Scanning the list Klep posted it appears I saw only fifteen 2014 releases.  These movies fall into three categories: serious/good/quality films, comic-book/action movies, movies I see on airplanes or streaming services months after release.  (This isn't to say that comic-book movies aren't or can't be good, I just choose to consider them separately.)

My top five:
1. Inherent Vice - marrying complex plot and excellent humor is a winning formula for placing high on my rankings.
2. Birdman - marrying complex plot and excellent humor is a winning formula for placing high on my rankings.
3. A Most Wanted Man - fantastic performance by the late PSH (and the whole cast, really).
4. Gone Girl - Fincher is a master.  Affleck was a pleasant surprise in this.  I demand my Girl with the Dragon Tattoo sequel already.
5. Interstellar - The most ambitious movie I saw, and a case where falling just short is still accomplishing a great deal.

If I failed to list a movie it's because I didn't see it (except for Grand Budapest Hotel, which I did see, and which was good).  I think I do a good job correctly anticipating which movies I will most enjoy, and seeing those movies, though.  I'm not sure any other movie from this year could crack this top five.

Shoutout to the trio of excellent comic-book/action movies: Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Fake edit: yeah, Snowpiercer was good.

We all know this card exists:


We like to cast it.  We love to cast Misdirection targeting it when it is cast by our opponents.  It's a fun card.  But it's maybe a little too good for the non-Vintage formats?

Unfortunately WotC saw fit to reprint this card in a Standard legal set with the name Treasure Cruise (and with two slight drawbacks (sorcery speed and a high cost mitigated by Delve) and a slight improvement (it's no longer Misdirection-able)), and it's now running rampant in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage.  At the recent Legacy GP the existence of Treasure Cruise encouraged over a quarter of the field (over 1,000 players) to sleeve up Delver Tempo decks, the plurality of which were on UR Delver.  People are complaining, though we know that people will always find something to complain about.

But wait, what's that you say?  There's a way WotC could have avoided all this?  A way they could have printed a fun and slightly less unbalanced card?  A way they could have printed a card at common that didn't overshadow the rare card they printed that does something highly similar?

Yes!  It's true.



These cards exist.  Why not call back to them instead of Ancestral Recall (or, arguably, Concentrate)?

Treasure Cruise 
Sorcery
Delve.
You draw three cards and you lose 3 life.

What would the world look like if they had printed this instead (obviously insert a caveat about the butterfly effect here)?

More decks would be playing Dig Through Time in place of the [WotC] Treasure Cruise they're using now.  I would argue that Dig Through Time is a more decision intensive card, and leads to more complex decks and more complex interaction than [WotC] Treasure Cruise, though with the power level of some Vintage cards the decisions are sometimes very straightfoward.

You couldn't just play UR Delver in all formats.  Pyroblast would still be a marginal maindeck card in Legacy for Miracles to devote to winning the mirror in blue-heavy metagames instead of a card, as Glenn Jones and others have put it, "My list from the Oakland Legacy Open maindecked two copies of Pyroblast, a choice I didn't regret and would happily make again. Why? Because if my opponent isn't playing blue, then they're not playing Treasure Cruise, and I can afford to draw a blank once or twice… especially considering I'm already playing Brainstorm to revitalize weak holdings. If they are playing Cruise, then I want something capable of tipping the balance in game 1 that remains relevant after sideboarding--that's Pyroblast."

Players couldn't quite be in that mindset if Treasure Cruise were a black card.

Sure, there would be some players with an ancient craving who are willing to pay ambition's cost by going Grixis with their Delver decks.  Those who think they can afford to pay three life to draw three cards would be, you could say, seeking greatness, at any cost.  Wasteland would be more effective against these decks than the UR decks (I'm assuming they're be Grixis, and not just UB).

Or maybe players would go Esper instead, in order to gain access to Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull to offset the life loss of [My] Treasure Cruise.  Brian Braun-Duin could still have won the GP, with the same list he played with Dig Through Time in place of [WotC] Treasure Cruise, or with black instead of red.

Not too much would change, but I imagine the complaints being voiced currently would be the largest absence in that parallel universe.
_____________________________ ________

Anyway, I'm just surprised that WotC lined up Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise side by side, and said, "Looks good.  Let's shave a mana and a toughness off Lightning Angel and call it a day."  Simply for drawing a greater contrast between the common and the rare card I would have put my version into the development file, and at the same time there would have been lesser downside risk to printing another blue card that draws multiple cards very cheaply.

First of all, Dig Through Time looks at the top seven cards of your library, not the top eight.

Second, you're taking as given that the deck in question is one with lots of redundancy.  Of course reducing the options and potential value of Demonic Tutor brings it closer to DTT.

Third, what if you need that Lightning Bolt on turn 2?  You're probably not casting DTT on turn 1, whereas Demonic can be cast off any fetchland/natural-Underground and any Mox.  So...?

Fourth, backing off your claim that "Dig Through Time, by comparison, strikes me as a small upgrade on Demonic Tutor and similar cards." to say "So, no, I don't think it's hilarious to suggest that Dig may have upside over Demonic depending on the deck and circumstances." is a step in the right direction.

Fifth, a hand with two lands, a Mox, and Vamp/Imp/Mystical/Personal DOES NOTHING.  A hand with two lands, a Mox, and Demonic/Demonic/Demonic/Demonic WINS ON TURN TWO.  You cannot group all *tutors* into one big bucket.  There are significant differences in power level between Demonic and all the topdeck tutors.

Sixth, there are other reasons you might not want four DTTs; for instance, you can't reasonably expect to delve 18 cards away (assuming you pitch one to FOW), unless you're filling the grave with very bad cards like Thought Scour/Frantic Search.

Seventh, the other issue with Consultation is that you exile something else that you need while burrowing to the Black Lotus/Yawgmoth's Will/Tendrils you cannot win without, not just that you exile the card(s) you name and deck yourself.  Plus it forces you to build your deck to avoid fragility, i.e. with four Tendrils, or with four Burning Wish and Tendrils/Yawg in the sideboard, which may not be worth the benefit of a single Consultation.

And then suddenly at the end you're bringing Treasure Cruise and Ancestral Recall into the discussion?  And somehow that fits into DTT not being played as a four-of despite being, in your words, a slight upgrade on Demonic Tutor?  I ended up confused.

LOL count = 3.

Thanks CDawg, I needed few laughs.

Repeat after me:
1. Dig Through Time is not a slight upgrade on Demonic Tutor.
2. We would absolutely play four Demonic Tutors if we could.
3. Demonic Consultation is not arguably better than Demonic Tutor.

I sent a followup email to Helene begging her pardon for my reaction, and thanking her for including Vintage as a possible FNM format.  Now we've got to make it happen!

I emailed Helene Bergeot about this topic this morning.  Here's what I wrote:


Her email address is "helene.bergeot@wizards.com" if you want to contact her yourself.

Thanks for running this event, I had a great time visiting Boston for the weekend and getting to play Vintage.  Unfortunately my personal experience was almost a comedy of errors; a late T caused me nearly get a game loss for a late decklist, and then actually get a game loss for forgetting Sol Ring due to my haste to complete the decklist.  I'll make every effort to be better prepared ahead of time in the future.

Can't wait for the next one!

Good luck with that.  When you're testing it out make sure you test Impulse in the same slot.  I'm pretty sure that Impulse would prove better in a majority of games since it's useful pre-Oath and has similar if less powerful use post-Oath.

Yes that's crazy.

After Oath activates Griselbrand activates... don't need to clutter up the decklist with a double-Impluse that's best when you're winning.  Oath almost always wants improvements for pre-Oath and resolving Oath.  Improvements post-Oath are basically in the creatures themselves, not utility cards.

Link


Have the guts to print a card that actually fills up the graveyard.  If it has Delve and puts five cards into the graveyard, then you can tell me that it combos with itself.  This card?  This does not combo with itself.

I can't wait to play with this card... in EDH.

Thanks for posting the videos Ray.  I'll be done watching the swiss rounds just in time for VSL!

I watched the preview show from the recording last night.  Randy and EFro's chatter about the Maher/Davis finals from 1999 made me go back and watch that match too!

I guess this question will be answered in due time, but will the broadcasts be 'omniscient' views of both players' hands?  If so, will Randy/the match participants give commentary on their thoughts and choices over the match replay?  I think that would be ideal, except that it can't happen live...

Or will we be 'riding along' with one player in each match?  If we're riding along with one player in each match (or, better, each player records the match so that both perspectives are available), I imagine running commentary will occur naturally?

In any case, I'm really looking forward to this.  I may not consider MTGO an entertainment worth buying into for myself personally, but the opportunity to watch Vintage matches between talented players, for free, is enormously appealing.  My thanks to all those participating!

I may not catch these live, but hopefully they'll be archived for future viewing?

Most unfortunately I signed up months ago for a Tough Mudder happening on the 23rd.  By chosing to follow through on participating in the Mudder I will be missing this event.  I am very sad about this.  The 23rd also has the *only* Modern PTQ in my state this season, and a *free* Legacy event with strong prize support for the biggest store in my area's 15th anniversary celebration.  If I were just choosing between the magic events I would choose Vintage, but I'm sadly going to adhere to the sunk-cost fallacy and follow through with the Mudder.  My body's suffering at the end of the race will mirror the suffering caused by missing the TMD Open.  

Good luck to all the competitors.

RTR has a wealth of cards that have impacted Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander a great deal:

Jace, AoT is the second best Jace, which says a great deal.
Sphinx's Revelation is the cornerstone of the Standard format.
Vraska the Unseen sees play in Standard/Commander.
Abrupt Decay has had a huge effect on Legacy primarily, but Modern and Vintage as well.
Cyclonic Rift is amazing in Commander
Deathrite Shaman has had a huge effect on Legacy and Vintage, and has been banned in Modern.
Desecration Demon is a big player in Standard.
Detention Sphere is a central tool for Standard control decks.
Dreadbore is a pretty fundamental removal spell (though it was arguably replaced by Hero's Downfall due to instant speed and the power of staying mono-black).
Mizzium Mortars is a necessary response to Blood Baron of Vizkopa (which is also in RTR).
Pack Rat is one of the defining cards of Standard, and will break into Modern, Legacy, and Vintage (some are working with it already).
Rest in Peace is the most comprehensive anti-graveyard card of all time, if not also the best.
Supreme Verdict is another central tool for Standard control decks.
Underworld Connections is a powerful part of mono-black.

Let's also keep in mind that RTR block produced two brand-new legendary guild leaders in each of the ten two-color combinations, opening up many new choices for Commander players (I have a Varolz deck myself).

All of that without dipping into uncommons/commons like Golgari Charm, which rose in importance when it became the primary way to kill True-Name Nemesis.

The Standard format has been stale for two years because of how awesome that set was, which gave UW four needed elements all at once: Revelation, Verdict, Jace, and Detention Sphere.  It gave mono-black almost all the tools it needed (which were only increased with Mutavault, Thoughtseize, and devotion).  Etc.

Unless I've gone crazy, the first Saturday in September is the 6th, not the 4th.

I mean, I suppose it's Vintage playable in the same sense Evermind is... i.e. it can be pitched to Force of Will.

But seriously, I would be overjoyed to be proven wrong, and I would be happy to be paired against you in the meantime as you try to prove it.

Announcement article here: link.  They will be released on November 7th, 2014.

Five mono-color decks.  Each includes an all new mono-color planeswalker that can be used as a commander.  The blue 'walker, Teferi, is revealed in the announcement; it is not Vintage playable.

Continuing the trend, there will be some cards in this release that are legal for (non-Modern) Eternal play, but are not suitable for release in a Standard-legal set, "There will be 61 new cards legal in eternal formats (Vintage and Legacy) but not legal in Standard, Block Constructed, or Modern, with 15 new cards in each deck."  Some standout cards from previous releases have been Flusterstorm, Scavenging Ooze, Shardless Agent/Baleful Strix (maybe one/both of these were in a Planechase product first?), and True-Name Nemesis.

There's the potential for a few Vintage playables, or reprints, to make it into these sets.

Tabak just confirmed on twitter that it does "work" if untapped and activated again.

However, your example #2 doesn't work, because Ral Zarek can't do double duty untapping the Veil and the 4+ mana source.

It also works better if you have multiple walkers out, for instance Ral Zarek and the new Nissa (provided you have 4+ forests), or Ral Zarek and Garruk 1.0 (with one or two lands that collectively produce 4+), etc.

Edit: All of this being said, I find it highly unlikely that this card will perform well in competitive play in Vintage.  Seems potentially awesome in EDH where mana and planeswalkers are more likely to be in abundant supply.

There was a guy wearing glass (tm) at Pandemonium's Vintage event in April.  Unfortunately I don't know him myself, didn't play against him or chat with him, and don't know whether he has used it while playing (I doubt that he used it during the tournament that day, due to the ban on electronic devices).  Maybe someone more in tune with the Boston scene would be able to identify the guy...

You have more blue sources than white sources, but Ghostly Prison is probably better than Propaganda, since it can't be countered or destroyed by REB/Pyroblast.  Congrats on the finish!

#1 Mind's Desire: We all know free-spells mechanics are the most likely to break magic.  Storm, Cascade, Mental Misstep, Force of Will; many of the best cards of all time elude the requirement that you have to pay mana for your spells.  Mind's Desire is the King of these spells.  In my version of Modern UR Storm I run Epic Experiment to try to approximate the UR Desire decks of old Extended.  With Epic Experiment there's no possibility of profitably chaining Experiments, but every once in a while you flip Manamorphose, Past in Flames and Desperate Ritual with an active Pyromancer's Ascension on the battlefield, and the game is OVER in a way similar to revealing a Mind's Desire to a Mind's Desire.

#2 Damia, Sage of Stone: In my opinion, this is the ultimate choice for a commander.  She has the three best colors in EDH Magic, and she can be built as the ultimate control deck, always ready to supply you with more cards.  Plus, she can switch gears to combo as soon as you untap and draw up to seven.  When I first built her as my commander I focused on overlapping her drawback with the drawback of Necropotence, Recycle, and Null Profusion.  Throw Cadaverous Bloom into the mix and you have a sort of puzzle deck, that's trying to balance mana, spells, and cards in hand until you find Tendrils (for 40!) or get a Laboratory Maniac and draw through your whole deck.  When I'm not sure which of my several EDH decks to play, I know I'll enjoy playing puzzle-control.  Will it be Notion Thief+Time Spiral, Rune-Scarred Demon+Progenitor Mimic, or Jace Memory Adept+Living Death? I can't wait to find out this time.

#3 Duress: When I got back into the game I played every week in a no-proxy Vintage/Legacy tourney in a nearby town.  Nobody had power, but you could use Demonic Tutor and Sol Ring etc.  I tried all sorts of decks out for fun, I dipped my toe in the ocean of options Magic presents and I haven't given up swimming yet.  For a while though I would always fall to second place behind a guy who had Force of Will and Standstill.  He played the same deck every time, and no matter how I tried to win I would give him greater card advantage and draw him into the free counterspell he needed to stop me.  The creature I worked so hard to land would go farming, and then a replacement Standstill would come down.
Then one day I heard about Duress.  Duress doesn't give a crap about your plans.  You have Standstill in play?  Go ahead and draw three, I'll wait, it'll only give me a better option when Duress resolves.  You want to Force my Duress?  Go right ahead, I guess the shields are down now for my creature with Shroud, enjoy those Swords to Plowshares you have in your hand!  What had seemed an insurmountable disadvantage to me was so drastically changed by playing a slightly different game.

Honorable Mention - Tidespout Tyrant, the way big creatures should be.  Griselbrand, Blightsteel, Emrakul don't even feel like Magic, they are abominations.

To me it was just a fun puzzle.  I enjoyed thinking of ways to guarantee a win with Maniac OR Tendrils OR Channel-Fireball.

My third stack (Channel-Fireball) is incorrect.  If for instance Torch/Ancestral/Twister are in your library then the hand does nothing, and has no way to draw cards.  I think subbing Brainstorm in for the Pact of Negation makes it work.

Nice ones Wave.

Well, I'd guess in draft you can use as many as you draft, which is I think theoretically infinite, since there is a card that when you draft it lets (makes) you add a booster to the draft.  So long as each additional booster continues to contain the booster-adding card then you can get any number of conspiracies their second time around the table.

I thought it made for an interesting puzzle to focus on deck size, and the minimum that you can start with that's a multiple of five is 10.  (Although, now that I think about it, you could use an 11th conspiracy to get your minimum deck size down to five, and then voluntarily choose to exceed that minimum, choosing a deck of seven cards that will always be exactly your opening hand.  Oh well.)

FYI



Also, I was thinking that a Leyline of the Void / Helm of Obedience deck ought to be possible, but I have yet to succeed in designing such a stack, mostly because to guarantee having a Leyline in your opener they have to take four of your ten slots, leaving only six slots for helm, sufficient mana, and draw/tutor to ensure consistency.  (It's too easy then to get a Quad Leyline opener that can't do anything, like 4x Leyline, Helm, Tinker, Mana Crypt, etc.)

At the bottom of this DailyMTG article, there's an open question as to what degeneracy would result in Constructed formats if Conspiracies were legal.

Obviously I focused on Advantageous Proclamation, thinking that if you have ten of them, lowering your starting deck size to 10, you ought to be able to win no matter what your first turn on the play.  I should say that I don't know if you're allowed to have four conspiracies of a given type when playing that format, but lets see what happens with 10-card decks.  It's sort of like solving a super-Doomsday scenario.

Would you like to win with Laboratory Maniac?

Tropical Island
Tropical Island
Fastbond
Laboratory Maniac
Gush
Gitaxian Probe
Mox Sapphire
Black Lotus
Ancestral Recall
Brainstorm

That ten card stack wins on the first turn no matter which seven you draw (and consequently no matter what three are in your library or what order).

An outline of the proof, if you want it is:
1. You'll always have for Ancestral if you have it, in which case winning becomes trivial.
2. If you don't have Ancestral, you'll still always have the for Brainstorm, which, if you put back Gitaxian Probe and Laboratory Maniac always gives you the tools to resolve Fastbond (and hence Gush), then you can Maniac and Probe for the win.
3. If you don't have Brainstorm or Ancestral you will have the resources to resolve Fastbond, Gush, Lotus and Maniac, and Gush will find you one or both of BS/Ancestral with which to win.

Or perhaps you'd like to win with Tendrils of Agony:

Tendrils of Agony
Gitaxian Probe
Gitaxian Probe
Gitaxian Probe
Gitaxian Probe
Yawgmoth's Will
Black Lotus
Lotus Petal
Silence
Pact of Negation

I think this stack offers you a lethal Tendrils no matter what, and you ought to at least have Pact or Silence protection.

Or maybe you want to win old-school?

Black Lotus
Channel
Kaervek's Torch
Gemstone Mine
Lotus Petal
Timetwister
Mana Crypt
Ancestral Recall
Mox Sapphire
Pact of Negation

I think this stack either allows you to attempt Channel-Fireball with Timetwister backup, Ancestral for whatever three cards you didn't get in your opener or gives you Pact protection for a Timetwister that will leave Timetwister in your graveyard, and Gemstone Mine/Mox Sapphire and Mana Crypt on the battlefield (tapped), which when it resolves gives you the other seven cards, enough to combo with Pact of Negation backup.

Are there any impossible opening hands you see with one of these 10 card decks?  Are there any other stacks that win every time?

It's unfortunate, at least I feel this way, that the massive value of cards makes me so wary to travel for tournaments.  Part of me very much wants to play in the NYSE Open in June.  But another part of me very much doesn't want to travel with five digits worth of cards.

Perhaps this is heresy, but I'm considering just playing in a local Modern GPT that weekend instead.  My power and duals etc. get to stay safe at home, and I only have to bring four digits worth of cards with me to play Modern.  ("Yay!" for the format that's supposed to be affordable and accessible.)

Also, I lost out in the voting horribly.  No worries, it was fun to have a prompt to start the creative juices flowing!