My list, only two cards off from what I piloted at FNM last night and finished first. (To be fair, even though every deck I faced was legit, the RDW player I beat twice -- once in Swiss, once in top 8 -- didn't board Ancient Grudge against me for some reason.)
The two Disperses used to be a Nihil Spellbomb and a third Tribute to Hunger, but I haven't been having issues with Solar Flare, and I never wanted to board in the third Tribute even when it'd come in handy. Much rather give a little respect to RDW, UW Humans, and various noncreature permanents.
EDIT: Moved Tributes to sideboard, Disperse is main now.
I'm stupid, replace Disperse on my list with Spellskite. Much less narrow, as it blocks dudes and absorbs either multiple burn spells or a shrine. Board in at least 3.
Disperse may be narrow, but it also helps against UB's other big problem deck: UW Humans. It answers Mirran Crusader when you can't counter him, and it effectively shrinks Champion of the Parish.
I beat RDW twice at FNM last night (same guy, beat him in Swiss, and again in top 8) only to find out later that he wasn't boarding Ancient Grudge against me for some reason, even though I showed him both Wurmcoil Engine and Spellskite in our first match. Now that the guy knows how to board properly against me, I have to give due respect to artifact hate. That means SB Disperse or Steel Sabotage, and since Tempered Steel is deck non grata, I actually feel more comfortable with Disperse.
My version was originally Wolf Run Red, but I recently converted it to just plain red after being disappointed by the land base, and by Reckless Waif. To me, the decision whether or not to run Waif is a metagame call. She's great against Solar Flare, but sucks otherwise. And she's a dead draw late-game.
So here's what I have cooking now... Not that different from most lists, but I was hoping if I could get some sideboard-related wisdom.
GW Tokens won the most recent FNM here, so the Ratchet Bombs and Arc Trail #4 are recent additions. Two weeks ago, the winner was Wolf Run Ramp. Hey, what do you know. My two biggest problem decks.
Okay, so here are the questions I have about my sideboard.
1) I understand Ancient Grudge is an excellent trump card against Wurmcoil Engine for its ability to "2-for-1" the big 6/6 and its lifelink baby, but I'm still not sure I should go for the full playset because Pod and Tempered Steel have been on the decline. Is it okay for me to keep Ancient Grudge at 3-of?
2) I've been told I should cut Traitorous Blood to a 2-of instead of 3, but should I really? Other than Wurmcoil, Grave Titan is the big-fatty I have the least fun facing. I feel I have a lot to gain by giving myself more opportunities to steal it, swing, and get a couple Zombie tokens to buy me some time.
3) Is there any way at all I could find room in my board for Manabarbs? I could always use more answers to Wolf Run, and Manabarbs seems like a natural way to punish that deck for doing anything. How has it been testing for you guys? Is it too narrow?
4) Speaking of Wolf Run, what's our answer to Tree of Redemption? Hope to draw a Hero and go over the top? Or is there a better way?
For example, looking through it, I see I got fewer points winning a 114 person prerelease for multiple boxes of product (19 points) than showing up to many tournaments and winning merely 1 round. Like, I got 21 points for going 1-1-1 at an FNM...
The multiplier and participation points formula is clearly a lil' bit screwy...
No it's not. You get triple points for attending FNM. There is no multiplier for prerelease. It's not considered competitive.
There are literally no GPs or PTQs in the country I live in. Before that was okay, I can improve my rating at FNMs and local tourneys and travel to bigger venues when I have the time. The odds are bad, but in theory a person can push their rating up this way. Under the new system it's impossible; players in small countries are enormously disadvantaged by this policy.
Last thought: if I go 5-0 at a local tournament, i get fewer points than someone who goes 1-8 at a GP. Is that really how we want to measure 'accomplishment'?
I'm not sure what PTQs are going to be like, or if they'll even exist anymore, but Wizards has said that they plan to increase the number of Grand Prix, to make it easier for people to attend. You're probably still going to have to travel outside your country if you want to attend multiple ones, though...
My big annoyance is the hideous lag time the system still has. I earned 45 points friday, giving me 64 for the season, which it shows on my personal stats. I should be ranked in the mid 600s, but it still shows me in the mid 12000s with 19. Not that it means anything at this point but computer systems can make these adjustments quickly and automatically.
I feel your pain, sir. My friend out in Idaho got his points for a casual event in only 6 hours. Meanwhile, I'm still sitting here waiting for my FNM points. The system knows I was at my local shop and that I played, but it says I have 0 for the night.
To call this change to the ratings system divisive appears to be a major major understatement. That said, I feel I must take a side here. Planeswalker Points have suddenly given me a reason to care about my rating. On the flipside, there are two really good players at my local shop who are quitting because of the change. They were perfectly content to sit on their ratings and take the free byes they got at each major tournament. But the more I think about it, the less sympathy I have for those two. You're supposed to be playing a game. Playing the game is what you should be rewarded for. Sitting on your rating is like drawing into the Top 8. Makes sense, eliminates risk, and is only viable if you've been performing extremely well. But at its core, it's an anti-competitive jerk move that unfairly prevents other players from getting ahead.
Yes, in theory, there is a mathematical disparity between volume and skill when it comes to calculating points. But in practice, that disparity is probably not going to materialize. Don't worry about people traveling from shop to shop entering every event they can find so they can grind out points. They most likely don't exist. As several people in this thread have pointed out, most of us have jobs and responsibilities, and can't afford to go tournament-hopping unless we want to wreck our paychecks. Also, remember that FNMs have a strictly greater value than other local tournaments. You can't attend multiple FNMs at the same time, and odds are, a store near you is going to double up on FNM events to give their customers more incentive to play.
1) I understand how the Night/Day mechanic works. What I dont understand is where we would put the checklist cards. It can't take up a spot in your deck, can it? Does it stay on the side until you play the flip card?
The checklist cards go in your deck as proxies for the flip cards. They have the traditional card back, so they can't be distinguished from regular cards when viewed from the back. When they come into play, you pull out the corresponding flip card (which you set aside before the game in a deck box or something) and use that instead.
2) Which side of the cards would we get in the packs? Would we even get the cards in the packs? If so, then wouldn't it be impossible to have more than one flip card in a pack, since one flip card needs the checklist? And would the checklist be in each pack that has a flip card in it?
Both sides of a flip card are literally printed on the same piece of card stock. It is possible to have more than one flip card in the same booster.
There's definitely some logistics issues with these flip cards, but you gotta admit, the design is intuitive. I'm not particularly bothered by the fact that other players will be able to see the reverse sides of any flip cards I draft, because any Limited player worth their salt knows that hate-drafting waters down your card pool. It's been said many times in this thread.
As for Constructed, it's checklists and clear sleeves for me. Sorry, but I hate Ultra Pro sleeves with a burning passion. They warp, they bend at the corners, and they barely last me 3 months before they go bad. I'll take Dragons over them any day. Maybe it's just how I shuffle, but that's the way I feel.
Oh, and to everybody saying that the flip cards are going to pave the way for modernizing the card backs: I lol'd. There are two things that kill your theory like an Inquisitor kills Vampires:
1) Every card in Innistrad that isn't a flip card has the traditional card back. Even the checklist card has the traditional card back. If they were planning on modernizing the card backs because of the existence of flip cards, they would have done so already.
3) There are only 20 flip cards in Innistrad. Finding space for 20 cards to be represented on a single proxy is not that hard, as the checklist card demonstrates. Do you really think a proxy/checklist for every single card in a set -- in other words, 145 cards or more -- is going to be as viable?
The only thing that truly bothers me about flip cards is the fact that you'll have to memorize all of them if you want to steal them with something like Praetor's Grasp, unless you want to give away info about the card you stole when you ask, "Can I see your stack of flip cards?" But that assumes that any flip card is good enough to steal.
But enough about the most controversial thing to happen to the game since mythic rares...
I don't see why so many people are complaining about morbid being an ability word that spells out everything it does in the rules text rather than reminder text. Landfall did that, too, and landfall was awesome. My guess is everybody's anxious/upset because the only morbid card that's been spoiled so far is a life gain card. Chill your pickle, guys. Better morbid triggers are coming.
Flashback returning is no surprise. Flashback was arguably the best mechanic to come out of the first graveyard-themed block, because getting them in the graveyard usually involves casting them, which is something you want to do anyway. Especially Devil's Play. Oh, yes. Devil's Play looks amazing.
I'm really happy to see Wizards finally exploring the largely untapped design space of "enchant player" with the Curses. I think there's a fun control deck to be had in there somewhere, especially in the early days of the new Standard where there isn't much enchantment hate.
And yes, I will echo the general sentiment in this thread that "fight" is something that's needed keywording for a LONG time. Green needs answers to creatures that don't involve blocking of hoping they fly. "Fight" feels like a very green way of doing it, IMO.
You know, I didn't think about this, but as that article pointed out, night versions of transforming creatures have no mana costs... Does this mean Ratchet Bomb just became really really awesome?
Or you could grab a sharpie and put a check mark on it. Based on what's been posted, including what luminum can posted, that seems to be the intention.
I'll just use a regular ball-point pen, thank you. Sharpie tends to smear on my sleeves unless I let it dry for about 7-8 hours...
EDIT: Yes! The checklist card has all the mana costs!
I just hope this "checklist" card everybody's talking about has all the mana costs of the Day cards listed on them, so I don't have to keep looking at my pile of double-sided cards to check (thus giving away what's in my hand). I'm bad at memorization sometimes.
I don't think you'll be able to play these double sided cards without sleeves at all...
You can see through some of the ones that are supposedly opaque. I started noticing it when I was proxying parts of decks by turning cards face-down before sleeving them.
This new information about one-sided "checklist" cards pretty much erases that fear, though. And also erases anyone else's fears about Drafting being impossible. (I'm assuming that the night versions don't exist in "checklist" form, because they have no mana cost and don't need to be in the deck for shuffling.)
Jeez, calm down people, so the cards are double-sided. Think of it as a new dimension in Draft.
This is going to ruin the business of so many sleeve manufacturers, though... On the bright side, maybe now my local shop will carry Dragon sleeves in a color other than "clear."
i would play counters and stonehorn dignitaries for the twin mu.
No, no, no, no, a thousand times no. With the exception of Inferno Titan as a backup win condition, the entire Twin deck revolves around digging for the combo and countering threats to the combo. When played correctly, Twin can sculpt a hand consisting of the combo backed up by multiple counters, with at least one Dispel among them. You are never going to win counter wars against them. I know this from experience. As for Stonehorn Dignitary, SpookyDoom has already said what needs to be said about him.
It's slowly morphing into something that more closely resembles tap-out control than permission, something that likes to put pressure on the opponent on top of answering all the stuff that matters. By the time the brewing and testing process is over, I might even be running Hero of Bladehold as a 2-of.
However, this design would give me a less-than-stellar matchup against Twin, so I can see where SpookyDoom is coming from with the Leyline of Anticipation idea. It's nifty. I can see it working a lot better than straight counterspells, considering most things you'll flash in will dodge Dispel and possibly Spell Pierce. I just might test it, and it just might outshine Grand Abolisher despite its not doing anything by itself.
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Nephalia Drownyard
9 Island
6 Swamp
Creatures (9)
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Grave Titan
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Wring Flesh
2 Disperse
3 Doom Blade
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
4 Dissipate
3 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Negate
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Tribute to Hunger
1 Wring Flesh
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Spellskite
2 Nephalia Drownyard
The two Disperses used to be a Nihil Spellbomb and a third Tribute to Hunger, but I haven't been having issues with Solar Flare, and I never wanted to board in the third Tribute even when it'd come in handy. Much rather give a little respect to RDW, UW Humans, and various noncreature permanents.
EDIT: Moved Tributes to sideboard, Disperse is main now.
Disperse may be narrow, but it also helps against UB's other big problem deck: UW Humans. It answers Mirran Crusader when you can't counter him, and it effectively shrinks Champion of the Parish.
I beat RDW twice at FNM last night (same guy, beat him in Swiss, and again in top 8) only to find out later that he wasn't boarding Ancient Grudge against me for some reason, even though I showed him both Wurmcoil Engine and Spellskite in our first match. Now that the guy knows how to board properly against me, I have to give due respect to artifact hate. That means SB Disperse or Steel Sabotage, and since Tempered Steel is deck non grata, I actually feel more comfortable with Disperse.
So here's what I have cooking now... Not that different from most lists, but I was hoping if I could get some sideboard-related wisdom.
4 Rootbound Crag
19 Mountain
Creatures (18)
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Spikeshot Elder
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Stormblood Berserker
3 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Hero of Oxid Ridge
3 Koth of the Hammer
Artifacts (4)
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
Sorceries (3)
3 Arc Trail
Instants (9)
2 Geistflame
3 Incinerate
4 Brimstone Volley
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Arc Trail
4 Vulshok Refugee
3 Traitorous Blood
2 Perilous Myr
2 Ratchet Bomb
GW Tokens won the most recent FNM here, so the Ratchet Bombs and Arc Trail #4 are recent additions. Two weeks ago, the winner was Wolf Run Ramp. Hey, what do you know. My two biggest problem decks.
Okay, so here are the questions I have about my sideboard.
1) I understand Ancient Grudge is an excellent trump card against Wurmcoil Engine for its ability to "2-for-1" the big 6/6 and its lifelink baby, but I'm still not sure I should go for the full playset because Pod and Tempered Steel have been on the decline. Is it okay for me to keep Ancient Grudge at 3-of?
2) I've been told I should cut Traitorous Blood to a 2-of instead of 3, but should I really? Other than Wurmcoil, Grave Titan is the big-fatty I have the least fun facing. I feel I have a lot to gain by giving myself more opportunities to steal it, swing, and get a couple Zombie tokens to buy me some time.
3) Is there any way at all I could find room in my board for Manabarbs? I could always use more answers to Wolf Run, and Manabarbs seems like a natural way to punish that deck for doing anything. How has it been testing for you guys? Is it too narrow?
4) Speaking of Wolf Run, what's our answer to Tree of Redemption? Hope to draw a Hero and go over the top? Or is there a better way?
No it's not. You get triple points for attending FNM. There is no multiplier for prerelease. It's not considered competitive.
How was the old system fair to those who had no high rating to sit on and couldn't qualify for Philly?
I'm not sure what PTQs are going to be like, or if they'll even exist anymore, but Wizards has said that they plan to increase the number of Grand Prix, to make it easier for people to attend. You're probably still going to have to travel outside your country if you want to attend multiple ones, though...
I feel your pain, sir. My friend out in Idaho got his points for a casual event in only 6 hours. Meanwhile, I'm still sitting here waiting for my FNM points. The system knows I was at my local shop and that I played, but it says I have 0 for the night.
Yes, in theory, there is a mathematical disparity between volume and skill when it comes to calculating points. But in practice, that disparity is probably not going to materialize. Don't worry about people traveling from shop to shop entering every event they can find so they can grind out points. They most likely don't exist. As several people in this thread have pointed out, most of us have jobs and responsibilities, and can't afford to go tournament-hopping unless we want to wreck our paychecks. Also, remember that FNMs have a strictly greater value than other local tournaments. You can't attend multiple FNMs at the same time, and odds are, a store near you is going to double up on FNM events to give their customers more incentive to play.
The checklist cards go in your deck as proxies for the flip cards. They have the traditional card back, so they can't be distinguished from regular cards when viewed from the back. When they come into play, you pull out the corresponding flip card (which you set aside before the game in a deck box or something) and use that instead.
Both sides of a flip card are literally printed on the same piece of card stock.
It is possible to have more than one flip card in the same booster.They are double-sided. It's been confirmed by multiple sources.
As for Constructed, it's checklists and clear sleeves for me. Sorry, but I hate Ultra Pro sleeves with a burning passion. They warp, they bend at the corners, and they barely last me 3 months before they go bad. I'll take Dragons over them any day. Maybe it's just how I shuffle, but that's the way I feel.
Oh, and to everybody saying that the flip cards are going to pave the way for modernizing the card backs: I lol'd. There are two things that kill your theory like an Inquisitor kills Vampires:
1) Every card in Innistrad that isn't a flip card has the traditional card back. Even the checklist card has the traditional card back. If they were planning on modernizing the card backs because of the existence of flip cards, they would have done so already.
3) There are only 20 flip cards in Innistrad. Finding space for 20 cards to be represented on a single proxy is not that hard, as the checklist card demonstrates. Do you really think a proxy/checklist for every single card in a set -- in other words, 145 cards or more -- is going to be as viable?
The only thing that truly bothers me about flip cards is the fact that you'll have to memorize all of them if you want to steal them with something like Praetor's Grasp, unless you want to give away info about the card you stole when you ask, "Can I see your stack of flip cards?"
But enough about the most controversial thing to happen to the game since mythic rares...
I don't see why so many people are complaining about morbid being an ability word that spells out everything it does in the rules text rather than reminder text. Landfall did that, too, and landfall was awesome. My guess is everybody's anxious/upset because the only morbid card that's been spoiled so far is a life gain card. Chill your pickle, guys. Better morbid triggers are coming.
Flashback returning is no surprise. Flashback was arguably the best mechanic to come out of the first graveyard-themed block, because getting them in the graveyard usually involves casting them, which is something you want to do anyway. Especially Devil's Play. Oh, yes. Devil's Play looks amazing.
I'm really happy to see Wizards finally exploring the largely untapped design space of "enchant player" with the Curses. I think there's a fun control deck to be had in there somewhere, especially in the early days of the new Standard where there isn't much enchantment hate.
And yes, I will echo the general sentiment in this thread that "fight" is something that's needed keywording for a LONG time. Green needs answers to creatures that don't involve blocking of hoping they fly. "Fight" feels like a very green way of doing it, IMO.
I'll just use a regular ball-point pen, thank you. Sharpie tends to smear on my sleeves unless I let it dry for about 7-8 hours...
EDIT: Yes! The checklist card has all the mana costs!
Flavor didn't kill those sets, bad card design did.
Ravnica, Zendikar, and Scars were dripping with seventeen kinds of juicy flavor, and they sold very well.
Oh, also...
~I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can draft the Werewolves~
...I'm sorry. I had to do it.
You can see through some of the ones that are supposedly opaque. I started noticing it when I was proxying parts of decks by turning cards face-down before sleeving them.
This new information about one-sided "checklist" cards pretty much erases that fear, though. And also erases anyone else's fears about Drafting being impossible. (I'm assuming that the night versions don't exist in "checklist" form, because they have no mana cost and don't need to be in the deck for shuffling.)
This is going to ruin the business of so many sleeve manufacturers, though... On the bright side, maybe now my local shop will carry Dragon sleeves in a color other than "clear."
No, no, no, no, a thousand times no. With the exception of Inferno Titan as a backup win condition, the entire Twin deck revolves around digging for the combo and countering threats to the combo. When played correctly, Twin can sculpt a hand consisting of the combo backed up by multiple counters, with at least one Dispel among them. You are never going to win counter wars against them. I know this from experience. As for Stonehorn Dignitary, SpookyDoom has already said what needs to be said about him.
Here's the WU list I've been brewing:
4 Island
4 Plains
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Halimar Depths
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Mystifying Maze
4 Tectonic Edge
Creatures (11)
3 Wall of Omens
2 Spellskite
3 Blade Splicer
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Sun Titan
2 Jace Beleren
2 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
Spells (18)
4 Preordain
3 Condemn
4 Mana Leak
2 Into the Roil
4 Oblivion Ring
1 White Sun's Zenith
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Divine Offering
3 Day of Judgment
3 Grand Abolisher
It's slowly morphing into something that more closely resembles tap-out control than permission, something that likes to put pressure on the opponent on top of answering all the stuff that matters. By the time the brewing and testing process is over, I might even be running Hero of Bladehold as a 2-of.
However, this design would give me a less-than-stellar matchup against Twin, so I can see where SpookyDoom is coming from with the Leyline of Anticipation idea. It's nifty. I can see it working a lot better than straight counterspells, considering most things you'll flash in will dodge Dispel and possibly Spell Pierce. I just might test it, and it just might outshine Grand Abolisher despite its not doing anything by itself.