Just sold out my MTGO collection for the second time. I can't stand playing it. Losing games to lag-clicks and having games take forever for no apparent reason put me over the edge. I found that I have no desire to ever play it again, especially when the old client works better than the new one. Yeah, it might not be pretty, but at least it worked, most of the time with no issues. This new thing is terrible. And selling my cards got my $176 in store credit and enough for a PS4 plus games for our family Christmas.
As for paper cards, I have never sold out totally, always keeping at least a Legacy Goblins deck around. The first time I sold out, I sold all of my power (all of it except for Timetwister) to fund my divorce proceedings. The second time I sold out, I got rid of all my cards, including all of the duals. This time it was for custody of my son, which I won. I quit playing after Theros came out because it is kind of boring, selling off tons of standard staples. Reprinting Thoughtseize and Fetchlands was a fantastic move and has lured me back into the game with Khans. Plus, the variety of decks is pretty vast, though that seems to be narrowing a bit as of late.
Anyway, Magic is kind of like the local whore I keep coming back to because I know she'll give me what I want.
I remember the days of foil textless playsets of Wrath of God and Damnation. Man, I loved getting that envelope in the mail. It was like Christmas.
Sadly, I am considering selling out totally, once and for all.
1. They stopped putting the novels in the Fat Packs. I loved reading the novels. Sure, they were not literary marvels, but they made for a fine guilty pleasure.
2. Eliminated player rewards. See above.
3. LGS is terrible. Tournament structure constantly changes for no real rhyme or reason, shop owner does not give out all of his allotted FNM promos, charges $8 for FNM, mediocre prize support, etc. I have seen the box of promos still in the packs that he keeps. Also, the greasy criminal element that hangs around, junior high kids cussing like sailors, etc. It was just lousy enough to get me to invest in MTGO.
4. MTGO version 4. While the previous version was nothing to write home about, this thing is bad. Losing games to a rotten client is something I will only tolerate a couple of times.
I haven't even mentioned how the mythic rarity and rising cost of tournament staples has changed my entire paradigm of how I collect. I used to make it a goal to collect playsets of all tournament playable cards. This was very doable and cost effective with savvy trading and timely speculation. However, while I make a nice living, I do not have enough disposable income to do this anymore.
It's been building for some time. I haven't played paper magic in over six months and I rarely go online after losing in a Vintage Masters sealed thanks to the lousy client. Sure, I still won 6 packs, but I would rather lose a thousand times to my own play than even once to issues with the client.
Clearly I am torn on this as I continue to read about Magic, even if I'm not playing it. But yeah, Player Rewards was spectacular.
My LGS has a sleeve or two full of the random promos they have banked because they only give out two per FNM to first and second place. That, along with cutting to top 4 after three rounds (which consisted of 6 players at 2-1 vying for the last spot) is why I do not play there much any more. Oh, and the owner leaving between rounds to get sauced.
Thank you all for the replies. I think I am going to keep my one modern deck, one legacy deck with another in progress, and sell off most of my standard staples while they still have some value to convert to MTGO. I will keep a couple of budget paper decks around (Mono-R, Mono-W humans) in case I want to go play at the shop.
Ok, I am considering selling out of paper Magic and converting to MTGO. However, I absolutely enjoy playing IRL more than online.
First, a little background: I have been playing Magic since Urza Block. I am an above average player and I enjoy playing competitively. I have no big wins under my belt, but I have won a couple of pieces of power playing Vintage back in the day and I top 16’ed an SCG Standard Open. I have a wife and three kids along with a respectable job.
As mentioned, I love playing IRL. One of the greatest joys to me is the debriefing that occurs after a tournament with my friends. Unfortunately, that is down to one friend who even plays anymore. Furthermore, our LGS is constantly messing around with prize support, seemingly to squeak a few more bucks out of the tournament itself. For example, I went 3-1 in a 14-player FNM tournament that I paid $8 to enter. The store owner usually leaves the state for extended periods and was nowhere to be found for this tournament. My prize, after losing to the only other undefeated player, was three packs. However, the shop had no Theros packs, so we were all forced to take Return to Ravnica block or M14 packs instead. On top of that, the shop only gives out two of the four promo cards and pockets the rest. They have an entire sleeve full of all the extra promo cards accumulated over the years.
In comparison, I played a Standard Daily event online, went 3-1, and won six packs all for a $6 entry. On top of all that, the store is usually a cesspool in which there is a very real chance to acquire tetanus or some other kind of disease. I won’t even speak about the bathroom. The next closest store IRL is an hour and a half away.
Again, I absolutely love playing IRL, but this is getting ridiculous. Furthermore, I drive a half hour each way to play. When it is all said and done, I am not sure I can afford to put all of my effort and money into maintaining a Standard collection IRL when playing at this shop is getting sketchier all the time and I find myself having a hard time making it to FNM even half the time. There is no Modern, Legacy, or Pauper scene around. There is an EDH scene, but it is dominated by the greasiest of the greasy. I tried to play with these guys who tried to get super competitive in EDH, but then they don’t want to play when I bring my competitive deck. Now, I only play Tribal EDH spirits, which gets worked over by everything but sure is a lot of fun. I do not care to play EDH at my shop because of the clientele who are into it.
I really do not want to do something I will regret. I have major reservations about Magic Online, including the soulless nature of playing there, my tendency to misclick at the most inopportune times, etc. But I just don’t know if I have another option.
Has anyone else made the switch after having these same reservations? Did you get over these issues, or do you still miss playing IRL? Any other thoughts about my conundrum?
I bought a simple Purpleheart deck box that holds a standard deck and sideboard. I believe after adding a couple of bucks for shipping I paid about $20 for it.
So I played the stock Brad Nelson list with a couple of changes at our FNM last night. Having only two Xenagos, I swapped in a third Assemble the Legion. My sideboard was the same, except for adding an extra Wear/Tear for the missing Assemble the Legion.
Round 1: Boros Aggro
Game 1: He gets me Game 1 with one more critter than I have removal for.
Game 2: I wipe his board a few times and that is that.
Game 3: My opener was 2 Anger of the Gods and 2 Mizzium Mortars to go with 3 lands. He doesn't cast anything until Turn 3! On my turn 4 I Anger of the Gods, he casts God's willing. Turn 5 I cast Anger of the Gods, he casts Boros Charm. Turn 6 Mizzium Mortars, he casts Boros Charm. Turn 7 Mizzium Mortars, he casts Boros Charm.
Not the start I was looking for with what should have been a good match up.
Round 2: G/R Devotion
Game 1: I 3-for-1 his mana dorks with Anger of the Gods and he sits on 3 land for pretty much the rest of the game.
Game 2: I 2-for-1 his mana dorks and Selesnya Charm takes care of Polukranos
Round 3: Esper Control
Game 1: I was fairly certain that this deck would be a dog to Esper Game 1. In fact, I sat on 2 Anger of the Gods and a Mizzium Mortars for much of the game. However, I managed to drop my threats one at a time and eventually built up a board of Xenagos, Elspeth, and Assemble the Legion to take Game 1.
Game 2: He Doom Blades my Mistcutter Hydras, Detention Spheres my Planeswalkers, and Supreme Verdicts any dudes I cast. I could not get Assemble the Legion going in this one and scooped once he dropped Aetherling alongside his Elspeth and her tokens.
Game 3: This one was epic. He cast a Pithing Needle on my Xenagos while I applied some pressure with the man plan and an Elspeth. I think he got caught up being a bit too cute, choosing to use Quicken to wrath on my turn, but more or less tapping out and clearing the way for me to Tear his Pithing needle, which freed up my Xenagos. I made mana with the ability to take advantage of him being tapped out and dropped an Assemble the Legion and a Stormbreath Dragon. This splooge of high quality threats soon brought about his demise.
Round 4: G/W Aggro
Game 1: I stabilize at exactly 13 life and I am feeling good about the situation. He drops a Voice of Resurgence and manages to make it a 3/3 with Ajani and swings. I swing in and kill his Ajani, but he drops another one, Selesnya Charms his Voice of Resurgence to make it a 5/5, then gives it double strike and flying with Ajani to fly over for exactsies.
Game 2: I boarded in my lonely Pithing Needle and 2 Last Breath. I drop Pithing Needle naming Ajani Turn 2, kill all of his dudes, and he doesn't touch me the entire game. After the game he showed me 2 Ajani's languishing in his hand.
Game 3: This time I don't have my one Pithing Needle in my opener, but I do see it about Turn 5 before he manages to drop an Ajani (turns out he sideboarded them all out). I kill his dudes, getting much mileage out of Selesnya Charms on his Advent of the Wurm tokens and other buffed fatties. He used his Selesnya Charms to make 2/2 Knights, after which I committed 2 Advent Tokens of my own to the board that he now had no good answers for. I did build up Voltron of Elspeth, Xenagos, and Assemble the Legion before the game was over. It was a race as I was very low on life, sitting back with my horde to block since I couldn't get lethal and the crackback would kill me. I ultimated Elspeth for the win.
Final record: 3-1 matches, 7-4 games.
Some thoughts: Xenagos seems weak. I don't undervalue his ability to create tokens, but it just seemed underwhelming. However, the combination of Xenagos and Elspeth can create insane amounts of mana. That might just be a Magical Christmas Land scenario, though.
I never sided in the Guildmages. It seems like a bit of a weak and fragile plan, so I will be looking to replace them with something, perhaps a second pithing needle.
Ruric Thar was a bit underwhelming. I cast it and they usually just killed it since we are often not putting on a ton of pressure and they can afford the life. I am really torn on this one's value, because I have also had times when it locks people out of the game. Is it win more?
I thought the sheer number of removal spells was over the top, but you need every last bit of it. In fact, I boarded in the 2 Last Breath in aggro match ups. It, along with Anger of the Gods, is really good against Voice of Resurgence.
My record was good enough to take first, since I got paired up and the last guy I took down was undefeated. However, my game record was not extremely impressive. However, my one match loss was to a guy completely nutsacking the exact cooler in a runner of God's Willing, Boros Charm, Boros Charm, Boros Charm to beat a hand that should have crushed him.
Just thought I would try to jump start some discussion here as the deck has a lot of tools and seems to be a good choice in a world of Mono-whatever color devotion.
Tarmogoyf should not be banned. However, if Wizards really wants to make Modern the eternal format of choice, it should be reprinted in reasonable quantities to drive the price down to about $50 or so. I can certainly afford them and have owned two playsets in the past, but I refuse to play a format (except Legacy) in which the barrier to entry is so high.
Tarmogoyf is very pervasive in Top 8s, however, especially when half the decks are a Jund variant of some sort.
It doesn't matter one bit. I was just interested to see that I have played more than 1,000 sanctioned matches. The compilation is cool and if you haven't done it and surveyed your results, you are missing out.
Why are so many on here resistant to the Kibler build? We're going on three consecutive weeks of solid results from the list.
I am in total agreement with you here. This deck has been running great for me and helped me take first at FNM last night along with winning the playmat at Gameday today.
One change I made for the sideboard today was to add 4 Fogs. I brought them in against Mono-red, but had to mulligan down to 5 Game 3. It was my only loss on the way to winning the playmat.
What I really wanted them for was against Bant Hexproof. I always feel like they beat us the turn before we destroy them. As it was, I didn't need to cast them and rolled my opponent Games 2 and 3. Game 1, he hit me for 14 Turn 4 to win the turn before I would have killed him.
I have shaved Burning Earth down to 3 and I am considering cutting them altogether. As was mentioned above, most people have a plan for them and have already contorted their mana bases with basics, which makes their decks less consistent already. If they think we brought in 4 Burning Earth and sideboard accordingly, that is an advantage for us. Maybe we should consider 4-5 card sideboard packages to play into this...just a thought.
I beat 2 Elf Ramp decks at SCG Minneapolis by boarding in 2 Bonfire of the Damned, 2 Flames of the Firebrand, 3 Pillar of Flame.
My take on it was that they can't be allowed to ramp up to their bombs and the 22-land manabase will not consistently get them where they need to be if I do so.
As for paper cards, I have never sold out totally, always keeping at least a Legacy Goblins deck around. The first time I sold out, I sold all of my power (all of it except for Timetwister) to fund my divorce proceedings. The second time I sold out, I got rid of all my cards, including all of the duals. This time it was for custody of my son, which I won. I quit playing after Theros came out because it is kind of boring, selling off tons of standard staples. Reprinting Thoughtseize and Fetchlands was a fantastic move and has lured me back into the game with Khans. Plus, the variety of decks is pretty vast, though that seems to be narrowing a bit as of late.
Anyway, Magic is kind of like the local whore I keep coming back to because I know she'll give me what I want.
Sadly, I am considering selling out totally, once and for all.
1. They stopped putting the novels in the Fat Packs. I loved reading the novels. Sure, they were not literary marvels, but they made for a fine guilty pleasure.
2. Eliminated player rewards. See above.
3. LGS is terrible. Tournament structure constantly changes for no real rhyme or reason, shop owner does not give out all of his allotted FNM promos, charges $8 for FNM, mediocre prize support, etc. I have seen the box of promos still in the packs that he keeps. Also, the greasy criminal element that hangs around, junior high kids cussing like sailors, etc. It was just lousy enough to get me to invest in MTGO.
4. MTGO version 4. While the previous version was nothing to write home about, this thing is bad. Losing games to a rotten client is something I will only tolerate a couple of times.
I haven't even mentioned how the mythic rarity and rising cost of tournament staples has changed my entire paradigm of how I collect. I used to make it a goal to collect playsets of all tournament playable cards. This was very doable and cost effective with savvy trading and timely speculation. However, while I make a nice living, I do not have enough disposable income to do this anymore.
It's been building for some time. I haven't played paper magic in over six months and I rarely go online after losing in a Vintage Masters sealed thanks to the lousy client. Sure, I still won 6 packs, but I would rather lose a thousand times to my own play than even once to issues with the client.
Clearly I am torn on this as I continue to read about Magic, even if I'm not playing it. But yeah, Player Rewards was spectacular.
I bought one of these awhile back and they are awesome. Always a topic of conversation!
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27990_Data-Mining-For-Modern-In-Valencia.html
Merfolk is a fine deck. Now GR Tron on the other hand...
Edit for clarity:
Merfolk finished in 16th place, but when you remove the limited records, it finished in sixth place.
Again, thanks for your replies.
First, a little background: I have been playing Magic since Urza Block. I am an above average player and I enjoy playing competitively. I have no big wins under my belt, but I have won a couple of pieces of power playing Vintage back in the day and I top 16’ed an SCG Standard Open. I have a wife and three kids along with a respectable job.
As mentioned, I love playing IRL. One of the greatest joys to me is the debriefing that occurs after a tournament with my friends. Unfortunately, that is down to one friend who even plays anymore. Furthermore, our LGS is constantly messing around with prize support, seemingly to squeak a few more bucks out of the tournament itself. For example, I went 3-1 in a 14-player FNM tournament that I paid $8 to enter. The store owner usually leaves the state for extended periods and was nowhere to be found for this tournament. My prize, after losing to the only other undefeated player, was three packs. However, the shop had no Theros packs, so we were all forced to take Return to Ravnica block or M14 packs instead. On top of that, the shop only gives out two of the four promo cards and pockets the rest. They have an entire sleeve full of all the extra promo cards accumulated over the years.
In comparison, I played a Standard Daily event online, went 3-1, and won six packs all for a $6 entry. On top of all that, the store is usually a cesspool in which there is a very real chance to acquire tetanus or some other kind of disease. I won’t even speak about the bathroom. The next closest store IRL is an hour and a half away.
Again, I absolutely love playing IRL, but this is getting ridiculous. Furthermore, I drive a half hour each way to play. When it is all said and done, I am not sure I can afford to put all of my effort and money into maintaining a Standard collection IRL when playing at this shop is getting sketchier all the time and I find myself having a hard time making it to FNM even half the time. There is no Modern, Legacy, or Pauper scene around. There is an EDH scene, but it is dominated by the greasiest of the greasy. I tried to play with these guys who tried to get super competitive in EDH, but then they don’t want to play when I bring my competitive deck. Now, I only play Tribal EDH spirits, which gets worked over by everything but sure is a lot of fun. I do not care to play EDH at my shop because of the clientele who are into it.
I really do not want to do something I will regret. I have major reservations about Magic Online, including the soulless nature of playing there, my tendency to misclick at the most inopportune times, etc. But I just don’t know if I have another option.
Has anyone else made the switch after having these same reservations? Did you get over these issues, or do you still miss playing IRL? Any other thoughts about my conundrum?
Thanks for reading and any advice is appreciated.
https://www.facebook.com/MtgCustomDeckBoxes
It is a pretty sweet deck box. Be sure to check out his youtube videos, too. I believe his name is Aaron Cain.
Round 1: Boros Aggro
Game 1: He gets me Game 1 with one more critter than I have removal for.
Game 2: I wipe his board a few times and that is that.
Game 3: My opener was 2 Anger of the Gods and 2 Mizzium Mortars to go with 3 lands. He doesn't cast anything until Turn 3! On my turn 4 I Anger of the Gods, he casts God's willing. Turn 5 I cast Anger of the Gods, he casts Boros Charm. Turn 6 Mizzium Mortars, he casts Boros Charm. Turn 7 Mizzium Mortars, he casts Boros Charm.
Not the start I was looking for with what should have been a good match up.
Round 2: G/R Devotion
Game 1: I 3-for-1 his mana dorks with Anger of the Gods and he sits on 3 land for pretty much the rest of the game.
Game 2: I 2-for-1 his mana dorks and Selesnya Charm takes care of Polukranos
Round 3: Esper Control
Game 1: I was fairly certain that this deck would be a dog to Esper Game 1. In fact, I sat on 2 Anger of the Gods and a Mizzium Mortars for much of the game. However, I managed to drop my threats one at a time and eventually built up a board of Xenagos, Elspeth, and Assemble the Legion to take Game 1.
Game 2: He Doom Blades my Mistcutter Hydras, Detention Spheres my Planeswalkers, and Supreme Verdicts any dudes I cast. I could not get Assemble the Legion going in this one and scooped once he dropped Aetherling alongside his Elspeth and her tokens.
Game 3: This one was epic. He cast a Pithing Needle on my Xenagos while I applied some pressure with the man plan and an Elspeth. I think he got caught up being a bit too cute, choosing to use Quicken to wrath on my turn, but more or less tapping out and clearing the way for me to Tear his Pithing needle, which freed up my Xenagos. I made mana with the ability to take advantage of him being tapped out and dropped an Assemble the Legion and a Stormbreath Dragon. This splooge of high quality threats soon brought about his demise.
Round 4: G/W Aggro
Game 1: I stabilize at exactly 13 life and I am feeling good about the situation. He drops a Voice of Resurgence and manages to make it a 3/3 with Ajani and swings. I swing in and kill his Ajani, but he drops another one, Selesnya Charms his Voice of Resurgence to make it a 5/5, then gives it double strike and flying with Ajani to fly over for exactsies.
Game 2: I boarded in my lonely Pithing Needle and 2 Last Breath. I drop Pithing Needle naming Ajani Turn 2, kill all of his dudes, and he doesn't touch me the entire game. After the game he showed me 2 Ajani's languishing in his hand.
Game 3: This time I don't have my one Pithing Needle in my opener, but I do see it about Turn 5 before he manages to drop an Ajani (turns out he sideboarded them all out). I kill his dudes, getting much mileage out of Selesnya Charms on his Advent of the Wurm tokens and other buffed fatties. He used his Selesnya Charms to make 2/2 Knights, after which I committed 2 Advent Tokens of my own to the board that he now had no good answers for. I did build up Voltron of Elspeth, Xenagos, and Assemble the Legion before the game was over. It was a race as I was very low on life, sitting back with my horde to block since I couldn't get lethal and the crackback would kill me. I ultimated Elspeth for the win.
Final record: 3-1 matches, 7-4 games.
Some thoughts: Xenagos seems weak. I don't undervalue his ability to create tokens, but it just seemed underwhelming. However, the combination of Xenagos and Elspeth can create insane amounts of mana. That might just be a Magical Christmas Land scenario, though.
I never sided in the Guildmages. It seems like a bit of a weak and fragile plan, so I will be looking to replace them with something, perhaps a second pithing needle.
Ruric Thar was a bit underwhelming. I cast it and they usually just killed it since we are often not putting on a ton of pressure and they can afford the life. I am really torn on this one's value, because I have also had times when it locks people out of the game. Is it win more?
I thought the sheer number of removal spells was over the top, but you need every last bit of it. In fact, I boarded in the 2 Last Breath in aggro match ups. It, along with Anger of the Gods, is really good against Voice of Resurgence.
My record was good enough to take first, since I got paired up and the last guy I took down was undefeated. However, my game record was not extremely impressive. However, my one match loss was to a guy completely nutsacking the exact cooler in a runner of God's Willing, Boros Charm, Boros Charm, Boros Charm to beat a hand that should have crushed him.
Just thought I would try to jump start some discussion here as the deck has a lot of tools and seems to be a good choice in a world of Mono-whatever color devotion.
Tarmogoyf is very pervasive in Top 8s, however, especially when half the decks are a Jund variant of some sort.
My career
Overall record: 682-287-45
Win percentage ignoring draws: 70.381837
Win percentage including draws: 67.258383
Stats by Event Format
Standard:
Overall record: 413-174-28
Win percentage ignoring draws: 70.357751
Win percentage including draws: 67.154472
Booster Draft:
Overall record: 12-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 85.714286
Win percentage including draws: 85.714286
Sealed:
Overall record: 9-6-2
Win percentage ignoring draws: 60.000000
Win percentage including draws: 52.941176
Casual - Limited:
Overall record: 4-0-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 100.000000
Win percentage including draws: 100.000000
Vintage:
Overall record: 105-47-10
Win percentage ignoring draws: 69.078947
Win percentage including draws: 64.814815
Legacy:
Overall record: 92-41-4
Win percentage ignoring draws: 69.172932
Win percentage including draws: 67.153285
Casual - Constructed:
Overall record: 3-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 60.000000
Win percentage including draws: 60.000000
Extended:
Overall record: 25-11-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 69.444444
Win percentage including draws: 69.444444
2 HG Legacy:
Overall record: 1-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 33.333333
Win percentage including draws: 33.333333
Block Constructed:
Overall record: 18-2-1
Win percentage ignoring draws: 90.000000
Win percentage including draws: 85.714286
Stats by Event Type
Magic Tournament:
Overall record: 90-46-5
Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.176471
Win percentage including draws: 63.829787
Magic State Championship:
Overall record: 13-14-2
Win percentage ignoring draws: 48.148148
Win percentage including draws: 44.827586
Magic:
Overall record: 161-62-18
Win percentage ignoring draws: 72.197309
Win percentage including draws: 66.804979
Magic National Qualifier:
Overall record: 7-4-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 63.636364
Win percentage including draws: 63.636364
Friday Night Magic:
Overall record: 308-117-15
Win percentage ignoring draws: 72.470588
Win percentage including draws: 70.000000
Magic Game Day:
Overall record: 6-3-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.666667
Win percentage including draws: 66.666667
Magic WPN Premium Tournament:
Overall record: 8-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 80.000000
Win percentage including draws: 80.000000
Magic Prerelease:
Overall record: 8-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 80.000000
Win percentage including draws: 80.000000
Magic Casual Event:
Overall record: 7-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 77.777778
Win percentage including draws: 77.777778
Magic Launch Party:
Overall record: 1-4-2
Win percentage ignoring draws: 20.000000
Win percentage including draws: 14.285714
Magic Event (TO Level 2 and Higher):
Overall record: 68-29-3
Win percentage ignoring draws: 70.103093
Win percentage including draws: 68.000000
Magic Pro Tour Qualifier:
Overall record: 5-2-0
Win percentage ignoring draws: 71.428571
Win percentage including draws: 71.428571
I am in total agreement with you here. This deck has been running great for me and helped me take first at FNM last night along with winning the playmat at Gameday today.
One change I made for the sideboard today was to add 4 Fogs. I brought them in against Mono-red, but had to mulligan down to 5 Game 3. It was my only loss on the way to winning the playmat.
What I really wanted them for was against Bant Hexproof. I always feel like they beat us the turn before we destroy them. As it was, I didn't need to cast them and rolled my opponent Games 2 and 3. Game 1, he hit me for 14 Turn 4 to win the turn before I would have killed him.
I have shaved Burning Earth down to 3 and I am considering cutting them altogether. As was mentioned above, most people have a plan for them and have already contorted their mana bases with basics, which makes their decks less consistent already. If they think we brought in 4 Burning Earth and sideboard accordingly, that is an advantage for us. Maybe we should consider 4-5 card sideboard packages to play into this...just a thought.
I think this deck will be a force until rotation.
My take on it was that they can't be allowed to ramp up to their bombs and the 22-land manabase will not consistently get them where they need to be if I do so.