| Date Posted: 8/21/2010
Posted By: The Mike Dale
Member Since: 5/31/2009
Number of Replies: 22
Last Post: 8/25/2010 |
| | Magical Musings Pt 1 | I have a few things that I would love to talk about. The first thing that I want to talk about is M11. What do you guys think about it? At first, I loved it! But the more that I thought about it, the more that I realized that M11 sucks! I mean, yeah sure, the titans are all cool. The leylines are ok ( green leyline SUCKS! ), and they did reprint lt. bolt, nantuko shade, and manaleak. Fauna shaman, condemn, and destructive force are all good. But overall, I thought that wizards could have done better. First off, red and black got HOSED!!!!! For red, you get bolt and d.force, but you lose both seigegang and earthquake! Ball lightning leaves, and you get that retarted ox to make up for it!! And black is even worse off that red, if you can believe that. Tendrils, duress, and v. nocturnous were the best things about black out of M10. At least we still have duress. Nantuko shade WAS great back in the day, but now to compete with the other bomb creatures you have to keep your mana tapped to power him up. These days, he is just another craeture in magic. And let me ask you all something. In the color wheel, what does black stand for? I always thought that it stood for coruption and death. While white stood for teamwork, co-operation, and life. If this is the case, then why does white have the best removal??? To further explain my point, both white and black have color hosers, deathmark and celestial purge. Purge is an instant, while d.mark isnt. And why can whites colorhoser kill sorin or liliana, while blacks hoser cant touch gideon or elspeth? I thought that they did ok with the other 3 colors. However, was it really nesecary to reprint day of judgement? It will rotate at the same time that zendikars day of judgement rotates!!! Why not put mutilate in thet slot? Black hasnt gotten a good sweeper in years ( no, consume the meek and infest do not count!! ). I also think that pithing needle is a card that should always be reprinted. After next month, how are you going to stop planeswalkers? Counterspells, burn, or hexmage. And one last thing before I end my rant, why not reprint stifle? It needs to be reprinted in a bad way. Well, let me know what you all think. Am I nuts, or do I have a point? But my opinion = M11 SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
" We are 5 days away from fundamentaly transforming the united states of america " - Barrack Obama |
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| I like the Titans.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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 | Date Posted: 8/22/2010
Posted By: Matthew Ratz
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| I think they clash with the rest of the set.....
Playing to Win is Playing for Fun - Matthew Ratz |
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 | Date Posted: 8/22/2010
Posted By: Martin Stanley
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| Oh now just Remember the Titans..., all bad movie puns aside I generally like M11 although RDW does get hosed after this next rotation in losing Ball Lightning, Hell's Thunder. Hellspark Elemental, etc. but it seems most of your problem Mike with M11 lies in the fact that they did not give black a good board sweeper. Unless I am mistaken though in the history of magic the only two really kill all creatures spells black had were Damnation and maybe Mutilate if you are playing mono black. I know Extinction and Perish were ok against certain decks and there are probably others I may have forgotten but Damnnation was a time shifted of future shifted type of card in a specific block so I doubt they bring that back which to me leaves Mutilate which I personally would love to see back but I know black is still a viable color in Standard. Just ask Will who the last 2 Standard tournaments ran almost mono black with just a splash of green for Maelstrom Pulse and he finished first in a FNM and then 2nd with it in a Standard box tourny (which with a little luck he could have won). He ran a good amount of Vamps of course like Gatekeeper, Hexmage, Nighthawk, Etc. but he ran Nantuko Shade and Grave Titan which I thought were both amazing in his deck. I am sure he or Ian could tell you exactly what was in the deck and sideboard if you are interested but back to M11 to me at least the color that really got screwed was red but I still like the set overall quite a bit.
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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 | Date Posted: 8/22/2010
Posted By: Evan Wells
Joined before August '08
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| I agree, I really like the rares in this set, and it is great to draft compared to m10. I also agree with your assesment about red and black. Rdw is not going to be a deck. It's loosing earthquake, Hell's thunder, hellspark elemental, and ball lightning. There will still be boros and kiln fiend deck wins
"You're the worst person to looose to" annonymous |
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 | Date Posted: 8/22/2010
Posted By: Zack Strait
Member Since: 4/9/2008
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| M11 warped the format with 2 cards. Mana Leak and Fauna Shaman. They both require you to play differently in order to avoid being blown out by them. Mana leak made control viable, and Fauna Shaman gives something that control must have an answer for or die like a bitch. Black is now pretty much a splash color, and red still blows. Good work wizards.
"The shit look like ya hand when you be doin a shadow puppet for a duck n shit nahmean. Shit be lookin like it jus caught a pop fly in center field n whatever whatever nahmean." re: Ghostface Killa on lil' kim's vagina. |
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| You do have Marsh Casualties, although it's a little expensive when kicked and doesn't kill anything with toughness 3+.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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| Date Posted: 8/22/2010
Posted By: The Mike Dale
Member Since: 5/31/2009
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| You see, that is my problem. The titans are ALL good cards. Manaleak and fauna shaman are also good, but this set reminds me of a Van Halen album, 4 hit singles and a bunch of filler! No doubt, there are great cards, every set has them. But how you judge a sets greatness isnt its good cards, but its bad and average cards. Take lorwyn block, for example. Everybody can sit there and tell you how good bitterblossom, revelark, thoughtsieze, and cryptic were. However, think about some of the sets " average " cards. Unmake and stillmoon cavalier were great. Lorwyns average cards were amazing, while M11s suck! Basic sets are supposed to be supplemental sets, made to support the blocks that they are legal during. Great cards like pithing needle, stifle, and o-ring should always be included in a base set. And the black deck that will ran sounds like vampires with green. that would be like someone makins a blue aggro deck. I know, merfolk! Except, with blue, you have a choice to go aggro or control, whereas with black, you have to be aggro! Dont make sense to me.
" We are 5 days away from fundamentaly transforming the united states of america " - Barrack Obama |
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| I think mono-black control might actually be pretty good once Alara leaves. It's not terrible right now, but the decks main weakness is that it can't beat Jund. It's actually quite good against blue-white control, which seems to be the best returning deck once Alara leaves. You will still have Nantuko Shade, Mind Sludge, Duress, Inquisiton of Kozilek, and plenty of vampires. I tend to classify vampires as a control deck, as it's not very fast without Vampire Nocturnus, or even with it most of the time. An agro build would probably work better now that Jund is gone though.
I think the cards in 2011 are about average for a basic set. After Revised, none of the basic sets are particularly exciting. MTG 2010 seems to be about on par with 2010. You lose some good cards like Siege-Gang Commander and Corrupt and get good additions like Mana Leak and Condemn. The blocks are almost always more important than the base set, in terms of constructed play.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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| Date Posted: 8/23/2010
Posted By: The Mike Dale
Member Since: 5/31/2009
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| Maybe I am to hard on M11. I just think that wizards was to concerned with making sure that the mythics were amazing. And I have to disagree with you on MBC, christian. Sure, the skeleton of MBC is good. You have 2 good edicts, plenty of good discard, and some ok spot removal. However, without the presence of a good board sweeper, MBC will always struggle vs. quick aggro decks. Imagine a mono-green deck after rotation which has vengevine, fauna shaman, and obstinate baloth. throw in primeval titan and avenger of zendikar for the hell of it. the rest of the deck could contain a few mana elves and cards like cultivate to accelerate mana. MBC would crumble to that, no contest! Resolve avenger, play terramorphic expanse, sack expanse, KILL BLACK DECK! Maybe I am wrong about M11, but I know that I am right about Wizards hating red and black.
" We are 5 days away from fundamentaly transforming the united states of america " - Barrack Obama |
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| I agree that they really put most of the emphasis on the Mythics in 2011. The rares, commons, and uncommons are pretty much what they have always been though. I would have liked to see fewer of the good cards be Mythic rares, as this inflates the expense of playing Standard up to somewhere close to Legacy levels.
I'm not really sure that their will be a lot of good agro-decks post-Alara. If their are most of the cards will have to come from the new set. The only solid agro strategy I currently see post-rotation is Boros, and even that loses Ranger of Eos, Ajani Vengant, and Elspeth. Jund and Mythic will both be gone post-rotation, and mono-red loses a lot. You are definitely right about red getting shafted in 2011. It loses Ball Lightning and Siege-Gang Commander and gets nothing to replace them. I think Mana Barbs is gone too. I guess white weenies might be viable post-rotation, but blue-white Control looks like the deck to beat. And white weenie has always been a terrible strategy versus blue-whtie control. Vampires look pretty good to me right now due to a favorable blue-white matchup. Black does lack a quality board sweeper, but this is the norm for black rather than the exception. Black has traditionally lacked board sweepers, with the exception of brief periods when it has had acess to Mutilate and Damnation. Global creature removal has traditionally been the strength of White and Red, with black having strong spot removal but lack the ability to kill creatures in mass. Even the all powerful Necropotence decks of the mid-90's had to rely on Nevinryl's Disk for a board sweeper. You could probably splash red into a black control deck for global elimination if you were worried about it. Although red too has lost Earthquake and is left with only Pyroclasm.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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| Date Posted: 8/23/2010
Posted By: Matthew Ratz
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| i think that if you are allowed 10 proxies in vintage do to cost, then I should get to proxy 4 mind sculptors for the same reason..... Oh, and I SUCK at M11 draft.
Playing to Win is Playing for Fun - Matthew Ratz |
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| Date Posted: 8/23/2010
Posted By: Martin Stanley
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| The red rares in general in M11 are just not very good for Standard play in my opinion. Some are good in draft like that Cyclops Gladiator but really what red rares in M11 other than maybe Inferno Titan, Destructive Force and Chandra are playable? And even those are kind of just ok against a lot of standard decks. It also seems like they still want to put a lot of emphasis on Planeswalkers and I am beginning to hate that. I always thought Magic was supposed to be a battle between two Wizards or Mages or whatever you want to call the players but now it feels like a player can summon almost another player in some Planeswalkers to help kick the other Mage's ass. It seems like at the times when I am not playing Planeswalkers I am facing not only my opponent but 3 opponents when they have both Jace and Gideon on the table! From the rumors I have heard about Scars of Mirrodin they are not backing off the Planeswalkers at all. I guess the new players like them but to me it kind of goes against what Magic was always supposed to be about but maybe after Scars block they will back off of them as I thought that Forsyth guy said they were going to start going away from so many Planeswalkers.
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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| I'm fine with the Planeswalkers, but I would be hapy to see a move away from Mythic rares in general. When they first started printing Mythic rares they promised that the chase rares of new sets would no primarily be Mythic rares. It was originally stated that Mythic rares would only be cards that were epic things such as Angels, Demons, Planeswalkers, Dragons and the like. I'm not exactly certain how cards such as Vengenvine (summon non-legendary elemental) meet this standard. Lotus Cobra is also debatable as a Mythic rare, although I guess it does have the word Lotus in its name. The recent practice of making the best cards in each set Mythic rares really makes the game exponentially more expensive. I realize that this is intentional on the part of Wizards, as it now necessary to open 8 times as many boxes in order to get ahold of key cards. It's obviously a real moneymaker for Wizards, but it makes playing Standard a pretty expensive proposition. Building a Mythic deck for standard (with Vengevines and Baneslayers) really is more expensive than the majority of Legacy decks.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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| Date Posted: 8/24/2010
Posted By: The Mike Dale
Member Since: 5/31/2009
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| I dont mind the focus on planeswalkers. I just hope that wizards remembers to include a few ways to combat them. It is because of the popularity and power of most ( non-black ) planeswalkers that I think pithing needle, o-ring , and stifle should be auto-includes in every base set. Unless the new mirrodin has new ways to combat planeswalkers, they are going to run rampant after the rotation. And I must agree with you, christian, that I HATE MYTHICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But more on that in a moment.
" We are 5 days away from fundamentaly transforming the united states of america " - Barrack Obama |
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| Date Posted: 8/24/2010
Posted By: Martin Stanley
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| I guess I wouldn't mind Planeswalkers if they go back to the first 5 from Lorwyn but printing 2 different copies of Jace and Chandra and apparently soon Elspeth seems excessive to me. I think they will move away from Planeswalkers eventually but that will be at least a year away. And I guess like Mike said if they include more cards to combat them it would seem a little more balanced to me.
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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| Date Posted: 8/24/2010
Posted By: Zack Strait
Member Since: 4/9/2008
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| According to a strong 0-3, including losing to the worst rated player in the springfield area, I suck at ROE draft :/
"The shit look like ya hand when you be doin a shadow puppet for a duck n shit nahmean. Shit be lookin like it jus caught a pop fly in center field n whatever whatever nahmean." re: Ghostface Killa on lil' kim's vagina. |
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| Date Posted: 8/24/2010
Posted By: Martin Stanley
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| When did this happen Zack? I thought you were the best at ROE Draft?
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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| Date Posted: 8/24/2010
Posted By: Zack Strait
Member Since: 4/9/2008
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| Evan sends terrible signals. Also never saw a piece of Black or Red removal. It was sanctioned, and I lost to Josh Rhodes.
Josh Rhodes 1484
"The shit look like ya hand when you be doin a shadow puppet for a duck n shit nahmean. Shit be lookin like it jus caught a pop fly in center field n whatever whatever nahmean." re: Ghostface Killa on lil' kim's vagina. |
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| Date Posted: 8/24/2010
Posted By: Martin Stanley
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| Wow, Zack that flushing sound you hear is your DCI rating going right down the toilet:)
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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| Date Posted: 8/25/2010
Posted By: The Mike Dale
Member Since: 5/31/2009
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| You know my sealed deck record ever sense moving here? 2-8-1 !!!
" We are 5 days away from fundamentaly transforming the united states of america " - Barrack Obama |
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| Date Posted: 8/25/2010
Posted By: Zack Strait
Member Since: 4/9/2008
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| I lost 35 points in a three round monday night tourney. 11 to Larry Mierdirks, 13 to Josh Rhodes, 11 to Evan Wells.
"The shit look like ya hand when you be doin a shadow puppet for a duck n shit nahmean. Shit be lookin like it jus caught a pop fly in center field n whatever whatever nahmean." re: Ghostface Killa on lil' kim's vagina. |
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| Date Posted: 8/25/2010
Posted By: Martin Stanley
Member Since: 2/29/2008
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| I told you that was a 16k event:(
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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