Sorry for the short turn post, but I kind of wanted to continue showcasing what some of the new cards in the format can and cannot do. In the video linked below, I make a showcase of the card Necropotence. A card that upon it's printing was highly misunderstood, not in what it did, but in the massive advantage it provided to its caster. However, I think in the 100cs world this card is far less powerful than was realized in the days of yore; a lot of that has to do with the overall card quality and economy you are forced to play with in order to gain maximum advantage with it.
Although, I will say, if you make it through this two game set (both involving the card Necropotence) that it was a great throw back for me to resolve a T1 Necro (Although I was playing the wrong art :P)
Enjoy guys!
--KB
PS- JRogue sorry for missing your last two game requests man, I leave modo on pretty often...afk my bad man :/
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.
Reanimator is fine, and right now what the format needs is to be determined not shaken up more. Build with what we've got, and in 6 months we'll go back through and entomb will be an option. Also, reanimator can compete just fine right now. The idea was to make different archetypes viable, not the best they could be.
Reanimator can most certainly win, you've played a UW/b control list that had reanimation capabilities in it and I've played a 5C reanimator monstrosity that was more polarized on accomplishing that goal, both decks have won CSMs. I don't think either deck was that soft to loam, matter of fact the 5C reanimator deck would likely benefit from playing a card like loam just due to the inherent loss of card economy the deck under goes to find the right cards to assemble the "tron" if you will. My point is, Loam is a control deck, it tends to be slower, typically speaking the better builds of it will run less counterspells because on active loam you'll be fading draw steps to build up hand quantity over quality, so your controlling cards will tend to be high impact PWs, wrath or sweeper effects, or additional draw to get you into gas. Think my variant of the deck runs like 5-6 counterspells, and then answers to the board, because I don't know when I'm going to want to take a draw step off to loam, so countermagic is more fickle than answers to the board, because I may be on a loam turn or in the midst of several loam turns, and I want to optimize my draw into answers to the board, not permission for things that already happened and are likely smashing my face in. Point being, I don't even think loam, typically a lower permission deck, even has a great matchup against reanimator, a deck that can kill (or at least end games) as fast as turn 3. Frankly the comparison is a bit confusing because I think of the decks that loam would have issues with reanimator could be one of them. What reanimator should fear is fast aggro, not slow control. This obviously depends on your build, but at least in my 5C variant, vs control, I'd find discard, or an instant speed reanimation effect against a permission player, and go for an endstep reanimation, into a main 1 reanimation and just beat the control opponent on efficiency and mana advantage. Just some thoughts though, put reanimator together, it's a fine deck and got some decent tools from the recent unbannings.
What I'd refer your attention to that displays this concept (because I think you're referencing the LD capability of the deck, ie disrupting your mana base to prevent you from playing spells with Wasteland; however, where this is fraught with peril for the opponent is that it comes at a cost to their own development, ie they're losing a land drop) is the 2nd game I played against mathguy (RDW) while on patternrector in CSM 3.52. He keeps a hand based on the power of a dwarven miner, misses on land, I'm able to land some mana dorks and eventually a sacrifice outlet and a rector, while he spends 6 mana or more to destroy some of my lands...because he was focused on disrupting my mana and not killing me with damage, my combo deck assembled without disruption the complete combo (in this case I drew the protean hulk, so I had to go for primeval titan...it's a cruel world). But generally destroying land isn't that great if your deck is set up to present overwhelming force for very little mana. I know a lot of folks think the Loam deck is the best deck, and it's certainly very good, but it can be overwhelmed rapidly by early aggression, or in this case fast fat on the battlefield (just make sure it's resilient too, because Loam can kill some critters :P).
Appreciate the great support for the event this week and congratulations to S'tsung on a well deserved win. Despite the change in the ban listing, in recent history, 4CB has shown that it has what it takes to remain a strong contender, putting 2 copies in the 1st and 2nd seats of the 16 player tournament.
Congratulations also to our X-1 and X-0-1 finishers: Michelle Wong, ML_Berlin, and me (but I tried to give my portion of the expanded prize pool to Jack...hopefully I can catchup with him, because he left quickly after the tournament :/)
Below is the trophy featuring a new queen of swings, Saskia, The Unyeilding (and boy is she ever). Nothing like a surprise all my crap has doublestrike to end a match on the spot.
Looking forward to next week, the following will be added to the prize pool in addition to the awesome 16 tix pool from our sponser:
1st Place: 1xTrue Name Nemesis (Legendary Cube Prize Pack/NonFoil valued at 28 tik)
2nd Place: 1xAngel of Sanctions (AMK/NonFoil valued at 4.1 tik)
3-4th Place: 1xStoneforge Mystic (PRM/NonFoil valued at 2.25tik)
Standard prizes will still be split between all X-1 players, and there will be a surprise door prize, which will be announced after the event, for all players who finished the event (ie did not drop, and were not among the X-1 players)
Alright guys, look forward to seeing you all next week, matches will be up soon and I'll put them: CSM 4.02 Video, upon completion of upload. Hope you all had fun at the CSM and get your friends to give it a try.
Wanted to offer a resource that may help during deck building. I'm not a proponent of net decking (I'm not opposed to it, but generally tend to do better with decks I build because I understand them more viscerally and have built them to my playstyle and know them better by the time I'm done), for veteran players it's likely not needed; however, if you're just starting off in the format and wanted to see decks that are very close to our 100cs format (slightly different ban list), then I've linked a URL below where there are many German Highlander Results for top decks:
Keep in mind this format has a slightly different ban listing than our own and importantly does not use a SB which is the biggest difference in my opinion. But, post ban changes, our deck lists will tend to converge in similarities to German Highlander builds (that's already happening), so if you're newer to the format, and want a fairly vast record of deck data from a larger pool of decks and players, then I think this resource will help.
Thanks guys and look forward to seeing you all next week
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
Yeah I was loath to put it up, for that reason, one of the things that you'll note about German HL is that RDW has a much easier time winning in it, mostly because our given meta hates out RDW, because it's one of the top natural strategies, in regards to depth of available card pool, and frankly, just because it's very cheap to build, making it a consistent expectation in a format that I'm hoping to grow (my assumption being that this is the place that most new or players on a budget will go; it was the second 100 card deck I ever build [yeah I led with WW, which has morphed into the D&T deck that managed to run on a terror in the first half of season 3]). I guess, all that rambling aside, what I'm getting after is that having a sideboard certainly makes the format highly different, for instance UW/b or just UW doesn't need to main deck Rune of Protection: Red and the narrower strategies like reanimator or RDW can be hated out significantly by resolving a few key SB cards that are actively horrendous in 90% of other matchups. I think what you'll find though is that the more resilient and flexible strategies will resound in both formats...because while SBs can make a difference in these matchups, there's generally not silver bullets against them either.
Mostly, I hope it's useful to newer players that wanted to get an idea of what these style of decks can look like. However, just keep in mind GHL decks are not boarded, so they'll tend to run a lot more "hot tech" then you have to when you've got a board and, of course, the ban lists are slightly different.
On a side note, I saw the card Vance's Blasting Cannons this last weekend. And although I managed to mitigate it from earning value for it's controller (go, go Winter Orb...or don't go at all...not sure how inspired this hype is), jackslagel, the card impressed me as a decent card for any RDW that wants to run Outpost Siege. I tend to prefer Chandra, Torch of Defiance over both (as a board card to grind out G/x), but this card is certainly one that is likely very cheap to purchase and just as good, if not better than the old Siege. The advantage that it inspired in me is that it can effect colorless damage, which tends to be a relevant commodity vs. protection mechanics on hoser cards like Kor Firewalker, et al. Just some thoughts, the card definitely inspired playability from my assessment, however, I think it's better suited as a top end card for RDW over Izzet (when you hit counters with it...it feels bad man...almost like Uba Mask staxing yourself :/).
Anyway, Michelle glad to hear you liked the link, there are certainly some cool decks in the GHL format, and for any of our newer players I hope it's a helpful resource. Take it easy guys and have a great day.
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.
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.
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.
I think it tends to be a difficult thing to say any format is solved, but I also understand what you meant Michelle: the core purpose or methodology applied for winning a game of magic is fairly well represented between both our format and GHL. I think solved is a tricky term however, because what is the best deck at a Pro Tour is highly different than the best deck at a random Grand Prix anywhere. For instance in my article that got published on PureMTGO that stsung referenced above (and thank you for the support, was surprised it got published), I put one of my pet decks, 100c Storm/Doomsday, in there as a reference point for a viable deck in the format--I think this deck is close to 90% of how good it can be for how it's trying to work/win and given the available card pool. The issue with a deck like this is that it doesn't want to face fast aggro, or high permission count blue decks, or deck's that attack the hand, which puts it in a big pickle, because it's looking to square off against midrange decks (this is it's favored matchup)--can it win the other matchups? Certainly because of its sideboard, due to some amount of rogue factor, and variance is a thing; but is it an optimal choice to bring into an open/unknown meta--absolutely not. However, that doesn't mean it couldn't be the "Best Deck" on any given day, given a highly known meta of mostly midrange decks. I think where some of the confusion comes in our use of language, is that this discrimination is what devolves different viable deck archetypes into tiers--tiers tend to be assessed over the wide or whole meta (this does require a great volume of data to understand)--not a specified one (which is commonly what we have, because most players bring known archetypes on a regular basis).
The same could be said for Grixis Tempo or Aggro Control--this is another pet of mine--it is an unstoppable force when provided with the busted artifact mana of vintage and works to make a very strong combo control shell, however without said busted mana, a player is forced to play with an aggro control shell--the issue with this is the depth of strong and efficient critters in U/B/R to go underneath one's own disruption just isn't as strong as the options available to an aggro control player on Jeskai (U/W/R) (White always did and still has the best weenies, and it hates the unfair stuff into the earth). Additionally, Grixis tends to have to answer permanent threats at a one for one exchange rate, unless you go really big mana (which makes a deck that has difficulty gaining life even worse against its nemesis: Aggro), whereas the use of white over black allows a lot more powerful card advantage options for permanent removal (Wrath of God, et its progeny). Which means that grixis tempo or aggro control is in a bad place if it ever falls behind, because once it does it becomes exceedingly difficult to navigate your way out of such a situation--often times falling behind can rapidly avalanche into deterministic loss. None of this means it's not the best deck on any given day, if I know I'll face 90% G/x midrange fair decks, then I can likely safely sleeve this deck up and expect to win with it. I actually ran Grixis Control in your separate event, my expectation was that there would be a large number of G/x decks and that if I could fade RDW in the first round, then I'd likely not have to face a lot of it, because the likely hood of a larger number of G/x knocking it down to the lower bracket would allow me to face the matchup I expected to win a large amount of the time (not to mention I wanted to play Grixis because it's decision intensive and sweet--at least for me). As it turned out, I was right about the meta, but pulled a bad pairing and got crushed by RDW in round 1 :/ (But them's the breaks sometimes and at least the deck made a good run in the lower bracket).
My biggest point is both Grixis and Storm/Doomsday are what you would consider Tier 2 decks (and this is a guess, our meta is quite small, but they're not on the power level of the best decks), this is based on their flexibility to be played and win in any unknown meta or the wide meta of equally viable pairing. But it doesn't mean that these decks couldn't be the best choice to bring down a tournament given a solid meta call .
I also agree with stsung's point, and her frustration, I estimate, is that she wants folks to explore and try things out. Just because a deck is likely a tier 2 deck, in the truest sense of the terminology, doesn't mean it cannot win--and more so, while playing decks that are not "The Optimal" choice, one will gain far greater understanding of what these decks do not work against and will be able to invest time and energy into best tuning them to mitigate these shortfalls--this is both a thing of beauty and enlightenment--as I think you'll find playing these sorts of lists may not always win you the most matches, but will pay far greater dividends for you as both a player and a builder of decks--you will come to better know the format, and when and where its varied archetypes can and should succeed.
Wanted to share a very short video I did as an exposition for a viable Eggs! combo deck I made for the format. In a lot of ways it's also bad vs what storm tends to be bad against in this format, but I think it's a very viable deck now because of the inclusion of Tolarian Academy and the draw seven cards introduced. Would I personally want to take this style of deck into a wide open meta game; no, not really, I think it's sort of a glass cannon, but it's certainly cool, at least I think, to see that it is a viable deck, and in some ways could be played to punish less interactive decks or decks that have failed to consider its presence or capability in a meta game--I think without wide sharing like this, it could likely be run one Saturday and achieve enough rogue factor to take down an event. Anyway here's the video: 100 Card Singleton Eggs!.
Congrats to Rob and his lovely cast of Fish for taking down CSM 4.03; trophy is included below.
I think I will be travelling this Saturday back to my home from Europe, So I'd ask that ML host for that day. In regards to prize pool, it will be the standard great value of 16 tix. In addition, 1st Place will win a Chandra, Flamecaller; 2nd will get a Nahiri, The Harbinger, and the door prize will be a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.
Hope to see you all out there folks and have a great week
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.
Parallax Wave is actually quite potent and flexible, it's great in the mirror, because often times all you need is one to two attack steps to close out the game on a developed (turn 4 board); the flexibility in the card comes against sweeper style decks, where you force an opposing control player to have multiple answers, or essentially you blink your whole board in the face of a wrath. The first reason I think is the biggest one however--the card breaks the mirror wide open if you land it.
lowman02-WW took 1st place, deferring a foiled Chandra, Flamecaller to littlefield (8 tix deferred to Michelle_Wong)
littlefield-RDW took 2nd place (4 tix and Chandra)
ML_Berlin--WW took 3rd place (2 tix and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar)
Michelle--UW Prison took 4th place (2 tix)
Sensei won the door prize (deferred Nahiri, but kindly opted to leave it in the pool for next week's event).
Trophy is below, and of course it had to be a cool old one, mostly because I haven't run lions in a long time and was really happy to have a shell to run them in (and they actually got in there in a few games).
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.
Sorry for the short turn post, but I kind of wanted to continue showcasing what some of the new cards in the format can and cannot do. In the video linked below, I make a showcase of the card Necropotence. A card that upon it's printing was highly misunderstood, not in what it did, but in the massive advantage it provided to its caster. However, I think in the 100cs world this card is far less powerful than was realized in the days of yore; a lot of that has to do with the overall card quality and economy you are forced to play with in order to gain maximum advantage with it.
100CS Necro Testing
Although, I will say, if you make it through this two game set (both involving the card Necropotence) that it was a great throw back for me to resolve a T1 Necro (Although I was playing the wrong art :P)
Enjoy guys!
--KB
PS- JRogue sorry for missing your last two game requests man, I leave modo on pretty often...afk my bad man :/
Since the purpose of this last round of un-bans was to allow each archetype to shine, I'd like to see Entomb unbanned.
Reanimator is fine, and right now what the format needs is to be determined not shaken up more. Build with what we've got, and in 6 months we'll go back through and entomb will be an option. Also, reanimator can compete just fine right now. The idea was to make different archetypes viable, not the best they could be.
--KB
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.
Reanimator can most certainly win, you've played a UW/b control list that had reanimation capabilities in it and I've played a 5C reanimator monstrosity that was more polarized on accomplishing that goal, both decks have won CSMs. I don't think either deck was that soft to loam, matter of fact the 5C reanimator deck would likely benefit from playing a card like loam just due to the inherent loss of card economy the deck under goes to find the right cards to assemble the "tron" if you will. My point is, Loam is a control deck, it tends to be slower, typically speaking the better builds of it will run less counterspells because on active loam you'll be fading draw steps to build up hand quantity over quality, so your controlling cards will tend to be high impact PWs, wrath or sweeper effects, or additional draw to get you into gas. Think my variant of the deck runs like 5-6 counterspells, and then answers to the board, because I don't know when I'm going to want to take a draw step off to loam, so countermagic is more fickle than answers to the board, because I may be on a loam turn or in the midst of several loam turns, and I want to optimize my draw into answers to the board, not permission for things that already happened and are likely smashing my face in. Point being, I don't even think loam, typically a lower permission deck, even has a great matchup against reanimator, a deck that can kill (or at least end games) as fast as turn 3. Frankly the comparison is a bit confusing because I think of the decks that loam would have issues with reanimator could be one of them. What reanimator should fear is fast aggro, not slow control. This obviously depends on your build, but at least in my 5C variant, vs control, I'd find discard, or an instant speed reanimation effect against a permission player, and go for an endstep reanimation, into a main 1 reanimation and just beat the control opponent on efficiency and mana advantage. Just some thoughts though, put reanimator together, it's a fine deck and got some decent tools from the recent unbannings.
What I'd refer your attention to that displays this concept (because I think you're referencing the LD capability of the deck, ie disrupting your mana base to prevent you from playing spells with Wasteland; however, where this is fraught with peril for the opponent is that it comes at a cost to their own development, ie they're losing a land drop) is the 2nd game I played against mathguy (RDW) while on patternrector in CSM 3.52. He keeps a hand based on the power of a dwarven miner, misses on land, I'm able to land some mana dorks and eventually a sacrifice outlet and a rector, while he spends 6 mana or more to destroy some of my lands...because he was focused on disrupting my mana and not killing me with damage, my combo deck assembled without disruption the complete combo (in this case I drew the protean hulk, so I had to go for primeval titan...it's a cruel world). But generally destroying land isn't that great if your deck is set up to present overwhelming force for very little mana. I know a lot of folks think the Loam deck is the best deck, and it's certainly very good, but it can be overwhelmed rapidly by early aggression, or in this case fast fat on the battlefield (just make sure it's resilient too, because Loam can kill some critters :P).
--KB
Appreciate it man
--KB
MTGO crashed for me and I could not end task so I ragequit.
I voted against Mystical Tutor's unbanning. Apparently I was wrong as the finals was a 4c Blood 4c mirror.
Appreciate the great support for the event this week and congratulations to S'tsung on a well deserved win. Despite the change in the ban listing, in recent history, 4CB has shown that it has what it takes to remain a strong contender, putting 2 copies in the 1st and 2nd seats of the 16 player tournament.
Congratulations also to our X-1 and X-0-1 finishers: Michelle Wong, ML_Berlin, and me (but I tried to give my portion of the expanded prize pool to Jack...hopefully I can catchup with him, because he left quickly after the tournament :/)
Below is the trophy featuring a new queen of swings, Saskia, The Unyeilding (and boy is she ever). Nothing like a surprise all my crap has doublestrike to end a match on the spot.
Looking forward to next week, the following will be added to the prize pool in addition to the awesome 16 tix pool from our sponser:
1st Place: 1xTrue Name Nemesis (Legendary Cube Prize Pack/NonFoil valued at 28 tik)
2nd Place: 1xAngel of Sanctions (AMK/NonFoil valued at 4.1 tik)
3-4th Place: 1xStoneforge Mystic (PRM/NonFoil valued at 2.25tik)
Standard prizes will still be split between all X-1 players, and there will be a surprise door prize, which will be announced after the event, for all players who finished the event (ie did not drop, and were not among the X-1 players)
Alright guys, look forward to seeing you all next week, matches will be up soon and I'll put them: CSM 4.02 Video, upon completion of upload. Hope you all had fun at the CSM and get your friends to give it a try.
Take it easy now.
--KB
In the end, stsung's 2-drop Leech was too much for the Azorius guild to handle
Wanted to offer a resource that may help during deck building. I'm not a proponent of net decking (I'm not opposed to it, but generally tend to do better with decks I build because I understand them more viscerally and have built them to my playstyle and know them better by the time I'm done), for veteran players it's likely not needed; however, if you're just starting off in the format and wanted to see decks that are very close to our 100cs format (slightly different ban list), then I've linked a URL below where there are many German Highlander Results for top decks:
Top Results for German Highlander Lists
Keep in mind this format has a slightly different ban listing than our own and importantly does not use a SB which is the biggest difference in my opinion. But, post ban changes, our deck lists will tend to converge in similarities to German Highlander builds (that's already happening), so if you're newer to the format, and want a fairly vast record of deck data from a larger pool of decks and players, then I think this resource will help.
Thanks guys and look forward to seeing you all next week
--KB
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
Yeah I was loath to put it up, for that reason, one of the things that you'll note about German HL is that RDW has a much easier time winning in it, mostly because our given meta hates out RDW, because it's one of the top natural strategies, in regards to depth of available card pool, and frankly, just because it's very cheap to build, making it a consistent expectation in a format that I'm hoping to grow (my assumption being that this is the place that most new or players on a budget will go; it was the second 100 card deck I ever build [yeah I led with WW, which has morphed into the D&T deck that managed to run on a terror in the first half of season 3]). I guess, all that rambling aside, what I'm getting after is that having a sideboard certainly makes the format highly different, for instance UW/b or just UW doesn't need to main deck Rune of Protection: Red and the narrower strategies like reanimator or RDW can be hated out significantly by resolving a few key SB cards that are actively horrendous in 90% of other matchups. I think what you'll find though is that the more resilient and flexible strategies will resound in both formats...because while SBs can make a difference in these matchups, there's generally not silver bullets against them either.
Mostly, I hope it's useful to newer players that wanted to get an idea of what these style of decks can look like. However, just keep in mind GHL decks are not boarded, so they'll tend to run a lot more "hot tech" then you have to when you've got a board and, of course, the ban lists are slightly different.
On a side note, I saw the card Vance's Blasting Cannons this last weekend. And although I managed to mitigate it from earning value for it's controller (go, go Winter Orb...or don't go at all...not sure how inspired this hype is), jackslagel, the card impressed me as a decent card for any RDW that wants to run Outpost Siege. I tend to prefer Chandra, Torch of Defiance over both (as a board card to grind out G/x), but this card is certainly one that is likely very cheap to purchase and just as good, if not better than the old Siege. The advantage that it inspired in me is that it can effect colorless damage, which tends to be a relevant commodity vs. protection mechanics on hoser cards like Kor Firewalker, et al. Just some thoughts, the card definitely inspired playability from my assessment, however, I think it's better suited as a top end card for RDW over Izzet (when you hit counters with it...it feels bad man...almost like Uba Mask staxing yourself :/).
Anyway, Michelle glad to hear you liked the link, there are certainly some cool decks in the GHL format, and for any of our newer players I hope it's a helpful resource. Take it easy guys and have a great day.
--KB
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.
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.
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.
I think it tends to be a difficult thing to say any format is solved, but I also understand what you meant Michelle: the core purpose or methodology applied for winning a game of magic is fairly well represented between both our format and GHL. I think solved is a tricky term however, because what is the best deck at a Pro Tour is highly different than the best deck at a random Grand Prix anywhere. For instance in my article that got published on PureMTGO that stsung referenced above (and thank you for the support, was surprised it got published), I put one of my pet decks, 100c Storm/Doomsday, in there as a reference point for a viable deck in the format--I think this deck is close to 90% of how good it can be for how it's trying to work/win and given the available card pool. The issue with a deck like this is that it doesn't want to face fast aggro, or high permission count blue decks, or deck's that attack the hand, which puts it in a big pickle, because it's looking to square off against midrange decks (this is it's favored matchup)--can it win the other matchups? Certainly because of its sideboard, due to some amount of rogue factor, and variance is a thing; but is it an optimal choice to bring into an open/unknown meta--absolutely not. However, that doesn't mean it couldn't be the "Best Deck" on any given day, given a highly known meta of mostly midrange decks. I think where some of the confusion comes in our use of language, is that this discrimination is what devolves different viable deck archetypes into tiers--tiers tend to be assessed over the wide or whole meta (this does require a great volume of data to understand)--not a specified one (which is commonly what we have, because most players bring known archetypes on a regular basis).
The same could be said for Grixis Tempo or Aggro Control--this is another pet of mine--it is an unstoppable force when provided with the busted artifact mana of vintage and works to make a very strong combo control shell, however without said busted mana, a player is forced to play with an aggro control shell--the issue with this is the depth of strong and efficient critters in U/B/R to go underneath one's own disruption just isn't as strong as the options available to an aggro control player on Jeskai (U/W/R) (White always did and still has the best weenies, and it hates the unfair stuff into the earth). Additionally, Grixis tends to have to answer permanent threats at a one for one exchange rate, unless you go really big mana (which makes a deck that has difficulty gaining life even worse against its nemesis: Aggro), whereas the use of white over black allows a lot more powerful card advantage options for permanent removal (Wrath of God, et its progeny). Which means that grixis tempo or aggro control is in a bad place if it ever falls behind, because once it does it becomes exceedingly difficult to navigate your way out of such a situation--often times falling behind can rapidly avalanche into deterministic loss. None of this means it's not the best deck on any given day, if I know I'll face 90% G/x midrange fair decks, then I can likely safely sleeve this deck up and expect to win with it. I actually ran Grixis Control in your separate event, my expectation was that there would be a large number of G/x decks and that if I could fade RDW in the first round, then I'd likely not have to face a lot of it, because the likely hood of a larger number of G/x knocking it down to the lower bracket would allow me to face the matchup I expected to win a large amount of the time (not to mention I wanted to play Grixis because it's decision intensive and sweet--at least for me). As it turned out, I was right about the meta, but pulled a bad pairing and got crushed by RDW in round 1 :/ (But them's the breaks sometimes and at least the deck made a good run in the lower bracket).
My biggest point is both Grixis and Storm/Doomsday are what you would consider Tier 2 decks (and this is a guess, our meta is quite small, but they're not on the power level of the best decks), this is based on their flexibility to be played and win in any unknown meta or the wide meta of equally viable pairing. But it doesn't mean that these decks couldn't be the best choice to bring down a tournament given a solid meta call .
I also agree with stsung's point, and her frustration, I estimate, is that she wants folks to explore and try things out. Just because a deck is likely a tier 2 deck, in the truest sense of the terminology, doesn't mean it cannot win--and more so, while playing decks that are not "The Optimal" choice, one will gain far greater understanding of what these decks do not work against and will be able to invest time and energy into best tuning them to mitigate these shortfalls--this is both a thing of beauty and enlightenment--as I think you'll find playing these sorts of lists may not always win you the most matches, but will pay far greater dividends for you as both a player and a builder of decks--you will come to better know the format, and when and where its varied archetypes can and should succeed.
Hope this is helpful.
Take it easy guys
Wanted to share a very short video I did as an exposition for a viable Eggs! combo deck I made for the format. In a lot of ways it's also bad vs what storm tends to be bad against in this format, but I think it's a very viable deck now because of the inclusion of Tolarian Academy and the draw seven cards introduced. Would I personally want to take this style of deck into a wide open meta game; no, not really, I think it's sort of a glass cannon, but it's certainly cool, at least I think, to see that it is a viable deck, and in some ways could be played to punish less interactive decks or decks that have failed to consider its presence or capability in a meta game--I think without wide sharing like this, it could likely be run one Saturday and achieve enough rogue factor to take down an event. Anyway here's the video: 100 Card Singleton Eggs!.
Enjoy guys and take it easy
Congrats to Rob and his lovely cast of Fish for taking down CSM 4.03; trophy is included below.
I think I will be travelling this Saturday back to my home from Europe, So I'd ask that ML host for that day. In regards to prize pool, it will be the standard great value of 16 tix. In addition, 1st Place will win a Chandra, Flamecaller; 2nd will get a Nahiri, The Harbinger, and the door prize will be a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.
Hope to see you all out there folks and have a great week
--KB
And thanks to Lowman and MTGOCardMarket for hosting.
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.
Parallax Wave is actually quite potent and flexible, it's great in the mirror, because often times all you need is one to two attack steps to close out the game on a developed (turn 4 board); the flexibility in the card comes against sweeper style decks, where you force an opposing control player to have multiple answers, or essentially you blink your whole board in the face of a wrath. The first reason I think is the biggest one however--the card breaks the mirror wide open if you land it.
KB
Results from CSM 4.04:
lowman02-WW took 1st place, deferring a foiled Chandra, Flamecaller to littlefield (8 tix deferred to Michelle_Wong)
littlefield-RDW took 2nd place (4 tix and Chandra)
ML_Berlin--WW took 3rd place (2 tix and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar)
Michelle--UW Prison took 4th place (2 tix)
Sensei won the door prize (deferred Nahiri, but kindly opted to leave it in the pool for next week's event).
Trophy is below, and of course it had to be a cool old one, mostly because I haven't run lions in a long time and was really happy to have a shell to run them in (and they actually got in there in a few games).
take care guys
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.