Your remark about Argothian Wurm in a Titania deck made me want to check how many Argothian cards one could fit in such a deck, but I was disappointed to find out that only 6 other cards with Argoth in their name exist (eh, the place not existing anymore and all). And boy, Argothian Swine is really hard to justify.
Still, I might want to try and build a Titania deck with an Argothian Enchantress sub-theme, just for kicks.
Very nice. Titania is the only one of the new Commanders that I've thought about building around, and you hit a lot of the stuff I considered but found other stuff that I didn't. Squirrel Wrangler is hilarious, I didn't even know that card existed. I like that you remembered Natural Balance, should be an auto-include I think. And props to you for running Copper-Leaf Angel, it's nice that there's actually a use for her. Lotus Cobra and other landfall things would be good as well. Burgeoning misses his friend, Exploration.
My biggest concerns when considering Titania were 1) How dependent the deck would be on her (ie., how screwed will you be when she gets tucked), and 2) How homogeneous Titania decks would be, since it's pretty obvious what you're supposed to do with her. You found a solution to 2) with the druid tribal sub theme which was unexpected, but 1) might still be an issue. Oh well, I guess you gotta take risks. I like what you've done with the deck for sure.
I've definitely won several games by top-decking a birthing pod or holding one in my hand for a while. Sometimes paying two life is really risky, especially if you think that your ability to use it profitably is in jeopardy.
If you see a turn one celestial collonade, sneaking out a turn two pod is pretty important.
I'd like to add some gameplay videos to an article, but I have to get the right software first. I'll add an updated deck and sideboard list at that point.
Ive built pods in almost every possible manner. 5color, artifact (brown), mono black, bant, naya, esper, (never grixis because the combos didn't really fit as well.) I've done a few 4 colors too, eschewing one color or another because the cards for that color didnt mix all that well.
Jund I've done but didn't particularly care for it. That shard is very good already and pod doesn't add much to it. Waters down the impact of deck even if you aren't in an aggro frame of mind.
That said no idea what others have done with the shard. My initial pre edited comment was suggesting my old mainstay of 4 bops 3 llanowar but I have decided Sylvan Caryatid is just better than elves, hierarch and all are superior to pilgrim. The fact that you get pod on a turn early is good but it isn't great. Consider: People run all kinds of early removal for pod and its ilk even before sideboarding.
Particularly since pod moved to Modern (almost 3 years now?) where the choices abound and people make strong use of them. You really want to play pod with a chance to activate it the turn you play it. Otherwise it sits there, after draining 2 life and is a sitting duck.
Acceleration is good but hierarch/elf vs caryatid I favor the latter since it not only survives pyroclasm and early swingers (is rabblemaster a thing in modern yet?) but it provides acceleration that isn't targetable.
The thing about 7 1 drops vs 8 1 drops is really a thing about how many mana dorks vs non-mana dorks you need. 7 is the magic number for some reason. It has been that way since Standard Pod. In those days we used Oracles and Illusions in the 2 spot so it was even worse in terms of damage sweepers.
The key thing is that you threaten to win at multiple angles so that the answer to one threat or avenue of threat does not answer all. Kill all my guys? Fine Ill play another and pod it into another threat. Kill my pods? Fine my guys will just cross the red zone, or Ill combo out with Melira or whatever.
I'm finally beginning to recover from a stomach bug.
Anyway, thanks for reading. To Olaw, I should have asked you or someone if I could link to your piece. I did read and enjoy your article on Kiki-Pod.
Courser of Kruphix took the spot of the fourth Kitchen Finks I had in my list. With all the burn and delver lists going around, your life total is threatened early and often. I wanted four finks, so that I'd draw one as close to every game as possible, and having one in your opening hand helps the decision of whether or not I can keep said hand.
Courser has essentially the same cmc, minus the hybrid white, and is very likely to net me two life at least. So in that regard, the swap has been fine, and about equal in terms of helping advance my game plan.
Where Courser really shines is this: I play one second or third turn, gain a road block with a large posterior, gain a few life, and essentially draw a card or two playing lands off the top of my deck. You really need to hit your land drops, but you don't want to draw lands, and all the fetches thin the land count out of your deck. This land-thinning is awesome, but it can have a negative too, if you do need to draw a land and your chances are reduced, obviously that's a problem. Man, playing a land off the top with courser feels so great though, especially when it's critical that you do so. He plays very well with fetches and Domri Rade as well.
As for the mana dorks...
The reason for running 8 one-drop mana accellerants is to increase the number of "nut-draws" where you turn one B.O.P., turn two, play a land, play birthing pod for (3) + 2 life.
There are a lot of times where that line of play leads you to dominate the game.
It's true that my choice to run only three noble hiearch's has a lot to do with the fact that I only have three. I have a lot of experience with that number in my abzan-colored pod lists too, so I do know that 7 one-drops is usually fine.
I've had a lot of games where an early forked bolt or orzhov pontiff wrecked me badly. That, and the fact that Kiki-Pod can only afford to run two gavony townships can mean that drawing too many creatures with low toughness a real problem.
I have considered trying one Avacyn's pilgrim as mana dork 8 to see how that changes my win rate.
Sylvan Caryatid Vs Noble Hierarch: I thought about caryatid. Hexproof is cool, it's toughness is a bit higher, so it lives through pyroclasm (but not anger).
The thing is, you're giving up the exalted triggers, which add a lot, and you're giving up percentage points for the hands that turn into second-turn birthing pods.
It makes all your colors though, so that is sweet. Blocks goblin guide too.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading, this had been an awesome experience for me.
And Paul, let me know how your five-color pod deck turns out. Have you ever heard of the jund-pod decks floating around? they look interesting...
1) Great article and great survey, much enjoyed and appreciated.
2) I agree with Woof and his mindset for the most part. I appreciate that "it's a small sample" and "it's largely Legacy/Vintage plaeyrs", but the results conform to my overall ongoing assessment of Hasbro's MTGO product. For me these pole results are simply another layer of potential insight, and to the ardent researcher, that is a gem.
3) General background: I have work experience in Video Game Development and Finance. I have also been involved across many projects spanning many fields, including a well regarded group to grow and support Street Fighter 2, and a well regarded website to help train players in SF2, among many others projects.
4) Magic background: started paper Magic during Unlimited, quit before Alliances. Returned to MTGO during Onslaught and played MTGO until shortly before v4 (though I was on v4 Beta).
5) I have to do a lot of research and analysis, and I've gotten very good in terms of both process and results. I consistently draw upon and use my arsenal of research, experience, access to and discourse with others, and a flexible albeit practiced mindset to produce results. This pole is great to provide feed for that process for me within the niches that MTGO touches.
6) I don't really play MTGO at all currently, despite having a massive collection and good number of tix. I do play Hearthstone consistently though only a little (basically just to do Quests and the rare play session). I *much* prefer Magic the core gameplay (nothing to with MTGO), but I *much* prefer Hearthstone the interface experience. Hasbro has shown they are good at identifying and buying a good/successful game, Activision Blizzard has show they are good at making a high polish user experience.
For those of differing opinions or personal experience, more power to you. I can appreciate that and even value it within the niche of "some feedback in comments section".
I think MTGO is poorly positioned for the present and in a bad position for the future (for many reasons). I'm not optimistic that it will improve its position, especially relative to its expanding pool of peers in the online ccg marketplace. Hopefully they can at least continue to limp on enough to at least provide users with something they value.
I enjoyed this article and always enjoy being referenced in other people's articles. Though I'm afraid I can't take credit for the Kiki-Pod Combo table, but it is a very useful guide for those new to the deck as it's not always easy to see the possible lines of play until you really get used to the deck.
I feel my article is quite dated now and I was never the best Pod player to begin with but there are certainly lots of good articles on Pod about.
Enjoyed this article a lot. Makes me want to revisit this deck.
The reason Pearl Lake comes out against midrange is that most of my wins come from Elspeth ultimate/token beatdown, and in those situations Pearl Lake just gets chumped a lot. You could put in a 4th Elspeth, or a 1st Sarkhan or whatever and it would be better than Pearl Lake Ancient. Not to mention that your Pearl Lake Ancients are generally worse than the ones from UB Control (which they NEED PLA to win), so most of the time I just let it die to removal.
Against the midrange decks I want to Banishing Light/Dissolve their planeswalkers, wrath the board then use either Keranos or Elsepth to win the game. Realistically the only way they beat you if you see 2-3 copies of End Hostilities is via planeswalkers, so I wouldn't tap out unless you had a way to deal with one.
Thanks for reading and commenting, I plan on giving a more in depth reply as soon as I feel better. I've been sick in bed all day.
The short answer is youre right :)
That's very good result, congratulations!
Recently my build is constantly being trashed even by midrange and surprisingly a lot of people online plays aggro.
I'm gonna try your build now. I noticed you boarded out Pearl Lake almost every game, maybe Sarkhan would be bettter option?
Not only kosher but I do it all the time. The important thing is credit where it is due. And there have been a good deal of pod based articles.
You made some interesting arguments for your lists containing what they do but "I don't have it" should not be one if you are writing about the tourney scene.
I <3 Restoration Angel in Pod along with Kiki and have been thinking to throw in Siege Rhino just because but I don't know if I would only stick it in an Abzan deck because the one thing Pod likes to do is go 5 color. The biggest problem is deciding what comes out for it. :)
Courser is an interesting meta choice. I like BOPs in Pod decks and don't care for heirarchs. Id rather have 4 bops + 3 caryatids.
The chart showing the Pod chains is extremely useful (even if Olaw admits he swiped it. hehe)
I like Courser in your lists. Could you give a little more detail on situations where you have liked it and times it wasn't pulling its weight? (I could imagine copying it with Kiki to get extra life from land drops has happened?)
It too me much longer than I would care to admit before I caught on in regards to the game results. I thought those were match results and started making changes, and then it dawned on me what was happening and reverted back to the original :D
Yeah, the goal from now on is to make Day 2. I didn't want to set a goal that I didn't know was attainable or not, because if you unknowingly set an unrealistic goal (lets say making Day 2 after only playing a week, or something like that), then your confidence gets shattered when you don't get close to that. Since I don't know my own skill level, I didn't want to fall into the trap of thinking I'm better than I am, set a goal that is above my skill level and end up crashing. Now that I've been in that spot to make Day 2, saying I want to make Day 2 is something reasonable.
The only reason I didn't state match record after every round is that while I believe everybody offers something you can learn, not everybody subscribes to that. Sometimes people take match record as the deciding factor of whether or not information is relevant, and I'd prefer someone make that determination after actually reading rather than looking at wins and losses. Although, if it does make things easier to read, I will list match record after every round.
A Great read. Now that you've had your first GP, and finished on a winning record (more wins than losses), I'd suggest the goal going forward be "Make Day 2". GP's cost just enough money and time, that after one or two to "have the experience", I think any after that should be about aiming to succeed. Making Day 2 is completely attainable on the path to awesomeness.
I have two minor suggestions for future articles. First, I'd put your sideboarding details on a separate line from your results. There were a few times where that info was running together and it was awkward. (1-1-1-1 HOW CAN THIS BE?!) Second, I wouldn't bother listing game results at the end of your rounds; just list your Match Record. I was trying to keep track of your Matches, counting to the magic number 7, but lost track a few times. Reading the sections already told me which games you won/lost so stating it again was a little superfluous. Give us those Matches, those are what we all use to really judge, I mean, keep track of each other. :)
This seems like a pretty good middle ground to me. It kicks out enough of the major players to make for a very different meta, but is not so restrictive that the average person will need to build a deck just for the event.
If I were in charge of deciding what to do to MTGO next, I wouldn't consider this survey "useless". I'd look at the question saying people most want improvements in 1) performance, 2) collection management, 3) user interface and take that as one more data point to factor into my prioritization of the next development tasks. Is there a chance a more statistically perfect sampling would give me a different ranking for those priorities? Sure. But there's also a chance that better sampling would give me either the same result, or close results. Maybe one of those items would move up or down a slot. Or maybe their relative rankings would be the same with better sampling, but instead of 22% preferring collection fixes, it's really 19% or 28% but it's still the number 2 player preference. Anyway I certainly wouldn't take it as gospel, but if I picked performance or collection as my next development focus, I'd take this as "one more piece of support for the possibility that I might be making the right decision".
Wizards, of course, is probably already aware what their players like and dislike and by how much. But maybe a few of them look at this article anyway. I don't think their problem is knowing what they should improve as much as it is "knowing how to become competent at developing and/or improving software", which they're frankly pretty bad at. I don't know if there's a solution to that problem that they're willing or capable of adopting.
As a game designer, it's actually somewhat beneficial to me that I've played a much wider variety of games in the last year, as I'm being exposed to more ideas. But I suspect I'll be back for Leagues. And I still love paper magic whenever I have the time and opportunity to play.
Anyway I think this is an interesting and slightly useful survey, and there's no need to rag on it. I thought it was particularly telling in some categories ZERO users gave a 9 or a 10 rating o the 4.0 client. Even with this small sample size, that's pretty unusual and I think it's likely statistically significant that this is so.
Great cast guys! Glad to hear Seb and Keya again. Sad to hear Seb is done with MTG. Hopefully you'll come back when your job duties calm down.
Your remark about Argothian Wurm in a Titania deck made me want to check how many Argothian cards one could fit in such a deck, but I was disappointed to find out that only 6 other cards with Argoth in their name exist (eh, the place not existing anymore and all). And boy, Argothian Swine is really hard to justify.
Still, I might want to try and build a Titania deck with an Argothian Enchantress sub-theme, just for kicks.
she is good.
I think that since she is weak to young pyromancer, people maybe sold her off. I'm not absolutely sure, but it seems reasonable.
Liliana sure has been bouncing back up.
Very nice. Titania is the only one of the new Commanders that I've thought about building around, and you hit a lot of the stuff I considered but found other stuff that I didn't. Squirrel Wrangler is hilarious, I didn't even know that card existed. I like that you remembered Natural Balance, should be an auto-include I think. And props to you for running Copper-Leaf Angel, it's nice that there's actually a use for her. Lotus Cobra and other landfall things would be good as well. Burgeoning misses his friend, Exploration.
My biggest concerns when considering Titania were 1) How dependent the deck would be on her (ie., how screwed will you be when she gets tucked), and 2) How homogeneous Titania decks would be, since it's pretty obvious what you're supposed to do with her. You found a solution to 2) with the druid tribal sub theme which was unexpected, but 1) might still be an issue. Oh well, I guess you gotta take risks. I like what you've done with the deck for sure.
I've definitely won several games by top-decking a birthing pod or holding one in my hand for a while. Sometimes paying two life is really risky, especially if you think that your ability to use it profitably is in jeopardy.
If you see a turn one celestial collonade, sneaking out a turn two pod is pretty important.
I'd like to add some gameplay videos to an article, but I have to get the right software first. I'll add an updated deck and sideboard list at that point.
Ive built pods in almost every possible manner. 5color, artifact (brown), mono black, bant, naya, esper, (never grixis because the combos didn't really fit as well.) I've done a few 4 colors too, eschewing one color or another because the cards for that color didnt mix all that well.
Jund I've done but didn't particularly care for it. That shard is very good already and pod doesn't add much to it. Waters down the impact of deck even if you aren't in an aggro frame of mind.
That said no idea what others have done with the shard. My initial pre edited comment was suggesting my old mainstay of 4 bops 3 llanowar but I have decided Sylvan Caryatid is just better than elves, hierarch and all are superior to pilgrim. The fact that you get pod on a turn early is good but it isn't great. Consider: People run all kinds of early removal for pod and its ilk even before sideboarding.
Particularly since pod moved to Modern (almost 3 years now?) where the choices abound and people make strong use of them. You really want to play pod with a chance to activate it the turn you play it. Otherwise it sits there, after draining 2 life and is a sitting duck.
Acceleration is good but hierarch/elf vs caryatid I favor the latter since it not only survives pyroclasm and early swingers (is rabblemaster a thing in modern yet?) but it provides acceleration that isn't targetable.
The thing about 7 1 drops vs 8 1 drops is really a thing about how many mana dorks vs non-mana dorks you need. 7 is the magic number for some reason. It has been that way since Standard Pod. In those days we used Oracles and Illusions in the 2 spot so it was even worse in terms of damage sweepers.
The key thing is that you threaten to win at multiple angles so that the answer to one threat or avenue of threat does not answer all. Kill all my guys? Fine Ill play another and pod it into another threat. Kill my pods? Fine my guys will just cross the red zone, or Ill combo out with Melira or whatever.
I'm finally beginning to recover from a stomach bug.
Anyway, thanks for reading. To Olaw, I should have asked you or someone if I could link to your piece. I did read and enjoy your article on Kiki-Pod.
Courser of Kruphix took the spot of the fourth Kitchen Finks I had in my list. With all the burn and delver lists going around, your life total is threatened early and often. I wanted four finks, so that I'd draw one as close to every game as possible, and having one in your opening hand helps the decision of whether or not I can keep said hand.
Courser has essentially the same cmc, minus the hybrid white, and is very likely to net me two life at least. So in that regard, the swap has been fine, and about equal in terms of helping advance my game plan.
Where Courser really shines is this: I play one second or third turn, gain a road block with a large posterior, gain a few life, and essentially draw a card or two playing lands off the top of my deck. You really need to hit your land drops, but you don't want to draw lands, and all the fetches thin the land count out of your deck. This land-thinning is awesome, but it can have a negative too, if you do need to draw a land and your chances are reduced, obviously that's a problem. Man, playing a land off the top with courser feels so great though, especially when it's critical that you do so. He plays very well with fetches and Domri Rade as well.
As for the mana dorks...
The reason for running 8 one-drop mana accellerants is to increase the number of "nut-draws" where you turn one B.O.P., turn two, play a land, play birthing pod for (3) + 2 life.
There are a lot of times where that line of play leads you to dominate the game.
It's true that my choice to run only three noble hiearch's has a lot to do with the fact that I only have three. I have a lot of experience with that number in my abzan-colored pod lists too, so I do know that 7 one-drops is usually fine.
I've had a lot of games where an early forked bolt or orzhov pontiff wrecked me badly. That, and the fact that Kiki-Pod can only afford to run two gavony townships can mean that drawing too many creatures with low toughness a real problem.
I have considered trying one Avacyn's pilgrim as mana dork 8 to see how that changes my win rate.
Sylvan Caryatid Vs Noble Hierarch: I thought about caryatid. Hexproof is cool, it's toughness is a bit higher, so it lives through pyroclasm (but not anger).
The thing is, you're giving up the exalted triggers, which add a lot, and you're giving up percentage points for the hands that turn into second-turn birthing pods.
It makes all your colors though, so that is sweet. Blocks goblin guide too.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for reading, this had been an awesome experience for me.
And Paul, let me know how your five-color pod deck turns out. Have you ever heard of the jund-pod decks floating around? they look interesting...
1) Great article and great survey, much enjoyed and appreciated.
2) I agree with Woof and his mindset for the most part. I appreciate that "it's a small sample" and "it's largely Legacy/Vintage plaeyrs", but the results conform to my overall ongoing assessment of Hasbro's MTGO product. For me these pole results are simply another layer of potential insight, and to the ardent researcher, that is a gem.
3) General background: I have work experience in Video Game Development and Finance. I have also been involved across many projects spanning many fields, including a well regarded group to grow and support Street Fighter 2, and a well regarded website to help train players in SF2, among many others projects.
4) Magic background: started paper Magic during Unlimited, quit before Alliances. Returned to MTGO during Onslaught and played MTGO until shortly before v4 (though I was on v4 Beta).
5) I have to do a lot of research and analysis, and I've gotten very good in terms of both process and results. I consistently draw upon and use my arsenal of research, experience, access to and discourse with others, and a flexible albeit practiced mindset to produce results. This pole is great to provide feed for that process for me within the niches that MTGO touches.
6) I don't really play MTGO at all currently, despite having a massive collection and good number of tix. I do play Hearthstone consistently though only a little (basically just to do Quests and the rare play session). I *much* prefer Magic the core gameplay (nothing to with MTGO), but I *much* prefer Hearthstone the interface experience. Hasbro has shown they are good at identifying and buying a good/successful game, Activision Blizzard has show they are good at making a high polish user experience.
For those of differing opinions or personal experience, more power to you. I can appreciate that and even value it within the niche of "some feedback in comments section".
I think MTGO is poorly positioned for the present and in a bad position for the future (for many reasons). I'm not optimistic that it will improve its position, especially relative to its expanding pool of peers in the online ccg marketplace. Hopefully they can at least continue to limp on enough to at least provide users with something they value.
I enjoyed this article and always enjoy being referenced in other people's articles. Though I'm afraid I can't take credit for the Kiki-Pod Combo table, but it is a very useful guide for those new to the deck as it's not always easy to see the possible lines of play until you really get used to the deck.
I feel my article is quite dated now and I was never the best Pod player to begin with but there are certainly lots of good articles on Pod about.
Enjoyed this article a lot. Makes me want to revisit this deck.
The reason Pearl Lake comes out against midrange is that most of my wins come from Elspeth ultimate/token beatdown, and in those situations Pearl Lake just gets chumped a lot. You could put in a 4th Elspeth, or a 1st Sarkhan or whatever and it would be better than Pearl Lake Ancient. Not to mention that your Pearl Lake Ancients are generally worse than the ones from UB Control (which they NEED PLA to win), so most of the time I just let it die to removal.
Against the midrange decks I want to Banishing Light/Dissolve their planeswalkers, wrath the board then use either Keranos or Elsepth to win the game. Realistically the only way they beat you if you see 2-3 copies of End Hostilities is via planeswalkers, so I wouldn't tap out unless you had a way to deal with one.
Thanks for reading and commenting, I plan on giving a more in depth reply as soon as I feel better. I've been sick in bed all day.
The short answer is youre right :)
That's very good result, congratulations!
Recently my build is constantly being trashed even by midrange and surprisingly a lot of people online plays aggro.
I'm gonna try your build now. I noticed you boarded out Pearl Lake almost every game, maybe Sarkhan would be bettter option?
Not only kosher but I do it all the time. The important thing is credit where it is due. And there have been a good deal of pod based articles.
You made some interesting arguments for your lists containing what they do but "I don't have it" should not be one if you are writing about the tourney scene.
I <3 Restoration Angel in Pod along with Kiki and have been thinking to throw in Siege Rhino just because but I don't know if I would only stick it in an Abzan deck because the one thing Pod likes to do is go 5 color. The biggest problem is deciding what comes out for it. :)
Courser is an interesting meta choice. I like BOPs in Pod decks and don't care for heirarchs. Id rather have 4 bops + 3 caryatids.
Honestly, I wasn't sure if linking to another article was kosher. I should have asked about it. My bad.
Man, don't make them work for it:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/becoming-modern-man-kiki-pod
The chart showing the Pod chains is extremely useful (even if Olaw admits he swiped it. hehe)
I like Courser in your lists. Could you give a little more detail on situations where you have liked it and times it wasn't pulling its weight? (I could imagine copying it with Kiki to get extra life from land drops has happened?)
It too me much longer than I would care to admit before I caught on in regards to the game results. I thought those were match results and started making changes, and then it dawned on me what was happening and reverted back to the original :D
Yeah, the goal from now on is to make Day 2. I didn't want to set a goal that I didn't know was attainable or not, because if you unknowingly set an unrealistic goal (lets say making Day 2 after only playing a week, or something like that), then your confidence gets shattered when you don't get close to that. Since I don't know my own skill level, I didn't want to fall into the trap of thinking I'm better than I am, set a goal that is above my skill level and end up crashing. Now that I've been in that spot to make Day 2, saying I want to make Day 2 is something reasonable.
The only reason I didn't state match record after every round is that while I believe everybody offers something you can learn, not everybody subscribes to that. Sometimes people take match record as the deciding factor of whether or not information is relevant, and I'd prefer someone make that determination after actually reading rather than looking at wins and losses. Although, if it does make things easier to read, I will list match record after every round.
A Great read. Now that you've had your first GP, and finished on a winning record (more wins than losses), I'd suggest the goal going forward be "Make Day 2". GP's cost just enough money and time, that after one or two to "have the experience", I think any after that should be about aiming to succeed. Making Day 2 is completely attainable on the path to awesomeness.
I have two minor suggestions for future articles. First, I'd put your sideboarding details on a separate line from your results. There were a few times where that info was running together and it was awkward. (1-1-1-1 HOW CAN THIS BE?!) Second, I wouldn't bother listing game results at the end of your rounds; just list your Match Record. I was trying to keep track of your Matches, counting to the magic number 7, but lost track a few times. Reading the sections already told me which games you won/lost so stating it again was a little superfluous. Give us those Matches, those are what we all use to really judge, I mean, keep track of each other. :)
- Gio
Great article, and good job at the GP. Also enjoyed the mini-masters report keep up the good work!
Yeah Humans are pretty versatile for sure. I expect there to be plenty in place of the elves and goblins.
I'm surprised Human is still an option.
To me it just seems like vanilla Tribal with some nod to the fact that people mostly bring easy buttons when they can.
This seems like a pretty good middle ground to me. It kicks out enough of the major players to make for a very different meta, but is not so restrictive that the average person will need to build a deck just for the event.
If I were in charge of deciding what to do to MTGO next, I wouldn't consider this survey "useless". I'd look at the question saying people most want improvements in 1) performance, 2) collection management, 3) user interface and take that as one more data point to factor into my prioritization of the next development tasks. Is there a chance a more statistically perfect sampling would give me a different ranking for those priorities? Sure. But there's also a chance that better sampling would give me either the same result, or close results. Maybe one of those items would move up or down a slot. Or maybe their relative rankings would be the same with better sampling, but instead of 22% preferring collection fixes, it's really 19% or 28% but it's still the number 2 player preference. Anyway I certainly wouldn't take it as gospel, but if I picked performance or collection as my next development focus, I'd take this as "one more piece of support for the possibility that I might be making the right decision".
Wizards, of course, is probably already aware what their players like and dislike and by how much. But maybe a few of them look at this article anyway. I don't think their problem is knowing what they should improve as much as it is "knowing how to become competent at developing and/or improving software", which they're frankly pretty bad at. I don't know if there's a solution to that problem that they're willing or capable of adopting.
As a game designer, it's actually somewhat beneficial to me that I've played a much wider variety of games in the last year, as I'm being exposed to more ideas. But I suspect I'll be back for Leagues. And I still love paper magic whenever I have the time and opportunity to play.
Anyway I think this is an interesting and slightly useful survey, and there's no need to rag on it. I thought it was particularly telling in some categories ZERO users gave a 9 or a 10 rating o the 4.0 client. Even with this small sample size, that's pretty unusual and I think it's likely statistically significant that this is so.