I have my doubts that the change will really get the audience much more excited than they currently tend to be. There's only so much excitement to go around before people start losing the will to go out and buy more cards. But even if it only evens out their revenue stream over the year, it's probably a good thing, business-wise.
I think it's good that they're dropping the Core Set from the rotation, and if it means that they'll push some interesting block themes harder (since they won't have to spread their ideas across three sets), then it'll hopefully make set design more interesting, too, so I'm hopeful it'll have some good consequences there, too.
Honestly, I'm surprised at MaRo's skittishness; I can't think of anyone who wouldn't think this is overall a better structure. Could be I'm not thinking of something that will seem obvious in a year, but it feels like a pretty reasonable change to me now.
@Sene -- My stats aren't quite as good as yours, but they show a similar trend: white = good (70 win percentage) and black = bad (50%).
I am cautiously optimistic about the new block structure. Two sets per block and scrapping core set seem like the right moves on paper. My one concern is about Standard. I was just commenting last weekend to a friend about how core set always got hosed because they were only in standard for 15 months. Now all the small sets will endure that same fate (and large sets only get 18). I don't like this both from a financial standpoint and from a metagame standpoint. I like full, 8 set standards. There is so much available and so many options. I see why development doesn't want to have to deal with having 4 blocks in standard. Trying to make sure that cards from a specific set play nice with cards from 13 different potential standard partners (three blocks before, three blocks after, plus the other set in the block) could be a bit much, but it wouldn't be impossible.
It should be fine. And if this ultimately means better, more consistently interesting limited formats, that seems like a win for everyone!
Regarding white - hasn't it been kind of the nuts in a lot of limited environments, in the last 3-4 years? It certainly feels that way.
Also, how come whenever I start building a Modern deck, it turns into "I'll use Simic Guildmage to slide Genju of the Realm across all my lands and make an army of 8/12's..." What's wrong with me.
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I'll be sad if people don't start calling The Chain Veil "Fleetwood Mac."
There are two arguments here, that I see. The first being that 8 sets gives more opportunity for innovation, and a balanced experience, and the second being that it gives cards more lasting value.
To the first, I don't really see that it bears out. 3rd sets rarely have much to offer except refinements to the decks that are already the best, which narrows the metagame more often than anything.
To the second, I see the point. We'll have to see whether that affects enthusiasm for picking up new cards by much. Hopefully people's new excitement over the format rotating twice as often will make up for a lack of excitement about the shortened lifespan of their purchase.
I am a little worried about Block as a format. I don't think two sets is really enough to keep supporting it as an interesting experience. 3 was already pretty few.
There are two arguments here, that I see. The first being that 8 sets gives more opportunity for innovation, and a balanced experience, and the second being that it gives cards more lasting value.
To the first, I don't really see that it bears out. 3rd sets rarely have much to offer except refinements to the decks that are already the best, which narrows the metagame more often than anything.
To the second, I see the point. We'll have to see whether that affects enthusiasm for picking up new cards by much. Hopefully people's new excitement over the format rotating twice as often will make up for a lack of excitement about the shortened lifespan of their purchase.
I am a little worried about Block as a format. I don't think two sets is really enough to keep supporting it as an interesting experience. 3 was already pretty few.
I agree with most of what you said, especially being worried about block.
As for third sets not affecting standard much, I at least partially disagree...
I mean, you aren't going to see too many people switching decks right before rotation, but Bloodbraid Elf was an incredibly powerful card for Jund and 5CC. Two other heavy hitters are Splinter Twin and Birthing Pod.
Tarmogoyf, Eldrazi Conscription (and the Eldrazi), Batterskull, Coalition Relic, Aetherling, lands in many cases, Bonfire/Entreat/Miracles... Tamiyo and Gideon.
I feel like third sets tend to really swing things in control's favor. They push midrange decks into aggro/control variants, and often enable random metagame control decks to find the bomb, removal, land, or combo piece they were missing. Maybe they are a few factors in this - not just the availability of the third set, but also the "settling" of the format, but I feel like third sets have had their impact in more than a few standard formats.
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I'll be sad if people don't start calling The Chain Veil "Fleetwood Mac."
I think they've basically given up on Block already as a supported format. No Block PTQ season, no Block PT, no Block GPs, etc. The only place where it (barely) clings on is Magic Online.
Basically, no more Core Sets = good thing. That's pretty much what the whole change boils down to, imo.
Regarding M15, I think I truly figured out the format:
White 0 0 n/a
Blue 0 0 n/a
Black 0 0 n/a
Red 0 0 n/a
Green 0 0 n/a
These seem like the only correct statistics to me.
As for Block Constructed, good riddance. The format is virtually always miserable. I think the last one that wasn't, was Time Spiral block. Which probably had almost as many cards as Standard usually has.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
As for Block Constructed, good riddance. The format is virtually always miserable. I think the last one that wasn't, was Time Spiral block. Which probably had almost as many cards as Standard usually has.
Players who like Block tend to do so for the "unsolved" feel it has at the start of a season. There's a (false?) sense that nobody knows what's good and you could brew some crazy deck and win a GP with it.
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<Limited Clan>
Block PTs were pretty fun to play, but other than that, I have to agree with Tahn.
@M15: We have an M15 PTQ, so I gotta play some It's a pretty unexciting format though. Blue is just so bad. Certainly happy that we're not getting any more Core Sets. Talk about bland.
How do you feel about the accusation that block formats tend to only be solved by pro teams? I've seen people post things like, "none of my friends play block, how can I expect to seriously test it compared to Channel Fireball?"
I guess there's always MODO, but that's definitely not going as deep as renting a beach house and playing block for two weeks.
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I'll be sad if people don't start calling The Chain Veil "Fleetwood Mac."
The problem with block as a format for a Pro Tour to me is simply that it's flat out irrelevant at all other times. It doesn't affect anything, and I'm absolutely fine with them marginalizing it.
I liked core sets for limited, but the main reason is that where I play these days (and it isn't much), the group isn't always super competitive, and when kids come to start playing, they have the perfect level of complexity to allow me to mentor them a bit. I relish those types of opportunities, being a teacher and all.
Speaking of that, today was my first day back as a full time teacher. I worked my butt off last year to get recertified, and now I'm working with 6th graders on their writing. If that's not a concept that's familiar to you, it's basically institutionalized child torture. :-P
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Providing a plethora of pompous and pedantic postings here since 2009.
:dance:Fact or Fiction of the [Limited] Clan:dance:
Signalling is like farting: it's a natural thing that helps people avoid being where you are, and if you try to do it deliberately, things turn to crap fast.
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I hereby found the American Chapter of the Zealots of Semantics. All glory to The Curmudgeon.
Players who like Block tend to do so for the "unsolved" feel it has at the start of a season.
Well, for me, I always liked Block because of the accessibility of it. I guess now it'll be more accessible than ever, but I think I'll be a little disappointed if people stop caring about it or trying to optimize decks for the format. Even if it was already overly simple, it made matchmaking for my leftover limited decks a little less unbalanced while still letting people explore some more constructed-level synergies.
Basically, when introducing someone to deckbuilding I never had to say "Hey, here's a deck you can start collecting cards for if you start buying 8 different sets." I'm not sure they're liable to be as interested in my pitch now.
It's funny, one reason I disliked Block is for how inaccessible it is. There'd be the one Block PT or GP, and everyone would need the same few mythics and rares from the last set, and if you ended up having to buy them they were ridiculously expensive and they'd lose half of their value before the tournament ended. While for Modern, you need cards from much longer back (and I know of course that this is a big problem for new players - it just happens that Modern's time period best matches my collection) but it's much easier to share cards because there are a million completely different decks, and if you have to buy something at least it'll still be good next year.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Wow, so I just visited the Limited forum for the first time in awhile, and perused the "Venting" thread. Yikes! I know there will be some point when I will appreciate having a spot available for me to do that, but reading that thing is kind of depressing. Maybe it's frustrating for me to read because it's all stuff that's mostly out of our control, mana issues, and lucky draws, and unlucky draws, and the like. Whatever, it's probably better for them to vent here, than to start cursing out their opponents online. I've never understood what drives people to do that.
On another note, is the just spoiled RUG morph mana dude actually good? I'm really having trouble figuring that out. Also, are we ever going to see another 1cc mana dork that produces more than one color of mana ever again? Caryatid is great, but I have to admit, I would have preferred them reprinting BoP in RtR instead.
The RUG morph guy will certainly see constructed play. Whether he's good in limited will depend on how easy it is to kill morphs, I guess. It's probably fair to assume that you'll usually flip him the turn after you play him, though, so I don't see him being bad unless the format is crazily warped around removal. If I were going to guess, I'd guess he's probably first pick material, though. Any deck can play him, and just him and lands in a BW deck get you domain and 6 mana on turn 4 - that's some serious fixing, and you don't even have to give up playing an on-curve guy to do it. I remember loving to pick up Coalition Relic once upon a time, and this seems comparable.
Remember Deathrite Shaman existed fairly recently. I don't think they're too shy about printing 1 cmc mana dorks with a high power level.
I'm also not super pleased with RUG guy. He definitely isn't making my "add to Maelstrom Wanderer" EDH hunt, which I go through every set. I'm assuming that I'll get some interesting cards, this being a wedge block, but I've yet to see anything good enough.
I like the idea of unmorphing him and going nuts, but the turn three investment is too much, just for a turn 4 ritual. I'd rather play Lotus Cobra, which is currently also on the outside of the deck looking in.
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I'll be sad if people don't start calling The Chain Veil "Fleetwood Mac."
So, lots of new cards. Delve seems completely non-interactive with the rest of the set, super curious how that's gonna play out. Outlast is a strong defensive mechanic, kinda crap on offense, which is kinda weird. Haven't seen something like that as an actual mechanic in a while. And Ferocious snowballs; early game it's never gonna trigger but then once it does it's probably going to do so forever. That makes two mechanics that are specifically focused on developing board position rather than trying to damage the opponent. G/W is the defensive deck in the format and B/U is the aggro?
lol ferocious snowballs
EDIT: Does anyone know of a graphing calculator program/function which will let me just view integer solutions on the graph? Like if I put in x=y, I'll only see 1,1; 2,2; 3,3; etc, and nothing in between?
@Rattleclaw Mystic: Surely you just slam him on turn 2 95% of the time? And I assume that in most decks you'd rather have a Sylvan Caryatid, the exceptions being ones where you'd like to be able to bash with a 2/1 a decent amount of the time & the mana elf attributes aren't as important. Seems like a fringe playable, at least until Sylvan Caryatid leaves standard. Certainly first pick quality card in Limited, though.
@Venting thread: Can I use the "Unconstructive Bragging" thread to boast about the fact that I haven't yet posted to the venting thread?
@Delve: Hopefully it will be accompanied by some amounts of self mill or other ways to get a lot of cards into your graveyard without all that much cost and effort, otherwise it seems a bit useless. Delve would have been pretty horrendous in a spell-light format like Theros block, but I think we can give the R&D enough credit for us to not worry about this too much. The Shambling Attendants guy, for example, does require a lot of support to be remotely playable, though. A 3/5 deathtouch creature needs to cost 5 mana to be decent, after all.
@Fetchlands: I guess I'm glad that these things are now made more available, but the extra shuffle effects added to Standard is not a good thing, and a surprising move on WotC's part.
Surely you just slam him on turn 2 95% of the time?
Maybe, but that's certainly not obvious to me. Cast as a morph on turn three you have access to six mana on turn four if it survives. I can easily imagine a hand - at least in Limited - where that seems like an appealing option. Depends a little on how good morphs are, though. If killing your opponent's unidentified morph is always good play then that's going to spoil a lot of otherwise appealing options.
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MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I don't exactly remember the Odyssey block standard metagame with much detail, but I mostly think of morphs consisting of Blistering Firecat and Exalted Angel. It seems like it would be hard to build an environment where Grey Ogres, even temporary ones, make up a significant chunk of people's decks, unless they're essentially all must-kills.
First of all, the spoilers for Khans are making me super excited to draft the new set! Can't wait to say goodbye to Theros and core set.
So I played in the WMCQ in Indy this past weekend. They had a PTQ on Saturday. As usual, the pool I registered was disgustingly good, and I was passed a mediocre pool at best. (I had 2 painlands and Agressive Mining as rares.) I managed a 3-3. I still could have stayed in and played the last two rounds to have an outside shot at prizes, but the deck was just no fun to play at all.
So I was all ready to play GW aggro in the WMCQ, but last minute I decided that I wanted a more fun experience, so I modified the RU list that I found from the trial winners at GP Utrecht, and decided to just have some fun playing magic. I started 4-0 beating two BW midrange decks and two control decks. Then I ended up on camera because someone on the coverage team wanted to see me play the deck. Well, I managed to punt the match pretty hard.
Game one I got punished for not playing removal when my opponent was tapped out because Selesnya Charm is really good. Game two I made an epic comeback from being at 1 life after making a serious misplay involving a Voice of Resurgence token (and missing a Pyromancer trigger). Note to self: If your opponent asks if something resolves don't say, "OK...wait, trigger." Game three I lost partially because I had a serious brain fart and did not play a Staticaster main phase with Voice on the board. I was getting so used to playing stuff on my opponents't turns, that I just found myself forgetting about essential abilities on cards that I have played in the past!
Once again, though, having the ability to watch the coverage back was so incredibly helpful. Yeah, it sucked that I was on camera playing bad magic, but playing bad magic without cameras means I may not have even realized that I did something wrong. For those interested, here is the link to my pain: Youtube
After that my tournament went downhill. I beat another control deck, then lost to two burn decks and a mono-blue deck. I need to figure out both how to deal with losses better mentally so they don't affect future matches, and how to handle the grind. 15 rounds of Magic in two days is a bit rough on me. My last match against mono-blue was certainly winnable. I didn't mulligan game 2 simply because I was feeling too tired to shuffle again!
Here's the deck I ran for those curious. I would probably look to find room to bring Shock back into the deck, and maybe some Dispels or any kind of lifegain in the side. Burn is a horrible match-up for me. Rabblemaster was good against midrange and control because it needed to be answered. It was mostly too slow/irrelevant against aggro decks.
I don't exactly remember the Odyssey block standard metagame with much detail, but I mostly think of morphs consisting of Blistering Firecat and Exalted Angel.
It was Onslaught that had morphs and that was my first ever draft format, so I remember it pretty well. The thing about morph gameplay was it meant nobody ever missed their 3-drop and if they didn't have a 4-drop they could always play another 3. By the standards of modern Limited Magic that sounds pretty mediocre, but back then a 2/2 for 3 was a lot faster and a lot closer to playable. There were a couple of 2/2s for 2 in that format and if you got one down on turn two and followed with a morph on the play your opponent was under serious pressure.
The classic morph play was attacking into an X/2 enemy blocker with Mountains up. If the opponent blocked they were risking Battering Craghorn, but if they didn't it could be Skirk Commando. Gary Wise hated this situation, but actually despite the fact it feels random the decision to block or not depended on your hand, so it was moderately skill testing. The other interesting morphs were the Blue ones, with Echo Tracer being interesting and hard to play right and Raven Guild Initiate (later in the block) turning out to be surprisingly playable. Plus, of course, Willbender - forget about it and lose!
Ooh, nice! Particularly pleased to see Polymorphist's Jest in there with Staticaster!
Regarding playing on camera: Every time I have ever played a game of anything on camera or watched a friend's matches I've always been struck by how many errors get made. My theory is that I make these errors all the time and just don't usually notice. With stuff like waiting to play removal it's even worse, because unless the opponent has the trick it's much harder to spot that it even was a misplay.
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Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
Ooh, nice! Particularly pleased to see Polymorphist's Jest in there with Staticaster!
Fun fact that I discovered the weekend before the tournament: Polymorphist's Jest doesn't change the name of the creatures. So my hope that the combo would be a pseudo Plague Wind was incorrect, and the reason Jest stayed in the sideboard most of the weekend. Interestingly enough Jest worked best with Pyromancer. Trading my 1/1 tokens with your Smiters and Fleecemane Lions is always good times.
Polymorphist's Jest doesn't change the name of the creatures.
It doesn't?! Oh, that's so sad! Spoils all the fun!
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Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
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<Limited Clan>
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In other news, I think I've figured M15 out...
(from my spreadsheet tracking my own progress)
I think it's good that they're dropping the Core Set from the rotation, and if it means that they'll push some interesting block themes harder (since they won't have to spread their ideas across three sets), then it'll hopefully make set design more interesting, too, so I'm hopeful it'll have some good consequences there, too.
Honestly, I'm surprised at MaRo's skittishness; I can't think of anyone who wouldn't think this is overall a better structure. Could be I'm not thinking of something that will seem obvious in a year, but it feels like a pretty reasonable change to me now.
I am cautiously optimistic about the new block structure. Two sets per block and scrapping core set seem like the right moves on paper. My one concern is about Standard. I was just commenting last weekend to a friend about how core set always got hosed because they were only in standard for 15 months. Now all the small sets will endure that same fate (and large sets only get 18). I don't like this both from a financial standpoint and from a metagame standpoint. I like full, 8 set standards. There is so much available and so many options. I see why development doesn't want to have to deal with having 4 blocks in standard. Trying to make sure that cards from a specific set play nice with cards from 13 different potential standard partners (three blocks before, three blocks after, plus the other set in the block) could be a bit much, but it wouldn't be impossible.
It should be fine. And if this ultimately means better, more consistently interesting limited formats, that seems like a win for everyone!
Also, how come whenever I start building a Modern deck, it turns into "I'll use Simic Guildmage to slide Genju of the Realm across all my lands and make an army of 8/12's..." What's wrong with me.
There are two arguments here, that I see. The first being that 8 sets gives more opportunity for innovation, and a balanced experience, and the second being that it gives cards more lasting value.
To the first, I don't really see that it bears out. 3rd sets rarely have much to offer except refinements to the decks that are already the best, which narrows the metagame more often than anything.
To the second, I see the point. We'll have to see whether that affects enthusiasm for picking up new cards by much. Hopefully people's new excitement over the format rotating twice as often will make up for a lack of excitement about the shortened lifespan of their purchase.
I am a little worried about Block as a format. I don't think two sets is really enough to keep supporting it as an interesting experience. 3 was already pretty few.
I agree with most of what you said, especially being worried about block.
As for third sets not affecting standard much, I at least partially disagree...
I mean, you aren't going to see too many people switching decks right before rotation, but Bloodbraid Elf was an incredibly powerful card for Jund and 5CC. Two other heavy hitters are Splinter Twin and Birthing Pod.
Tarmogoyf, Eldrazi Conscription (and the Eldrazi), Batterskull, Coalition Relic, Aetherling, lands in many cases, Bonfire/Entreat/Miracles... Tamiyo and Gideon.
I feel like third sets tend to really swing things in control's favor. They push midrange decks into aggro/control variants, and often enable random metagame control decks to find the bomb, removal, land, or combo piece they were missing. Maybe they are a few factors in this - not just the availability of the third set, but also the "settling" of the format, but I feel like third sets have had their impact in more than a few standard formats.
Regarding M15, I think I truly figured out the format:
White 0 0 n/a
Blue 0 0 n/a
Black 0 0 n/a
Red 0 0 n/a
Green 0 0 n/a
These seem like the only correct statistics to me.
As for Block Constructed, good riddance. The format is virtually always miserable. I think the last one that wasn't, was Time Spiral block. Which probably had almost as many cards as Standard usually has.
Players who like Block tend to do so for the "unsolved" feel it has at the start of a season. There's a (false?) sense that nobody knows what's good and you could brew some crazy deck and win a GP with it.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
@M15: We have an M15 PTQ, so I gotta play some It's a pretty unexciting format though. Blue is just so bad. Certainly happy that we're not getting any more Core Sets. Talk about bland.
I guess there's always MODO, but that's definitely not going as deep as renting a beach house and playing block for two weeks.
I liked core sets for limited, but the main reason is that where I play these days (and it isn't much), the group isn't always super competitive, and when kids come to start playing, they have the perfect level of complexity to allow me to mentor them a bit. I relish those types of opportunities, being a teacher and all.
Speaking of that, today was my first day back as a full time teacher. I worked my butt off last year to get recertified, and now I'm working with 6th graders on their writing. If that's not a concept that's familiar to you, it's basically institutionalized child torture. :-P
:dance:Fact or Fiction of the [Limited] Clan:dance:
Well, for me, I always liked Block because of the accessibility of it. I guess now it'll be more accessible than ever, but I think I'll be a little disappointed if people stop caring about it or trying to optimize decks for the format. Even if it was already overly simple, it made matchmaking for my leftover limited decks a little less unbalanced while still letting people explore some more constructed-level synergies.
Basically, when introducing someone to deckbuilding I never had to say "Hey, here's a deck you can start collecting cards for if you start buying 8 different sets." I'm not sure they're liable to be as interested in my pitch now.
On another note, is the just spoiled RUG morph mana dude actually good? I'm really having trouble figuring that out. Also, are we ever going to see another 1cc mana dork that produces more than one color of mana ever again? Caryatid is great, but I have to admit, I would have preferred them reprinting BoP in RtR instead.
I'm also not super pleased with RUG guy. He definitely isn't making my "add to Maelstrom Wanderer" EDH hunt, which I go through every set. I'm assuming that I'll get some interesting cards, this being a wedge block, but I've yet to see anything good enough.
I like the idea of unmorphing him and going nuts, but the turn three investment is too much, just for a turn 4 ritual. I'd rather play Lotus Cobra, which is currently also on the outside of the deck looking in.
lol ferocious snowballs
EDIT: Does anyone know of a graphing calculator program/function which will let me just view integer solutions on the graph? Like if I put in x=y, I'll only see 1,1; 2,2; 3,3; etc, and nothing in between?
@Venting thread: Can I use the "Unconstructive Bragging" thread to boast about the fact that I haven't yet posted to the venting thread?
@Delve: Hopefully it will be accompanied by some amounts of self mill or other ways to get a lot of cards into your graveyard without all that much cost and effort, otherwise it seems a bit useless. Delve would have been pretty horrendous in a spell-light format like Theros block, but I think we can give the R&D enough credit for us to not worry about this too much. The Shambling Attendants guy, for example, does require a lot of support to be remotely playable, though. A 3/5 deathtouch creature needs to cost 5 mana to be decent, after all.
@Fetchlands: I guess I'm glad that these things are now made more available, but the extra shuffle effects added to Standard is not a good thing, and a surprising move on WotC's part.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
So I played in the WMCQ in Indy this past weekend. They had a PTQ on Saturday. As usual, the pool I registered was disgustingly good, and I was passed a mediocre pool at best. (I had 2 painlands and Agressive Mining as rares.) I managed a 3-3. I still could have stayed in and played the last two rounds to have an outside shot at prizes, but the deck was just no fun to play at all.
So I was all ready to play GW aggro in the WMCQ, but last minute I decided that I wanted a more fun experience, so I modified the RU list that I found from the trial winners at GP Utrecht, and decided to just have some fun playing magic. I started 4-0 beating two BW midrange decks and two control decks. Then I ended up on camera because someone on the coverage team wanted to see me play the deck. Well, I managed to punt the match pretty hard.
Game one I got punished for not playing removal when my opponent was tapped out because Selesnya Charm is really good. Game two I made an epic comeback from being at 1 life after making a serious misplay involving a Voice of Resurgence token (and missing a Pyromancer trigger). Note to self: If your opponent asks if something resolves don't say, "OK...wait, trigger." Game three I lost partially because I had a serious brain fart and did not play a Staticaster main phase with Voice on the board. I was getting so used to playing stuff on my opponents't turns, that I just found myself forgetting about essential abilities on cards that I have played in the past!
Once again, though, having the ability to watch the coverage back was so incredibly helpful. Yeah, it sucked that I was on camera playing bad magic, but playing bad magic without cameras means I may not have even realized that I did something wrong. For those interested, here is the link to my pain: Youtube
After that my tournament went downhill. I beat another control deck, then lost to two burn decks and a mono-blue deck. I need to figure out both how to deal with losses better mentally so they don't affect future matches, and how to handle the grind. 15 rounds of Magic in two days is a bit rough on me. My last match against mono-blue was certainly winnable. I didn't mulligan game 2 simply because I was feeling too tired to shuffle again!
Here's the deck I ran for those curious. I would probably look to find room to bring Shock back into the deck, and maybe some Dispels or any kind of lifegain in the side. Burn is a horrible match-up for me. Rabblemaster was good against midrange and control because it needed to be answered. It was mostly too slow/irrelevant against aggro decks.
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Izzet Staticaster
3 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Keranos, God of Storms
Spells
2 Magma Spray
2 Izzet Charm
3 Lightning Strike
2 Dissolve
1 Syncopate
3 Stoke the Flames
3 Turn//Burn
1 Mizzium Mortars
3 Jace, Architect of Thoughts
1 Ral Zarek
4 Island
5 Mountain
4 Mutavault
4 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Ral Zarek
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Polymorphist's Jest
3 Counterflux
1 Izzet Charm
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Negate
1 Gorgon's Head
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Aetherling
The classic morph play was attacking into an X/2 enemy blocker with Mountains up. If the opponent blocked they were risking Battering Craghorn, but if they didn't it could be Skirk Commando. Gary Wise hated this situation, but actually despite the fact it feels random the decision to block or not depended on your hand, so it was moderately skill testing. The other interesting morphs were the Blue ones, with Echo Tracer being interesting and hard to play right and Raven Guild Initiate (later in the block) turning out to be surprisingly playable. Plus, of course, Willbender - forget about it and lose!
Ooh, nice! Particularly pleased to see Polymorphist's Jest in there with Staticaster!
Regarding playing on camera: Every time I have ever played a game of anything on camera or watched a friend's matches I've always been struck by how many errors get made. My theory is that I make these errors all the time and just don't usually notice. With stuff like waiting to play removal it's even worse, because unless the opponent has the trick it's much harder to spot that it even was a misplay.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
Fun fact that I discovered the weekend before the tournament: Polymorphist's Jest doesn't change the name of the creatures. So my hope that the combo would be a pseudo Plague Wind was incorrect, and the reason Jest stayed in the sideboard most of the weekend. Interestingly enough Jest worked best with Pyromancer. Trading my 1/1 tokens with your Smiters and Fleecemane Lions is always good times.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>