Overview of the Format, before it all changes

[MuzzonoAmi]

I'm not sure what good discussing Long.dec here is going todo, especially since it's going to roll over and die once Mirrodin rotates in.

[MolotDET]

I love that girl

[Bastian]

Quote I love that girl

That would make two of us

[Rico Suave]

Quote (Smmenen @ Sep. 24 2003,13:49)If you think Long gets Mox Chrome, I think you are mistaken.  Did you have anything else in mind?  I really think that Long won't survive the purge.

I guess the version of Long.dec you were developing is dead.

I've been quite happy with a different approach though, involving Force of Will, Chrome Mox, and Spoils of the Vault.  It isn't as affected by hate.  Force alone helps that, which Duress doesn't do as well.  Also, Mox+Spoils makes for amazing speed to simply outrace the opponent, and not with just a lot of turn 2 kills with random sprinklings of turn 1's.

That's more the direction I see combo going, as of right now.

[VideoGameBoy]

Quote (MuzzonoAmi @ Sep. 25 2003,18:19)I'm not sure what good discussing Long.dec here is going todo, especially since it's going to roll over and die once Mirrodin rotates in.

Agreed that discussing the deck here is off-topic, but could you please substantiate such a bold statement?

Chalice indeed forces Burning Academy to have to adapt, but the fact remains that Null Rod already exists, shuts down the deck much more effectively than Chalice would, and Long.dec still wins.

Are you liking a format where Keeper and Workshop-based decks are god that much?

[Bastian]

Quote Are you liking a format where Keeper and Workshop-based decks are god that much?

I'd rather that than a deck that plays solitaire and wins on the first turns.

[Rico Suave]

Quote (Bastian @ Sep. 26 2003,12:25)

Quote Are you liking a format where Keeper and Workshop-based decks are god that much?

I'd rather that than a deck that plays solitaire and wins on the first turns.

And what do you think Workshop decks do?

[urza's child]

Quote (Rico Suave @ Sep. 26 2003,12:32)

Quote (Bastian @ Sep. 26 2003,12:25)

Quote Are you liking a format where Keeper and Workshop-based decks are god that much?

I'd rather that than a deck that plays solitaire and wins on the first turns.

And what do you think Workshop decks do?

first turn: workshop, metalworker
second turn: go broken

Thats second turn, not first turn :-p and you guys gotta remember, long.dec IS NOT dominating the field.

[Rico Suave]

He also said first turns.

Besides, what about Sphere of Resistance in play before you even get a turn?  That's not exactly what I would call "in the game."

[Mykeatog]

I hate to do this in every whiney thread about the 'new' format but...

HOLY SHIT!
FORCE OF WILL IS STILL LEGAL.

It wasn't banned.

[Ultima]

Easy Mikey, I think everybody still knows.

Just leave it be.  Mirrodin is in a few days.  Just leave it be.

[Vegeta2711]

Oddly enough a slightly modded version of the BUDGET version of the Long.dec is much more resistant to Chalice (as it still is partially reliant on LED, but not all the other moxen and such) as is and can still get turn 2-3 kills at a decent clip with the occasional total crapping out or turn 1 kill.

Man budget combo that didn't suck, who would've thought.

[doublej20]

First, let's get back on topic and talk about the 'State of the Format,' and not talking about whether Null Rod is worse/better/the same than Chalice of the Void. Aside from the fact that Chalice of the Void is better in general because it can do more than shut down artifacts, let's save all of that BS discussion for another thread. Now on to the topic at hand.

Quote Long's Burning Desire, specifically, the build I developed in the EVF thread, is the best deck in type one right now.  There is no doubt about it, properly played, this deck should win every tournament.  More on that later.

I can't believe most of you people let this slip under the radar. Either that or so many of you have been brainwashed so you don't know the difference. Every 4 weeks I see someone touting deck X as the next coming of Jesus in cardboard form, here to save you all. Not since the great Smmenen's post about GroATog have I simultaneously laughed so much and been so embarrassed:

Quote "Any good player playing GroAtog should win the tournament with it."

This is both laughable and disturbing at the same time for a couple of reasons. The first is because Smmenen and a few others are always the first ones to run around like chickens with their dicks cut off whenever a potentially major change is about to hit Type 1. Do I really even have to remind everybody of all of the crying and whining and warnings about unrestricted Berserk? How much did that actually change the format? Not really at all. What changes the format is people innovating or coming up with foils to the expected decks or metagame. The second reason this humors and disturbs me is because there are way too many people out there just netdecking and not innovating. If even half of you (rather than the 4% who currently do) would use your brains to think of a solution or single or multi-card strategies to foil whatever decks are 'dominating' at the time, than we would have a much healthier Type 1 format.

I say 'dominating' with a hint of sarcasm because even through all of the proclamations of the best decks in the format, most tournament results I see don't correspond to the boasting that the loudest 10% do on this site. Emerald Alice, Pernicous Void, Fish variants, and more decks all have decent game against the 'best' decks, provided they are prepared and create a good sideboard.

The reason I feel somewhat embarrased by all of this is because most of you lack the skills to create new decks to counter what's going on. In Type 2 or Extended even, decks/sideboards/strategies change at a frenetic pace, based on what was played and reported in previous PTQ's, Pro Tours, and Grand Prix events. While decks in Type 1 have changed quite a bit over the last 2 years, the speed at which the movement occurs is quite long relative to Type 2. While I doubt he really has a pulse on the format, even Randy Buehler recognized this at the GenCon Type 1 Championships this year, when he muttered something about how he would have expected Type 1 to be further along by now, and how we are slow to innovate.

The true 'State of the Format' is that there are many good decks out there, and if you don't build or sideboard your deck accordingly before you walk into a tournament, you are probably going to get blown out of the water by Pyschatog, Burning Desire, RectorTrix, or a Workshop variant. With a little preparation (i.e. thinking, testing, innovating) and the correct selection of cards (i.e. Withered Wretch, Arcane Laboratory, Stifle, Energy Flux, Aura of Silence, Tormod's Crypt, etc.) you have a much better chance of competing in the current metagame.\n\n

[dtower]

I like fire.
 Fire good.
 Flames good.
 This thread is flaming and will only get worse.
 Someone could go ahead and do something to help the problem, but I'd rather just paste a link to kittens killing a Rakso. HAPPY HAPPY FUN SUPER GOOD TIME
 Remeber the Rakso and masturbate more. Maybe you can be the one to feed him to the kittens!

[kirdape3]

And you are in serious, serious error.

There are three enormously powerful decks in Type One before Mirrodin becomes legal.  Psychatog, Welder MUD, and Burning Academy.  

Academy crowds out EVERY aggro deck in the entire format just by being far too fast for the hate that aggro could pack to be online.  Psychatog is the best control deck since it wins much faster, and MUD is a hard-lock deck that gives you a turn or two before you can't do anything but draw-go.

If at least one of these three decks are not in every top 8, there exists a simple set of solutions.

1) Inferior card pool - there aren't enough power cards to actually build these decks.  This is a likely explanation since all of them require at least 6 of the power 9 (plus Workshops, in the case of MUD) to function.

2) Inferior play of those wielding the decks - This is the most likely culprit.  Burning Academy is truly difficult to play optimally, and a 'good' but not 'optimal' play will lose you the game against anybody who knows how to tap lands for mana.

3) Massive hate - This is the least likely solution, as the hate for one deck doesn't really apply to either of the other two.  Pillar gets both Academy and Tog, but it does very little against MUD besides be the last thing you possibly cast that game.  Artifact Mutation nails MUD, but it does nothing appreciable against Academy and Tog.  And so on.

In a metagame filled with nothing but good players with at least half of them owning power (almost a nonzero probability, but whatever), one of these three decks (and most likely all of them) will fill the Top 8.  Until Mirrodin, there is no reason whatsoever to play anything else unless you lack the cards.

[Magimaster]

Quote (Rico Suave @ Sep. 25 2003,20:36)

Quote (Smmenen @ Sep. 24 2003,13:49)If you think Long gets Mox Chrome, I think you are mistaken.  Did you have anything else in mind?  I really think that Long won't survive the purge.

I guess the version of Long.dec you were developing is dead.

I've been quite happy with a different approach though, involving Force of Will, Chrome Mox, and Spoils of the Vault.  It isn't as affected by hate.  Force alone helps that, which Duress doesn't do as well.  Also, Mox+Spoils makes for amazing speed to simply outrace the opponent, and not with just a lot of turn 2 kills with random sprinklings of turn 1's.

That's more the direction I see combo going, as of right now.

Rico : I hope you aren't running more than 1 spoils of the vault, that thing is probably for sure gonna get restricted. I tried out a Sui deck with 4 of them and 4 chalices, as well as other broken stuff. It pretty much gaurantees that 90% of the time you'll have the card you want in your opening hand.

Quote These sort of replies are coded and full of subtext, but surprisingly light on actual content.  It's a very common thing to do in politics.  Generally coded language has a message but also reveals that the author has something to hide.  Let me break it down:

BLA

BLA

BLA

etc.

I really don't know what to say about your post Smmenen, except that it's a cheesy way of defending yourself. Reminds me of those people who think they're better than everyone else and typing as if he's writing a term paper on analyzing pieces of text for his psychology(or whatever other) class.

FFS just tell him to STFU you could have saved yourself a lot of time, but by trying to "swat the fly with the sledge hammer" you unknowingly bring yourself down to his level.

[Jacob Orlove]

Yeah, no one saw this coming.

Closed.