I don't think this plan is solid at all. I am sure they sold enough Commander decks to justify coding them. I bought 4 last time and I have a fixed budget. If you love commander, and you want the cards, you buy the deck whether its MSRP equals its EV or not. The MRSP of FTV angels is still more expensive than the EV of the cards within, and these FTV will feature foiling, which MTGO doesn't do very well. I literally have tons of friends and readers of my pure articles, and not on eof them told me they bought a FTV annihilation, but they all bought one or two commander decks. Just because MTGOtraders lists something like Well of Ideas for 3 bucks, it doesn't mean they'll ever get one in the store. The EV value of Commander decks are skewed because when someone buys one who doesnt want all the cards, they sell the ones they want and keep the ones they want. Most folks keep about the same cards-- the good cards, so those cards rarely see the secondary market. They had to code the cards they included in the Legendary Cube anyway, how much would it have really took to just put the bloody decks in the store? I have a kid, moderately like cube, and love commander. I am being FORCED to play cube for commander cards, which I may not even win, or not obtain those cards, or wait for them on the secondary market, which may takes months or years of patiently waiting for someone to sell one to MTGOtraders. For commander players, a casual format that many love, this isn't a Solid plan, pete, it's a smack in the face. They might as well have said "here's a bunch of hoops, now jump them. Oh you don't want to jump them? then no new cards for you. But paper folks? They don't have to jump. Why, because I said so!"
You are looking at this entirely from the perspective of someone who sees one or two good cards in commander, because of non-casual, competetive play, and thinking that's all that matters or, at the very least, the other cards are inconsequential because they don't help eternal formats. It's the penultimate nail in the "caring about casual players" coffin. I'm just waiting for the final nail to be pounded in, which I'm sure WOTC will come up with something soon that's just as or more so infuriating. This is not solid, it's an insult. If you don't have good enough programmers to bang out C15 in a couple days and recur your salary fees to do so, that's an internal problem. Don't make us suffer.
With due respect for your awesome column, can you explain this comment please: "In those smaller leagues, Wizards lost a bunch of money." How did turning the on switch for a given league cost MTGO a bunch of money? This statement smells of b.s.
In retrospect, my deck should have had Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in it as yet another alt. win condition. I'm too slow and too bad of a player for this type of deck, however.
Maybe the next Singleton deck could be Singleton Underdog to test deckbuilding a bit more. Any takers?
The name comes from Paul Sligh, the man who had success with it (second at a PTQ). The creator of the deck, Jay Schneider, actually referred to the deck as "Geeba." It was an inside joke: he and some of his friends would say that the goblin language consisted of the one word "geeba" with different meanings possible based on how you say the word.
Of course mtgo didn't die! Just my desire to play in the tournaments they offer died. That's not something that they are concerned with, so it doesn't matter to anyone else but me.
I have been working on/looking for a not Soul Sisters white aggro deck in modern. This one seems pretty sweet. I already made some changes and jammed some games and really enjoy it thus far. I will either do an article of post a list once I get it tuned.
He breaks down his choices, discusses sideboarding, a mini-tourney report and the changes he'd make. It's a nicely written little piece and worth checking out if you're a fan of White Weenie decks in Modern.
The trifecta of Caltrops, Aether Flash and Deathpits is very clever. How to kill such a deck?? I am guessing the only really good answer to this set up is holding that Austere Command and or Fracturing Gust until everything is laid out properly and then go to town.
But it does seem funny from the Mogis side of things. Erebos in particular is a sweet touch though I was thinking that any indestructible creature would be pretty insane in such a deck. Probably wouldn't be worth it but playing a Jund Commander for primordial ooze would be lots of fun. As always your presentation is tops. I am not even sure I'd want to have my old articles compared to yours for presentation. You certainly have found a unique and interesting style for writing and I am glad that you've taken up the commander slack left by Leviathan (though your building and play styles are vastly different.) Keep them coming.
I must have entirely forgotten about the existence of Hecatomb, and now I want to play with it something fierce. With the Sundial, but even by just finding a mix of creatures you want to sac or you generate cheaply. After all, you don't need to drop it early on, since you need swamps in play. And compared to the same effect in red (as in Koth of the Hammer), in black you can splash what you want and still have all swamps thanks to Urborg.
I just realized I misread Erebos's Titan: he waits for a creature to leave the opponent's GRAVEYARD, not battlefield as I thought; that could easily never happen, or else it demands the inclusion of specialized cards in your deck. Consider his presence in the Best in Show revised and dropped.
Cotton as per usual your twisted brilliance is dazzling. Love the 3rd deck even more than the first. I had no idea about Thought Gorger (I played the beta MTGO with Torment but never played Torment constructed.) What a crazy card!
I seem to think that all the new players are just buying the newly cheap Eternal Staples and playing in our eternal Dailies because both the player and the event are cheap. You have to admit, a system that pays you to lose, even if it is really just nothing, would encourage new players.
I hope this doesn't last, but I'm not going to be surprised when it doesn't.
All I want is four rounds at six tickets. Getting a prize for going 1-2 is funny to me. I do not feel like I deserve those 20pps for playing mediocre Magic. And going 2-1 just to break even...really? When I invest my time into this game and try my best, I want something more than my entry fee back. That's not a reward to me. I'm not a child, and most people who play Magic, especially Legacy and Vintage, are also not children. If they want to treat Standard as kid friendly, then fine. But Legacy and Vintage should be considered high stakes Poker, because in the Magic world they are the high stakes formats. The prize payout should reflect that.
But I also think standing here holding my breath until Wizards fixes this won't help, either. Keep playing online and keep voicing your opinions because I highly doubt Wizards will listen to people who are non-players, which is what you'll be if you stop. I think with how many people are entering these events recently is proof that there will always be someone to replace you if you quit.
You're right. I probably did concede a little too early there. After I read your comment I went back and studied the video and it probably would've been fairly easy for me to win that game if I had done as you suggested, because my opponent was mana screwed. Thank you for the critique.
The very first "Sligh" deck was referred to by it's creator as his "Orcish Librarian Deck". It seemed out of place even then, and it likely was. Creatures are just that much better now. I'm a bigger fan of browse, but the book muncher is pretty cool too.
Nice work, as always. I have to say that I share the same lack of enthusiasm for the 3-round Daily Event. I've played in none so far. Each time one happens at night when I'm free, I get upset with how much I don't like the very idea of this new system and I just go to bed instead.
The closest I got was signing up for one and dropping before it started. In fact, I kept flip-flopping on whether or not I should join it, and I kept joining and dropping until finally the last time I dropped MTGO crashed and ate my entry fee. I had to write a reimbursement request for sixty play points. Fun times...
If these events don't change, and the system stays the same, the chances are high that I'll stop playing altogether. I'd rather find one of my Vintage friends and arrange a play-testing session in free play than bother spending money or funny money on such an event.
In game 1 round 2 you could always have left the knight in your hand, so you can cast him. Then you take hit from marit lage (one) and you can search for karakas with the knight. Obviously it wouldn't be very easy to win this, but your opponent seemed mana screwed so maybe 6 life would be enough to win that.
As stated in my comment above, Hallowed Burial and Terminus are now added to the mono-white category, and can therefore be voted. Votes already cast can be always changed as usual until the voting process is closed.
I don't think this plan is solid at all. I am sure they sold enough Commander decks to justify coding them. I bought 4 last time and I have a fixed budget. If you love commander, and you want the cards, you buy the deck whether its MSRP equals its EV or not. The MRSP of FTV angels is still more expensive than the EV of the cards within, and these FTV will feature foiling, which MTGO doesn't do very well. I literally have tons of friends and readers of my pure articles, and not on eof them told me they bought a FTV annihilation, but they all bought one or two commander decks. Just because MTGOtraders lists something like Well of Ideas for 3 bucks, it doesn't mean they'll ever get one in the store. The EV value of Commander decks are skewed because when someone buys one who doesnt want all the cards, they sell the ones they want and keep the ones they want. Most folks keep about the same cards-- the good cards, so those cards rarely see the secondary market. They had to code the cards they included in the Legendary Cube anyway, how much would it have really took to just put the bloody decks in the store? I have a kid, moderately like cube, and love commander. I am being FORCED to play cube for commander cards, which I may not even win, or not obtain those cards, or wait for them on the secondary market, which may takes months or years of patiently waiting for someone to sell one to MTGOtraders. For commander players, a casual format that many love, this isn't a Solid plan, pete, it's a smack in the face. They might as well have said "here's a bunch of hoops, now jump them. Oh you don't want to jump them? then no new cards for you. But paper folks? They don't have to jump. Why, because I said so!"
You are looking at this entirely from the perspective of someone who sees one or two good cards in commander, because of non-casual, competetive play, and thinking that's all that matters or, at the very least, the other cards are inconsequential because they don't help eternal formats. It's the penultimate nail in the "caring about casual players" coffin. I'm just waiting for the final nail to be pounded in, which I'm sure WOTC will come up with something soon that's just as or more so infuriating. This is not solid, it's an insult. If you don't have good enough programmers to bang out C15 in a couple days and recur your salary fees to do so, that's an internal problem. Don't make us suffer.
With due respect for your awesome column, can you explain this comment please: "In those smaller leagues, Wizards lost a bunch of money." How did turning the on switch for a given league cost MTGO a bunch of money? This statement smells of b.s.
In retrospect, my deck should have had Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in it as yet another alt. win condition. I'm too slow and too bad of a player for this type of deck, however.
Maybe the next Singleton deck could be Singleton Underdog to test deckbuilding a bit more. Any takers?
I never said or implied that it's "throwing good money after bad."
You never addressed what I actually did say.
My main question was: "At what point do they say it's just not worth keeping the platform going and abandon ship?"
After all, nothing lasts forever.
The name comes from Paul Sligh, the man who had success with it (second at a PTQ). The creator of the deck, Jay Schneider, actually referred to the deck as "Geeba." It was an inside joke: he and some of his friends would say that the goblin language consisted of the one word "geeba" with different meanings possible based on how you say the word.
Of course mtgo didn't die! Just my desire to play in the tournaments they offer died. That's not something that they are concerned with, so it doesn't matter to anyone else but me.
I'm not sure if I'd call it a sacrifice. I wouldn't mind it replacing Halloween or a pure event. I do like having two regulars a month.
I'm not sure I'd say "wasteland has almost passed black lotus" as news when last week the difference was $10 and this week the gap doubled to $20
Bonus points for anyone who actually draws a picture of me as a mad artificer constructing thopters in my workshop.
MTGO did die a little bit with the arrival of Play Points. I am hoping for a swift resurrection.
Strongly recommend not sacrificing another week to Singleton. What we've had is plenty.
I have been working on/looking for a not Soul Sisters white aggro deck in modern. This one seems pretty sweet. I already made some changes and jammed some games and really enjoy it thus far. I will either do an article of post a list once I get it tuned.
Thanks for this Gio. I hadn't realised he'd written an article. That's great thanks!
Hey, Oliver, in case you missed it, or for those that are interested, John Gniadek wrote an article about his deck over on Modern Nexus:
http://modernnexus.com/modern-white-weenie-white-goyfs/
He breaks down his choices, discusses sideboarding, a mini-tourney report and the changes he'd make. It's a nicely written little piece and worth checking out if you're a fan of White Weenie decks in Modern.
Looking forward to your next article
- Gio
The trifecta of Caltrops, Aether Flash and Deathpits is very clever. How to kill such a deck?? I am guessing the only really good answer to this set up is holding that Austere Command and or Fracturing Gust until everything is laid out properly and then go to town.
But it does seem funny from the Mogis side of things. Erebos in particular is a sweet touch though I was thinking that any indestructible creature would be pretty insane in such a deck. Probably wouldn't be worth it but playing a Jund Commander for primordial ooze would be lots of fun. As always your presentation is tops. I am not even sure I'd want to have my old articles compared to yours for presentation. You certainly have found a unique and interesting style for writing and I am glad that you've taken up the commander slack left by Leviathan (though your building and play styles are vastly different.) Keep them coming.
I must have entirely forgotten about the existence of Hecatomb, and now I want to play with it something fierce. With the Sundial, but even by just finding a mix of creatures you want to sac or you generate cheaply. After all, you don't need to drop it early on, since you need swamps in play. And compared to the same effect in red (as in Koth of the Hammer), in black you can splash what you want and still have all swamps thanks to Urborg.
I just realized I misread Erebos's Titan: he waits for a creature to leave the opponent's GRAVEYARD, not battlefield as I thought; that could easily never happen, or else it demands the inclusion of specialized cards in your deck. Consider his presence in the Best in Show revised and dropped.
Cotton as per usual your twisted brilliance is dazzling. Love the 3rd deck even more than the first. I had no idea about Thought Gorger (I played the beta MTGO with Torment but never played Torment constructed.) What a crazy card!
I seem to think that all the new players are just buying the newly cheap Eternal Staples and playing in our eternal Dailies because both the player and the event are cheap. You have to admit, a system that pays you to lose, even if it is really just nothing, would encourage new players.
I hope this doesn't last, but I'm not going to be surprised when it doesn't.
All I want is four rounds at six tickets. Getting a prize for going 1-2 is funny to me. I do not feel like I deserve those 20pps for playing mediocre Magic. And going 2-1 just to break even...really? When I invest my time into this game and try my best, I want something more than my entry fee back. That's not a reward to me. I'm not a child, and most people who play Magic, especially Legacy and Vintage, are also not children. If they want to treat Standard as kid friendly, then fine. But Legacy and Vintage should be considered high stakes Poker, because in the Magic world they are the high stakes formats. The prize payout should reflect that.
But I also think standing here holding my breath until Wizards fixes this won't help, either. Keep playing online and keep voicing your opinions because I highly doubt Wizards will listen to people who are non-players, which is what you'll be if you stop. I think with how many people are entering these events recently is proof that there will always be someone to replace you if you quit.
You're right. I probably did concede a little too early there. After I read your comment I went back and studied the video and it probably would've been fairly easy for me to win that game if I had done as you suggested, because my opponent was mana screwed. Thank you for the critique.
The very first "Sligh" deck was referred to by it's creator as his "Orcish Librarian Deck". It seemed out of place even then, and it likely was. Creatures are just that much better now. I'm a bigger fan of browse, but the book muncher is pretty cool too.
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/ash24
The original Sligh deck is in that article. 2x Librarian.
Nice work, as always. I have to say that I share the same lack of enthusiasm for the 3-round Daily Event. I've played in none so far. Each time one happens at night when I'm free, I get upset with how much I don't like the very idea of this new system and I just go to bed instead.
The closest I got was signing up for one and dropping before it started. In fact, I kept flip-flopping on whether or not I should join it, and I kept joining and dropping until finally the last time I dropped MTGO crashed and ate my entry fee. I had to write a reimbursement request for sixty play points. Fun times...
If these events don't change, and the system stays the same, the chances are high that I'll stop playing altogether. I'd rather find one of my Vintage friends and arrange a play-testing session in free play than bother spending money or funny money on such an event.
In game 1 round 2 you could always have left the knight in your hand, so you can cast him. Then you take hit from marit lage (one) and you can search for karakas with the knight. Obviously it wouldn't be very easy to win this, but your opponent seemed mana screwed so maybe 6 life would be enough to win that.
As stated in my comment above, Hallowed Burial and Terminus are now added to the mono-white category, and can therefore be voted. Votes already cast can be always changed as usual until the voting process is closed.