- benjameenbear
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Member for 10 years, 1 month, and 6 days
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Jun 12, 2019benjameenbear posted a message on A New and Exciting BeginningThis is certainly an unexpected development. I know that MTGSalvation is a great site and has excellent memories. I am part of the group that will be heading over to the new site. I warmly wish all MTGSal users who choose to stay an excellent home!Posted in: Articles
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Nov 20, 2017benjameenbear posted a message on Jaya Ballard ReturnsBy the way, these are my favorite articles on the whole site. Thanks for linking the research together in a plausible way!Posted in: Articles
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I think this is a fantastic idea, but since the thread didn't receive any activity since 2016, I highly encourage you to start a new thread to discuss this matter!
Agreed with Pokken. Engine does so much ridiculous shenanigans on a consistent basis that it is, quite simply, one of the most powerful Artifacts to have been printed in a long time. Are you playing mana rocks/dorks? This card lets you refund your resources FOR FREE to cast any and all of your spells. It's one of the few cards that I've ever preordered and I haven't yet regretted my decision.
I think that Curious Obsession is a solid card and does replace at least some can-trips in the deck. Getting an Obsession on a 1 drop creature is incredibly powerful and gets even better with Modern's card pool. I realized that I don't have access to Snapcasters like I thought I did (must have sold them a while ago or traded them in?), so I need to tweak the list again anyways.
I see your logic with Disrupting Shoal. Perhaps a mix of Shoals and the newly printed Force of Negation is worthwhile? The scarier plays that we could see on T1 are almost all non-creature spells, generally speaking, so I do think that Force has a place in the format.
I think that Archmage's Charm is going to steal more permanents than initially thought. Snagging Champion of the Parish, Death's Shadow, Goblin Guide, Noble Hierarch, and Aether Vial are all legitimate targets for the Charm and are pretty swingy plays.
The Merfolk Tricksters are an experiment to see if they function as pseudo-removal spells; sometimes, we only need a creature to be tapped down in order to gain the Tempo needed to win. It may be that Cryptic Serpent is the better creature? A 6/5 is no joke and eats most of the relevant creatures across the other side of the field. It's essentially a removal spell that can get in for 2-4 points of damage normally, which is just enough to cross the finish line most of the time. Tapping down a flying blocker at the end step to get tempo with a live Delver, Pteramander, or Djinn seems really good. It also functions as an acceptable chump blocker when it needs to to buy more time.
I like that Tempest Djinn has high enough toughness and the right keyword to block a majority of the creatures in the format and gets better as the game goes long, so I think it should be a decent budget replacement of Thing in the Ice. It stonewalls Arclight Phoenix well and pressures life totals in large chunks when you've got Tempo control.
The super budget list that I'll be working from will look something more like this:
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Pteramander
3x Merfolk Trickster
4x Tempest Djinn
Instants (24)
4x Vapor Snag
4x Thought Scour
3x Serum Visions
4x Remand
3x Disrupting Shoal
2x Force of Negation
4x Archmage's Charm
4x Curious Obsession
Lands (18)
2x Field of Ruin
14x Island
2x Lonely Sandbar
4x Flashfreeze
2x Entrancing Melody
4x Mistcaller
3x Boomerang
2x Spell Pierce
Do note that this deck is mainly for kitchen table play with the occasional foray into a Modern tournament when time allows. I'm superstitious about playing 61 card decks, and I think the addition of more cantrips and the Sandbars will likely help smooth out any mana problems that may occur, both with flooding and in preventing mana screw. I hear the criticisms about Obsession, but I think that it's underrated currently
Put your Intro content here.
Put Your Commander Analysis here. I like using the List tags to sort out Pros and Cons and/or Strengths/Weaknesses.
We definitely recognize that your decklist has evolved over the months/years. This gives readers a road-map to your creation process and the roots of the deck and why it is today what it is.
Use the Deck Tags and Deck Builder Tool to create your decklist!
I also like to sort my decklists according to function and then separately according to card type, but that’s totally up to you.
This is the part where you can put up Tribal decklists, Budget decklists, different power level decklists, whatever.
Remember to use the Deck tags!
Do note that this section is optional and is not required for a Primer to be approved!
This is a section where you talk about individual card choices that are located in your decklist. I also recommend you include other popular cards that other users may have used and include a brief description as to why/why not you’re running X card.
Talk about what your deck is trying to do on a broader scale and your own personal philosophy to Commander and your Primer.
Do note that this section is optional and is not required for a Primer to be approved!
This is where you should talk about the nuts and bolts of how your decklist plays out.
Do you have a specific backup plan in case your primary strategy gets foiled?
This is where you would want to talk about these kinds of things.
The below sections WILL be looked for when you submit your Primer for the review process, so don't forget to include these sections in your Primer!
I personally enjoy reading about how Primers, and their respective strategies, match up against some of the more popular Commanders you play against IN YOUR PLAYGROUP or for Commander generally.
Do note that this section IS required for 1v1 Commander Primers and is NOT required for a Multi-Player Commander Primers!
I’m 100% confident that you didn’t build your Commander deck in a vacuum. This section is to give credit where it’s due and help you build a solid reputation.
Do note that this section is optional and is not required for a Primer to be approved!
Lastly, it’s fun to keep track of how your deck has changed and evolved as you have as a player. It also gives readers an idea of what cards you’ve already tried out.
I'll discuss it with the Primer Committee and see if it can be added to the Application thread for general users to reference.
There's some lessons to be learned from EDHRec and its SEO. I hope that the new site can form useful partnerships with additional/external sites so that the new site can truly be a haven for MTG users, particularly for the Commander format.
It's been my general observation that those applicants that are submitting Primers are generally putting in solid content, so that's rarely a concern for the Committee. We usually give it a solid read as is and 99.99% of the time the content is excellent. Rumpy's Feather Primer is a great example of this, as is your Phelddagrif Primer Dirk. I think you bring up a fair point that it would be useful and welcome to more critically look at the content of a Primer and offer praise/criticism as part of its formal review, but I think that your generalization is not fair. Granted, your Primer pre-dates my addition to the Primer Committee, so I can see why you'd feel justified in your assertion.
darrenhabib's Primers are a good example of why we don't have a formal template that we absolutely require in order to receive Primer status. His primers are much different than mine but are still well written, visually appealing, and thoughtful. A template is available and we reference it when warranted.
Some changes that have already occurred since my tenure in the Primer Committee, which post-dates after 3drinks' Primer submission(s), DirkGently's submission, and Rumpy's submission(s):
Put your Intro content here.
Put Your Commander Analysis here. I like using the List tags to sort out Pros and Cons and/or Strengths/Weaknesses.
Use the Deck Tags and Deck Builder Tool to create your decklist!
I also like to sort my decklists according to function and then separately according to card type, but that’s totally up to you.
This is the part where you can put up Tribal decklists, Budget decklists, different power level decklists, whatever.
Remember to use the Deck tags!
Talk about what your deck is trying to do on a broader scale and your own personal philosophy to Commander and your Primer.
This is where you should talk about the nuts and bolts of how your decklist plays out. What do you do in early turns of the game? What are some good opening hands?
What about the Mid-Game and Late-Game strategies?
Do you have a specific backup plan in case your primary strategy gets foiled?
This is where you would want to talk about these kinds of things.
This is a section where you talk about individual card choices that are located in your decklist. I also recommend you include other popular cards that other users may have used and include a brief description as to why/why not you’re running X card.
I personally enjoy reading about how Primers, and their respective strategies, match up against some of the more popular Commanders you play against IN YOUR PLAYGROUP or for Commander generally.
I’m 100% confident that you didn’t build your Commander deck in a vacuum. This section is to give credit where it’s due and help you build a solid reputation.
Lastly, it’s fun to keep track of how your deck has changed and evolved as you have as a player. It also gives readers an idea of what cards you’ve already tried out.
[/quote]
Sure, it might encourage a homogeneity of Primers but that's a separate issue (that I personally have no problem with, btw). By providing at least a template to applicants, we are reducing a significant complaint that has been presented within this thread, that of the time commitment of learning the coding required to make a visually appealing Primer. When I first submitted my Memnarch Primer, I too had to spend hours learning the coding tags of BBCode and it was laborious. My goal once I joined the Committee was to eliminate this concern as much as possible, hence the creation of the Primer template.
I have personally done real market research on why people don't like MTGSal as a platform. I've asked users on Discord and Facebook primarily, and my sample size was probably around 100 responses all said. The main attraction that regular users have to MTGSal as a site is because of the visually distinctive Primers and coding capabilities of the site, in addition to the improved community experience that MTGSal now offers (props to cryogen and other Mods for reducing the Flaming/Trolling that this site used to have). Because these are the qualities that differentiate MTGSal (and hopefully the new site) from other Commander platforms, it's important that the Commander Primers (which drive a majority of the traffic to this site in the first place) maintain that market-leading quality.
This is at least one valid justification of why the Primer Committee can appear to be "strict" about Primer submissions; the reasoning is directly related to what drives traffic to the Commander forums and MTGSal and thus ensured its continued existence. While this may have been conveyed poorly in the past and the criticisms of previous Committee members accordingly harsh, it was (usually) with the intent to ensure that the Primer, and consequently the site overall, received more views and traffic in comparison to its competitors. In the end, MTGSal is an asset and a business and the needs of the business have to come first. And the Primer Committee indirectly played a role in ensuring that the site was able to be viable by maintaining a quality Commander Primer that attracted users from a Google search about a specific Commander.
I realize that this site is closing its doors, and I'm legitimately sad to see it go for deeply personal reasons. It was a lifeline for me when I was getting sober 8.5 years ago because this site was so engaging for me, the community was so friendly, and the threads were usually well written. I've verbally committed to being a part of the new site that Feyd is building and will carry the collective suggestions brought up here to the new site. It's a chance to start over, which is a rare opportunity, and the Primer Committee members who have committed to being a part of the new site are an excellent group of people who are genuinely trying to help our applicants create the best Primer possible, both for quality reasons and for site specific reasons.
I hope that this novel of a post helps to convey the fact that the Mods and the Primer Committee actually hear and respond to the comments and suggestions that are mentioned. In order not to derail the thread further, I encourage everyone to either PM a member of the Primer Committee or create a separate thread so that we can keep track of the suggestions more efficiently.
Kindly,
benjameenbear
Yeah, still trying to find room for Unwinding Clock. Not sure what I should cut, although Skyship Weatherlight is a likely candidate, even as sad of a flavor loss that is.
I'd rather play Spell Pierce or Flusterstorm over Essence Flux, if you're trying to protect Urza. They have a larger range of uses than simply protecting Urza from spot removal effects.
Yeah, Force of Negation is duh as is Prismatic Vista. I'm still unclear on how Urza could/should fit in the decklist. He makes a body to block Tymna, which is ALWAYS relevant, and turns our Stax pieces into Moxen. And while we aren't playing Paradox Engine to really break him, Urza might be good enough to include the Engine into the deck. I think I'm personally going to try it out, since there is now a critical mass of pieces to get an Engine Storm turn in this deck. I really do think that it's now possible to have a unified mono-Blue cEDH core list, so I'm a fan of trying to get Teferi optimized for Paradox Engine.