Before bashing it, take it for a spin. Very rarely do those draws actually happen. Most infect list are not even running mutagenic anymore or they are sided out games 2 and 3. Infect is a more fragile deck than you give it credit.
BTW Thank you for playing that turn 1 colonnade...that is almost the only way infect can beat URW. You mis-played. If the colonnade was the only land you needed to muligan. If it was a shockland you should have played it untapped and taken the 2...you are in no real danger going below 5 life total against infect. You have to respect a glistener elf turn 1...play it safe and put out mana untapped your first turn. Good experience for you though.
Game 1 is pretty tough. Ult a Jace and get out an aetherling has worked for me a few times.
Game 2 and 3 I bring in keening apparitions, sin collectors and pithing needles. Hope to pluck out their removal (or card draw), slow down their mana production. The enchantment that lets gates ping you for one damage can be lethal so hold an apparition back for that one. BTW they usually tap down their gates after you sac apparition so plan accordingly...good time to cast rev or jace. Be the beatdown as best you can.
This is just a horrible matchup. Aggro decks keep this deck in check for us. It is very hard to beat this deck even with a solid opening hand. Cross your fingers and hope you don't play against it. I haven't seen it much in daily events. It shows up quite a bit in the practice room though.
If you are in blue disperse is most likely going to be in your deck. You can get a virtual 2 for 1 with bounce in limited most of the time. You cast it on their creatures when they cast a pump or an enchantment. You can also use it to clear the way for a lethal attack. At any rate bounce can be very good when you use it at the right time. Just bouncing a creature for essentially time walking isn't always bad either. Just my 2 cents.
I'm not a huge fan of the beta client...it's OK just not trustworthy enough to use when tix are on the line IMHO.
Has anyone done a poll on the support? Just wondering how many people support, don't support, hate, couldn't care less either way about the new client.
Adding new players is always a good thing. You might be adding more copies of cards but the demands from all the new players will go up as well. Unless they are adding more than 4 copies of each staple for each new player the demand will increase...thus the prices will go up.
It will be nice to actually get more than 6 players in a modern FNM.
Dunno. I still think Esper is better overall, considering that half the matches are going to be against aggro as well. I feel black just has a better way to deal with the resilient creatures that are seeing play, although I suppose UWR has Mortars which is literally the only removal spell in the format that kills Blood Baron.
I like Assemble as a wincon, but it gets blanked by Jace and is too slow to race Blood Baron or Aetherling. Before I got frustrated with Esper mirrors I ran into some UWR and have a positive record against it overall, but those decks might not have been optimized for the meta yet as it's a while ago.
Maybe what could work, is build UWR and maindeck it to be supersolid against aggro and dedicate the entire board to the Esper matchup. Like, where you literally bring in 10 counterspells, Ral Zarek and Aetherling hate and see from there. It might work
Not sure if the board is going to matter in a control vs control match, on-line anyway...the clock is what will get you. You either get lucky and win the first game or concede before burning any time on the clock in hopes of winning two really fast. Even "fast" wins using a control deck take 12 or so turns
You would think things like essence shatter, turn/burn and piilar of flames would be pulled up as well price wise.
It is a hawt card right now. I saw a lot of it this weekend at the TCG 1k. Lost to a deck that was running it...more because of the siverblades than the voice. The token does hurt if you let it stick around.
IMHO Once people figure out how to play against it, it will go down. It is still just a grizzly bear.
Aetherling is an excellent finisher card that can do a decent job of controlling the board. Angel of Serenity is a excellent board control card that can do a decent job of finishing the game. Control players who only have space for one or the other need to ask themselves which matters more: a better ability to win by turn ten or a better ability to survive past turn seven.
Very good post...this one resonated soundly. Thank you for the insight.
Maze in the meta seems to me to be a good thing. It helps keep things balanced. Not sure how it does in dailies facing aggro but you can always get lucky and face four control decks.
Even if no one pilots maze the threat of it being their is enough to make you careful. My 2 copper pieces...
Had some issues getting the decks to show up when joining a game. I ended up going back to the v3 client and saving everything to netdeck...again. I was able to pull up the netdecks from the beta client. Getting them saved locally was another trick...not sure how it worked out but did.
The interface in game isn't too bad. I did have an issue with a spellskite trigger that didn't work the way I thought it should. But that could have happened in the old client just as easily.
Seems you can't re-org your cards in hand left to right. Right to left works OK. I like to put all my land to the right and spells to the left. Well pulling the land all the way to the right doesn't seem to work...yes odd.
Joining games was an issue. It always wants to import a deck rather than selecting one already saved. I ended up just creating games rather than joining.
Anyway...trying to play an hour a night on the new client. I still prefer the v3 client at this point. But switching over won't take too much of an adjustment. The beta has it's glitches but the v3 client does too.
I have a feeling the forced beta is a way for them to load test. And what better way than to have it over a busy weekend. Sure they will have to reimburse a lot of people for issues but that should have been part of the plan anyway.
I'm not singing the praise of the beta client...I'd say paper is the best interface. Being able to play the game I love 24/7 is pretty cool even if there are a few bugs in the machine.
I bought in with a proven tournament deck. You get your money's worth a lot faster than trying to piece something together IMHO. Use the prize packs to buy your next few tournament entries. If you can ride a lucky streak for a few dailies in a row you can win a few tickets to buy another tournament deck in another format.
I'd still expect to be spending money even after you have a deck. You can't win 'em all. Streaks happen. Plan accordingly.
BTW Thank you for playing that turn 1 colonnade...that is almost the only way infect can beat URW. You mis-played. If the colonnade was the only land you needed to muligan. If it was a shockland you should have played it untapped and taken the 2...you are in no real danger going below 5 life total against infect. You have to respect a glistener elf turn 1...play it safe and put out mana untapped your first turn. Good experience for you though.
Game 1 is pretty tough. Ult a Jace and get out an aetherling has worked for me a few times.
Game 2 and 3 I bring in keening apparitions, sin collectors and pithing needles. Hope to pluck out their removal (or card draw), slow down their mana production. The enchantment that lets gates ping you for one damage can be lethal so hold an apparition back for that one. BTW they usually tap down their gates after you sac apparition so plan accordingly...good time to cast rev or jace. Be the beatdown as best you can.
This is just a horrible matchup. Aggro decks keep this deck in check for us. It is very hard to beat this deck even with a solid opening hand. Cross your fingers and hope you don't play against it. I haven't seen it much in daily events. It shows up quite a bit in the practice room though.
smother and path come to mind as good removal you can splash fairly easily. Dismember works most of the time if you really don't want to splash.
Has anyone done a poll on the support? Just wondering how many people support, don't support, hate, couldn't care less either way about the new client.
It will be nice to actually get more than 6 players in a modern FNM.
Not sure if the board is going to matter in a control vs control match, on-line anyway...the clock is what will get you. You either get lucky and win the first game or concede before burning any time on the clock in hopes of winning two really fast. Even "fast" wins using a control deck take 12 or so turns
IRL this could work very well...
It is a hawt card right now. I saw a lot of it this weekend at the TCG 1k. Lost to a deck that was running it...more because of the siverblades than the voice. The token does hurt if you let it stick around.
IMHO Once people figure out how to play against it, it will go down. It is still just a grizzly bear.
Very good post...this one resonated soundly. Thank you for the insight.
Even if no one pilots maze the threat of it being their is enough to make you careful. My 2 copper pieces...
So some bots are closed for business this weekend? Guess it might be a good idea to stock up on stuff.
Lucksack
The interface in game isn't too bad. I did have an issue with a spellskite trigger that didn't work the way I thought it should. But that could have happened in the old client just as easily.
Seems you can't re-org your cards in hand left to right. Right to left works OK. I like to put all my land to the right and spells to the left. Well pulling the land all the way to the right doesn't seem to work...yes odd.
Joining games was an issue. It always wants to import a deck rather than selecting one already saved. I ended up just creating games rather than joining.
Anyway...trying to play an hour a night on the new client. I still prefer the v3 client at this point. But switching over won't take too much of an adjustment. The beta has it's glitches but the v3 client does too.
I have a feeling the forced beta is a way for them to load test. And what better way than to have it over a busy weekend. Sure they will have to reimburse a lot of people for issues but that should have been part of the plan anyway.
I'm not singing the praise of the beta client...I'd say paper is the best interface. Being able to play the game I love 24/7 is pretty cool even if there are a few bugs in the machine.
I'd still expect to be spending money even after you have a deck. You can't win 'em all. Streaks happen. Plan accordingly.