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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 8:59AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Feb 17, 2011
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I like sweet and efficient cards, but this format is just too full of them. Was WotC even aware of 2v1s in this format, I'm curious;
List of 2v1 or better cards:
Thragtusk
Sever the Bloodlines
Detention Sphere
Geralf's Messenger
Sphinx's Revelations
Huntmaster of the Fells
Olivia Voldaren
Rakdos's Return
Lingering Souls
Angel of Serenity
Unburial Rites
Flames of the Firebrand
A good chunk of these cards were already in the format but the reason they weren't as strong were because format was more tempo oriented. Before Thragtusk, decks didn't have the health bump that made games go long which increased the value of these 2v1 cards. Right now, it feels extremely like battlecruiser Magic, which is dreadful.
Currently, my solution to this format is Draw-Go, since counterspells keep tuskers in check, and I'm sure people will realise it's dreadful to deal with Huntmasters or Thragtusks with removal and they'll go straight with Essence Scatter - until others adopt and start running Caverns.
I don't really enjoy a format that's largely dictated by a single card so much that entire format slows down and decks are either prepared to race, to deal with, or play their own Thragtusks. Currently, there's only the option of countering Thragtusks, but it'll be so for only a little while. I'd told everyone Zombies was a terrible deck and people told me I was underestimating Zombies, and I told them they were underestimating Tusks.
Latest SCG is 4/8 Thragtusks; last week it was lesser. Next week, we'll see at least 6, if not full 8. I don't cry for bans often, but I've only done so twice; Once with Arcbound Ravager, once with JTMS and SFM. Tusk will dominate the format, warp it, kill aggro decks and variety in the process. With the ease of mana and how splashable the card is, there's no reason not to play 4 Thragtusk in any deck that isn't Zombies, and it takes a fool to play Zombies.
I was excited for RTR and playing T2 on MTGO but I guess I'll just grind the block, because this format is super boring.
The mage formerly known as kedi.
Team GFG - Goons From Ghana - Playing sweet decks since 2010
1:31 AM Nighthavk_: I'm actually playing B/r zombies
1:31 AM Battle7: nice
1:31 AM Nighthavk_: yeah it's pretty sweet really
1:31 AM Battle7: playing esper tokens
1:32 AM Nighthavk_: I like that deck
1:32 AM Battle7: it's sweet
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 9:37AM
#2
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- UnCon Prizewinner 2008
- …mmm
Date Joined:
Jan 20, 2008
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I came to this conclusion a while ago. Overall, the largest problem I've found is that there's no bridge from early game to late game. Decks seem to have to be largely oriented one way or the other.
lel♯ jenk♯ ∞
Show
I'm the world's leading astrophysicist. You can trust me, because I said I was.
What's wrong with my formating?
you make paragraphs shorter than the page width
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 9:42AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Feb 17, 2011
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I came to this conclusion a while ago. Overall, the largest problem I've found is that there's no bridge from early game to late game. Decks seem to have to be largely oriented one way or the other.
Centaur Healer, Farseek, Borderland Ranger, Pillar of Flame, Huntmaster help fill that gap nicely.
The mage formerly known as kedi.
Team GFG - Goons From Ghana - Playing sweet decks since 2010
1:31 AM Nighthavk_: I'm actually playing B/r zombies
1:31 AM Battle7: nice
1:31 AM Nighthavk_: yeah it's pretty sweet really
1:31 AM Battle7: playing esper tokens
1:32 AM Nighthavk_: I like that deck
1:32 AM Battle7: it's sweet
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 9:46AM
#4
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- UnCon Prizewinner 2008
- …mmm
Date Joined:
Jan 20, 2008
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I came to this conclusion a while ago. Overall, the largest problem I've found is that there's no bridge from early game to late game. Decks seem to have to be largely oriented one way or the other.
Centaur Healer, Farseek, Borderland Ranger, Pillar of Flame, Huntmaster help fill that gap nicely.
Farseek is just accel, Pillar doesn't do junk against the proverbial Thragtusk, and all of that is Naya.
lel♯ jenk♯ ∞
Show
I'm the world's leading astrophysicist. You can trust me, because I said I was.
What's wrong with my formating?
you make paragraphs shorter than the page width
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 10:49AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 14, 2007
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Nicol bolas is obviously the best solution to tusky.
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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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 10:58AM
#6
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Zombies have weapons Vs thrag, and Jund flavor doesn't mind the life bump it gives at all. You are smoking something special mate. You just appetite out the first one and then race over the topdecked one if they find it. Plus artist balance you back out. The first round of zombie list just really sucked. Grixis control could gain some ground and become a thing. Accelerate a bolas out ftw? Sure why not.
edit: control got me playing the game again, so I miss traditional control a lot. Grixis is my favorite flavor of control, and I refuse to play white. I wish it was a more diverse format, but standard is really hard to do well. I enjoy playing a more diverse group of enemies. I dislike that Im pushed towards aggro so hard. But l like zombies enough to rock it, and my budget won't let me switch, so here I am!
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 12:18PM
#7
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Nicol bolas is obviously the best solution to tusky.
yep, i'm already here
Blue is the best color ever. How do you deal? Team GFG - "gulf, foxtrot, gulf" Twitter: Burning_Forest ------------------------------------------------------ I started making some Dubstep and Electronica. Check me out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXLxlHeE1rg My Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/whitefender69?feature=mhee It is a little bit chill. Let me know what you think. 
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 12:27PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jun 12, 2009
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Nicol Bolas has been straight money in this format so far.
Money
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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 12:30PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Oct 14, 2007
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I've never regretted dropping him so far. I'm also at the point of running 2 Gilded Lotus so I can drop both Bolas and Sphinx's Revelation. Revelation was also pure awesomesomeness at States. Tamiyo was pretty meh, however.
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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8 months ago ::
Oct 14, 2012 - 3:16PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jul 26, 2006
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Too early to tell really. For starters, the top decks from SCG Providence look so untuned (a token list with Angels of Serenity, a do-nothing "Reanimator" list that went to finals...) that I feel the format will still evolve for several weeks before reaching an equilibrium. I only own 1 Thragtusk (yeah, came late to the party because last season it wasn't good enough against Delver) and play it in my GW midrange deck. I don't have trouble dealing with other green decks playing Thragtusk since there are a lot of ways of going bigger against him, easiest being Wolfir Silverheart (I swing with a 7 / 7 this turn and with an additional 8 / 8 the next turn... nice chump blocker you got there): it is the faster aggro decks not playing Thragtusk the ones that make me wish I have the other three. Thragtusk is the reaction to the initial aggro rush that every new format experiences, my belief is once the aggro decks get hated out by Thragtusk the format is going to move away from 4 of them main. A good chunk of these cards were already in the format but the reason they weren't as strong were because format was more tempo oriented. Before Thragtusk, decks didn't have the health bump that made games go long which increased the value of these 2v1 cards. Right now, it feels extremely like battlecruiser Magic, which is dreadful.
Card advantage or tempo, the new dilemma. So far Wizards seem to think that control is evil and tempo is control made "fun" so we have ended with endless domination of the metagame by tempo decks. Maybe I'm just tired from it to the point that anything different is welcome, but I prefer much more to play a midrange vs control game than an aggro vs tempo game, the reason? Tempo games are much more often decided by the best draw in the sense that loss of a single land drop or the other guy curving perfectly tend to decide the outcome of the game, whereas in attrition games players have better control of the outcome of the game by long term planning. Attrition games are preferable to tempo games because the latter are much more decided by variance.
Battlecruiser magic isn't dreadful. There's a reason why Rise of the Eldrazi limited is considered one of the best of all time.
List of 2v1 or better cards:
There isn't a problem at all with a big list of cards. Au contraire, the real problem is if the format evolve to the point that one or two of them are only relevant and the rest become tier 2 cards. The more viable decks emerge playing each one different cards the better, who cares if all the cards are card advantage ones.
If Limited gets in the way of printing good Constructed cards...
Screw limited
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