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.

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 ;) )

[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.

[Decklist] Rakdos Dragon Blade

So recently Norm played a Hero's Blade deck.

Although it was'nt consistent, I was quite piqued with the potential of Tymaret

In particular it I was interested because my Hot Dogs! deck is made to have its critters die, so Tymaret seems to fit nicely. Moreover Tymaret was in Rakdos colours, so it seemed a shoo in.

It may seem an oversight, i mean Tymaret has been around since Theros! And there was some initial love from players and in fact I think it did gain some traction in a Zombie deck.

Still, what piqued me was Tymaret's interaction with Bloodsoaked Champion. Now I have always liked Bloodsoaked champion,  it being a self recurring 2/1 for 1cc. Whats not to like? :p

In fact with Tymaret and Bloodsoaked Champion, you get inevitability ! The two together allows you to ping for 2 damage for as long as you have mana or it allows Tymaret to sit as a blocker forever for six mana each turn.

So I tried to squeeze Tymaret into my Hot Dogs! deck, where it has some added usage in saccing critters that are doomed anyways. The update is here.

But in messing with Tymaret, I also got a closer look at Hero's Blade. Norm's deck had three colours and it was heavily dependent on Hero's blade. Too heavy.

Hence my initial focus was to have the deck not die when it does not get the blades. This is actually a challenge if you are fixated on getting the bonus of playing Legendary dudes. In fact my first take was that it is simply not possible in standard and I looked to the modern pool first. I found Isamaru and a whole bunch of other Legends. I found myself going multi-coloured and the result was something cute, but awfully casual in modern.

So I decided that going the Legends route was a trap (like Sam mentioned) and snapped back to standard and and decided to use a limited band of colours when building the deck. Its interesting (or duh) to note that different colours provide different advantages. Norm's route seem to want to exploit Surrak's formidable ability. which at 4cc or earlier can be nasty. So green was a very plausible route.

Remember I was enamoured with Tymaret? (well aside from the fact that his ping ability cannot hit critters) So I wanted to utilise Tymaret in a Hero's Blade deck. Tymaret's advantage? Aside from his sacrificial nature in pinging? he also has recur potential and with two Tymarets, one in play and one in grave and 4 mana; you have an eternal blocker! Remember the synergy with Bloodsoaked Champion? Yeah. Its not rocket science.

I realised that half of my Hot Dogs! deck was actually a warriors deck. And aside from Tymaret, Rakdos colours have Alesha and Zurgo. Kolaghan is just too cool to not plug in when I can! And hey they (yes both the Elder dragon and the FRF versions) are Legendary! So a draconic theme was simmering too!

So mucking around this was what I got: 

std_20150427_heroesBlade

Instant
4 x Draconic Roar
4 x Lightning Strike

Sorcery
1 x Roast

Artifact
4 x Hero's Blade

Land
4 x Mana Confluence
7 x Mountain
4 x Bloodstained Mire
7 x Swamp

Legend
2 x Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
1 x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
4 x Zurgo Bellstriker
2 x Dragonlord Kolaghan
3 x Tymaret, the Murder King

Creature
2 x Blood-Chin Fanatic
4 x Thunderbreak Regent
3 x War-Name Aspirant
4 x Bloodsoaked Champion

I like it quite a bit. It can inevitably ping for 2 and gain life (not in one step in case you are confoozed). It has awesome dragons and lots of heat. The warriors and dragons theme ensures that the deck does'nt just roll over if the blades don't show. And one important thing to keep in mind is... you can actually equip for 4 =)  Also double or triple blades is an awesome trigger! Alesha brings back the tiny warriors (there is a slight nonbo with war-name aspirant... but I guess thats minor). The dash of Storm's Fury can be relevant.

And after building it. I realised it contains the warriors from Khans, including the Mardu Khan (Alesha), it had the FRF bloodsoaked Champion (who was mentioned in the mothership storyline), the FRF Kolaghan and the Elder Dragon Kolaghan. Even little Zurgo! Now given that Alesha ran alongside Kolaghan in the storyline, the deck actually plays pretty close to canon! Well Tymaret kinda sticks out like a sore thumb, but hey death comes to all, so the Murder King can't be too oddly placed in a Rakdos deck no? 

Standard is Broken... or Goodbye Coresets!!!

I just had something of an epiphany about standard.



I have always been troubled by standard. And then it hit me. While I was showering and yelling a song or something (well I did'nt but it seemed a funny thing to write).


Standard is broken.


Now I know, it sounds stupid. And if it did'nt you probably think I am referring to Treasure Cruise.

Well no. I mean Standard as a whole, as a concept is broken.


Somewhere.


Now my initial line of thought was:

Hey, I can't play counterspells, I can't lock down, I cannot play extreme fast weenies (currently anyways), I cannot LD my opponent to tears etc etc etc.

Well sure, the first retort is likely: Damn well you can't you whiner!! THOSE be BROKEN cards!!!

And my next line of thought was... so standard is balanced. Or at least an aim was balance. Still it did not sit well with me.Balance is actually easily achieved. Yep i said it. Balance is easily achieved. I can say it again, but then it would be like the song that does'nt end, so I'll spare ya. So anyways, as I mentioned in previous rants, to achieve balance you print everything powerful or everything weak. So balance in and of itself is not a big deal. What concerned me was... why balance? What is the point of balance, do we play magic to go back and forth like  some kind of Sim City? I dunno, Farmville? Why balance? ... well I guess balance helps to make money. And it stems power creep no?

So another thought came along... power creep... Power creep monitoring hints that there is some kind of balance we are aiming for...

So what is that Standard/Benchmark/Marker?

And it hit me again! Say Mana Leak. Should I reasonably be able to play Mana Leak. If Mana Leak is in an environment and it is BAROKEN!!!, is it Mana Leak that is broken or the FORMAT that is broken.



How can a format be broken for gwad's sake?!?!?!



I dunno... its just that bad tummy, gut feel. SOmething is broken. So I kept thinking. What if there were more cards that I should reasonably be able to play? And then it hit me again! Thats exactly what the CORE SET was for?!?!


Coreset. Think about it, think about the lineage of coreset. The first, the fabulous! was Alpha! then Beta! then Gamma! no wait. Then Unlimited, then revised, then errr 4th 5th 6th etc to today's M15 and soon to be extincted M16.


Think about it. Why did Alpha/Beta became revised? Some cards were too powerful and were taken out. Taken out of what? Taken out of what was then the BASIC set. Yup. There you have it, the coreset was the measure of what a standard game of magic should be. It is kinda like the marker of the power level by default. Hence the core set was where you got your llanowar elves, Wrath of God, terror, counterspells, stone rain...

The coreset was a collection of cards that one should reasonably be able to play in standard!!!


So when I came to that conclusion it hit me again!! *ow*


but but but, coreset is going to be taken out of existence! Coreset is irrelevant! I mean heck,  almost all the spells I mentioned in the above paragraph has been removed or nerfed!! Now think about it: the CORESET was/is being changed to adhere to another standard, rather than being the core that was supposed to be THE standard.


I think that was why the coreset failed. It lost its purpose. It was no longer the standard set of cards that Magic should be played by. When statements like , coreset is irrelevant because any card can simply be reprinted in another expansion, it reeks of the source's incomprehension of the concept of a set of basic standard CORE cards. When the coreset, starts to be nerfed... that is when it is no longer being used as a marker or standard to be held against, rather it is now being tweaked to fit another standard. Another bench mark. At this point it totally loses its purpose!

Which was why I guess they started putting in new cards! Which further emphasises the fact that coreset... is no longer the standard. No longer THE CORE set. No longer a bench mark of Magic as a game. No longer the CORE set of cards that a player should play Standard by. It was by that time simply another expansion. And with M16, and the subsequent removal of CORESET as a product. It is clear that the concept of a core set of cards that one can use as a measure of Magic as a game is now lost.

but something must be in its place? no? There is! And very oddly too. The new STANDARD to be measured by is actually.....  An archtype. It is the Midrange deck.

Anything that is too fast, or is able to interact in an axis where the Midrange deck is vulnerable to (i.e. ironically anything that only interacts via the stack derp derp - ironic because slinging spells is now being nerfed - we no mages. we beast masters rawr!!!!) is now taboo or nerfed. Sure there is alot of theory crafting in adjusting casting costs, making sure everything is fun. but the I guess the idea of fun now is Midrange, and everything lives or dies by that standard.


I don't know about you but I do regard a Standard that seems to revolve around Midrange to be broken. Not powerful broken, but ... "yo Magic! why art thou in a Pokemon 2.0 suit?" broken.(Again I apologise to my Pokemon loving friends, Pokemon is just too funny to not poke fun of, I myself like the pika pika choo!)



Hmmm I hate it that I ended up with a "sob, Standard is all midrangy" rant again. But I honestly feel that the Coreset's concept was forgotten somehow (maybe it was planned, i dunno), and somehow, somewhere in the murkiness of history and all that power creep monitoring, the measure went from CORESET to a Midrange range deck concept. And with that, the purpose of having a Core set. Hence the demise of Coreset.


Hmmm, I never really liked the Coresets anyways aside from the first three. From 4th ed onwards it was a constant barrage of nerfs and buying coreset became kinda stupid, since you can get stronger cards from expansions. I guess that was why they added new cards to the coresets (which were originally all reprints). That both made me happy and annoyed. Happy because, hey who does'nt like new potentially broken cards ;) and annoyed because, now I actually have to buy core sets to keep up in the arms race ?!?!?! .... and get a shitload of reprints in the process since I can no longer ignore the coreset. In order words.. coreset became a half baked kinda expansion.


... Still. I like tradition and core sets have been something of a tradition. So I will miss ya Core set! but having lost your purpose and intent... you were just a sucky expansion with lots of irrelevant nerfed reprints, sorry if it hurts your feelin's but thats the way the cookie crumbles bub.

Why Standard is not Magic

Magic is so rubbishy these days and reading developing-annihilation-2014-08-15 only kinda confirms it.

We are spiralling into mediocrity.


I am all for balancing power creep, but please don't give me power weep and turn Magic the Gathering into Magic the Gathering: Dust or Tragic the Gathering lol


Now i recently mentioned that Standard is not Magic.

Now that is a loaded statement and probably requires some caveats and definition of parameters to make any sense.

Exactly what is Magic?

I can only define that for myself unfortunately, as Magic is many things to many people.

To me pokemon is not magic, creatures dumping themselves on each other is a subset of magic, but can NEVER claim to be all that Magic is.

Magic to me, is everything that it can be. Think about that for a moment. Circa 1993, the game was broken beyond itty bitty.

But it was fun. It was gorgeous. At that time Vintage was akin to drving a fast car. Well no. Actually Shivan Dragon was King and so was Leviathan and Lord of the Pit. So you have the fire, the pit the meat and the dude who cooks em'! Oh and Force of Nature if you want veggies.



That was cold.



Anyways, magic in its original incarnation was kinda boring I guess. But boring is a good baseline. A good hole to climb out from. The only way is up. Kinda like in Batman. Rise of the Black Knight. Rise, rise and the only way is to lose all inhibitions. So it was the wild wild west. Moxes traded for Dragons. I wished I played then. I only came in when the party was over.


Though Moxes were still only 100 SGD, when I started and Lotus was 300 SGD. I was only a teen with money for Mirage though. So those times, those were out of reach for me. But they were legend.

Then. It enthralled me. The combos that were possible. The first combo. Channel Fireball. Oh it was'nt just a shop front yo. It was the first combo. The first combo deck! Prosbloom! Cadervourous Bloom into Drain Life. and Before that, there was Necro Summer and later on Academy Winter. Those were the heights of Magic for me as information was scarce and Magic was a game where there was a big bad and decks were build to prove their mettle. Innovation was demanded to bring the latest scourge down.




...


Mind you in those days the big bad sat for months or years at the top. Necro was eventually defeated by Sligh (or was it turbo stasis?). Combo Winter? I honestly cannot remember but I am on combo's side so it was never my prerogative to remember :P

I liked the decks in combo winter.


Magic was magic in those days. Power levels were high and with each printing, everyone was looking forward to the next combo, the next great card. The next innovation! The next mechanic. All artifact! All graveyard! All whatever.... and i suspect WOTC just ran out of ideas eventually. Magic was then fresh and ideas were unbounded.


Now mind you, people poo poo at high power levels. But I'll give you a clue. Only when power levels are high, will the mechanics actually make a dent in eternal formats. Look at devotion, and the othe gadzillion mechanics created in the past 3-5 years. Which is prevalent or even standing in Modern (the weakest of eternal). Nada. Why? Because we are spiralling into mediocrity. Mechanics today are watered down and priced very safely. And this is done for a watered down environment. Is it really that surprising that everything goes down the drain and becomes irrelevant in Modern?


I don't know about you but a bunch of cards that are only relevant and played for 2 years plus... and then *POOF* become totally irrelevant is really not Magic to me. Don't get me wrong, I am not wearing rose tinted glasses where EVERYTHING in Standard is playable in eternal format. We are now even lacking the proverbial bone (Okay that was a little harsh we did get some good stuff, Abrupt Decay and DRS -- but still. most standard cards are rubbishy - and personally I like the Gatecrash 1cc dudes... but Theros block  has me floundering tho...). Standard used to bring in new cards that contribute to the playable pool in Magic the gathering (that to me would be the eternal formats, so it must at least make the cut in Modern). Now of course it is still magic in terms of the all things magic. Like playing a random pile is magic. Like ermm like homelands only is playable magic :)

To me, these days, Standard is no longer Magic. It might as well be a different game bought to have fun for two years and then you say goodbye to it. With zero worth to it. Much like a PC game I guess. You could take it out and lose with it once in awhile. Alright I am being very negative here, but I hope you get my point. Sure you and a bunch of pals can play block cube from 2013. Which is cool if thats all you want from ex-standard cards.


And worst of all. I see what is happening in Modern, happening in Legacy now. Strange people who never cared for the format, suddenly pop up to claim that Brainstorm is broken. And that it should be banned blah blah. But seriously, there is no doubt that blue is strong in Legacy. That is not blue's fault, that is a design problem where WOTC did not make the other colours strong enough. Its not that Blue is too strong, but that its basic premise is one of the strongest elements in the game: card draw and variance reducing. It was a WOTC mistake to make it exclusive to blue. It was also a design mistake to make creatures weak (that was a basic tenet before the recent power up of creatures). Already now other colours are making a comeback in Legacy. I see that as a good correction by WOTC. However as the format gets more popular, newer players bring their perception of Modern in (a la ban everything etc etc). Please play another format if you are not able to keep up. But don't expect the format to slow down or dumb down for you. You have modern. Leave Legacy be. Legacy was ground up. Even without SCG or WOTC it will persist (and be better for it). And oh brainstorm is a dollar card. You DO NOT have to play blue. You can splash blue. I see nonsensical arguments like BUG is blue splashing black and green. I would argue that it is as much the other way round... its just that haters will forever see it in a way that benefits them. There is no doubt that brainstorm is pervasive in the environment. But seriously you have people thinking that you should remove a good thing rather than build on it? And damn I am not even a blue player.


In the past people build decks to beat the top dog, these days with a new set every few months and the meta changing so fast, people would rather be spoonfed and get pushed cards and decks or just follow the crowd. And when no new decks or cards that were pushed can beat the current top dog. They whine. "Oh control is too strong" or "I did'nt get to play Magic". People, its simple. You have tried and tested and your deck (and you if you say so) have been found wanting. Thats all there is to it. You can either find a solution or whine. Its kinda sad.


Sorry it was rantish, but that comes from reading inane rants I guess.


[Edit]

This just came to mind:

Recently there seems to be a trend where, WOTC prints modern, legacy or Vintage specific cards in non-standard sets. I see this as a double-edged sword. While it is good in that, it is more likely that we get more eternal playable cards, since they do not disrupt the "balance" in the environment for the cash cow called Standard. It also makes me question if there will be eternal playable cards in Standard. Which is the main problem I see here. If Standard cards are not strong enough to stand in Modern, then is Standard still Magic? Or really just a card board PC game to be bought and forgotten after two years (well sure its mainstream Magic for two whole years. Wonderful stuff.).


And then another scary thought comes to mind since. If you cannot print strong cards to make Standard cards relevant in Modern, the "obvious" (seriously there are people who think this way) solution is to cut Modern down to size (through bannings) and make it like Standard, in terms of speed and functionality.

Which I am fine with, and I say it with kindness.
But please stay away from Legacy and Vintage :p

[Edit 2]

And I still do play Standard, I just don't like the direction it is going ;P

[Edit 3]

I was just thinking why did I reject Standard as Magic. What triggered it? And then it occurred to me that with the way WOTC is going, the Magic that I loved was being rejected. Its not easy to erase 20 years of cardboard (ah yes the trials and tribulation of geeks, wrangling over card board... it amuses me sometimes... oooh the ragin'!) but they try. Modern bannings, the removal of LD, and until recently hand disruption, fast mana, playable hard counters. Alternative resource constriction (I can't off hand give a better name) like sphere effects or even cheap repeatable tap effects. Combo's neutering. Old Magic is being pissed on. To me thats WOTC rejecting the old Magic. It did'nt really occur to me that as a whole that is what they were doing, and that is what riles me. I guess it is to cater to newer players. Who prefer more interactivity (a false premise) through creatures. It took me awhile to realise that since I played for quite awhile, Magic to me is really not the magic they have been dishing for the past 3-5 years. Hence the rant and my question of whether Standard is really Magic, or simply a different game in the form of Magic. (this is even more stark if Standard contributes little to Modern (the easiest eternal format to make a difference to)).

Bye bye Standard!!! It was fun while it lasted!!!!

Not sure what this means, but the ang mo kio funz centre auntie has just told me that her supplier has declined to sell her the cases of Conspiracy.


Hoarding? By whom?


I leave that to the conspiracists :P


She did mention that perhaps there were complaints... oh well. I don't know who to believe these days anyways.



For myself I am sicken by the amount of greed in the distribution system in Singapore.


So I'm going to extricate myself from it and buy singles like everyone else ;P



Its kinda ironic really. I was just thinking how Standard is NOT Magic. (More on that later)

And then this news came to make me quit Standard.


Well. Quit is a strong word, but since I will be looking for cheap cards, we are really looking at hunting for cheapies and post rotation kind of situations :P

So unless something really piques me, I will likely not be Standard ready :P



Time to give it a rest I guess



Actually I tire of the constant money grab by WOTC and the local retailers... I needed an excuse and Conspiracy came along....


Helloeeeee MUD!!!!




Now seriously, if you like Standard. Don;t mind me. I actually think Standard is going for an up swing in terms of power level. So for people supporting the game by buying boosters? This is your moment of glory!!! (I might be totally off and that is my disclaimer =P) After the joke that was Theros. Standard is looking exciting! Perhaps thats why there are the shenanigans with distribution. Ah well.


bubye Standard. Well. Unless they really have something I cannot say no to. ;P



[Edit]

On the topic of quitting. Now I am not quitting, so I am not selling anything. But since that came to mind, if you hate retailers, the worst thing you can do is to sell your cards to them. That actually forms a substantial portion of their income (at least from what little I know :p). What most bulk buyers (here is retailers as well as individuals, tho individuals are less common) do is to offer a price for your cards at a fraction of its value. Usually about 50 - 60 %. And then they sell it full price. So if you are getting rid of your collection, try to give it to someone who values and loves the game... rather than some shark. Well. If you are quitting you probably will not think of that... . Just in case you value your money at least then I guess. :P


I actually had some judge came up to me, smirking that I have been playing for so long and should have collections to sell. I never did understood what that was about (and I did'nt have a substantial collection anyway lol) But I only "got it" this year. That judge dude asked me like ... I dunno, years ago. i don't even see him around anymore... but it never ceases to astound me, just how slow I can be. lol

Noir

Mono black at the moment is the strongest deck. Note that does not mean it is the strongest deck possible =)

There is a big difference. Being the strongest deck possible means there is nothing in the pool that can defeat it. Which is rubbish of course. The fact that a meta even exists means that minimally cards that hate on it exist. But I don;t think we are even at that point. I still think decks currently in the meta have a shot at it.

Now building a deck that can tango with Black devotion does not mean making a deck that will beat it 100% of the time. Anything with a 40% to 50% chance of beating it means it is a deck that is respectable in terms of going toe to toe against it (in my books at least).

Is there such a deck at the moment that can beat it consistently? Personally I feel ... yes and no. Yes in that you have your 40% win rate decks, but not so the 50% and more decks. Not because Mono Black devotion is the best possible deck, but because it is (at the moment) the most tuned. It has the support of the masses and running it in a tournament is just a matter of tuning it right.

In the tournament won by a S.Korean (sorry abt not remembering his name), if you look at the side board as well , it was extremely similar to the one played by Turtlewald, but with more duress and a reduction of Bile blight and more Devour flesh. This seemed to be in response to azorius's rise at that time. The most recent win by the Japanese pro included artifacts that gained life. All meta tunings.


To defeat your enemy you must know their strengths.

What makes the deck tick?

It has first turn removal: Thoughtseize.


It has 2nd turn threat: Pack Rat

By third turn it has:

Devour Flesh and/or Hero's Downfall

For card advantage it has Underworld Connections

In tandem with that it has lifegain via Grey Merchant.

So there is a card advantage engine. This is relatively interesting. Against blue/white decks, their sphinx's revelation is a one shot. Wherea's the black card advantage is an engine. Less powerful in a short frame of time but long term is at least just as good.


There is also another reason the Underworld Connections is strong, that is that LD is practically unplayable except to stop corner cases of powerful lands. But that is a very minor point. (well depends on how you look at it, auras used to suck because of the potential for two for ones, by placing the aura on a land, it is as good as a plain ole enchantment in terms of risk, I used to joke that chronic flooding practically turns lands into Bazaar of Baghdads in standard)


At turn four, Mono black devotion gains Desecration Demon. The Demon used to be poo pooed because a fourth turn 6/6 is not so scary to an aggro deck going wide (horde of weenies as opposed to one big threat). Those days are kinda over (I miss my blitz deck hoho). Most decks do not kill at the 4th turn these days. Mono Blue Devotion is trying to do that which is also the reason why it has a relatively okay shot of defeating Mono Black Devotion, but not consistently. However Mono Blue devotion is no Blitz.

What do the threats of Desecration Demon and Pack Rat mean. They actually complement each other. A deck normally attacks wide (like most aggro e.g. blitz) or it attacks narrow (like hexproof auras during rtr/innistrad block). Mono Black Devotion can do both.

Mono black can hit you with a horde of rats or a singular evasive 6/6.

The rats are not as weak as they look (sure laugh at me for saying its weak, but before it became prevalent it was largely poo pooed by Mono Black devotion players themselves). The key is the 2cc. It looks innocous at 1/1 turn two, but it does something important. It skips below most counters and then grows if its pilot so wishes.

The best counter is essence scatter and now nullify. Dissolves clock in too late. And all this, is with thought seize and duress as cover.


This is actually Mono Black Devotion's strength against blue.

Against fast aggro, it has lifegain and Phat. Nuff said. (even blitz eventually fell to one card : the Armadillo Cloak pretender.... Unflinching Courage i think.)

Against ramp? ThoughtSeize, Doom Blade.. oh you haz hexproof, that sexy sylvan Caratid? Meet Devour Flesh =)

That in a nutshell is why I think Mono Black Devotion is strong.

1) It has multiple angles of attack in combat
2) It has natural strengths against various archtypes
3) it is currently quite optimally tuned


That is not to say the other decks are hopeless. That is never the case, but there is no doubt that Mono Black Devotion is strong.




Is it a bad thing?


Three Reasons why No!:


1) The current Dominance is more of a lack of people innovating other decks, too much group think.

I have a penchant for not playing the strongest deck, I always try to beat it. As such a dominant deck does not bother me. Many people like to have a balanced environent however.

But thats the thing, I do not think the current reason for mono black's dominance is the lack of balance but rather the lack of creativity.

Top 16 usually show more archtypes, people will poo poo and say, hey thats why they are not top 8: "because they are not viable". Well then, my retort would be: Well see, you obviously are'nt playing it, thats one less person tuning/developing the deck. Extrapolate that to all the people poo pooing and group thinking and just tuning Mono Black Devotion. Yes that is alot of poo. Nuff said.


2) Mono Black is currently pushed

Another reason why the current strength of Mono Black Devotion should'nt be viewed negatively.

Mono Black Control fans have been clamouring for a viable MBC deck for a long long long while. And WOTC has listened. Its really not a bad thing that Mono Black is being pushed. It means WOTC listens. (oh yes fear the coming of LD!!! Like poison, it will one day prevail!!!! =P)



3) The finesse of Balance

Another reason why the current strength of Mono Black Devotion (or blue devotion and u/w control) should'nt be viewed negatively.

There are two ways of achieving balance:

Make everything strong.
Make everything weak.


Thats really about it. Everything must be at same power level. It is boring. If a tall dwarf is standing in the midst of short dwarfs. He is still the tallest dwarf =)

What I am trying to say is, the moment they print something relatively strong, if the overall power level is weak, that something will unbalance the whole environment. Is mono black really that broken? Is thoughtseize really that broken? I doubt it is.

Lets say it is. So you really wished they would stop printing these Bah-ro-ken cruds that unbalances our sacred Standard format.

Would you rather they print weak cards (i.e. all cards are weak so balance is achieved)?

I actually know of people who would say YES! but lets put some other facts on the table:

1) Standard is rotating. Your cards last for about two years. During those two years, to remain relevant, you need to continually buy more current cards.

In short, it is a) Expensive b) Temporal

a)
This is important. If you are rich then you have no worries, you like opening pieces of card board that will either be worth nothing immediately or will be worth nothing in two years. Good for you brother! Let move on! This article: it no for you. =)

b) Temporal is important because, EVEN if a card is truly broken, it too will pass. Into the abyss known as Modern =P


2) Your cards fall into Eternity. This actually ties in with point b above. Your cards will eventually be your arsenal in Modern (or Legacy or *cough* Vintage or EDH). Do you really want weak unplayable cards? Think Thragtusk. Hero in standard, zero everywhere else. Ricky Martin says: Do you really want it?



Now Why do I talk about balance? Because they will never balance by making everything powerful. If you are one of those who LOVE weak cards. Fear not!

They will never print a set that is balanced and powerful (by that I mean at least in Modern context)

Why? Power creep, less design space, plus how much can you print if you keep printing powerful stuff, eventually people will still quit standard if everything is powerful (its easier to print new stuff by varying power than to be creative laterally, this is a point even Maro made).

Strangely what makes people come back to standard is the printing of weak cards. Either to balance limited. Or, to have weak cards form the bulk of the set but have a few true gems, that is something that keeps veterans interested in new sets.

So you will never have, all powerful sets. So long as limited play exists and WOTC want to keep printing NEW sets.

What you can "hope" to get is a few cards sprinkled into the sets that have some power (again I am not referring to relative to the home set, but at least at the level of Modern). And hopefully slowly and painfully build your AWESOME modern deck. (yes I hate modern).

Hence in a very long winded way. That is why when they print stuff like Thoughtseize, there has to be less hate. Else if WOTC is listening, and we know they do, you may well get sets where EVERYTHING is weak. Unless thats what you want. Then we have different wants =P

If you don't likez the toys, mommy takes them from youz.

So...

Stop complaining and git creative.

Gild is actually pretty potent. ;) not in Modern no. But Mono Black is standard no?