|
Smmenen
|
 |
« Reply #210 on: November 18, 2008, 11:07:53 pm » |
|
Oh man, I finished my article for next Monday. I'm SO excited to see what people think! OH MAN!!!!!!!!!
I had to let some of that excitement out. My article is on a new Mental Magic format invented by Chapin. It's format that is as deep as anything I've ever seen in Magic, and will hopefully create hours of enjoyment for players around the world. I'm so excited to be the first to unveil it! It's called "Zero Variance."
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
hitman
Full Members
Basic User
Posts: 507
1000% SRSLY
|
|
« Reply #212 on: November 20, 2008, 07:56:23 pm » |
|
Can't wait for the mental magic article. I was disappointed that it wasn't this week like previously hinted at but the tournament report was good too. I think your reports are more informative when you lose than when you win. Losing forces a player to evaluate their plays closer. Keep up the good work.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #213 on: November 21, 2008, 09:07:48 pm » |
|
I was reading Eastman's post in another thead in this forum, and was struck by a few things, which I felt deserved closer inspection, but were not appropriate to the subject of that thread.
ABOUT MANA DRAINS: There are more here, like, physically -there are more pieces of cardboard that were printed 'mana drain' in the mid-90s HERE than anywhere else. I don't care to conjecture about how that happened. But the result is that the format hates on decks that are bad against drain decks. And further, I don't think the format so much loves on decks that beat up against drain decks (in a minute). Rather, I think the format loves drain decks piloted by the best players. The reason drain beating decks don't always succeed is there is still a very mixed meta, drain heaviness or no, and decks that beat drains around here tend to be the jank, and they lose to all the other wash. The very good drain players in this region (read: Rich Shay, Steve Houdlette, DA, - I was once one) beat both the jank AND the other drains, and they consistently top 8. This has happened, to my knowledge, since Crazy Carl won with Hulk.
I have to take issue with some statements here. In the first place, it is historically untrue that decks that beat up on mana drain decks perform poorly. The GroAtog decks and the Tyrant Oath decks that came later were running no Mana Drains by the end of the second Gush era, and those decks were designed to beat up Mana Drain decks, did so quite effectively, and were very much loved by the format, winning tournament after tournament. http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=839 Jimmy McCarthy was playing my GAT list maindeck card for card. Aside from Grow/Gush, the other deck that historically beats up on Drain decks is Dark Ritual decks. In the past, Dark Ritual decks have been too fragile to be consistent winners. Decks like Grim Long were blazingly fast but crumbled to Workshop decks. However, TPS shows that Dark Ritual decks now have the tools to be almost as fast as those earlier decks, but much more stable. I believe that the success of TPS at Vintage Worlds demonstrates that fact this year. You can't win Vintage worlds unless you can beat an entire field. The fact that there were two TPS decks in top 4 shows that these decks are capable of beating the field, not just Drain decks. I would have made top 8 as well, had I not had to play Paul Mastriano in round 8  I also think it is a mistake to assume that Mana Drain decks are only heavy in the North East. They are EVERYWHERE. The difference, if there is one, is either perception or the number of high profile tournaments. Worldwide, Mana Drains make up about 40% of all top 8s, a number that is much higher than the performance of even Gush decks just a few months ago. I do not take seriously the notion that Mana Drain decks are somehow more prevalent in the Northeast than in any other major region. Finally, if you want to point to the success of Drain decks, let's go back earlier than Carl Winter. What about the fact that JP Meyer got 2nd place at the first Waterbury with Hulk Smash!, losing only to GAT in the finals? |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: November 22, 2008, 01:32:56 am by Smmenen »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #214 on: November 23, 2008, 11:56:23 pm » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #215 on: November 24, 2008, 04:53:05 pm » |
|
Card Sleeves.
There is a thread on the SCG forums, and people have asked me about this.
When I was in Europe last year, I noticed that some of the Italian Vintage players at Pro Tour Valencia had double sleeved their Vintage decks. I was very impressed. With double sleeves I would only have to regularly change the outer sleeve because the inner sleeves would remain essentially "new."
I tried to do the same thing, but I ran into several difficulties. First of all, the cards were still exposed at the top, and could sometimes peek out at the top if the deck box was jangled around a bit. As a result, if someone were to spill something on the table - god forbid - the cards could be damaged.
The bigger problem is that if you put the card in two sleeves, you'll often need to have the sleeve facing the opposite direction. So, for a while, I had the inner sleeve - the purple sleeve - rightside up and the exterior penny sleeve on upside down.
This led to another problem: when I side shuffled the deck handling it as I normally would, the sleeves would get caught on each other since I was shuffling the penny sleeve's upside down. This would cause some penny sleeves to rip or tear and generally be marked and have to be replaced frequently.
I tried to ameliorate this problem by just side shuffling upsidedown, but then when I'd put my deck down, I wasn't sure which was the top and which was the bottom. I also don't like shuffling my deck upside down.
That led me to this solution: put the purple sleeves on upside down and the penny sleeves on right side up. This has been my method ever since. I highly recommend it.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
desolutionist
|
|
« Reply #216 on: November 24, 2008, 08:45:45 pm » |
|
Interesting format. I wish you two finished your game.
I wonder how a game would unfold if a player leads with a turn 1 threat like AEther Vial.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: November 24, 2008, 08:48:42 pm by desolutionist »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Webster
Full Members
Basic User
Posts: 462
The Ocho
|
|
« Reply #217 on: November 24, 2008, 10:38:59 pm » |
|
I've found penny sleeves to be the wrong size. KMC Perfect Fit sleeves work out much better. From what I've seen, a pack of 100 will run anywhere from 3.50-6.00 depending on where you get them. I get mine from Over The Edge.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #218 on: November 24, 2008, 11:10:27 pm » |
|
Interesting format. I wish you two finished your game.
I wonder how a game would unfold if a player leads with a turn 1 threat like AEther Vial.
If you are on the play, I have Gemstone Caverns in play and probably just Annul it unless I could find a cantrip to destroy it or counter it. If I was on the draw, I would just do the same thing. If we had finished the game, it probably would have been a 100 page article :X instead of just 25 pages. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: November 24, 2008, 11:24:25 pm by Smmenen »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
wiley
|
|
« Reply #219 on: November 25, 2008, 07:22:31 am » |
|
On the sleeves issue, I use these (perfect fits sleeves), putting the card in upside down and then sliding the hole thing into a normal ultra pro sleeve. I used to use dragon shields/player's choice/kmc colored sleeves but none of them have a texture to the back so the deck would fall over at the slightest nudge of the table. With the ultra pro sleeves that have a slight texture to the back they stay where they are. As a note, if you have a lot of foils in any deck that you own I would suggest this double sleeving method as it will keep the foils from bending due to changes in atmosphere. There is very little of the card exposed so that only massive changes in temperature will cause them to curl. As far as the mental magic format goes, I thought it was very interesting. It certainly is a way to gain from someone’s encyclopedic knowledge of magic cards. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Team Arsenal
|
|
|
|
desolutionist
|
|
« Reply #220 on: November 25, 2008, 10:03:57 pm » |
|
If you don't Annul it, I get an Ornithopter, which can be used for Ninjitsu! If we had finished the game, it probably would have been a 100 page article :X instead of just 25 pages.
And that would have been EPIC |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #221 on: December 24, 2008, 12:15:32 am » |
|
It's funny to see Zero Variance slowly catch on! I had such high hopes when I first published the article, but the silence was deafening. Has anyone had some interesting games? A bunch of games have completed here: http://forums.starcitygames.com/viewforum.php?f=43I have a number of other interesting formats to discuss, but you'll have to wait  |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: December 24, 2008, 12:22:06 am by Smmenen »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #222 on: December 24, 2008, 05:15:28 pm » |
|
I was recently playing Chess with a young kid, and he wanted to play the Pawn Game. We set up pawns in their usual starting positions, like this:  The goal is to try and advance a pawn to the last rank. This game is useful for teaching people how to use pawns and other purposes, such as learning some patterns that recur in Chess. In the spirit of wacky formats, a rich vein in magic that I've only begun to tap into, with lessons for my understanding of magic overall, I devised this format: All Land Format Following normal rules of magic, but you can only build decks with land. Vintage card pool. No restrictions (i.e. 4 Strip Mine and 4 LoA are OK). What would you build? |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #223 on: December 25, 2008, 11:37:09 pm » |
|
I'll give you a hint: Library isn't very good since you can only play one land per turn, and every card in your deck is a land. There are only three ways to lower hand size (I think) from starting hand size. Anyway, Merry Christmas (and happy holidays). |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Webster
Full Members
Basic User
Posts: 462
The Ocho
|
|
« Reply #224 on: December 25, 2008, 11:45:22 pm » |
|
I'll give you a hint: Library isn't very good since you can only play one land per turn, and every card in your deck is a land. There are only three ways to lower hand size (I think) from starting hand size. Anyway, Merry Christmas (and happy holidays). Yea, I thought LOA wasn't very good either. I wouldn't play any actually. The game is obviously based around land destruction which makes resiliancy to LD the most important quality after being a LD land. Strip mine, wasteland, dust bowl, petrified field, darksteel citadel seem like automatic 4-ofs. I had considered spawning pool and as many basic swamps as could be fit in, but I don't know how many that would be since I'm not actually going to pursue this format beyond trivial musings. Rishadan port, urza's factory, tomb of urami, zoetic cavern, ghost quarter were also considered. |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: December 26, 2008, 01:25:57 pm by Webster »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Anusien
|
|
« Reply #225 on: December 26, 2008, 01:38:14 pm » |
|
Probably rely on Faerie Conclave (for the flight) and 4 Mutavault and 4 Mishra's Factories for giant ground pounders.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Magic Level 3 Judge Southern USA Regional Coordinator The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. |
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #226 on: December 27, 2008, 09:27:26 pm » |
|
Here is was my draft list: 4 Strip Mine 4 Wasteland 4 Dust Bowl 4 Vesuva 4 Flagstones of Trokair 4 Riftstone Portal 4 Darksteel Citadel 4 Academy Ruins 4 Petrified Field 4 Zoetic Caverns 4 Maze of Ith 4 Kor Haven 3 Bazaar of Bagdhad 1 Krosan Verge 1 Rath's Edge 1 Kher Keep 1 Keldon Necropolis 1 Plains 1 Forest 2 Island 3 Plateau 2 Tundra Many of the choices are probably not intuitive, but I won't go into explaining them at the moment. For now, think about it |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Matt
Post like a butterfly, Mod like a bee.
Adepts
Basic User
Posts: 2297
King of the Jews!
|
|
« Reply #227 on: December 28, 2008, 12:55:13 pm » |
|
4 Ruins? It's not like the opponent will ever get your Citdels in the yard for you, so unless you're Bazaaring or draw-discard-go-ing...?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
http://www.goodgamery.com/pmo/c025.GIF---------------------- SpenceForHire2k7: Its unessisary SpenceForHire2k7: only spelled right SpenceForHire2k7: <= world english teach evar ---------------------- noitcelfeRmaeT {Team Hindsight}
|
|
|
|
Tin_Mox5831
|
|
« Reply #228 on: December 28, 2008, 11:48:11 pm » |
|
Nantuko Monastery would be a monster if not quickly addressed.
Also, I believe that Academy Ruins is there to keep you from losing by way of milling, which seems all too possible in this format.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: December 28, 2008, 11:53:46 pm by Tin_Mox5831 »
|
Logged
|
Team Serious: "Did you just get c*ckblocked by Bob Saget?"
|
|
|
Webster
Full Members
Basic User
Posts: 462
The Ocho
|
|
« Reply #229 on: December 28, 2008, 11:51:32 pm » |
|
Nantuko Monastery would be a monster if not quickly addressed.
How so? You first need threshold. Then, you need to hit them multiple times, all the while dodging their strip mine, wasteland, dust bowl, ghost quarter, rishadan port, maze of ith, kor haven, vesuva'd land. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Tin_Mox5831
|
|
« Reply #230 on: December 28, 2008, 11:56:14 pm » |
|
I could certainly see games being won and lost in this format via Cephalid Coliseum as well.
I'm kind of surprised Tolaria West doesn't seem to make anyone's deck. Really?
Since it's an obvious casual format, I'd try Tron/Cloudpost/Vesuva and Dark Depths. Sounds awful but neat.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: December 28, 2008, 11:59:53 pm by Tin_Mox5831 »
|
Logged
|
Team Serious: "Did you just get c*ckblocked by Bob Saget?"
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #231 on: January 14, 2009, 01:17:40 am » |
|
I have a ton of potential article topics after my Conflux set review, but I was wondering if there are article ideas that you have that you'd like to suggest. If you can't post here, feel free to PM me. I've taken up many good article ideas before, so don't be surprised if your idea becomes an article!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #232 on: January 16, 2009, 02:14:37 am » |
|
By now, you are probably aware of the Vintage Player Rankings which have been developed for the Mana Drain.com
The rules are fairly simple and can be found in the Community Forum. But the basic gist is this: tournament results posted here on the Drain will give players points. At the end of the year, we will crown a champion who has accumulated the most points.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: January 20, 2009, 02:23:09 pm by Smmenen »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #234 on: February 07, 2009, 10:55:37 pm » |
|
Man, I really have an itch to play Vintage. I've been playing SO much legacy, and have been posting a bunch on the source recently. I got to play two rounds of a Vintage tournament at RIW and posted my report here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?board=43.0But I can't wait to play more Vintage. I am really enjoying Legacy, but I this morning I was dreaming about Vintage. I was dreaming that my opponent was playing Mana Drains in a legacy tournament! My subconscious is telling me to play Vintage! Mid-March, I will announce the next Vintage Meandeck Open, and ooohhhh boy, do I have a doozy of an announcement to make! Can't wait!!!!! |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: February 07, 2009, 10:59:05 pm by Smmenen »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #235 on: February 13, 2009, 10:44:04 pm » |
|
So, who is excited about the Waterbury! Woo Hoo!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
desolutionist
|
|
« Reply #236 on: February 14, 2009, 04:56:53 am » |
|
I'm definitely not excited because I think Conneticut is awful. But I'll try to go like always and my deck would win.. soo I got that going for me too! You hear we're all gonna' have to carry electronic id cards in 2011? |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: February 14, 2009, 05:09:49 am by desolutionist »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #237 on: March 03, 2009, 02:09:01 pm » |
|
This is a busy month for Eternal Magic players.
I'm looking forward to Grand Prix Chicago this weekend. "Can't Wait," is, I believe, the expression. I am so prepared for the Grand Prix, that I can't actually prepare any further. I have a complete, detailed, expected metagame chart, a complete and total breakdown of sideboard plans for every matchup in the format, etc. etc.
Beyond the Grand Prix is the Waterbury, which I've hopefully drawn some outside attention to by highlighting it in my recent SCG article on Grow.
But most importantly, I have an article that I've gotten a number of requests for: Mastering TPS: Tips for Learning TPS at the Highest Level. The article is almost finished.
Here is my schedule for the next couple of weeks on SCG.
March 9: Primer on my GP Deck
March 16: Grand Prix Tournament Report
March 23: TPS Article (which I think many Vintage players will really like)
March 30: Waterbury Report
I also believe that March 23 will be my 250th article on SCG, which makes me, I believe, the longest running premium author on the site (o_O).
It's gonna be a fun month!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Mr. Nightmare
Full Members
Basic User
Posts: 537
Paper Tiger
|
|
« Reply #238 on: March 03, 2009, 03:54:35 pm » |
|
I'm surprised you think that metagaming for an 800+ player Legacy event is even worth the effort. It's the most random format - way more so than Vintage or even Extended. Hell, I didn't even know what I was playing until a week ago. Still, I'm confident in my deck choice and SB strategies, and I think this event should be off the charts in fun to be had.
Out of curiosity, how many byes are you heading in with?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Smmenen
|
|
« Reply #239 on: March 03, 2009, 04:14:44 pm » |
|
I try to construct the metagame for every major event. The purpose is not simply to anticipate what matches I should focus on your sb for, or even for deck selection or design purposes. If I am within 35% of the actual metagame, I consider it to be a useful exercise. It gets me to take a closer look at what people are actually playing, what they are thinking, etc. It forces me to make explicit various assumptions which are implicit. Anyway, you'll see my prediction in my article next Monday.
I have two byes. My Eternal rating is like 1919 (used to be high 1950s), and my Total Rating is like 1980sih.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
