I've been buying and selling through these guys since I first joined MTGO a decade ago. They've been my go-to for purchases since the very beginning, and I've never regretted it. Today, I sold my account through them as well. When I eventually come back to the game if I have more time to play online, I look forward to coming back in through them as well. Fantastic service in person, as well as with their bots. When I would swap my primary formats (when extended got axed, for example), their bots were instrumental in fluid transitions. I also remember the late night trades and brief chats with the person managing their primary account back when I was in college, and how they put up with all of my ridiculous mini $7 and $10 transactions whenever I had a spare few bucks on a college budget for Magic. Great company, and have been nothing less than thrilled with them.
This card isn't overpowered in any way, and it's UW's answer to Combust, they get to say "That combust isn't targeting baneslayer, it's targeting my wall of omens" because there's nothing else they can do about combust.
First off, it's nowhere near overpowered. It's actually quite balanced. It's bringing some much needed playable cards for control. Along with the rumor of the black sweeper which remains to be seen if those rumors are true or not. And hopefully some card draw that's actually good in blue. But this will definitely be a solid addition to the control facet of the game. This card makes me want stalking stones back too.
Why not just make it an almost-full black sligh deck and have Banefire as your win condition. Add a few more cheap black creatures and cheap removal spells and 4 Crypt of Agadeem for easy ramp mana for Banefire. Your graveyard should be full by the time you need to cast it.
Because the versatility of black/red is far greater than that of mono black. Especially if the white weenie approach takes off with the honor of the pure, and white knights, and the new 3 cost pro black guy that removes black things. If you are going mono black, you're not aiming to play sligh. If you go mono black at all, you better be playing vampires, as mono black control (which i miss dearly) isn't viable until they present black with a good sweeper. (If you are going to claim infest as a sweeper, just stop reading forums, sell your cards, and pick up a new hobby) Black red offers more versatility which is important, and the fetch-lands offer the ability to splash quite easily, which he did into white, which is probably the strongest choice for black red.
And as for everyone who is bashing his sideboard, you clearly didn't play back in onslaught fetch land days, where basic lands made most sideboards, as the fetch-lands offer filtering game 1, and your splash color if you were facing a deck that called for it for game 2 and game 3 if necessary. Basic lands (1-2 most cases) will probably arise more and more in boards as people who didn't play with onslaught realize the power of the fetches. (Extended doesn't need them as they have the shock lands from ravnica block, so claiming to know how good they are from extended is silly) Personally i'm looking at U/W with a splash into black i think. But at the moment i'm running vampires until i see for certain whether white will take off or not.
As for the article. I feel it was very well written. I liked how you chose to look at black/red as i feel it's something a lot of players have been considering in the back of their minds. I also think it's good how you offered your reasoning for the choices you made in the deck. It helps players who aren't as good with deck building to see a sort of "behind-the-scenes" into how to go about working on a deck. Good article.
Because the versatility of black/red is far greater than that of mono black. Especially if the white weenie approach takes off with the honor of the pure, and white knights, and the new 3 cost pro black guy that removes black things. If you are going mono black, you're not aiming to play sligh. If you go mono black at all, you better be playing vampires, as mono black control (which i miss dearly) isn't viable until they present black with a good sweeper. (If you are going to claim infest as a sweeper, just stop reading forums, sell your cards, and pick up a new hobby) Black red offers more versatility which is important, and the fetch-lands offer the ability to splash quite easily, which he did into white, which is probably the strongest choice for black red.
And as for everyone who is bashing his sideboard, you clearly didn't play back in onslaught fetch land days, where basic lands made most sideboards, as the fetch-lands offer filtering game 1, and your splash color if you were facing a deck that called for it for game 2 and game 3 if necessary. Basic lands (1-2 most cases) will probably arise more and more in boards as people who didn't play with onslaught realize the power of the fetches. (Extended doesn't need them as they have the shock lands from ravnica block, so claiming to know how good they are from extended is silly) Personally i'm looking at U/W with a splash into black i think. But at the moment i'm running vampires until i see for certain whether white will take off or not.
As for the article. I feel it was very well written. I liked how you chose to look at black/red as i feel it's something a lot of players have been considering in the back of their minds. I also think it's good how you offered your reasoning for the choices you made in the deck. It helps players who aren't as good with deck building to see a sort of "behind-the-scenes" into how to go about working on a deck. Good article.