[Article] Many Happy (Diminishing) Returns - Primer On Draw7

[Smmenen]

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6919

Enjoy.

Comments, questions, spare change?

Steve Menendian

[Jhaggs]

Stephen,

Another great read.  Thanks for the article...I really enjoyed it.  In your first deck list I noticed that you had 4 returns in the main deck and 1 in the sideboard.  If you only run 3 in the MD, what would you use in that open slot?  If you run 4 returns in the MD what would you use in the open slot in the SB for a controlish meta?

Winning with the ESG was something that never crossed my mind.  Awesome!

[Smmenen]

Yeah - that was just a clerical mistake.  You can put Tme Spiral in the SB.

Steve

[Jhaggs]

I was wondering if you could elborate further on the Chain of vapor and Hurkly's Recall use.  Often times when I run long, I have a difficult time sideboarding these cards in becuase I am unsure of what to take out of the MD.  Could you explain what you remove to use 3 recalls and/or 2 vapors and for exactly what matchups?

[jazzykat]

EVIL!!!

You must have known that I have been gold fishing this deck since saturday at 1:00 am when I decided to tow the line in my team (they were having a lot of success with aggro...turning creatures sideways  :shock: )

This is exactly what I needed to keep me focused. I have gold fished the hell out of this deck, and your tip on casting the draw7 first regardless of having an uncastable ritual is gold. I should have thought of that because I get a chance to get a whole new hand of brokenness while leaving part of a stale one behind. I also am amazed at how often I can cast force of will with the amount of blue cards it is almost always a sure thing.

The only deck I am sort of worried about it tog, which has not only the normal 4 FOW and 4 drains, but at least 3 duresses. I suppose the draw 7's are even more important now, and should be protected at almost all cost?

I have to play test the matchup more.

Oh, and I played against my friends big o, where he sided in root mazes and had his MD null rods. I sided in all my bounce though. He is the mulligan master and had out first turn rootmaze and null rod on me once (I got out of it with hull breach), and regular first turn root maze (countered!!!!) and second turn rod (bounced). This deck can plow through that kind of hate although if I expected many spheres(of resistance or 3) then I would not play this deck.

[thecapn]

Glad to see you got this article up, Steve!  I wanted to discuss my post-Columbus build on TMD, but I figured I'd wait til your article was up to do it.  (For reference, Tim Allen and I ran the same version that he Top 8'd with... http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=114 ).  I noticed you had a few more errors talking about main deck hurkyl's and chrome mox at some points in the article, but we've talked a lot about the deck and I know it's always getting updated.  

I'll begin by talking about some of the theory I used to come up with the Columbus list, and why it was flawed.  Most of my theorizing was based on lots of goldfishing and limited playtesting (school will do that to you...).  I figured 3 Brainstorm was enough with the deck's consistency, letting you see Brainstorm enough while still opening up room in the deck.  I also felt that 10 land would be enough, since I was planning on winning Turn 1 or 2 and all...  After getting more experience playing against controlish decks, I now understand that some of the time you're going to win on turn 4 or 5.  Brainstorm allows you to keep finding draw 7's after they got the FoW and you didn't or a hand of 7 gone bad, and gives you a greater ability to slow play - playing some draw 7's and then passing the turn with a solid hand so you don't put all your eggs in one basket.  If you're in topdeck mode seeing a Brainstorm is often better than seeing a draw 7, since you're liable to draw into a draw 7 and some good mana accelerants or maybe a FoW.  Also, in these matchups you're going to want to make as many land drops as possible.  Once you've passed turn 2 the control matchup gets a lot harder, because this is generally where their card drawing/ search abilities kick in.  You want to make sure you have the mana to cast your draw 7s ASAP.  We felt that 3 main deck Xantid Swarms were enough, and I still think this is true.  3 is enough to see them in a lot of opening hands, but not see too many of them once you're casting draw 7's.  They're awesome, but I don't think they're necessary enough to warrant a 4 count in the main deck if you choose to run them main deck.  However, I think that the current build of 4x Brainstorm and 4x Returns gives the deck enough resillience in turns 3-5 to keep the Swarms in the sideboard.

My current main deck is just 3 cards different from the one you posted.  I believe a main deck Hurkyl's Recall is better than the Crop Rotation.  We ran Crop Rotation in the sideboard because it's a great card, and does wonders when you're just looking to goldfish.  In terms of going off, it's usually a little bit better than Hurkyl's.  However, the prevalence of hate artifacts, both as answers to Workshop decks and run by them, make Hurkyl's a stronger choice.  Her Recall can deal with Chalice for 0, Chalice for 1, and Trinisphere simultaneously, or return a Null Rod that was crippling your mana base.  When targeting yourself it's most excellent to your storm count and almost always generates mana, but not as often the on-colored mana that Crop Rotation does.  The other difference that you suggested thinking about after the Columbus tournament was running Tendrils #2 over Burning Wish, and I think this is correct.  I think that the R requirement of Wish, coupled with the fact that I almost never wish for anything but Tendrils, makes Tenrils #2 better.  You generally have a bunch of black floating at any given time, and if Tendrils gets removed as you're casting Returns or gets dumped with a non-shuffling draw 7 being forced to find a way generate a red mana isn't very desirable.  Sometimes Burning Wish is spell #9 - but in these scenarios you can often just cast a Brainstorm, or the recently added Chain of Vapor or Hurkyl's.  Also, Wish has good synergy with Returns - being able to fetch removed cards, but I've found this to be seldom necessary in practice.  The most current builds have been a lot more solid and resilient than earlier ones, and I think the second Tendrils is another correct move in this direction.   The last difference, albeit minor, is that land #11 is Underground Sea not Glimmervoid #2.  The prevalence of Chalice, as well as the move away from some of the off color spells - cutting Crop Rotation and Burning Wish from the main deck - makes Underground a bit stronger.  If Trinisphere or Chalice for 0 is on the board, you want to make sure that you not only make your land drops, but that those lands stick around.  

The sideboard... well I always had trouble finding enough good cards for the sideboard.  I'm even further pressed now that I've cut Burning Wish.  It's something like this:
4 Xantid Swarm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Oxidize
1 Crop Rotation
4 Scragnoth

Let me know what you all think about the main deck differences, or anything else I've said.  The deck is amazing, and really feels like it just needs a bit more tuning to put it over the edge.  Hopefully we can get it there.

Peace,
    Jason

[rvs]

Yeah - that was just a clerical mistake.  You can put Tme Spiral in the SB.

Steve

Are you for real? "No self-respecting combo player would ever play it"

Isn't that something you once said?

edit: Oh, you even said it in the article....
Personally, I think I'd leave the 4th returns in the board and try a 2nd tendrils in the main.

[Androstanolone]

I play a draw7 version with a couple meditates and 1 dim returns.  I've found myself limited by colored mana more often than anything, but I play a little of a lotta decks while smennen has played a lot of this deck so I won't argue.  I do think 4 dim returns with 2 win conditions sounds scary O_O.  

Anyway, the primary problem, as smennen pointed out, is that your opponent will "see" as many cards as you during the game because of all the draw7's.  Therefore, they theoretically have many more chances to stop you than they normally would.  You will also be winning very early, on turn 2 if things go according to plan, turn 3 at the latest hopefully.  So, your opponent is not limited by the number of answers/hosers they see, they will be limited by the amount of mana they have to cast them and the number of turns they get to untap and try again.  Fow is obviously gold in general, but a good card in here particularly would be orim's chant.  Chant does exactly what you want it to do.  It's fast, it stops them for an entire turn basically letting you time walk against aggro and go off scott-free against control.  It can delay an opponent's combo for a turn giving you that crucial extra turn if they won the roll etc.  Duress just pulls 1 threat, which is extremely ineffective in a draw7 deck.  Counters just take away one threat, and cost more colored mana (sans fow) making them mostly unplayable, chant will always work in your favor by stopping the first hoser, the 2nd hoser, etc. on any given turn by an aggro deck and is a must-counter for control as a resolved chant will allow you to go off scott-free.  I play a couple chants in mine and I'm pretty happy with it, what's everyone else's opinion?



- androstan

[Dr. Sylvan]

Steve, if Rit & Returns aren't restricted by June, you're not doing your job. :)

That was a cool article, and I was glad you pointed out alternative approaches. Sometimes players need to be reminded that you aren't giving them flawless decklists for their metagame just because you have tested.

[Soupboy]

Fow is obviously gold in general, but a good card in here particularly would be orim's chant.  - androstan

What's entertaining is that I was going to comment that Orim's Chant stops the combo fairly effectively  Not that too many folks play MD Chants, but I had fun with them in Columbus.  My opponent Wheeled with floating mana, dropped a Sol Ring, and I Chanted in reponse.   He not only took several points of burn, but was forced to pass the turn.  Especially with all those draw 7's, if they have an untapped white source, it's a threat.

With regards to Xantic swarms:  Always attack before casting your draw7.  I realize this probably sounds like a no-brainer, but, again, in the last Columbus tourney, my opponent didn't realize mana pools were emptied before and after the attack phase.  He started to "combo off" with an untapped Swarm and I ended up stopping the combo and he took mana burn.

Btw, the ESG beat down is plausible, especially if both win conditions are removed.  If I hadn't drawn that Chant, I would have been facing several little green men.

Steve--- your article seemed to have more grammatical errors than normal.  Did you not proofread, or is Spring Break causing mental lapses?

The Soup

[Fuzzedball]

Im so poor... never will I be able to afford this if power keeps getting more expensive. Good read anyway.

However, if you get Dark Ritual restricted you'll make many of us unhappy.

Smmenen, destroyer of all things thought not to be broken.

[Smmenen]

Steve--- your article seemed to have more grammatical errors than normal.  Did you not proofread, or is Spring Break causing mental lapses?

The Soup

Actually, I did proof read it through once and I thought I fixed everything.  Usually the Knut fixes my more egregious errors.  What in particular did you find?  I guess I suck at grammar.

Steve

[BreathWeapon]

This article is most excellent, and its in line with the greater majority of my personal thoughts on the metagame. I especialy enjoyed your brief comments concerning Belcher and its instability.

Some things I have found over Apprentice and thru' Gold Fishing at 2 AM when I can't sleep are:

Chromatic Sphere is the shit vs ESG. The color fixing ability makes the UU in Returns much more managable, strengthens the Storm count, increases Mystical/Vampiric synergy, feeds Academy and strengthens Crop Rotations place in the deck, and helps cylce through the deck even more increasing threat density.

The deck "should" increase the number of win conditions MD to make playing the 2nd and 3rd Returns more profitable. At first I agreed that the number of win conditions aren't a problem, but the more I played with the deck the more I wanted to abuse Returns in multiples. I'm almost positive after gold fishing a few hundred games that a respectable portion of my 1st turn wins were in large part due to Multiple Diminishing Returns and the additional Tendrils to make those returns more profitable. While I agree that the current set up is wholely stable in the face of 1 Return, exceptable within 2 and implausible at 3 I still believe there is a legitamate argument for increasings the Tendrils count in the MD ... especially if your using 4 MD Returns or using Burning Wish for the SB Returns, which can be just nutz.

Here is the last list I left off with,

Set Up (10)
4xForce of Will
4xBrainstorm
1xTime Walk
1xAncestral Recall

Tutors (4)
1xBurning Wish
1xDemonic Tutor
1xVampiric Tutor
1xMystical Tutor

Bombs (4)
1xMinds Desire
1xYawgmoth's Bargain
1xNecropotence
1xYawgmoth's Will

Draw 7's (8)
3xDiminishing Returns
1xMemory Jar
1xTinker
1xTimetwister
1xWind Fall
1xWheel of Fortune

Game Over (2)
2xTendrils of Agony

Juice (32)
4xDark Ritual
1xCrop Rotation
1xFastbond
4xChromatic Sphere
4xCity of Brass
4xGemstone Mine
2xGlimmervoid
1xTolarian Academy
1xSol Ring
1xBlack Lotus
1xLotus Petal
1xLion's Eye Diamond
5xMoxen
1xMana Vault
1xMana Crypt

I put Mystical back into the list because of the decks added synergy with Chromatic Spheres, in regards to the top deck tutors. I keep toying with both Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox in the place of a couple Spheres but they have both proved to be inconsistant. Chrome Mox never produces the appropriately colored mana when I need it, and Mox Diamond often conflicts with Fastbond.

Twister is where its at for Storm based Combo. Its consistant enough on turn 2 to justify playing it, still has a turn 1 window of 15-20%, is protected by FoW, and does a lot of leg work to shape the future of our metagame.

[Smmenen]

Well said.  Thanks for the complements - I've worked hard on this deck, as it is one of the few decks I haven't just tuned, but built out of whole cloth, and I hope it becomes an established presence in the metagame.  Combo is desperately needed to keep other decks in check.  Unfortunately, I've been playing Tendrils based decks for 6 months now, and I've just set them aside in favor of Meandeck Slavery.  

The hardest part of Draw7 is going to be the very nitty gritty fine tuning that requires in depth understanding and mucho testing experience.

Steve Menendian

[Dr. Sylvan]

Combo is desperately needed to keep other decks in check.

?!   I am so confused by this statement that I'll ask for clarification. Are we in danger of being overrun by aggro now? Isn't like 90% of the restricted list because combo is so unhealthy, and suppresses other archetypes? I don't understand how combo (especially thrice-damned Tendrils combo) can ever be "desperately needed" by a metagame.

[Smmenen]

One of the reasons that message boards suck balls is because people make assertions based upon experiences.

If I have had experience X, Y, and Z and I make claim J based upon those experiences, then you are left going "huh?" unless I explain X, Y, and Z and then bring you into my experience.  This requires explanation - which is time consuming and alot of work.

My experience at the Columbus tourney this last weekend demonstrated to me the danger of what happens when Combo isn't there.  We had combo there - 3 people played my Draw7 deck and if they hadn't have been there, the metagame would have shaped up very differently in a negative sense.

Combo needs to be there not in the sense that combo is a good thing, but in the sense that as a part of the metagame, a piece of the puzzle would be missing without it.  

The danger in type one is that either becuase of prejudice or design, not enough people will play combo - this makes things distorted. Witness the Dual Lotus tourney this weekend - there will barely be any Tendrils based combo.

Steve

Steve

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Steve: Again, it was a great read. I just think that 4 MD Xantid swarms are desperately needed. When I got back to Denver, I played several games with Tog vs. Draw7, and I basically won all of them without too much effort. Draw7 can't go off THAT RELIABLY before turn 2, so that gives control time to get mana drain online. If control counters the first 2 draw7s, it is often enough for the control deck to stabilize. Maybe the players weren't playing the deck right, but I was never too worried playing against a draw7 deck. I think swarms are great vs. control because when the attack, the control player can't do jack. Sooooo many times draw7 resolved a returns or twister, only to see me have 3 blue open and draw into a Force, drain, or drain and brainstorm. With xantid swarm, it makes my new hand of 7 irrelevant.

[thecapn]

I play a draw7 version with a couple meditates and 1 dim returns. I've found myself limited by colored mana more often than anything, but I play a little of a lotta decks while smennen has played a lot of this deck so I won't argue. I do think 4 dim returns with 2 win conditions sounds scary O_O.

Anyway, the primary problem, as smennen pointed out, is that your opponent will "see" as many cards as you during the game because of all the draw7's. Therefore, they theoretically have many more chances to stop you than they normally would. You will also be winning very early, on turn 2 if things go according to plan, turn 3 at the latest hopefully. So, your opponent is not limited by the number of answers/hosers they see, they will be limited by the amount of mana they have to cast them and the number of turns they get to untap and try again. Fow is obviously gold in general, but a good card in here particularly would be orim's chant. Chant does exactly what you want it to do. It's fast, it stops them for an entire turn basically letting you time walk against aggro and go off scott-free against control. It can delay an opponent's combo for a turn giving you that crucial extra turn if they won the roll etc. Duress just pulls 1 threat, which is extremely ineffective in a draw7 deck. Counters just take away one threat, and cost more colored mana (sans fow) making them mostly unplayable, chant will always work in your favor by stopping the first hoser, the 2nd hoser, etc. on any given turn by an aggro deck and is a must-counter for control as a resolved chant will allow you to go off scott-free. I play a couple chants in mine and I'm pretty happy with it, what's everyone else's opinion?

First of all, you begin by saying that colored mana is one of your biggest problems, but then you propose adding an off-color card that will be used when you decide to wait and go off next turn.  Micro-managing your mana pool is one of the most important skills with the deck, and I'd be really hesitant to add a card that makes me value white mana.  Also, the card is really narrow.  If you want to stop opposing hate, Chain of Vapor and Hurkyl's Recall are much better because they help you go off when there is no hate present.  If you're using Orim's Chant to stop them from countering your spells on your turn, Xantid Swarm is a much bigger threat because it stays on the board and you only have to pay for it once.  It almost always baits a counterspell off a fresh draw 7 because one of the biggest strengths of the deck is that you can cast 15 spells in a turn, pass the turn, and cast a draw 7 and be just as well off as you were at the beginning of the last turn.  So basically you don't want to make the deck 5 colors and there are better cards for each of Orim's Chant's roles.

Chromatic Sphere is the shit vs ESG.

Removing ESG in favor of anything, let alone for Chromatic Spheres, is a mistake.  First, you eliminate your alternate win condition, but this is really the weakest argument of them all.  The main thing about ESG is that it's not stopped by any hate present in T1, or any hate that I can think of for that matter, and this is *essential* when playing against others.  Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, Root Maze, and Null Rod all attack your mana production abilities; ESG is an essential way to produce mana once one of these has resolved.  If you don't have an answer to these hate cards in your hand, you better have a way to draw a new one, and you're not going to want to wait til you hit land drop #3 or 4 since the deck has only 11 land and the midgame isn't your best friend.  In regards to Chromatic Spheres, I've found that filtering a mana just isn't worth paying 1 for, and the draw a card was seldom relevant since I was planning on casting a draw 7 anyways.  Once you get good at micro-managing your mana pool you'll find that the color issue becomes less relevant.

Have fun,
   Jason

[Smmenen]

Steve: Again, it was a great read. I just think that 4 MD Xantid swarms are desperately needed. When I got back to Denver, I played several games with Tog vs. Draw7, and I basically won all of them without too much effort. Draw7 can't go off THAT RELIABLY before turn 2, so that gives control time to get mana drain online. If control counters the first 2 draw7s, it is often enough for the control deck to stabilize. Maybe the players weren't playing the deck right, but I was never too worried playing against a draw7 deck. I think swarms are great vs. control because when the attack, the control player can't do jack. Sooooo many times draw7 resolved a returns or twister, only to see me have 3 blue open and draw into a Force, drain, or drain and brainstorm. With xantid swarm, it makes my new hand of 7 irrelevant.

I hear ya brother...

However, in my games against Joe BUSHman, like I told you, without Xantid Swarms I was winning the vast majority of my games by playing in a certain style: that is extremely aggressively.  The key was that I just had too many threats to deal with.  I don't want to give people the wrong impression - its closer than you give it credit for here - but if you have a heavy control metagame, go with Swarms md.

As far as decklist analysis goes, I'm in complete agreement with Jason's comments.

Steve

[Dr. Sylvan]

My experience at the Columbus tourney this last weekend demonstrated to me the danger of what happens when Combo isn't there. We had combo there - 3 people played my Draw7 deck and if they hadn't have been there, the metagame would have shaped up very differently in a negative sense.

Combo needs to be there not in the sense that combo is a good thing, but in the sense that as a part of the metagame, a piece of the puzzle would be missing without it.

The danger in type one is that either becuase of prejudice or design, not enough people will play combo - this makes things distorted. Witness the Dual Lotus tourney this weekend - there will barely be any Tendrils based combo.

I am still lost on the benefits of combo. I think this may be a case where you are biased against decks that you don't like (and I'm of course biased against decks that I don't like, namely combo). I'll agree that the performance of these decks is significantly less than what "should" be happening, because Vintage is short on strong players who will play Spike-style combo. However, right now the only thing I understand you to be worried about is that some non-"tier one" decks would succeed if they weren't taking autolosses to second-turn combo.

But what would be wrong with a metagame where this didn't show up? What's the "dangerous" result of combo's underrepresentation?

[Smmenen]

That's all - I'm not actually trying to convey an objective point of view here: combo is underplayed, fact, and combo is a part of the metagame.  Without combo being played, no deck's win is truly legitimate in my eyes.  
That's what made the Columbus results so much stronger in my eyes.

We may not have tendrils combo at Waterbury, Hadley, or even Origins, but just wait until Gencon...It will be all over the place.   It is a part of the metagame, and its presence makes things more reliable and "real".

Steve

[Smash]

Why must you hate the combo so? It brings balance to the force. It brings ying to the yang. It adds the mustard to the hotdog. It is the frosting on the cake. It is the spice on the meatballs.


Beh whatever. Combo is an interesting part of the magic triangle/pentagon/hectagon, and it should be there to beat the crap out of aggro (because, it's so fun to beat the crap out of aggro). As long as prison and control can contain it reasonably (which I feel they can vs. draw7.dec), it is perfectly fine in the metagame, and makes it much more interesting. In the end, combo tends to end up being pretty subpar in both t2 and 1.x. T1 is the format where you can play combo and have a reasonable chance of winning a tournament.

It is annoying to play against combo, but I make sure my decks can beat the snot out of it. It's not hard at all to make combo roll over and die with a few choices.

[BreathWeapon]

UU is always relevant, especially when your pushing the deck for the first turn win. I have never dug myself out of the Sphere of Resistance/Trinisphere/Null Rod grave simply because I had ESG in the deck. Eh, to each his own I guess. Twister has a lot of room for personal preferences and still performs well with or without the ESG IMO.

[Xhad]

The number of times I've been screwed by not having UU is far outweighed by the number of times I didn't have enough mana due to Chromatics before I removed them.  Once I took them out they haven't been missed; having the wrong mana is something you can often avoid with playskill, but not having enough mana is much, much, much harder to work around.  I'd sooner remove Sol Ring than ESG.

Re: Chrome Mox - I don't know if I'm having weird luck or what, but Chrome Mox has always helped me anytime I draw it off anything but a double mulligan.  Even if it's not fixing your colors, it nets a mana without "eating" one of your existing mana like Sol Ring or Mana Vault.

It seems weird to play Crop Rotation if you're not running ESG.  Part of the reason to play it is so you can do something like ESG -> Rotation -> 5-color land -> Dark Ritual -> Timetwister with the U you already had floating.  The only other reason is Academy, but sometimes you remove Academy from the game with returns and it just becomes a bad card in that situation.

[Vegeta2711]

We may not have tendrils combo at Waterbury, Hadley, or even Origins, but just wait until Gencon...It will be all over the place. It is a part of the metagame, and its presence makes things more reliable and "real".

"When people stop acting nice and start acting real."

EDIT: Oh wait, the realization that 'real' @ Gencon means 10% crappy red decks and another 20% of Fish, Gay/R and FCG. Go figure.


 
There is no content in this post except a flame.  Please refrain from this type of post in the future.  If you don't agree with the comment, there are many ways to respond in a more productive manner.
- Steve


In the last 6 weeks you've already attacked 2 members with far more prominent 'flames' than this. First Nameless in the Tog thread, then Matt in another thread. As a result you have 0 standing to say this to me. Esp. because my post can barely go under a flame criteria.

All I did was quote a line from 'The Real World', because it was funny how you used the phrase. I then edited in the thought that Gencon will still be filled with budget and bad decks period. Maybe off-topic, but hardly a flame.

-V

[JuJu]

The danger in type one is that either becuase of prejudice or design, not enough people will play combo - this makes things distorted. Witness the Dual Lotus tourney this weekend - there will barely be any Tendrils based combo.

Steve

This is very intriguing to me. When Long.dec came out, one of the main reasons for it not being played was the skill involved in it. Since then, I have not touched Tendril's based decks. In my opinion, which comes without playtesting; is that Combo is being played less because people have less Skill and Concentration to play a deck like this. When Academy was the big thing it took alot of skill to win, Draw7.dec is much like this in that skill is a good deal of winning with this deck. If I should be starting to pick up Combo decks, please tell me.

[Elric]

I thought this was a great article, but one thing really stood out.  When you say “To this day I have not removed both in the first Returns,” I really found this either misleading or wrong, assuming that you have played the deck a lot, which I am sure you have.  The odds of removing both win conditions, while very low (around 3%, depending on how many cards you have in play/removed from game when you cast Returns), still exist.  

I would be very surprised if you had never removed both win conditions from the game in all of the time you have put into this deck.  You may have meant tournament games, in which case I have no issues at all with the statement.  The way I read it, though, it seemed to say that there is no risk to the first Returns.

[Soupboy]

Steve--

A few simple, silly type-o's like "than" instead of "they" or something equally mundane, and then a "your" instead of "You're" towards the end of the article.  The "your" thing is a personal pet peeve of mine, hence the jibe.  But I'm not going to re-read the article just to nit-pick.

On topic:  Do you think Draw7 is less skill intensive than Long?  I haven't goldfished yet with Draw7, but I'm guessing it will be slightly easier to pilot.  Do you agree?

The Soup

[Aeneas]

man, the prisoner was great.  as a kid, those white bubbles used to freak me out.

[Smmenen]

Steve--

A few simple, silly type-o's like "than" instead of "they" or something equally mundane, and then a "your" instead of "You're" towards the end of the article.  The "your" thing is a personal pet peeve of mine, hence the jibe.  But I'm not going to re-read the article just to nit-pick.

On topic:  Do you think Draw7 is less skill intensive than Long?  I haven't goldfished yet with Draw7, but I'm guessing it will be slightly easier to pilot.  Do you agree?

The Soup

Absolutely.  I think playing long would be a great experience for being able to play this deck effectively.  While its true you have to micromanage you mana with Draw7, you had to keep track of enormous quantities of mana and storm with Long in great detail.  I would pull out my pad and make 5 long lines for 4 colors and storm.  You had to figure out precisely how you were going to use all your mana for all 10+ spells before you played a single spell with Long.  

Steve