I agree with most that you say, but I have a few things to ask you/point out.
1) I don't get what you mean when you say that V4 doesn't provide the same experience to all the users. In the video, it's a statement you first make when you find out that "select all" from the sideboard only selects what you're seeing. Which a) isn't true (where did you get that idea? "Select all" does indeed select ALL THE CARDS in the area, ready to be moved) and b) even if it were true, it wouldn't reflect into a different experience only because people have monitors of different sizes or something. Once you knew it worked that way, you would just enlarge the window before selecting. But again, I don't really understand your point about the inconsistent user's experience, unless you're just thinking of different performances on different systems, which is true of V3 as well, just like pretty much every videogame in existence.
2) As I found out myself after lamenting it on the dedicated forum, you do have the options to have .txt decks saved on your hard disk in V4. You can save them that way right-clicking on the deck's name (Export option). You can choose either .dek or .txt format. Then you can load them back as easily (the trouble you had with that downloaded deck is because it wasn't made with V4).
3) The real problem with 2) is the label thing, which takes a click every time you import, and is ALMOST ENTIRELY USELESS (as you mostly only see the labels when you create the decks. And you just have monocolored options and a few planeswalkers, anyway, so it's hardly something that can properly represent any deck's colors or style).
4) What you do in the video is mostly deck tweaking. I'd like for to try to build a deck from scratch (as I did), because that's where the real pain is. It still takes twice the time it would take in V3, and when you remove a card in singleton copy (which means ALL the cards in a Commander deck), if you want to bring it back you have to search for it again, which is maddening. In V3, you would still have it at hand in the pool, because the pool would show the last card you clicked. Also the pool had a search as you type function that it's gone.
5) When you pointed out that you purposely chose a deck featuring cards you don't own, I hoped you would note the difference, both good and bad, between V3 and V4 when missing cards are concerned.
The bad news is that the missing cards were way more conspicuous in V3. You can easily miss them in V4.
The good news is that in V4 you can automatically update cards with versions you own (VERY useful when a set like VMA makes you change a lot of them), with the "Update with version in collection" option on the right mouse button. It even automatically replaces ALL the instances of that card you have in the deck, by just doing it once for one of them.
6) About the sorting, good news: the V4 now remembers the last way you sorted your deck (which I believe for 90% of the users is always by CMC).
Glad somebody got around to an in-depth break down of this deck. I run into it every so often online and depending on which deck I'm using, the match up can range from a cake walk to frustrating.
I think your conclusion that the longer the game goes, the worse the situation can be for this deck is not entirely accurate. In some match ups, this deck WANTS the game to go long. The Norin deck is all about momentum. It wants to hit a critical mass of threats/life gain that the opposing deck can't overcome. This gives it a nice match up against "fair" decks that can't keep up with the incremental gains. On the other hand, decks that can do "unfair" things, such as go infinite or combo out Turns 3-4, force this deck to win at a pace that it can't adapt to very well.
I think adding Red to the Soul Sisters shell gives it more power. It opens up a range of removal and sideboard cards that the mono white deck doesn't possess. In my opinion, the deck is held back by its lack of an "agreed upon build". That sounds boring, but even the builds doing well still differ on a balance between neat tricks and streamlined play. If "A little bit too cute" can turn to "Powerful tricks that are hard to counter" then this deck can really be a contender.
A great choice to write about. As always, keep up the solid work!
The color of the lands is the dead the give-away of which version you are facing.
Melira/Angel Pod (on it's way to just Junk Pod) Will almost always grab an early B/G land to help cast Thougthseize, Abrupt Decay or to have BB to cast Redcap.
Kiki Pod will usually have to grab a Red splash land to help set up triple R for Kiki or will grab one of its "Islands" if the fetch allowed it.
On the other hand, sometimes either deck goes Temple Garden/Razorwerge + a Basic Forest to cast Voice of Resurgence...then you have to hold your breath and wait.
Except for the combo pieces themselves, the rest can be exactly the same in all versions. You might look for the colors the lands produce (Kiki includes red), but it's not a given.
You might be interested in my primer on the Pod here on PureMTGO, that explored the mechanics of the card and the many possible builds, not just the combo versions.
Man, Cavern of Souls is the FIRST land you have to tap every turn, not the last. :)
Nice deck, make you want to play it (Soul Sisters superior? I don't think it has ever been more than a Tier-2 deck in the meta, and it's certainly more fragile than this – not to mention duller to play with).
Were you sideboarding out Mentor of the Meek? You never played one in all those games.
Also, I'd like to hear your audio commentary on live games. Are you afraid that talking while playing would be too distracting? It might be, but on the other hand, it would be a more relaxed comment, given the natural pauses of a live game, compared to the frenetic nature of a replay, where you have to talk really fast to keep up on what's happening. Plus, it'd be interesting to see you analyze the opponent's deck and your answers to it on the fly.
Interesting piece. Plus it looks good . I've been playing against pod a lot lately.
One helpful thing would be to tell people tell-tale cards to watch for to tell if they are facing kikki pod or Melira pod (or angel pod).
I did not know that, thanks! I will try that out after downtime.
Do you know how to hold priority so I can counter my own spells?
I keep using mindslaver on people, and I try to play their own spell and counter it, but I can't do it right.
I think the Beta has made huge moves forward in the last few months. Is it perfect? No. Can you play a game of Magic on it? Yes. I haven't had a disconnect in three weeks no crashes. Trading is better. The memory sink seems better.
I'm happy to leave V3, it's an Eyesore.
People will quit, but we are in the largest growth of new players in Magic ever. The loss will be felt, the market will have extra cards for a while, but new players will replace, and things will adjust.
Heh I guess the beta doesn't exactly make it clear where a player is. I remember a few months ago starting a game in the beta and then having someone accuse me of trolling because it turned out I was in the Just Starting out room by default. Because that's where everyone goes by default on the beta even if their account is a decade+ old.
I agree, top tier decks can be a really good exercise for you if you enjoy the challenge. I guess the problems come in when you get a bad draw and your opponent gets the typical nut draw for their top deck. Then it's all downhill with no fun in sight. But that is the oddity of MTG. In reverse, you playing your odd concoction getting a decent draw vs a bad one where your op is playing a top tier deck can be educational and fun. (Assuming you don't just roll them.) Thanks for commenting.
You can dock the chat just like it auto docks for trade windows. Just drag the chat window to the side of the screen, and you will see a squarish icon pop up, drag the window on to that and let go, and it will stick on the side of the screen like it does on the non beta version.
Even with it in bad a shape as its in, if only they kept the same sounds from the v3 client, I could accept it. There is something, comforting I guess, in the different sounds going from phase to phase, attacking, etc. that allows me to know what is going on. In the beta, I'm struggling to figure it out at times.
what i dislike about the beta more than anything, that the game log/chat is a different window.
I kept watching streams, and i'd see the chat log on the screen at times, and i realized that would make my play much easier/better.
As it is now, someone scrys, I have to open the seperate window to see if they topped or bottomed it. I like to see the list of all the cards they had in their revealed hand (via thoughtseize, probe, etc) so i can remember how many hidden cards are left in their hand. Switching around from one window to another is kind of dumb.
Luckily, a chat window was added to the trade screen, so i hope that they do the same for the game log at least.
Popular thought is that if they don't push it they'll get fired, or something to that effect. The problem here is that there isn't another option to play Magic online, so they don't have to put the best product out there, just something that "works". I firmly believe if there was actual competition out there that the client would be in much better shape.
People are resistant to change, but I think people are more accepting of change if it's for the better, and V4 is not a place right now where anybody can confidently say it's a superior option to V3. It's like we're drinking Coke, and suddenly we're forced to start drinking a knock-off brand with prettier packaging with the promise of something better down the road.
Probably the biggest thing is that the V4 of doing things (deckbuilding, trading, and duel scene) don't translate well from V3. It almost feels at times that the V4 client was designed without taking into consideration V3 users, which will be the majority of V4 users once the changeover begins. This is where the lack of understanding comes from, and that's on Wizards, not us.
I have the same issue you do via Windows 7. I constantly have to worry about time on V4, I've never had that problem on V3. My hope is all this talk about "stability and performance" actually DOES something, and isn't just fancy words to throw around (which is what it feels like at times)
The beta is in such sad shape, I struggle to see how it can actually be GA'd (generally available). I have worked for software companies for 18 years, and if anything like this was ever released, we all would have been fired.
Luckily for me, I'm used to using the beta. I'd love to snag some cheap cards if people want to sell.
My account is new, I started right before Born of the Gods. I used to have an account on V2, and when it switched to V3, I was frustrated and quit. Not only because of the new client, I had been thinking about quitting magic, and the frustration of feeling like I didn't understand the new client was the last straw.
Looking back, I think this is much like what's been happening with the beta. People are resistant to change. I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of problems with the program, but I am saying that the problems seem so much worse to us all with the added frustration of not understanding the client.
I have noticed that my windows 7 laptop runs V3 really well, and the beta seems slow and laggy at times in contrast.
Anyway, I'm not quitting this game. I love it too much.
I was playing in the JFF room a few weeks back, and my opponent was playing a tier 1 Standard deck. I commented that his deck was a little overpowered for the JFF room. His reply was an honest apology, he was on Shiny and didn't know he was in the JFF. I responded that it was no problem and we finished the game. He thanked me for letting him know. That was a person with class, all too rare these days.
I like playing against top tier decks, because if I win (which does happen from time to time), it is just that much sweeter.
I stay in JFF, because my decks would be the ones complained about in TP. Maybe not top tier, but usually complex.
Ah that explains why I never see you there. And why there are never any open tribal games. :p
The point about complaining over the money cards is really an irksome thing. When I concede (and I do regularly) I try to base my decision on the board state, what I know my opponent is likely to do next and how likely I am to have answers. I do get upset sometimes when I am playing a "neat idea" deck and I face xmillionth copy of xnet deck that has a high end value because it is well known and used. But that upset is mine and not my opponent's fault.
They are doing what they want to do and are within their rights to do so. Just because they are shooting fish in a barrel is not reason for me to lacerate their egos. I may and have pointed out the futility in randomly facing bad decks with a tried and true list, but the response is invariably either mute or slightly hostile. They probably get that (and a lot worse) every time they bring that deck out and have decided to play it anyway so whom am I to try to change their minds?
Also When facing money/top tier it is true that often you will not have the right answer. Particularly in one off games with no sideboarding. Sideboard construction is something of a lost art in juff and few players bother. Which incidentally makes the forced default in v4 of Match vs single game a bit hysterical. New player joins via v4, starts a match game, loses (or wins) round 1 and then sits there for 2 minutes, then concedes because they didn't realize it was supposed to be a match.
Happens every day.
Helping players learn is awesome. I try to do that when I can but MTGO players can be a prickly lot and rarely talk much if at all. I wrote a few articles on how I feel about THAT issue but honestly the opposite of having players ask for help or be receptive when you give advice is pretty much the nut. That makes losing to broken combos turn 1 totally worth while.
I would not take my decks to the 2mans (though its possible they could fare ok. I see the two man queues as straight up gambling and so won't do it no matter how good my deck may be. (Full disclosure: probably not very.)) I have taken them to TP and there is actually a fair amount of respect given by players when they recognize that someone is playing a rogue deck. But there are always the antisocial sorts who complain incessantly about you not bringing something they have a reason to want to practice against. Mostly I've seen that when watching other games.
That complaint is hardly valid though. After all if they want to really practice for tourneys against decks they have to be prepared to face all kinds of unknowns. Heck some people just show up to FNM or even bigger tourneys with untried rogue builds because they are hoping to steal a few games from the tried and true.
The better the player becomes the less legitimate those complaints become and the less appealing they are to make. A really good player will learn what they want to learn regardless of what their opponent does.
Thanks for sharing Chris, I appreciate a tourney player's input.
The problem with JFF vs the TP room is that it leaves no place for playing Tier 2 or 3 decks. If you play them in TP you get complaints from people who only want to practice against the current top tier. If you play them in JFF, you get complaints about your money cards and power cards that happen to be in the deck. Budget players just love to complain about money cards, even in sub-optimal decks, somehow all their losses are because of your money cards. This is not limited to MTGO, I've had players in paper Legacy tournaments (local, semi-casual ones) act like they can't possibly beat me when a piddly 1/2 Tarmogoyf hits the field, as if its price was going to make its board presence more relevant somehow.
So if you want to develop a new deck with the goal of making it competitive, or even just the goal of having a 2nd tier deck that's fun and you want to tune it up well enough to take to your FNM, you have to put up with the fact that neither audience wants to be playing against your deck. If you have tix to burn, you can run it through 2-mans, but that gets expensive quick if the deck can't cut the mustard.
When I'm playing in TP, I view it as we are all helping each other get better. Last night I had a guy on Turn 1 get off a 4-point Mind's Desire that kind of whiffed, and he Probed me and saw a Stony Silence he didn't think he could beat, and said as much. He had a Vamp Tutor and I suggested he get Duress to strip the Stony Silence, which he did and survived to make a game out of it. That's the kind of experience I'm looking for there, players helping players learn good plays and how to deal with cards and situations that will appear, commonly or uncommonly, in the format.
I stopped going to JFF at all anymore when the Tribal Wars filter was disabled, that was pretty much all I was playing in that room anyhow, and only because that's the only place you'd ever find a match.
I agree on the looter effect. I would probably replace the ninja for a looter. The ninja might just be too cute for the deck vs. the benefit of another discard outlet. The problem I have with Krovikan Sorcerer is that it's a 3 mana spell which I feel is just too much in Pauper. This is a deck that really wants to start leaving mana open on turn three if possible. Arrogant Wurm is 3 mana (with madness), but it can also be cast at instant speed.
In regards to Bouncer vs. Aquamoeba, the one advantage of Aquamoeba is that it can be used as a discard outlet immediately. That holds a lot of value with many of the spells in the current build. I think the Bouncer is a great card in the sideboard.
I never had problems playing a Ninja even without flyers. Like I said a lot times opponents let creatures go through because it's hard to block profitably with all of the combat tricks open to this deck. Pauper Classics Tuesdays #2 (sorry for lack of link, I'm using a Mac at the in-laws and I don't know how to do much beyond type) also published today has a similar UG Madness build and it also has a lack of flyer protection. I think it's a weakness of this deck at least in the main. It's tough to get around and still keep the decks focus (at least in my experience piloting it and other variants).
I looked at Obsessive Search and it's a card I'm just not a big fan of using. I'm willing to admit though that I could be undervaluing the card.
Also I want to say thank you for the feedback you've given me on my articles. I appreciate it!
I agree with most that you say, but I have a few things to ask you/point out.
1) I don't get what you mean when you say that V4 doesn't provide the same experience to all the users. In the video, it's a statement you first make when you find out that "select all" from the sideboard only selects what you're seeing. Which a) isn't true (where did you get that idea? "Select all" does indeed select ALL THE CARDS in the area, ready to be moved) and b) even if it were true, it wouldn't reflect into a different experience only because people have monitors of different sizes or something. Once you knew it worked that way, you would just enlarge the window before selecting. But again, I don't really understand your point about the inconsistent user's experience, unless you're just thinking of different performances on different systems, which is true of V3 as well, just like pretty much every videogame in existence.
2) As I found out myself after lamenting it on the dedicated forum, you do have the options to have .txt decks saved on your hard disk in V4. You can save them that way right-clicking on the deck's name (Export option). You can choose either .dek or .txt format. Then you can load them back as easily (the trouble you had with that downloaded deck is because it wasn't made with V4).
3) The real problem with 2) is the label thing, which takes a click every time you import, and is ALMOST ENTIRELY USELESS (as you mostly only see the labels when you create the decks. And you just have monocolored options and a few planeswalkers, anyway, so it's hardly something that can properly represent any deck's colors or style).
4) What you do in the video is mostly deck tweaking. I'd like for to try to build a deck from scratch (as I did), because that's where the real pain is. It still takes twice the time it would take in V3, and when you remove a card in singleton copy (which means ALL the cards in a Commander deck), if you want to bring it back you have to search for it again, which is maddening. In V3, you would still have it at hand in the pool, because the pool would show the last card you clicked. Also the pool had a search as you type function that it's gone.
5) When you pointed out that you purposely chose a deck featuring cards you don't own, I hoped you would note the difference, both good and bad, between V3 and V4 when missing cards are concerned.
The bad news is that the missing cards were way more conspicuous in V3. You can easily miss them in V4.
The good news is that in V4 you can automatically update cards with versions you own (VERY useful when a set like VMA makes you change a lot of them), with the "Update with version in collection" option on the right mouse button. It even automatically replaces ALL the instances of that card you have in the deck, by just doing it once for one of them.
6) About the sorting, good news: the V4 now remembers the last way you sorted your deck (which I believe for 90% of the users is always by CMC).
Glad somebody got around to an in-depth break down of this deck. I run into it every so often online and depending on which deck I'm using, the match up can range from a cake walk to frustrating.
I think your conclusion that the longer the game goes, the worse the situation can be for this deck is not entirely accurate. In some match ups, this deck WANTS the game to go long. The Norin deck is all about momentum. It wants to hit a critical mass of threats/life gain that the opposing deck can't overcome. This gives it a nice match up against "fair" decks that can't keep up with the incremental gains. On the other hand, decks that can do "unfair" things, such as go infinite or combo out Turns 3-4, force this deck to win at a pace that it can't adapt to very well.
I think adding Red to the Soul Sisters shell gives it more power. It opens up a range of removal and sideboard cards that the mono white deck doesn't possess. In my opinion, the deck is held back by its lack of an "agreed upon build". That sounds boring, but even the builds doing well still differ on a balance between neat tricks and streamlined play. If "A little bit too cute" can turn to "Powerful tricks that are hard to counter" then this deck can really be a contender.
A great choice to write about. As always, keep up the solid work!
- Gio
The color of the lands is the dead the give-away of which version you are facing.
Melira/Angel Pod (on it's way to just Junk Pod) Will almost always grab an early B/G land to help cast Thougthseize, Abrupt Decay or to have BB to cast Redcap.
Kiki Pod will usually have to grab a Red splash land to help set up triple R for Kiki or will grab one of its "Islands" if the fetch allowed it.
On the other hand, sometimes either deck goes Temple Garden/Razorwerge + a Basic Forest to cast Voice of Resurgence...then you have to hold your breath and wait.
Except for the combo pieces themselves, the rest can be exactly the same in all versions. You might look for the colors the lands produce (Kiki includes red), but it's not a given.
You might be interested in my primer on the Pod here on PureMTGO, that explored the mechanics of the card and the many possible builds, not just the combo versions.
Man, Cavern of Souls is the FIRST land you have to tap every turn, not the last. :)
Nice deck, make you want to play it (Soul Sisters superior? I don't think it has ever been more than a Tier-2 deck in the meta, and it's certainly more fragile than this – not to mention duller to play with).
Were you sideboarding out Mentor of the Meek? You never played one in all those games.
Also, I'd like to hear your audio commentary on live games. Are you afraid that talking while playing would be too distracting? It might be, but on the other hand, it would be a more relaxed comment, given the natural pauses of a live game, compared to the frenetic nature of a replay, where you have to talk really fast to keep up on what's happening. Plus, it'd be interesting to see you analyze the opponent's deck and your answers to it on the fly.
If you want to win on a tiny budget play boss sligh. It'll do the trick for twenty tix or about that.
Interesting piece. Plus it looks good . I've been playing against pod a lot lately.
One helpful thing would be to tell people tell-tale cards to watch for to tell if they are facing kikki pod or Melira pod (or angel pod).
Ctrl is the key in v3 to hold priority.
I did not know that, thanks! I will try that out after downtime.
Do you know how to hold priority so I can counter my own spells?
I keep using mindslaver on people, and I try to play their own spell and counter it, but I can't do it right.
I think the Beta has made huge moves forward in the last few months. Is it perfect? No. Can you play a game of Magic on it? Yes. I haven't had a disconnect in three weeks no crashes. Trading is better. The memory sink seems better.
I'm happy to leave V3, it's an Eyesore.
People will quit, but we are in the largest growth of new players in Magic ever. The loss will be felt, the market will have extra cards for a while, but new players will replace, and things will adjust.
Heh I guess the beta doesn't exactly make it clear where a player is. I remember a few months ago starting a game in the beta and then having someone accuse me of trolling because it turned out I was in the Just Starting out room by default. Because that's where everyone goes by default on the beta even if their account is a decade+ old.
I agree, top tier decks can be a really good exercise for you if you enjoy the challenge. I guess the problems come in when you get a bad draw and your opponent gets the typical nut draw for their top deck. Then it's all downhill with no fun in sight. But that is the oddity of MTG. In reverse, you playing your odd concoction getting a decent draw vs a bad one where your op is playing a top tier deck can be educational and fun. (Assuming you don't just roll them.) Thanks for commenting.
You can dock the chat just like it auto docks for trade windows. Just drag the chat window to the side of the screen, and you will see a squarish icon pop up, drag the window on to that and let go, and it will stick on the side of the screen like it does on the non beta version.
Could be. I agree that competition would drive them to do better. It just seems the people developing it have never actually played Magic before.
Even with it in bad a shape as its in, if only they kept the same sounds from the v3 client, I could accept it. There is something, comforting I guess, in the different sounds going from phase to phase, attacking, etc. that allows me to know what is going on. In the beta, I'm struggling to figure it out at times.
what i dislike about the beta more than anything, that the game log/chat is a different window.
I kept watching streams, and i'd see the chat log on the screen at times, and i realized that would make my play much easier/better.
As it is now, someone scrys, I have to open the seperate window to see if they topped or bottomed it. I like to see the list of all the cards they had in their revealed hand (via thoughtseize, probe, etc) so i can remember how many hidden cards are left in their hand. Switching around from one window to another is kind of dumb.
Luckily, a chat window was added to the trade screen, so i hope that they do the same for the game log at least.
Popular thought is that if they don't push it they'll get fired, or something to that effect. The problem here is that there isn't another option to play Magic online, so they don't have to put the best product out there, just something that "works". I firmly believe if there was actual competition out there that the client would be in much better shape.
People are resistant to change, but I think people are more accepting of change if it's for the better, and V4 is not a place right now where anybody can confidently say it's a superior option to V3. It's like we're drinking Coke, and suddenly we're forced to start drinking a knock-off brand with prettier packaging with the promise of something better down the road.
Probably the biggest thing is that the V4 of doing things (deckbuilding, trading, and duel scene) don't translate well from V3. It almost feels at times that the V4 client was designed without taking into consideration V3 users, which will be the majority of V4 users once the changeover begins. This is where the lack of understanding comes from, and that's on Wizards, not us.
I have the same issue you do via Windows 7. I constantly have to worry about time on V4, I've never had that problem on V3. My hope is all this talk about "stability and performance" actually DOES something, and isn't just fancy words to throw around (which is what it feels like at times)
The beta is in such sad shape, I struggle to see how it can actually be GA'd (generally available). I have worked for software companies for 18 years, and if anything like this was ever released, we all would have been fired.
Luckily for me, I'm used to using the beta. I'd love to snag some cheap cards if people want to sell.
My account is new, I started right before Born of the Gods. I used to have an account on V2, and when it switched to V3, I was frustrated and quit. Not only because of the new client, I had been thinking about quitting magic, and the frustration of feeling like I didn't understand the new client was the last straw.
Looking back, I think this is much like what's been happening with the beta. People are resistant to change. I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of problems with the program, but I am saying that the problems seem so much worse to us all with the added frustration of not understanding the client.
I have noticed that my windows 7 laptop runs V3 really well, and the beta seems slow and laggy at times in contrast.
Anyway, I'm not quitting this game. I love it too much.
I was playing in the JFF room a few weeks back, and my opponent was playing a tier 1 Standard deck. I commented that his deck was a little overpowered for the JFF room. His reply was an honest apology, he was on Shiny and didn't know he was in the JFF. I responded that it was no problem and we finished the game. He thanked me for letting him know. That was a person with class, all too rare these days.
I like playing against top tier decks, because if I win (which does happen from time to time), it is just that much sweeter.
I stay in JFF, because my decks would be the ones complained about in TP. Maybe not top tier, but usually complex.
Ah that explains why I never see you there. And why there are never any open tribal games. :p
The point about complaining over the money cards is really an irksome thing. When I concede (and I do regularly) I try to base my decision on the board state, what I know my opponent is likely to do next and how likely I am to have answers. I do get upset sometimes when I am playing a "neat idea" deck and I face xmillionth copy of xnet deck that has a high end value because it is well known and used. But that upset is mine and not my opponent's fault.
They are doing what they want to do and are within their rights to do so. Just because they are shooting fish in a barrel is not reason for me to lacerate their egos. I may and have pointed out the futility in randomly facing bad decks with a tried and true list, but the response is invariably either mute or slightly hostile. They probably get that (and a lot worse) every time they bring that deck out and have decided to play it anyway so whom am I to try to change their minds?
Also When facing money/top tier it is true that often you will not have the right answer. Particularly in one off games with no sideboarding. Sideboard construction is something of a lost art in juff and few players bother. Which incidentally makes the forced default in v4 of Match vs single game a bit hysterical. New player joins via v4, starts a match game, loses (or wins) round 1 and then sits there for 2 minutes, then concedes because they didn't realize it was supposed to be a match.
Happens every day.
Helping players learn is awesome. I try to do that when I can but MTGO players can be a prickly lot and rarely talk much if at all. I wrote a few articles on how I feel about THAT issue but honestly the opposite of having players ask for help or be receptive when you give advice is pretty much the nut. That makes losing to broken combos turn 1 totally worth while.
I would not take my decks to the 2mans (though its possible they could fare ok. I see the two man queues as straight up gambling and so won't do it no matter how good my deck may be. (Full disclosure: probably not very.)) I have taken them to TP and there is actually a fair amount of respect given by players when they recognize that someone is playing a rogue deck. But there are always the antisocial sorts who complain incessantly about you not bringing something they have a reason to want to practice against. Mostly I've seen that when watching other games.
That complaint is hardly valid though. After all if they want to really practice for tourneys against decks they have to be prepared to face all kinds of unknowns. Heck some people just show up to FNM or even bigger tourneys with untried rogue builds because they are hoping to steal a few games from the tried and true.
The better the player becomes the less legitimate those complaints become and the less appealing they are to make. A really good player will learn what they want to learn regardless of what their opponent does.
Thanks for sharing Chris, I appreciate a tourney player's input.
The problem with JFF vs the TP room is that it leaves no place for playing Tier 2 or 3 decks. If you play them in TP you get complaints from people who only want to practice against the current top tier. If you play them in JFF, you get complaints about your money cards and power cards that happen to be in the deck. Budget players just love to complain about money cards, even in sub-optimal decks, somehow all their losses are because of your money cards. This is not limited to MTGO, I've had players in paper Legacy tournaments (local, semi-casual ones) act like they can't possibly beat me when a piddly 1/2 Tarmogoyf hits the field, as if its price was going to make its board presence more relevant somehow.
So if you want to develop a new deck with the goal of making it competitive, or even just the goal of having a 2nd tier deck that's fun and you want to tune it up well enough to take to your FNM, you have to put up with the fact that neither audience wants to be playing against your deck. If you have tix to burn, you can run it through 2-mans, but that gets expensive quick if the deck can't cut the mustard.
When I'm playing in TP, I view it as we are all helping each other get better. Last night I had a guy on Turn 1 get off a 4-point Mind's Desire that kind of whiffed, and he Probed me and saw a Stony Silence he didn't think he could beat, and said as much. He had a Vamp Tutor and I suggested he get Duress to strip the Stony Silence, which he did and survived to make a game out of it. That's the kind of experience I'm looking for there, players helping players learn good plays and how to deal with cards and situations that will appear, commonly or uncommonly, in the format.
I stopped going to JFF at all anymore when the Tribal Wars filter was disabled, that was pretty much all I was playing in that room anyhow, and only because that's the only place you'd ever find a match.
I agree on the looter effect. I would probably replace the ninja for a looter. The ninja might just be too cute for the deck vs. the benefit of another discard outlet. The problem I have with Krovikan Sorcerer is that it's a 3 mana spell which I feel is just too much in Pauper. This is a deck that really wants to start leaving mana open on turn three if possible. Arrogant Wurm is 3 mana (with madness), but it can also be cast at instant speed.
In regards to Bouncer vs. Aquamoeba, the one advantage of Aquamoeba is that it can be used as a discard outlet immediately. That holds a lot of value with many of the spells in the current build. I think the Bouncer is a great card in the sideboard.
I never had problems playing a Ninja even without flyers. Like I said a lot times opponents let creatures go through because it's hard to block profitably with all of the combat tricks open to this deck. Pauper Classics Tuesdays #2 (sorry for lack of link, I'm using a Mac at the in-laws and I don't know how to do much beyond type) also published today has a similar UG Madness build and it also has a lack of flyer protection. I think it's a weakness of this deck at least in the main. It's tough to get around and still keep the decks focus (at least in my experience piloting it and other variants).
I looked at Obsessive Search and it's a card I'm just not a big fan of using. I'm willing to admit though that I could be undervaluing the card.
Also I want to say thank you for the feedback you've given me on my articles. I appreciate it!
Like the interaction between lifeline and evoke creatures
Fetches are at least as good as duals in vintage but duals are certainly cheap right now and fetches are due for a reprint at some point.