I play it in Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. With Doubling Season and the other usual suspects. With Earthcraft and Cryptolith Rite you can generate serious mana tapping down everything you control and thinning the deck of every basic land. Tapping all the lands, but having shields up with creatures let's you use Calming Verse profitably.
This is really cool. I like raw data like this. I am going to try to implement something similar in my meta. How do you account for deck revisions? Like if a previous deck would lose and then get overhauled or a new set comes out?
I think the NBA will disagree with you there. Professional sports often boils down to the same teams winning for years on end.
The NBA is incentivized to win through Championships, Bonuses and Endorsements. The "kitchen table" as it were doesn't have the same motivations unless some prize structure is in place to demand wins.
There was a study that came out to suggest that a small lab rat will not engage in rough and tumble play with a larger rat if they don't win 1 out of 3 engagements. Same is largely true of humans, people don't like seeing the same person win over and over. This phenomenon is why combo decks are frowned upon mostly by casual players, watching someone play solitaire and gesticulate wildly while keeping track of floating mana, Storm count and stack sequencing. Competitive play and situations where rewards are on the line, the goal is to win and be the best. A small setting with some close friends playing EDH doesn't have the same incentives.
If your meta is not adjusting to beat your deck, then I suggest you tone it down/lose on purpose/find a different group. I prefer they adjust to hating out your deck, but if that isn't the consensus then adjust yours to make winning against you rewarding and challenging.
I enjoy seeing what other decks are playing, as well as sourcing new ideas. I can understand that netdecking can "ruin" a casual gaming meta, but also putting up impediments such as access to data could be equally bad. I know a lot of time I'll look at cards I already have and see which decks they'll fit in, not exactly how to build a deck from meta data
The genie is out of the bottle, and can't be put back in. We live in a world with EDHREC, maybe that's a bad thing - but the world it doesn't exist is gone.
I find it extremely helpful to just draw sample hands and play theoretically. See how often the deck "goes off". Accounting for normal things like turn 4 board wipes or counterspells after turns 3, ect. You cant account for the types of decks you'll be playing, but if you have an idea of what youre trying to do it is very helpful.
In my more tuned lists I have a test by how often I pitch a certain cards to Survival of the Fittest. In my reanimator deck it's normally "who do I find with Entomb?". By knowing which cards you want to have at certain points of the game to Stabilize, break parity, get ahead, protect yourself - you'll have a better instinct about which cards are good.
I made the last second decision to swap Eternal Witness for Yawgmoth's Will. Kinda hurt me the first game where I could have used a body to chump with. But it's a small sample and I will stay the course for now. Keeping Sun Titan around gave me a big body to put in front of stuff.
Taking an opening hand without some kind of draw capability or Ethersworn Canonist will never get there.
About 2-3 games per month. I don't play out like I used to, and very infrequently even go to my LGS besides to pick up some essentials and chat Magic. I used to play a lot of MTGO, but that's fallen off too.
It makes sense if you've got an outlet for playing your decks against other motivated players each pushing yourselves. My group just doesn't keep up, and that's fine as long as we get to play. Making the decks as powerful as possible is certainly a goal of mine, but I like using different cards - I only want 1 copy of any non-basic across all 6 decks. That is a tall order, but Magic has 10,000 cards so it is obtainable. Some care has to be given to avoid overlapping strategies. I've also got some less skilled players, lots of alcohol and distractions around.
I was down on the card but that's because I hadn't crunched the numbers on my own deck and figured out what was best to name in which situations. A lack of experience, really.
Lastly, I'm testing Smuggler's Copter. That it gets taxed by our Thorns is annoying, but it's helpful when I need to loot or block a flier. There's usually some hatebear available for crewing that I don't want to swing with anyways.
Prelate for 4 is usually what I do to dodge Mutilate and Supreme Verdict among other played board wipes. Or sometimes I will pitch it to Survival of the Fittest because...something has to get pitched to it. Smuggler's Copter has been on my radar for some time, I think it'd be good at looting a card or two, I like the mana cost and the fact that mana dorks can crew it if they have to. But I am not certain it's worth taking up a spot. I wonder if the Cycling land would be better, because it actually nets us a card the turn it's played, which Smuggler's Copter may never get there
You still actively doing the blog? I enjoyed the reading, didn't agree completely with Planeswalker rankings but that's part of any subjective ranking system.
Also are you adjusting the Meta by yourself? Have you enlisted the help of those that have piloted each of the decks in your Meta? Also, where is a good place to start when you recognize a problem? Or is there a process you follow when you make your adjustments?
Meta adjustments are done out of new cards being printed, availability and needs. Mostly just new cards. Some of the adjustments are done out of desire to shake things up or increase/decrease power level based on feedback. Zedruu and Child of Alara are not curated by me, but instead their respective authors. All other adjustments are done by me using those suggestions.
The NBA is incentivized to win through Championships, Bonuses and Endorsements. The "kitchen table" as it were doesn't have the same motivations unless some prize structure is in place to demand wins.
If your meta is not adjusting to beat your deck, then I suggest you tone it down/lose on purpose/find a different group. I prefer they adjust to hating out your deck, but if that isn't the consensus then adjust yours to make winning against you rewarding and challenging.
The genie is out of the bottle, and can't be put back in. We live in a world with EDHREC, maybe that's a bad thing - but the world it doesn't exist is gone.
If you wanna stick to Ad Nauseam, Sickening Dreams can be a good finisher, it's just very glass cannon.
In my more tuned lists I have a test by how often I pitch a certain cards to Survival of the Fittest. In my reanimator deck it's normally "who do I find with Entomb?". By knowing which cards you want to have at certain points of the game to Stabilize, break parity, get ahead, protect yourself - you'll have a better instinct about which cards are good.
Edit: Tournament Report.
It makes sense if you've got an outlet for playing your decks against other motivated players each pushing yourselves. My group just doesn't keep up, and that's fine as long as we get to play. Making the decks as powerful as possible is certainly a goal of mine, but I like using different cards - I only want 1 copy of any non-basic across all 6 decks. That is a tall order, but Magic has 10,000 cards so it is obtainable. Some care has to be given to avoid overlapping strategies. I've also got some less skilled players, lots of alcohol and distractions around.
Prelate for 4 is usually what I do to dodge Mutilate and Supreme Verdict among other played board wipes. Or sometimes I will pitch it to Survival of the Fittest because...something has to get pitched to it. Smuggler's Copter has been on my radar for some time, I think it'd be good at looting a card or two, I like the mana cost and the fact that mana dorks can crew it if they have to. But I am not certain it's worth taking up a spot. I wonder if the Cycling land would be better, because it actually nets us a card the turn it's played, which Smuggler's Copter may never get there
Meta adjustments are done out of new cards being printed, availability and needs. Mostly just new cards. Some of the adjustments are done out of desire to shake things up or increase/decrease power level based on feedback. Zedruu and Child of Alara are not curated by me, but instead their respective authors. All other adjustments are done by me using those suggestions.