This may be a little off topic. Steve, was Rob your hardest match of the day? It really was a great game to watch.
Since that was the only match I lost on the day, I think it's probably fair to say that it was my most difficult match.
I think I only lost two games in the swiss. Most of my swiss matches were blow-outs (Vasu, Ryan Glackin, etc), and I lost "game 2" against Rob's other teammate because I had no idea he was playing Oath after winning game 1.
My match against Roland was predictably tense, so that is probably the runner up.
I think the match against Rob was made more difficult because it brought into focus corner cases that I rarely execute. Namely, 1) in the first game, the possibility of burning *my own* creatures to try to Oath up Snapcaster to flashback Ancestral targeting *him* because he had Oathed to almost no cards left. And, 2) in the decisive game, the fact that playing Cage in that situation hurt me more than him, since it cut me off from just killing him with Snapcaster + Time Walk. Normally, you auto drop Cage, but playing Cage there was the worst possible play.
It also illustrated a really difficult choice about when to Gush, although I think that mattered less than my mistake of playing Cage, and then compounding it by playing Trygon when I had multiple answers to Show and Tell in hand.
Good podcast, as usual. We're certainly having more fun with these recent sets than we did with early Theros block, eh?
I don't disagree with anything you guys said this time around. I was surprised that Chain of Vapor did not come up during your discussion of Void Snare, and I had to read Kurkesh and Vault a few times to sort out that you were correct on having to give up a turn to begin the process. Other than that, got nothing to say except: good stuff!
One question, though, for Steve. I've tried to play Magic Online and I've consistently been turned off by the fact that it looks like ass. It's like an IRC client from 1990. I found it impossible to find and difficult to read darn near anything. Did you have any opinion on that while you were stomping n00bs in the Vintage dailies?
Chain of Vapor is not really in competition with Void Snare simply because Void Snare is a Burning Wish target. Chain of Vapor is a storm enabler and bounce spell, but not a Burning Wish target.
So, here is my view: I think the game space window is actually fine. It's the rest of the program that I am not a fan of, although the latest client is much better. For example, the trading room, the opening room, they are all overly complicated in my view from a design perspective.
Having been weaned on Apple products for several decades now, I'm always amazed when I see programs that don't mimic that aesthetic elegance and simplicity.
I have encountered a couple of annoying bugs in Magic Online. Incredibly, Necropotence sometimes allows you to set aside cards face up. Also, Flusterstorm creates some bugs.
Last night, I played Flusterstorm for 13 copies on a Tendrils for 12, and there were 25 spells on the stack. I actually had to scroll the opposite direction to be able to reach the bottom of the stack.
