I can see Tezzeret blowing up as the breakout card with an Improvise deck. Other than that I don't see other new decks popping up but I do expect a lot more polished established decks and probably some old favorites back in the fray.
If you don't have your Heart of Kiran yet (I didn't), I think it's going to be the time to buy them soon. Still higher than I would like, but 2 aggro decks featuring them just went face to face.
Looks like the budget champion might be the Jund constrictor aggro deck.
Though Walking Balista is pricey.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
Looks like the budget champion might be the Jund constrictor aggro deck.
Though Walking Balista is pricey.
It's just the start, especially since the first 3 rounds are draft. As for the Ballista, yeah, it's pricey, just like Hangarback Walker. You had to preorder those. At this point, you just have to assume any XX artifacts are going to be good.
The three big decks, all at 22-25%, are Mardu Vehicles, Crazy Cat Lady Combo, and Black-Green (both Constrictor and Delirium) decks. Following behind at 13% are Blue-based Control decks without Saheeli Rai.
Is that a surprise though? Competitive Magic isnt about jank combo's, and unless you are in Legacy you dont have the tools to put your parts together on time.
Lots of people were predicting some crazy Improvise breakout deck. Kind of disappointing to see the turnout is basically the same as SCG Opens. Let's see which decks have success day 2.
I guess when you don't really have to worry about good answers, it's pretty easy to find and build the most powerful/broken/best thing to do in new Standards. Solved in week 1? :/
What do you mean? The Crazy Cat Lady Combo is the highest played deck today, with 24.7%, just before all BG variants at 24.5%. That Combo is alive and well.
The more important thing, however, is the conversion rate from Day 1 to Day 2.
Black red Aggro seems decent. It's still vehicles, but at least it seems different.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
A player said combat, where he wanted to crew his Vehicle, the jugde told him that saying combat, means going to attackers. And the appeal confirmed that
Cesar (first pro tour) had Weldfast Engineer , another artifact creature and some flying vehicle on the field, says "combat ?" opponent says ok, he tries to crew the vehicle to get the trigger on the flyer, opponent calls judge since he's in declare attackers so can't crew and missed Weldfast's trigger.
Judge ruled that "combat" is shortcut for "declare attackers" and not "go to pre combat phase", twitch and twitter lost their mind because Cesar can't speak english and blamed language barrier
In this case though, when he says "combat," imo he is passing priority in his mainphase to go into pre-combat phase, when he enters the pre-combat phase, the first thing that happens is weldfast engineer's trigger goes on the stack, so he wouldn't be able to target his vehicle if it wasn't already crewed.
Note: I did not watch this on stream, so I don't know what the exact situation is here.
The judge was correct in not allowing Cesar to get the trigger on the flier. When his opponent passed priority, he had to immediately announce his targets for the Weldfast trigger before taking any other actions if he wanted to get the trigger at all. This action isn't a problem because of any language barrier, it's a problem because of how the rules of the game work.
With that being said, I believe the correct ruling would have been that the vehicle was crewed and could attack, but that the trigger was missed. Given the action Cesar wanted to take, and given that he had an ability that triggered at the beginning of combat, I feel like "combat" is a perfectly acceptable shortcut, language barrier or no. Granted, it isn't the BEST shortcut he could have used, but I don't think it's something he should have been penalized for. His opponent could have taken actions either on Cesar's precombat main phase OR on his beginning of combat phase, and therefore Cesar proceeded correctly with his turn IMO.
Cesar (first pro tour) had Weldfast Engineer , another artifact creature and some flying vehicle on the field, says "combat ?" opponent says ok, he tries to crew the vehicle to get the trigger on the flyer, opponent calls judge since he's in declare attackers so can't crew and missed Weldfast's trigger.
Judge ruled that "combat" is shortcut for "declare attackers" and not "go to pre combat phase", twitch and twitter lost their mind because Cesar can't speak english and blamed language barrier
In this case though, when he says "combat," imo he is passing priority in his mainphase to go into pre-combat phase, when he enters the pre-combat phase, the first thing that happens is weldfast engineer's trigger goes on the stack, so he wouldn't be able to target his vehicle if it wasn't already crewed.
That's not how the shortcut works.
Saying "combat" means "go to combat phase", stopping in Pre-combat main phase is rarely relevant and therefore is always skipped unless one of the player clearly says they keep priority on this phase.
Cesar's intention was 100% clear, the play he wanted to make is 100% logic, he failed in communication, and the trigger is considered missed since he gave priority without clearly explaining his thoughts. It's not on his opponent to assume he's making the optimal play.
He should have crewed in main phase because Welfast's trigger goes on the stack before he gets priority and would have to target the other artifact creature.
The fact that both phases have the word "combat" in them is pretty confusing, but anyone who faced the Cryptic command vs manland interaction knows how it works...
That may be "the way it is" but it's absolute BS. There is a phase called "Combat". There is a step called "Beginning of Combat". It makes absolutely no sense for "go to combat" to mean ANYTHING but entering the combat phase. Especially when the guy has a freaking Beginning of Combat trigger! Whoever "decided" what that shortcut means is not good at their job, plain and simple.
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If the Vikings were around today, they would probably be amazed at how much glow-in-the-dark stuff we have, and how we take it for granted.
I hate watching rules lawyering in a game of magic. I don't give two cracks of a whip about the situation, if a card gives an artifact creature +2/+0 and there is a vehicle on the field, put two and two together and just acknowledge gracefully the player probably is going to give it +2/+0 and crew it. Do players really want to win as a rules lawyer or win due to actually playing the damn game?
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I hate watching rules lawyering in a game of magic. I don't give two cracks of a whip about the situation, if a card gives an artifact creature +2/+0 and there is a vehicle on the field, put two and two together and just acknowledge gracefully the player probably is going to give it +2/+0 and crew it. Do players really want to win as a rules lawyer or win due to actually playing the damn game?
Cesar (first pro tour) had Weldfast Engineer , another artifact creature and some flying vehicle on the field, says "combat ?" opponent says ok, he tries to crew the vehicle to get the trigger on the flyer, opponent calls judge since he's in declare attackers so can't crew and missed Weldfast's trigger.
Judge ruled that "combat" is shortcut for "declare attackers" and not "go to pre combat phase", twitch and twitter lost their mind because Cesar can't speak english and blamed language barrier
In this case though, when he says "combat," imo he is passing priority in his mainphase to go into pre-combat phase, when he enters the pre-combat phase, the first thing that happens is weldfast engineer's trigger goes on the stack, so he wouldn't be able to target his vehicle if it wasn't already crewed.
That's not how the shortcut works.
Saying "combat" means "go to combat phase", stopping in Pre-combat main phase is rarely relevant and therefore is always skipped unless one of the player clearly says they keep priority on this phase.
Cesar's intention was 100% clear, the play he wanted to make is 100% logic, he failed in communication, and the trigger is considered missed since he gave priority without clearly explaining his thoughts. It's not on his opponent to assume he's making the optimal play.
He should have crewed in main phase because Welfast's trigger goes on the stack before he gets priority and would have to target the other artifact creature.
The fact that both phases have the word "combat" in them is pretty confusing, but anyone who faced the Cryptic command vs manland interaction knows how it works...
That may be "the way it is" but it's absolute BS. There is a phase called "Combat". There is a step called "Beginning of Combat". It makes absolutely no sense for "go to combat" to mean ANYTHING but entering the combat phase. Especially when the guy has a freaking Beginning of Combat trigger! Whoever "decided" what that shortcut means is not good at their job, plain and simple.
Absolutely true. Granted I have never played at this level and I did not see the clip (will view). I have played this game 20 years and everyone I have ever played with would ackowledge "move to attack" and "move to combat" are very clear. I am unaware of many of the conventions that have developed at that level of play over the years but the people I have played with have always used those 2 phrases to distinguish between the 2.
I'm curious, where does a player find the list of shortcuts? How is someone, at their first PT, going to know that if they say "combat?" that means they skipped the beginning of combat step and missed a trigger? Because the communication failure here seems as though it was two ways--one with a language barrier.
EDIT: Turns out there are some obscure blog posts on the subject. So, the question becomes, where are players informed they have to find these obscure blog posts?
Day 1 and 2 coverage will begin at 4am ET with draft. Five rounds of Standard will start somewhere around 8am ET.
Day 3 coverage will begin with the top 8 playing Standard at 4am ET.
Information for the event is here.
Coverage for the event is here.
You can discuss the event below. Please remain on topic. Off-topic posts will be marked as spam.
Thanks!
-- hoser2
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Oh jeez.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
Though Walking Balista is pricey.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
It's just the start, especially since the first 3 rounds are draft. As for the Ballista, yeah, it's pricey, just like Hangarback Walker. You had to preorder those. At this point, you just have to assume any XX artifacts are going to be good.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
The three big decks, all at 22-25%, are Mardu Vehicles, Crazy Cat Lady Combo, and Black-Green (both Constrictor and Delirium) decks. Following behind at 13% are Blue-based Control decks without Saheeli Rai.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
Spirits
I guess when you don't really have to worry about good answers, it's pretty easy to find and build the most powerful/broken/best thing to do in new Standards. Solved in week 1? :/
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
The more important thing, however, is the conversion rate from Day 1 to Day 2.
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
by saying "Combat" he missed his beginning of combat trigger from the Weldfast Engineer and missed his opportunity to crew
"Are you serious?" Chandra replied.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
(246-174-26)
Well he ended up winning the match so justice was served
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
The judge was correct in not allowing Cesar to get the trigger on the flier. When his opponent passed priority, he had to immediately announce his targets for the Weldfast trigger before taking any other actions if he wanted to get the trigger at all. This action isn't a problem because of any language barrier, it's a problem because of how the rules of the game work.
With that being said, I believe the correct ruling would have been that the vehicle was crewed and could attack, but that the trigger was missed. Given the action Cesar wanted to take, and given that he had an ability that triggered at the beginning of combat, I feel like "combat" is a perfectly acceptable shortcut, language barrier or no. Granted, it isn't the BEST shortcut he could have used, but I don't think it's something he should have been penalized for. His opponent could have taken actions either on Cesar's precombat main phase OR on his beginning of combat phase, and therefore Cesar proceeded correctly with his turn IMO.
That may be "the way it is" but it's absolute BS. There is a phase called "Combat". There is a step called "Beginning of Combat". It makes absolutely no sense for "go to combat" to mean ANYTHING but entering the combat phase. Especially when the guy has a freaking Beginning of Combat trigger! Whoever "decided" what that shortcut means is not good at their job, plain and simple.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
This is the PT, not a prerelease.
Absolutely true. Granted I have never played at this level and I did not see the clip (will view). I have played this game 20 years and everyone I have ever played with would ackowledge "move to attack" and "move to combat" are very clear. I am unaware of many of the conventions that have developed at that level of play over the years but the people I have played with have always used those 2 phrases to distinguish between the 2.
EDIT: Turns out there are some obscure blog posts on the subject. So, the question becomes, where are players informed they have to find these obscure blog posts?
Theros Myth Origins Part 1 WUBRG Part 2 GRBUW Born of the Gods
Beta Client Tutorial
Momir Basic Primer
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