; they're down a crucial removal spell and you're up 4 life with a body still on the board. I highly encourage you to get a few games in with them before passing judgement.
As for the sideboard, what I presented is almost certainly not optimal, but rather reflects my process in refining one. I like to first identify what decks I need to beat, pick the cards I think I want the most and overload on them so I draw them more frequently. After playing a couple games and getting a feel for the matchups I usually trim the numbers and add analogous effects like Shatterstorm or Ancient Grudge. I've even seen some wacky stuff like Worship or some random big value dorks like Thragtusk or Wilt-Leaf Liege. The best thing you can do here is experiment.
If you think you need a trump for the Naya-ish mirror, I would look at siding that Archangel of Thune or a Baneslayer Angel. Another possibility is just going over the top with Gavony Township, which works incredibly well with Kitchen Finks since the -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters remove each other and you can keep on recurring them with Persist triggers.
Your comment was 100% valid. The prices in that article were 16 days old not 2 days old.
The following week's article pretended like there was no error and then commented on a weekly "trend" on a 14 day period. Had the second article merely stated the prices without noting changes then the error would have been restricted to one week. The error was not acknowledged so we had two erroneous articles.
"And note to the people complaining about accuracy".
I guess that is directed at me. It is totally fine to dismiss my complaint. But your standard explanation for price inaccuracy is not valid for the complaint I made.
Anyway, it is no longer an issue. Nice article and opinion section, I was hoping to read your opinion on that specific issue.
I can't stress enough how big Loxodon Warhammer was in Mirrodin limited. You could have a poor deck and a Warhammer and still win matches you had no business winning. In draft it was said that you take the Warhammer over anything else in the pack. It was just that good.
For sure! Don't miss the upcoming 'Pauperganda" show in April...details on the youtube page/ FB page for "pauperganda" - there's a contest going on now too...
I view Mirrodin as though, if Magic had died, it would have been the dusk, while Darksteel would be night (Fifth Dawn, contrarily, would be the sign of no more dawns). I tried not to misled by referring to Mirrodin block, but if I did, sorry.
I had forgotten about Molder Slug. Always valuable.
Mirrodin, itself, was not the set that nearly destroyed Magic. It was Darksteel that created the headaches. Darksteel had Ravager and Skullclamp, etc. Nitpicky, I know, but I was a playtester on Mirrodin. What we saw in Mirrodin wasn't broken, although we were not playtesting all of the cards, and development made some changes. (e.g. when we played with Disciple of the Vault, it cost 1B.)
Good overview of triple Mirrodin limited, but remember that half the set is artifacts, so Shatter and the like are this set's Doom Blades, and Molder Slug can be a bomb.
Which is quite interesting really since the artifact lands are sometimes worse than a basic, and they're only better versus black, or post-sideboard if you need life gain. I like how that gives one sideboard choice multiple different roles. You taught me there are 'combo' sideboard answers to be found, thank you:)
Life gain is correct - also great vs. Wretch Mind.
I'm running Simic currently, glad to see lotus petals in yours. Am I going to have to listen to the cast to find out why Tree of Tales? Emergency lifegain is my guess.
4 Glistener Elf
4 Blighted Agent
3 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Distortion Strike
4 Vines of Vastwood
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Groundswell
4 Titanic Growth
2 Ranger's Guile
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Terramorphic Expanse
6 Forest
2 Island
3 Tranquil Thicket
4 Lotus Petal
sideboard
3 Khalni Garden
4 Blight Mamba
4 Nature's Claim
4 Gut Shot
Pack one pick three I should have taken the Rampant Growth over the elves.
Pack one pick four I should have taken the flock over the elves.
I overvalue the heck out of ramp in core set, because I know me, I want to cast Craw Wurms and other giant dumb dumbs.
Giant Cockroach over Lure is a good hindsight pick.
Pick one pack 11 I went with Giant over Rampant Growth, and I think that's defensible, but I could have had both, that was a wood elf pack.
Pick two pack 3 should have taken confiscate, as that was a weak pack for me, and confiscate is a heck of a magic card in core
Pick two pack 5 should have been bog wraith over spider, but I did not think I was going to be in black at the time
I really liked my pack three picks. That pack seemed to solidify my draft, and had it been reversed with pack one, I think wood elves would not have seen my main
Nice deck. I think you overvalued the woodland elves. They are good but not when you pick them out as P3 and P4.
It would have been interesting to hear you motivation for that? And would you do it differently in hindsight?
Ok, I pieced the imps together. They are faster and more consistent than I had thought. I started with Ranth's list (thanks, Romellos) and improved it majorly with +4 Chrome Mox and +2 Ancient Tomb and +1 Shizo (-7 Swamps) and improving the fatty package. In three games, I had turn 2 choice of fatty (via Entomb), t.2 fatty in hand (or t.3 choice), and t.1 fatty of choice (thanks to Mox). I had some mulls in there too, so it's obviously not too rosy, but the scry rule was just what the doctor ordered. I'm not saying it's the best thing since sliced bread or anything, but I no longer proactively support it for Underdog without a lot more evidence from other quarters. Sorry for having doubted. BoB
:-)
I am intrigued by this twin list.
Thanks for the find, romellos. They Imps are more enabling than I had thought with 12 discard outlets within the tribe itself and 4 dredgers. Still, Iona is banned in Underdog, and most everything else liable to Reanimation strategies can be dealt with. Mihahitlor had 4 Natural Order and 4 Defense of the Heart in his list this past weekend in Underdog which is arguably as (more?) powerful and consistent at cranking out immediate wins with fatties as Reanimation. I'd still take Berserker over any version of Imps I've seen so far, but only testing would realize that for sure.
Here are two versions of Imp deck played by Ranth. They were consistent enough at feeding graveyard.
http://puremtgo.com/articles/diaries-apocalypse-tribal-weeks-83-84
http://puremtgo.com/articles/diaries-apocalypse-tribal-week-96
By the way, any purifications from those two 4-x lists? They look decently fair to me (Shackles probably the most unfair between them), but I just want to make sure.
Can you please submit the winning Imp decklist? It's not on Gatherling (more below).
Imp only has 31 members, putting it well into traditional Underdog status, and if anyone says Putrid Imp is a problem for enabling Reanimation, I can probably point out Tireless Tribe which is Underdog-legal, has the same mechanic at the same cost (1 to cast free to use), and is not played. Nomad requires a white splash, but this is nothing with modern mana bases, and Nomad is better suited to stem the opposing onslaught than Imp. On the other hand, Stinkweed Imp could be a good enabler for slots 5-8 of the tribe.
Both tribes - Giant and Imp - only have 1 win, neither of which was in the Gatherling era. I can't imagine either being favored against a typical Berserker build, which is kind of baseline for the Underdog format these days. During the Gatherling era Putrid Imp has only seen play 6 times, three of which were narrower Halloween fields, and one was Commander. In the other two, Regular events, it went 0-2 in an Imp deck and 4-1 as a 4x of in a Zombie deck.
The winning Underdog deck this past week, Skeletons, probably would have feasted on Imps with its 4x Leyline of the Void.
On the whole, I'd say let 'em in after having served a 3+ year penance and see what they are made of. For my part, I'm more concerned about Primeval Titan (Giant).
Krark's Thumb says, "If you would flip a coin, instead flip two coins and ignore one." It says nothing about losing a flip. So for Mana Clash, you would flip two coins and your opponent would flip one. You get to choose which of your two flips is more advantageous for you.
More importantly, since Knowledge Pool only triggers on spells cast from hand, Flashback gets around it, and since Ancient Grudge is already an important sideboard card (especially for Lantern, which that deck shares many similarities with), that's probably more likely than Eldrazi, which only show up in a couple decks (Tron, as well as the new Eldrazi deck going around)
Could always stuff Swans of Bryn Argoll into pariah deck
There is always the troll-iest deck of all: Troll Worship. Hexproof creatures plus Worship can steal a lot of games.
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-magic-84-65-tix-modern-troll-...
Saffron talks about a budget version there that seems fine, but even if you want to keep the upgrade G/W, instead of the Bant version, MD Thrun and Sigarda can do surprising things.
The Pariah Combo deck has always been a fun idea, but I feel like that version isn't running enough creatures to actually make Pariah useful. It only works really well with Stuffy Doll, since BR and SM still die after taking 3 damage, even if you do get to redirect it. Maybe try to throw some good protection creatures in so you can become "immune" to some colors of damage completely? (MD Kor Firewalker + your own red spells + Pariah = Auto Burn win?) Also, no need for Incinerate in R/W; get some Lightning Helix in there.
You never "lose" flips with Mana Clash so Krark's Thumb never triggers. I'm living in Fort Wayne too, maybe we'll meet up sometime. - Bazaar of Baghdad on MTGO
My troll deck's first iteration. Definitely needs tuning.
Mono Green Land D
4 x Spreading Algae
2 x Dingus Egg
4 x Acidic Slime
4 x Beast Within
1 x Creepy Doll
3 x Bramblecrush
1 x Crucible of Worlds
4 x Reap and Sow
2 x Steel Hellkite
4 x Harrow
2 x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 x Icy Manipulator
1 x Scute Mob
2 x Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 x Retreat to Kazandu
1 x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 x Tectonic Edge
4 x Ghost Quarter
14 x Forest
2 x Sword of the Animist
Cool, I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with the deck. As much as I'd like to throw it together and get some reps in, I have almost none of the money cards and spent too much on Christmas presents. That said, if you can catch me on MODO, (TheKidsArentAlright on there too) I'd be more than happy to help test against Grixis or Twin.
Elspeth is a damned good card, and very well could be correct. I don't think you can afford to run both her and CoCo, and the only way to know for sure it to try them both.
Kitchen Finks, if you haven't played much with or against them, is deceptively powerful. Often it will trade 2-for-1 and gain 4 life in the process. Rhox may not die to Bolt, but he trades 1-for-1 with every other removal spell and has no immediate effect on the game. The beauty of Finks, on the other hand, is that you just don't care if they Bolt, Decay, Terminate or whatever; they're down a crucial removal spell and you're up 4 life with a body still on the board. I highly encourage you to get a few games in with them before passing judgement.
As for the sideboard, what I presented is almost certainly not optimal, but rather reflects my process in refining one. I like to first identify what decks I need to beat, pick the cards I think I want the most and overload on them so I draw them more frequently. After playing a couple games and getting a feel for the matchups I usually trim the numbers and add analogous effects like Shatterstorm or Ancient Grudge. I've even seen some wacky stuff like Worship or some random big value dorks like Thragtusk or Wilt-Leaf Liege. The best thing you can do here is experiment.
If you think you need a trump for the Naya-ish mirror, I would look at siding that Archangel of Thune or a Baneslayer Angel. Another possibility is just going over the top with Gavony Township, which works incredibly well with Kitchen Finks since the -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters remove each other and you can keep on recurring them with Persist triggers.