While I dont personally play an anti-Monsters list, just looking at the meta in the last couple weeks it seems pretty obvious that the best way to beat it is aggro.
There are some Mono-Red lists cashing and of course U/B Heroic cashing pretty regularly.
Either of these lists would have to go through a R/G/W Monsters or two, to cash in any daily as the Monsters deck is 60% of the meta right now.
All that being said, Born of the Gods I feel like brings some pretty good options to deal with Monsters. Monsters will get better/faster with Xenegos, but not much else.
While aggro will be getting much better, MB will be getting better, U/B might (I hope) be a thing and U/G getting better. Additionally any number of other lists getting stronger.
I personally dont think Monsters will be a 60% broken meta in a few weeks but for now, your options are pretty limited.
Standard I dont see it being very good as there are many tools to deal with it. In block there are only a few. Good enough for Dimir?
Siren of the Silent Song is another one I'm interested in trying in a Dimir control shell. I think it will bring some much needed disruption. The one power isn't a concern of mine as its just going to fly over everything anyhow.
When its all said and done with a psudo-sweeper in [CARD]Whelming Wave
[/CARD] Disruption via Siren of the Silent and Nullify I think dimir, in a vacuum, looks promising.
I think that what dimir lacked, it got. however what it struggled against it might struggle even more. We'll see.
If your at the point in the game where your able to suit up a Sphinx. Elspeth is a non-issue.
To your point of the number of threats needed to be answered. I agree. To an extent. The answers are there. Thoughtsieze and Hero's Downfall for Elspeth and Xenagos is usually enough. Which leaves you with Viper's Kiss, Curse of the swine and tempo for all the others. Which usually isnt enough.
I've been messing with many many different U/B builds and have come to the following conclusions.
-Curse of the Swine is very good at what it does. Problem is it leaves behind 1+ creatures that still need to be dealt with. However Its very good at what it does.
-Prognostic Sphinx is as close to the top end of a curve as you need to (want to) go.
-Card draw is an issue. I've done everything from 8 scry lands to paying 6cmc for 3 cards. Oh how I wish Read the Bones was instant. The deck is lacking a end step draw IMO.
-Ashiok does nothing but buy you time. Again i've played many many different versions and all Ashiok does for me is soak up some damage. Very rarely does she give me some threat thats worth the investment. I've stopped paying her.
-Viper's Kiss is woefully underplayed IMO. It shuts off our biggest problem cards.
-Nightprowler on Sphinx is GG.
When its all said and done the best build I've come up with is
A certain online bot has increased the prices of the following cards hours before a certain popular player posted a 'new' list on a certain popular website.
These current prices are updated to now. However they were all on a incline hrs ago. I remember specifically because I was confused to why several of them would be getting such a huge push when they dont see play.
Can anyone explain to me how this is so? I feel ripped off to be honest. I've spend hundreds of dollars with this bot and thought they were on the up and up. I fully understand reacting to a change in the marketplace and even being proactive in the market.
However somehow having 'inside' info on columns and/or decklists hours before anyone else only to inflate the prices before anyone else is aware seems dishonest to me.
I very well may be reading way too much into this. But I play on a very tight budget and hate to wonder how many times I've gone to my favorite bot thinking they were honest in their dealings with me, only to be losing tickets over time because of these types of tactics.
Man before this announcement my collection was worth 370 tix, now I checked it's worth 130 tix, what do you guys suggest? Wait till it's back where it was or selling it now before it's worth nothing?
I sold mine a few minutes after the announcement. But keeping an eye on the prices since then I've been wondering myself how long the 'crash' would last. Looks like its starting to stabilize as some of the cards in standard have started to rebound already.
So I'd suggest holding onto your stuff if your just someone whom enjoys a few random games.
I played something similar but just it just folds to fast aggro a single counter and any graveyard hate so really what was the point?. So went this route. It can clear the board when needed, its got a room to deal with difficult creatures above 2 toughness. It stays alive through just about any draw and can actually start casting just about everything for beats. I've won games via milling as you can put GY back in Library while they typically cant. Won games via beat down Krosan and/or Battlefield end games fast, and I've won games just by buying back Justice each turn.
Its not terribly competitive, but fun. Far more consistent then what I was playing before while still using the same sort of strat.
What WotC wants to optimize is the amount of volume of product (and mostly event tickets) that flow through the economy. You can't decrease the output and expect the influx to stay the same. Basic market forces dictate that that's not how things work.
You seem to know what your talking about. How long would you wager one should wait before buying in again? In the last couple days prices have dropped on all but a handful of standard cards. Think this is something that will continue for a while or is this a short term reaction?
Who's business is it how anyone makes a living? I dont care where anyone lives, if they choose to make a living playing a game you love thats on them.
I'm on disability. Permanent disability. I will never work outside my home for the rest of my life. If I could make a living grinding I would do it in a second.
Instead, I'm a contracted QA. I legitimately play a video games all day and get paid for it.
Is that any different? No. its not.
So you guys go put in your 9-5. Travel, pick up/drop off the kids and come home to a dry dinner. I'm going to Alt. Tab back to work after I go and check on the baby-backs I've got going all day in the smoker.
The only reason why WOtC would shut down their most likely biggest source of online income at a moment's notice is that there is a BIG hardware problem they can't fix in a timely fashion. As of now, they are losing money in thousands of dollars every hour. This decision to shutdown these events is because they know they will crash again and mass reinbursement will occur. Why they can't just replace the servers quickly is the mystery to me. Most likely because big changes are coming with the new client and they don't want to put big bucks in machines that won't be needed a year from now.
Nothing any pro player says has anything to do with what is happening right now.
This.
Kibler's QQ was just that. It had zero weight in the decition to close these dailies down. I'm sure his QQ was seen in the office however, I'm also sure that there was a discussion about his fit and there might have even been an attempt to reach out to him, by someone.
However the 'breaking point' for this type of decision would have been the Mox failure then the additional dailies crashing in subsequent days. There obviously is a big problem on the back end that simple maintenance couldn't fix. Its going to be a software and hardware fix. Based on the way they move through builds on the Software end, this could be a very very long process.
Grinders 'leaving' wont have an effect on the overall market. However Grinders 'leaving' along with everyone else that decides to sell off might.
The thing that I'd be worried about is the amount of money Wizards is going to lose from this change. If the amount of cash they were making before allowed them to keep pushing beta month after month, cutting previous dailies whats going to happen to MTGO now. They've taken arguably the biggest source of income and decided to move ahead with out it.
There must have been a ton of ppl involved in this type of decision. It certainly wasn't the Live/Production team reading a few QQ's and making a snap decision. This went well above their pay grade.
Sell your stuff. I've sold all my standard/modern stuff the moment I found out. I'll keep my pauper junk though.
I have zero faith these daily events will return anytime soon. Looking at their past history dailies wont be along for a very very long time. If ever.
All that being said, my hope is that this is a reset for everyone involved. Card prices should plummet. Hopefully enabling newer players to get invested in the 'fixed' client.
There are some Mono-Red lists cashing and of course U/B Heroic cashing pretty regularly.
Either of these lists would have to go through a R/G/W Monsters or two, to cash in any daily as the Monsters deck is 60% of the meta right now.
All that being said, Born of the Gods I feel like brings some pretty good options to deal with Monsters. Monsters will get better/faster with Xenegos, but not much else.
While aggro will be getting much better, MB will be getting better, U/B might (I hope) be a thing and U/G getting better. Additionally any number of other lists getting stronger.
I personally dont think Monsters will be a 60% broken meta in a few weeks but for now, your options are pretty limited.
IMO
Standard I dont see it being very good as there are many tools to deal with it. In block there are only a few. Good enough for Dimir?
Siren of the Silent Song is another one I'm interested in trying in a Dimir control shell. I think it will bring some much needed disruption. The one power isn't a concern of mine as its just going to fly over everything anyhow.
When its all said and done with a psudo-sweeper in [CARD]Whelming Wave
[/CARD] Disruption via Siren of the Silent and Nullify I think dimir, in a vacuum, looks promising.
I think that what dimir lacked, it got. however what it struggled against it might struggle even more. We'll see.
To your point of the number of threats needed to be answered. I agree. To an extent. The answers are there. Thoughtsieze and Hero's Downfall for Elspeth and Xenagos is usually enough. Which leaves you with Viper's Kiss, Curse of the swine and tempo for all the others. Which usually isnt enough.
Thats how I play it out anyhow.
-Curse of the Swine is very good at what it does. Problem is it leaves behind 1+ creatures that still need to be dealt with. However Its very good at what it does.
-Prognostic Sphinx is as close to the top end of a curve as you need to (want to) go.
-Card draw is an issue. I've done everything from 8 scry lands to paying 6cmc for 3 cards. Oh how I wish Read the Bones was instant. The deck is lacking a end step draw IMO.
-Ashiok does nothing but buy you time. Again i've played many many different versions and all Ashiok does for me is soak up some damage. Very rarely does she give me some threat thats worth the investment. I've stopped paying her.
-Viper's Kiss is woefully underplayed IMO. It shuts off our biggest problem cards.
-Nightprowler on Sphinx is GG.
When its all said and done the best build I've come up with is
4 Prognostic Sphinx
3 Nighthowler
3 Omenspeaker
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Voyage's End
4 Thoughtseize
3 Read the Bones
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Viper's Kiss
SB has other Kiss's and the usual suspects. Dark Betrayal, Gainsay, maybe some number of Swan Song.
With this build I dont have the ability to run Curse of the Swine. Usually need the Gray merchant type builds to do that.
At anyrate. I feel like its close, but not quite there yet imo.
These current prices are updated to now. However they were all on a incline hrs ago. I remember specifically because I was confused to why several of them would be getting such a huge push when they dont see play.
Shadowborn Demon +42%
Jarad Golgari Lich Lord +83%
Deathrite Shaman +19%
Overgrown Tomb +19%
Sylvan Caryatid +54%
Whip of Erebos +43%
Can anyone explain to me how this is so? I feel ripped off to be honest. I've spend hundreds of dollars with this bot and thought they were on the up and up. I fully understand reacting to a change in the marketplace and even being proactive in the market.
However somehow having 'inside' info on columns and/or decklists hours before anyone else only to inflate the prices before anyone else is aware seems dishonest to me.
I very well may be reading way too much into this. But I play on a very tight budget and hate to wonder how many times I've gone to my favorite bot thinking they were honest in their dealings with me, only to be losing tickets over time because of these types of tactics.
I sold mine a few minutes after the announcement. But keeping an eye on the prices since then I've been wondering myself how long the 'crash' would last. Looks like its starting to stabilize as some of the cards in standard have started to rebound already.
So I'd suggest holding onto your stuff if your just someone whom enjoys a few random games.
Its not terribly competitive, but fun. Far more consistent then what I was playing before while still using the same sort of strat.
4x Viscera Dragger
2x Victim of Night
2x Doom Blade
3x Disciple of Malace
4x Pit Keeper
3x Krosan Tusker
3x Battlefield Scrounger
4x Gnaw to the Bone
4x Deadshot Minotaur
4x Monstrous Carabid
4x Architects of Will
9x Swamp
1x Mountain
5x Forest
4x Evolving Wilds
You seem to know what your talking about. How long would you wager one should wait before buying in again? In the last couple days prices have dropped on all but a handful of standard cards. Think this is something that will continue for a while or is this a short term reaction?
I'm on disability. Permanent disability. I will never work outside my home for the rest of my life. If I could make a living grinding I would do it in a second.
Instead, I'm a contracted QA. I legitimately play a video games all day and get paid for it.
Is that any different? No. its not.
So you guys go put in your 9-5. Travel, pick up/drop off the kids and come home to a dry dinner. I'm going to Alt. Tab back to work after I go and check on the baby-backs I've got going all day in the smoker.
Just a curious observation. I'm certain someone else has better info that I do as I'm just looking at Goldfish Prices.
But it was interesting and worth a post IMO as I've never seen this before.
This.
Kibler's QQ was just that. It had zero weight in the decition to close these dailies down. I'm sure his QQ was seen in the office however, I'm also sure that there was a discussion about his fit and there might have even been an attempt to reach out to him, by someone.
However the 'breaking point' for this type of decision would have been the Mox failure then the additional dailies crashing in subsequent days. There obviously is a big problem on the back end that simple maintenance couldn't fix. Its going to be a software and hardware fix. Based on the way they move through builds on the Software end, this could be a very very long process.
Grinders 'leaving' wont have an effect on the overall market. However Grinders 'leaving' along with everyone else that decides to sell off might.
The thing that I'd be worried about is the amount of money Wizards is going to lose from this change. If the amount of cash they were making before allowed them to keep pushing beta month after month, cutting previous dailies whats going to happen to MTGO now. They've taken arguably the biggest source of income and decided to move ahead with out it.
There must have been a ton of ppl involved in this type of decision. It certainly wasn't the Live/Production team reading a few QQ's and making a snap decision. This went well above their pay grade.
I have zero faith these daily events will return anytime soon. Looking at their past history dailies wont be along for a very very long time. If ever.
All that being said, my hope is that this is a reset for everyone involved. Card prices should plummet. Hopefully enabling newer players to get invested in the 'fixed' client.
But Devotion is a thing.
But its a very very good removal spell and for those unaware of the bug, a discard effect aswell. Not to mention it just adds devotion.