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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 5:40AM
#11
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Just to add some statistics to the sentiment expressed above. There are 89 mythics in standard, compared with a total pool of 1,282 nonland cards (i'm ignoring the land for the moment). That's 7% of the total card pool. The "Big Five" (to borrow a safari term), those mythics costing £30 ($40) or more, being Baneslayer Angel  (£40/$55), Jace, The Mind Sculptor  (£60/$80), Vengevine  (£30/$40), Gideon Jura  (£45/$60) and Elspeth, Knight-Errant  (£30/$40), represent a mere 0.4% of the nonland card pool. On average a "Big Five" card will cost you £40 ($55). Of the decks Mike listed, on average each one had 13 Mythics, or 21% of the 61 nonland cards (including sidboard). Worse, in my view, on average each of those decks runs 8 copies of a "Big Five" card, or 13% of the nonland cards. What is amazing to me is that as each week passes, this Standard format seems to give us more and more different ways of competing effectively. I honestly feel like this is one of the most diverse and fun Standard formats I have ever played.
I am afraid I would have to respectfully disagree Mike. It seems in most instances you need nuermous copies of the Big Five to optimize whatever deckstrategy you intend to play, otherwise you are simply going to get run out of town by someone who does. Oh yes, and don't forget to run your four lotus cobra  as a mana source.
I do agree that there is a lot of potential deck strategies out there right now, but I have never known a standard environment that was so prohibitive to playing them.
a quick aside on the mana base
Show
Whilst I'm at it, the average (land) mana base listed here would have
7 fetchlands (£77 / $100)
4 Manduals (£20 / $27)
2 M10 duals (£18 / $25)
total £113 / $150
and that's not including four lotus cobra at £60 / $80
Funnily enough the land mana base hasn't been so much a problem - I've always managed to trade for them. The chase mythics? No chance. But to have a mana base costing upwards of $150 not be the problem really does underline for me the scale of the mythic problem.
and Mike - do read Bennie Smith's excellent article here (you even get a name check): www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/1...
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 6:48AM
#12
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Date Joined:
Jun 25, 2009
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Coming Soon.... NEXT LEVEL MYTHIC CONSCRIJACEJUNDREDGEVOPTERDEPTHS!!!
In a Extandard near you.
This was sooo funny! 
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 7:15AM
#13
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Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2003
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Just a rules question: I assume that using Unearth abilities count as 'playing creatures' for the purposes of Vengevine? Or are the decks mixing together Unearth with tossing down a few cheap creatures? That sounds kinda JV, so I'm guessing my first assumption is correct.
For that matter, does bringing back a Vengvine count as playing a creature? Kinda moot, as you'd have fulfilled the condition for all Vengevines in your graveyard if you're already bringing them back...
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 7:18AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Mar 29, 2005
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Just a rules question: I assume that using Unearth abilities count as 'playing creatures' for the purposes of Vengevine?
No. Unearth is an activated ability that moves the creature from the graveyard to the battlefield. It does not allow you to re-cast the creature.
Ever feel like people on these forums can't possibly understand how wrong they are? Feeling trolled? Don't get mad. Report Post.
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 7:30AM
#15
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Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2003
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No. Unearth is an activated ability that moves the creature from the graveyard to the battlefield. It does not allow you to re-cast the creature.
Yeah, it didn't sound right to me, but I thought that was part of the combo under discussion and I just didn't understand the rules. So, are small creatures being used to pull back out the Vengevines, most likely?
Thanks for the clarification.
Edit: messed up the quote.
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 7:43AM
#16
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Date Joined:
Jun 16, 2010
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Yet another sign of how expensive things are: all the multicolor. Every single standard deck in this article was three or four colors. (Admittedly, that's counting the Vengevine/Unearth deck with no green mana producers, but Vengevine is Vengevine.) With a multicolored-themed block in Standard, I guess that's not all that big a surprise, but all the chase rares are monocolored mythics from Zendikar block and and most of the fetchlands and dual man lands are too. Those mythics are so good that people splash them into decks that are already three colors and win. Wow. WTB common colorless planeswalker hosers in the next block. (OK, we probably don't need something that extreme, but still.) No. Unearth is an activated ability that moves the creature from the graveyard to the battlefield. It does not allow you to re-cast the creature.
Yeah, it didn't sound right to me, but I thought that was part of the combo under discussion and I just didn't understand the rules. So, are small creatures being used to pull back out the Vengevines, most likely?
Thanks for the clarification.
Looks that way to me. The deck has eight creatures with a casting cost of one mana, 11 with a CC of two and three with a CC of three. It also has a ton of draw-and-discard effects, so he can filter through his deck pretty easily to get the cheap creatures and get Vengevines and cards with Unearth into his graveyard.
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 8:15AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Aug 13, 2007
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i remember when it was hard to get arcbound ravagers back at onslaught-mirrodin standard, and they were only $20 a pop. i sincerely don't understand how competitive standard players can manage to dump $200 on a playset of any mythic.
This standard sure seemed to shape up as the most prohibitive, money-wise, to play, ever.
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 9:54AM
#18
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Date Joined:
May 18, 2002
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This standard sure seemed to shape up as the most prohibitive, money-wise, to play, ever.
...which will bite wizards directly on the ass very soon.
When New Extended and Standard are both dominated by Golden Tickets, and Legacy and Vintage are left out to rot, attendance for anything that isn't a draft is going to drop like a rock.
Of course, that could have been the goal all along.
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 10:02AM
#19
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Date Joined:
Jul 10, 2003
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Okay, I will add something constructive. I really think the builder of that Dredgevine deck was a genius. Outside of the 4 Vengevines (shudder shudder shudder), most of the cards in that deck are reasonable. It also get competitive mileage out of limited favorites like Sedraxis Alchemist, Renegade Doppelganger, and Enclave Cryptologist. It also makes very creative use of Eldrazi Monument.
Now, I'm completely conflicted on Jace Jund. I think it takes serious balls to put Jace into a Jund deck (although as Mike has said before, this style of deck is particularly reslilient to the effects of Spreading Seas). However... I'm reminded of Lorwyn-era 5-color control. Did someone reprint Reflecting Pool?! Are we really back to the days of mana bases that splash the most broken cards from every color? Well, except this time they're all mythic rares.
Next week on Top Decks: we examine how healthy the environment is when a new breakout RDW deck playing 4 Jace the Mind Sculptors makes the top 8!
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3 years ago ::
Jun 24, 2010 - 10:31AM
#20
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Date Joined:
Oct 14, 2007
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Article: Here's cool stuff being done in Standard.
Response: *whine*
Wow, that was intellectually stimulating.
My blog (everyone else is doing it...): http://ideas-abounding.blogspot.com/ "Opinions are immunity to being told you're wrong. Paper, rock, and scissors, they all have their pros and cons." - Relient K DISCLAIMER: I'm not a nice person. MOTL Sale List: http://www.magictraders.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/087367.html#0  Sig by the modest, yet talented, zpikduM.
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