The lack of remands in the 75 make this deck much more fragile. I get what the deck is going for, an "all-in" feeling. However I don't think the looting strategy is the right call in the current build, but I might also be wrong. I might have to putz around with this build a bit and see what this deck does without the remands.
All of these are known interactions in the storm deck. Also scroll was good before this as it was Gifts 5-X or Remand 4-X. Peer has better selection than our other cantrips but has worse precision and doesn't get lands or our reducers, would not recommend.
Something I haven't seen many, if any, Gifts Storm pilots playing is a Snow-Covered Island. It's better than the second Island and beyond as it lets you create Gifts piles with both Island and Snow-Covered Island in them.
I haven't seen any Gifts Storm pilot Gifting for lands
I didn't say it comes up a lot, but it is better than playing just Islands. It's most relevant in sideboard games where you bring in Blood Moon.
If you have to gifts for lands in any match up you are probably losing that he at a pretty high %. You shouldn't be locking yourself out of colors with blood moon. If you fetch correctly you shouldn't need to gifts for lands.
After having to deal with the Maze's end deck and UW Tron (fogs and ghostly prison respectively) I have to agree that Purphoros deserves some attention in the main deck. he gives the deck reach which it sorely needs against anything playing something like ensnaring bridge or the like. I'm going to test with him MD going into our PTQ later this month.
I've been needing to put together another Commander deck for some time but I haven't really had the motivation to do it. Now I finally decided on a deck type to work with but I'm having problems figuring out what commander/color combo to use. So here goes the explanations
1) Deck Idea - I want a deck that scales to the decks around it, basically taking advantage of the power levels of the decks that surround it (obviously a multiplayer concept). I'm going UBx because these colors give the best control effects.
2)Commander/Color Choice - I've thought about a couple different options for this. On the one hand I could go with BUG for mimeoplasm and take advantage of graveyards as well as getting the ramp and utility out of the green cards. I've also considered UWB for the extra resilience and control aspects and being able to use Sen Triplets. I like the flavor of both so that isn't an issue I just want an effective commander that contributes well to the theme and power of the deck and its goal. In addition any other color/commander suggestions would be very welcome.
3)Specific cards that serve these purposes well. I'm already running things like Commandeer, Desertion, Knowledge exploitation, Gather Specimens, etc. So I want suggestions for some of the non-obvious ones.
I don't think I'll ever spend money on playmat again...not because I don't like them but because keep getting new ones from events that I judge or play at...I'm at 5 new mats in the last 6 months, and it will go up another 1 in January from GP Denver. If I didn't have a constant flow of mats I would make sure that I had a mat that was usable at all times because the noticable decrease in wear on my sleeves is well worth the 20 bucks companies charge for the mats.
Any issues with discrepancies in life totals are generally alleviated with now being required to announce all life total changes verbally. Both players keeping track also allows us to settle and sort of dispute that might occur between players more easily when interviewing players during a call.
That doesn't always do too much. I've flat out caught someone cheating in draft twice, clear as day I saw him take a pack he was passed, put a card from his pack to his pile of cards he drafted, pick up that pile, slip a card back in the pack, and draft a second card.
I told the store owner but he said all he could do without seeing it himself was tell the guy to knock it off. Not sure what reporting to the DCI would have done, without video evidence it's my word against his.
Investigations are done in these situations to piece together the middle ground between what you say happened and what he says happened. It takes experience to get good at it and most judges/TOs have to leave it at "I didn't see it". And in the long run, Reporting something to the DCI is at least going to put it on their radar. Which sometimes is all you can do. Our systems aren't perfect but we make due.
You aren't the only one disgusted by such things occuring, 4 confirmed cheats at GP toronto, this is getting ridiculous.
I'm curious about the other 3...What were they?...
Being there for the event myself I'm pretty astounded that major cheats can get missed (though we can't be everywhere and even feature judges have to look back and forth so it's not perfect) and am pretty certain we all want to know how it happened. Please report and misconduct you think may have happened to the DCI as soon as possible.
I disagree with "accepting that fixing will go on and dealing with it". That kind of stuff is totally against WotC's rules, and lots of good stores will discourage that kind of behavior. It's difficult to track but it is not totally unenforceable, if you watch someone concede from a position he is clearly winning or continually concede in a certain pattern without even playing you can see this going on.
Conceding/Drawing because you choose to is not against any rules of the game, no matter how many times they do it or if they do it at particular times in a tourney all the time. As it stands the only way that it gets to be an issue is if someone either A) offers their concession in exchange for something, or B) is offered something in exchange for the concession. Those are both DQ'able offences. Conceding because you know it will help your tie breakers, or drawing because it locks you into the top 8/4 cut is standard practice at tournaments.
Please make sure that you read up and confirm your stance before decrying that certain player actions are against WotC/the DCI's policies and rules.
You would win when brainstorm resolves, while brainstorm is on the stack your opponent can still respond as you must pass priority to your opponent before the spell can resolve
Have you joined the Competitive Standard User group? That membership is required to post in the competitive standard forums. It is right on your Control panel under User groups.
At FNM we would make sure that his deck was legal and have him fix any errors. As long as he/she isn't cheating there wont be a severe penalty. Be patient with kids, they may get annoying sometimes, but teaching them is better than driving them away.
The lack of remands in the 75 make this deck much more fragile. I get what the deck is going for, an "all-in" feeling. However I don't think the looting strategy is the right call in the current build, but I might also be wrong. I might have to putz around with this build a bit and see what this deck does without the remands.
If you have to gifts for lands in any match up you are probably losing that he at a pretty high %. You shouldn't be locking yourself out of colors with blood moon. If you fetch correctly you shouldn't need to gifts for lands.
I've been needing to put together another Commander deck for some time but I haven't really had the motivation to do it. Now I finally decided on a deck type to work with but I'm having problems figuring out what commander/color combo to use. So here goes the explanations
1) Deck Idea - I want a deck that scales to the decks around it, basically taking advantage of the power levels of the decks that surround it (obviously a multiplayer concept). I'm going UBx because these colors give the best control effects.
2)Commander/Color Choice - I've thought about a couple different options for this. On the one hand I could go with BUG for mimeoplasm and take advantage of graveyards as well as getting the ramp and utility out of the green cards. I've also considered UWB for the extra resilience and control aspects and being able to use Sen Triplets. I like the flavor of both so that isn't an issue I just want an effective commander that contributes well to the theme and power of the deck and its goal. In addition any other color/commander suggestions would be very welcome.
3)Specific cards that serve these purposes well. I'm already running things like Commandeer, Desertion, Knowledge exploitation, Gather Specimens, etc. So I want suggestions for some of the non-obvious ones.
Thanks in advance for the input and ideas!
Investigations are done in these situations to piece together the middle ground between what you say happened and what he says happened. It takes experience to get good at it and most judges/TOs have to leave it at "I didn't see it". And in the long run, Reporting something to the DCI is at least going to put it on their radar. Which sometimes is all you can do. Our systems aren't perfect but we make due.
I'm curious about the other 3...What were they?...
Being there for the event myself I'm pretty astounded that major cheats can get missed (though we can't be everywhere and even feature judges have to look back and forth so it's not perfect) and am pretty certain we all want to know how it happened. Please report and misconduct you think may have happened to the DCI as soon as possible.
Conceding/Drawing because you choose to is not against any rules of the game, no matter how many times they do it or if they do it at particular times in a tourney all the time. As it stands the only way that it gets to be an issue is if someone either A) offers their concession in exchange for something, or B) is offered something in exchange for the concession. Those are both DQ'able offences. Conceding because you know it will help your tie breakers, or drawing because it locks you into the top 8/4 cut is standard practice at tournaments.
Please make sure that you read up and confirm your stance before decrying that certain player actions are against WotC/the DCI's policies and rules.
EDIT: Nath'd, and Tim nailed it...
Maybe Kahedron will do the spanking for you?