I initially planned on my wife and kid tagging along for this but they have decided to stay home this weekend. Before I book a hotel does anyone have a room I can split with them or something similar?
I can only assume from your cavalier attitude that you have yet to partake of the wonderment that is the Juicy Lucy. Let me enlighten you. What happens is the One True God grows them on trees in the Elysian Fields using a heretofore unused incantation. He then proceeds to magic them down to Matts Bar or the 5-8 Club (depending on who you ask) where whatever Ghetto Bastard cook they have rescued from welfare that week proceeds to wrap it in cellophane and pass it along to you, the fortunate consumer. You proceed to ingest this finery in the vain hope that your obviously overmatched taste buds can somehow grasp the delectable intricacies it is suddenly faced with. Is that tomato? Why yes it is, and lettuce too. But wait–they didn’t add…yes they did, yes they did indeed. They added cheese. As your taste buds try to process that amazing piece of information, IT hits them…the volcanic cheese center. THE CHEESE CENTER. It announces itself with a burst of confectionery grandiosity the likes of your which your palate has never seen.
You can get them at the 5-8 club or Matts Bar. Both are within an easy (and cheap) cab drive away depending where you are staying.
As for attractions, Minneapolis has a lot of cool things. The art sculpture park in Loring park is awesome. Just walking the Skyway itself is awesome I think. What are your favorite non-magic activies? Maybe that'll help.
I didn't say "drop it and wait it out." I said that it makes your 6 other spells that more relevant. We should be able to win ANY race with nearly ANY deck outside of various "all in" aggro decks. EotGR allows you to race while being more efficient. To say that it hurts us is like saying Delver decks that run Snapcaster and Young Pyromancer are bad because those two critters don't flip delver.
First I should explain my rationale and deck building philosophy for burn. I believe in proactive patience as a burn player e.g. resolving seven (7) spells in the most efficient and resilient way possible (under countermagic, end steps, response to effects like lifegain or while they are tapped out.) I think watching our spells get countered or wasted is the same as a Delver player 10 spells and a Frost Titan.
I know, I know. “But f1r3wa11, isn’t that the goal of any deck – resolve spells?” Yes it is randomly critical MTGS User. But what’s different for us is that we only have Virtual Card Advantage (VCA) which means we are extremely glasscannony in terms of resolved spells. We don’t have “resilient” threats rather, quick threats.
Remember, our point is to resolve 7 spells. That can happen in 4 turns or 15 but it must happen for us to win. I use to manage a 4.5 Million dollar store for a huge national company. We were near the top of the company month in and month out and the ONLY advice I ever told my sales staff was this: Close 5 out of 10 customers the first time you talk to them and you’ll make every one of your Sales Quota’s, make 60k+ a year and be a very happy American. Burn is the same way- resolve 7 spells in the most efficient way possible and you’ll win 80-90% of your games, day 2 events and be a very happy burn player. Some people just won’t buy the first time and sometimes they’ll have turn 3 Kitchen Finks, turn 4 Finks, turn 5 Resto Angel. That’s a thing and we’ll have to win those games in difficult fashion but here’s the thing: we put cards in our decks to increase our chance of winning. If you think any of your cards don’t increase that chance then why run it? We have to expect common chances, not the good or bad chances.
Why the rant? Because that’s what Eidolon of the Great Revel does: it generates a favorable outcome for us so that we can resolve 6 other spells in a more efficient manner to win the game. Take a second and think about every “tier 1” deck in the format? What do they have in common? Efficient threats, efficient removal and an efficient game plan to win once they have a good board state. What does EotGR do? Prevent that from happening. Turn 1 Goblin Guide is 25x more problematic when EotGR is your turn 2 play. But that’s assuming your best possible curve. Let’s assume you don’t have a great curve and you draw him turn 4. You’ve got your opponent down to 11 life and then resolve this guy. You not only have a beater on the ground but suddenly that removal they’ve been wanting to use but have to think twice now because if they resolve that then they take 2 and suddenly are at 9 life and that’s untap, upkeep, draw BOLT BOLT BOLT. Or let’s look at the damage to CMC ratio. He gets cast and takes a path. That’s 2 damage for 2 mana. Not great. Although it’s better than searing blaze being a 1 damage for 2 mana. Or 3 damage for 2 mana. Yes, yes I know – “but f1r3wa11, you forgot that SB also takes out a creature silly!”. I know but we’re talking about face damage here ☺. Now, let’s assume that I play turn 2 EotGR and they crack a fetch, pull a shock and then cost lightning bolt. They took 4 damage for 2 mana. I like that. 3 damage for 2 mana isn’t horrible either. If it resolves and swings for 2 then suddenly it’s more efficient than Lightning Bolt. Remember about resolving the most efficient burn spell equating game wins? This does that- extremely well. This is why Pyrostatic Pillar is SO popular in burn sideboards. And this is why it’ll be maindecked for us. It does everything we want our resilient threats to do.
As for Satyr, it allows us to make no efficient removal (like Lava Spike) matter against creature decks like Merfolk, Vampires, UR agro, Zoo and the sort. It helps in the UR agro matchup more than I’ll ever admit and it keeps zoo in check to a point that they can normally suicide themselves down to a bolt bolt game if I play careful enough.
I'm know Minneapolis extremely well as I lived there for years and now visit for work almost weekly. If anyone has any questions or anything feel free to touch base with me :).
Because it's pretty much strictly better in corner case scenarios that could cost you the game. In all fairness I could see and have tested 4 confluence, 4 City, x orbidden Orchard and maindecking 4 Searing Blood, 4 Searing Blaze. However I've found that I don't like Orchards putting 1/1 into play and blocking my Guides.
Also, anyone wanna meet up Friday night?
This is a pretty good link for stuff: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g43323-Activities-Minneapolis_Minnesota.html
I personally love Sea Life. I take my kid there all the time.
You can get them at the 5-8 club or Matts Bar. Both are within an easy (and cheap) cab drive away depending where you are staying.
As for attractions, Minneapolis has a lot of cool things. The art sculpture park in Loring park is awesome. Just walking the Skyway itself is awesome I think. What are your favorite non-magic activies? Maybe that'll help.
I know, I know. “But f1r3wa11, isn’t that the goal of any deck – resolve spells?” Yes it is randomly critical MTGS User. But what’s different for us is that we only have Virtual Card Advantage (VCA) which means we are extremely glasscannony in terms of resolved spells. We don’t have “resilient” threats rather, quick threats.
Remember, our point is to resolve 7 spells. That can happen in 4 turns or 15 but it must happen for us to win. I use to manage a 4.5 Million dollar store for a huge national company. We were near the top of the company month in and month out and the ONLY advice I ever told my sales staff was this: Close 5 out of 10 customers the first time you talk to them and you’ll make every one of your Sales Quota’s, make 60k+ a year and be a very happy American. Burn is the same way- resolve 7 spells in the most efficient way possible and you’ll win 80-90% of your games, day 2 events and be a very happy burn player. Some people just won’t buy the first time and sometimes they’ll have turn 3 Kitchen Finks, turn 4 Finks, turn 5 Resto Angel. That’s a thing and we’ll have to win those games in difficult fashion but here’s the thing: we put cards in our decks to increase our chance of winning. If you think any of your cards don’t increase that chance then why run it? We have to expect common chances, not the good or bad chances.
Why the rant? Because that’s what Eidolon of the Great Revel does: it generates a favorable outcome for us so that we can resolve 6 other spells in a more efficient manner to win the game. Take a second and think about every “tier 1” deck in the format? What do they have in common? Efficient threats, efficient removal and an efficient game plan to win once they have a good board state. What does EotGR do? Prevent that from happening. Turn 1 Goblin Guide is 25x more problematic when EotGR is your turn 2 play. But that’s assuming your best possible curve. Let’s assume you don’t have a great curve and you draw him turn 4. You’ve got your opponent down to 11 life and then resolve this guy. You not only have a beater on the ground but suddenly that removal they’ve been wanting to use but have to think twice now because if they resolve that then they take 2 and suddenly are at 9 life and that’s untap, upkeep, draw BOLT BOLT BOLT. Or let’s look at the damage to CMC ratio. He gets cast and takes a path. That’s 2 damage for 2 mana. Not great. Although it’s better than searing blaze being a 1 damage for 2 mana. Or 3 damage for 2 mana. Yes, yes I know – “but f1r3wa11, you forgot that SB also takes out a creature silly!”. I know but we’re talking about face damage here ☺. Now, let’s assume that I play turn 2 EotGR and they crack a fetch, pull a shock and then cost lightning bolt. They took 4 damage for 2 mana. I like that. 3 damage for 2 mana isn’t horrible either. If it resolves and swings for 2 then suddenly it’s more efficient than Lightning Bolt. Remember about resolving the most efficient burn spell equating game wins? This does that- extremely well. This is why Pyrostatic Pillar is SO popular in burn sideboards. And this is why it’ll be maindecked for us. It does everything we want our resilient threats to do.
As for Satyr, it allows us to make no efficient removal (like Lava Spike) matter against creature decks like Merfolk, Vampires, UR agro, Zoo and the sort. It helps in the UR agro matchup more than I’ll ever admit and it keeps zoo in check to a point that they can normally suicide themselves down to a bolt bolt game if I play careful enough.
Hopefully that helped.
I'm know Minneapolis extremely well as I lived there for years and now visit for work almost weekly. If anyone has any questions or anything feel free to touch base with me :).
4 Arid Mesa
4 Mana Confluence
4 Mountain
2 Blackcleave cliffs
3 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
12 Creatures
4 Vexing Devil
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
28 Other Spells
4 Skullcrack
3 Searing Blaze
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lavaspike
4 Bump in the night
4 Boros Charm
2 Hands of the blood hand
2 Wear//Tear
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Satyr Firedancer
2 Rest in piece
2 Stony Silence
4 Arid Mesa
4 Mana Confluence
4 Mountain
2 Blackcleave cliffs
3 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
12 Creatures
4 Vexing Devil
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
28 Other Spells
4 Skullcrack
3 Searing Blaze
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lavaspike
4 Bump in the night
4 Boros Charm
2 Hands of the blood hand
2 Wear//Tear
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Satyr Firedancer
2 Rest in piece
2 Stony Silence
I've also been testing a RDW version more creature centric however that testing is more limited since Journey to Nyx isn't MODO legal yet.