Wow, with the push for colors and such, it looks like there could actually be a good build of Weissman style control in type 2 (ie not gifts with it's many creatures). Nah, only a pipe dream.
I have a lot of decks; probably greater than 100 of them. I keep tournament decks for every format. I have two versions of many of my decks: the boring one for play, then the pimped out one for collection. Incidently, Magic gets very expensive :p.
if I were to fall into this trinary categorization, I would be a Johnny/Spike. When I am playing in Magic's various tournament formats, I play the netdecks, tune them to my metagame, and learn how to play them properly. I generally try to be experienced with every good deck in a particular constructed format. However, my Johnny side comes out in that I enjoy the deckbuilding aspect of Magic and have an affinity for combo decks. Sometimes it gets dull playing established tournament decks all the time and I go off the beaten path and play something original. I generally will not walk into a tournament with one of the said decks unless I know it's good and well, deckbuilding is fun if laborious.
The Human race is due a mass extinction event, in fact we're late for one by hundreds of years. The current theory I've seen bandied about the most is that global warming will trigger the next Ice Age.
...
Anyway, if this theory is correct, the Human race should be facing extinction through one source or another.
Some people actually postulate that the 6ht mass extinction event in history is already upon us. Some consider the rise of humans the 6th mass extinction. Therefore the penultimate MEE may be artificial, if it happens.
Personally, I think people a just too hung up on the world ending. We don't exactly know all the factors causing global warming and the ozone layer depletion. In terms of global warming, we really cannot do much about it. For the last several thousand years, the Sun's activity has also generally increased, coincidence, no? The ozone layer is an iffy issue as well. Scientists do not know exactly how long that hole in the ozone layer has been there. It could have been there for a very long time. I believe there are also postulations that the hole fluxes with the change in the Earth's magnetic field. The point is that the issue is still up in the air (no pun intended). Yes, the ozone layer is huge and expanding, but we plain don't know the time scale on this thing. It could just go up in down over time. If anything, we're more likely to suffocate from our own pollutants.
Nuclear War and Plague are very real possibilities however. Considering that a number of 3rd world countries have nuclear programs. The corallary is that they are less afraid to use their weapons due to poor economy etc. They are more likely to use whatever resources at their disposal when dealing with potential threats. (Israel vs. the Middle East, Pakistan vs. India, N. Korea vs. the U.S. , etc.)
Plague is also possible considering small pox never was truly eradicated. (The United States didn't destroy the last vial they had in the 70s, go figure). In addition to an increaingly globalizing world, diseases spread more. Heaven forbid if we ever had a mast breakout of a disease such a Turberculosis, a new strain of Influenza, Small Pox, or that potential Ebola/Small Pox hybrid). Ebola is less likely considering it only happens along several narrow regions in Africa, and it only comes up periodically).
Then there is the up-and coming nanotechnology. Some people have said (on the science channel in fact) that nanotechnology could lead to thew end of the world. Imagine a nanite virus that's immune to like everything getting into a human population. Wherever there is a new technological breakthrough, governments and corporations are right there and ready to abuse it. The nanotech thing is currently left to speculation for now however.
In the end though, I think that no, the world will NOT end.
Death, why should my tax dollars go to feed a murderer for life, when they could be better spent for those who need it? In addition to the whole lack of respect for life thing blah blah blah.
All this pro tour revamping kind of makes me wonder if there is more to it than just wanting to make the PT better, it seems they only started doing this when they finally get competition for their player base from Upper Deck. Either way it is still pretty awesome.
There are three different decks that fall under the Gro archetype:
Miracle Grow
Super Grow
Gro-A-Tog
Miracle was originally just straight U/G and ran a mostly cheap cantrips and free counters plus winter orb. Super Grow decks splashed white for removal and Mystic Enforcer. Groatog, which was the brainchild of a number of Vintage players, is the penultimate grow deck that popped up in Early spring of 2003. The deck, after being worked on by a number of players, went on to push out just about everything else (besides Stax, which was originally an metagame deck for GAT) for the 3 months or so it dominated Type 1. GAT was puting up 4 to 6 decks in most top8s during the time it was legal. After Gush got axed, GAT enjoyed some success until early 2004 when everyone thought that Hulk Smash was the best combo-control deck in the format and the deck for the most part disappeared from tournaments (in Vintage).
I play in all tournament formats. Incidently, my collection of magic cards becomes very high maintainence so as to keep up. On top of that, I am a collector, so I spend even more money picking up foils, misprints, rarities, etc. In the end, Magic is a very expensive hobby from my standpoint since I absolutely have to get everthing. Fortunately, I have reached the point where I have acquired all the older stuff, so I only need to focus on the new cards. That makes my job 10000 times easier :). Buy a case of each standalone and a number of boxes of each expansion, and sell the rest. Unfortunately, Magic eats a huge chunk out of my budget and I do not have the capital to get too much into other CCGs (such as VS) right now :(.
I do not have my own team nor am I a member of one. Incidently, I am quite independent when it comes to my collection. I own all of my cards and do not generally lend or borrow cards. I either have the cards I need or I acquire them when I need them.
It still going to take a bit of time for VS to bite at Magic's heels in terms of popularity. There is no denying that it is an excellent game, but in terms of popularity, it is not quite high enough yet to really impact Magic. I can go just about anywhere and find some Magic players, but I do not know of a lot of VS players.
I have to pick up a playset of foil 9th specters (not to mention foil RUSSIAN) for my collection! Talk aabout total pimpage. Then again, due to all the hype around the card, I will end up paying through the nose for them :(.
Yawgmoth's Will
Demonic Tutor
Some people actually postulate that the 6ht mass extinction event in history is already upon us. Some consider the rise of humans the 6th mass extinction. Therefore the penultimate MEE may be artificial, if it happens.
Personally, I think people a just too hung up on the world ending. We don't exactly know all the factors causing global warming and the ozone layer depletion. In terms of global warming, we really cannot do much about it. For the last several thousand years, the Sun's activity has also generally increased, coincidence, no? The ozone layer is an iffy issue as well. Scientists do not know exactly how long that hole in the ozone layer has been there. It could have been there for a very long time. I believe there are also postulations that the hole fluxes with the change in the Earth's magnetic field. The point is that the issue is still up in the air (no pun intended). Yes, the ozone layer is huge and expanding, but we plain don't know the time scale on this thing. It could just go up in down over time. If anything, we're more likely to suffocate from our own pollutants.
Nuclear War and Plague are very real possibilities however. Considering that a number of 3rd world countries have nuclear programs. The corallary is that they are less afraid to use their weapons due to poor economy etc. They are more likely to use whatever resources at their disposal when dealing with potential threats. (Israel vs. the Middle East, Pakistan vs. India, N. Korea vs. the U.S. , etc.)
Plague is also possible considering small pox never was truly eradicated. (The United States didn't destroy the last vial they had in the 70s, go figure). In addition to an increaingly globalizing world, diseases spread more. Heaven forbid if we ever had a mast breakout of a disease such a Turberculosis, a new strain of Influenza, Small Pox, or that potential Ebola/Small Pox hybrid). Ebola is less likely considering it only happens along several narrow regions in Africa, and it only comes up periodically).
Then there is the up-and coming nanotechnology. Some people have said (on the science channel in fact) that nanotechnology could lead to thew end of the world. Imagine a nanite virus that's immune to like everything getting into a human population. Wherever there is a new technological breakthrough, governments and corporations are right there and ready to abuse it. The nanotech thing is currently left to speculation for now however.
In the end though, I think that no, the world will NOT end.
Miracle Grow
Super Grow
Gro-A-Tog
Miracle was originally just straight U/G and ran a mostly cheap cantrips and free counters plus winter orb. Super Grow decks splashed white for removal and Mystic Enforcer. Groatog, which was the brainchild of a number of Vintage players, is the penultimate grow deck that popped up in Early spring of 2003. The deck, after being worked on by a number of players, went on to push out just about everything else (besides Stax, which was originally an metagame deck for GAT) for the 3 months or so it dominated Type 1. GAT was puting up 4 to 6 decks in most top8s during the time it was legal. After Gush got axed, GAT enjoyed some success until early 2004 when everyone thought that Hulk Smash was the best combo-control deck in the format and the deck for the most part disappeared from tournaments (in Vintage).