The Well of John

Just one guy's ramblings on video games, Magic, and other things

[chasandres]

LSV’s Streaming Super Power

One of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen happened on one of Luis Scott-Vargas’ recent Magic streams. He’s in game three of a Ravnica: City of Guilds draft with about 2:30 left on his clock thanks to a fifteen minute internet outage at the beginning of the round. His opponent has a full board and a way to gain life, so LSV knows that his only out is via mill - something that is going to take both luck and time. He’s got a Glimpse the Unthinkable in hand as well as a way to transmute for it, so his best line is to survive long enough to draw a singleton Junktroller and then mill his opponent for twenty.

The lower Luis’ life total gets, the quicker he starts to play. Priority passes so quickly that I can barely see the clock ticking down. One turn only takes five seconds. Another only takes three. Matt Nass stands in the background, astonished. “Nobody else in the world would have a chance in this game,” he says at one point. 

Spoiler alert: Luis loses this game. In fact, he probably would have won both games two and three if he’d had full time on the clock - a few misplays and abandoned strategies come back to haunt him in the end. But that doesn’t make what he accomplished any less remarkable. Put up against that amount of pressure, would any of the world’s best players even made it to that third game, much less given themselves a chance to win?

This is LSV’s most under-appreciated skill, and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge it. Because speed is rarely an issue in high level tournament Magic, Rich Hagon never goes on breathlessly about LSV’s breakneck pace during a Pro Tour Top Eight. But you know where LSV’s speed is an unbelievable asset? On stream.

When people talk about why LSV is so popular, they will generally point toward his personality in some vague way. And yes, I enjoy Luis’ puns and those times when he goes off on a wild Bonesaw or Oblivion Ring ride as much (or more) than anyone. If I didn’t enjoy Luis the person, I probably wouldn’t enjoy Luis the player.

Let’s step back for a moment, though. When people say that Luis’ personality is the reason they love his stream so much, what they’re acknowledging is that they are there, at least in part, to be entertained. And a large part of entertainment is engagement. Your brain doesn’t want to be so overwhelmed that you get confused or overstimulated, but it also doesn’t want to be bored. And SO many Magic streams are incredibly boring.

On a purely procedural level, LSV’s penchant for double-queuing helps a lot here. There simply isn’t much dead air on his stream - he’s flipping back and forth between relevant decisions constantly in a way that the single-queue streamers can’t do.

Beyond that, though, the biggest problem most streamers have is that they want to spend forever figuring out the optimal play in every situation. And I get it - that’s the way to get better at Magic, and a lot of people watch streaming Magic content purely (or mostly) to improve their own game. But as entertainment? It’s terrible. Imagine if the characters on your favorite cop show spent half an hour debating whether or not to go after the bad guy right now or wait until they were able to collect more evidence. Screw it - you want to see them go in guns blazing, right?

On the other hand, no one wants to watch a cop show where they bumble around all day and never catch anyone. Playing fast is a good thing, but the plays still have to be generally correct - if I start streaming tomorrow, no one is going to watch me regardless of how fast or entertaining I am because I’m not a good enough technical player. 

Somewhere in the middle, though, there is a sweet spot - play that’s fast enough to be entertaining but good enough to be both educational and riveting to watch. And this is LSV’s secret power - give everyone five minutes on their chess clock, and he laps the entire field. 

Playing Luis-style isn’t going to work for everyone. Heck, it probably won’t work for most people, and there will always be a certain number of viewers who are turned off by the speed thing, grinders who really do want to see the best players in the world agonizing over the toughest decisions, really laying bare how their thought process works. 

But if you’re a newer Magic streamer looking to improve your viewership ratings, you could do a lot worse than trying to take a page out of Luis’ book. Always keep it interesting! Don’t forget: if you’re bored, your viewers probably are, too.

[wizardsmagic]

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[markrosewater]

“Tales from the Pit” #1189

[wellofjohn]

You got a real groaner here @markrosewater

[wellofjohn]

Well of Magic, The Draught Room: Vintage Cube #1

So welcome to the Well of John's First Draft Review, which I'm calling The Draught Room because...well, get it? Too obvious? Okay I'll stop. Anyways, here I'd like to walk through a Vintage Cube draft I did on Magic Online. You'll find that I have some, different, opinions than most people do with regards to the Cube. So let's hop right in.   Pack 1 Pick 1: Wow, talk about a good first pack. I see Phyrexian Metamorph, Compulsive Research, Worn Powerstone, Scroll Rack, and Chrome Mox. And that's not to forget other powerhouses like Thrun, the Last Troll or Monastery Swiftspear. Depending on where you like to go in a Powered Cube, there is something here for you. Now me? I think the best pick is probably Worn Powerstone, since it's the safest pick and every deck could use it. However, I prefer a more assertive deck in Cube, and instead...   My Pick: Why? Well, Chrome Mox is a very powerful card, and can accelerate you in a decent way. You do need to sacrifice a card in your hand to do it, but 0-mana artifacts like Moxen are hard to pass up on.   Pack 1 Pick 2: Now here's another jam-packed set of Magic cards. I know many pros who might have just slammed Vedalken Shackles and called it a day. Other powerful options included Llanowar Elves, Flooded Strand, Mirari's Wake, or Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre could also use some consideration here, but that's not the card I'm looking to 2nd pick after taking a Chrome Mox. Like I said earlier, the pick could be Shackles, but the Vintage Cube is not as creature oriented as its more fair cousin, the Legacy Cube. So what did I take?   My Pick: Yep, probably the 2nd or 3rd best Planeswalker ever printed. The first iteration of Elspeth is very powerful in all sorts of different strategies. Now, why take Elspeth after taking Chrome Mox? Well, let's carry on in the draft.   Pack 1 Pick 3: Ok, this pack has a lot of blue goodies in Counterspell and Palinchron. Also a Steam Vents would have gone nicely with our Flooded Strand, should we have picked it. There's also Mutavault, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Den Protector, and Splinter Twin as other great archetype cards. So, what's the pick? If I was Green, it would be hard to turn down either Avacyn's Pilgrim or Den Protector. And if I were Blue the Splinter Twin always is a great card to hedge towards. But for me, I was deciding between Secure the Wastes and my eventual pick...   My Pick: Now here is probably where I lost some people. "You took what?!" "Why take a 2-mana 2/1?!" Now here is how I draft these Cubes, I like to draft White Weenie. I'm all about those small white creatures and minor disruption to force my way through. And Revoker is an All-Star in the Vintage Cube where Power like Moxen pop up. Now that we're in the vein of White Weenie, let's look at our next few picks through that lens.   Pack 1 Pick 4: This pick was not even close. There is a 3rd Green Mana-Dork for the Mono-Green ramp deck, but Umezawa's Jitte is just too good to pass in my deck.   My Pick: Granted, it's not as good in this version of the Cube. But the card breaks open the creature matchups and makes me a heavy favorite whenever I resolve it and get some counters.   Pack 1 Pick 5: This was a tough pick. The only white card was Disenchant, and I didn't feel like splashing for Sorin or Brago. None of the other cards were on my radar, but I settled for...   My Pick: Why Disenchant? Well, this is a Cube full of powerful and broken artifacts and enchantments. Disenchant isn't a terrible maindeck, even if I wouldn't want to pick it 5th.   Pack 1 Pick 6:   My Pick: This one was a no brainer. A White Weenie deck is nothing if it doesn't have good one drops. And Isamaru, while unexciting, is exactly what I'm looking for. The only card I felt bad passing up was the Gruul Signet, but I wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.   Pack 1 Pick 7: This pick was close. I had already closed off the idea of splashing Blue or Black, so Venser and Godless Shrine were off the table. Garruk, Primal Hunter is not what we're looking for, and I'm not splashing Red for Magma jet or Hero of Oxid Ridge. So my only considerations were Emeria Angel or Kitchen Finks.   My Pick: So why take the evasive Ouphe? Because a 3 power creature is what I'm looking for, and the 2 life it gains is not irrelevant. But the bigger reason is because I higly dislike four drops in my White Weenie decks. That's not to say I won't run them, but they need to do powerful things. And I can do better than Emeria Angel, especially since I've already got Elspeth, Knight-Errant in my pool.   Pack 1 Pick 8:   My Pick: This pick was not too hard either. Hallowed Spiritkeeper is a 3-power 3-mana card that has a relevant keyword and when it dies, I can get quite a few creatures to finish off the opponent with. I did consider Tangle Wire for a minute, but I've yet to draft a satisfying Tangle Wire deck in either the Vintage or Legacy Cube.   Pack 1 Pick 9:   My Pick: So this is the pack we opened, and we can already tell a few things based on what wheeled. I didn't talk about the Flickerwisp at the beginning, but it would have been my pick had I not taken the Chrome Mox. So someone to my left might have taken it, trying to angle into White Weenie only to be cut off. None of the blue cards wheeled, nor did either artifact. Tombstalker is also gone, indicating some payload for a controlish black deck. Also, to my surprise, Guttersnipe was taken ahead of Monastery Swiftspear. I would lean more towards Swiftspear, as Mono-Red aggro tends to be pretty powerful, but it is what it is. Now I took Reveillark not because I was goig to play it, I wasn't and didn't, but because if I needed to morph into a larger White deck it had some utility.   Pack 1 Pick 10:   My Pick: Hatedraft, pure and simple. I wasn't splashing for Vindicate, nor was I interested in Makeshift Mannequin. Grudge right now destroyed 3 of my first few picks, so it had to go.   Pack 1 Pick 11:   My Pick: I like one or two creature-lands in my WW decks as Wrath-proof creatures, so Mutavault will make the cut. Also, note how Avacyn's Pilgrim wheeled. Someone took the Llanowar Elves, but didn't take the Pilgrim.   Pack 1 Pick 12:   My Pick: Remember what I said about four drops in my WW decks? Well, removal is more important. So while Cloudgoat Ranger is pretty good, I'd rather have an Oblivion Ring. And 12th pick at that! I was very excited about this one.   Pack 1 Pick 13:   My Pick:   Pack 1 Pick 14:   My Pick:   Pack 1 Pick 15:   My Pick: The last three picks go by without anything for me. But I did feel pretty good taking away Stormbreath Dragon to save me from having to worry about it. All three went straight to the Sideboard. So, let's recap:   My Picks: Ok, so far, we're off to a decent start. Not counting our later picks, we're sittig pretty. We're looking for an Anthem effect (+1/+1 to all our creatures) or two, but otherwise solid. Let's see what Pack 2 has for us.   Pack 2 Pick 1: Once again, I'm tempted by cards of pretty absurd power. Gilded Lotus, Mind Twist, Zealous Conscripts, and Goblin Welder are all fairly strong. Not to say anything about Eidolon of the Great Revel or Man-o'-War either. But I'm White Weenie, and I only see three cards that interest me: Restoration Angel, Boros Reckoner, and Pithing Needle. So, what's the pick?   My Pick: Now after what I said about four drops, why take Restoration Angel? Mainly because I felt like I could take a chance here and see what else comes my way. Also I felt like Boros Reckoner, my 2nd choice, could wheel since it requires quite a bit of colored mana to cast.   Pack 2 Pick 2: This pick was very close. My only two considerations were Swords to Plowshares or Mardu Woe-Reaper. Wasteland is good in this deck, but I was still looking for creatures. This deck can't have too many one drop creatures, and Mardu Woe-Reaper has some upside against some decks. But Swords to Plowshares is the best removal spell ever printed. What'd I take?   My Pick: I'm not sure this was correct, but I'd rather guarantee having another one drop than taking Swords and being short on one-drops.   Pack 2 Pick 3: Now this is a strong pack. Not only does it have two Signets, widely accepted as powerful artifacts in this cube, but it also has archetype all-stars in Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, Sneak Attack, and Turnabout. Plus Blade Splicer is a solid creature in our deck. But, I decided to take something that might be surprising.   My Pick: Just kidding. Since both Signets produced White mana, I couldn't really go wrong taking either. I took the Selesnya Signet over the Orzhov Signet because I already had Kitchen Finks, so my life tapping mana would be made easier.   Pack 2 Pick 4: And then I had a bit of buyers' remorse. Lingering Souls is incredibly powerful. So powerful I would put 4-5 Swamps in my deck just for its Flashback. But I had already passed the Orzhov Signet and the Godless Shrine, so my chances at fixing were low. So if we eliminate Lingering Souls, the pick is very clear.   My Pick: Spear of Heliod has some great utility against some decks, and as an Anthem it does its job.   Pack 2 Pick 5: Another tough pick here. I had three cards I was looking at for this pick: Spirit of the Labyrinth, Skullclamp, and Armageddon. Spirit is a 3-power two-drop that hoses the blue decks very well. Skullclamp is just broken and I have the engine to make it a legitimate draw spell. But I just couldn't turn down the hoser of a lifetime.   My Pick: If you've never cast Armageddon, you haven't lived. White Weenie's biggest problem is deploying a large number of small creatures only to get stonewalled by larger creatures. How do you combat this? You get ahead early, then destroy all their lands! Armageddon is a card I'm always looking for in my White Weenie decks, and it almost never disappoints.   Pack 2 Pick 6:   My Pick: Remember what I said about four-drops? Yeah,Hero of Bladehold is that good. She can win the game on an empty board, or close one out when you're ahead.   Pack 2 Pick 7: So here's a pick that might look obvious, but not in the way you think. You'll see Baneslayer Angel and go, "Man! How can you pass that up?" We'll, it's easy, you take the two-drop.   My Pick: Yeah, Porcelain Legionnaire is that good. The 2-life is largely irrelevant in what you're trying to do. And a 3/1 First Strike is a very relevant body with a very relevant keyword.   Pack 2 Pick 8:   My Pick: I went ahead and showed you the pick, not because it was obvious, but because the discussion is somewhat moot. Ajani, Caller of the Pride is a great card for us, but Ravages of War is a better card and more importantly gives us a 2nd copy of Armageddon. If one Armageddon is good, two must be better.   Pack 2 Pick 9:   My Pick: As I predicted, the Boros Reckoner wheeled.   Pack 2 Pick 10:   My Pick: I hate drafted the Eureka, because that's another way for us to randomly lose.   Pack 2 Pick 11:   My Pick: Blade Splicer is a great pickup for us right here. It's 4 power over two bodies for 3 mana. Can't beat that rate.   Pack 2 Pick 12:   My Pick: Another hate-draft. Probably should have hated Disfigure instead, but I didn't want any Trinket Mage shenanigans.   Pack 2 Pick 13:   My Pick: A great pickup for our deck, since Exalted Angel will almost always be a Morph first, and then a 4/5 psuedo-Lifelink Flier once it flips.   Pack 2 Pick 14:   My Pick:   Pack 2 Pick 15:   My Pick: Then we closed out the pack with some other cards, but nothing we could use. So now let's look at our deck. My Deck: So far, so good. We've got 11 creatures, some artifact ramp, two Armageddon effects, and a few great finishers in Elspeth and Hero of Bladehold. We're a little light on two-drops, but we can pick up a few good ones in Pack 3 if they come our way. Plus, we haven't seen Mother of Runes, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Kytheon, Hero of Akros, or any of the other solid White Weenie cards. But we'll be on the lookout.   Pack 3 Pick 1:   My Pick: This was the easiest pick of the draft. Mox Pearl is one of the Power 9. And it is far and away the best card here for us. Student of Warfare would be nice, but we have to take the on-color Mox here.   Pack 3 Pick 2:   My Pick: Winter Orb would be fantastic here, but we need more removal so Path to Exile is the pick. Soulfire Grand Master got some consideration, but it'd only be a 2/2 Lifelink for two mana in our deck. So it's a fairly easy pass.   Pack 3 Pick 3:   My Pick: Well, Mox Ruby is a thing. And the acceleration of a second Mox can be powerful, but we needed more one drops. Soldier of the Pantheon is a great body and is great against several decks. Of the cards remaining, I'm a bit scared of the Channel but I can't worry about other decks this early in a pack.   Pack 3 Pick 4:   My Pick: This pack was rough. I thought about taking the Sword of Fire and Ice, but I felt like I needed more creatures. And while Sun Titan was out of my range, Wall of Omens at least replaces itself. In hindsight, I should have taken the Sword.   Pack 3 Pick 5:   My Pick: The War Priest is a two mana 2/2 that can destroy problematic enchantments, so it's automatically in the deck. Spellskite was another consideration, but I want creatures that can attack.   Pack 3 Pick 6:   My Pick: Speaking of, Seeker of the Way is a great two-drop in a White Weenie deck. Strip Mine is very powerful, and something this deck would use. However I needed more creatures, and Seeker is a great one.   Pack 3 Pick 7:   My Pick: This is the earliest I've hatedrafted in a draft. Weathered Wayfarer is not what this deck wants. And Tooth and Nail could just wreck me.   Pack 3 Pick 8:   My Pick: Easy Leonin Relic-Warder. In a Cube full of busted Artifacts, it's one of the best cards in our deck.   Pack 3 Pick 9:   My Pick: I was very happy to see Student of Warfare wheel. It is exactly what I want as a one-drop in this deck.   Pack 3 Pick 10:   My Pick: Unsurprisingly, the Soulfire Grand Master wheeled, but so too did Winter Orb. And that's just what I took. Winter Orb is another way to really put a hamper on decks trying to go over the top of you. It doesn't slow down the artifact mana, but that's what our other cards are for.   Pack 3 Pick 11:   My Pick:   Pack 3 Pick 12:   My Pick:   Pack 3 Pick 13:   My Pick:   Pack 3 Pick 14:   My Pick:   Pack 3 Pick 15:   My Pick: For the last few picks, I just took what I either didn't like or was on-color. Sun Titan was no where close to an include in the deck. Nor was Moat, although it is a great card against us. Also, a last-pick Seething Song told me that no one was playing Storm, which is great news for a deck like ours. Now I should have taken the Beast Within over the Elves of Deep Shadow, but I missed it as an auto-pick. So, how did the deck turn out? Well, you can take a look here at the finished product. I'll be trying to put up some replays of the games, but they'll be me talking over the replays made by MTGO. I didn't have the recording software when I did this draft, so you'll just have to wait and see how this deck 3-0'd the queue. Until next time! John Also, the converter I used was made by the guy below. Make sure if you want to do the same with your drafts, go check out his site. This draft converter created by Benjamin Peebles-Mundy. Visit the draft converter today!

[wizardsmtgo]

Some Thoughts on Events

One of the reasons I wanted to be have a tumblr presence is so there was an opportunity to speak in a more freeform manner to the highly engaged audience about Magic Online events and why we do things the way we do. Mishra’s Photoshop (I’ll call him MP for short) recently wrote an article on Channel Fireball, which I encourage you to read before resuming this.  Go ahead, I’ll be here when you’re done.

I wanted to talk about some of his ideas and what our thoughts are on them:

1)     Remove QPs from Casual Drafts & Add a Pack to 4-3-2-2

MP argues that a lot of players do not try to compete in the Magic Online Championship Series, so giving Qualifier Points (QPs) to those queues isn’t helpful.  I agree many of these players who mostly play in these queues currently are unlikely to be chasing QPs, but one of the goals of the change to the non-seasonal QPs is to allow them to do so over time. Making this change but then taking away the QPs from these events would sort of be pulling the metaphorical rug out from under them.

One thing we did do was put more QPs in the 8-4 draft, so people who are more aggressively pursuing QPs will try to do so there rather than try one of the other queues where they are more likely to be picking on players who would prefer someone closer to their own skill level.

The argument for converting 4-3-2-2 to 5-3-2-2 has merit, but our fear is that this does a worse job of segmentation than the current queues.  The players who are the least successful in 8-4 drafts find they would rather be in 5-3-2-2, so they move.  Then this happens again with the new least successful, especially as their success rate has dropped with those other people having moved, and the cycle repeats itself. This is not effective segmentation. We want that queue to succeed for the people the 4-3-2-2 queue is currently serving, and that may (somewhat paradoxically) stop being true if the prizes are changed.  That said, we haven’t ruled it out. We still do discuss it from time to time.

2)     Create Two Entry Options for Each League

MP argues that there is not the player base to support two leagues for Standard and Modern. We think there could be, though there still remains some uncertainly. Right now the existing league (we’ll call it “friendly” as we do for flatter sealed prerelease events, where I assume MP got the names from in his suggestion) exists alongside 8-player queues and daily events. When adding a “competitive” league, we would remove these events as we did when we created the Pauper league. Of course, before doing so, we’d look to have a league offering that was appealing to the competitive players currently in the 8-player queue and daily events, but are dissatisfied with the current friendly league payouts.

MP’s proposal of having different prizes players can choose from to play together isn’t something we’re looking to do. While MP had no way of knowing this, leagues (and other events) are not set up technologically to have different prize structures for the same event that players can choose from as they enter. But, even if they were set up to be able to do this, it would do a poor job of segmenting. One of the good things about offering both competitive and friendly prize structures is that it splits the player base for people who have different motivations and skill levels. This is a good thing that I don’t want to lose by intermixing the players.

3)     Trim Some of the Existing Queues

The four-booster sealed queue has a low fire rate, a higher-than-desired abandonment rate, and for most (though not all) players can probably be satisfied with the phantom sealed queue, which is a lot more popular. We also generally prefer to offer formats that are tested by R&D, which four boosters is not. So this is a queue on our radar to considering removing on the next time we take a look at queue offerings, though I know some players who really like it, and no decision on this has been made yet.

The Pack-Per-Win Swiss queue is not something we are planning to remove. Some players really value not being eliminated as soon as they lose but instead having a guaranteed three matches, and we don’t want to take that away from those players. Additionally, as discussed above with leagues, having segmentation for different prize structures is important to us and this supports that goal. The current draft format has enough players to support all three queues offered.

4)     Get Rid of Daily Events

As MP’s quotation of me identifies, ending daily events is indeed something we want to do. But as I noted above when talking about leagues, we would not want to do that until we had sufficient league offerings in place for that format. Really my answer to the second point speaks to this better, so I invite you to read that!

5)     Bring Back Premier Events

We’ve been doing some of this, and will continue to do so. The Power Nine Challenge seems to be doing good things for Vintage. We plan to expand these to Legacy and Pauper in 2016 as well. Should there be more than this for other formats? Limited, Standard, and Modern are generally well-served by MOCS and PTQ events, but I’m open to looking at this more for players who aren’t interested in qualification events as well. That said, we do plan to focus these on the Vintage, Legacy, and Pauper first.

6)     Outside of Pre/Release Events, There Should Always Be a Special Queue

I have an article on Monday on MTGO.com on flashback events. Check it out! :)

7)     Change Prereleases & Release Events

I certainly understand that it can be frustrating that Magic sets release later online than paper. This is a bit outside my area as I focus on the events and organized play rather than the technology side of things, but I can say the teams have looked at it and this time we are just not in a position to release sets earlier and still deliver the quality card set release that players expect and deserve.

In terms of event offerings, we know many players want different prerelease options than what we currently have available. We plan to take a fresh look at prerelease and release event offerings once sealed leagues are available as an option. Our recent survey data indicated there is room to improve our offerings in this space, and we’ll evaluate what we can do.

8)     Run Four/Five Festivals Each Year

We have plans to do some in 2016 already, though exactly how many we’ll run (and when they are) is not yet settled. I do think at the right spots in the schedule though it makes sense to celebrate a format, so expect to see more than we’ve done these in 2016.

I won’t be able to respond to everything like I’ve responded to this article, but hopefully this will give you a good idea of where we plan to head. Looking forward to continuing the progress we’ve made with Magic Online events in 2015, and extend it to 2016 and beyond!

- Lee

[markrosewater]

“Tales from the Pit” #1173

[wellofjohn]

This explains all of Tarkir block

[wellofjohn]

Hey wizardsmagic, I think I found a combo.

[wizardsmagic]

The Community Team is having a Commander game later this afternoon and I want to ensure my victory and have way too much fun in the process.

Which Commander should I run?

[wellofjohn]

Clearly it's Vorel of the Hull Clade counters & superfriends

[wellofjohn]

Planeswalker Breakdown: Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

So I've been away for a while, I got a new job and it has taken quite a bit out of me, but I wanted to try and get on the wagon again.  What better way than to talk about the next planeswalker to come out of Wizards R&D, Ugin!

Ugin does a lot of things.  First things first, how does he match up on the main criteria?

Does Ugin protect himsef? Yes he does, in spades.  Ugin's +2, which is Ghostfire, does a good job of getting rid of relatively small threats and his -X can essentially wipe the board.  

Does Ugin impact the board? Ugin mainly does this with his -X by removing most things.  The most relevant part is that he Exiles each permanent with one or more colors.  This way he doesn't let the Whip of Erebos get to reuse their threats.

Does his ultimate win the game? It just about feels that way.  Gaining 7 life and drawing 7 cards is very good, but being able to put 7 permanents into play?  That's value right there.  Also, his ultimate is the reverse of Nicol Bolas's planeswalker card, which is a nice aesthetic touch.

So where does Ugin fit?  Well 8 mana is a LOT, so the most likely fit is some control deck.  Aggro decks don't ever want to see 8 lands, and midrange decks want to win the game when the control deck hits 8 lands as well. Outside of Standard, there is some talk of putting him in Tron where he can be a turn 4 play with the Urza lands.  

All  in all, I'm excited to see where Ugin goes and how he impacts the storyline.  I mean, he IS a dragon after all.

[wellofjohn]

Just go to the link and put Ugin into your eye holes. I'll have more to say after Christmas.

[wellofjohn]

Sorry for the absence!

I've been distracted by work and life too much to post regularly, but hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up on the events of Khans of Tarkir and the new Commander product. Also, go draft the MTGO Legacy Cube! It's a lot of fun!

[gavinverhey]

How Was your Khans of Tarkir Prerelease?

How was your prerelease experience outside of just the games? What did you think of what you received in the clan boxes? Did you like the new prerelease rare system? Did your store have its banners up? Let me know!

[wellofjohn]

The stores I went to had the banners up, but didn't encourage us to put our stickers on them.  I feel like this wasn't conveyed enough to "pull together" with your clan. One store DID separate us by Clan when we went into deck building, so that was nice . 

Otherwise, I felt like the psuedo-random prerelease rares helped it feel more like a regular Sealed environment.  Although I thought it was communicated that each prerelease rare would be alt art, so I was somewhat disappointed that they were not. But the prerelease "stamp" on the art was good enough for me :). 

[wellofjohn]

Planeswalker Breakdown: Ajani Steadfast

We've got one more new planeswalker to talk about, so let's go over Ajani Steadfast.  He's the 5th incarnation of Ajani, and probably the most flavorful.  So let's look at what new tricks our favorite Leonin learned.

Well, he certainly does things.  And those things tend to be good.  First thing to note is the single colored mana symbol in his mana cost.  He is the third planeswalker not to require 2 mana symbols, exempting Karn Liberated, alongside Chandra, the Firebrand and Garruk Relentless.  What does this mean?  Well, it means that this Ajani is easily splashable.  For Limited it means you don't have to be a White deck to run him.  For Constructed it means he is easier to cast than other 'walkers.  This is important when we look at his abilities.  But first!  Let's ask the usual questions.

Does he protect himself?  Ajani doesn't protect himself in the usual sense.  Ajani doesn't summon creatures or deal damage (except for Ajani Vengeant). Now and days, Ajani buffs his friends and allies. And Ajani Steadfast does this through his +1 ability, since it grants one of your creatures first strike, vigilance, and lifelink, as well as a nice +1/+1 buff.   The Vigilance here is key to protecting him, but it's only for that turn. His ability to protect himself is also tied to you having creatures in play, so you'll need to keep that in mind.

Does he impact the board? Yes he does, but not in the usual sense.  His +1 makes one creature you control hard to deal with, but only for a turn.  It's Ajani's -2 that makes him interesting.  Giving all your creatures a +1/+1 counter is nice and good.  Turning your 3/3's into 4/4's is always good.  But it's the fact he adds loyalty to your other planeswalkers that is giving Ajani some attention.  THIS is how he impacts the board, by helping your other planeswalkers impact the board.  

Does his ultimate win the game? No, not directly.  Making all your burn and creatures deal only 1 damage is nice, but hardly game ending.  You CAN still lose with Ajani Steadfast's emblem in play.  It does make you REALLY hard to kill though. So you just need some way to win the game....

So where does Ajani Steadfast fit best?  That question is pretty obvious actually, in Superfriends!  For those of you who don't know, Superfriends is a deck type where you run as many planeswalkers as possible.  This hardly ever happens in Limited, so it's mostly a Constructed thing.  Will Ajani make Superfriends viable?  There was already a Bant Superfriends deck with Kiora, Jace, and Elspeth which was pretty good.  But we'll have to wait and see if any Superfriends deck really takes off.

My final take on Ajani Steadfast? He's a good planeswalker, but not one that will be remembered as one of the best.  He has some synergy sure, but I won't be surprised if he doesn't do as well as we all think.

[markrosewater]

"Tales from the Pit" #807

[wellofjohn]

I'm pretty sure the implication is that all 6 of the Pop figures are living together.

[wellofjohn]

Breaking Down the Bar: Magic 2015 Part 2

We're back for part 2 of Magic 2015 breakdown.  I've already talked about most of the new Planeswalkers in M15, only Ajani is left.  But I'll do a separate column for him, so let's dive in and see what else we can find.

We already know that the U/R theme for M15 is artifacts, but is there anything else we can glean from the set for the other themes?  Looking at W/R I see a lot of Auras-matter cards.  Either Boonweaver Giant (U), Heliod's Pilgrim (C), and Brood Keeper (U) all hint at this theme.  Plus White has a rare Aura in Spectra Ward and Red has Burning Anger, both of which are SUPER strong Auras.  While this is as limited as U/R Artifacts, I can see a decent deck coming out of this.

If you're looking for some build around me cards, let me list a few for you to start brewing with.

Stormtide Leviathan:  This guy is a house.  When he comes down it is near impossible to stop him without spot removal or board wipes.  Luckily Supreme Verdict is still in the format so we can deal with this bad boy. (I just gagged a little bit saying that too...)                               

Necromancer's Stockpile: It's kind of obvious that this is a build around me card.  First off, it turns any of your creatures into cyclers.  For those who don't know, Cycling is a mechanic where you can pay some amount of mana and discard that card to draw another one.  It's one of the most popular mechanics in Magic, and with the Stockpile you can turn your creatures into other cards, AND can give you a Zombie if you discard a Zombie.  Of course that means you need Zombies to get full value, and there are 32 Zombies in Standard not counting the 5 in M15. But whether a Reanimator deck shows up through Pharika or Tormod's Crypt, we'll have to wait and see.                                                                 

Aggressive Mining: Was there any doubt? This card is the ultimate build-around for Red.  It almost feels like it works best in a Big Red deck as extra card draw.  But a R/G deck that can put lands into play in other ways could work too.                                                                  

For Draft, it looks like G/B is focused on the graveyard, per the usual.  With Underground Scavenger (C), Satyr Wayfinder (C), Restock (U), Unmake the Graves (C), Rotfeaster Maggot (C), Necromancer's Assistant (C), and Gravedigger (U) you can build a decent graveyard synergy deck. 

If there's one Black card to keep a watch on, see what happens with Ulcerate.  After listening to Mark Rosewater's podcast Drive to Work, in his episode on Zendikar he talked about Disfigure  (around the 23 minute mark) and how he wanted it to be the Black Lighting Bolt. Now whether Ulcerate is like the Black Bolt, this Standard will determine whether it's a good card.

That's enough for today.  I'll come back later and talk more about M15.  Unfortunately I feel like I'm running out of things to talk about for M15. So if you want to leave any feedback about what you want to see, that'd be great. 

[wellofjohn]

Long Draft from the Tap: Genesis Hydra

Every set is going to have a Hydra now that they are Green's iconic creature type.  And thanks to George Fan, we have a mini-Genesis Wave stapled onto it.  So let's look at Genesis Hydra.

He's a Hydra alright. Like most hydras he uses +1/+1 counters to  represent his growth factor.  And XGG is a pretty good rate for an X/X that nets you another card.  Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that?  He will grab a nonland permanent from your deck, so long as it's in the top X cards and it's converted mana cost is less than or equal to X. That's a powerful ability, but how good can it be?

Unfortunately it isn't as good as Genesis Wave, and if you happen to G-Hydra into another G-hydra it's a bit of a blank. However you are paying some amount of mana to get 2 cards, so it can't be that bad.  In Standard I'm not sure how much mana you want to spend with the G-Hydra to ensure you get another card.  If he let you grab lands, then it would be a bit better. 

So if we want this to be playable, where does it fit?  I think that G-hydra has a perfect home as a top-end threat in Mono-Green Ramp.  I've been testing a Mono-Green ramp deck of my own, but I haven't included the G-Hydra simply because I think there are better targets.   But I could see him being a budget consideration for decks concerned about price.  

I give the G-Hydra a 3/5, and that's for all formats.  It's a decent card, and one that might see competitive play.  But he will be a huge hit on the casual tables around the globe.  Oh, and he's a first pickable Green rare in draft.

[wellofjohn]

So You Want to be a Commander: Nekusar, the Mindrazer

I figured I should go over at least one top tier Commander in the format, and this is one that I would consider building.  If you're familiar with the Commander 2013 release, you should be familiar with the ridiculous price of Mind Seize.  And while the cover Legendary wasn't super exciting, Nekusar, the Mindrazer was.  Let's look at him real quick:

Yeeeeeaaaaaah.  He's pretty good.  Nekusar is what I would classify as either a Group Slug or Bear Hug general.  That means that you give everyone at the table what they want, but you punish them for it.  Nekusar says, "I want everyone to draw cards! But anyone who isn't me will have to pay for it!  WITH THEIR LIFE!"  Since Nekusar is a bit more streamlined than most Commanders, let's look at some cards that will help you kill everyone with our favorite Zombie Wizard.

Teferi's Puzzle Box: If you've never heard of this card, don't worry, I've got you covered.

If your goal is for everyone to draw all the cards, then the puzzle box is for you.  As a quick note, with Nekusar in play, this means that if you have 5 cards in hand you will take 7 damage.  Five from drawing off of Puzzle Box, 1 for your draw step, and 1 for Nekusar's ability.  Speaking of, that brings us to our next set of cards.

Howling Mine effects: We call a card a "Howling Mine" if it makes each player draw an additional card.  Normally this is bad in competitive play, since you're letting your opponent draw a card as well.  But in this case, we can make an exception.  You can find a set of cards that synergize well with Nekusar here, and most of them should be in any deck that wants to abuse Nekusar.

Some other Creatures: Now this isn't super necessary, but there are some creatures who you will want because they combo favorably with Nekusar.  Jace's Archivist, Psychosis Crawler, Barbed Shocker, and Dragon Mage all combo favorably with Nekusar.   Since you're in Grixis colors you can add in some more creatures, but you really want to be spell based.

You want to be unfair? If you want to be hated, play cards like Phyresis or some way to give Nekusar infect.  Since Nekusar is dealing damage on people's draw steps, that damage will be dealt in poison counters. WARNING: no one will like you if you do that.

That's about all I want to say about Nekusar.  He can be a fun general to play with and against if built right.  When you're playing Nekusar you have to be quick on the kill though.  Remember, you are giving other players more cards than they would have anyways.