Because of recent activities from WotC's side (for smaller parts this and for bigger parts this), this site will be taken down on October, 22nd. It's my decision and not some sort of take-down from Hasbro. I do it, because I don't support a game, that doesn't support its players. I will not sell the site, the domain, or my database, so please refrain from asking.
A big "Thank you very very much!!" to all the players, TOs and judges who submitted decklists and who supported this site during its time being.
Yours truly, EvilBernd.
Personally, I think this is the biggest load of BS ever. I'm not pointing any fingers as to who did what wrong here, but I am deeply disappointed that some chain of events led to the shutting down of a major website in the competitive scene.
Hey, MTGS. I'm a competitive standard player who recently decided to further myself as a Magic player by improving on the other half of the competitive scene: Limited.
It would be greatly appreciated if I could get the opinions of others. Did I build this pool correctly? What were my better options? What did I undervalue? Anything helps. Many thanks for your time taken to read this thread.
and then you tell me if YOU could have figured out how to take a Polymorph deck into pro level competition and have a FAVORABLE matchup against RDW. conventional Poly is almost auto lose to red. Ruel figured out how to build, sideboard, and play so as to get favorable results after boarding. Thats the meaning of skill in magic. And no, he doesn't just autowin by drawing Obstinate Baloth here. he knows precisely what the matchup is about and thats what motivates his play. his skill got him the wins because he understood the match better than his opponent and made the right decisions based on that understanding.
Which is NOT play skill, but building for a metagame, which is what Standard is all about.
Extended isn't really a good idea to get into unless you're a competitive player trying to qualify for the Pro Tour. Extended has virtually no tournament support until the Extended PTQ season rolls around.
But to contribute to the thread, I'd try out the Sligh list that was posted on the thread that Numotflame linked to earlier.
2) In Magic, actually, the better player does pretty much always win. If that isn't the case then why do you see the same names in the top 32 of PT's and GP's every time?
This is blatantly incorrect. These people who place consistently have skill that wins them games before they even sit down at the table. It's meta-gaming skill. Knowing what deck to bring, what sideboard to bring, how to sideboard, etc. are all the most vital components of placing well at competitive events. Good players go undefeated in nine rounds of swiss one weekend, and the next they scrub out and go 0-2 drop. Play-skill has nothing to do with it, it's simply predicting the meta-game. I have far less experience than Wescoe or Weinberg, and undoubtedly they're all-around better players than I am, but I've won more matches against both than I've lost. The way I played the game had close to nothing to do with it in comparison to what my matchup percentage was like, what was in my sideboard, what I boarded out, and which opening hands I decided to keep.
No deck in standard nor any matchup in standard right now requires an earth-shattering, gloat-worthy amount of intelligence to play. I never said matchups didn't require practice, because they require a lot of practice to get down. The idea I was trying to express earlier is that once you understand a deck and the matchup, it doesn't go further than that. Making good decisions in a game of Magic is like making good decisions when driving. The only good decisions you have are the ones that don't get you in an accident, where as in Magic those good decisions are the ones you make that ultimately win you the game.
And if I did switch to Pyromancer's Ascension, or some new rogue deck I'd never had any experience with, I wouldn't play it flawlessly, I'd probably be terrible at it at first. Magic is a game of understanding and utilizing resources, not "I'm the better player with more skill, so I win every game". I see far too many players make the mistake of becoming arrogant through play skill, whereas play skill only shows up when being placed in the hot-seat to make a risky, game-changing decision. Those are rare, and virtually every play in magic can be done through mental shortcuts. We play a game of consistency born through randomization of resources, not Chess.
Standard has it's own PTQ season and is part of the Pro Tour. Most stores in my area hold Standard as their Friday Night Magic event. Standard is the most commonly played constructed format.
Hope that clears up some questions that weren't answered.
It's a culmination of being a good player, knowing how to win against what decks, and making good metagame calls. The decks in standard right now are so linear to the point to where it's nearly impossible to play them wrong as long as you have some kind of idea how to play them, so don't think it boils down to much in-game skill.
LSV makes the claim that cards don't exist in a vacuum, meaning that it's arguable that no card is simply strictly better than a lesser version. However, the only use of Spell Pierce I can see in UW would be in the mirror match, most useful for counterspell wars. In that form of scenario (which is far more common than your opponent tapping out to Mind Spring or Martial coup when you have any form of mana open) I would much rather be running Dispel.
Cards don't exist in a vacuum, but in this scenario, Path and Silence aren't anywhere near the same thing. Path is removal because it deals with a threat. Silence isn't removal because it does either of two things; stops them from playing spells for a turn, or stops them from casting instants on your turn so you can combo off safely.
Yes, any damage that would be dealt to a player can be redirected to a planeswalker. Only the damage is affected this way, not the entire spell, so the discard effect does indeed affect the player.
It uses these two links as reasons to close:
http://magicdraftsim.com/
http://www.mananation.com/wpn-tos-store-affiliated/
Personally, I think this is the biggest load of BS ever. I'm not pointing any fingers as to who did what wrong here, but I am deeply disappointed that some chain of events led to the shutting down of a major website in the competitive scene.
This was my PTQ: Paris sealed pool.
1 Blight Mamba
1 Blunt the Assault
1 Carapace Forger
1 Copperhorn Scout
1 Engulfing Slagwurm
1 Ezuri's Archers
1 Lifesmith
1 Molder Beast
1 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Assault Strobe
1 Barrage Ogre
2 Blade-Tribe Berserkers
1 Bloodshot Trainee
1 Embersmith
1 Flameborn Hellion
1 Kuldotha Phoenix
1 Melt Terrain
2 Oxidda Daredevil
1 Blackcleave Goblin
1 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Contagious Nim
1 Corrupted Harvester
1 Flesh Allergy
1 Fume Spitter
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Hand of the Praetors
1 Necrogen Scudder
1 Painsmith
1 Plague Stinger
1 Psychic Miasma
1 Relic Putrescence
1 Kemba's Skyguard
1 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Myrsmith
1 Razor Hippogriff
1 Salvage Scout
1 Soul Parry
1 Whitesun's Passage
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Lumengrid Drake
1 Neurok Invisimancer
1 Riddlesmith
2 Screeching Silclaw
1 Sky-Eel School
2 Vault Skyward
1 Vedalken Certarch
1 Accorder's Shield
1 Barbed Battlegear
1 Copper Myr
2 Corpse Cur
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Echo Circlet
1 Golem Foundry
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Infiltration Lens
1 Leaden Myr
1 Memnite
1 Mindslaver
1 Moriok Replica
1 Razorfield Thresher
1 Rust Tick
1 Necrogen Censer
1 Origin Spellbomb
1 Panic Spellbomb
1 Silver Myr
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Trigon of Rage
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Vector Asp
1 Venser's Journal
1 Vulshok Replica
1 Wall of Tanglecord
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Now, here's the deck I played with
1 BlackCleave Goblin
1 Blight Mamba
1 Contagious Nim
1 Copper Myr
2 Corpse Cur
1 Fume Spitter
1 Hand of the Praetors
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Moriok Replica
1 Necrogen Scudder
1 Painsmith
1 Plague Stinger
1 Rust Tick
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Tel-Jihad Fallen
1 Vector Asp
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Grasp of Darkness
Artifacts
1 Barbed Battlegear
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Trigon of Rage
It would be greatly appreciated if I could get the opinions of others. Did I build this pool correctly? What were my better options? What did I undervalue? Anything helps. Many thanks for your time taken to read this thread.
Which is NOT play skill, but building for a metagame, which is what Standard is all about.
But to contribute to the thread, I'd try out the Sligh list that was posted on the thread that Numotflame linked to earlier.
This is blatantly incorrect. These people who place consistently have skill that wins them games before they even sit down at the table. It's meta-gaming skill. Knowing what deck to bring, what sideboard to bring, how to sideboard, etc. are all the most vital components of placing well at competitive events. Good players go undefeated in nine rounds of swiss one weekend, and the next they scrub out and go 0-2 drop. Play-skill has nothing to do with it, it's simply predicting the meta-game. I have far less experience than Wescoe or Weinberg, and undoubtedly they're all-around better players than I am, but I've won more matches against both than I've lost. The way I played the game had close to nothing to do with it in comparison to what my matchup percentage was like, what was in my sideboard, what I boarded out, and which opening hands I decided to keep.
And if I did switch to Pyromancer's Ascension, or some new rogue deck I'd never had any experience with, I wouldn't play it flawlessly, I'd probably be terrible at it at first. Magic is a game of understanding and utilizing resources, not "I'm the better player with more skill, so I win every game". I see far too many players make the mistake of becoming arrogant through play skill, whereas play skill only shows up when being placed in the hot-seat to make a risky, game-changing decision. Those are rare, and virtually every play in magic can be done through mental shortcuts. We play a game of consistency born through randomization of resources, not Chess.
Hope that clears up some questions that weren't answered.