RobertZDar is a very tough opponent for me, coz I love blue midrange and control strategies, and he islandwalks the cr*p out of me, and he also protects his fast threats more effectively than anyone else in the format.
However do you admit that Robert's Vedalken Shackles (when drawn) will almost certainly end in the Fish's victory over your D&T deck, as you have a low percentage chance of having an answer to the shackles when you need it. Also, True-Name Nemesis wielding any Sword is almost certain death for your D&T mage.
Robert, can I ask you: Would you consider running either Miscalculation or Trophy Mage over Hangarback Walker in your deck? Have you been satisfied with the Hangarback's performance?
Do either of you know which deck (which sees play in our CSM format) has the best chance to defeat RobertZDar's Fish list?
Curious to know. I personally think it is Izzet which has a lot of bolt-y type spells and access to mass removal in the form of Anger of the Gods, Sweltering Suns and Starstorm etc.
(Also, do you believe that Lowman's or stsung's 4C Blood list is better placed to deal with Rob's Fish?)
Kindly noted stsung, thanks for the feedback about this card.
The card doesn't even seem horrendous against planewalkers (because a walker without creatures to defend it is a walker who is not long for this world).
For me personally, I prefer Faith's Fetters in my decks because it is very good against Red Aggro and takes down a walker if necessary. The 4 lives helps me coz it buys me time to deal with the wolf token etc that the walker will summon right away. The 4 lives also helps me against Falkenrath Aristocrat which is seeing more play nowadays due to the "copy-and-paste Lowman02's ideas" phenomenon which is becoming more prevalent. I know that this card Faith's Fetters is frowned upon as it is very clunky, but I still love it and it has saved me too many times to count. I also like fetching the Fetters with my Academy Rektor against the Red Aggro matchup to slay their Genju and the like, or if there is a walker or scooze I need to contain.
Can I ask what your experience has been with the card Parralax Wave? What is the matchup you are primarily trying to tackle with this card? Has it performed well?
I've never seen the card impress me when it's been used against me, and I'm curious about the card.
I agree that 'solved' was a poor choice of words, I used it too loosely.
I do look forward to the new format, and think that the community made the right choice to open it up with the new un-bannings. A lot of great battles will be fought.
You can easily see what I meant in my last two posts by the word "solved" (namely we know the good cards and archetypes, no major revelations), and yes I have fought against all the archetypes you mentioned, not always in CSM but I play most s100 games outside CSM). I never said anything about the exact matchup percentages for each and every deck and every iteration of each deck. That would take an enormous amount of data points and of course we don't have that.
You also say "being solved means that you all would be playing optimal decks in the format you play. You don't". Why do you assume that we all try to play the most optimal deck for winning? This is a tournament primarily for fun (winning contributes to that fun and is important in that sense, but it's by no means everything), and we gravitate towards the cards and strats we enjoy. I've never played 4C Blood even though I'm happy to concede it was the 'natural state' deck pre-banning.
TL: DR: I'm not your enemy, I used the word "solved" in a loose way (but clarified what I meant by it), and basically just wanted to say that the German Highlander decks that Lowman posted seem familiar.
Well, I maintain my view, because when I was browsing through those GH decks, the recurring thought which kept coming to me over and over again was "Hey you! I know where I've seen YOU before!" In other words, we know what works. No major revelations.
Great link. I loved seeing the decks of the German Highlander community.
Our local chainsaw meta seems fairly close to the german community meta. This makes me convinced that our local meta has nailed down which cards/archetypes are potent and which are not. We already solved the format on our own
If anyone else agrees with stsung that Reanimator is not even capable of Tier 1.5 status in our format, can we consider an "emergency un-ban" to un-ban the card Entomb so as to give this archetype a boost?
Since the purpose of this last round of un-bans was to allow each archetype to shine, I'd like to see Entomb unbanned.
Mana drain is banned BANNED in legacy yet natural order is completely legal but rarely, if ever sees competitive play.
-Jonny_Rogue
Elves is a reasonably popular deck in Legacy, and Natural Order is usually a 4-of in that deck. It is not a joke or troll deck, but it is definitely a glass cannon. So I don't think it's fair to say that NO rarely if ever sees competitive play in Legacy.
Thanks for your detailed thoughts, I liked reading your post.
Can I ask you: Do you believe that a dedicated Reanimator deck is able to reach a Tier 1 status with our current ban list? How good is this archetype in your German Highlander community?
RobertZDar is a very tough opponent for me, coz I love blue midrange and control strategies, and he islandwalks the cr*p out of me, and he also protects his fast threats more effectively than anyone else in the format.
However do you admit that Robert's Vedalken Shackles (when drawn) will almost certainly end in the Fish's victory over your D&T deck, as you have a low percentage chance of having an answer to the shackles when you need it. Also, True-Name Nemesis wielding any Sword is almost certain death for your D&T mage.
Robert, can I ask you: Would you consider running either Miscalculation or Trophy Mage over Hangarback Walker in your deck? Have you been satisfied with the Hangarback's performance?
Do either of you know which deck (which sees play in our CSM format) has the best chance to defeat RobertZDar's Fish list?
Curious to know. I personally think it is Izzet which has a lot of bolt-y type spells and access to mass removal in the form of Anger of the Gods, Sweltering Suns and Starstorm etc.
(Also, do you believe that Lowman's or stsung's 4C Blood list is better placed to deal with Rob's Fish?)
The card doesn't even seem horrendous against planewalkers (because a walker without creatures to defend it is a walker who is not long for this world).
For me personally, I prefer Faith's Fetters in my decks because it is very good against Red Aggro and takes down a walker if necessary. The 4 lives helps me coz it buys me time to deal with the wolf token etc that the walker will summon right away. The 4 lives also helps me against Falkenrath Aristocrat which is seeing more play nowadays due to the "copy-and-paste Lowman02's ideas" phenomenon which is becoming more prevalent. I know that this card Faith's Fetters is frowned upon as it is very clunky, but I still love it and it has saved me too many times to count. I also like fetching the Fetters with my Academy Rektor against the Red Aggro matchup to slay their Genju and the like, or if there is a walker or scooze I need to contain.
Can I ask what your experience has been with the card Parralax Wave? What is the matchup you are primarily trying to tackle with this card? Has it performed well?
I've never seen the card impress me when it's been used against me, and I'm curious about the card.
And thanks to Lowman and MTGOCardMarket for hosting.
I do look forward to the new format, and think that the community made the right choice to open it up with the new un-bannings. A lot of great battles will be fought.
You also say "being solved means that you all would be playing optimal decks in the format you play. You don't". Why do you assume that we all try to play the most optimal deck for winning? This is a tournament primarily for fun (winning contributes to that fun and is important in that sense, but it's by no means everything), and we gravitate towards the cards and strats we enjoy. I've never played 4C Blood even though I'm happy to concede it was the 'natural state' deck pre-banning.
TL: DR: I'm not your enemy, I used the word "solved" in a loose way (but clarified what I meant by it), and basically just wanted to say that the German Highlander decks that Lowman posted seem familiar.
Well, I maintain my view, because when I was browsing through those GH decks, the recurring thought which kept coming to me over and over again was "Hey you! I know where I've seen YOU before!" In other words, we know what works. No major revelations.
Our local chainsaw meta seems fairly close to the german community meta. This makes me convinced that our local meta has nailed down which cards/archetypes are potent and which are not. We already solved the format on our own
In the end, stsung's 2-drop Leech was too much for the Azorius guild to handle
Just don't see why this archetype should not be able to be on same level as BUG Loam, when this imbalance can be easily solved.
Since the purpose of this last round of un-bans was to allow each archetype to shine, I'd like to see Entomb unbanned.
Elves is a reasonably popular deck in Legacy, and Natural Order is usually a 4-of in that deck. It is not a joke or troll deck, but it is definitely a glass cannon. So I don't think it's fair to say that NO rarely if ever sees competitive play in Legacy.
Thanks for your detailed thoughts, I liked reading your post.
Can I ask you: Do you believe that a dedicated Reanimator deck is able to reach a Tier 1 status with our current ban list? How good is this archetype in your German Highlander community?