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[kirblar]

RtR Draw-Go Control I'm familiar with, but what's enabling that style of play in the current Standard?

Esper Dragons kinda gets that way. It's not as bad because it's forced to play real finishers, but there's been a trend for "EOT do shit on your turn, pass on my turn" in general in Standard control strategies for a while now.

 

[WanderingWind]

Yup, I got my Confidants at once, and now just a Goyf very, very slowly. :lol

Its gonna take time to build that up.

I still need to get Confidants. It's the perfect time to do so, too.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Esper Dragons kinda gets that way. It's not as bad because it's forced to play real finishers, but there's been a trend for "EOT do shit on your turn, pass on my turn" in general in Standard control strategies for a while now.

Sphinx's Rev/Dig Through Time or even Anticipate work the same way, and now instead of Dissolve, they have straight-up fucking Counterspell.

Esper Control is only superficially different from UW Control - its two piles of cards which are roughly equivalent to the other.

 

[WanderingWind]

Yup, I'm getting the Confidants now for Jund while they're (relatively cheap), and now just accumulating Goyf very, very slowly. :lol Its gonna take time to build that up.

I'll have a complete Modern deck in 2019. I'm literally Scalding Tarns away from having Twin ready to go. :lol

The thing that will really bother you is realizing that you could afford any deck in Modern if you had invested ~300 bucks into speccing on Snapcaster Mage 2 years ago.

Oh, but I have Snaps. I really wish I played during Time Spiral, because it seems every card in that whole set is bound to be 500 dollars each before WotC just bans it from constructed play.

 

[duxstar]

In an interesting note I have been playing 5 color zoo in modern to pretty damn good results online, meanwhile when I've reared Reitzels list it has been pretty underwhelming. Also I have zero interest in any of the standard decks running around right now, like I can build almost all of them with my collection and want to build none =(

 

[Sequence Six]

I just don't have a ton of warm fuzzy feelings about Origins so far. I know its early, but I just have a bad feeling about the set.

There are two cards I want from it already! That's more than all of non-fetch Khans combined!

EDH skews my priorities but sometimes in cheap ways.

 

[Jhriad]

This week's most impressive vertical lines brought to by MTGStocks.

 

[Angry Grimace]

A lot of people are going to lose a lot of money speccing on garbage.

And fuck them.

 

[kirblar]

A lot of people are going to lose a lot of money speccing on garbage.

And fuck them.

I'm amused that people think this is individuals w/ large bank accounts doing this.

spoiler: SCG/CFB/etc have to get their stock from somewhere.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'm amused that people think this is individuals w/ large bank accounts doing this.

spoiler: SCG/CFB/etc have to get their stock from somewhere.

That's the good specs. Not the lantern of insight. Well okay, lantern of insight might be a decent spec for SCG because it doesn't cost anything.

There are plenty of people who are trying the same thing on a smaller scale and don't know why they are doing.

 

[Sequence Six]

Hey, I have a spare Ezuri I can throw at someone this weekend!

 

[kirblar]

That's the good specs. Not the lantern of insight. Well okay, lantern of insight might be a decent spec for SCG because it doesn't cost anything.

There are plenty of people who are trying the same thing on a smaller scale and don't know why they are doing.

For something like Lantern, it's not really a spec- it's them filling up on stock on a card with very limited availability.

That's the big reason WotC doesn't want to crash card prices - it's not the players, it's the stores sitting on stock.

 

[Angry Grimace]

For something like Lantern, it's not really a spec- it's them filling up on stock on a card with very limited availability.

That's the big reason WotC doesn't want to crash card prices - it's not the players, it's the stores sitting on stock.

There are plenty of people that will happily buy up Nourishing Shoal based on that one random tournament.

 

[kirblar]

There are plenty of people that will happily buy up Nourishing Shoal based on that one random tournament.

I grabbed a playset after it jumped a bit cause I wasn't paying attention that day, otherwise I would have gotten in cheaper. Now, it's me, other people like me, individual speculators, and large-scale online and retail sellers. That's a lot of sudden demand.

The older sets are underprinted relative to the current player base by a TON and are thus prone to these crazy spikes if they do well in a tournament.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I grabbed a playset after it jumped a bit cause I wasn't paying attention that day, otherwise I would have gotten in cheaper. Now, it's me, other people like me, individual speculators, and large-scale online and retail sellers. That's a lot of sudden demand.

The older sets are underprinted relative to the current player base by a TON and are thus prone to these crazy spikes if they do well in a tournament.

Sure, you lose ~5 bucks if that deck goes nowhere. But the dude who bought 500 of them loses a lot more.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Don't start your article like this

https://archive.is/0XaZO

In fact, don't write an article about women in Magic when you obviously don't know anything or give a shit about it

 

[kirblar]

Don't start your article like this

https://archive.is/0XaZO

When Jesse Mason and Matt Sperling are both roasting and lampooning your article and viewpoints, you should probably just stop talking.

 

[Angry Grimace]

When Jesse Mason and Matt Sperling are both roasting and lampooning your article and viewpoints, you should probably just stop talking.

To quote twitter: "This article is what happens when you take a deep, complex issue that you don't really care about and think about it for ten minutes or so."

 

[Haly]

I mean, it started with a reference to South Park. You just know how the rest of it would end up.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'm just wondering how the fuck that made it through the editing department.

 

[kirblar]

To quote twitter: "This article is what happens when you take a deep, complex issue that you don't really care about and think about it for ten minutes or so."

I've considered writing up my views on competitive game play and its bug-zapper effect for males into a longer form, essentially to say "You can make the game open/welcoming to anyone. It won't noticeably affect your female player participation rates at higher-level tournaments. You should do it anyway because it's the right thing to do, just don't use that as a measure of progress because it's never going to give you the results you desire."

This article probably pushed the chances of that happening about two years out.

 

[The Technomancer]

When Jesse Mason and Matt Sperling are both roasting and lampooning your article and viewpoints, you should probably just stop talking.

Does Jesse have a Twitter or something? Where is he commenting on it?

 

[kirblar]

Does Jesse have a Twitter or something? Where is he commenting on it?

Twitter.

 

[The Technomancer]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/31023_Women-In-Magic-the-Gathering.html

Mark Rosewater recently answered a question on the gender breakdown in Magic on his blog. Wizards' market research, he said, showed a ratio of 62% male to 38% female in their player base. As many people noted, this percentage is way above female participation at Grand Prixs, SCG Opens, the Pro Tour, or even at FNMs.

Hah, that was my question, and I just asked it randomly not even expecting him to answer. But I've seen conversations spring up around it since, very cool

Twitter.

What's his handle?

 

[kirblar]

@killgoldfish - had to look it up, he and sperling were sending stuff back and forth.

Having the casual/competitive #s side by side is super helpful as a data point here.

 

[red13th]

Don't start your article like this

https://archive.is/0XaZO

In fact, don't write an article about women in Magic when you obviously don't know anything or give a shit about it

Ugh... why, just why.

 

[Jhriad]

Don't start your article like this

https://archive.is/0XaZO

 

[ultron87]

Holy shit that article.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Who is SCG's content editor? Because that article should never have been published by anyone with half a brain.

"OMG women in Magic should stop writing articles about women's issues in Magic."

Also, how did he not get the entire point of the South Park episode he so inappropriately reference?

EDIT: Reading through, the biggest problem with the article is how clumsily and inappropriately it's written. At the core, he may have a couple of valid and/or interesting discussion points, but he's clearly not a good enough writer to handle it.

 

[red13th]

Cedrick Philips apparently, he posted an apology.

 

[Crocodile]

Don't start your article like this

https://archive.is/0XaZO

In fact, don't write an article about women in Magic when you obviously don't know anything or give a shit about it

So many of the points in this article reek of the same sort of "I don't see color" and "bootstraps" nonsense you often see in debates about race and racism. As a fellow Black man, I have no idea how Cedric didn't see these parallels and why that they didn't set off alarm bells in his head.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I mean, it started with a reference to South Park.

 

[Yeef]

I'm still browsing those Recursive Neural Network cards and I think one of them spit out the best card name ever:

Lim-Dûl's Barbarian Retreat

 

[keeblerdrow]

Back to Magic!

I am soooo disappointed that I don't have the money to get to Indy for the Standard Open this weekend. I have a deck that I'm on fire with right now. It's greedy as all hell and works really well. It's something I wanted to make for a while, but I always thought it was too greedy. Then I saw Ali Ainstrazi play Naya Dragons at the invitational and I decided to go for it.

4x Elvish Mystic
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Rattleclaw Mystic
1x Genesis Hydra
4x Courser of Kruphix
1x Xenagos, God of Revels
4x Whisperwood Elemental
1x Dragonlord Ojutai
1x Dragonlord Dromoka
1x Hornet Queen
3x Dragonlord Atarka

2x Dromoka's Command
3x Mastery of the Unseen
3x Xenagos, the Reveler
2x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

4x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4x Temple of Abandon
3x Temple of Plenty
3x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Mountain
1x Plains
5x Forest

SB:
2x Arbor Colossus
2x Valorous Stance
2x Hornet Nest
2x Dromoka's Command
1x Shamanic Revelation
2x Wingmate Roc
2x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1x Dragonlord Ojutai

I want to put this deck to a test that is not just playtesting or my semi-competitive weekly FNM outings. I haven't dropped a match with it yet. And I probably should have by now.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Just crushed an Esper Control player with Lantern Control when he played Stony Silence on the play turn 2. I didn't even play an Abrupt Decay. Just snuck in a couple Bridges with hand disruption, extracted his Cryptics and just waited until he decked himself.

This deck is great.

Ironically, Esper Charm not letting you force your opponent to draw is a major drawback lol

 

[WanderingWind]

Okay, so I'm devoted to making that Naya Zoo deck. I know there are no actual substitutions for Goyf, but until I get them in, I have to play with something in that slot. What do you think about Voice of Resurgence? It seems to be the second best 2 drop in those colors.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Reanimator is super beast. But goddamn Miracles is a hard matchup. Counterbalance is too hardcore.

Omnitell is definitely the most fun match.


I just got the nuts with turn 1 reanimation 4 out of my last 5 games and the last on turn 2 so I'm overly pumped right now lol

I like decks where I can dump my hand and have a counter battle on the first turn. Makes me feel like I'm playing Vintage while everyone else is playing Legacy.

 

[ironmang]

edit: not worth talking about i guess lol

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";169135712]Just crushed an Esper Control player with Lantern Control when he played Stony Silence on the play turn 2. I didn't even play an Abrupt Decay. Just snuck in a couple Bridges with hand disruption, extracted his Cryptics and just waited until he decked himself.

This deck is great.

Ironically, Esper Charm not letting you force your opponent to draw is a major drawback lol[/QUOTE]

Are you talking about an actual game or joke testing on Cockatrice?

 

["God's Beard!"]

Are you talking about an actual game or joke testing on Cockatrice?

Sorry I don't feel like spending a bunch of money to play test games in dailies against all the super top pros on modo. I already wasted a ton of money grinding drafts for no reason there.

About half the games I play on Cockatrice are with people from my LGSs because it's the quickest way to test a large variety of decks. If cockatrice testing is a joke then testing in general is a joke.

 

[kirblar]

Everyone uses Cockatrice to test.

They just won't talk about it publicly when they're getting paid to stream MTGO.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Everyone uses Cockatrice to test.

They just won't talk about it publicly when they're getting paid to stream MTGO.

Testing on Cockatrice isn't the problem. Its whether you're playing randoms on it, because none of those people are trying.

 

[kirblar]

Testing on Cockatrice isn't the problem. Its whether you're playing randoms on it, because none of those people are trying.

It's good for just feeling out a random decklist, but yeah, not for actual hardcore testing.

 

["God's Beard!"]

It's good for just feeling out a random decklist, but yeah, not for actual hardcore testing.

I just test new random decks against the server dudes until I like something then I call up a buddy and run the gauntlet.

The person I usually play against was my teammate for GP San Jose. Strong player that can punch holes in my decks pretty well. Whenever I play Sidisi Whip he plays every variety of devotion or mantis rider deck to knock me off my high horse. "Oh you won a GPT? That's nice, hold these Mastery of the Unseens".

Although, he's not a fan of my Hero's Blade/Jalira+Stormtide Leviathan combo deck so I might have to start questioning his analytical skills.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Huh. I just lost 6 straight match on MTGO. One of them was a good game. The other 5 I never got any land.

This fucking game.

 

[WanderingWind]

Anybody who doesn't already have a playset of CoCo had better buy in now. It's going to be one of those cards in a couple of years where you'll be like, "Man, I wish I had bought them when they were 17 bucks."

 

["God's Beard!"]

Anybody who doesn't already have a playset of CoCo had better buy in now. It's going to be one of those cards in a couple of years where you'll be like, "Man, I wish I had bought them when they were 17 bucks."

I dunno, I don't really like speculating on cards unless it's immediate value and cheap like with the M15 painlands.

 

[WanderingWind]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";169181997]I dunno, I don't really like speculating on cards unless it's immediate value and cheap like with the M15 painlands.[/QUOTE]

Well, buying a playset isn't speculating. It's ensuring you have the ability to play a deck down the line. But, it's your call. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

 

[kirblar]

Well, buying a playset isn't speculating. It's ensuring you have the ability to play a deck down the line. But, it's your call. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Yup. I don't have the time to deal with that stuff. I just want to get in cheap whenever possible.

 

[The Technomancer]

Our friend didn't bother to tell us he finally souped up his pre-con Oloro deck, but after he opened turn 1 with a Chrome Mox into Ankh of Mishra we figured it out pretty fast