Super exciting news. I'll be back on here more often, to read up any advice on upcoming format. Pros: bad formats are only up for a week. Cons: good formats are up only for a week.
Oh cheers, I had forgotten to continue reading that. Don't really enjoy reading books on a computer screen :/
Also, remember the amazingly large but not infinite damage puzzle you were doing? Saw a solution on reddit that is kind of ridiculous: http://imgur.com/ohpUfVt
2-2 in both Shadowmoor/Eventide sealeds. That format is so hard to deckbuild in.... In the first I was about 5 cards short of anything monocolor, so resorted to a Wr build with triple Unmake, Balefire Liege, Spectral Procession. It was good, but I lost to a deck that cast Murderous Redcap, Knollspine Dragon, Firespout, Necroskitter and Oona and then he claimed that wasn't even all of it! The 2nd one made me hate Soul Reap - I opened two, built a BW deck with Hallowed Burial, some Unmakes, but nothing really amazing overall. All four of my opponents were mostly green. Lost to Paanika's double Furystoke Giant, Murderous Redcap, Boggart Ram Gang... then died in the next round to an 18/18 Primalcrux + Fable of Wolf and Owl. So many bombs everywhere.
Yay, cube is back. Won one today with UBg Kiora Shackles control. Nothing completely busted, just Coalition Relic and solid mana. My opponent Eureka'd a bunch of permanents into play, but his Lodestone was Doomed when his Kozilek slipped tragically, that was kind of funny.
I still think exact same cost, P/T, colour but better, in a single block, should not happen. It certainly should not happens multiple times. A few more:
Well, it seemed to tapper off at the end. Still, the number of times we get identical cards except for one fewer or one more ability just feels bad.
[rant mode on]
That was what bothered me a lot too. So many lazy designs, where very similar cards already exist in the same set or block.... Travelling Philosopher and Stonewise Fortifier too. And then cards like the 6cmc +2/+2 and shock on etb aura - what is up with that? Is that worth 6 mana? Massively disappointed with what promised to be a huge home run. Millions of flavour fails "(long text)...lost in what seemed to the Champion to be thought" - that reads like some Year 10 aspiring writer who has not yet learned that less is more. If I was an English teacher, that sentence would fail the whole assignment. A common Godhunter Octopus. Sure, next set will probably see common vanilla Dragonhunters and Giantslayers. The holder of heavens, Atlas himself, is merely a rare, yet some random doublestriking trampler is a mythic. Nothing interesting has been done with Monstrosities either, other than the Hydra mother, seems they exhausted all the design space in THS.
I do not know what the next set has to be, but it better be good.
Just a random thought: the past few months have been full of flashback formats again. Have they noticed a drop in limited player numbers online and tried to bring us back this way?
Pyrokinesis is the red one. Contagion is black, Bounty of the Hunt is green, and Scars of the Veteran is the white one. No one ever remembers this one. How surprising, the white one gets the short end of the stick.
All the others see at least fringe play in legacy.
Also, you bought a loose pack from an older set - it is clear it doesn't have a force. Sadly, most of the older set packs are either searchable or boxes can be mapped. So never expect good pulls if you're buying loose packs.
Annoyingly, the forum software deleted card names 3 times or so while I was editing the post. :/
Regarding the game number change: I saw someone run some numbers for the PTs of the last year, and at at least one of them would have had a different winner. I think it was Martell who was 1-2 down in his quarters at PT:Gatecrash.
Bats, I find your arguments interesting, but they feel like they only hold to non-humans playing. Sideboarding is so flexible and P/D dependent. Also neither player is playing perfectly with full information, and might be bringing in ineffective cards vs the other. For example (although I might be mistaking some things), in the UWr vs UWr Twin match, Shaun brought in Stony Silence, a card that only shuts down Spellskite. It was a very unusual choice, as Shaun remarked that he is really afraid of it. However, after seeing this, the opponent can choose to take out Spellskites completely, because he might feel his primary plan does not involve them, and this would leave Shaun with dead cards. Matchups are very interesting and intricate.
It turns out not to matter. If Player A has two optimal mixed strategies A1 and A2 and Player B has two optimal mixed strategies B1 and B2 then your expected win rate playing A1 against B1 and A1 against B2 are the same. And likewise for A2.
Is this assuming rational and optimized behaviour? If so, this clearly does not apply for magic. Yep, I start to feel this is another argument between theory and practice.
So there's a modern GP happening right now.... the 1st place after swiss was Goryo's Vengeance combo, using Shoal as a draw engine.
Also, remember the amazingly large but not infinite damage puzzle you were doing? Saw a solution on reddit that is kind of ridiculous: http://imgur.com/ohpUfVt
2-2 in both Shadowmoor/Eventide sealeds. That format is so hard to deckbuild in.... In the first I was about 5 cards short of anything monocolor, so resorted to a Wr build with triple Unmake, Balefire Liege, Spectral Procession. It was good, but I lost to a deck that cast Murderous Redcap, Knollspine Dragon, Firespout, Necroskitter and Oona and then he claimed that wasn't even all of it! The 2nd one made me hate Soul Reap - I opened two, built a BW deck with Hallowed Burial, some Unmakes, but nothing really amazing overall. All four of my opponents were mostly green. Lost to Paanika's double Furystoke Giant, Murderous Redcap, Boggart Ram Gang... then died in the next round to an 18/18 Primalcrux + Fable of Wolf and Owl. So many bombs everywhere.
[rant mode on]
That was what bothered me a lot too. So many lazy designs, where very similar cards already exist in the same set or block.... Travelling Philosopher and Stonewise Fortifier too. And then cards like the 6cmc +2/+2 and shock on etb aura - what is up with that? Is that worth 6 mana? Massively disappointed with what promised to be a huge home run. Millions of flavour fails "(long text)...lost in what seemed to the Champion to be thought" - that reads like some Year 10 aspiring writer who has not yet learned that less is more. If I was an English teacher, that sentence would fail the whole assignment. A common Godhunter Octopus. Sure, next set will probably see common vanilla Dragonhunters and Giantslayers. The holder of heavens, Atlas himself, is merely a rare, yet some random doublestriking trampler is a mythic. Nothing interesting has been done with Monstrosities either, other than the Hydra mother, seems they exhausted all the design space in THS.
I do not know what the next set has to be, but it better be good.
Just a random thought: the past few months have been full of flashback formats again. Have they noticed a drop in limited player numbers online and tried to bring us back this way?
All the others see at least fringe play in legacy.
Also, you bought a loose pack from an older set - it is clear it doesn't have a force. Sadly, most of the older set packs are either searchable or boxes can be mapped. So never expect good pulls if you're buying loose packs.
Annoyingly, the forum software deleted card names 3 times or so while I was editing the post. :/
Bats, I find your arguments interesting, but they feel like they only hold to non-humans playing. Sideboarding is so flexible and P/D dependent. Also neither player is playing perfectly with full information, and might be bringing in ineffective cards vs the other. For example (although I might be mistaking some things), in the UWr vs UWr Twin match, Shaun brought in Stony Silence, a card that only shuts down Spellskite. It was a very unusual choice, as Shaun remarked that he is really afraid of it. However, after seeing this, the opponent can choose to take out Spellskites completely, because he might feel his primary plan does not involve them, and this would leave Shaun with dead cards. Matchups are very interesting and intricate.
Is this assuming rational and optimized behaviour? If so, this clearly does not apply for magic.
No idea what set they will be for, or if this even means anything.