Very nice article, I appreciate the effort that went into this!
Mandatory Disclaimer: I am an attorney. However, nothing I say is to be construed as legal advice and you should always seek the advice of your own attorney before you make important decisions.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I am not sure that the doctrine of Promissory Estoppel is even required to hold WoTC to its promises as expressed in the Reserved List. One of my favorite textbook contract cases is Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company. I think it is also a strong contender for most awesome case name ever.
Since I'm sure few people derive joy from reading 100+ year old cases like I do, here's the scoop:
In its advertisements, the Company promised to pay 100 Pounds Sterling to any customer who used their product as directed and contracted a respiratory disease. Was that an enforceable contract? The Court said yes, because it "contained all the elements of a legally binding offer (promise)" and "no one who read the advertisement would suppose that the Company was not willing to pay as promised."
Today, most courts are not as hung up on strict legal elements of Offer - Acceptance for a particular promise to be legally binding. I think that the Reserved list could be considered in the vein of the Carbolic type offer. It is not limited in duration and is offered freely to the public. Implied in the very nature of the List is the following Offer - "If you buy our products, you can be certain that we will not reprint the following cards." The key point is that my simple act of buying the product serves as valid acceptance of a binding contract. It's somewhat like a an implied Warranty.
The measure of resulting damages would not be a problem either. Expectation damages are the typical measure in contract cases, i.e. the difference between my expected return and my actual return. If I buy Underground Sea at $250 and am only able to sell for $50 because of an arguable Reserved List violation, I am out $200. That would be my damages against WoTC. Multiply that by thousands in a potential class action, and you have a serious legal headache for the Company.
I am sure that for reasons of potential liability alone, their lawyers wish they had never published the List... Note that other CCG companies have not followed their example.
-
- cyrus101sa
- Registered User
-
Member for 8 years, 7 months, and 12 days
Last active Mon, May, 1 2017 00:39:46
- 0 Followers
- 26 Total Posts
- 2 Thanks
Also, Contamination is really, really strong but doesn't play nicely with the heavy White requirements in this deck. I tried it out but wasn't that pleased.
Finally - since I have been playing a very similar decklist, I would warn you - you have to get some kind of lock in place by around turn 5 or you *WILL* lose to fast combo. Don't underestimate how quickly a deck like Sidisi or Jeleva Storm can blow you out.
I considered this in my list, but it seems to be a very color-hungry deck. Lots of WW and BB costs. (BBB even... Necropotence) If you have ALL the dual lands, I would consider it for inclusion.
Anguished Unmaking and Vindicate are close to strictly better than Mortify. Especially considering that you will often need to hit powerful lands like opposing Coffers or Gaea's Cradle, I would personally go with good ol' Vindy.
If you want a Anthem effect to buff lands under March of the Machines or Opalescence (which you really should include... so many lulz with Enchanted Evening) then I would recommend either Marshal's Anthem or Dictate of Heliod. Marshal's Anthem obviously lets you recur fun stuff from your grave, and can often win you games you have no business winning if you play it at the right time with plenty of mana. Dictate of Heliod you can flash in on somebody else's turn in response to removal. +2/+2 is nothing to sneeze at either. Beatdown with a horde of 2/2 enchantment-artifact-lands while everyone else's lands go to the trashbin as a state-based effect? Yes please, sign me up!!
Whoops! I wasn't clear there. I meant play both seedborn muse and sword of feast and famine. But the way I play my list is incredibly mana greedy. My typical plan is just to get to 20+ mana and then figure out a way to win, lol.
Why not play both? IMO the only limiting factor for Marath is mana. Also I think SFM is strictly better because it's Survival fodder when you don't need it, and can be tutored up when you do. In fact, every time you can play a creature for a similar effect, I would argue that it's preferable to do so.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=58122
Maindeck:
Artifact Creatures
3 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
Instants
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
Planeswalkers
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Liliana of the Veil
Sorceries
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Toxic Deluge
Basic Lands
1 Forest
1 Swamp
Lands
2 Bayou
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
Sideboard:
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Null Rod
3 Meddling Mage
2 Disfigure
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Hymn to Tourach
3 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Scrubland
I have to say, I really, really like this list. The only thing that strikes me as a possible mistake is the lack of Thoughtseize in the mainboard. But it could be a meta call. Obviously it was right for the tournament. I like the consistent plan and numbers. I also think 2 basics and one Tar Pit are the correct numbers for the manabase.
My understanding, which seems to be confirmed by quite a bit of recent testing online, is that the ban of Dig means less OmniTell and more Delver and other "fair" decks back in the meta. Shardless Sultai is known to be quite good against those "fair" decks. I'm about to do some testing with Shardless, so I'll be sure to report how that goes. I know that I won a decent amount against Shardless with my Stoneblade deck recently, but I can't be sure if those games/lists were representative.
BTW - Does anyone have a reliable recent list? The ones I'm seeing are all over the place.
Absolutely agree. The best way to improve your Legacy performance is just to play a lot of games against many different decks. Playing a number of those decks yourself is very important too. I recommend extensive testing on Cockatrice and see what appeals to you. It's like test-driving expensive cars before you buy... just a smart decision.
Can anyone provide some tips on how to SB this list? What do you take out for Ad Nauseam? When do you board in Abrupt Decay and do you board out some number of Therapies or Duress for it?
Sneak Attack (Against Sneak and Show... you can Pyroblast their Show and Tell)
Lion's Eye Diamond (Storm or Dredge. This play is a lot more effective than you might think. Often you only need to buy one more turn to win.)
That being said, if you are really concerned about ANT or other Storm combo, I would board like this:
2-3x Thorn of Amethyst
3x Mindbreak Trap
OR, if you are playing black then:
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Thoughtseize
Can REALLY ruin a Storm player's day. Make sure to practice a few rounds beforehand on Cockatrice or something if you can. Cabal Therapy is a card that benefits immensely from practice.
EDIT:
You can also run Chalice of the Void 2-3 in place of any of the cards listed above. Chalice = 1 is pretty much a game loss for Storm. But if they have the nut draw, Mindbreak Trap will be stronger.