On that I can say I haven't done a beta since the Wide Open beta started (other than that one of course). They stopped inviting me around that time and I stopped asking too.
I don't know how old my account is (V2.5), but I got the "nudge" as well. It is on the account I play test Beta with (Been doing Betas since Shards of Alara).
My active account is from 2008. I play momir and draft.
Is your theory that older accounts with a certain play-style are getting the free stuff? It may fit to you and Pete but the sample size is a little small.
.... another pattern would be that both of you have a first name starting with P ;)
I agree with you. I didn't get those and the 80 PPs would have been useful. It feels bad seeing some people get them while getting nothing, especially not knowing anything about it.
So far I have received this nudge twice. The first without any explanation. The second came before the email and then I realized what was going on. But even still I have yet to join a League. Standard is fun sometimes and I have decks built for it but not the kind I'd want to take into competition.
And I suspect it is not favoritism as it is rather arbitrary. There is no discernible pattern except that Pete and I have old accounts maybe.
Hard not to feel a little salty about this. Especially since I saw your first article on the other site yesterday. Nonetheless, congrats and good luck at your new gig.
The non-systematic free stuff that they hand out to random accounts are a little annoying. I feel cheated when not receiving any of it.
Why hand out to people who already joined a league. Why not to those of us who have not yet played in any leagues? I spend a of tix drafting probably more than the league players put into the system.
Are the free stuff handed out according to a system? Has the system been announced? I would not feel as cheated if the "rules" were clear from the begining. Secretly favoring some players is crap.
Looks like another fun event, and congrats to the newcomer junketpo. Kuma, it looks like The_Sensei didn't get any points in the player-of-the-year race for his top-8 finish.
Hi, Oliver, a pretty thorough list. The only current staple I think you missed was Anger of the Gods (current price .28), which is a big sideboard MVP.
Honorable mentions are Hornet Queen (.02) for its 1-2 copies in Bloom Titan main/sb and Phyrexian Revoker (.02) who sometimes makes the SB of W/x D&T builds and Affinity.
For those feeling like taking a chance, there are also plenty of rares in the .01-.07 range that could become useful someday, or maybe never, but could be worth it.
Sorry Pete. Some weeks I am full of "stuff" to say about what you post, sometimes not so much. But I know the feeling. Most of my friends don't comment at all on my articles even if I mention them by name.
"The deck that took first place only contained one Isochron Scepter, imagine if he used four with four copies of Orim's Chant"
He may have then drawn multiple Chants instead of business spells, proceeding to lose a winnable match. It's not so correct to put 4 Chant-Stick into every deck in Tribal. Warning: it's typically bad against flash decks and burn decks, and Kuma's caterpillars eat up Scepters for breakfast. But, given that caveat, you're probably right, that more Shark-leaning decks should insert the combo. Certainly, to the extent All Is Dust is a problem (Kuma, here's your trump card for now on the All Is Dust debate), No Chant has that easily covered.
Leviathans and Kraken, great fun. :) Ula's Temple is very handy, you can also get some good mileage out of Torpor Orb and/or Sundial of the Infinite to negate the drawbacks of some of the more challenging leviathans such as Eater of Days or Sky Swallower. Ula's Temple-Proliferate gives you a solid game plan, or if you want to be nasty and sneaky, use Grozoth and all 9CMC leviathans (Plus, say, a singleton Darksteel Forge to make your Inkwells unkillable and a Nullstone Gargoyle to prevent retaliation) alongside Eureka (With Reliquary Tower to keep stuff from turn 3 to turn 4) to play your entire tribe at once before the critical turn.
For what it's worth, I usually only run 2 expedition maps in my cloudpost myr deck. I do like having the ability to hit 3 mana on turn 2, meaning I could land a turn 2 Palladium Myr and follow that with potentially a turn 3 Myr Turbine. Turn 3 All is Dust is a beautiful thing, but it's not consistent, the drawback of lands entering tapped is real. Oh, and yeah you can play a map and crack it turn 2, but turn three you're only going to have 4 mana available to you if you do so. (Turn 1 Cloudpost, turn 2 Glimmerpost - tap for three, map and crack map, turn 3 cloudpost tap for 4 play something maybe?, turn 4 untap with 7 mana available die to the aggro deck if you don't have all is dust). Basically you can end up spending three turns not putting anything relevant on the board. All is dust, and tomb of the Spirit dragon help you stabilize, but in many of my games it is just not enough.
At the GP, I read the card. My opponent also knew how his card worked. The cards - both of them - ended up exiled.
Four days later, writing this part of the article during my lunch break, I was quite happy to have even remembered the names of the cards. I did look up Turn Against to make sure that it was an instant, but didn't go beyond checking the spelling on Bala Ged. So, yes, the article is wrong. The play wasn't.
I'm kinda sad there wasn't anything else in the article that anyone wanted to comment on, besides an obvious thinko.
If I add, I dunno, 4 copies of an enchantment creature (say, Boon Satyr, for example), does my deck now have:
A) +4 creatures of the "Satyr" tribal type,
B) +4 enchantments, since I can cast "bestow" because of them, and its card type is also "enchantment"
C) BOTH A & B
D) Only A
E) Only B
Yeah it's nearly the same as winning with something like a Fruity Pebbles combo or something, in that you've won the game as soon as you start doing it. Some people might still choose to have you play it out because the chess clock could still get you.
On that I can say I haven't done a beta since the Wide Open beta started (other than that one of course). They stopped inviting me around that time and I stopped asking too.
Doesn't really matter. I only play Tribal when it
is cold/raining so I can't play tennis
and
my fianceé made her own plans for Saturday.
Why is Halloween Vintage? To allow Changelings? Why isn't it Legacy?
A few weeks ago, Stephen Menendian and (someone) wrote an open letter over on Reddit about online Vintage.
Someone = Dr. Rich Shay from the Vintage Super League and top 8 of Vintage Champs 2015
I wonder if it has more to do with testing Beta, than any other factor, Since it showed up shortly after BFZ BEta finished.
I don't know how old my account is (V2.5), but I got the "nudge" as well. It is on the account I play test Beta with (Been doing Betas since Shards of Alara).
I've only played leagues on Beta client.
My active account is from 2008. I play momir and draft.
Is your theory that older accounts with a certain play-style are getting the free stuff? It may fit to you and Pete but the sample size is a little small.
.... another pattern would be that both of you have a first name starting with P ;)
I am curious. How old is your active account? And what do you do on it mostly?
Nice article and good luck with your new ventures. You'll do great!
I agree with you. I didn't get those and the 80 PPs would have been useful. It feels bad seeing some people get them while getting nothing, especially not knowing anything about it.
So far I have received this nudge twice. The first without any explanation. The second came before the email and then I realized what was going on. But even still I have yet to join a League. Standard is fun sometimes and I have decks built for it but not the kind I'd want to take into competition.
And I suspect it is not favoritism as it is rather arbitrary. There is no discernible pattern except that Pete and I have old accounts maybe.
Hard not to feel a little salty about this. Especially since I saw your first article on the other site yesterday. Nonetheless, congrats and good luck at your new gig.
The non-systematic free stuff that they hand out to random accounts are a little annoying. I feel cheated when not receiving any of it.
Why hand out to people who already joined a league. Why not to those of us who have not yet played in any leagues? I spend a of tix drafting probably more than the league players put into the system.
Are the free stuff handed out according to a system? Has the system been announced? I would not feel as cheated if the "rules" were clear from the begining. Secretly favoring some players is crap.
Looks like another fun event, and congrats to the newcomer junketpo. Kuma, it looks like The_Sensei didn't get any points in the player-of-the-year race for his top-8 finish.
Hey Gio, thanks for the comment.
I did intend to but Anger on the list, must have slipped my mind. Good shouts on ones I missed.
I didn't did so deeply into the super cheap cards but I'm sure there are some worthwhile pickups.
Hi, Oliver, a pretty thorough list. The only current staple I think you missed was Anger of the Gods (current price .28), which is a big sideboard MVP.
Honorable mentions are Hornet Queen (.02) for its 1-2 copies in Bloom Titan main/sb and Phyrexian Revoker (.02) who sometimes makes the SB of W/x D&T builds and Affinity.
For those feeling like taking a chance, there are also plenty of rares in the .01-.07 range that could become useful someday, or maybe never, but could be worth it.
If you're looking to do fun things with heroic, check out Mark of Fury, a 1-mana haste granting aura that returns to your hand every turn.
Sorry Pete. Some weeks I am full of "stuff" to say about what you post, sometimes not so much. But I know the feeling. Most of my friends don't comment at all on my articles even if I mention them by name.
I was following you all weekend and was very happy to see that you made day two!
"The deck that took first place only contained one Isochron Scepter, imagine if he used four with four copies of Orim's Chant"
He may have then drawn multiple Chants instead of business spells, proceeding to lose a winnable match. It's not so correct to put 4 Chant-Stick into every deck in Tribal. Warning: it's typically bad against flash decks and burn decks, and Kuma's caterpillars eat up Scepters for breakfast. But, given that caveat, you're probably right, that more Shark-leaning decks should insert the combo. Certainly, to the extent All Is Dust is a problem (Kuma, here's your trump card for now on the All Is Dust debate), No Chant has that easily covered.
Leviathans and Kraken, great fun. :) Ula's Temple is very handy, you can also get some good mileage out of Torpor Orb and/or Sundial of the Infinite to negate the drawbacks of some of the more challenging leviathans such as Eater of Days or Sky Swallower. Ula's Temple-Proliferate gives you a solid game plan, or if you want to be nasty and sneaky, use Grozoth and all 9CMC leviathans (Plus, say, a singleton Darksteel Forge to make your Inkwells unkillable and a Nullstone Gargoyle to prevent retaliation) alongside Eureka (With Reliquary Tower to keep stuff from turn 3 to turn 4) to play your entire tribe at once before the critical turn.
For what it's worth, I usually only run 2 expedition maps in my cloudpost myr deck. I do like having the ability to hit 3 mana on turn 2, meaning I could land a turn 2 Palladium Myr and follow that with potentially a turn 3 Myr Turbine. Turn 3 All is Dust is a beautiful thing, but it's not consistent, the drawback of lands entering tapped is real. Oh, and yeah you can play a map and crack it turn 2, but turn three you're only going to have 4 mana available to you if you do so. (Turn 1 Cloudpost, turn 2 Glimmerpost - tap for three, map and crack map, turn 3 cloudpost tap for 4 play something maybe?, turn 4 untap with 7 mana available die to the aggro deck if you don't have all is dust). Basically you can end up spending three turns not putting anything relevant on the board. All is dust, and tomb of the Spirit dragon help you stabilize, but in many of my games it is just not enough.
C) BOTH A & B
At the GP, I read the card. My opponent also knew how his card worked. The cards - both of them - ended up exiled.
Four days later, writing this part of the article during my lunch break, I was quite happy to have even remembered the names of the cards. I did look up Turn Against to make sure that it was an instant, but didn't go beyond checking the spelling on Bala Ged. So, yes, the article is wrong. The play wasn't.
I'm kinda sad there wasn't anything else in the article that anyone wanted to comment on, besides an obvious thinko.
Odd question:
If I add, I dunno, 4 copies of an enchantment creature (say, Boon Satyr, for example), does my deck now have:
A) +4 creatures of the "Satyr" tribal type,
B) +4 enchantments, since I can cast "bestow" because of them, and its card type is also "enchantment"
C) BOTH A & B
D) Only A
E) Only B
Thanks in advance!
Yeah it's nearly the same as winning with something like a Fruity Pebbles combo or something, in that you've won the game as soon as you start doing it. Some people might still choose to have you play it out because the chess clock could still get you.