Community

Nov 9, 2011 -- 12:59AM, Sigbjorn wrote:

Nov 8, 2011 -- 11:32PM, Zindaras wrote:

It's nice to finally get a response to the feedback we've been giving for ages, but "it can't be done" is a bit of a weak response. Just give a possible replacement for each rare or expensive card. It doesn't have to be as strong, it just has to fill the same role. That way, people can decide for themselves what they do and how much they buy.

I can understand this sentiment, but there are some cards in Standard that simply can't be replaced. What would fill the slot of Inkmoth Nexus in this deck? I've seen some pretty budget control or UR decks based, but even they break the "budget" because they call for Snapcaster Mage, and there's simply no other card that can replace Snapcaster. 

Inkmoth Nexus would be replaced by Swamps. Look, I am open to him distinguishing between the cards that are important and the cards that are unimportant, but if he doesn't do it, how is someone who doesn't play the deck going to do it? In this case, I understand that Inkmoth Nexus is not a budget card but that it is very important for the deck to function competitively. However, that doesn't mean that he can just plop in whatever card he wants without further ado. This is Building on a Budget. As a writer, that means you have to be open to people who can't spend more than $50 on a deck. You cannot just say "well, that would not be in line with my goals, so go somewhere else to get a good budget deck." That's just really awful marketing. But that is what's going to happen. I mean, the Daily Deck feature had a deck which was more budget-friendly than what we've seen at BoaB for weeks, nay, months. Quite frankly, if I were a competitive player on a budget, I would be reading that website over BoaB right now.

Nov 9, 2011 -- 6:57AM, MadMageQc wrote:

Why doesn't he do that? Because he is competitive. His Spike-ness defines him as a player. Trying original stuff like what you suggest inevitably leads to mostly decks that lose more games than they win when facing the metagame decks, and in Jacob's view of deckbuilding and Magic, this is unacceptable. If he adopted such a process, maybe once a year, if very lucky, he could find a truly competitive, truly budget, AND truly rogue deck, but that's wishful thinking.

Past incarnations of BOAB were about semi-competitive decks for playing in casual circles, which was fine in its own right, and I admit, more entertaining to read. That style fit the previous columnists. But Jacob Van Lunen, a Pro Tour competitor, does not want to stomp noobs who play unpolished decks in the casual room, and he does not show up in the competitive room with something he has no confidence in. That's not the kind of player he is.

Well, he managed it with the Pyromancer Ascension deck, which I believe was his own invention.

But, anyway, here we get to the actual crux of the whole issue. Jacob is a Spike who cannot work within limitations. There are Spikes who can self-impose rules and then do the best they can within those rules. There are Spikes who will throw out any self-limitation as being ridiculous and against the spirit of the game. Just take a cruise around the forums: if it is still the same way it was years ago, every time people post about limiting themselves beyond what is required for a specific format, you get a bunch of Spikes coming in and telling them they're idiots for doing so. Jacob's comments made it quite clear that that is how he feels about it. Well, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's the spirit of BoaB. You can practically hear him chafing at his bit, wanting to break free of these ridiculous budget considerations and just play whatever deck he wants to play (I do honestly feel that he prefers to play rogue decks, but rogue=/=cheap).

Nov 9, 2011 -- 9:47AM, SillyMagician wrote:

These "Metagame Attack" decks are cheaper because they are not tier 1. However, I believe building on a Budget should be so much more. You could feature:

-Intro Deck Evolutions (or more your style, Event Deck Evolutions)
These decks are obviously already designed to a certain degree, but they can always be improved and adjusted to attack the metagame on a budget. Telling someone to add 3 inkmoth nexi to a deck with 1 is hardly advice. Intro decks especially provide a great jumping off point into a strategy. I'd love to see at least one evolution whenever a new set comes out.


-Build decks where no single card costs more than X (where X is $5 or maybe $10). 
-Build deck where the total cost of the deck is less than Y (where Y is $25 or maybe $50).
These decks would be easy for a large portion of your audience to actually build/trade for every week and could even be the jumping off point for a tier-2 competitive deck. Even if a deck costs over $100, if no card is more than $5 it can be easy to trade for the cards to build it and play it. I'd love to see a deck with a specific monetary constraint at least once a month. 


-Pauper or Peasant Decks
To be fair, JvL has done pauper decks a couple times. But this is a great format that is, pretty much by definition, within peoples' budgets. That's what the point of the format is - within this budgetary restriction, be spikey. I'd love to see Pauper highlighted once a month.

 
-Build a deck where the highlight is a draft/sealed archtype. 
A deck like this would take a draft/sealed archtype and evolve it into something more competitive. You could even start with a real draft or sealed pool that you had! I love taking home my prerelease decks and tweaking them into something more competitive and there are tons of synergies and combos you could highlight. It also cross-pollinates into limited play. I'd love to see this when a new set comes out. 


-Build block decks or decks with specific constraints on what sets are allowed. 
Basically, restrict yourself in some way from just typing about Standard. Block decks are usually fairly budget anyway, though I'd impose an additional monetary budget since many standard decks are just block decks. But what about trying to build a deck with the last 2 sets and an M set only. Like NPH, M12, and Innistrad. What could you come up with? Obviously it won't be something to break into the PT with, but you could play your friends, take it to FNM or even encourage other people to play in your own "format". I'd love to see something like this every once in a while.

This. For God's sake, this. Look, I don't think anyone expects JvL to break the format every single week. But the problem is that half of the columns and decks just look like they were thrown together at the last minute and had decks that Jacob just doesn't care about. This is a serious issue, and it needs to be solved. And, in my opinion, the only way to solve it is to spend more time on each individual deck. Play more games, spend more time explaining the deckbuilding choices. Spread out each individual deck over two weeks so that people can really get a feel for how it plays against the metagame and what cards are important. And do something else for once. These are all great suggestions, and he's actually listened to them...once. The one time he evolved an Event Deck remains one of my favourite JvL columns, but he seems to think that doing it once was enough.

This deck should simply never have been published in a BoaB article. It's a netdeck, and an expensive one at that. If you do something, do it right.

Nov 14, 2011 -- 7:35PM, Enzyme wrote:

Sounds to me like everyone is expecting something a little different from the column. If you think the column puts too high an emphasis on competitivness then go read From the Lab instead. His janky combos are almost always super cheap bin rares. Look at his most recent Inception deck, asisde from the singleton flavor SDT, you could probably build that for under $20. You don't care about playing it in a tournament anyways. This column currently balances budget with power, giving you relatively cheap options to give you a chance at an FNM or among your friends. He has stated as such multiple times. I really don't understand what's so hard to understand about that.

It's nice of you to immediately prove that you have no idea what's in the other columns. FtL is a hardcore Johnny article, and with Serious Fun devolving more and more into some kind of column on how to make friends rather than a column about Magic, BoaB is basically the only escape that normal casual players have.