How does Balance help you in these games? Playing Rack and Balance on the same turn leads to a draw. Either you destroy your own Rack (if they haven't played theirs, in which case theirs will also then be discarded), or you still have a card in your hand, and can't force them to discard their entire hand... so you're in the same "whoever plays rack first loses" situation. So... shouldn't all your wins in these situations actually be draws?
Alright Brendan and Jake. I did the rest of the Rack mirror calculations for you. Overall more points are awarded to Rack decks because fewer matches end 3-3.
ced395 goes 3-3 with VM4L, 4-1 with domo, 0-6 with dethwing, and 6-0 with Shogun. Score changes by +4 up to 42
VM4L goes 3-3 with ced395, 4-1 with domo, 0-6 with dethwing, 6-0 with Shogun. Score changes by +4 up to 48
domogrue goes 1-4 with ced, 1-4 with VM4L, 2-2 with dethwing, and 2-2 with Shogun. (Reason for the draws is the "principle" that whoever plays The Rack first loses.) Score changes by -6, down to 28.
dethwing goes 6-0 with ced, 6-0 with VM4L, 2-2 with domo, and 6-0 with Shogun. Score changes by +10, up to 44.
Shogun goes 0-6 to ced, 0-6 to VM4L, 2-2 with domo, and 0-6 with dethwing. Score changes by -5, down to 18.
Both players have 0 cards in hand and lose 3 life per turn. But strangely, player A loses this race! On the other hand, if player B is on the play and has nothing to do turn 2, then the "obvious" line of play is as follows...
Losing three life per turn, player A wins this race on the draw! Crazy. What I am saying is that multiple lines of play must be considered, because the "obvious" line is not necessarily the best.
For example, I will outline how my match with domogrue should unfold.
On the play:
Turn 1 VM: Land.
Turn 1 DG: Land. If he plays The Rack here, then basically Scenario 2 plays out and he loses, so he must pass back.
Turn 2 VM: Land.
Turn 2 DG: Land. He may as well play The Rack now, because next turn I will play Rack and Balance together.
Turn 3 VM: (19 life) Land, Rack, Balance.
Turn 3 DG: (17 life)
...and so on: it takes 7 turns for The Rack to kill either of us from 19 or 20 life, and domogrue takes the first hit so loses.
On the draw:
Turn 1 DG: Land. He can't play The Rack by Scenario 2.
Turn 1 VM: Land. I can't play The Rack by Scenario 1 (even if I don't follow with Balance as in Scenario 1, I would still lose the race).
Turn 2 DG: Land, Rack. He must play The Rack now, because if he waits another turn, then I get enough land to play Rack and Balance together.
Turn 2 VM: (19 life) Land, Rack. I pretty much have to play The Rack right now, as this is my only chance to be in position to win the race.
Turn 3 DG: (18 life) Land, Maelstrom Pulse kills both Racks so that he doesn't just lose. The game is a draw.
So I get a win and a draw against domogrue instead of win and loss. By similar reasoning, I get double win versus Shogun17, since Ensnaring Bridge is completely irrelevant. However, I get double loss versus dethwing by Scenario 1. ced395 and I do still split our games, because whoever gets to 3 mana first wins. In fact ced395 and I should have identical records versus Rack decks.
Anyway, you get the picture. Count some cases and search some decision trees, guys. I'm too tired to finish thinking about everyone's games, but I wanted to say something while this was still relevant.
A lot of things "should" be banned in the abstract, but it's not like the format was overrun by Balance (or Meddling Mage, or Tidehollow Sculler, or any two-drop). The most widely played card was clearly The Rack, which didn't even finish on top. I give mad props to bmh for discovering Rhys as the superior one-drop.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I had run 2CB #1, I would have banned Balance, The Rack, Meddling Mage, Nezumi Shortfang, etc. right off the bat. But none of those strategies were clearly dominant, so I don't think that would have been appropriate. I now think the banned list should stay as short as possible until the metagame stagnates.
Actually I'd be curious to see what would happen if Fastbond came off the list. Obviously it's stupid powerful, but running Fastbond means you're basically playing 1CB. And note that Fastbond-Banefire still loses 0-2 to any deck with the Rack.
ced395 goes 3-3 with VM4L, 4-1 with domo, 0-6 with dethwing, and 6-0 with Shogun. Score changes by +4 up to 42
VM4L goes 3-3 with ced395, 4-1 with domo, 0-6 with dethwing, 6-0 with Shogun. Score changes by +4 up to 48
domogrue goes 1-4 with ced, 1-4 with VM4L, 2-2 with dethwing, and 2-2 with Shogun. (Reason for the draws is the "principle" that whoever plays The Rack first loses.) Score changes by -6, down to 28.
dethwing goes 6-0 with ced, 6-0 with VM4L, 2-2 with domo, and 6-0 with Shogun. Score changes by +10, up to 44.
Shogun goes 0-6 to ced, 0-6 to VM4L, 2-2 with domo, and 0-6 with dethwing. Score changes by -5, down to 18.
--Scenario 1--
Turn 1A: Land, Rack.
Turn 1B: (19 life), Land, Rack.
Turn 2A: (18 life), Land, Balance.
Turn 2B: (16 life) ...
Both players have 0 cards in hand and lose 3 life per turn. But strangely, player A loses this race! On the other hand, if player B is on the play and has nothing to do turn 2, then the "obvious" line of play is as follows...
--Scenario 2--
Turn 1B: Land, Rack.
Turn 1A: (19 life) Land, Rack.
Turn 2B: (18 life) Land.
Turn 2A: (17 life) Land, Balance.
Losing three life per turn, player A wins this race on the draw! Crazy. What I am saying is that multiple lines of play must be considered, because the "obvious" line is not necessarily the best.
For example, I will outline how my match with domogrue should unfold.
On the play:
Turn 1 VM: Land.
Turn 1 DG: Land. If he plays The Rack here, then basically Scenario 2 plays out and he loses, so he must pass back.
Turn 2 VM: Land.
Turn 2 DG: Land. He may as well play The Rack now, because next turn I will play Rack and Balance together.
Turn 3 VM: (19 life) Land, Rack, Balance.
Turn 3 DG: (17 life)
...and so on: it takes 7 turns for The Rack to kill either of us from 19 or 20 life, and domogrue takes the first hit so loses.
On the draw:
Turn 1 DG: Land. He can't play The Rack by Scenario 2.
Turn 1 VM: Land. I can't play The Rack by Scenario 1 (even if I don't follow with Balance as in Scenario 1, I would still lose the race).
Turn 2 DG: Land, Rack. He must play The Rack now, because if he waits another turn, then I get enough land to play Rack and Balance together.
Turn 2 VM: (19 life) Land, Rack. I pretty much have to play The Rack right now, as this is my only chance to be in position to win the race.
Turn 3 DG: (18 life) Land, Maelstrom Pulse kills both Racks so that he doesn't just lose. The game is a draw.
So I get a win and a draw against domogrue instead of win and loss. By similar reasoning, I get double win versus Shogun17, since Ensnaring Bridge is completely irrelevant. However, I get double loss versus dethwing by Scenario 1. ced395 and I do still split our games, because whoever gets to 3 mana first wins. In fact ced395 and I should have identical records versus Rack decks.
Anyway, you get the picture. Count some cases and search some decision trees, guys. I'm too tired to finish thinking about everyone's games, but I wanted to say something while this was still relevant.
Q
I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I had run 2CB #1, I would have banned Balance, The Rack, Meddling Mage, Nezumi Shortfang, etc. right off the bat. But none of those strategies were clearly dominant, so I don't think that would have been appropriate. I now think the banned list should stay as short as possible until the metagame stagnates.
Actually I'd be curious to see what would happen if Fastbond came off the list. Obviously it's stupid powerful, but running Fastbond means you're basically playing 1CB. And note that Fastbond-Banefire still loses 0-2 to any deck with the Rack.
Q