2020 Magic in a nutshell (I mean squirrels are coming ya)

 2020 Magic will likely be remembered... for better or for worst haha.

2020 has been a very powerful year for Magic the Gathering. I like it. But loathe it at the same time.

2020 is the year WOTC/Hasbro literally took the bull by the horns(haha minotaurs.. nvm) for many standing issues with the game.

Whether they were successful is debatable... but as always debate on the Internet is pretty useless an toxic most times, so take it as you will. All I am saying is what the majority says is not always healthy or correct. And alot of times it depends on which stakeholder you are :(player/collector/speculator/shareholder/random dude/gameplayzenmaster/biased xxx format player) --> yep you get the gist, its quite a mess of demands to fulfill.

I like what happened in 2020 alot. Though I really have no time to play nowadays. But things I like:

1) There is actually a functioning Minotaurs deck (several if you count historic)! There a legacy one called toot toot. And another varient which uses a painter's servant shell. Unfortunately there goes didgeridoo's price.

2) Price crash of standard and modern (kinda) cards. Some cards I can finally get without feel bads. Of course some other cards I own also went down... but not all so it "kinda"... for instance I snagged a few nice trinispheres at a nice price. Chalice is still obscene though.

3) Companions! Yes I like companions alot. I think the nerf is stupid high, but necessary to assuage the whiners. The only companion possibly worthy of a nerf is Lurrus. The rest were just bad players in my opinion. Oh and even in the case of Lurrus. The winner of a Vintage tournament held online when Lurrus was legal? Clue: it was not a Lurrus deck that won. Yes the field was saturated by Lurrus decks, but as always, you want to get ahead in life? Think. Don't just follow. Following is good, to get the feels, to understand. But most people mostly follow blindly. True in Magic, True IRL. Anyways even with the nerf, I think Companions are a very good and powerful concept, and is still playable. Just a little different now. Oh no one is playing them? Yep this is the same old same old group think that magic players are famous for by now.  ... Exactly. No one plays so nobody plays. Cool story ppl. You do you.

4) Oko! I love Oko! Seriously, control was shit for so long. Oko gave a shot in the arm. Sure WOTC misfired a little and Oko is a little strong. And one of the plusses could have been a minus. But as is I like it and I think its okay. But given the group thing bois running around, sure I could see it banned. Enjoy your current gameplay all you okoers =D. I just love it. With Oko around ppl dun complain about brainstorm so much. Its funny. Astrolabe is another funny story. I think all the modern complainers just shifted over to Legacy. Which is funny really. (actually I did not really see Oko as a big complain in modern, more standard, historic, but modern got hit and legacy was spared). I think Oko was a case of WOTC wanting to design a strong UG and going over board a little. Yes I use the word a little.  Because if you just make tiny nerf tweaks to Oko he would be less susceptible to whiners. Oko just received one too many positive tiny tweaks from his colour cost XUG instead of UUG or GGU, or even 4cc. And his starting loyalty could have been weaker say 2 or 3 instead of 4. 4 is strong. Because you plus it and it is 5. Thats a stretch for red and any aggro to take down the planeswalker. But I think that was the plan. They wanted to keep Oko on board. And seriously Oko is only strong if he sticks around. 

Issue that WOTC addressed or ermm are guilty? of

There are a few issues:

1) Greed

OMG I am so tired of all the products. Sure sure its not for me. I get it. I truly truly get it. I will see myself out now.

2) Card Equity

Reprints! This is why I get my lovely trinitspheres and why errmm rings of brighthearth get decimated. Thats fine and really it is inevitable.

But it is something WOTC will want to be very very careful. How long will the whales keep buying reprints that devalue their current cards. Not very long. Not at the rate they are churning out stuff.

Of course maybe that is the plan? Maybe WOTC does want to print everything to the ground? Its not too clear. What is clear though is that WOTC is now very aware of card equity due to scarcity and want to take advantage of it through reprints (finally!).

Buyer beware though, especially if you my friend are a flippin' flipper. Go do stocks if money is your game, quit messin' with us mtg random dudes. 

3) Power levels

Standard has been boring for oh so long. Modern too. In fact Modern has been baaned to oblivion. So the recent surge in power levels in 2019 and 2020 cards is huge. To me it is a huge plus. For new players this is actually wonderful. Your cards are modern relevant, maybe even legacy relevant if you are willing to brew or take some losses. For the first time! In 2 decades or so.... Your cards are not toilet paper after rotation. (You can still use it as toilet paper if you so please of course). Enjoy this gift. Things are likely to rev down again with all the whining. For those who played in the 5-10 years pre 2019.... its a little not so good since power levels were lower then. 

4) Format relevance

For the first time in a long long while! Vintage is shaken! Legacy is shaken! I see this as a good thing! For the first time in a long long while there are new decks and innovation. I think the legacy crowd as a whole are taking it quite well. Oko haters are about 50%, I suspect they are from modern or something. Thing is Oko is not insumountable. Just like the Eldrazi before, they will be assimilated as part of the meta. But having so many new cards, Force of negation, force of vigor, astrolabe, Oko, once upon a time, etc etc. That is pretty awesome. I do not believe the current decks in Legacy are completely outmoded, they may need to be tweaked and luckily I know Legacy players are an imaginative lot. More importantly they play for the sake of playing. This is why you see people playing their pet decks even though it is not tier one, and usually they are good at it. Because they do not just copy and play, but they understand their deck and are optimised and are able to TWEAK and ADAPT. Something many players cannot seem to do. I do not expect this roil of new cards to persist, given the backlash... though alot depends on what WOTC cares about. Do they want new blood in Legacy (both cards and players), if so? There WILL be REPRINTS (see 2) and there will be new powerful cards (see 3). Which is very exciting for me and less so for people who do not want the meta to change. But for what its worth, I do not think Legacy decks will be easily outmoded as opposed to say modern decks.

5) Collectibility

OMG collector editions. So greedy see 1).  Whats with the collector editions? It is partly 1) partly 2). It deals with WOTC's need for GREED to grease the wheels ya. It also deals with card equity. Think about it why do masters sets sell? They sell be cause of card equity. Because cards in the set are deemed as scarce or expensive or both. Silly whales buy lots of it and if they like expensive cards they just beached themselves. For the rest of the world though they should be thankful for the existence of silly whales, blubber being useful and all. So where does collector edition sets come in. Collector edition sets are masters sets but in advance. Imagine ALL rares, ALL mythics (instead of only a select few from old sets as with current master sets) are being printed as masters sets. That is what is happening now with collectors edition. The dollar rares now get to be printed as premium cards in a "masters" set, now Kaldheim for instance may not have any chase cards! But it does not matter, as all the rares and mythics will already have its card equity milked via the collector's edition. I think its brilliant. It solves WOTC's problem of shrinking card equity as they keep reprinting. It also solves the reprint problem. Essentially WOTC is double selling the cards, so now right off the bat you have two printings of a new card. This solves the reprint problem somewhat as cards are now abundant and its hard for prices to increase. This lack of increase in price is BAD for WOTC, but it is solved buy the fact that the Collectors edition is already premium! The card's equity is already milked. Brilliant.

Where does this put use for collectors? It is actually good, since now cards are cheaper, and you have many things to collect. But it also means players need to have more self restraint and buy only what you need.More and more players/collectors will need to decide how much of a player they are and how much of a collector they are. How important is bling? Perhaps Collector edition is for you! Perhaps Collectors edition is NOT for you and you should stick to draft or singles. (the good news is singles are now cheaper!) Its terrible for speculators though. And I think thats a good thing, I think speculators are bad for the game seriously.

6) Playability/Gameplay

I see pathways! And pioneer and historic. What are all these ? These are attempts to fix gameplay. I love legacy and as modern grows in power, I love it too. But more and more people hate modern for its power and flux (cue: modern has always been in flux yo) , so in comes modern and historic. I have no feelings for pioneer. I only know Temple of Nyx is pricey because of it, so I like it. But I love historic, I lose so much in it because I refuse to throw money in, but I got some decent tribal decks, but I am digressing. I think what historic and pioneer represent is another attept to reset the power of magic gameplay. In the old online MMORG games it will be like rebooting the server so everyone restarts with new stats, except this time the game/format rules are diffeerent because the cardpool is different. Specifically... no fetch lands. Thats huge. brainstorm is good because of fetch lands. Any non-basic land with swamp, plains, mountain,island,forest are stronger than any basic land because of fetchlands. This makes pathways better (in pioneer and historic) or at least less weak. 

Another aspect of playability is similar to 4), they are printing shitloads of cards that are eternal relevant. Kudos to that, but probably not good for players who hate change (and its not even change if their decks are not completely outmoded). People like to use the term "soft-rotation", that is only true if you roll over and do not adapt your decks. I believe Legacy players and Vintage players are better than that.

7) Social Acceptability?

This year also saw WOTC banning cards like Crusade or Invoke Prejudice for being depictions of racism.... not much to say here. But this year has quite a few upheavals so i guess its natural for WOTC to do this. Here is the full list

Have a good 2021 everyone :) Happy New Year!

ARENA LD 2020 Land Destruction

So my favorite decktype has always been Prison, specifically LD.

Prison effects then to be things like Chalice of the Void, sphere of resistance, trinity sphere.

The problem is always whether you can lock down before they present a threat and after lockdown, can you maintain the lock.

A hard lock could be Kismet + Winter Orb for instance.


But wotc has veered away from such tactics.

So for modern, there are less prison effects but midrangy LD decks still exist. There is the attrition types and there are the comboish types (madcap Experiment + Emperion), I am normally more of the atttrition based player. I rather like, ember swallower, and Polukranos as my kill cum removal. I am also partial to w/r versions of LD with Ghostly Prison, Boom//Bust, Flagstones of T??? something. +  Darksteel citadels...


But I digress.


In standard, the LD is usally horrifically suboptimal. Fair enough since Standard is usually already slower. But occasionally the stars align and a LD deck is possible. I remember back in Theros I was able to build a semi viable LD deck that ramps into a turn 3 LD and uses Chandra, Torch of Defiance to draw cards (effectively) + Chandra Pyromaster to double the LD effects. Chandra ToD is pretty important as it is like a howling mine, letting my draw more LD than they have incoming land. So my ability to keep the LD coming (in lieu of prison effects) is dependent on Chandra Tod and Pyromaster. Ember Swallower is my LD + Kill,  while Polukranous is kill + removal. What I like about Ember Swallower and Polukranos is that they are essentially 2 cards in 1, much like the Adventure cards, though the adventure are cards are far more potent.


And again I digress :P


So standard. Standard we are usually stuck with 4cc LD. Not great really, but turn 3 LD in standard might be a strong enough play. The next thing is redundency. i.e. there must be 2 cards that are LD even if they are both 4cc :(   And this we have: Demolish + Ruin Readings.

Next we need the ramp, back in original Theros, we had Sylvan Carytid. Yes the card that shot up in Pioneer! :p I was already using it then, it was a 2cc ramp. I liked it as it had hexproof and could block if necessary. In current 2020 standard, we actually have 2! paradise Priest and IIysian Dryad.

The main issue I see is there is no Chandra Tod or Pyromaster esque style of generating advantage :(

So we have to try to bump around with big monster and hope it sticks. Back in original Theros, the big hitters were ember swallowers  and Polukranos. I think Chandra could ping too. with her +1


Anyways this is the current list i have:

The defense is quite a bit better tho, I now have death touch 1/1s, 8 removals. The only chance for me to generate multiple LS is via underworld breach. not great. But we'll see i guess.

i do get two "sphere" effects though, Dovin and God Pharoah's Statue.

My kills are the Phoenix, Dragon and Chandra provides the card draw :p oki so I might have my engine afterall.

So far I have one win, of course this is ARENA best of 1, so it is easier :p

But the win was a mix of lucky draws, I only played one LD but it was my strongest : Casualties of War. Killing their biggest threat and knocking out a land is pretty brutal. (I was on the receiving end a few times, so .... that was partly what kindled my old flame for LD ;P)

Anyways lets see how this goes.

A Closer Look at Ikoria's Companion and Formats in general

I do not think Companion as is is broken.

Even as we see Lurrus run amok initially, there are signs that the other Companions are starting to see play. And more than that some decks are still 5-0  without companions (slivers?? and Gifts Storm and an Izzet Control deck, there could be more).

On the third point some may counter that 3 decks (unconfirmed but I think the number is really moot but I'll play along) is a pittance....

But my counter to that is that there are like half of those so-called broken Companion decks that are LOSING as well. Why don't ppl count them?? 0.o

Seriously ppl the bias is really comical. Bruces keep saying that Companion decks are winning and non-companion decks are losing but they keep cherry picking and mashing data to suit their narrative. Just like Eldrazi winter I guess.

Anyway.

I do not think Companion as is is broken.

In fact I think Companion is a very compelling concept.


I always felt the sideboard is a luxury. Thats what people do not realise, a sideboard is kinda already cheating. So if you feel a particular mechanic is broken... ermm yo'll wanna get rid of your sideboard and play fair? Sounds ridiculous right? Exactly. :P

Anyways ARENA kinda took care of that with the best of one with no sideboards. So I am a happy man.


Now why talk about sideboards, Companion obviously.


But thats why Companion feels broken.


It is your sideboard concept on steroids!


Now rewind back to Karn the Great Creator (henceforth KGC).

KGC is like a reverse companion, he literally fetches you a card from the sideboard at will!

BUT you still need to draw naturally into KGC to get the card. That is the "drawback" of being a card in your library (60 cards). That is the drawback of KGC

Fast-forward to Companion... do you see that they removed KGC and you straight up TUTOR the sideboard card?

That is the power inherent in the concept of Companion.


I know I know, I said I like companions and do not want them ban so why am I highlighting a very potentially bannable approach to looking at it.

I am highlighting because I do not think it is broken... yet. I do not think being able to play Lurrus at will once you hit 3 mana is very powerful. It is being able to play Lurrus once you hit 3 mana at will when your opponent's strategy is to board wipe you and hope you have no recourse after you stupidly overextended. Lurrus lets you come back!

What was the point of the para above? Lurrus is only good against certain decks in certain situations. At best, it lets you come back after being wiped, one permanent a turn. At worse it is a 3/2 with lifelink. Don't get me wrong, its a good card. But it is not the end of the world. It can be exiled, the graveyard can be hated on etc.

Aside:
(another point of irritation, ppl.... the sideboard is for you hate out stuff, yes sometimes a deck is dominant you hate on it, maybe an anti-deck arises... its not broken... it is exactly as it should be, it was like that since Necro, since Combo winter, thats what the bloody sideboard is for. And if you say players left then, well players are leaving now too! Thing is the people who cannot adapt will leave, and really this is for Hasbro and WOTC, do you think these people who will never change their deck will buy new products? Or the people who adapt? Seriously.)
End Aside.


So ya I am still pretty pro Companion and like the concept.

But I cannot deny that it is very powerful. So Lurrus is powerful because it is a tutorable effect that does not need a tutor !! Like you can now fetch a card at will without an in between card (like a tutor, e.g. vampiric tutor, demonic tutor etc). It is powerful when it is played against decks that are weak against it.

Now. What if for every sideboard option, you have a companion equivalent.

Thats why companion in its most pushed form, becomes a sideboard on steroids. If we think of a sideboard as a mechanic. You essentially bring in new cards (not in your 60) and you can only play them in your next game and you have the draw back of having to naturally draw into it (and at the cost of a card in your starting 60). Companion lets you have the card immediately.

Now. This is balanced by the fact that you can have only one companion (phew!). So at best you can only have one tutorable sideboard card. (I checked this here, https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Companion).
Now if you can have multiple Companions.. that would be interesting but would likely make more people unhappy :P

But as it is , you can only have one Companion and I think that is a good decision, else it will be even more powerful.

But as it is I think Companion is not broken, it is an advantage at the cost of a sideboard option. If you use Lurrus for example as a sideboard, then yes Lurrus is strong. But you play a random Companion, you get a tutorable creature, not the most impressive. So it is highly dependent on the ability of the Companion.

And again as is... it does not seem brroken yet. And Companion is a rather compelling design space that I hope will not fall victim to the Bruces out there 0.0

Over the next decade perhaps? WOTC should be able to make some really interesting cards using Companion. And conceptually it like a pet 0.0  I think that kinda is appealing too.



Now about Formats (now is just random rambling). This is something that came out as I thought about Companion. If people really hated it that much they could announce before a tournament will it be Standard or Standard+Companion. It will be essentially two formats =D

But why stop there? I believe eventually you will have custom formats. Already you can do this at a casual level with house rules etc. Imagine if the LGS can have its own ban list, and to not kill value, it can regularly shuffle up the list every few months. Now what about all them broken decks!! Should they not burn forever in Magic's Hell? Being a custom format means you can easily have a rule that says a deck cannot contain a certain combination of cards, so for instance if Hogaak and Faithless Looting are too broken together, you can ban this combination rather than ban the cards wholesale. So you diminish the deck. but you do not kill it. And you do not cause collateral damage to other decks.

Of course this would be a royal mess in terms of global deck building and more importantly for global tournaments. I mean if the format is so fluxxy, how are people going to prepare? Well first of all, remember in my last post, I hinted that part of the problem with the data and the meta in general is people just netdeck blindly. You see it in the Lurrus situation, people blindly netdeck and create and artificial bump in the meta numbers.

Aside rant:
 (and some idiots will say the meta is saturated with 30%, it stupid disingenious or moot, pick one. Even if it is 100%, it is moot until a few months and even then it is dependant on players not netdecking -- I have faith that in a few months the REAL brewers will actually come out with something - Hey during ELdrazi winter they actually did it in a few weeks, so ya, I do have faith in some of the Magic Community, kudos to those who keep the game alive by continuing to express your creativity! Go TEAM OATH ;))
End aside rant


So back to how it will be messy globally, well we can still keep standard, modern, legacy or whatever we have in future, and it is important to have these formats to allow WOTC to have a presence. But at the local level, maybe the LGS can be allowed to sanction custom formats. This will allow more flexibility and freshness in the meta. And most importantly. You cannot netdeck. haha. You can still look at the global lists and build a deck and if it fits the custom format, good for you. But if not? You gotta tweak it. I think this will force people to put more effort in deckbuilding and encourage more exploration of cards. It will also kinda obviate globally available lists to the point that you should be able to make the data irrevlevant. Why is that good? You cannot netdeck. haha. Really. Killing netdecking will save the game. It will also divide and conquer the bruces. Having flexible local custom formats will also allow LGS to make every one happy, ban hogaak for a month then next month is a hogaak special etc. Now this concept should not be that strange to gamers. Its like the old online game "mage" something where you build your kingdom, you can PVP other players but at the end of the year thhe server is reset. Think of the meta shifts as reset. (I think this is partly why alot of people get upset when their meta resets... it is normal to online oldish tech people (like myself)... imagine if Chess changed rules every few months !!)

Anyway thats about all I have to rant about today.

Is Ikoria broken?

The correct answer should be :

Currently nobody knows.

However already you already have the bruces baying for blood.

As per expectation, anything playable is deemed broken.

Even if nothing in particular is dominating... incredulously 0.o




Now my opinion:

Ikoria cards are NOT broken.


Now I feel that Ikoria cards can go two ways:

Current mass playing of cards is actually normal, sincefor every new set for the first month or two, people will use it willy nilly.

Whats more, the playbook s almost already written for how to use these cards, so its easy to use them.

Is that a problem? Apparently the usual whiners think so :(


Now the only difference between the past sets and now is that, the decks utilising the new cards are winning.

Does it mean the cards are good? Maybe.


Thing is, some decks are still not playing the cards but are 5-0.

And in fact for Vintage it looks like after thhe initial salvo of decks, there seems to be a drop in the number of decks actually sporting the new companion cards.

For legacy it is less clear.

But again this can g two ways and both with companion cards looking like the way they are now.

1) Its a fad. People are just testing it out.

Now I cannot tell you the number of times a new card is used does well, supposedly fits with a deck. The inexplicably, it is dropped about a month or two later.

I suspect this is what is happening with some decks in modern and legacy. Certainly in vintage.


2) It is actually good.

Now this seems to be the case for some decks in legacy. And I suspect this to be true too. But heres the thing, just because it beats the current decks does it mean it is broken?

Just because you need to play it to win, does it mean it is broken.

Just because you need to adapt, does it mean it is broken.

Now. We are only 2 weeks into Ikoria. Please... what adaptation has there been?

But yet you have jokers that are collating data to say the decks are broken.

Please read the post before this, to know my thoughts on that.

Esseentially, the data is just reflecting current interest in the new cards, and given the net decking addiction, you will see big numbers playing these decks.

Now I think Ikoria decks are truly not broken.

It is just that the companion cards are the new planeswalkers.

The only difference is that back in the days of Lorwyn, the whiners have not become thhe vocal minoriy that we see now. Back in the days of Lorwyn, the data of decklists are not ABUSED. Yes I use the word ABUSE. Because the way we use data is abnormal. Data should be used to finetune your decks. But we are just COPYING the decks.

Magic will DIE not from seemingly "broken" cards, but from the addled minds that cannot build new decks or adapt new decks.

Now why I think companion is not brooken? It is the new planeswalker. there is nothing to answer it. Already you can tell from what players are saying. It cannot be removed by standard modes of interaction, you cannot discard it, you might be able to counter it.  You cannot even cap it.

That it what makes it look "powerful". The fact that it is a new zone literally.

The solution is really to build answers.

The so called broken portion is thhe ability to play it from the sideboard. Once it can be interacted with , it will no longer be "broken" ....

So its not so much that companion is broken, it is more that a new zone of play has been opened and it is not fully developed. (Hence it currently cannot be interacted with).

Now.

Asumming the ability to play from sideboard, and hence "not being able to be interacted with" is so powerful. ANd you have to play it to remain competitive.

Does that mean it is broken 0.o ??


I mean this change in attitude is so strange and defeatist.

1) You have NOT demonstrated desire to adapt.

2) You refuse to play the new mechanic. Is'nt it normal that sometimes new mechanics come and people use it?

This is abit like Oko. Oko was just a little too flexible for its own good.

If it were to cost 1GG or  1UU rather than 1GU, it might have been slightly harder to fit and hence be deemed less ubitiqous.

Its really sad when Oko was banned, UG was still rampant in all the formats that it was banned. What this means is that either URO is equally broken, OR its just that UG has been powered up. :/

So banning Oko does nothing really, except now you do not need to play Oko to have the BEST version of your deck. Now you have to play URO .

You realise how STUPID that sounds. but that what everyone (at least the vocal minority) is asking for.

Its sad really.


Anyways, if anyone reads this. I beseech you to wait at least 3-4 months before banning anything.

The banning of Breach the Underworld in legacy was particularly stupid.


Or don't listen keep banning.


Modern is in a sad state for its bannings, there are more slots in the grave for other formats :)

Modern Rant on too many Bannings

Wizards needs to stop banning and print less.

Thats the systemic part of things.

Banning only removes the immediate pain/problem. It devolves the game into a state where the solution to the strongest deck in the meta is to ban something in it.

You see this all the time, everyone recommending a card they lost to.


One question wizards likes to ask in surveys is what do you enjoy in the game.

I am sure there are other reasons to like the game, art, the stock marketesque behaviour of the value of thhe cards... but more than anything (at least based on tournament magic) is the feeling winning.

Fundamentally players love to win, more than building decks. More than learning how to beat a deck. This is why everyone flocks to the lastest and greatest (before it gets banned), whilst at the same time complaining "its so broken".


I think modern was always broken. You can read all my postings and I have been consistent. Modern is a format of flux. Or bannings if you like. If modern as a format is too weak, would you say it was broken? I would because every willy nilly that is respectably strong will prove too strong. Modern is like a person with a weak immune system, it has very low tolerance and defences are down. What happens when a strong flu comes by? BAM.


I think the mistake WOTC made was to indulge in bannings. Bannings used to be sacred with Aaron. I think the floodgates open with Eldrazi Winter.


Eldrazi Winter marked the beginning of the slide downwards. Eldrazi Winter was the most fun I had in modern! I have always argued that the problem was that they unleashed an archetype ( which had multiple variants) of decks. So it was never one deck the community was up against, but a whole possible slew of decks. All strong. It was beautiful watching the meta. It was beautiful because there WERE people trying to beat the best decks. And they  won! Its just that each time they learnt how to beat one deck another rose in a quick clip, and even then Team Oath matched it. Its just that the "bruces" in the community (Bruce Banner... get it? never mind) were up in arms baying for blood, never allowing for hard fought victories to be celebrated. We have a pretty toxic community.

What wizards really did with the release of the Oath Eldrazis is to up the power level required in the game.

Now Power level is a completely different argument. Modern as a card pool can by now support pretty high power levels. I would argue that it can compete with Legacy (some have observed this, that a strong modern deck can hold its own against at least some Legacy decks).

So the real question is what level does WOTC want to pitch modern at.

I think this is the part that WOTC has been failing abysmally at.

They have been unclear. It is okay if they ban what they did in Eldrazi Winter. Thats fine. It how they did it. They made it appear that they are giving in to whiner's requests. And that has only made it worse.

Modern is WOTC's game. From Modern Horizons and the establishment of Pioneer. To me this is indicative thhat WOTC wants pioneer to take on the role that modern did (essentially to hand hold Standard players moving on to older formats). But Modern has grown up as a card pool. WOTC printing Modern Horizons is very  fitting and fun! And it seems to have raised the power level again. But again the community is unable to accept it. I think there are 4 reasons for it:

1) Printing too fast
2) Banning too fast
3) Toxic Community
4) Lack of Innovation/ Net Decking


1) This I mentioned earlier. Printing too much changes the meta too quickly. Magic players have historically been slow to react to a meta. See Necro Summer, see Academy/Combo Winter or any instance in the past when a card was dominating (oh even JTMS). By printing too fast you can't really determine if a particular card is broken since, before it can be addressed someting new "breaks the format" (aside: and why do you think the format keeps getting broken? its too weak... and lacks the tools and depth).

2) Banning too fast. These days a week or two is all it needs to get the bruces up in arms calling for bans bans bans. Oh have you ever notice some of these guys get into the older formats and start calling for bans? 0.0 Thing is if you keep banning, the decks never evolve and get strong. Does it seem strange to you that some decks are ALWAYS there. Ya they would be something else if there were less bans since they would be forced to evolve. So its always the same old decks getting killed by the new deck then WOTC bans the new deck.... Banning too fast quickly perpetuates the problem, it does not fix it. The new card gets scapegoated. There is also the criteria for banning which has gotten more and more rediculous over time. Too much time taken, ban it for the tournament but not the format! People do not like it? That is completely subjective and stupid (sry can't not call a spade a spade here). Ban it cos it is in every deck??? I mean... it just means the card ishigh in utility not broken. Sure you do not want too many cards like that, but to straight out ban just for that reason... that like banning the card because people actually want to play with it (not like its even winnng tournaments 0.0)

3) Toxic community. Nothing to see or do here. People will say what they want to say. Just have a mind of your own when you read these comments (even what you read here ;)). THOUGH! Getting rid of data was a very big step! During Eldrazi Winter there were 3-4 variants of ELdrazi, each taking a share of the meta, but they were all lumped as one. Legacy players should be familiar with this accusation, all the decks with brainstorms are one single deck ya? right. Data my foot. Another portion of the toxic community is that of public and popular writer fueling th echo chamber with their opinions. Just today, there are murmerings that a ban announcement can no longer be "no change" but something MUST be banned or something MUST be unbanned. That is just an opinion of the writer trying to influence the denizens of the echo chamber. WOTC can very announce "NO CHANGE" the reason is purely PR, to indicate to the community that they are still there. And more IMPORTANTLY THEY DECIDED that blah blah. On their time, on their terms. This is something WOTC has given up over the last few years, the authority that they have over the bannings. The bannings are now a circus of what comes out of the echo chamber of "players" who my or may not contribute to the bottomline mind you.


4) Lack of Innovation/ Net Decking. People like to win. That is the biggest reason the whiners are whining. Plus they don't like to think! So net decking is the perfect drug for our ailments. WHat happens when there is a dominant deck? Well kill it of course! Just look at the flurry of activity in forums to see what people's priorities are. Clue: its not building decks. This is also why removing is strangly the right move to fuel innovation. Data mostly lets you know match up results so that you know which decks do best, thats how you can refine your deck too when you make changes and compare it with how it fares. HOWEVER. When that data is released to everyone, just remember people do not like to think, so they will just take that latest greatest deck and run with it! So when a new dominant deck seems to be putting up numbers and meta share in a tournament or a set of tournaments for the month. It is really meaningless. Since, its new and no one if trying to beat it + all the net deckers will ensure that it takes a big metashare. Law of big numbers ensure that a sizable number make it to day 2. So really the data is almost tailor made to mislead because of how players react to it. Hence restricting data is a good control in today's internet speed of information dissemination. The act of allowing "free flow no restriction" release of data, and not putting their own interpretation of said data, has a good percentage of culpability in todays' predicament.


I do not think the problems of modern are solvable anytime soon... I do believe the detractor will eventually leave. If WOTC leaves the power level alone (and have some unbannings) it will become another legacy level powered format. I think making modern a standard level powered format is not feasible (this is true for pioneer as well), the reason for this is a paradox. Power sells. The key to remember is power is often overated. The Lotuses and Moxes of VIntage are NOTHING if there was'nt a restriction on certain cards... certain relatively new cards... so power level is one thing, printing the cards to bring things into balance is another. Modern or any other growing format will never be just standard powered forever (since standard is really just a block format 0.0). If WOTC depowers Modern, I think it will be irrelevant over time since there is no reason to play it. For people who like a lower power level there is standard and pioneer (the new modern). Modern has outlived its role. It can still stay relevant by being something other than legacy (which is very possible).

I believe cardpool wise a modern deck can compete with legacy, so modern can still be a relevant format, if WOTC bans less (the lease they can do if they are not going to print less).


Hmmm well another radical way to "fix" mordern, would be to auto ban all new standard sets. The cards will be fixed then and no new cards will get introduced. This is assuming the current power level is something everyone wants including WOTC.

If new sets keep entering Modern's power level will keep going up and we will keep seeing bannings for as long new sets keep coming... this is a rather strange predicament.

And new set must always push the envelope, at least for some sets, or else interest will wane, so printing only weak cards is not a solution, it only SCAMs the individuals who bought those sets and later get crushed in modern 0.0


Anyway that is my rant.

Some Pioneer Thoughts

I think pioneer is an interesting format... in that they can shape it in any way they want. This is true for all formats of course, but pioneer has more relevance and legitamacy in that it covers range of sets since the RTR. What is most significant about that set onwards is that it was the beginning of massive print to demand as well as a collective depowering of sets. Sure there were strong cards that slipped through, thank goodness for that (even hasbro/wotc should be thankful for that as it keeps them different from a company that sells toilet paper ya? I.e. your cards are worth more than toilet paper)

I just read somewhere about every 10 years being a cut off of sorts to create a new  eternal format. This is an interesting concept... in that in a strange way it fosters what players shpuld be doing but are not invested enough to do...  using current legacy and modern as an example. Modern has over 10 years accumulated alot of power and speed. Such that decks can be built from its pool such that they can challenge legacy decks. It was always my belief that eldrazi winter was actually containable... it only highlighted the low power artificially induced by bannings. EVEN with bannings, it was a coco deck that got the last laugh by beating a string of eldrazi decks to win the last major tournament before the eye of ugin bannings. Of course nobody lauds that. But again kudos to the team gatewatch that fought the good fight of finding ways to beat the top decks. Good ole magic style.

But i digress, my point is really just in a nutshell, over 10 years the cumulative sets should in  theory build up enough power to challenge older formats.
Why is this interesting with regard to the way magic players do not accumulate cards today (as opposed to old farts like me 2 decades ago)?  Here's why:

The creation of these 10 year block eternal formats artificially encourages players to accumulate cards and essentially store and build their collection for 10 years... by which time in terms of power level, their collection would very likely be able to challenge decks from older formats.

If this is the intended effect of creating new formats every 10 years... then all i can say  about wotc is that it is brilliant!!

[Note: I wrote this about when Pioneer just started...  and since the bannings... well I have some new thoughts but mostly these thoughts are still the same]

Yes Energy is not the problem! And neither is Copter!

Just a shout out to this article by craig wescoe

I fully agree with him.

Hell I would support anything that powers up standard :)

I think Energy is at the right level of power. I think Emrakul, the Promised End was fair, yes seriously. What was lacking is the proper removal or competing strategies.

There is a fallacy that the only way a "broken" situation can happen is when a card is broken.

The truth is that sometimes the card is broken. Sometimes it is the ENVIRONMENT that is broken. Its really two sides of the same coin, or a matter of perspective if you like. My take is standard and modern are too weak. I would like a more powerful baseline. (but thats WOTC's decision to make... but myself? I like a powerful standard at least, if not Modern - I can still deal with the current power level of Modern.. but Standard? Only Kaladesh block and Oath  was good... the rest is mostly toilet paper)

The thing is I like a higher powered standard as it give my cards better LONGEVITY. Why? Because Modern. Because Eternal. You hate masters set? You hate paying through your nose for older expensive cards? Well guess what. part of the reason is that your standard cards that rotate every 1 or 2 years are not up to scratch.

So stop hating power level. Power creep is a problem for WOTC/Hasbro to settle. Not the the players. Not you and me. Power damping makes toilet paper out of your cards. Remember that :)

True, going completely crazy with increasing power is not good since if everyone is superman no body is super right? And then things get boring and people leave, orsomething like that. Well there are a few problems with that thought.

1) We are so far from that stage. Power damping (or the dumbing down of Magic) has been going on for more than a decade now... so no... Energy is not going to kill anything soon. Hell i would say Modern even after all its bannings almost contained Eldrazi Winter (which was the most exciting time of Modern for me).

2) In fact we are more like the villian in the cartoon Incredibles, where the villian takes out all the superheroes, so that if no one is super, then no one is special (something like that) i.e. dumb down everything so that NOTHING stands out. Standard has been this middling mid range mudhole for the longest time because of this stand.

3) Even if we go crazy and make everything powerful. Guess what WOTC has not been shy with that ginormous BANHAMMER!! So it is really not an issue. (It would kill that money maker of the masters series however)

No I don't want WOTC to go crazy and power up everything. (Since it might accidentally invalidate all the powerful strategies in Eternal and make my old cards valueless oops). But hey throw us a bone so that at the very least as we continue to trudge through year after year of standard we get to compete in Eternal.

And when we get a good effect like Energy. I say we (as players) cherish it and make it work. Instead of trying to ban it out of existence.... I mean unless you have a fetish for toilet paper, be my guest.


Chill.


[edit] Oh and I think Craig's idea of pushing the hate for powerful strategies in standard is sound. In fact the part where I disagree is that I am fine with the "extreme" hosers he mentioned e.g. flashfires. I think those are fine too, you just need to calibrate it to the threat. And not just the threat, but things that can circumvent the hosers. Like ... not all hosers were exactly powerful.. especially when they are out paced, or don't reach the board in time... if they even reach the board etc.... so it is all contextual. (oh look there it is again, its the environment that is the problem ;) )

Magic: The Lottery

I hate that this is the first post in December about magic :P


But unfortunately it was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about writing somethng about Magic and then this came in.


Its not even well thought out.... I think it got something to do with people visiting my old post about quitting Standard.


Well I am still here. Even with all the BFZ bs :)



Well I think it was specifically the BFZ bs that got this post going :P



Back in that old post it was a combination of I think MM and Conspiracy that got me quite annoyed. I boycotted the shop (whether or not they were guilty) for a year (my boycott ended October this year). So I am still patronising the store but they have lost my business in terms of the case that I would normally buy for each set.

Its really no big loss for them since I think after Oath of the Gatewatch I will seriously drop to 1 case per set.


In the past, with 1 case I can guarantee all rares and with 2 case i can get most mythics, while buying singles for the rest.


This has allowed me to keep up the illusion of collecting everything in the set. With recent dip in quality due to NWO (New World Order bs by WOTC), I dunno I feel like i am buying extremely expensive toilet paper.

This is now not a matter of the retailer exploiting the player base. This is now the producers of the game doing some very blatant milking. To the point that buying Magic is now like buying the lotto.


Now Magic has always been a little like gambling or lotto. In the local context it is called "Tikam" where a surprise is kept in a little bag, but you cannot see the toy inside. Magic is just glorified version of "Tikam".

In the past the value of a card is circumstantial, it is derived from its play value. So in that sense the randomisation of the card in a booster is really just to do that: randomise. This is to facilitate limited. At least that is the official stance (the real stance is really to spread butter thin the card/design equity so that WOTC can milk us for longer). Now however with BFZ and OGW sets, there are foil mythic rarity inserts of the fetches and some older desirable cards. Which have KNOWN value. i.e. they are explicitly egging players to buy to get the chase cards.

I feel like that this has crossed the line and turned opening boosters into a lottery.


Now.


The truth is when you watch player "whacking" a box. it is really like a gambling run. Usually the player will open booster after booster. This happens with all sets. However the thing is, it is the player's fault for chasing the desired single. And in most cases the effect is not really that bad as the chance of getting the desired card is usually not that bad. The player likely does not get financially ruined. Also in most cases, he should be able to sell some or most of the rare/mythics that were opened.


The game change now is that:
1) The rarity of desired cards has gone up.

2) The quality of the cards have gone DOWN.


This is a double whammy. Players who do not draft but "whack" packs will now need to open many many more packs to get the expedition foils in BFZ and OGW. Sure this is the player's fault, we do not NEED the expedition foils to be competitive. but lets face it, it is becoming a lottery. And fetches are staples. It needs to be distributed better.

The 2nd whammy? In the past an entrenched player locked into getting that elusive specific card (I am trying to avoid the word addicted.. but oops i said it...) would open many packs and still be able to sell of the unwanted cards. In BFZ the card quality is so bad it is even shunned in current Standard. In other words, it is what i call the "toliet paper" effect. The player has just bought very expensive toilet paper! So it can be a very big loss if the player opened alot but does not get the better expedition foils.


Is any of this WOTC's fault?



I am inclined to say no. For the same reason that there are the Singapore Pools and so on, such activities are just part of life.

The onus is on players to practice due diligence in curbing their ... ahem  urges to "whack" packs like a demented wombat. WOTC is just a business selling packs. As a player I hate limited and I can see clearly that the current marketing scheme is just to spread card equity extremely thinly while at the same time creating demand. I.E. Limited is just the scapegoat. You can have limited with high card equity (and by this I don't necessarily mean monetory value, but that usually follows functional play value, in fact if the functional play value of everything is high, price is actually not an issue, but thats another story).

As players, my advice:

Let your dollar speak for itself. I have not really joined any limited events, I am seriously considering not going for prereleases as it is essentially a limited event, (however prereleases are special to me so that might be the only exception I make... if I do).

As for my normal buying I will still likely stay with the same volume for OGW but likely dropping to 1 case or less for future sets. I guess I might be seriously just joining the singles crowd lol  But I have come to realise I cannot afford expedition chase (at least through opening boosters) it is a fools errand for the budget conscious. I get some reactions as to why I am even buying if thats the way I feel. I actually give WOTC a lot of credit, I rarely think a set is pure toilet paper BUT BFZ comes really really close. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and still purchase, but that will change if subsequent  sets really follow NWO to a tee and we have worse and worse dumbed/watered down cards. The litmus test is this: Can this card be even fringe playable in Modern? If it cannot, then it is toilet paper. Its sole existence is as limited crud that is really bad for the environment.


Aside from the normal "bulk" purchase, I don't think I am inclined to "whack" packs. At least I will actively try to avoid it :)


I hope anyways lol.


Oh oh why am I here, if I was so annoyed by the exploitative retailers?


Khans of Tarkir boys and girls, Khans of Tarkir.


That is how magic should be done.


That.IS.Magic.



Unfortunately they reverted pretty quickly with FRF then Dragons of Tarkir. Origins was still creative but then the shit hit the roof with Expeditions and BFZ. It was shameful.

But thats another story. I want to talk about why I think KTK (Khans of Tarkir) was everything right about Magic. (technically FRF and DTK were still oki, I was being a little harsh). But that will be for another post.


I think I will end my rant now. :)

[Decklist] Grixis Dragons

So there is a recent rash of Dragons in standard.

First Atarka then, the Esper variants with Ojutai and Silumgar

Nice thing is I already have my playset of DTK and FRF. And the more expensive stuff is not bought from local packs since... well the local retailers have indicated they are not interested in my business by increasing prices and constantly price gouging. 

Start RANT:

I know this sounds snappish and vindictive, but I think I still have to state that I CAN get my products from elsewhere. This is simply to let whomever is looking that: The local retail source (including LGS) is VERY dispensible. So try not to kill it guys, stop trying to kill the golden goose. MM2 is currently on the loose, so lets see how the price gouging goes. And oh I already have everything MM2 can offer, but I like alternate art and all and I give a rats ass about value crashing of my cards, so the price of MM never ceases to annoy me when the cost is obviously low.

End RANT.

std_20150421_grixis_delveNmine

Legend

4 x Tasigur, the Golden Fang

2 x Silumgar, the Drifting Death

2 x Dragonlord Silumgar

Planeswalker

1 x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Creature

4 x Thunderbreak Regent

Sorcery

3 x Treasure Cruise

4 x Thoughtseize

Instant

3 x Anticipate

4 x Silumgar's Scorn

3 x Bile Blight

2 x Ultimate Price

1 x Stubborn Denial

Land

2 x Temple of Malice

4 x Temple of Epiphany

4 x Polluted Delta

2 x Shivan Reef

3 x Mountain

4 x Swamp

4 x Bloodstained Mire

4 x Island

Sideboard

3 x Duress

1 x Deathbringer Regent

1 x Dragonlord Kolaghan

1 x Treasure Cruise

1 x Stubborn Denial

1 x Bile Blight

3 x Foul-Tongue Invocation

2 x Dragonlord's Prerogative

2 x Ultimate Price

On the deck: 

I was very enamoured with the Atarka r/g aggro/midrange deck by Vanmeter. Its just so very cool to have a dragon deck be viable (even if its just Standard).

Then the Esper Dragons came about, yet more cool stuff. And I like Hane's playstyle so it was all good!

So I kinda refuse to think that the Atarka variant is just a fluke and will die out (well r/g monsters normally come in with a bang and then die to both control and blitz aggro).

But the Vanmeter deck was kinda rampish, which just was'nt quite my style. I did like the burn and thunderbreak regents however (and I somehow hit 2 foils, yay me!). So it was something I was trying to shoehorn in.

And the strength of the Esper decks was the new counterspell + strong fat (a la Baron Harkonnen - tho to be honest there was much more in that deck)


I also felt that Tasigur should be used in all things with black and fetches. I also really like Treasure Cruise.... so theres U/B. In fact before the Esper dragons deck was running around I was messing with a U/B deck. My focus then was to make discard work, and i was messing with Tasigur and Scorn... which kinda then involve both Silumgars. I was not too keen to add white for Ojutai so I did'nt really pull it towards Esper. Idid'nt really like Crux of fate though, as I used Tasigurs. I was partly inspired by the way Hanes used Tasigur to beat down in the mirror. I was surprise he only had two. But i figured, why only beat down in the mirror? Beatdown forever I say! So I haz four in the main =D 

Now obviously the Esper deck is built with more restraint in mind while my Grixis Dragons is quite happy to be go for the throat with fast fat flyers. ... okay Tasigur no fly, but the dragons they do. If you get it you do.


So I looked for a way to fuse the things I liked, and Grixis kinda fit the bill! And I tweaked it roughly to what I thought was good takeaways from the net decks, mostly the land count and took the cue on the number of Anticipates.


And so there. that was roughly the thought process that led to the deck.

And actually after mucking around with the deck. The TRUE hellspawn (well everyone treats counterspell and combo like they are from hell or aliens or something... oh wait they treat blitz, discard, LD and oh... they actually HATE magic.... I'm sorry for that mini-rant  :P ) is...

Anticipate.

Friends and potatoes, Anticipate is waay better than telling time. Why? Easy. It lets you remove two useless cards rather than one useless card.

I guess it is subjective. (but the fact that telling time is not used much is rather telling no? sry...) Both let you dig 3 cards deep and keep one. But anticipate allows you to dump two instead of one. (Serum Visions is stronger than both because it lets you choose whether to dump both or keep both or whatever ... well that plus it is only 1 cc =D totally different ball game sry). Thing is by putting one in your hand, it means you already got the most useful card of the three (I don't have the cards on hand so I am assuming you can choose which of the three to keep). So unless all three are gas (which might be the case), it is better that you push the "useless" cards away. 

Useless is relative to current board state of course, so whether telling time or anticipate is better, is directly bound to the way your deck is built. However. If your deck is built to handle multiple things, and not all cards do generally the same thing (for instance aggro or burn tends to have heavy redundency, whereas control will have discard, removal, counters and all answer something specific, whereas for the aggro and burn... yeah its mostly to your friendly opponent's face),  then the ability to filter the top of your deck is premium for the control player. This is where the ability of Anticipate to sweep away rather than Telling Time's ability to keep is stronger. (which is partly why JTMS is strong, he messes with the top of your library)

Anyways there is some heat on whether silumgar's scorn is the herald for counterspell's return. I don't know. (like duh). But...

I really feel that WOTC is testing waters with this (silumgar's scorn). I think it was very smart to tie the new counterspell to the dragons for the following reasons:

1) Dragons are always heavily costed

2) Counterspell is deemed too stong (or at least in perception)

3) Dragons are useless early game and clog the hand, counterspells need to be early to be of use

Combine these and you turn the cons of dragons into pros (by enabling silumgar's scorn) and at the same time add a con to counterspell. This creates a "safe" spot for counterspell since any deck attempting to use counterspell must built the deck with dragons in mind. Which is interesting.

The key thing to understand, for all who think counterspell as an effect is too strong, counterspell effects must come before the threat to be of any use. There is a reason why there is following for the concept of "there are wrong answers, but there are no wrong threats". This is also why cancel has been abandoned time and again. Counterspell as an effect is effectively neutered by manacost. Force of Will is strong only because it circumvents its 5cc by going for free if you feed it one blue card.

Now should counterspell be in the standard environment? Not that I care about standard mind you. I think standard is the marketing platform for WOTC. They can do whatever they want with it, at the moment it is Pokemon fest (its been pokemon for at least the past 5 years me thinks). So be it. I play whatever comes along. (and oh I always look for an aggro deck to build to go by, since thats the bone that WOTC throws to me and it is an effective way to get under all that midrange fat ;) sure you can meta against it but you will then lose to something else. Wonderful is'nt it. Thats magic). 

So standard is the marketing platform, this is also why I feel that it can be argued both ways. Standard is the best platform to unleash counterspell. Why? it only lasts 1 year plus (now. it used to be two years plus). So you can actually go crazy with standard. Now why is it okay to go crazy, one would probably argue that whatever is printed in Standard leaks into Modern. But people arguing that are conveniently forgetting that Modern, is still very much the wild wild west. WOTC has already broken over the sacred cow of banning cards many times over. So one more counterspell to the list is hardly earth shattering. There is no reputation of keeping existing cards Modern legit to speak of. On the other hand, I guess I am forgetting that most modern players are ported from Standard? I don't actually know if that is true, but if it is true, then I can understand the logic for not letting counterspell touch Modern. Modern players can't handle it. That is partly why I view Silumgar's Scorn more as a test water thing. 

Standard players are finally getting a real taste of counterspell (albeit forced into a dragon shell). If standard fails because of the pokemon effect (i.e. Standard players can't handle counterspell) then it is likely we will never see an un-nerfed counterspell in Modern. However if standard remains healthy. Then counterspell returning becomes a little more real.For anyone who says "insert something" will never come back/be printed: I always refer them to poison :)  It may take 10 years, but hey infect it did come back.

[Random Deck of the Day] Burn Baby Burn

I wanted to title the post "I Hate You" but it seemed a little emoey and all.

Which kinda was'nt what this was about and although THAT was usually how I like to title my posts (absolutely irrelevant), I thought it best to not give people heart attacks out there ;)

Anyways I hereby call this deck "I Hate You".

Well first off it seems to hate on the opponent alot. Not like hatebears kinda hate. I think hatebears tend to torture the opponent slowly as he dies of boredom doing absolutely nothing. Oh wait Eggs does it better. (Now I like eggs and to be honest, if you know the deck well enough, you should'nt be that slow. The problem is everyone wants to win, and Eggs is a good strong resilient deck. And cheap to boot! But nobody takes the time to master their decks anymore ;) the wonders of netdecking)

Now back to hate.

How does this deck hate on your opponent? By doling gollups of Boros flavoured lava-ish pain on the unsuspecting opponent thats how!!

Btw, if your peripheral vision is'nt terrible, you might have already noticed that I originally was trying to build a red control deck. I don't know how that happened. I guess I'm violent.

Anyways heres the deck:

RControl

Instant
4 x Boros Charm
4 x Warleader's Helix

Land
2 x Plains
4 x Sacred Foundry
10 x Mountain
4 x Temple of Triumph
4 x Mutavault

Creature
4 x Archangel of Thune
4 x Firedrinker Satyr
3 x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 x Boros Reckoner
4 x Ash Zealot
4 x Satyr Firedancer
4 x Fanatic of Mogis

Legend
1 x Iroas, God of Victory

So how does it work?  It is just an w/r aggro deck, that tries to abuse Firedancer and Eidolon of the Great revel. Now at first glance it seems the Eidolon  in an aggro deck is a nonbo. And that is normally true. Except that lifegain is part of your gig and you do have a significant amount of 4cc and above cards. 

Why Eidolon anyways? Oh wait now I remember the control bit =D I wanted to abuse Eidolon. But I guess I was'nt too inspired by the control elements in red, so it made me go crazy and I loaded up on nonbos. Something like that. 

Anyways, many decks like to play with low cc cards, the best example being aggro itself. Even controlish decks like efficient spells. Else they can't outrun aggro no? So I figured the Eidolon will never run out of victims. So it stays. Now if your opponent is already taking passive beatings from the Eidolon (the beauty of the Eidolon is that all the pain is self inflicted, nobody forced your opponent to counter one of your spell no? or cast that syvan carytid or thoughtseize or you get the idea). So while your opponent is using his mana to beat himself up, you help him along! With creatures and burn! And you help him reach the inevitable with the firedancers! 

The beauty of such a deck (as with all aggressive decks) is that there are no wrong threats, only wrong answers. Every card in this pile is a threat. So there is no lynch pin that your opponent can target to dismantle your strategy. You just truck on and beat to the dome. Its all pretty. On paper anyways =)

Foggy Kiora

This is a recent decklist I am messing with.

20140209_kiora_fog

Instant
4 x Sudden Storm
4 x Simic Charm
3 x Opportunity
3 x Ætherize
4 x Fog

Planeswalker
3 x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
3 x Jace, Architect of Thought

Sorcery
1 x Whelming Wave

Land
10 x Forest
4 x Temple of Mystery
6 x Island
4 x Breeding Pool

Enchantment
4 x Courser of Kruphix

Creature
4 x Sylvan Caryatid
3 x Prognostic Sphinx



The whelming wave is pretty iffy, the worsepart being that it returns all creatures including yours. It is bad enough that it is sorcery, but that it is subpar to things like Aetherize and sudden storm is just sad.

Still. 

Whelming wave is a free hit if you ever amass an army of Krakens. Well that and if WOTC decide to print good quality cheap Krakens, octopuses, Leviathan, or serpents.

The problem with that thought is often a timely fog or aetherize or sudden storm should leave the opposition board empty anyways.

Courser of Kruphix together with Prognostic Sphinx is pretty nasty, as the scry for 3 can present the free land more often than not.

Still this is all untested so it may be too slow for all I know =)

Still it does look somewhat viable.



[20140227 2259]


If you have tried this deck you would have noticed it has a serious flaw. It can fog for pretty long, but eventually it has no way to deal with the opponent's creatures. This is very risky. Hence I have tweaked the deck to this:

20140227_kiora_fog

Instant
4 x Polukranos, World Eater
4 x Simic Charm
3 x Opportunity
3 x Ætherize
4 x Fog

Planeswalker
3 x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
3 x Jace, Architect of Thought

Sorcery
1 x Whelming Wave

Land
10 x Forest
4 x Temple of Mystery
6 x Island
4 x Breeding Pool

Enchantment
4 x Courser of Kruphix

Creature
4 x Sylvan Caryatid
3 x Prognostic Sphinx

I have changed the Sudden Storms to Polukranos. The reason being that polukranos serves as both removal as well as threat. It also stabilises your board.

Sudden Storms are nice, but not that great against a swarm. For reference I goldfished the deck against a regular Blitz deck. Yes its a modern deck, but it is just representing aggro with a four turn clock, something I feel a deck should be able to have a 50% chance against if it is to be competitive.

[20140305 23:53]

20140209_kiora_fogv3

Legend

4 x Polukranos, World Eater

Planeswalker

3 x Jace, Architect of Thought

3 x Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Sorcery

1 x Whelming Wave

Creature

3 x Prognostic Sphinx

4 x Sylvan Caryatid

4 x Courser of Kruphix

Instant

3 x Opportunity

3 x Ætherize

4 x Fog

2 x Cyclonic Rift

2 x Simic Charm

Land

4 x Breeding Pool

10 x Forest

4 x Temple of Mystery

6 x Island

Sideboard

1 x Pithing Needle

1 x Ætherize

2 x Simic Charm

3 x Gainsay

1 x Jace, Architect of Thought

1 x Kiora, the Crashing Wave

1 x Dispel

4 x Nullify

1 x Opportunity

Actually the only change I made is the exchange of simic charms for cyclonic rifts. Cyclonic rifts were found accidentally, its very nice for finishing your opponents off in an alpha strike (since you are Mr Fogman himself, you no fear the counterstrike!!)