I'm interested to see what happens to the 'Hawks after they pay Russell Wilson what he's worth.
Some friends and I were speculating about that. I said that, had Seattle won the game, Wilson should have asked for $25M a year. (I think he's too much of a team-first guy to do that, FWIW.) The rationale is, if a top-tier QB is worth $20-22M, how much is the QB who's just won two straight Super Bowls worth? Sure, they have a great defense, but QBs -- fairly or not -- are judged by rings. Wilson could have asked for the Brinks truck.
As for the second-down play that ended the game, my grandfather used to have a saying: "you dance with the one that brung you." Seattle didn't get to the Super Bowl by throwing one-yard slants.
Even with a loss he still is probably worth the richest QB contract in the NFL right now. But they have to pay a bunch of other guys too, so we'll se what happens.
I have to wonder, though, how many teams with a QB making $20M or more have won the Super Bowl? That seems to be the going rate for a top-tier QB, but how does paying them that money translate into success?
I'm not saying it does. I'm just wondering if any team paying its QB $20M or more has won the Super Bowl. It's a salary cap league, so paying that much to any one player inevitably hurts your depth. I watched my team (the Ravens) give Joe Flacco a $20M average-annual-value deal after he won the Super Bowl, and while the cap hit was light the first year, they've had to do some financial dancing ever since.
The other thing is to make sure you have a franchise QB. Russell Wilson is worth a big contract. Andy Dalton... well, um...
The Ravens were also the second best team in the AFC playoffs this year, and without a miracle comeback by the Pats (twice!) they would've been in the super bowl. Despite the teams in the playoffs paying their QBs more than the rest of the league on average, teams with high-paid elite QBs still had the most success.
Obviously paying any of your players less would make your team better, but I think it's all contracts, not just QB contracts, that need to be evaluated for cap impact.
The Ravens were also the second best team in the AFC playoffs this year, and without a miracle comeback by the Pats (twice!) they would've been in the super bowl.
Yeah... don't remind me.
Obviously paying any of your players less would make your team better, but I think it's all contracts, not just QB contracts, that need to be evaluated for cap impact.
Yes. That's why a lot of teams employ some kind of "cap-ologist." By the time you pay your QB $20M, your left tackle $10M to keep the QB upright, a WR $10M to catch the ball, and at last one defensive player $10M, you've used more than a third of the salary cap and paid four guys. It seems the "stars and scrubs" philosophy becomes a necessity at that point.
My fiancée is a Ravens fan. We love post-season Flacco. Regular season Flacco... not so much.
Yeah. Flacco has at least two regular season games where he's just terrible and the Ravens lose. During the playoffs, that doesn't happen.
I have a buddy who's a Bengals fan, and he was telling me how much better Andy Dalton was than Flacco before the playoffs started. After the Bengals again went one-and-done, he was not available for comment...
In no sense is Dalton better than Flacco. I think the Bengals are an all-round decent team and that with a better QB they'd be pushing more than one-and-done every year. IMO Dalton's middle of the park as a pocket passer and doesn't offer much else. I think you could make a case for the Ravens O-line being better but still. The Pats were quite lucky to beat the Ravens, but that random floaty lob by Flacco towards the end was very unlike his usual playoff self. If the Ravens can get some real corners they'll be THE team in that tough division next year. And they always seem to outplay the Patriots, somehow! Yet people always look to the tremendously overrated Colts. I would love a 'Hawks-Ravens Superbowl just for the (soon-to-be) marital friction, lol.
ON the subject of American football, I feel super bad about JJ Watt not getting MVP. I think Rodgers is great, but Watt has a really exceptional and unprecedented season. Is it even possible for a non-QB to win it now? I dunno. I thought that, if he got 2.5 or more sacks against the Jags, hitting the big 20 mark might encourage people to vote for him. But not even.
I think it's going to be hard for a defensive player to win it in this era. There's so much focus on the offensive side of the ball. Look at what Darrelle Revis did for the Pats this year. JJ Watt was just nutty good, but I think that the team's success also plays a big part in the MVP discussion. As good as Watt was, if your play doesn't carry your team to the playoffs, people are going to look at how impactful the player actually was.
Honestly though, Bobby Wagner should've been in the discussion for MVP this year. The 'Hawk's season turned around when he got back in the lineup.
Hey guys, things in work and personal life have not allowed me much of a thought about Magic since the last time I posted here. I hope you guys forgive me for starting a project I can't complete. I don't know if I'll be coming back to the forum any time soon. Anyway, I hope you guys continue to have a blast crafting amazing draft environments everywhere. Love you all, even those of you I disagreed with.
I watched the trailer earlier today with my sons, both of whom love Star Wars. They were underwhelmed by the first trailer but this one provoked outrage when I explained that the movie won't be out for another eight months. I'm struggling to wait but it must seem like an eternity when you are only five.
I played my first game of magic with my older son, and he's hooked! I built a basic deck of each colour, avoiding complexity and gruesome art. He picked the blue deck and has declared himself a blue mage. Unfortunately I then found him teaching his younger brother. They now play each other and I have nobody to play against.
I haven't been posting much lately, on account of moving house, starting a new job, and working on a part time MSc. I need to find a new cube group.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Came home from college for the summer today to a very unexpected letter
From my secret santa this past year.
Had a not inside about how the Lions they had sent was already being outclassed in cubes, and included a very, very awesome altered Brainstorm.
I can't wait to include it, and this also makes Brainstorm the first card in my cube to have had 3 different copies used. (Beat up Ice Age - Conspiracy - This altered Ice Age one)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Rest in RIP My Signature, I guess. 2015-2016, we hardly knew ye.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Some friends and I were speculating about that. I said that, had Seattle won the game, Wilson should have asked for $25M a year. (I think he's too much of a team-first guy to do that, FWIW.) The rationale is, if a top-tier QB is worth $20-22M, how much is the QB who's just won two straight Super Bowls worth? Sure, they have a great defense, but QBs -- fairly or not -- are judged by rings. Wilson could have asked for the Brinks truck.
As for the second-down play that ended the game, my grandfather used to have a saying: "you dance with the one that brung you." Seattle didn't get to the Super Bowl by throwing one-yard slants.
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
I have to wonder, though, how many teams with a QB making $20M or more have won the Super Bowl? That seems to be the going rate for a top-tier QB, but how does paying them that money translate into success?
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
The other thing is to make sure you have a franchise QB. Russell Wilson is worth a big contract. Andy Dalton... well, um...
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
Obviously paying any of your players less would make your team better, but I think it's all contracts, not just QB contracts, that need to be evaluated for cap impact.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Yeah... don't remind me.
Yes. That's why a lot of teams employ some kind of "cap-ologist." By the time you pay your QB $20M, your left tackle $10M to keep the QB upright, a WR $10M to catch the ball, and at last one defensive player $10M, you've used more than a third of the salary cap and paid four guys. It seems the "stars and scrubs" philosophy becomes a necessity at that point.
Yeah. Flacco has at least two regular season games where he's just terrible and the Ravens lose. During the playoffs, that doesn't happen.
I have a buddy who's a Bengals fan, and he was telling me how much better Andy Dalton was than Flacco before the playoffs started. After the Bengals again went one-and-done, he was not available for comment...
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
Honestly though, Bobby Wagner should've been in the discussion for MVP this year. The 'Hawk's season turned around when he got back in the lineup.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
<3 Colby
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I'm OP_Forever. I'll be putting this in my signature for a while so everyone know I change my nickname.
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This is going to be great! I don't want to spoil it for anyone but there are some amazing visuals in that trailer.
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Cheers,
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I played my first game of magic with my older son, and he's hooked! I built a basic deck of each colour, avoiding complexity and gruesome art. He picked the blue deck and has declared himself a blue mage. Unfortunately I then found him teaching his younger brother. They now play each other and I have nobody to play against.
I haven't been posting much lately, on account of moving house, starting a new job, and working on a part time MSc. I need to find a new cube group.
My 380 Beginners’ Cube on Cube Tutor
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
From my secret santa this past year.
Had a not inside about how the Lions they had sent was already being outclassed in cubes, and included a very, very awesome altered Brainstorm.
I can't wait to include it, and this also makes Brainstorm the first card in my cube to have had 3 different copies used. (Beat up Ice Age - Conspiracy - This altered Ice Age one)