I don't see a huge problem with this law. I don't see how there is a major infringement on people's rights. This law does not say that the government "owns" one's body or corpse. It does say that the government can assume one's opinion about certain issues unless the person says otherwise. Which isn't actually that different than the status quo. I don't see how the government saying I can't give my organs if I forget to check "yes" is significantly more intrusive than the government saying I must give my organs if I forget to check "no".
In addition, it seems that many other countries have done it and there has been no major complications.
@TheFlamingoking
Honestly, arguing over the statistic is not going to lead anywhere unless more supporting evidence is brought in. However I don't think you can assume that the fact that only 13% of people are registered in New York means that they don't want to be organ donors. It's possible that they would donate their organs if asked, but are too busy to go through the process. Especially if they don't have driver's licenses.
For many people, organ donation is the last thing on their mind, but that doesn't make assuming that they don't want their organs donated better than assuming they would. In fact, I believe that more often than not people are too lazy to put in effort various things they don't consider of the utmost importance. I used to volunteer for voter registration efforts, you'd be surprised to see how many people are not registered. Their main justification was that they were too busy not that they didn't want to vote. However if we were to look at the statistic they fall under, by your logic we should assume that those people simply are against voting.
@Education
Why is it better to educate people about their "right to" versus their "right not to". Increased Education benefits the people no matter what the law says.
I like the idea of this deck and believe that it's going to get a great boost from Scars and M11. A few opinions:
-I think room should be made for Esperzoa. I would cut the Sphinxes for starters, probably a shieldmage too.
-I'd cut the Oust for another Spreading Seas, this deck has the potential to cause a lot of mana disruption, that fact should be capitalized upon.
-In the same vein, I haven't tested the deck at all, but I'm not a fan of the manabase. There is no reason to run cards like Wanderwine Hub when you have zero merfolk. You should replace it with Mystic Gate. I also think you should find a way to run at least one more tectonic edge.
The second article mentions that police officers are encouraged to "issue a warning" the first time. At least police have breadth to use their own judgment
My thoughts: I'm not sure that this law will have the huge impact that many people seem to fear. If one is willing to take their spouse through the entire court process, the abuse, or at least the relationship must be pretty bad in the first place. I feel that most people won't want the court/police involved in their relationships unless it's absolutely necessary. Many organizations already have enough trouble getting people to report physical abuse. My only concern is that verbal abuse is hard to prove. However, if the abuse is loud enough or common enough that there are actually witnesses, maybe that's enough in itself?
So what do you guys think about the ground this law is opening up? Psychological violence can ruin or even end a person's life, especially if it comes from a person the victim cares about. What is the best approach to handling psychological abuse? Are laws necessary? Is any new action necessary?
This is an Aggro Deck named after a pop group that was famous in the 60-70's. This deck can hit hard and fast, or punch through the midgame with CA and efficient creatures.
Tarmogoyf- He is exceptionally potent in a deck featuring early discard. It is not uncommon for him to come down as a 3/4 on turn two, and he only gets larger from there.
Putrid Leech- Another really good Beater/Blocker. The fetch-dual manabases as well as the raw power of Dark Confidant made him a generally poor choice for G/B and G/B/x decks due to the life loss. Now that manabases are relatively painless, and the overall life cost of Black based aggro decks has declined, I see no reason not to run him
Vampire Nighthawk- He's here mainly to offset the life loss, but his flying and deathtouch means that there will be many occasion in which he'll go beyond the call of duty, all in all, a very solid creature.
Gatekeeper of Malakir-Not as strong in a format dominated by bitterblossom. However, that seems not to be the kind of format we find ourselves in during the next few months. Aggro Decks running the Punishing Grove combo seem to have temporarily moved faeries to the backburner. Anyway, even with bitterblossom, the large number of threats means that the opponent will be on the defensive. If they are forced to sacrifice their 1/1 token, their likely to either be forced to let some damage in, or block with one of thier "real creatures". It's not a perfect situation by any means, but he's not a dead card even in the face of bitterblossom( He is dead weight in the tokens match up though)
Hag Hedge-Mage- I've always felt that this card has been bit underrated. She was rightfully overshadowed by Eternal Witness , but with the witness gone, it's the Hag's turn to shine. She forces your opponent to discard and returns a threat or kill spell to the top of your library.
Chameleon Colossus- I was looking for a beater to top out the curve. I briefly considered Abyssal Persecutor, remembered the changeling, and never looked back. He's quite difficult for the most popular decks to kill and he can also swing as an 8/8 if need be. His form of evasion is lackluster, but he ignores black tokens, Dorans etc.
Spells
Maelstrom Pulse- This decks catch all answer, it cures what ails yah.
Thoughtseize/ Inquisition- Helps disrupt your opponent's early gameplan enough to generate a favorable board position for yourself.
Sign in Blood- The best gas aggressive black decks have at the moment
Smother- You just can't have all your killin' be at sorcery speed.
Land
-The only card worth mentioning is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It enables you to focus of fetching forests in order to maximize the effect of the Hedge-Mage.
Sideboard
There are a lot of solid options Kitchen finks and infest for weenie and token decks, Mind sludge as well as Sadistic Sacrament and Extirpate for control decks. Great Stable Stag also helps against faeries. Tendrils of Corruption is really solid against other mid range decks.
Why not just play Jund?
While Jund has better CA, The Bee Gees has better support cards in the form of all of the powerful spells normally reserved for mono black decks. Basically, I believe it has the potential to have better games 2 and 3 against a lot of the format.
The central tenet of many faiths includes the belief that a certain set of writings are either divinely inspired or are necessary instructions for living a good life, getting into heaven, developing a community, etc. The liberal followers of a religion will be quicker to dispose of parts of this writing that are unpleasant, while the fundamentalist extremist takes every word as seriously as they are meant to. When justifying their faith, the fundamentalist who follows their book word for word has much better justification than the one who picks and chooses.
What makes you think Fundamentalists don't pick and choose? Why do they tend to focus on "Homosexuality is a sin!" rather than "Hate the sin, but not the sinner"( I'm not even referring to marriage, there are many places in the U.S. where it's simply not ok to be gay)? Why do they often have pictures of a Jesus who looks like he's from western Europe when he was Middle Eastern? Ironically, fundamentalist tend to "pick and choose" in many ways that are just as blatant as liberals.
The article Sibtiger posted made the protesters lose credibility in my eyes. I don't see how they're fueled by anything else other than bigotry due to ignorance.
Wait, how does the deck get rocked by Teeg? I see no noncreature spells that cost 4 or more.
Also, with only 4 Eldrazi, how often to you even see one? Maybe you could cut one of each and a Birds for Congregation at Dawn? It also works well with bloodbraid elf. If not that, then you probably should run more eldrazi.
I also agree that you should go a more controlish route. I don't see how you'll be able to race anything...
I hope they push it further back to incorporate Mirage block, personally, if this pans out to be true.
I don't think they'll go that far back, they'll still have problems with the reserve list. Also, the further they go back, the less attractive legacy becomes.
I'm not sure how I feel about this, it seems like it will draw a lot of people away from Extended and Legacy. I would play this format over extended(which I like most now) and I don't really see much reason for new players to even enter legacy if this is true.
but it might be worth it if I can play pernicious deed again w/o having to buy duals...
The first thing that needs to be done is to map out the ways this combo is better then the other "two mana card" combo decks. One is certainly the ability to aggressively play Moon effects. Possibly maindeck, but definitely among the 75.
How about Training Grounds in that Izzet Guildmage combo deck that pops up every now and then? Now it can win off of manamorphose alone in addition to the normal desperate ritual splice trick.
You should definitely look into white or black. Wildfire is not the sweeper it use to be. Tarmogoyfs, KotRs and Baneslayers laugh at (and in many cases are empowered by Wildfire. Your going to need some solid removal. White also offers some of the best planeswalkers to have after a Wildfre. You can also experiment with Ghostly Prison and Magus of the Tabernacle ;).
But test test, maybe the counters and burn are enough and green is the way to go.
Thanks for the pointers:
I do think that each of the spells should get a rarity bump to start.
Preempt was definitely inspired by abeyance, but I wasn't quite sure how to balance it. The card reminds me of Browbeat, which never saw any play because it gave the opponent control over the effect. While Abeyance will always do exactly what you want, Preempt wont always. While it's really strong on turn two. After that it's not as good.
How about:
Preempt 1U
uncommon
Play only during an opponents turn.
Counter the next spell that an opponent would play this turn.
If no spell is countered this way, draw a card.
I also like the idea of simply removing the cantrip
Preempt 1U
Common
Instant
Counter the next spell an opponent would cast this turn.
Draw a card.
(Not sure if this is worded right)
Brigale's Ruse 2UU
Uncommon
Instant
Counter the next spell an opponent would cast this turn. If no spell is countered this way, draw two cards.
Draw a card.
Saurian Broodback G
?
Creature- Lizard
When Saurian Broodback is put into a graveyard from anywhere,
put two 1/1 green insect tokens into play
0/1
This card is cool, but not that playable. If I want an aggro creature I'll play baloth first. If I want mana ramp I'll just play that new leveler card. Consistency is much more important than variety. Not saying I wouldn't consider this at all, but it would definitely be after I maxed out my other options.
In addition, it seems that many other countries have done it and there has been no major complications.
@TheFlamingoking
Honestly, arguing over the statistic is not going to lead anywhere unless more supporting evidence is brought in. However I don't think you can assume that the fact that only 13% of people are registered in New York means that they don't want to be organ donors. It's possible that they would donate their organs if asked, but are too busy to go through the process. Especially if they don't have driver's licenses.
For many people, organ donation is the last thing on their mind, but that doesn't make assuming that they don't want their organs donated better than assuming they would. In fact, I believe that more often than not people are too lazy to put in effort various things they don't consider of the utmost importance. I used to volunteer for voter registration efforts, you'd be surprised to see how many people are not registered. Their main justification was that they were too busy not that they didn't want to vote. However if we were to look at the statistic they fall under, by your logic we should assume that those people simply are against voting.
@Education
Why is it better to educate people about their "right to" versus their "right not to". Increased Education benefits the people no matter what the law says.
-I think room should be made for Esperzoa. I would cut the Sphinxes for starters, probably a shieldmage too.
-I'd cut the Oust for another Spreading Seas, this deck has the potential to cause a lot of mana disruption, that fact should be capitalized upon.
-In the same vein, I haven't tested the deck at all, but I'm not a fan of the manabase. There is no reason to run cards like Wanderwine Hub when you have zero merfolk. You should replace it with Mystic Gate. I also think you should find a way to run at least one more tectonic edge.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6938961/France-to-criminalise-shouting-at-your-wife.html
The second article mentions that police officers are encouraged to "issue a warning" the first time. At least police have breadth to use their own judgment
My thoughts: I'm not sure that this law will have the huge impact that many people seem to fear. If one is willing to take their spouse through the entire court process, the abuse, or at least the relationship must be pretty bad in the first place. I feel that most people won't want the court/police involved in their relationships unless it's absolutely necessary. Many organizations already have enough trouble getting people to report physical abuse. My only concern is that verbal abuse is hard to prove. However, if the abuse is loud enough or common enough that there are actually witnesses, maybe that's enough in itself?
So what do you guys think about the ground this law is opening up? Psychological violence can ruin or even end a person's life, especially if it comes from a person the victim cares about. What is the best approach to handling psychological abuse? Are laws necessary? Is any new action necessary?
Creatures:
Tarmogoyf- He is exceptionally potent in a deck featuring early discard. It is not uncommon for him to come down as a 3/4 on turn two, and he only gets larger from there.
Putrid Leech- Another really good Beater/Blocker. The fetch-dual manabases as well as the raw power of Dark Confidant made him a generally poor choice for G/B and G/B/x decks due to the life loss. Now that manabases are relatively painless, and the overall life cost of Black based aggro decks has declined, I see no reason not to run him
Vampire Nighthawk- He's here mainly to offset the life loss, but his flying and deathtouch means that there will be many occasion in which he'll go beyond the call of duty, all in all, a very solid creature.
Gatekeeper of Malakir-Not as strong in a format dominated by bitterblossom. However, that seems not to be the kind of format we find ourselves in during the next few months. Aggro Decks running the Punishing Grove combo seem to have temporarily moved faeries to the backburner. Anyway, even with bitterblossom, the large number of threats means that the opponent will be on the defensive. If they are forced to sacrifice their 1/1 token, their likely to either be forced to let some damage in, or block with one of thier "real creatures". It's not a perfect situation by any means, but he's not a dead card even in the face of bitterblossom( He is dead weight in the tokens match up though)
Hag Hedge-Mage- I've always felt that this card has been bit underrated. She was rightfully overshadowed by Eternal Witness , but with the witness gone, it's the Hag's turn to shine. She forces your opponent to discard and returns a threat or kill spell to the top of your library.
Chameleon Colossus- I was looking for a beater to top out the curve. I briefly considered Abyssal Persecutor, remembered the changeling, and never looked back. He's quite difficult for the most popular decks to kill and he can also swing as an 8/8 if need be. His form of evasion is lackluster, but he ignores black tokens, Dorans etc.
Spells
Maelstrom Pulse- This decks catch all answer, it cures what ails yah.
Thoughtseize/ Inquisition- Helps disrupt your opponent's early gameplan enough to generate a favorable board position for yourself.
Sign in Blood- The best gas aggressive black decks have at the moment
Smother- You just can't have all your killin' be at sorcery speed.
Land
-The only card worth mentioning is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It enables you to focus of fetching forests in order to maximize the effect of the Hedge-Mage.
Sideboard
There are a lot of solid options Kitchen finks and infest for weenie and token decks, Mind sludge as well as Sadistic Sacrament and Extirpate for control decks. Great Stable Stag also helps against faeries. Tendrils of Corruption is really solid against other mid range decks.
Why not just play Jund?
While Jund has better CA, The Bee Gees has better support cards in the form of all of the powerful spells normally reserved for mono black decks. Basically, I believe it has the potential to have better games 2 and 3 against a lot of the format.
What makes you think Fundamentalists don't pick and choose? Why do they tend to focus on "Homosexuality is a sin!" rather than "Hate the sin, but not the sinner"( I'm not even referring to marriage, there are many places in the U.S. where it's simply not ok to be gay)? Why do they often have pictures of a Jesus who looks like he's from western Europe when he was Middle Eastern? Ironically, fundamentalist tend to "pick and choose" in many ways that are just as blatant as liberals.
The article Sibtiger posted made the protesters lose credibility in my eyes. I don't see how they're fueled by anything else other than bigotry due to ignorance.
Also, with only 4 Eldrazi, how often to you even see one? Maybe you could cut one of each and a Birds for Congregation at Dawn? It also works well with bloodbraid elf. If not that, then you probably should run more eldrazi.
I also agree that you should go a more controlish route. I don't see how you'll be able to race anything...
I don't think they'll go that far back, they'll still have problems with the reserve list. Also, the further they go back, the less attractive legacy becomes.
but it might be worth it if I can play pernicious deed again w/o having to buy duals...
-You've got it.
The first thing that needs to be done is to map out the ways this combo is better then the other "two mana card" combo decks. One is certainly the ability to aggressively play Moon effects. Possibly maindeck, but definitely among the 75.
But test test, maybe the counters and burn are enough and green is the way to go.
I do think that each of the spells should get a rarity bump to start.
Preempt was definitely inspired by abeyance, but I wasn't quite sure how to balance it. The card reminds me of Browbeat, which never saw any play because it gave the opponent control over the effect. While Abeyance will always do exactly what you want, Preempt wont always. While it's really strong on turn two. After that it's not as good.
How about:
Preempt 1U
uncommon
Play only during an opponents turn.
Counter the next spell that an opponent would play this turn.
If no spell is countered this way, draw a card.
I also like the idea of simply removing the cantrip
Common
Instant
Counter the next spell an opponent would cast this turn.
Draw a card.
(Not sure if this is worded right)
Brigale's Ruse 2UU
Uncommon
Instant
Counter the next spell an opponent would cast this turn. If no spell is countered this way, draw two cards.
Draw a card.
Saurian Broodback G
?
Creature- Lizard
When Saurian Broodback is put into a graveyard from anywhere,
put two 1/1 green insect tokens into play
0/1
I'll probably add more later