If we're really interested in going up to 4 mana, Goldnight Castigator is pretty good for reach. Granted it could easily be straight-up worse than Chandra, but voltroning up a 4 power flying haste is certainly a knockout punch.
I think if we should look for inspiration, we should look at the Theros-era Heroic decks. They had the issue of drawing the right half of their deck to avoid being stuck with a bunch of pumps and no creatures. Unfortunately for us, we dont have a hexproof artifact, so we're not going to have that deck's resilience.
I mean just getting away from the actual lawsuit for a moment but it's pretty insane that almost all compensation for judging is under-the-table. The entire Magic judge thing from top to bottom is a legal ghetto.
They volunteered. They knew the circumstances going in. Its not like you cant ask other judges what its like or do research. But now somehow its all "unfair".
Again, it is literally illegal to volunteer for Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. The only exception to this rule is that one is allowed to volunteer for public sector companies provided that the volunteer work performed has no relation to the work of the regular job within the company.
Also, the "class" being represented in this suit is Level 2 and above, so Wizards' attempt to distance themselves from the judges rings false especially considering the extremely draconian response to leakgate (Leakghazi?)
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I would love a citation for this. My understanding is that already-employed people can't volunteer without additional compensation, but people who aren't in the direct employ of the company can volunteer if they so choose.
On the topic specifically, I'm really hesitant to see what happens. If the judges win wotc may just disband the judge program, and that's the end of Organized Play. If WotC wins then I'm expecting a lot of judges to get culled.
Who are volunteers? Based on the Supreme Court decisions and the federal Department of Labor interpretations, volunteers would be those who:
1. work without an expectation or receipt of compensation or benefits,
2. are not economically dependent on this position,
3. work on a less than full-time basis,
4. perform services of the kind typically associated with volunteer work (charitable purposes, such as help to minister to the comfort of the sick, elderly, indigent, infirm, or handicapped, and retarded or disadvantaged youth) and 5. who would not be displacing any paid workers.
A general rule emerges based on the criteria above: a “for profit” business (as opposed to a charity or a government employer) cannot use unpaid volunteers.
Judges do not perform charitable work and do, in fact, displace labor that otherwise would need to be paid for these tournaments to be operational (Referees in any professional sports league are paid)
If Hasbro actually tries to argue that judges are volunteers they will admit in court to a massive violation of labor law.
They volunteered. They knew the circumstances going in. Its not like you cant ask other judges what its like or do research. But now somehow its all "unfair".
Again, it is literally illegal to volunteer for Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. The only exception to this rule is that one is allowed to volunteer for public sector companies provided that the volunteer work performed has no relation to the work of the regular job within the company.
Also, the "class" being represented in this suit is Level 2 and above, so Wizards' attempt to distance themselves from the judges rings false especially considering the extremely draconian response to leakgate (Leakghazi?)
Seriously, if you ever did judging just to get "rewarded" you started judging for the wrong reasons.
It allways was more of a community service for your store at first, and thats what pretty much any lvl 1 judge is about.
Any reward for doing so is just nice extra.
However, any judge that does way more than that, especially in "professional" level events like a Grand Prix for multiple days and the Pro Tour has much different demands and expectations, as the time and work invested increases substantial.
But even then, you would expect any judge to do that as a hobby, for fun, not for rewards and especially not as a "job".
Judges are a community service, you can do tournaments without judges at all, but magic is big enough and theres enough judges around to make some quality standards.
It is literally against United States law to volunteer for a for-profit company.
I think running 4 deathcap cultivators 4 ruins in their wake is appropriate even at the risk of unstable mana/dork getting killed. The power of a turn 3 explosive vegetation is ridiculous and 8 ways to do it is worth the risk, in my opinion. That's actually an appeal of Traverse for me, its front side is really good at turning on Ruin
The hydra is good but suffers from 3 problems: cannot trigger kozileks return, cannot crack sanctum of ugin, and does not stabilize your board on etb (atarka). I think ramp simply has better creatures to play.
honestly you are better off starting with the current version of mono g ramp. Its focus is going over the top with early/mulitple world breakers and ulamogs .
Stampeding herd and reality smashers are not where you want to be in a deck focused to cast 10 drops. sam applies to the pump spells, more ramp would be better. Oath of nissa is also very good in mono g ramp.
explosive vege and hedron archive are both much better than the shaman
I've played the current version of mono g ramp. It plays quite a bit fewer threats than the list in the OP making it much more vulnerable to control decks playing lots of removal, it's atleast two turns slower, and it has some consistency issues (many games are lost to drawing too few threats (all of which are dealt with by your opponent's removal). For every game I won with that deck by dropping multiple 10 drops, I've lost two to either getting out aggroed very quickly by faster aggro decks, or out controlled by control decks that play more removal spells than you play threats.
I specifically built the deck in the OP to deal with the weaknesses of traditional ramp lists. That's why it plays more threats, more combat tricks and a smoother lower curve while remaining just as capable of winning with an Ulamog.
Mono G ramp and G/R ramp absolutely devours control. Not having many threats matters little when you cast world breaker over and over again. Not to mention Chandra puts quite the clock on the control player.
How on earth does ramp reliably enable delirium? Get two Oath of Nissas, get a dork killed, cast a ramp spell, and crack an evolving wilds? Ramp simply does not have the given tools to enable delirium until late game--at which point its better off with Sanctum of Ugin, or too late to matter.
No thoughts towards the Cathedral/Demon? spits out a dude every turn, if they don't deal with them, you can do a pretty good dark depths impression with an end step hasty flying indestructible 9/7
Answers to Hangarback Walker seem pretty good, especially answers that do other things. 4cmc hurts, like Utter End, but the other mode could make up for the loss of tempo.
Also highly consider playing 4 Smuggler's Copter. Just because it loots and and block other Copters. And kill walkers. seriously card is good
I think if we should look for inspiration, we should look at the Theros-era Heroic decks. They had the issue of drawing the right half of their deck to avoid being stuck with a bunch of pumps and no creatures. Unfortunately for us, we dont have a hexproof artifact, so we're not going to have that deck's resilience.
In brief according to http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp:
and the actual breakdown of the problem can be found in http://nycbusiness-solutions.com/post/41865147923/can-for-profit-businesses-use-volunteers-by-arina#.VxijYzArKhc
Judges do not perform charitable work and do, in fact, displace labor that otherwise would need to be paid for these tournaments to be operational (Referees in any professional sports league are paid)
If Hasbro actually tries to argue that judges are volunteers they will admit in court to a massive violation of labor law.
Again, it is literally illegal to volunteer for Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. The only exception to this rule is that one is allowed to volunteer for public sector companies provided that the volunteer work performed has no relation to the work of the regular job within the company.
Also, the "class" being represented in this suit is Level 2 and above, so Wizards' attempt to distance themselves from the judges rings false especially considering the extremely draconian response to leakgate (Leakghazi?)
It is literally against United States law to volunteer for a for-profit company.
Mono G ramp and G/R ramp absolutely devours control. Not having many threats matters little when you cast world breaker over and over again. Not to mention Chandra puts quite the clock on the control player.