1GB to make it a 2/2 deathtouch seems pretty decent as a rattlesnake effect, but definitely less impactful as a 2/2 than was initially anticipated as a 3/3 with regenerate.
By consistent I suppose I mean that I can craft an opening hand to be positioned to win the game on turn 5-6. Yes it requires a mana dork or other redundant acceleration (perhaps I should have clarified) in the form of Exploration, Utopia Sprawl, Wild Growth, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Ancient Tomb, Green Sun's Zenith, though I will concede that some of those are more conditional to the rest of your draws than others. That being said, you get the point, it's not just 6 mana dorks. In reality we're looking somewhere in the neighborhood of 14-15 cards that can net the turn 2 Yisan and proceed from there. On top of that, as I said prior, being a deck that is almost completely draw independent you can use the Partial Paris mulligan to statistically guarantee hitting one or more of the aforementioned accelerants. Additionally, the possibility of mana screw/flood has an almost entirely irrelevant effect on Yisan, again, consistency.
I'd just like to point out, again, that you're only playing for the turn 5-6 win when you can. It's there for the taking if you are in the position to take it, though it is sometimes correct, depending on the matchup to abandon the ideal play sequence altogether.
For example, I often win games by Strip locking opponents with Tilling Treefolk > Temur Sabertooth. I frequently have opponents who think they've got me once they wrath only for me to tutor out Kamahl and animate all of their lands, or opponents who think it wise to try and race me with their own mana dorks for me to tutor out Polukranos and wreck their day. Also, at a certain point, typically after a few Yisan activations, it really doesn't matter if they deal with Yisan himself as I will have crafted a boardstate that will be very difficult for them to come back from. I'll say it again, despite having a very clear linear path to a turn 5-6 win, the real power of the deck is in its versatility and ability to stray from that path to close out games.
I'll be the first to admit that in-game scenarios often require you to abandon the ideal play sequence, but the deck is much more resilient than you might think, provided you take the necessary measures to have an insurance policy, again, sacrificing speed to bolster inevitability. It also depends greatly on when the opponent attempts said removal. If removal is attempted prior to first activation, Sylvan Safekeeper makes an appearance to shut it down, if later, you've got the Rangers to put another activation or two on the stack, or in a last-ditch effort, Temur Sabertooth. The bigger picture is that any opponent attempting a proactive approach to beating Yisan will lose out to speed and consistency almost every time. This requires that the opponent take a reactive approach and play off the back foot, which can be a dangerous proposition when faced with a deck that can be as explosive as Yisan.
There's also another play sequence that can be almost as deadly as the former and it doesn't require having Yisan available for nearly as long. Q Ranger > Priest of Titania > Shaman of Forgotten Ways > Karametra's Acolyte allows you to activate Shaman on turn 5-6 while only going to rung 4 of the Yisan ladder.
On a separate note, it wasn't my intention to monopolize this discussion on the Yisan deck, perhaps a separate thread would be more appropriate?
To be honest, I've held off posting my list publicly for a long time, but I figure at this point I need to put my money where my mouth is. I've also been slowly working on a primer of sorts for the deck, however, I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to posting it. Here's my current iteration, admittedly there are a few slots that are currently under testing and are therefore indeterminate. Note that there is a brief explanation of the ideal play sequencing in the description of the deck for those who might scratch their heads in trying to figure out exactly what to do and how I can stake claim to consistent turn 5-6 wins. The biggest trick to the deck, and I firmly believe this comes from playing it a lot, is knowing when to jump ship from your "ideal play sequencing" to address the boardstate and bolster your inevitability.
Perhaps my argument came on a bit strong and I seemingly did not give enough credence to the explosive power of Rofellos, but make no mistake I am very aware of it. By my own admission, I played a Rofellos deck back when he was legal, and yes, the saturation of bombs afforded by such an explosive general was often more than opposing decks could handle. I think where we are finding disagreement is simply in the definition of "powerful". By your definiton of powerful (as I gather from your reply), Rofellos is clearly superior. As I've maintained in my previous posts, my interpretation of "powerful" as it stands currently stems from consistency and I've yet to play a deck that's as consistent as Yisan, Rofellos included. The Yisan deck needs to resolve and protect Yisan and make its opening land drops, that's it. The Rofellos deck needs to resolve and protect Rofellos, make its opening land drops, and draw and resolve its bombs. The only counterspell that matters against Yisan is the one on turn 2 to stop him in his tracks, the same cannot be said for Rofellos. All that being said, if I gave the impression that Yisan is better than Rofellos, I should have chosen my words more carefully. Then again, it's entirely possible that it may have just been so long since I've played Rofellos that I've forgotten, and my current bias in favor of Yisan is clouding my memory.
There's a big difference between 1vs1 and multiplayer. The amount of removal, hate, and disruption is many times higher in multiplayer. When your general is a tutor on a stick expecting to get multiple activations from Yisan is a bit farfetched. If you sit across from a decent Marath list I'd like to see how well Yisan does.
It was never my intention to suggest otherwise. I recognize that 1v1 and multiplayer are different animals entirely, but I would argue that the amount of spot removal in a dedicated 1v1 deck is likely just as saturated as multiple multiplayer decks since multiplayer scenarios typically put such a high premium on mass removal. I don't know if it just requires playing the deck, or if my "meta" is very insular, but it has been my experience that getting multiple activations is not at all "farfetched". I'm seeing the same decks that I'm sure most everyone does...Karador, Mimeoplasm, Narset, Sharuum, Azusa, you get the picture, and I've found resounding success with Yisan, moreso than I ever did with my own Azusa or Rofellos decks.
That being said, something like Rofellos could be more devastating with a nut draw...Turn 2 Rofellos into Turn 3 Primeval Titan into Turn 4 Kozilek, but it's just that, draw dependant, and even so it is not much faster than Yisan's critical turn, and WAY less consistent.
Marath is one of the tougher matchups, but not awful either. Marath on the play is much better than Marath on the draw assuming they have a mana accelerant on turn 1. A lot of the time I will go for Phyrexian Revoker on Yisan's second activation if I'm staring down Marath. Even if they successfully deal with Yisan, you are still running a very capable monogreen deck that can pull off the same victories that are typically seen in non-Yisan monogreen decks. It just so happens that Yisan enables the monogreen deck better than all of the competitors in my expierience.
I've played Azusa, I've played Rofellos when he was legal. Yisan is better than either of them. Bold statement, I know. However, I've tuned my list to goldfish wins on turns 5-6 literally every game. Yisan has the advantage of being entirely draw independent apart from the initial lands to cast him and he can abuse the Partial Paris mulligan system more so than most to almost guarantee casting him on turn two. There are a few limited windows to distupt him, but the same an be said about both of the aforementioned generals as well. Namely a counter or spot removal on turn 2 or a wrath on turn 4, otherwise, forget about it. That being said, he has an incredibly linear strategy, but there are a few places where he can afford to tutor up answers to the board state without diverging from his path to victory. Note that Yisan decks have been winning French 1v1 tournaments, kudos Moondust, and it doesn't matter how many opponents there are because his wins come with damage in the hundreds that can be split to each opponent as necessary.
Is it sad that the reprint that I got most excited about is a black bordered Ambition's Cost?
I think WotC missed a big opportunity to reprint Nin, the Pain Artist and Skullbriar, the Walking Grave as the "reprint" generals in their respective decks. Both of them are reasonably expensive in the secondary market, and both have obvious synergy with some of the new cards, namely Illusory Abusher and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. Two of their Commander 2012 counterparts have already seen reprint in Conspiracy to boot.
Anybody who has played commander for any reasonable length of time will already have most, if not all, of these reprints. I usually don't like to get down on WotC for their products and I prefer to cultivate a glass-half-full mentality, but I think this year's offering is a tremendous miss. I think they need to up their game to encourage entrenched commander players to purchase this product, not solely market to new players as they so clearly have done here. I'm sad to say that I will probably only be picking up singles as well. At least I won't have to worry about struggling to find these at my local big box stores if I change my mind and decide to pick one up down the road.
It might be fairly obvious, but Corpse Augur seems really good to me in Marchesa. Apart from the life loss working in your favor to keep your dethrone up, the wizard creature type is relevant with Sage of Fables, which as it turns out, is one of the more powerful enablers that Marchesa has access to.
It is also noteworthy that it gets a substantial bonus from Doubling Season. I use it to great end in my bant enchantress deck since it can be used proactively to boost my own mana or take the offensive and nuke the opponent's lands. Sometimes it can be devastating just to play the card as it was intended by Wizards, remove 3 of your opponent's lands and set them back to the stone age for three turns. Often times that can be enough of a tempo swing to put things in your favor (obv. most applicable to 1v1).
I got my hands on a Stone Thunderstruck Double IPA over the weekend. Very good beer. Kinda strange to say, but one of the prettiest pouring beers I've seen, looked like a golden nectar of the gods in my snifter. Lacing was superb. Very drinkable citrus-y DIPA. This beer is a limited release, so get 'em while you can.
"Never forget" is an unhealthy attitude to terrorism and I strongly disagree with the existence of threads like this that perpetuate that attitude. Refuse to be terrorized. Keep calm and carry on. Unfortunately, the US populace and politicians decided to play right into the terrorism, creating a fervor that resulted in little more than security theater rather than actual security and a military response that did several orders of magnitude more damage than the initial attacks. To put into another perspective, 10x more people in the US die each year from auto crashes than people did from the attacks. 9/11 was one of the most effective acts of terror in history, but only because of the disastrously awful response to it.
Who are you to say what may or may not be a healthy attitude for people who were in some capacity affected by an act of terrorism? If you disagree with the existence of this thread, why post? Refusing to be terrorized and "never forget" are not mutually exclusive terms, in fact, they are almost entirely unrelated concepts. "Never forget" does not suggest cowardice or apprehension, rather, it is a statement of remembrance to honor the memory of those lost as a result of an act of terror and implies vigilance, if anything. Furthermore, what relevance do auto-related accidental deaths have in this regard? Without sounding like I'm discounting the lives lost in auto accidents, those numbers are based on thousands of isolated incidents, a tremendous majority of which involve no malicious intent. Clearly, the same cannot be said for 9/11. Beyond that, "9/11 was one of the most effective acts of terror" "only because of our disastrously awful response to it"? Really? So now it's the fault of American law enforcement, emergency response, political, and military personnel? I guess that's why we've seen so many subsequent instances of terrorism with heavy civilian casualties on American soil.
As far as where I was, I remember waking up that morning, getting ready for school and hearing the news on the t.v. in my parent's room. My mom and I sat on the bed and watched in shock. I recall being a few minutes late to school that morning, as I'm sure many people were. I had AP English first period and in lieu of our studies that day, our teacher thought it best for us to be informed. She ignored the direct order of administration to continue instruction, and we had a moment of silence and watched the news for the remainder of class. I cannot say that I was personally directly impacted by events of 9/11, but I pray for those who were.
I attended a friend's bachelor party a couple months back up in the Sacramento, CA area, Auburn, to be precise and was incredibly surprised by Knee Deep Brewing Co. Their range of IPA's was phenomenal ranging from your more standard single IPA's to Quads with top notch balance and tasting notes. I personally had their Midnight Hoppyness which was an imperial black rye IPA that unseated my former favorite (Firestone Wookey Jack) and their Hoparillo and Simtra, both triple IPA's that are head and shoulders above anything I've had to date. They were all astonishingly drinkable despite the high alcohol content and ibu's. My only lament is they don't readily distribute in AZ. I would recommend them to anyone who likes good strong beers and can appreciate nuance in craft. I've been to many breweries along the Pacific Coast: Ballast Point, Stone, Russian River, and North Coast among many others, and this one is right up their with the big boys. Do yourself a favor and seek them out, definite diamond in the rough.
Probably my most hated card is currently, and has been forever, Mind Over Matter. I've played against it enough times to know that in almost any situation it spells "game over" since any blue player worth his salt won't attempt to play it unless they have a way (of which there are many) to beat you with it. The problem is that it generally takes the controller 20 minutes to end the game from the point of resolution due to the rinse-and-repeat nature of its ability. Worse still is that it seems like every time I've sat across the table from somebody with it, they get this smug, self-satisfied look on their face like they're doing something original or creative. I've come to the conclusion that there really isn't a fair way to use the card and i usually auto-scoop upon resolution rather than subject myself to its banality. Aint nobody got time for dat.
1GB to make it a 2/2 deathtouch seems pretty decent as a rattlesnake effect, but definitely less impactful as a 2/2 than was initially anticipated as a 3/3 with regenerate.
I'd just like to point out, again, that you're only playing for the turn 5-6 win when you can. It's there for the taking if you are in the position to take it, though it is sometimes correct, depending on the matchup to abandon the ideal play sequence altogether.
For example, I often win games by Strip locking opponents with Tilling Treefolk > Temur Sabertooth. I frequently have opponents who think they've got me once they wrath only for me to tutor out Kamahl and animate all of their lands, or opponents who think it wise to try and race me with their own mana dorks for me to tutor out Polukranos and wreck their day. Also, at a certain point, typically after a few Yisan activations, it really doesn't matter if they deal with Yisan himself as I will have crafted a boardstate that will be very difficult for them to come back from. I'll say it again, despite having a very clear linear path to a turn 5-6 win, the real power of the deck is in its versatility and ability to stray from that path to close out games.
There's also another play sequence that can be almost as deadly as the former and it doesn't require having Yisan available for nearly as long. Q Ranger > Priest of Titania > Shaman of Forgotten Ways > Karametra's Acolyte allows you to activate Shaman on turn 5-6 while only going to rung 4 of the Yisan ladder.
On a separate note, it wasn't my intention to monopolize this discussion on the Yisan deck, perhaps a separate thread would be more appropriate?
It was never my intention to suggest otherwise. I recognize that 1v1 and multiplayer are different animals entirely, but I would argue that the amount of spot removal in a dedicated 1v1 deck is likely just as saturated as multiple multiplayer decks since multiplayer scenarios typically put such a high premium on mass removal. I don't know if it just requires playing the deck, or if my "meta" is very insular, but it has been my experience that getting multiple activations is not at all "farfetched". I'm seeing the same decks that I'm sure most everyone does...Karador, Mimeoplasm, Narset, Sharuum, Azusa, you get the picture, and I've found resounding success with Yisan, moreso than I ever did with my own Azusa or Rofellos decks.
That being said, something like Rofellos could be more devastating with a nut draw...Turn 2 Rofellos into Turn 3 Primeval Titan into Turn 4 Kozilek, but it's just that, draw dependant, and even so it is not much faster than Yisan's critical turn, and WAY less consistent.
Marath is one of the tougher matchups, but not awful either. Marath on the play is much better than Marath on the draw assuming they have a mana accelerant on turn 1. A lot of the time I will go for Phyrexian Revoker on Yisan's second activation if I'm staring down Marath. Even if they successfully deal with Yisan, you are still running a very capable monogreen deck that can pull off the same victories that are typically seen in non-Yisan monogreen decks. It just so happens that Yisan enables the monogreen deck better than all of the competitors in my expierience.
I think WotC missed a big opportunity to reprint Nin, the Pain Artist and Skullbriar, the Walking Grave as the "reprint" generals in their respective decks. Both of them are reasonably expensive in the secondary market, and both have obvious synergy with some of the new cards, namely Illusory Abusher and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. Two of their Commander 2012 counterparts have already seen reprint in Conspiracy to boot.
Anybody who has played commander for any reasonable length of time will already have most, if not all, of these reprints. I usually don't like to get down on WotC for their products and I prefer to cultivate a glass-half-full mentality, but I think this year's offering is a tremendous miss. I think they need to up their game to encourage entrenched commander players to purchase this product, not solely market to new players as they so clearly have done here. I'm sad to say that I will probably only be picking up singles as well. At least I won't have to worry about struggling to find these at my local big box stores if I change my mind and decide to pick one up down the road.
Who are you to say what may or may not be a healthy attitude for people who were in some capacity affected by an act of terrorism? If you disagree with the existence of this thread, why post? Refusing to be terrorized and "never forget" are not mutually exclusive terms, in fact, they are almost entirely unrelated concepts. "Never forget" does not suggest cowardice or apprehension, rather, it is a statement of remembrance to honor the memory of those lost as a result of an act of terror and implies vigilance, if anything. Furthermore, what relevance do auto-related accidental deaths have in this regard? Without sounding like I'm discounting the lives lost in auto accidents, those numbers are based on thousands of isolated incidents, a tremendous majority of which involve no malicious intent. Clearly, the same cannot be said for 9/11. Beyond that, "9/11 was one of the most effective acts of terror" "only because of our disastrously awful response to it"? Really? So now it's the fault of American law enforcement, emergency response, political, and military personnel? I guess that's why we've seen so many subsequent instances of terrorism with heavy civilian casualties on American soil.
As far as where I was, I remember waking up that morning, getting ready for school and hearing the news on the t.v. in my parent's room. My mom and I sat on the bed and watched in shock. I recall being a few minutes late to school that morning, as I'm sure many people were. I had AP English first period and in lieu of our studies that day, our teacher thought it best for us to be informed. She ignored the direct order of administration to continue instruction, and we had a moment of silence and watched the news for the remainder of class. I cannot say that I was personally directly impacted by events of 9/11, but I pray for those who were.
Probably my most hated card is currently, and has been forever, Mind Over Matter. I've played against it enough times to know that in almost any situation it spells "game over" since any blue player worth his salt won't attempt to play it unless they have a way (of which there are many) to beat you with it. The problem is that it generally takes the controller 20 minutes to end the game from the point of resolution due to the rinse-and-repeat nature of its ability. Worse still is that it seems like every time I've sat across the table from somebody with it, they get this smug, self-satisfied look on their face like they're doing something original or creative. I've come to the conclusion that there really isn't a fair way to use the card and i usually auto-scoop upon resolution rather than subject myself to its banality. Aint nobody got time for dat.