This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game: Worldwake in Limited. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Deck seems cold to GR Scapeshift, and elves, and living end, and DD/thopter (the vesion that plays both.
have you tested any of these? if modo and live ptq results are any indication then i think this deck would be less then a great choice...
I've tested quite a bit against U/G/R Scapeshift and Thopter. Definately not cold to them. I tested a bit against elves. Again, not really cold. Why would I be? I run a crap-ton of burn. And they don't go off as fast as they used to (no turn two, now turn three). as for dark depths, that's a deck on the decline, though GerryT may be responsible for an upswing--but then, the matchup is very similar to the Thopter matchup. I have not tested living end at all. Do you have a decklist?
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game. Burn, Baby, Burn. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Shin: The problem with the Jitte is getting it online. To get the equipment online, you actually have to pay 4 mana (though not all at once), which is quite a bit, and then get your creature to connect. Playing and equipping a Jitte is a slow affair, and the whole point of the Thrills is to have something that saves your creatures in the early game (turns 2-4). I mean, dropping Nacatl turn one, then Jitte turn two, then trying to equip it turn three (do I even have a creature still?) is really slow. Especially against Rubin, if they just took the 3 from the Nacatl on turn two, and are holding burn to take him out when I try to equip, I'm screwed.
Again, the point of the thrill is to let me keep pressure on Rubin in the early game, when my deck is better than theirs. Jitte doesn't do that. It keeps pressure up in the late game, when it turns every creature I topdeck into a house (as long as it has counters on it). Jitte is good, but it's for a different strategy than what my Zoo deck was going for.
Interesting arguments. As for the Guide vs. Ape, I like the Ape because he can't be punishing fired. Your argument that the Thrill saves him has some merit, but I don't always have a Thrill. And to make that matchup, which is probably going to be one of the hardest, the best, I think I need to take away as much advantage from Rubin as I can.
Plus, if I were to go to three Thrills, the Guide would be getting a lot worse.
As for the Tribal Flames vs. Burst Lightning, that's interesting. I suppose I never really thought about, and the only thing that Burst Lightning would then have over the Flames is that it can be a 1 CMC burn at instant speed...which does not necessarily make it better than the Flames. Of course, Flames will pump goyf...but then, I could also run a Black source...err...I will think on that.
As for Spell Pierce, it's just not a hard counter. It'll never actually counter Scapeshift (they play that card when they have 7 or more land in play...), and it'll never actually counter an engineered explosives--it'll just delay the activation for one turn. At least the Negate will always cost my opponent a card, even if it's just a counter to counter the Negate.
PS Thrill actually wrecks Scapeshift because they run Firespout for defense and Teeg hate.
excellent article as allways andrew. was wondering, if you do but the blue in, would you be against just going ahead and making it domain zoo (adding a black source)?
Yes I would, and here's why: You can only really expect to see about three lands with this deck (of course, you do see more many times), which means that if you try to stretch out the base to all five colors, you're going to have the problems of not being able to play more than one to two spells a turn. It sucks when playing your Goyf ties up your red source, too, or playing a Helix/Path means no green for you. As for the Blue source, it would most likely be the third land you'd fetch up, so that you'd have 2 sources of red, 2 sources of green or white, 1 source of the other, and 1 blue source. Of course, the contents of your opening hand could change this.
Running even that 4th color, even if it's just one land, can stretch the manabase a little, and so I would certainly not advocate stretching it to a fifth (not in this build, at least).
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game: Are You Thrilled?. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Its also fun to use a Kor sky-fisher to bounce a goblin bushwhacker to kick it again.
I've done this a couple times for the win. It's pretty awesome. Also, with the Kor Hookmasters in the deck (which have great synergy with the Skyfisher), I'm inclined to play with them. But it is true that if you get them early, they can really screw up your tempo, whereas Hellspark doesn't do that.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game: Magic Fruitcake. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
The Discovery, in the mirror, can completely undo a Blightning, which is nice considering many times, if I'm holding a Karrthus, he gets dumped by the Blightning. The Discovery can also undo the Ruinblaster badness. The Rangers themselves I've really been liking, but 4 is too many. So I'll test the Discoveries. If they end up being too underwhelming, I'll try something else...
As for the Bloodwitch, she seems really good. I've only gotten to test her live once so far, and it was against Boros. But she was good there. She was out of kill range for Bolt, unpathable, and stopped most of their offense cold for a turn or two (long enough for me to turn the tide). The fact that she gives me a life point isn't trivial, either. I mean, it isn't Loxodon Heirarch, but against something like Boros, every life counts.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game: Revisiting the Savage Lands. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game: Evolving Boros. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Wish i could have won my quarterfinal match so I could have played against ya in the semis.
And shame on you for taking all of that lovely white! Were we the only white drafters at that table?
Heck, I didn't even know you went white. But yeah, I don't think there was anyone else in that color (I didn't notice anyone else playing white). If there was, I don't know what they were taking over what they passed to me.
What about the "just kidding" at the end of the. Article? Was that in refernce to the entire article?
It was not in reference to the entire article. Just the "Behind you!" thing at the end. Bad Friday the 13th thing. Sorry.
As for blowing smoke in the faces of people who have been testing hard, that was not my intention by any means. What I was trying to show was what I've been talking about with friends recently, and that is that I feel like Limited is a format more defined by general rules rather than format specific ones. Of course, this isn't an absolute (Zendikar is much different than Alara--it's faster with weaker removal), but some rules about limited still apply. Removal (especially good removal) is boss; in draft, it's best not to commit to a color too early; etc.
I'm not saying these things won me the PTQ, but they certainly helped. I feel like they're good limited rules.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Good Game: A Limited Experience. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
I've tested quite a bit against U/G/R Scapeshift and Thopter. Definately not cold to them. I tested a bit against elves. Again, not really cold. Why would I be? I run a crap-ton of burn. And they don't go off as fast as they used to (no turn two, now turn three). as for dark depths, that's a deck on the decline, though GerryT may be responsible for an upswing--but then, the matchup is very similar to the Thopter matchup. I have not tested living end at all. Do you have a decklist?
Again, the point of the thrill is to let me keep pressure on Rubin in the early game, when my deck is better than theirs. Jitte doesn't do that. It keeps pressure up in the late game, when it turns every creature I topdeck into a house (as long as it has counters on it). Jitte is good, but it's for a different strategy than what my Zoo deck was going for.
Interesting arguments. As for the Guide vs. Ape, I like the Ape because he can't be punishing fired. Your argument that the Thrill saves him has some merit, but I don't always have a Thrill. And to make that matchup, which is probably going to be one of the hardest, the best, I think I need to take away as much advantage from Rubin as I can.
Plus, if I were to go to three Thrills, the Guide would be getting a lot worse.
As for the Tribal Flames vs. Burst Lightning, that's interesting. I suppose I never really thought about, and the only thing that Burst Lightning would then have over the Flames is that it can be a 1 CMC burn at instant speed...which does not necessarily make it better than the Flames. Of course, Flames will pump goyf...but then, I could also run a Black source...err...I will think on that.
As for Spell Pierce, it's just not a hard counter. It'll never actually counter Scapeshift (they play that card when they have 7 or more land in play...), and it'll never actually counter an engineered explosives--it'll just delay the activation for one turn. At least the Negate will always cost my opponent a card, even if it's just a counter to counter the Negate.
PS Thrill actually wrecks Scapeshift because they run Firespout for defense and Teeg hate.
Yes I would, and here's why: You can only really expect to see about three lands with this deck (of course, you do see more many times), which means that if you try to stretch out the base to all five colors, you're going to have the problems of not being able to play more than one to two spells a turn. It sucks when playing your Goyf ties up your red source, too, or playing a Helix/Path means no green for you. As for the Blue source, it would most likely be the third land you'd fetch up, so that you'd have 2 sources of red, 2 sources of green or white, 1 source of the other, and 1 blue source. Of course, the contents of your opening hand could change this.
Running even that 4th color, even if it's just one land, can stretch the manabase a little, and so I would certainly not advocate stretching it to a fifth (not in this build, at least).
I've done this a couple times for the win. It's pretty awesome. Also, with the Kor Hookmasters in the deck (which have great synergy with the Skyfisher), I'm inclined to play with them. But it is true that if you get them early, they can really screw up your tempo, whereas Hellspark doesn't do that.
Heh, yeah...Actually, I believe I'm changing the board a little bit. After some playtesting and a FNM, I'm pretty sure the board changes like this:
-1 Maelstrom Pulse, +1 Malakir Bloodwitch
-2 Borderland Ranger, +2 Grim Discovery
The Discovery, in the mirror, can completely undo a Blightning, which is nice considering many times, if I'm holding a Karrthus, he gets dumped by the Blightning. The Discovery can also undo the Ruinblaster badness. The Rangers themselves I've really been liking, but 4 is too many. So I'll test the Discoveries. If they end up being too underwhelming, I'll try something else...
As for the Bloodwitch, she seems really good. I've only gotten to test her live once so far, and it was against Boros. But she was good there. She was out of kill range for Bolt, unpathable, and stopped most of their offense cold for a turn or two (long enough for me to turn the tide). The fact that she gives me a life point isn't trivial, either. I mean, it isn't Loxodon Heirarch, but against something like Boros, every life counts.
Heck, I didn't even know you went white.
It was not in reference to the entire article. Just the "Behind you!" thing at the end. Bad Friday the 13th thing. Sorry.
As for blowing smoke in the faces of people who have been testing hard, that was not my intention by any means. What I was trying to show was what I've been talking about with friends recently, and that is that I feel like Limited is a format more defined by general rules rather than format specific ones. Of course, this isn't an absolute (Zendikar is much different than Alara--it's faster with weaker removal), but some rules about limited still apply. Removal (especially good removal) is boss; in draft, it's best not to commit to a color too early; etc.
I'm not saying these things won me the PTQ, but they certainly helped. I feel like they're good limited rules.