"That said I wouldn't call the people espousing the other position "online bullies". They are jerks at worst"
I could agree with that if all the people making the comments weren't all from the same pro team, it smacks of an elitist bulling attitude from them. It's not like these are flippant comments made to someone off hand you'd think if you're going to post things on twitter with thousands of followers you'd take 30 seconds to engage your brain. Especially if you're income depends on people not thinking you're an a**hole.
The difference really arises in the fact that the average Mardu hand is better than the average Azban hand because the cards just synergise better and you have rabblemaster who in multiples generally just wins the game. Azban however gets away with way worse hands because they have cards they bring them back easily from behind like charm rhino and can get away with poor mana thanks to fixing creatures and courser, it's also better on MTGO because your mono red matchup is generally going to be better which is a large portion of the MTGO meta.
The reason it's more played than Mardu in competitive tournaments is because good players want a deck that's always going to give you the chance to our play your opponent and not just drop games due to having to throw back poor mana or losing a top deck war so they hedge and play the safer deck, same reason lots of people gravitate to decks that can just draw you out of a hole with Dig through time of Sphinxes revelation.
How about people who watch peoples games during round 1 if they have a bye and compile a list everyone's decks. It's not cheating per say but it's not within the spirit of the game surely judges should be empowered to create a less toxic atmosphere.
1 you didn't see him NOT look at the bottom card. Every other action he took was consistent with actions that would be taken if you knew what the card was and wanted to cheat.
I think its this kind of argument why it was called a witchhunt.
"no your honor, i didnt see her perform witchcraft, but i also didnt see her not perform witchcraft, and yet the cattle went ill and the corn was rotten on the field, so there is evidence enough, isn´t it?
I was one of the people who was looking at the videos, and yes, it was obvious that he did shuffle in an unusual way, but i believe some people do thinks like that as a lucky charm. For a clear proof of cheating, you have to proof he know what the card was, and i couldn´t find that proof in the videos. But maybe we just have a diffrent opinion what evidence means.
The whole point never was if he was a cheater or not, but if there is real evidence enough to be sure.
And that hasn´t changed, despite the outcome. That people seem to think they "won" because he might be a cheater, dosnt mean they won, because if he is a cheater or not wasn´t the point.
Easy solution tie rocks to his feet drop him in a lake if he floats He's a cheater, if not well... mistakes were made.
What legacy deck(s) would this card excel in exactly?
Good sideboard card against stoneforge decks, but it can also be extra equipment for your own stoneforges to find. Most stoneforge decks only maindeck one batterskull and one jitte so they could put a couple of these in after boarding to serve as batterskull's 2-3 or a fake jitte in case the opponent disenchants one. Oh, you want to destroy my batterskull/jitte and I only have two mana open? I'll flash in this new equipment and copy one of them. And even if they're not trying to destroy your equipment, it's extra value being able to copy your batterskull or your opponent's batterskull and/or jitte.
At the TCG MaxPoint I went to this weekend, it seemed like a lot of people were going the extra mile to make it clear they weren't looking at their opponents' decks while shuffling them. While it's good that cheaters get caught, I am worried that the playing environment may become somewhat toxic as a result, with well-meaning players being afraid of doing something wrong that will lead to accusations of cheating.
This whole business is just giving me another reason to stick to my decision not to shuffle my opponent's deck. I usually go with a 2-4 stack cut instead. If I don't shuffle my opponent's deck, I don't have to ever worry about doing something wrong in the shuffling process that leads to suspicion. This is on top of my previous reasons (I am clumsy when it comes to shuffling and I don't want to get a warning for accidentally spilling my opponent's deck on the table with cards landing face up, and also I don't want to completely mess up a mash-shuffle and damage my opponent's expensive cards).
I would argue that what you are talking about is already happening. Rules lawyering is a thing. And that leads people to be extra careful about accidently drawing extra cards or somehow having an illegal deck... or all the little things they could get a game loss over. Something that the majority of people probably wouldn't make a big deal over if they knew it was completely innocent. But occasionally you run into guys that like to use any means necessary to win and because of those guys you have to be on guard.
I think in the case of the shuffling thing, you have even less to worry about because it's really hard to catch that kind of cheating. It's only been caught on camera IIRC. And I don't think people are going to just openly accuse their opponents of cheating to their face.
To be fair though rules lawyering has been toxic for a long time now. How many game losses have there been lately from people not revealing morphs at the end of games, worse still people who actively wait until they shuffle up to get the free game, that's against the spirit of the game if you ask me.
At least people being wary about cheating is at the expense of people with malicious intent.
Isn't the Acestral Recall what's giving the deck real consistency if you were looking at curtailing the decks ability to safely go off on the early turns shouldn't you ban that as it also doesn't take a sweet card like wish out of the format.
I personally don't respect Mark Rosewater's opinion on much this included, but that is neither here nor there. Intuition isn't going to be the same for every player. I was saying that to me the way bannisher priest works isn't intuitive which essentially debunks the argument that something can be more or less intuitive in general as it's completely dependent on whomever you are asking, and thus redesigning a card there was nothing wrong with is time wasted by the development.
I disagree with how you believe something is intuitive. The way I always assumed cards worked at a face value would be that entering play would cause an ability to trigger and leaving play would cause an ability to trigger that's how I learned the stack worked and that's how I've assesed new cards. When I tried to chord of calling for an Angel in response to my banisher priest I was confused as to why it didn't permanently exile because that's not an intuitive stack mechanic.
What's intuitive is going to differ from player to player and in addition to that I believe it extremely hard to believe that they "didn't intend" for this interaction to be used by players when they blatantly printed cloud ***** and fiend slayer in the same block.
Has anyon seen the Bant Blade deck that Paul Lynch made top 4 at SCG open with? Would it be appropriate to discuss it within the context of this thread?
I've been playing a deck like that for a few months now. Live in NZ so no huge tournaments but regular play testing with friends/small tournaments.
Been looking for sideboard cards to be honest. Most of the meta around here is Jund and UWR delver, Jund game 1 isn't so bad loam and Garruk make it a whole lot better but wondering about some input maybe to improve this, I liked the guys deck from SCG but I didn't really want to be that all in on an artifact strategy and I'm used to play a Maverick deck so I made it from that kind of base.
Frank Lepore streams and I think does articles for Star City Games. He probably streams about as much and Paul does. Maybe more. He also dates Melissa Del Toro. I think he usually streams when she is in town.
Scott MacCallum I believe streams, looks like he writes, and I think use to be on the Eh Team podcast. Not sure if that podcast is still around. The reast of the people I am not sure of.
Mariah Pagliocco was hit by a car while walking recently. She is the daughter of a wizards employee. I know that there has been a lot of fund raising for her and her family by several MTG groups and people. To be honest I've never heard of her before the accident so not sure how involved she was. Yet being a family member of an employee and only 17 probably limited how much she could be involved.
Sean Plott - looks like he is a Star Craft Commentator. I am guessing he got in because he is popular in the gaming community and trying to bridge MtG to more people through him? Seems like he plays some and has played for a while but most likely at the level of any of us.
Tom Ross - Seems to be a pro tour player.
Björn Andreasson - Looks to be someone who started up a Sweedish group of players who stream magic regularly.
Dalibor Trnka - Seems to be a judge in Mexico.
Paul Cheon - Most people in this thread so far seem to know him already. Aspiring pro tour player. Pretty good personality but probably his biggest asset in the MTG world is being close friends with LSV. I do like his stream but I don't think he does it that often and usually has LSV in there to help get people to watch.
Frank is the community manager for TCGplayer writes 2 video included articles a week about standard/modern and vintage and spotlights community decks, he is the most deserving person on that list.
I could agree with that if all the people making the comments weren't all from the same pro team, it smacks of an elitist bulling attitude from them. It's not like these are flippant comments made to someone off hand you'd think if you're going to post things on twitter with thousands of followers you'd take 30 seconds to engage your brain. Especially if you're income depends on people not thinking you're an a**hole.
The reason it's more played than Mardu in competitive tournaments is because good players want a deck that's always going to give you the chance to our play your opponent and not just drop games due to having to throw back poor mana or losing a top deck war so they hedge and play the safer deck, same reason lots of people gravitate to decks that can just draw you out of a hole with Dig through time of Sphinxes revelation.
Easy solution tie rocks to his feet drop him in a lake if he floats He's a cheater, if not well... mistakes were made.
Why yes I would like a 1 mana batterskull thanks.
To be fair though rules lawyering has been toxic for a long time now. How many game losses have there been lately from people not revealing morphs at the end of games, worse still people who actively wait until they shuffle up to get the free game, that's against the spirit of the game if you ask me.
At least people being wary about cheating is at the expense of people with malicious intent.
What's intuitive is going to differ from player to player and in addition to that I believe it extremely hard to believe that they "didn't intend" for this interaction to be used by players when they blatantly printed cloud ***** and fiend slayer in the same block.
I've been playing a deck like that for a few months now. Live in NZ so no huge tournaments but regular play testing with friends/small tournaments.
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True Name Nemesis
3 Shardless Agent
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Knight of the Reliquary
Spells: 23
3 Force of Will
1 Life from the Loam
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
3 Ancestral Vision
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Sylvan Library
2 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
2 Savannah
1 Karakas
1 Yavimaya's Hollow
1 Maze of Ith
2 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
Been looking for sideboard cards to be honest. Most of the meta around here is Jund and UWR delver, Jund game 1 isn't so bad loam and Garruk make it a whole lot better but wondering about some input maybe to improve this, I liked the guys deck from SCG but I didn't really want to be that all in on an artifact strategy and I'm used to play a Maverick deck so I made it from that kind of base.
Frank is the community manager for TCGplayer writes 2 video included articles a week about standard/modern and vintage and spotlights community decks, he is the most deserving person on that list.