Hello everybody; today I bring you a two-part article. As a quick overview, in the first section I will speak about what cards seriously hurt Standard, and what must be done to fix it. In the second half, I will talk about my choice to combat the current "boring" standard. I know it's been a while, but with summer break upon us, I am ready to blog more often.
Let's get started today with some Standard talk. Standard has become a very boring format lately. Caw-Blade is destroying any chance people have of piloting any other deck to victory. Recently, the SCG Denver Open was upon us. This tournament specifically showed how bad standard has become. This was not because Caw-Blade won (because it didn't), but because only 3 made top 8. I say "only" with major emphasis and there lies the problem. When 3 top 8 slots is considered a poor performance for a deck, something is wrong. It seems we are resorting to a much worse version of the original Mirrodin Standard format (coincidence: maybe, maybe not). I may not have played then, but I have heard many stories. For those who didn't play then, Affinity ran rampant. It was the best deck, and the only other deck that won were decks that consistently beat it. Back to today, Wizards has been screwing up and slowly making Caw-Blade more and more unbeatable. As a quick timeline overview, here was Caw-Blades lifespan:
Pre-Mirrodin Besieged- Not a bad deck. Tier 1 to 1.5 with some pretty cool synergies. Still has trouble with Vengevine decks. Unfortunately, they have trouble with Valakut. I guess this a healthy meta-game.
Pre-New Phyrexia- This deck is so good. Sword of Feast and Famine both gives tempo against Valakut, and a lot of protection against Vengevine decks. Hopefully NPH will bring some way to take this deck off it's throne.
Post-NPH- WTF WIZARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Batterskull. Are you guys letting 3 year olds make your sets. No offense to the Future Future League or the Design Team, but I want to know how many drugs you were on when you made this set. Thanks for making Caw-Blade unstoppable against everything. Please never do this again.
So, that is basically what happened with Caw-Blade. Wizards must not have been paying attention to anything when they printed that. It has come so far as to force cards to be banned, which is what the first part of this article is about.
Twitter has been on fire lately with the debate on what to ban. The two major choices are Jace, or Stoneforge Mystic. Let's go over each one:
Jace- If you refer back to the time-line, you'll see that pre-Sword of Feast and Famine and Batterskull, Caw-Blade had it's weaknesses. There is no doubting that Jace is absurdly powerful, but it doesn't seem to be the real problem. This brings us to the second choice:
Stoneforge Mystic- Alone, Stoneforge Mystic is irrelevant, but when combined with amazing equipment, it is always a two for one. Imagine this best-case-scenario situation- Your opponent plays Stoneforge Mystic, searching for Batterskull. You Duress the Batterskull away from their hand. Not bad right, except that you got two-for-one'd, even in the best-case-scenario. We could ban one of the equipments, but other decks utilize the equipment as well, and the equipment are only problems when they come into play on turn 3 of every single game. So obviously Stoneforge seems to be the problem. As a testimony to my thoughts, I got my favorite professional magic player, and weekly Building on a Budget columnist for Wizards of the Coast (read it every Wednesday, it is really good) Jacob Van Lunen.
Me: So, what do you think needs to be banned, if anything, from type 2?
Jacob: Stoneforge Mystic, it makes aggressive strategies unplayable.
Me: So Jace isn't the problem, it's Stoneforge...why do you think that?
Jacob: It comes out ahead against literally every hate card against it. Jace is obviously insane, but it wouldn't be out of hand if it wasn't alongside Stoneforge. Remember how it was before Sword of Feast and Famine? You could beat jaces by playing fast red strategies or Vengevines, but now you can't, but that's not because of Jace, that's because of Stoneforge Mystic.
Thank you Jacob. Your opinion is very valuable to the Magic Community. So as you can see, Jace is absurd, but Stoneforge makes things that beat Jace bad. At this point, I am going to end this part of the article before I quit Magic. Next time, I will return with part 2 (yes, I've decided to save it for next time) as well as an update on how the ban list changes (since the ban list update goes up soon).
Before I go, I am going to leave you with some foreshadowing of the next post:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=851103
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Couple's Cube
Hello Everyone! I know its been a while, but my last week or so has been very busy with baseball, band and the likes. So today, I've decided to return with a bit of a treat.
My friend Will Nehlsen recently started a power cube. I have ALWAYS wanted to build a cube ever since I drafted one for the first time, but I haven't really had the time to get much of one started. With Will starting one up, I decided that it was time to do the same. I only faced one major problem in this.........where would I find the time? Like I said, my life is very busy and going through every Magic card and nitpicking which ones I like and don't like is very time consuming. Sure, I could just go online and use another person's cube, but in my eyes that is cheating. This got me thinking about a smaller cube. A cube for 1v1 Winston Drafts consisting of only about 100 cards or so.
With this base put into place, I only needed an idea for the cube. I figured that for a small 1v1 cube, a theme would be more interesting than just 100 of the best cards. First, I thought about a crap cube, which would be not the 100 best, but instead the 100 worst cards. After getting ideas from friends about bad cards, I didn't like what the final product would look like. This sent me back to the drawing board for ideas. After an hour or so of Google searches, I came up with people who were doing tribal cubes. Since my cube was only 100 cards, I decided to pick just one creature type. The only problem was thinking of a creature type that appeared in all 5 colors. Elves and goblins didn't work and soldiers wasn't that interesting. My friend Adam then recommended Elementals. A quick gatherer search showed more Elementals than I ever knew of. So many creatures are Elementals and I didn't even realize it. I was quickly attracted to the thought. When looking through gatherer, I discovered how powerful the color red would be. I had to do my best to limit it down, while still including the staples like Flamekin Harbinger and Smokebraider. A few hours later, and I had a basic list. I decided that it was good enough for the time being, a printed the cards that I didn't own out on paper. Quickly they were sleeved into penny sleeves and I searched for 20 of each basic land. One of the cool ideas I had for the cube was that instead of putting lands into it and clogging it up, I decided that each player would automatically start with a Primal Beyond (Elemental tribal land) in his/her sealed pool. I was ready to try it out.
The day was Sunday, and it was NPH release day. I quickly found a friend to try out the cube with and we had a blast. We built our decks and I got destroyed, but it was fun overall. I played with friends about 7 more times that day and each time was fun (except for one where I completely mis-drafted and my deck was VERY BAD). My friend Shawn quickly caught on to the idea, and decided him and my friend Max were each making one too. We brainstormed ideas and had a few good ones on the drawing board. One part about my cube everyone especially loved was the free land. They decided they would do that in their own mini-cubes. Shawn drove me home that night, and we had fun trying to think of names for the mini-cube. Shawn came up with Couple's Cube and it stuck. From there, my job was to build a second one that was just as cool as this one.
Overall, the cube made it a great night (especially after my horrific 2-3 finish in the release event). For anyone who loves quick fun, one draft and match only takes about a total of an hour. It makes for the ability to do it many times in a night, and it is very different from a normal Magic draft.
That's all for today! Thank you for reading and if you have any ideas for my second Couple's Cube, let me know in the comments. I started one that was all cycles (commands, original planeswalkers, the genju's, the pacts, etc.), but I didn't like the look of it. It was scrapped and I am now hungry for more ideas. Please help in the comments, and all ideas are appreciated. Remember, it is more of a theme, similar to tribal (preferably not another tribal), so don't give ideas like all card with art by Rebecca Guay (yes, someone did say that). Thanks again, and I'll return next time, possibly with an interview. Also, jump over to rogueinsight.blogspot.com. That is my friend Mike's blog, and it is a great read. Follow me on Twitter @AJKerrigan55. Goodbye.
My friend Will Nehlsen recently started a power cube. I have ALWAYS wanted to build a cube ever since I drafted one for the first time, but I haven't really had the time to get much of one started. With Will starting one up, I decided that it was time to do the same. I only faced one major problem in this.........where would I find the time? Like I said, my life is very busy and going through every Magic card and nitpicking which ones I like and don't like is very time consuming. Sure, I could just go online and use another person's cube, but in my eyes that is cheating. This got me thinking about a smaller cube. A cube for 1v1 Winston Drafts consisting of only about 100 cards or so.
With this base put into place, I only needed an idea for the cube. I figured that for a small 1v1 cube, a theme would be more interesting than just 100 of the best cards. First, I thought about a crap cube, which would be not the 100 best, but instead the 100 worst cards. After getting ideas from friends about bad cards, I didn't like what the final product would look like. This sent me back to the drawing board for ideas. After an hour or so of Google searches, I came up with people who were doing tribal cubes. Since my cube was only 100 cards, I decided to pick just one creature type. The only problem was thinking of a creature type that appeared in all 5 colors. Elves and goblins didn't work and soldiers wasn't that interesting. My friend Adam then recommended Elementals. A quick gatherer search showed more Elementals than I ever knew of. So many creatures are Elementals and I didn't even realize it. I was quickly attracted to the thought. When looking through gatherer, I discovered how powerful the color red would be. I had to do my best to limit it down, while still including the staples like Flamekin Harbinger and Smokebraider. A few hours later, and I had a basic list. I decided that it was good enough for the time being, a printed the cards that I didn't own out on paper. Quickly they were sleeved into penny sleeves and I searched for 20 of each basic land. One of the cool ideas I had for the cube was that instead of putting lands into it and clogging it up, I decided that each player would automatically start with a Primal Beyond (Elemental tribal land) in his/her sealed pool. I was ready to try it out.
The day was Sunday, and it was NPH release day. I quickly found a friend to try out the cube with and we had a blast. We built our decks and I got destroyed, but it was fun overall. I played with friends about 7 more times that day and each time was fun (except for one where I completely mis-drafted and my deck was VERY BAD). My friend Shawn quickly caught on to the idea, and decided him and my friend Max were each making one too. We brainstormed ideas and had a few good ones on the drawing board. One part about my cube everyone especially loved was the free land. They decided they would do that in their own mini-cubes. Shawn drove me home that night, and we had fun trying to think of names for the mini-cube. Shawn came up with Couple's Cube and it stuck. From there, my job was to build a second one that was just as cool as this one.
Overall, the cube made it a great night (especially after my horrific 2-3 finish in the release event). For anyone who loves quick fun, one draft and match only takes about a total of an hour. It makes for the ability to do it many times in a night, and it is very different from a normal Magic draft.
That's all for today! Thank you for reading and if you have any ideas for my second Couple's Cube, let me know in the comments. I started one that was all cycles (commands, original planeswalkers, the genju's, the pacts, etc.), but I didn't like the look of it. It was scrapped and I am now hungry for more ideas. Please help in the comments, and all ideas are appreciated. Remember, it is more of a theme, similar to tribal (preferably not another tribal), so don't give ideas like all card with art by Rebecca Guay (yes, someone did say that). Thanks again, and I'll return next time, possibly with an interview. Also, jump over to rogueinsight.blogspot.com. That is my friend Mike's blog, and it is a great read. Follow me on Twitter @AJKerrigan55. Goodbye.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
New Phyrexia Limited Review - White
Hello again,
Welcome back! Today I will doing a set review in limited for the color white. I will go over some of the more important cards and rate how good they are in limited. LSV does set reviews on channel fireball for New Phyrexia, except he also does constructed rating as well. As limited is currently my favorite format, I will focus on limited. The rating system is as follows:
5.0 - I will always first pick this, sometimes without even looking at the rest of the pack. I will switch colors to play this, unless it is easily splash-able.
4.0 - I almost always first pick this card. If I'm highly dedicated to at least two other colors and is not easily splashed, I may pass it for something else but this is rare.
3.0 - If possible, I try not to switch into another color for this, but I can splash it. If it's in my color, I usually play this.
2.0 - This card isn't great, but it will occasionally find it's way into the main and be sided in if not. This rating might also represent cards that need heavy support to be decent, which usually isn't great.
1.0 - Unless I'm on a bet (and even then) I will not play this.
I'll probably stick to the cards 3.0 or better, to save time. Cards not on here are probably not a 3 in my eyes, or I just missed it.
Rating: 3.5
Rating: 3.0
Rating: 3.0
Welcome back! Today I will doing a set review in limited for the color white. I will go over some of the more important cards and rate how good they are in limited. LSV does set reviews on channel fireball for New Phyrexia, except he also does constructed rating as well. As limited is currently my favorite format, I will focus on limited. The rating system is as follows:
5.0 - I will always first pick this, sometimes without even looking at the rest of the pack. I will switch colors to play this, unless it is easily splash-able.
4.0 - I almost always first pick this card. If I'm highly dedicated to at least two other colors and is not easily splashed, I may pass it for something else but this is rare.
3.0 - If possible, I try not to switch into another color for this, but I can splash it. If it's in my color, I usually play this.
2.0 - This card isn't great, but it will occasionally find it's way into the main and be sided in if not. This rating might also represent cards that need heavy support to be decent, which usually isn't great.
1.0 - Unless I'm on a bet (and even then) I will not play this.
I'll probably stick to the cards 3.0 or better, to save time. Cards not on here are probably not a 3 in my eyes, or I just missed it.
Rating: 3.5
This card is the face of efficiency. 4/4 for 2W is good alone, but when split onto two bodies and the bigger one has first strike, you get crazy. There's a reason this is the rare splicer.
Rating: 4.0
Putting your opponent behind a turn can really make a difference in limited. On top of that, once you land this, which in limited is reasonably possible, you put your opponent back really far. This card isn't excellent and I only want one in a deck, but it pulls its weight.
Rating: 5.0
The fact that we will open New Phyrexia first helps the rating, because we aren't dedicated to colors yet. If New Phyrexia was last, I might say 4.5. This card, once on the table, not only wipes the board and helps you win faster, but your opponents lose the ability to play top deck chump blockers.
Rating: 3.0
This card in some situations is worse than Arrest. The ability to still block may be important, but the ability to still use activated abilities is what drops this card very low. Many cards in the block shine without attacking or blocking like Geth, Hoard-Smelter, Carnifex Demon etc. The ability to switch it around is cool though, not only for the late and mid-game value, but also for the ability to fix misplays.
Rating: 4.0
This card is what aggro needs. Turn one, for a measly one mana and two life, you get a 3/1 first strike. On the play, you should get in for at least 6 damage uninterrupted. First strike makes it even better and harder to kill. This card will be seeing a lot of early grabbing.
Rating: 3.5
This card, once dropped, can really change a game. Against infect it is lacking, but a 3/3 flier for 5 is still good. This card is a good addition to any white deck, especially when you need both reach and extra turns against aggro based draft decks.
This card is a great infect card, and maybe playable in non-infect white controling decks. In infect, 3 toughness is great, as proved by Cystbearer. It may cost 5, but it gives infect deck the reach they need, and non-infect a good defense.
This card pulls its weight very well. When dropped on turn 2, this card is great and can really exceed your money back. Late game, it gives a bit of reach, but it's not the greatest card to draw in top deck mode. It is a great card in white, but I don't think it deserves to much of a splash.
So that's it for the ratings, thank you for reading. I will soon return with the other colors. Let me know in the comments if you thought this helped, or if you disagree with any of my choices. Also let me know if I missed anything important. New Phyrexia will certainly do a lot to the draft block, opening up many new strategies. I will most likely enjoy this format, and I hope you will too. Remember, follow me on twitter @AJKerrigan55 if you haven't already.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
My First Post - Taking Competitive Too Far
Hello,
For my first post on my new blog "The Brain Storm", i'd like to explain the purpose of this blog, and then talk about what happens when people take being competitive TOO far.
To begin, the purpose of this blog, along with the articles I do for StarCityGames.com are to help me improve. I can take a step back and look at my mistakes. I want to give the comunity of Magic a look on how younger people (Under 18) think about the game. I will do many interviews, and I want to show people just what younger people think. I also want to give both myself and others a chance to watch me grow as an MTG player. I will discuss limited, legacy, standard, spoilers, etc., and will always take recommendations on what to write about.
Now on to the major point of this article, competitiveness. In life, most people want to be the best or at least very good at something. When it comes to magic, many people want to be the best player or own the more expensive cards, myself included. Even if your whole life is devoted to Magic, if you lead a successful life in your own eyes and have fun doing so, then that is your choice and if it works, it works. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as you stay within the law. Unfortunately, some people want to be the best so badly, they break both the law and the code of ethics people share.
A good example of this is baseball. Some players practice and practice to be the best, but some take illegal substances as a quicker, easier way to do so. This is not only illegal, but unethical. In magic, cheating and theft are the "easy" way out. I guarantee you that most people who resort to cheating or theft are just plain bad at this game and trading.
Why am I talking about this? Well, my most prized MTG possession, my legacy deck, was recently stolen (or badly misplaced, but were pretty sure stolen). Whoever stole the deck probably sucks at magic, for lack of a better term. They can't afford their own cards, or are really bad at trading and felt the need to steal to help make up for their lack of skill.
People want to be the best so badly, they will do it at all costs. Whether my legacy deck turns up or not, no one should ever have to go through or resort to theft. My very good friend Rob had his stuff stolen as well, and as a friend I felt very bad for him. A large amount of time and work all thrown away in one quick grab. Please people, even if you think you already keep a good eye on your cards, keep an even better eye on them.
One last final thing before I go, be sure to check out my articles and videos on SCG. They will usually go up Sunday night at 11:59 pm eastern time, but that may vary sometimes.
Thanks For Reading and Please Come Back! I should write a new post hopefully at least 3 times a week or more. My post updates will be on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter under @AJKerrigan55. If you would like to give a recommendation for an article idea, or just improvements to made on both my Magic and writing aspects, let me know in the comments. I WILL read ALL of the comments.
For my first post on my new blog "The Brain Storm", i'd like to explain the purpose of this blog, and then talk about what happens when people take being competitive TOO far.
To begin, the purpose of this blog, along with the articles I do for StarCityGames.com are to help me improve. I can take a step back and look at my mistakes. I want to give the comunity of Magic a look on how younger people (Under 18) think about the game. I will do many interviews, and I want to show people just what younger people think. I also want to give both myself and others a chance to watch me grow as an MTG player. I will discuss limited, legacy, standard, spoilers, etc., and will always take recommendations on what to write about.
Now on to the major point of this article, competitiveness. In life, most people want to be the best or at least very good at something. When it comes to magic, many people want to be the best player or own the more expensive cards, myself included. Even if your whole life is devoted to Magic, if you lead a successful life in your own eyes and have fun doing so, then that is your choice and if it works, it works. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as you stay within the law. Unfortunately, some people want to be the best so badly, they break both the law and the code of ethics people share.
A good example of this is baseball. Some players practice and practice to be the best, but some take illegal substances as a quicker, easier way to do so. This is not only illegal, but unethical. In magic, cheating and theft are the "easy" way out. I guarantee you that most people who resort to cheating or theft are just plain bad at this game and trading.
Why am I talking about this? Well, my most prized MTG possession, my legacy deck, was recently stolen (or badly misplaced, but were pretty sure stolen). Whoever stole the deck probably sucks at magic, for lack of a better term. They can't afford their own cards, or are really bad at trading and felt the need to steal to help make up for their lack of skill.
People want to be the best so badly, they will do it at all costs. Whether my legacy deck turns up or not, no one should ever have to go through or resort to theft. My very good friend Rob had his stuff stolen as well, and as a friend I felt very bad for him. A large amount of time and work all thrown away in one quick grab. Please people, even if you think you already keep a good eye on your cards, keep an even better eye on them.
One last final thing before I go, be sure to check out my articles and videos on SCG. They will usually go up Sunday night at 11:59 pm eastern time, but that may vary sometimes.
Thanks For Reading and Please Come Back! I should write a new post hopefully at least 3 times a week or more. My post updates will be on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter under @AJKerrigan55. If you would like to give a recommendation for an article idea, or just improvements to made on both my Magic and writing aspects, let me know in the comments. I WILL read ALL of the comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)