1G1D: Vampire Matron

Today I will be looking at one of my favorite guardians, Vampire Matron.

 

The reason she's one of my favorites is because of her Revive ability which lets her come back to deal a second attack and tank up remnants of MP the opponent's guardian has. I highly value this ability.

Unfortunately, she sometimes is unable to take down the opponent's guardian in one shot with her barely above average stats and that can cause her downfall unless successfully revived. She does has the potential to 2 for 1 but nowadays with the higher quality of guardians, it might be good enough for her to take down just 1 opposing guardian which might not happen in the event that Revive is not successful and if the opponent's guardian survives.

Just last week was the release of her Almighty version which has a higher HP count but having to choose between the fast or intelligent version, I would go for the intelligent type for a higher probability of being able to 1 hit kill the opponent's guardian.

Perhaps the use of the limited forms would be to give you access to one more copy although it is generally correct to say that the Ace types are better overall as the limited forms force you to choose the right attribute you want to work with.

I'm now in the midst of reevaluating Vampire Matron but I am still very fond of her so I find it extra difficult to truly give a value to the Revive ability.

Anti Jace TMS?

I had come to the conclusion that Cavern of Souls + Sigarda, Host of Herons is the ultimate trumph against Jace, the Mind Sculptor decks. This is to the point where I suspect, upon resolution, I no longer have to do much and the game would come to an inevitable closure.

In excitment of that revelation, I tried to make a Uwbg Gush deck to try that theory out but I did not seem to get to that point during the games I managed to play in. I did, however, find out that 3x Jace is much better than 2x Jace.

White is a tough color to work with because its cards are only good to specific threats and are not as flexible as the other colors. I'll see how things go. For now I have Stoneforge Mystic and Swords to Plowshares for my white.

I wonder if the 4th Jace would be good or whether or not the marginal utility of it would drop...

1G1D: Titan

Today, I'll be discussing the GC 5 star card, Titan.

 

 

Titan itself contains some decent stats, with its strength being in its physical attack which at lvl 60 Ace full stoned can go up to 3477 and he comes with a Greater Might (+20% Attack) would bring the attack power up even more. Not great under current standards but not too shabby for a card.

Just as an estimate, stats above 3200 in my opinion are considered good as most so-so stats are around 3000. Close to 4000 stats are really powerful.

The Almighty version has cool Titan stats but with boosted HP which was, at that time (after the 2nd colisuem), hailed to be the highest HP in the game which people believed would allow it to tank 2 hits for sure. The Chaotic Almighty Titan was very well known for that particular trait.

After that came the Almighty/Mighty /Great Pumpkin Chunkin' Titan with Halloween.

It boasted an even greater amount of HP for the Chaotic version but as of today, there are a couple of cards that can 1 hit KO it although that is still not an easy feat for many cards. Unfortunately, it can only count on its physical damage to make full use of its durability and so you need it to be paired up against lower hp/defense cards for its true value to shine.

I find the Halloween version a very cute card to look at but I don't usually consider it as one of my team. My "max revive" deck does not seem to be going as well as I hoped for it to be so I think I would try to shuffle cards around to see what may or may not work and I am interested to think whether or not the Almighty Pumpkin Chunkin' Titan might make the cut.

1G1D: Leviathan

I've been in a long writing slump for quite some time as one can tell. I've had a huge drop in drive for MTG ever since I couldn't get proper Classic games to test for Classic followed by a failed attempt to get back into 100card Singleton.

 

To keep myself slightly more active in terms of writing, I shall try to update my blog with the Square Enix iphone game, Guardian Cross as I am currently playing it more than I get to play MTGO.

 

So today, I shall write in my 1 Guardian 1 Day about the 5 star card, Leviathan.

 



 

As one of the original five 5 star cards, Leviathan has left a very great impression on me ever since the start of the game with the first Coliseum card being the Almighty Leviathan.

 

It was indeed interesting to see as Leviathan is one of the well known mythical creatures (that you can occasionally summon in Final Fantasy).

 

Unfortunately, it has very subpar stats that make it very weak in today's context and when I did get one, it was already obsceleted.

It holds one of the lowest agility stats which is one of the more important stats for a card because of the possible disparity of hitting or getting hit twice. 

 

I like the art though.

On Borrowed Strength

Last night, I made my way to a local place that had a weekly legacy tournament.
I originally wanted to get a storm deck but couldn't really get the key components. I ended up borrowing Merfolk from the organizer, slightly tweaked with more borrowed cards.

I made 3-0 and split at the last round, with my opponent getting $60 and I gave $20 to the organizer and had $50 of store credits which I got some basic storm components and left $10 in for next time.

I didn't know I could get a dual land if I didn't split. :( I'd take the dual for sure but it's ok for my first try. :)

I like Djinns

I have tried going through the Vintage Burning Long deck, modified to its previous iteration with 4x LEDs with 2x Mind's Desire over the md and sb and also a Legacy heavy ritual list that also runs Burning Wish.

Storm is a very odd deck to run because it collapses very easily to misplay more often than to inferior strategy, especially under a given amount of stress and uncertainty.
I think I will be dabbling with the Legacy iteration more so that I can get a better feel for what I would need in order to make the Classic version more powerful than it is now.

The Vintage version is more focused on the raw power of draw 7s while the Legacy version draws its strength from the breadth of the format that is less able to react to the way the deck plays out. The Classic version should sit somewhere closer to the Legacy version but I need more feel of the deck before I can maximize the deck at the deck level and the play level. I hope to make a real life version soon. :)

Guess what

I was designing a legacy deck yesterday and today, as I made one of my rare trips to the shop where I bought my mtg comic of Dack Faydon I noticed that one of the promos was this card I wanted to use：



See the right card. When I saw it, I immediately asked if they had more but they were sold out. Weren't Standstills worth quite a fair bit? I was definitely elated to see the promo there but I felt like I was too far behind on irl news.

Anyway, here's the card

Oh! I did not go for the guild meeting...

I went to one of my local shops 15 mins before the last prerelease flight but they no longer had any products left.
After arranging with a friend, we managed to go for another prerelease elsewhere else via cab.
Here, they had all the guilds left except for Golgari since everyone wanted Abrupt Decay. I heard that Selesnya and Azorious were good but I took Izzet instead (obviously my choice since they don't have Dimir).
At the table, I was told from the people sitting and playing the same guild that Izzet was a rather weak guild and had very bad chances although it could have very powerful pools.
My eventual pool was not fantastic but I tried to make the best of it.
I beat an Izzet deck (who took the Rakdos box) which had my guildmaster in it by playing draw-go in a full Izzet mage style. I next faced my friend who was playing a defender tribal deck with 3x the mill defender. With my burn spells not capable of clearing the 0/4 guys with any consistency, I easily lose in an inevitable way. I scoop to save time and information and side in black for the dumb rare enchantment that halves the player's life but I don't draw it and get double milled with ease again.
Third match was against Azorious who I dispatch easily on the back of my Izzet playstyle that attacks the larger bombs with countermagic while sneaking in small threats.
It was late and I split the last round with my opponent to go back.

We didn't have any incentives to fill the achievement card up. Hey! There was supposed to be a guild meeting held...

Church Camp

(Not at all mtg related but I don't have anywhere I can put this down)

For once in my life, I have come to appreciate the fact that people are far from what we see them to be. For that, I am comforted that I am rightfully human when I am not optimal with my decisions.

I am thankful to be blessed to have been given a sound mind that creates its own train of thoughts since the hive mind doesn't need to be correct and I am more than glad to know that I have someone of a great mind on my side by my side to let me see that I don't have to be confused when I am unable to comprehend the state of the situations I get into because what I think is not always wrong.

God always never fails to do things in His way that people cannot fathom and I aspire to draw this from Him. I do, however, really want to have a more forgiving heart for my own sake because I want to not let my grudges become ancient ones that hold me down.

Random: I want to play in a prerelease pod!

Standstill standstill

My reanimator / flash deck was a flop. It's quite difficult to make it work through crossover hate.

Now, I am back to the other end of the spectrum, standstill.
Last year, I had managed to post decent results with the UR standstill.
Now I am testing a UW version with moderate results as I am still trying out various technologies that would be useful in the format.
I wanted to play it in the DE this morning but I was too tired so I left the queue at 245am. Apparently the queue was at 14 people so it might have fired. Ack.

Classic Reanimator?

 

Hmm.. I wonder if this would work out...

 

This is a mesh of Flash and Reanimator.. I wonder why people don't really play reanimator in Classic other than splash over dredge hate. I would try and see how this goes. Would be cool if I can make some cool powerful hybrid decks that would be capable of taking down the Classic DE.. :)

I think I know the answer

From Lotus Cobra is Evil (yay! - link at the side):

Why you should buy DD Izzet vs Golgari

As the title says, here is why:

 

 

I'm in!

Waiting for Spring

I've been quite down for awhile. Didn't manage to get the job I wanted (and quit mu current job), messed up somewhere in the sudoku thing I was doing (one mistake somewhere = big GG), there's trouble at work and finally my CQ league.

This week I'm paired yet again with a "non classic" deck, belcher. I regret not running incredibly explosive engines to just destroy my opponents. Instead, I meta-ed against Classic decks but the Classic environment is not meeting my expectations at all.

It was like when I tried to get my family to play saboteur. There were 3 miners vs 1 sabotuer but the miners simply self destructed by the virtue that they did not understand the consequences of their actions and trying to analyze such players is just counterproductive because they are not able to or are not at the level of understanding to make the more optimal plays.

Sigh.

Sudoku Challenge~

So I ended up entering this Sudoku challenge at my workplace. The thing is, I haven't been doing it much since about 4 years back so I'm pretty rusty.
I will be practicing for it casually as I do with Magic and trying to sort out some ideas.
I shall aim to win it :)
Hopefully the rest of the people aren't sudoku addicts cos I know one of my friends is and he did one at type writer speed...
I'm far from that.

The Legacy Legacy

This morning, I loaned out my Dreadstill deck to my friend who is one of the best players in my country. I played round 1 for him to a clean 2-0 sweep against mono red as he was on his way back at 2am.

Unfortunately he did not manage to score wins after that. I watched the replays and I realized how Legacy required a level of appreciation before one would be able to play a deck, even more so for an interactive deck.

There is a large number of factors to take into account that cannot be grasped overnight. A good legacy player plays around everything in the format and can prioritize their spell usage to the most relevant threat rather than just the usual skills that are utilized in standard that focus more on efficiency.

For example, good players would actively play around wasteland, daze, B discard spells and bait Force of Wills (which is overcasted in the sense that the spell it is countering does not need to be countered).
Learning how to play Legacy would take a really long length of time.

A high level legacy game is such a fun game.
Perhaps I could write something about that next time.

Week 1

This is the first week of the Classic league and I am paired with an odd high tide deck that is neither legacy nor classic in its entirety but is closer to the former.
I have been thinking every now and then about how to beat him and how to react properly to his threats. A lot more details would be in my article I guess.

It is good to see some people with updated tech but the overall field is underwhelming at that aspect. My foresight blew when no one else picked up a similar deck as I had implemented good anti mirror tech. Meh!!!

I'll be lending my dreadstill deck to my friend to play in the MOCS... I've been reaching home at 10pm the past few days so I'm too beat to even get into a release event.

Classic League

Hmm.. I think I should help to flame the fires for Classic with a short recap series plus insight..

Anyway my decklist has been submitted but my tech may be slightly premature because I don't have a full grasp on how teched up the community is. i look forward to having another article up soon with my secret tech

6 Days

Nothing is more of a motivation than interest. I was informed by Cronin of a Classic tournament series. Obviously, I'm going to get into it in a serious mode. Mtgo has been uninteresting to me for the past few days and this has gotten me excited to test a new card in Classic which seems to be under the radar so I hope to kickstart the reawakening of the format with new tech.

6 days to the official final submission date. :)

Stale mana breeds zombies

Over the week, the condition of legacy/classic did not change much with the drought continuing despite legacy being the Mocs format.

I tried to get QPs by playing Pauper to a sad outcome with a mono blue delver deck. It was easily outclassed by a cloudpost deck and storm although I did win an infect deck between those. I don't understand how 4 Dazes would work maindeck in this format. Just how weak are the players to not even try to play around it?

Speaking of which, I traded a Foil promo Maze of Ith away for 2x foil Daze (50 ea).
I guess there isn't much reason to hold on to the promos since I've let go of so many to date.

Prereleases are this week but since the week is ending anyway, I guess I'll wait till post downtime to get into the release events for more value. At this point, I am doubtful of even qualifying for the coming MOCS. I suppose it is really not easy to work and play unless I am into more of the mainstream formats.

Dreadstill Testing

With both MOCS promos from the last 2 months calling out to something in me, I ran an old Dreadstill list in the TP room that is slightly upgraded with some of my landstill tech and some other modifications.

The deck itself plays like it did from 2 years ago and my opponents didn't seem to be wielding very strong decks that I couldn't handle so I easily picked up win after wins. It's not really interesting to find out that I do not need to make additional work out of a few tweaks to be relevant in the format again.

It doesn't help that it doesn't look like Legacy DEs are going to fire so serious testing looks bleak. It gets difficult at this point because I cannot prepare for the format and qualify at the same time.

Let's see how it goes.

Mtgo Beta Client

When I saw that I could get a booster pack for playing in a tournament with the new beta client, I downloaded the said client to try out the new system.
Pros 1) Downloading was incredibly fast.
I logged in to find a very unfamiliar interface.
Pros 2) It had msn messenger-like pop up notices when friends logged in. I liked that.
I went to look at tournaments and I tried to enter one.
Cons 1) I couldn't find the prize payout.
Cons 2) I could not sort the featured tournaments
Pros 3) The tournament page opened a new window so I suppose managing the event would be better than before.
Pros 4) I can see who and how long more it would take before it begins

I went into the TP room to find a very messy page with the annoying featured tournaments still there.
I tried a legacy game.
Cons 3) The chatbox can't be docked.
Cons 4) I was playing Apprentice instead of MTGO
Cons 5) Foils look ugly.
Cons 6) Searching for cards in the library was a huge pain because they were not neatly sorted like they were in the past and I had to scroll right to search my deck. Foils were very hard to see.
Cons 6) Revealed cards had to be looked at from the revealed tab on the right.
Cons 7) Attacking only moved the creature up so I could barely tell that my creature was going to attack.
Cons 8) The stack looked very uneven with different sized objects (spells/abilities) in it.
Cons 9) Once a deck is submitted during sideboarding, you cannot resubmit a different configuration until the end of the next game.
Cons 10) The deckbuilder is hard to use with the small space allocated for the deck's usage and the display of the deck is so ugly and squeezed in. Deck building is just repulsive.
Pros 5) The decks are on the left so pulling them out seems to be easier.
Cons 11) Classifieds is so hard to read with wrapped text in an allocated space.
Pros 6) You can see previous people whom you have traded with.
Cons 12) I try to look at my avatars and it looks like one from a forum. It tells me that I need some more but I don't think I have seen those anywhere.
Cons 13) I need to mouseover to see the name of the avatar.
Pros 7) It seems easier to find which avatar you want to use.
Cons 14) Trading without the sets tabs is so difficult with you having to have to filter out what you need or typing the specific cards names.
Cons 15) The trade button was under where all the popups came in.

Overall, it feels like a very bad experience considering how v3 is and also
having seen dotp which this is a far cry from. I am tempted to get an ipad to be able to carry around a dotp.
It is definitely a pity that they are not taking the good parts of v3 to do up v4. I am rather disappointed to be honest.
If this is the future of MTGO, I'd rather have v3. Have you seem how the cards look like? Yuck!

Regrowth?

MOCS Legacy's promo is Regrowth.

Dear Wotc,

Why is your marketing strategy so weak nowadays?

I know that Regrowth is a Legacy playable card with the Pyromancer's Ascension deck but couldn't you have more smartly picked out a card more fitting for the format? In fact, Phyrexian Dreadnought should have been this month if you really wanted to have a promo card for Legacy.

From a marketing standpoint, promos that match the format will create much more value to the player because they can immerse into the format better. It's like giving out promo Commandposts to a Commander event. Commander players would love to have one and feel that they know the format enough to have a shot at the event. Basically, it pulls enthusiasts and creates an environment of excitement.

To be honest, my expectations were significantly doused with the announcement. There are many choices for the promo that would have made much sense but pulling a random card out of the bag does not do it.

Did I mention that the TNM promo is a card already given to people recently in the player rewards system?

Please try harder or get a better person to handle these.

Regards.

The Legacy Quest

The next MOCS has been announced as being the Legacy format and the season will start after the next downtime.

Legacy has been a waning format on Mtgo along with Classic. The most recent Legacy data would have to come from the Legacy GPs and the SCG opens.

From what I see, I would probably play either the popular UGR delver, UW stoneblade, UB/G tombstalker, counterbalance or the Sam Black Gravecrawler deck. I was already impressed with Gravecrawler in legacy but I suppose Blood Artist is what pushed the archetype forward.

Legacy cards aren't cheap though. To get the UGR deck up I would need to fork out about $80 just on commons and uncommons from masques block...

I hope that Legacy DEs fire in my timezone (if at all) and I'll try to work towards at least qualifying for the event. The lack of time I have now is such a beating. :(

Let's see how things go..

M13 Prerelease

On Saturday, I went to a local shop prerelease and the people count was abysmally unimpressive. With a total of 17 players of which a majority were casual players, I was not very impressed.

My pool was less than impressive with the highlight being the 2 ironic cards staring at me;



My only playable rare was Krenko the Goblin maker so it was generally not very strong.
M13 was more core set like compared to M12 and all the useful "core skills" were easily utilized to good effectiveness.

I went 2-0 easily against the newer players but round 3 I won one, got insanely mana flooded with 7 lands in hand and 5 lands in hand when the game ended. Last game I got crushed by the card quality of my opp. Let's just say his 3/3s cost 2 mana while mine costed 4 mana.
Round 4 was decent but I stopped drawing gas and a Primeval Hydra said hi. I obviously said bye.

Here are some cool playmats I took pictures of:





I left the place feeling a little down. I guess whoever said that local shop prereleases were better than the large collective ones should be shot. Just so underwhelming compared to the older prereleases. I am sure that I had a better experience with kamigawa (no idea why people hated the block).

WotC MTGO player chat

15:59 WotC_MichaelR: Getting everyone set up. Chat will be starting soon.
16:00 WotC_Lee: Also, if you want to follow us on twitter, I am @Lee_Sharpe, Worth Wollpert is @mtgonline, Ryan Spain is [@R]yanSpain, and Michael Robles posts from @wizards_magic.
16:01 WotC_Lee: err that's @ RyanSpain for Syan
16:01 WotC_Lee: *Ryan
16:02 worth: hi folks
16:03 worth: word on the street is that we are TOTALLY AWESOME
16:03 WotC_MichaelR: Hi everyone watching the chat! I'm community manager Michael Robles. Thanks for coming to the chat. If you want to ask question then / join mtgo10th. First of all, let me say THANK YOU to all who have been playing. No matter how long you've been playing. We've had an AMAZING 10 years. With that, I'll let our guests introduce themselves.
16:05 WotC_MichaelR: (everyone is typing furiously)
16:06 worth: Hi all, my name is Worth Wollpert, I am the Executive Producer for Magic, meaning I work on MTGO, Duels of the Planeswalkers, licensed games, apps, and bunches of stuff I cant talk about Tomorrow June 30th is my 12 year anniversary here at WotC. Super lucky to have this awesome job!
16:07 WotC_Lee: I am Lee Sharpe, I am a business analyst fordigital products focussing on Magic Online. I collect data and use it to help figure out how to improve our event offerings and other business decisions. I've been playing Magic Online since the beginning, I love it, and for the last five years, I've enjoyed working on it even more!
16:07 WotC_K: Hey all. I am Chris Kiritz and I am the business manager for Magic Online and run the day to day operations under the awesome Worth Wollpert. I get to be the conduit between business, development and R&D.
16:08 WotC_Gordon: Hi Team, I am Gordon Culp, Director of Architecture and Systems Design in the Technology Department. I have been working on and around Magic Online since 2006. Pleased to be here.
16:09 WotC_MichaelR: Our first question comes from Oraymw: How much and in what ways does MTGO affect the design and development of Magic?
16:10 WotC_MichaelR: (Ryan Spain will be answering this one)
16:10 worth: while we get Ryan connected to answer that one, I'll take one from WShader who asks if there are plans for android Duels of the Planeswalkers stuff.
16:11 worth: I cant get too specific, but the reaction to iPad this year has been incredible, Both from fans and critics alike, even up to and including the good folks down in Cupertino who have been super supportive of us while we learn how to do tablet stuff.
16:12 worth: So that said, we are always looking at ways to get Duels (specifically, moreso than most of our other offerings) into the hands of as many players as possible
16:12 Ryan_S: Hi there!
16:12 WotC_MichaelR: Oh hey! Ryan's here!
16:13 Ryan_S: Logged on now.
16:13 WotC_MichaelR: He can answer the first question
16:13 Ryan_S: I'm Ryan Spain,
16:13 Ryan_S: I work in R&D as a digital designer, primarilly responsible for R&D's relationship with MTGO.
16:14 Ryan_S: So far, no mechanics being considered for paper sets have been a problem for implementation on MTGO.
16:14 worth: Welcome WShader, DOTP is a great way to expand an already awesome and growing community, even as far as getting players into stores IRL to find other humans with like interests. We love Duels!
16:14 Ryan_S: One of my responsibilities is to keep an eye on new mechanics in development for MTGO and make sure they are viable.
16:15 Ryan_S: MTGO is pretty flexile and the dev team is pretty awesome,
16:15 Ryan_S: so even the diabolical Mark Rosewater has yet to come up with something MTGO can't handle, mechanic-wise.
16:15 WotC_MichaelR: Next Question from Majinara Particle: Q: since mtgo can offer stuff that ain't available in paper magic (think about momir), are some mtgo only cards (or even a special set) planned, that push this a bit, by featuring cards or rules that can't be realized in paper?
16:16 worth: One comment on Ryan's answer, you guys should have seen the faces of the MTGO card integration team when they got handed Future Sight for the first time lol
16:16 WotC_Lee: Worth: That was the first thing I worked on after being hired!
16:17 WotC_K: Majinara Particle: We have definately talked about doing things that are unique to Magic Online, especially with promo cards. There is an awesome opportunity to play with what a Magic card is and can do when you are only concerned about digital.
16:17 WotC_K: Random abilities are clearly one of those things, which is why Momir is so awesome.
16:18 WotC_MichaelR: That's a great question from Majinara Particle. They're going to get a draft set!
16:18 WotC_MichaelR: Next question from SiegePerilous: Q: Will it be possible in the future to associate my DCI# with my MTGO account? and if so how would that change the system
16:22 worth: awesomerandomdude I just saw your comment, I remember playing you too
16:22 WotC_Gordon: SiegePerilous: Eventually MtGO will be hooked up to the Wizards accounts that are now used on the boards and DCI systems, so yes, your DCI number could be related to your MtGO account.
16:22 WotC_MichaelR: While Gordon is answering the DCI question Worth will answer this one: 4:08 PM Chamale: Worth, what influenced the decision to connect DotP 2013 to Magic 2013 more than the previous games?
16:23 worth: One of the things we've really tried to do more and more over the past 2-3 years that we've been putting Duels out, is to try to integrate our analog and our digital offerings as much as possible. We've found that cross-pollination in our digital and analog communities builds them stronger and faster the better we gently nudge those two sets of players towards each other.
16:23 WotC_MichaelR: Great question Chamale! Have a draft set!
16:24 WotC_MichaelR: Here
16:25 WotC_MichaelR: Here's another question MaZmiTh: will there ever be a way to move chat boxes outside of the mtgo client? on multiple moniters it would be nice
16:27 WotC_Gordon: MaZsmith: The new client will support chat windows outside the application window. That was high on the list when we worked on the design and implementation. I am typing in a nice floating chat window in the new client right now
16:27 WotC_MichaelR: (Gordon is working on the answer to this one)
16:27 WotC_Lee: 4:25 PM nayrnosnaws: Q: The great thing about MTGO is the ability to track your games. Does the future of MTGO look to include a statistical package to see how we fair (i.e., W/L %, by color, etc.)?
16:28 WotC_Lee: We try to do a bit of this now with individual draft data and other information in the newsletter. Obviously that's just scratching the surface of some of the Magic Online data that's available to present, and as infrastructure improves we look forward to more opportunities to provide players with cool information about their matches, decks, and play online!
16:29 WotC_MichaelR: Here's a question from joekewwl: Q: Will we ever see someone committed to MTGO boards as a go between and not having them disappear after a few months too busy with other duties to keep the community in touch with Wotc?????
16:29 WotC_K: From Calavera: Q: I love 64 man drafts. Any plans to add them to the Regular schedule? We have talked about adding them to the regualr schedule, but the minimum of 64-players is a worry. I would really like to see larger PEs work and that is something we are look at for the future. I would love to see a Draft PTQ with 500+ players in it.
16:30 worth: Joe, Mr Robles here aside I am acutely aware that we do not have enough resources pointed at places like our forums and community on our site. We are taking some steps to address, but I cant speak to specifics. You guys should hear something you like pretty soon though.
16:31 WotC_MichaelR: What Worth said.
16:32 WotC_MichaelR: Another question: RulerofChaos: Will we get Planechase constructed Ques?
16:32 worth: One more thing related to that, from those of you who interacted with me in the 3ish years that I was very active on the forums, you will know that I think it's important and that maintaining a direct, constructive 1 to 1 relationship with your customers is one of the very best ways to improve your offering. Not to mention it's basically win/win for everyone.
16:34 WotC_K: We talked about it prior to release, but the spirit of Planechase is in more casual open play and we wanted to make sure we matched the spirit of the Paper release. That said, we like may look at more competetive queues for formats like Commander and Planechase in the future.
16:35 WotC_MichaelR: Here we go: rock2011: Q: What does it take to put a set online, is this the reson for the delay between paper release and online release?
16:35 worth: Thanks Ctirpak2003 MTGO is fun and awesome because of you guys though, not me
16:36 WotC_Lee: We have been releasing high quality set releases lately, but an important part of that process is the beta process where users test the set. Obviously this process can't begin too early without the set being spoiled. However, with Return to Ravnica we are shrinking the gap by a week and we are excited by this change!
16:36 worth: Marshall trolling us from social media!
16:37 WotC_MichaelR: MOAR QUESTIONS: VIP: What is the likely hood of Standard Pauper being a sanctioned event ? What do you think of this format ?
16:40 WotC_K: We have talked about out Standard Pauper (and I have gotten quite a few emails about it thanks to JoeKewwl). If we did offer it, it would be in the Casual Play room first so we could see how much demand there actually is for it.
16:41 WotC_MichaelR: Here's a question: DailyMatters: Q: Any plans on integrating MTGO with other social networks like facebook, twitter, etc ?
16:43 WotC_Robert: vaultboy2k asks: Why does wotc keep playing legacy Kobolds.
16:43 WotC_Robert: Answer: Because it's hilarious.
16:43 WotC_Beau: Spellslinging!
16:46 WotC_K: We have definately looked at integrating more social media into Magic Online. There are a ton of opportunities to solidify our community by letting them share MTGO experiences more easily. It will be high priority after we release the new UI.
16:46 WotC_Lee: Many of us certainly like social media! [sS]
16:46 WotC_MichaelR: True
16:46 WotC_MichaelR: Another question: AdahnTheImagined: Q: There are quite a lot of cards (not just high profile ones) that are not available on Magic Online. I guess there must be more to it than just putting them into the system. What sort of obstacles are there in digitizing Magic's complete history? :-)
16:47 WotC_Lee: Masters Editions have tried to capture some of the most famous and high profile on Magic Online.
16:47 worth: Cep I saw your question on Rochester draft and Winston draft...just wanted to say that I love LOVE both those formats, especially Winston. Lots of stuff I *want* to do with MTGO formats, especially formats that play well or are designed for 1v1 play. Winston in particular is something I want badly. Lots of stuff to prioritize though.
16:48 worth: Also if anyone wants a good laugh, speaking of Rochester draft, take a look here: [a:url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW_zkyFoQLI]www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW_zkyFoQLI[/a] and laugh at Finkel destroying me. lol
16:48 WotC_Lee: A lot of the cards would be very difficult (not impossible) to program, though, and there isn't a ton of demand for those cards. And some cards (like involving manual dexterity) or Un-set cards don't work at all.
16:49 WotC_Lee: Definitely interested in feedback if there's specific stuff you'd like to see on Magic Online, but we have no current release the pre-Mirage sets in their entirety on Magic Online. It's possible some of those cards may be release outside of a booster product, however.
16:50 Ryan_S: [@A]dahnTheImagined: There are some cards that just aren't possible (like Chaos Orb), and there are other cards that simply aren't fun/popular. So far, we have mostly released cards on MTGO in booster formats that can be drafted or otherwise played in Limited. We've looked at ways to introduce missing cards in non-booster forms to complete the avilability of all cards.
16:50 WotC_MichaelR: We've had a few questions about this so I'll ask it: Will players be able to create their own Cubes?
16:52 WotC_K: Right now it just isn't possible from a technical standpoint. We like the idea of players being able to take control of their play experience, but there are just a lot of other features that are higher priority.
16:53 WotC_K: The same is true of players being able to create their own drafts where players can bring random packs.
16:54 WotC_MichaelR: Here's a great "almost done" question: Shaterri: 10 years on, what's been your biggest surprise with MTGO? (Aside from the obvious 'how popular it still is' answer, of course)
16:55 WotC_MichaelR: We're going to go a little bit later, (since we started later... thank you RYAN SPAIN). So we'll ask a few more questions.
16:56 Ryan_S: Well if SOMEONE would have had the room READY maybe I would have been going on time!
16:56 WotC_Robert: The room was ready! There was cake!
16:57 worth: Biggest surprise in the last 10 years - I would say the movement of the digital game industry in general to (now) completely embrace a pay-as-you-go model with digital objects. From a guy who was around when we dreamed this thing up, we werent sure our customers would embrace the model. 10 years later it's pretty clear that they do in a big way.
16:59 WotC_K: There are a lot of surprises for me. How passionate the community is (and how awesome many of them are) is one. I have had a chance to meet may players at Pro Tours, Worlds, Magic Online Championship Series, and at the Community Cup. One of the highlights of the year for me is CC and getting a chance to bring Magic fans here and really get to konw them.
17:00 worth: Since we have a lull here as my colleagues are furiously typing... If anyone ever wants to ask me a question on twitter, I try to respond to most (I cant get to all though ) also I read every. single. post. in the magic online general forums on our website
17:00 WotC_Gordon: Shaterri: The way in-store play and online play have supported each other has been great, and like Worth said about the business model, we weren't completely sure that would be the case.
17:00 worth: you can get me at @mtgonline
17:01 WotC_Lee: I liked Worth's and Chris' answers!
17:01 worth: MaZmiTh must not have seen the Mutilate spoiler that just went up (he asked when we're gonna make a good black card again)
17:02 WotC_Lee: You can also follow me on twitter, I tweet regularly about Magic Online: @Lee_Sharpe
17:02 WotC_MichaelR: We've had more questions about this so whoever wants to answer it can: Leagues?
17:03 WotC_Gordon: We got a couple of questions about deck size limits in the new client. The upper size limit is server side, so it will not change (I think it is 1400 in 2 player games). The new client will support binders in the collection that can contain up to 50K cards.17:03 WotC_MichaelR: (You guys should hear the conversation going on behind the scenes right now) :P
17:04 worth: Not gonna get into details too much on Leagues other than this: Leagues in some form (a form recognizable to you all as Leagues) *will* definitely, 100%, without a doubt, be back.
17:05 worth: MaZmiTh wants to know if I've ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight.
17:05 WotC_Gordon: We are going to tackle some major system infrastructure work around player matching and tournament/event management when we build support for Leagues, which I look forward to on both fronts.17:06 worth: To which I say only, "I put my arms around him and held him tight."
17:06 WotC_Lee: (Also, lol @ moonlight in Seattle)
17:07 WotC_MichaelR: 5:07 PM RulerofChaos: Q: Are you guys excited about the new column on Dailymtg covering MTGO?
17:07 WotC_MichaelR: YES!
17:08 WotC_Lee: The Magic Online metagame moves very quickly. It's exciting to try to be on the cutting edge of the metagame and we look forward to seeing a columnist document this.
17:08 WotC_K: Yes. We are really working on ways to get MTGO more in the spotlight, and more integrated coverage is part of that.
17:10 WotC_MichaelR: Deathclaw: Q: you mention casting mtgo into more of the spotlight, is there any plans to have events like the magic invitational/duelist invitational where online players have a chance to develop a card?
17:11 WotC_K: We have Community Cup, which I have already said I love, where we bring players in and really get to play in very fun ways.
17:13 WotC_K: We want to do more articles and really, just more forward facing communication.
17:13 worth: What Chris said.
17:13 WotC_Lee: MULTIBALL!
17:13 WotC_K: really just get more involved with the community in general.
17:14 WotC_MichaelR: I can also answer a little bit of this question. This chat, spellsling, conventions and more are helping bring into the spotlight. It's something that requires a lot of moving parts. The good thing is it's something lots of us want.
17:16 WotC_MichaelR: Here's the final question: DailyMatters: Q: In your indivdual opinion what is the best thing about working in mtgo ?
17:16 WotC_Lee: Working on a product that I'm passionate about with a bunch of other people who are also passionate about the same thing. There's not a lot that can substitute for this. I'm very lucky to work in an enviornment like this.
17:17 WotC_Robert: The best thing about working on MTGO is getting to work with these folks. It's the bee's knees.
17:17 WotC_Lee: It's really great!
17:18 WotC_Gordon: It is really rewarding to work on the digital representation of such a fantastic game. The crew here is awesome to work with as well. Sooo many smrt people.
17:18 Ryan_S: @DailyMatters: Having the opportunity to influence the direction of the digital implementation of the greatest game ever invented. Also, working with a group of people uniformally passionate about the product. I've been in a lot of jobs in the game industry, and it's really quite a unique environment in that regard.
17:19 worth: Best thing about working on MTGO for me is being able to directly affect a program that I truly love, letting me play a game I've loved for almost 20 years. Not necessarily MTGO related, but Magic itself is such a huge part of my life, 4 out of my 5 groomsman in my wedding party 11 years ago I had met through Magic, and I contend that Magic attracts the world's best and brightest. Being around that is cool. It's cool man, it's cool. :P
17:20 worth: Calavera and a lot of others asked about P9, what I'll say is that they'll make their way to MTGO eventually. It's a genie we cant put back in the bottle once we let it out, so I want to be *very* careful about the execution. It's definitely top of mind, all.
17:20 WotC_K: Too much to list. I am working on a prodcut that I am also a fan of, I get to work on that product with other great folks who are fans, and deliver that product to more fans. I think we are actually in the most exciting period of Magic Online's history, and since I know what is coming, it is so exciting planning out how we are going to deliver it.
17:20 WotC_MichaelR: That does it for us. Thank you all for joining us today. We've had fun. Remember Spellslinging continues through 8pm PDT.
17:21 WotC_K: Not so fast Mike!
17:21 WotC_MichaelR: BA-WHA!?!
17:22 WotC_K: I think players are going to be very happy once we release the new UI and we finally get to show off what we have been working so hard on.
17:23 WotC_K: And the best part is that is just the foundation of what is to come.
17:23 worth: bobafett please take it easy on Lee if you play him in spelslinging
17:24 worth: hes no good to me dead
17:24 WotC_MichaelR: Have a great weekend everyone!
17:25 WotC_K: Spellslingers! Please remember that only the first match counts for rewards!
17:25 WotC_Lee: We will post the chat transcript in the Magic Online group blog for those who missed some of it and/or want to review it later.
17:25 WotC_Lee: Hope everyone enjoyed the chat.
17:25 WotC_Lee: Time to start spellslinging!
17:25 WotC_K: Multiple matches do not get multiple cards, and if you lose, more games will not get you more cards.
17:25 worth: Thanks again for being part of this everyone, you're all appreciated more than you know. We're always open to constructive feedback, help us make the product you want it to be! Have a great weekend!

Post Planechase Online

Planechase has just come online but there are a few issues:

1) If I want the chase spells, I would need to buy the sets unless some people find no value in the unique cards which I highly doubt.

2) I will not be getting any planechase games done on MTGO.

3) There will not be the promo planes online yet.

In any case, I bought the following:

This would get me 2 Shardless Agents, 1 Maelstrom Wanderer, 4 Baleful Strix (and some other random playables).

Quite cool to see the planes come sideways but the same size as normal cards...

More unboxing...

And with the new cards (Baleful Strix only), I make a Classic version of Stephen Menendian's Welder deck in hopes of running it in Classic which may not even fire to get me back returns for my $40 investment:

It's so sucky to not have people interested in playing one of the coolest formats on MTGO. I can't fathom why Classic cannot get the people to fire it. I'm here to show my support at 2.30am but people whose timezone are somewhere in the daytime can't come and show their faces. MEH!

Legacy Thoughts

As I was casually running an old Stiflenought build with the new promo foil Stifles,

 a spectator asked me about the recently unbanned Land Tax in Legacy.



I have played Land Tax in 100 card Singleton but never in a proper constructed format.

I can't help but to feel underwhelmed by it when people want to make it into a mountain. Sure it may be a good deck but ultimately, I can't help but to find it an unstable deck because it needs Land Tax and runs basic lands which is very restrictive.

Draw engines are good when they allow you to find answers you need or when they mesh with your original strategy. Don't misunderstand when I am not impressed by the card because drawing 3 a turn is no laughing matter. In fact, anyone can simply run 4-5 basic lands and still use Brainstorm to milk tons of milleage out of Land Tax but the sky is not close to falling. If I am casually running Stiflenought, Land Tax doesn't have that much time to assemble answers to my threat.

When you put too effort into running a card draw engine, you will have a tough time playing against fast decks that won't let you get to enjoy the full milleage.

It's really a pity that they still want to keep the caps on Mental Misstep, the overly overrated card that prevents people from playing zoo. So where is this zoo right now? In the zoo? Definitely not anywhere close to where Legacy is right now.

Silly Legacy people couldn't react against the card properly and wanted it banned.

There is always the option to retune your deck to not be vulnerable to the card but I think that the Legacy people are too inflexible to believe that they can or play decks that make the Mental Missteps in the opponents hands become a liability. In fact, I believe that that era was much more skill intensive and interesting because of how Mental Misstep can forcefully interact with decks that stubbornly don't want to step away and how there are some people who absolutely crush the spell and enjoy its liabilities that it imposes onto the general Legacy populus.

That person did mention Balance in the format but I think he just doesn't know the true terror of a Armageddon + Mind Twist + Wrath of God for 2 mana. On the play, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Balance, land, Delver of Secrets go. Opp starts with 2 cards and draws 1......

Oh yes.. Still waiting... =)

Magical Weekend?

Let me see where to start...

Post downtime, I entered an IPA draft and "money drafted" Meddling Mage to keep in the IPA mood. Ran a jund colored deck for Darigaaz splashing blue for Cetavolver, Jilt and Stormscape Battlemage. Mana screw in game 3 = gg.

My next endeavor for the weekend was the standard MOCS tournament, where I'm aiming for the foil Stifle...

Expecting a degree of Bonfire of the Damned, I ran this particular UW Delver build that my friend gave me with Redirect as tech to turn away the said spell:

I went 7-4 which placed me 70+ places, losing to Naya pod, zombies and 2 delver decks. The 11th round loss was the killer as it knocked me out of top 64 and out of any prizes. I thought that I was in a really good shape in the final game but my opponent cast a timely Timely Reinforcements and in the same timely fashion drew a Snapcaster Mage to recast it.

With the tournament experience, I updated the list and passed it back to my friend who is running it at the world cup qualifiers as of now. (Mocs was 10pm to 7am++)

Redirect was too difficult to use and was replaced with Negate in the board and Mutagenic Growth in the main. Steel Sabotage was horrible vs zombies and ultimately was the key card in my final game that should have dealt with the opposing Sword of War and Peace only to get Mental Misstepped so that was replaced with Divine Offering.
I moved Blade Splicer into the maindeck and put in 2x Hero of Bladehold in the sb. Sick card to cast with Caverns.

During the Mocs was also the Wotc gunslinging sessions. They were playing Momir, MoJoSto, pauper, standard, modern, kaleidoscope and in the later part, Classic.
Games were snapped up in split seconds and each person would get one chance. A win gets you a Foil Promo Kitchen Finks. A loss gets you a non-foil. The games were insanely difficult to join. You would need to anticipate the correct person setting up a game in a particular format and have the deck loaded ahead of time so that you can double click and enter in the microsecond opening.

Fortunately for me, wotc_troy was playing classic (which happened to be something very casual which was not very common for the wotc people who were easily running good decks against the general public). Unfortunately for him, I was playing Classic with my Doomsday list and I easily scored my Foil promo Kitchen Finks that I would get in a couple of days. (Haha)

I'm still suffering from the insanely unhealhy sleep pattern with a mild headache. Bought a foil promo Stifle at 45. May try to get another.

MtGO + DoTP = 21 June

Let's see..

1) I'm happy that I got a bunch of cool freebies on mtgo, including a premium deck Graveborn!

I happen to have 2 accounts that got the same bunch of stuff so I have 2x Graveborn.

With this, I can easily make a legacy reanimator deck by simply getting 2 more Entombs (which are dirt cheap now)!

2) I'm quite bummed about not having Dotp 2013 come out for my iphone since I would have been rather elated to have the game with me everywhere I go.

In any case, I've just bought it off steam and it's downloading as I type this but I will definitely not get to see it as I have to get to sleep for work tomorrow (hate work).

3) I'm preparing for the standard MOCS and I'm testing out and watching games to get a feel of the format since I've pretty much not been into standard, with my involvement in the format peaking in the previous GP at Kuala Lumpur a few months back.

I've a UW delver deck up but I'm considering the UW control deck with Blade Splicers or an upgrade of my previous esper control deck but it seems like the format has changed significantly since then and Cavern of Souls is more than annoying so I would need a rehaul of the deck in terms of tools and strategy.
I'm not too sure what the allure is with the UW control but I am definitely not forgetting the more streamlined Esper decks (with Lingering Souls).

I pretty much have 2 days to work on it. Good luck to me.

Metalworker, great many years back, still great today

Metalworker is one of the coolest creatures around in Classic/Legacy. I have it in my 100 card Singleton artifact deck and it kicks ass there too.

I wanted to share 2 shots from the Duel Master comic when the characters were playing Mtg...

Shobu belittling the innocent looking Metalworker:



Metalworker at work:



Shobu won with a Taunting Elf by the way, playing a green stompy deck which would otherwise have no chance vs Metalworker.

Doomsday Log 3

Last night, I toggled between the old build and the new build and tried to incorporate some old ideas into the new deck, mainly Necropotence and an Oath of Druids sb plan just to see how things would go.

Old ver

Updated new ver:

The main difference would probably be in the intention of the decks, with the original having more traditional kill conditions and the latter more focused on 2 main kills. I was also testing out Dark Confidant vs Night's Whisper in the original build but I did not come down to a proper conclusion for the two. I should rethink about it.

The hardest card to evaluate would probably be Demonic Consultation which is a 2 card combo with the singleton Laboratory Maniac. I feel like removing it but it is an alternate kill route that I can take that some decks cannot interact well against. In any case, I would be revising my anti shops plan because originally it was Sol Ring + Hurkyl's Recalls but I want a little mroe edge which is why the Oath sb came in.

I'm also reconsidering the reintroduction of Library of Alexandria but it would hurt the anti-waste land package... Hm.....

Oh yes, could we get some Classic to fire???

Dotp 2013

Hmm.. Dotp is a fine game but for this genre, I would prefer Shandalar (which happens to actually be available for download somewhere on the Internet) because you have full control over your cards/decks and there is a visible growth process that is similar to the board progress in mtg through the turns.

The coolest part of Dotp 2012 for me would be that Karn had Mox Sapphire and Tinker into Darksteel Colossus (freed-from-infected golem does not like infection). Reason being that it gave me hope for p9 to come online.



Dotp2012 did have archenemy and the coming version would include planechase.

You would get to play fun casual games. I would be getting the iPhone version (for mainly the promo pack but also to have an mtg app to play).

As a note, the simpler the game is, the more skill intensive it is because your fundamentals need to be rock solid to get a small edge and you may not even be able to do much depending on your draws.

The biggest improvement would probably be the choice of which mana you want to use because for one of the puzzles, I figured out an answer but could not execute it due to the mana auto tapping away the right mana. That made me angry and irritated because I could not figure out another line of plays to solve the puzzle and my "correct" answer was made invalid for a bad reason. With this, only my incompetence would be the reason for me to be unable to clear the stage.

I hope they eventually let you make your own decks and have tons of cards for you to mess around with but I guess that would not be what's coming in the near future. Still gonna end up buying it and playing it. :)

Nisemonogatari !

Finally managed to find the sequel to Bakemonogatari.. Just completed watching the 11 episodes of abstract goodness and moderate fanservice. I guess by now the abstractness has sunk in. Bakemonogatari was probably more abstract in terms of presentation but still nothing short of goodness that is not easy to appreciate.
It was much more productive than waiting for a DE to start...

Made a cake-sized lava cake for my once-a-year cake for a special someone's birthday. What else did I do?

Nothing magical I would say.. Just waiting for my birthday, 20 June (dotp 2013) and end June (planechase on mtgo).
My mtg friends are at GP Manilla so I'll wish them the best. :)

MTGO's Birthday!

Post downtime would be week 4 of the current MOCS season which would end up with a Standard championship giving away this lovely Stifle...



To make the card more desirable, they announced that the MOCS promo of the following month will be it's friendly combo piece, Phyrexian Dreadnought!!!



Phyrexian Dreadnought was one of my favorite cards for Legacy (not Classic because artifact hate is so abundant there) in the past where I would play it with Counterbalance. I liked it so much that I got myself a foil copy and have 2+1 in total.

Just announced is the MTGO birthday celebrations which would end again with the lifetime points giveaway. Last year the top tier giveaway was a foil promo Fork. This year, it's going to be the alternate art (from the mtgo cube) Hymn to Tourach!



There are a bunch of other celebrations but they don't look like I'll get through them positive in tix unless I get into some cheap constructed events, hopefully Classic!

I have no idea how to get 1000 points by the end of that period without feeling like an idiot after that.
It's a pity I created this account only a few years back (when MOCS was around) so I don't have my "lifetime" points in my Naoto account.

The most interesting part of MTGO's birthday is that it falls exactly one day after mine!
=D

How cool is that?

Doomsday log 2

Obviously trying to figure out Doomsday piles on the spot isn't going to work. So I'm writing a few down to help me not mess up. Paper!

I've got some simple scenarios out and that should up my game against dredge since I have lines of play that can let me win on turn 2 if I get a turn 1 or 2 Doomsday. In real life tournaments, you can bring notes with you unless you have info gained in the tournament on it. I know you can use them for sideboarding. Not sure if you can refer to them in a game......

I need to figure out how to prepare against tighter decks that have disruptive lines of play like decks with burn or how to play with x spheres in play... At least I get to move my brain to think about difficult stuff. Working is so far from any of this.

On other notes, planechase 2 cards like Shardless Agent, Maelstrom Wanderer (for the Fires of Yavimaya ability) and Baleful Strix are showing their faces in the eternal scene. Strix being an artifact is really making it playable. It's been paired with tezz in legacy and welder in vintage. It's a little sad that Classic doesn't have the same volume of artifacts as vintage so it's slightly less powerful. However, I'm still excited for the end of the month where these would pop online. Hopefully the online traders would crack em and I get to pick some up before they get swiped away or escalate in pricing when the majority of the players start to pick playsets up.

Doomsday Log 1

During my testing with the Doomsday deck, I had found the deck to be much more skill intensive than I had imagined it to be, to the point whereby I would mess up or not create a satisfying situation.

The deck, if not mana screwed, has a large number of options and plays available to it that allow it to create at least one scenario whereby you can win in an incredibly small window that you can still very easily mess if you are not careful or if you did not plan your game properly and this can result in a loss very easily since Doomsday locks up your possible play sequences.

It was very amazing that I could race dredge with a turn 1 Doomsday and sculpt a hand that could finish the game on turn 2 although I had to take into account for the state of the game in order to create a game winning pile.

It becomes more interesting when there are scenarios whereby you have outs by simply changing your plan. It's incredibly flexible.

I think that workshop decks, possibly the worst matchup, can be dealt with. Right now I have Hurkyl's Recall and a Sol Ring in the sideboard to help against the matchup. It should be a manageable matchup once I figure out the proper plan to play through sphere effects to which Sol Ring is one of the answers I came up with since I did not need storm count to win and I can slowly take my time to cast singular spells and ,win.
I wonder how much time I would need before I get the hang of Doomsday to make cooler piles...

It's not any fun until someone loses an eye.

That sure is a cute Vexing Devil
O_O



http://magiccardswithgooglyeyes.tumblr.com/

When you need prices or tix, who do you call?

Does this look familiar to anyone?

Foil Vendilion Clique [PRM]                        102                
Foil Birds of Paradise [PRM]                       105   
Foil Emeria Angel [PRM]                            108                
Foil Wrath of God [PRM]                            123                
Foil Vindicate [PRM]                               126                
Foil Voidslime [PRM]                               126                
Foil Orim's Chant [PRM]                            126                
Foil Maze of Ith [PRM]                             132                
Foil Cryptic Command [PRM]                    255 

If you go to http://supernovabots.com/ , you can find a nice price guide for your foily needs and you know what you can cash in for tix.

I currently have set my eyes on this:

Foil Lion's Eye Diamond [MI]                       165       186

which means it's bought at 165 and sold at 186.

Since I don't really use my foil promo Maze of Ith much, I might wanna cash it in and get funds for a foil Lion's Eye Diamond (mainly because I can't find a seller for the normal one yet).
(I wonder what I would trade for a foil Black Lotus next time...)

I hope that I figure out what I can do against workshops because mana light decks have a really tough time against spheres unless they have Mana Drains and big planeswalkers. Need to stop wandering away from the problem at hand...

Classic Doomsday

I have been testing out Doomsday in Classic for some time and my testing results were mediocre because not only was the deck difficult to pilot, the deck was even more difficult to build. It is an incredibly high level deck that has much potential but I couldn't reach either points to my satisfaction.

With the recent legacy build doing well, my interests were very much piqued in that direction. Who would have known that Steve Menendian would already have had a new version in the works? I would think that having good players to discuss and brew ideas with is very useful in the deckbuilding aspect.

So anyhow, I took his Legacy build and Classic-fied it and took it into a few games. The deck was winning decently but sculpting a Doomday pile was not easy and I probably overexposed myself with less-than-efficient piles. Not sure how many more games I would need to clock before I get the hang of it but I definitely have to work with a pen and paper to make it work better.

It was interesting how people would sideboard Leyline of the Void when my win condition was primarily Laboratory Maniac. Maybe they didn't think that I could hardcast it? I added Tendrils of Agony to open up another victory route.

My next upgrade would involve me putting in a Lion's Eye Diamond to allow me to make plays that would require mana which I am currently restricted from but I couldn't get my hands on one at a good price yet. With this additional mana, the deck would gain an extra way to work out of situations.

The deck is generally resiliant to all sorts of hate cards (extraordinarilly so) but can be quite weak against pressure since it's a deck that requires certain conditions to be met while going off. Pressure plus counters are difficult to beat especially if Doomsday isn't found yet.

I like the raw potential of the deck but it is very difficult to pilot under pressure and needs a very calculative and imaginative mind to grasp. I would definitely feel accomplished if I can master playing the deck and also building the optimal build. Thankfully, it's not a deck that people can just see, pick up and play properly so I would lose little value even if the list gets revealed if I happen to do well with it in a future DE. Hope that that day would come soon. :)

Planechase 2 Release Event

Yesterday, I went down to my local shop for the planechase 2 release event. There were only 3 of us interested in the event so I sponsored a random guy to play. If he would win the game, I would pay him $10. (I would keep all the products of course)
Standard and drafts (?) were simply just more popular.

The single game went abysmally long, lasting close to 4 hours with a very wierd standstill throughout most of the game due to 7/7 eldrazi tokens coming out early. Every turn took really long because every other player used their own turn to think of what to play and they were too afraid to make mistakes.

I couldn't side with any players because my objective was to win and not have to pay the $10 if it could be helped so I needed the other players to keep each other in check.

Unfortunately, my cascade deck only had a bunch of vanilla creatures so I was never in a position to do anything like outright win. The only chance of that happening would involve my mini insurrrection spell. It was very much the opposite of how I envisioned the deck to be like.

The long game gave birth to mistakes from me not understanding what my own cards did. The most significant mistake was casting a green exarch and thinking that it tutored creatures into your hand because the top card, revealed by a pseudo Future Sight plane, was my Maelstrom Wanderer.

With the game dragging and a certain Nephalia hitting me hard, I had to end the game, even if it meant giving the $10 ;p
I sculpted a plan which involved hitting chaos to pyroclasm and then planeswalk so that more than one creature could attack and it worked but it doesn't occur to me that my re-stolen Maelstrom Wanderer gives my creatures haste so I miss out on an elimination play (which ends up costing me a lot of time and I greatly regret that).

Overall, I still like Planechase cards but it's mainly their flavor and art that I am attracted to. I hope to never play such a long game again.
On card evaluation, I found Sakashima's Student to be much better especially if you can keep ninja-ing for repeated etb effects.
Shardless Agent was crappy but that was primarily due to the nature of the deck I played not having good 2 mana cascade spells. Still, it may come down to how highly I would evaluate a vanilla 2/2 that's free? Not easy at all, especially if it matters in Legacy with people playing bear sized creatures. I think I would have to hands on with it before I can come to a concrete conclusion.

Planechase 2 New Cards~

The details of Planechase 2 are all out in the open and here are all of the unique cards from the set:

Lets see...
Of the new cards, the clear standouts are the ninjas, cascade and the colored artifact creatures.

Being eternal legal is a tough barrier to break where playability is concerned. The likely winner would be Shardless Agent being a cascader that can chain down into Ancestral Vision or just a Noble Hierarch or maybe Brainstorm. Cascade has always been a powerful mechanic that eternal formats would not be able to handle effectively if only Bloodbraid Elf was played especially since the format is unable to react appropriately. Force of Will is just horrid vs Bb elf.

In any case, planechase 2 is about the planes... Although that would not prevent me from getting a playset.