Standard seems pretty fun right now - good amount of variety, room for innovation, and no overwhelmingly popular deck. I'm tickled that there is a deck with Nightshade Peddler that has done decently. I'm mostly about Limited, but I played Standard a bit this summer during the height of UW Delver and it was miserable to play against that deck every other round. That Tide deck seems too fragile, but probably way fun to get the combo off.
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 5 December 2012 19:48 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I have a buddy who won $1250 (possibly more, I don't know if he split) with a 4c Peddler deck! There's definitely more variety than the Delver/Mana Leak/Vapor Snag/Geist days but from what I've seen the same few cards are showing up in every deck, particularly Thragtusk and Restoration Angel, which have no real good answer anywhere. Lots of Farseeks/Sphinx's Relevations too. Definitely preferable to a lot of Standard eras but I don't really like what winds up happening when there is so much good mana fixing available. Between Shocklands and buddylands (the M13/Innistrad ones) you don't need basics at all!
Really have no idea how the Sphinx deck will play out. Some of my ideas for Standard wind up working really well (such as Seance or my "fateful hour" deck that abused Hex Parasite), some really just can't win unless you draw a perfect hand (such as my really-stupid-in-retrospect Riddlesmith deck that would play 15 spells in three turns and lose, plus a Battle Hymn/Reforge the Soul deck that tried to win with Molten Psyche). The problem for me is they all seem good in my head!
― frogbs, Wednesday, 5 December 2012 20:18 (eleven years ago) link
frogbs i gave up on that deck when thragtusk took off, its essentially just another bant control variant and thragtusk control mirror matches are absolutely miserable to play. the guttersnipe deck i played at gameday which i posted upthread is pretty bad now too, though it was prescient in its use of thundermaw hellkite, which is nice because i picked them up at half their current price.
my default standard deck for now is GWB unburial rites, swinging back and forth between the midrange thragtusk/angel builds and the all-in craterhoof ones as necessary. have also been looking at naya humans, and worked a bit on an ethereal armor/spectral flight deck feat. geist of saint traft and invisible stalker. would like to revisit that one at some point since it seems uniquely powerful with the right build, but i'm focused on getting stuff for modern season right now.
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 5 December 2012 20:25 (eleven years ago) link
haha i had an idea for a human sac deck that abused thatcher's revolt and blood artist this summer so i ended up picking up three falkenrath artistocrats for $16 total and hellriders for p much nothing. the deck was really terrible and i ended up playing rites as well but its amusing to see that a similar (if much better) decks has been getting some traction. the upside tho is that most of the cards i bought for it have like tripled in value
― f (Lamp), Wednesday, 5 December 2012 20:30 (eleven years ago) link
i like having good mana in standard because it makes stuff like the nightshade peddler deck viable that might not be otherwise. i don't mind restoration angel or thragtusk on their own as top tier standard cards but i dislike their interaction with each other and how many deck shells there are that support that combo in a way that makes not playing it seem foolish
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 5 December 2012 20:33 (eleven years ago) link
haha i bought a ton of falkenrath aristocrats on MTGO for 4 tickets each when DKA came out because i thought they were going to be amazing, then sold them back a couple weeks later for the same price because i decided speculating was dumb and i wasn't playing them in anything. whoops
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 5 December 2012 20:37 (eleven years ago) link
i had an idea for a human sac deck that abused thatcher's revolt and blood artist
I was thinking about doing something with Thatcher and Goldnight Commander. That combo was basically an auto-win in Limited so I have to think it's at least somewhat good in Standard?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 5 December 2012 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i tried that in boros tokens/humans w/champion of the parish and gather and stuff. i found that r/b was better but neither were really powerful enough and lol if golgari charm starts seeing significant play
― f (Lamp), Thursday, 6 December 2012 15:59 (eleven years ago) link
whoa, a buddy of mine's Peddler deck just became a DailyMTG feature!
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/1119
― frogbs, Thursday, 6 December 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
Nice. That deck is the best kind of janky deck.
― Vinnie, Thursday, 6 December 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
standard seems really fluid right now, with almost every deck feeling like it exists on the same continuous spectrum with the red-black aggro deck at one end and the 4x sphinx's revelation decks at the other. also there's an interesting element to it where the most powerful individual cards tend to pull you toward the edges (revelation, falkenrath aristocrat) while the most powerful synergy cards pull you toward the middle (restoration angel, unburial rites, etc)
obviously there's always a few cards and interactions worth griping about but i think this is generally the model of a balanced format at the moment
― ciderpress, Thursday, 6 December 2012 19:21 (eleven years ago) link
sooo theres a gp here this weekend which i wont be playing in BUT that means that therell be a p dece standard tournament on sunday that i should be able to make. if this thread has any suggestions about what deck to play i will def play it (unless it requires a bunch of cards i dont have i guess) since im p bored of reanimator but i really want to play something
― f (Lamp), Friday, 7 December 2012 06:16 (eleven years ago) link
i 3-1ed a standard daily with naya humans last night, the deck runs 34 creatures and 3 selesnya charm so it's not for everyone but it seemed to match up well vs the R/B aggro decks while having some good nut draws vs midrange.
if you want something less 'fair' that's not reanimator you could play the ethereal armor/invis stalker deck but i was having trouble racing R/B with it so now might not be the time.
there's also this deckhttp://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=557724which i am kind of terrified of but no one plays it because it's like $800. its basically a continuation of the deck that was 80% of the innistrad block metagame. if you somehow have all the cards it might be really good, i dunno, i have no way of testing it.
― ciderpress, Friday, 7 December 2012 14:39 (eleven years ago) link
update: just found this in MTGO results, you should play ithttp://mtgstats.com/Deck.aspx?DeckID=558781
― ciderpress, Friday, 7 December 2012 21:18 (eleven years ago) link
so gravel and I have been discussing the possibility for an ilx draft of sorts
feel like we could get 8 people. I imagine we'd need to be flexible w/ matches and possibly even the draft itself? is there a way we could do something via email?
so I guess the first question is - who's interested?
― iatee, Monday, 10 December 2012 22:56 (eleven years ago) link
I have a sealed league with a friend right now (he's West Coast USA, I'm UK, so there's an 8 hour gap) - it's super fun!
We started off opening one booster, built our 1-pack-sealed deck (kinda weirdly skill-testing in that you're having to weigh up for each card beyond like the 5th whether the dilution is worth the risk of decking yourself) and battled, then each week we open another pack and add it to the pool, with a 30-card min kicking in at 4 and 40 at 6. We're currently on 7.
My favourite aspect is the metagaming - the pools are public and you build to beat their rares and then sometimes they throw a crazy curveball and run something completely different, it's awesome.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Monday, 10 December 2012 23:07 (eleven years ago) link
Practicality wise we're cracking the "packs" on draft.bestiaire.org and posting them to a common thread so we have a record, then playing via Skype and tappedout.
Anyway magic is the best, was the point here.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Monday, 10 December 2012 23:09 (eleven years ago) link
I am also for this kinda thing ftr and it might work out better pragmatically, because then we really only need a fixed # of people who start and people can play whomever is available w/ their deck that week. instead of obligations.
my only preference, no matter what we do, is to use as many random sets as possible.
― iatee, Monday, 10 December 2012 23:15 (eleven years ago) link
What do y'all think about Fall of the Gavel in draft? I've had some success with it for two reasons - 1) 5-mana counterspells actually don't hinder you too much since Azorius kinda tops out there, and 2) both Rakdos and Izzet can have major problems having to deal that extra 5 damage. essentially it can be a big two-for-one since it counters a spell (usually a big one at that point AND it can cancel out an Explosive Impact or something). I'm not saying it's ideal but for a 23rd card I've been having some success. I found a similar thing with Lost in the Mist in Innistrad, it's been oddly effective for a card that most serious drafters wouldn't read twice.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 16:14 (eleven years ago) link
another thing is I wanted to point out this crazy deck that apparently is having some success. it actually doesn't seem too expensive to build since a lot of the big money mythics are 1x or 2x's. of course that land base is a real bitch but I'm lucky enough to own a lot of the shocklands from the last Rav set. this is the first time I can think of where I've been tempted to just rip someone else's deck wholesale.
2 Glacial Fortress3 Hallowed Fountain4 Sunpetal Grove4 Temple Garden2 Overgrown Tomb4 Hinterland Harbor1 Steam Vents1 Plains1 Island1 Forest1 Alchemist's Refuge1 Kessig Wolf Run2 Fog4 Farseek3 Chromatic Lantern4 Ranger's Path4 Supreme Verdict1 Door to Nothingness2 Gilded Lotus4 Increasing Ambition1 Thragtusk2 Terminus2 Sphinx's Revelation2 Temporal Mastery1 Angel of Serenity1 Nicol Bolas, planeswalker1 Griselbrand1 OmniscienceSideboard4 Centaur Healer1 Thoughtflare3 Thragtusk1 Planar Cleansing2 Terminus1 Temporal Mastery1 Worldfire2 Sphinx's Revelation
― frogbs, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 16:16 (eleven years ago) link
yeah that looks like a travis woo deck. i wouldn't run it right now since its a bit too slow to beat the BR aggro deck which is the most popular deck at the moment from what i've seen. he's got a sphere of safety prison deck up today that doesn't look as powerful but is goofier and probably better vs aggro.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 16:50 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I watched the videos of Luis Scott-Vargas playing that deck to 4-0 in a Daily Event, it was a joy to watch. He actually beat BR aggro twice! I suspect the deck would do better without Omniscience and Door (and probably Nicol Bolas too) but it certainly makes the deck more fun.
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
meanwhile, i'm hoping i can get the cards for the burn at the stake deck so i can play it at FNM before the secret's out and people know how to play against it. not looking good for this week though unless someone has a trade binder full of the bulk rares i need like Reforge the Soul and Increasing Vengeance
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 17:33 (eleven years ago) link
you guys aren't interested in our ilx game :(
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 17:37 (eleven years ago) link
i'll play if its sealed, i dunno if i can keep up w/ a draft reliably
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 17:52 (eleven years ago) link
I think sealed w/ weekly increases in our card pool is a great idea. no time commitments, can work on your deck whenever but there's still an element of stability?
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 17:57 (eleven years ago) link
i did a bunch of sealed leagues in the past on another site using increasing card pools (i think we started at 4 or 5 packs, adding 1 each week) which worked out nicely. there was also some sort of mechanism for the people with bad pools to catch up, like the people with losing records got to choose a common from the set to add to their pools each week, or something like that.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:05 (eleven years ago) link
how did you pick the packs?
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:06 (eleven years ago) link
ciderpress whats yr mtgo account i can ship you the stuff for the storm/burn tokens deck
― f (Lamp), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:07 (eleven years ago) link
lamp you are playing in our league I have decided for you
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:08 (eleven years ago) link
lamp i meant irl, i have everything on mtgo
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:11 (eleven years ago) link
that league just went block by block so like one season was just lorwyn/morningtide packs alternating or whatever. if we wanted to mix it up more we could but you can't just let people decide what their 5 packs are going to be because some of the older sets are really imbalanced for limited.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:13 (eleven years ago) link
I want to mix things up
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
but same sets for everyone
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:15 (eleven years ago) link
ie one week everyone gets a visions pack
i think this has been discussed a lot in various places but if you could do a sealed with 6 packs of your choice the correct ones to choose are weird. i think darksteel was one of the best options just because it's a small set with fireball in it. i'd probably consider going all lorwyn because of extreme synergy and 5 planeswalkers at regular rare
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:17 (eleven years ago) link
what if we started w/ 6 first sets and just added chronologically?
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:21 (eleven years ago) link
everyone getting the same pack type every week works fine though yeah. just don't throw in a set like champions of kamigawa that has a lot of mechanics that don't do anything outside of that block.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:21 (eleven years ago) link
for chronological i would consider starting at mirage since that was the first set that was designed for limited play, everything before that is kind of miserable to work with in limited. though maybe thats what you want
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:23 (eleven years ago) link
though that would mean our additional packs each week would be from masques block which is super underpowered and wouldn't help much. hmmm
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:26 (eleven years ago) link
err wait they'd be from urza block nevermind. that seems okay as an option
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:27 (eleven years ago) link
but if we start w/ alpha somebody gets a mox or something
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
oh :(. i have the deck mostly built in paper magic (for some reason the only copies i have of past in flames are two foils) but i havent been that impressed w/ it. feel like it folds too easy to stuff people are already playing but i also might just be bad at playing it. its funny that rites decks/midrange goodstuff decks have been doing so well in premier events after i took mine apart tho :/
― f (Lamp), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
what if we did alpha -> ice age
i'm fine w/ starting from alpha but our decks are going to be horrifically bad. might be entertaining though, let's try it
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
those packs make for terrible limited play, is the thing
also sorry to distract from yr planning but once winter break starts all my magic time will be devoted to cube and the MOCS sealeds
― f (Lamp), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
I meant we skip from alpha to ice age
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
so it'd be like
alphaice agealliancesmiragevisionsweatherlight
― iatee, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
haha you should throw in coldsnap (don't actually do this)
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
wait what are the MOCS sealeds i thought MOCS was over until january
every time i actively try to qualify for MOCS i go on an insane losing streak and end up with 12 or 13 points on the last day and give up
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 11 December 2012 18:37 (eleven years ago) link