So, this blue card just got banned. And a white one. They were pretty good. You might have heard about it. I guess there have been several billion words typed about this topic by now, but here are my thoughts anyway.
I won't lie, when i woke up and checked the Daily MTG page (after loading up the Dreamhack SC2 streams), i was pretty happy. Happier than i thought banning a piece of cardboard could ever make me. That doesn't mean i was dancing down the street and hugging strangers, but it made me smile at least.
That was my first, selfish reaction. I'm on a very constrained budget and Jace has never been an option for me, so there was at least a little schadenfreude. I once managed to borrow two of them from friends for a tournament and i once cast Volition Reigns on one, but that's it. Oh, yeah, I've lost to it numerous times as well.
But as a wannabe journalist, i have to try and be neutral and see the other side. Well, fine. I can understand that people spending £200+ on 4 Jaces get pissed-off when those cards get banned. I can understand the pros being mad because a skill-testing card has been removed from the format - the cost of cards is an irrelevance to them, so don't take their opinion on the cost of cards too seriously.
But coming at this from the perspective of someone who is involved in another niche competitive sport, the bannings are, if anything, too late. My other biggest hobby, for those who don't know, is esports (that's professional computer gaming). I'm also a big sports buff, and i know that the most important thing to the growth of any sport - any form of competition, really - is a constant influx and retention of new players. Wizards does an excellent job of making the game approachable for noobs. I'm writing this the day after the release parties of Commander - easily one of the best products they have made ever. Appropriately, it's also a week after the release of the event deck with Stoneforge Mystic in it. Both of these show how Wizards has stepped up their efforts in recruiting new players, rather than rest on the laurels of Zendkiar's massive sales and Duels of the Planeswalkers' immense popularity.
The banning of Jace and SFM is, in my opinion, Wizards' attempt to keep players around. Sure, a few whiners say they will quit because they've lost value. Maybe a few of them will follow through, but this is the internet, so i doubt Wizards is too worried. But players have already left because of Cawblade, and that hurts Wizards in the most painful place - their wallet. Hopefully these bans come quickly enough to stem the flow and keep the game healthy.
Wizards basically say they are banning the cards because they make standard stale. I don't think that anyone can honestly dispute that fact. You can say that Jace and SFM made the format more skill intensive, sure, that's a possibility - more informed voices than mine have made that claim. But the fact is that £200 (or more) is a steep barrier that a lot of players are unwilling or unable to overcome and when the cards that cost that much are a prerequisite for the best deck (you can't replace Jace, you just can't - believe me, i've tried) it basically means you have to play a tier two or worse deck.
Tier two decks can win, as recent tournaments have shown, but those decks took advantage of the fact that Cawblade decks were so prevelant. Control players were tuning with other control players in mind, leaving out the removal that would protect them from vampires and goblins. That's how good Cawblade is: it can ignore half of the format and still beat it more often than not.
Now, let's be clear: i'm not insinuating that Wizards banned the cards because they are too expensive - that is not really their concern. But the fact that Jace costs so much starts a snowball effect. People bitch and complain that cards are too expensive and that the format is dull; players stop attending tournaments; Wizards is forced to act. So indirectly, the price of Jace is the reason it got banned.
Stoneforge Mystic, on the other hand, is just too fucking good. £15 is expensive for a rare in this day and age, sure, but even i could bare to part with £60 if it meant i had the best deck in the format. The fact that it was barely played outside of Naya for the period before Cawblade arrived was simply because we had almost no good equipment. Now that we can put a pseudo-indestructable 4/4 with vigilance and lifelink into play on turn three, things are a bit different.
So why ban both? That's the other question people keep raising. Jace wasn't breaking the format before Mirrodin Besieged, right? Well, kinda. As i recall, there were basically three decks back then: UW Control, UB Control and Valakut. Two of those played Jace and could not function the same without him, the other two featured a then-£40 Primeval Titan in a similar "this deck sucks without me" fashion. Pretty annoying for us budget players, but they kept each other in check, with the main three maintaining a traditional rock-paper-scissors. Sure, there was no aggro deck, but it was better than the height of Cawblade's dominance. Is a format where two expensive mythics dominate better than a format where one expensive mythic and an expensive rare dominate? (oh, and lets not forget, you do still need to buy the equipment too). I don't know, but the point is that Jace did dominate the format back then too; you either played Jace, or you played cards to beat Jace - isn't that the definition of format-warping?
In combination with Stoneforge Mystic and a slew of ridiculsouly good equipment, Jace is THAT good. But if only Mystic was banned, UW would still be one of the top decks - you can make an argument that, with Torpor Orb tempering Valakut, UWwould still be THE deck. From here, it's all speculation. Would Valakut be good enough to keep Vengevine off the top tables? Can UB make a comeback with Tezzeret? I don't want to hazard a guess, though i'm fairly sure that monoblack probably still isn't good enough.
Ironically, one of the healthiest things to happen to magic is what highlighted the flaws. This is hardly an original thought from me, but the SCG opens have thrown standard into the spotlight like it never was before. Almost weekly scrutiny has made it blatantly obvious that Cawblade is better than Jund ever was. The numbers, which are more reliable than previous years due to the increased sample size, bare this out.
I guess there is one other argument to dispel - preordain. Apparently some people really believe this, which i found hard to, er, believe. The argument goes that one turn one you can dig for the Jace or the SFM, which helps your mulligans, i suppose. Okay, sure... but what are you digging for? It sure as hell ain't more preordains. Besides, everyone can play preordain, it's a common.
Showing posts with label jace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jace. Show all posts
Monday, 20 June 2011
Monday, 21 March 2011
What i did last weekend (or: my first Nats qualifier)
After missing last years nationals qualifiers by being blissfully unaware of their existence, i figured it would be pretty stupid to do the same again. With a year's extra experience and a handful of cards borrowed from Tom, I arrived bright and early after getting up at 6.30AM to watch the GSL finals, finally putting my deck together at about 8AM. Who needs playtesting and preperation anyway? Given my budget and card collection, there's only about six cards i would change in retrospect anyway.
Oh, right, yeah... i was playing Esper CawBlade but with Sword of Vengeance and Sword of B+M due to monetary issues. I also have alternative finishers in the shape of Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine.
Round one vs Elves: As other attendees have pointed out, Patriot was pretty heavily over-capacity, but i managed to dodge having to play any games at the café over road. Indeed, round one looked pretty comfortable indeed as i got paired against Kieran who i had recently met at last weekend's Steel City and proceded to beat thanks to a blistering array of skill (top-decking three Flashfreezes in a row vs his Valakut deck ;D!). But the luck was decidedly on his side this weekend as his elf deck got off to a start so fast that i was unable to recover. Like most people, i wasn't expecting elves, so my sideboard was pretty dead to it. Never the less, i felt like i was in a pretty good spot in game two with both Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment in hand as he continued to commit dudes to the board. Yep, one black or white mana source and i'm going to wreck this game... any turn now... Okay, down to eight life, no problem, just gimme a plains... Suffice to say, i lost 2-0: not the start i had hoped for. 0-2 (0-1)
Round two vs Valakut: And so it began. My epic struggle against Valakut would be the theme of the day, as i faced it three times. After beating it comfortably last week i was fairly confident but this game (like the other Valakut games later in the day) were super intense. I've never enjoyed playing against Valakut but this game was actually pretty exciting - so much so that we both got a warning for missing a wolf trigger from my sword. The milling was what really made the difference, however, as i managed to mill almost all of his threats (including mountains) in both games. In game two he killed me from 18 life when i had him down to 8. That's how Valakut rolls. Game three was pretty similar to game one, and i managed to keep him off Valakut triggers thanks to Tec Edge and Seas. 2-1 (1-1)
Round three vs Valakut: There's not really much else to say about Valakut vs this deck. Game one i controlled the game as my deck is supposed to, countering or removing any threats he played. In game two i was in a good spot but forgot to play around Avenger of Zendikar. Any topdeck for him except a fetchland would've seen me win on the next turn, to be fair as he was down to 3 at the time. Apparently game three was super one-sided, however, as i didn't even write down the life totals in my notes. I countered an early Cultivate which really set back his three-land hand. It's pretty insane when a Valakut deck can't get lands out and i proceded to win comfortably. 2-1 (2-1)
Round four vs Grixis Tezzeret: Urgh. I really wish i'd played heavier white and put Divine Offering in the sideboard. I didn't, and so this was the most crushing defeat of the day. In game one i had no chance, since roughly 50% of my non-land cards do nothing against his deck. It was so boring and uninteractive that i can't remember how he got me in Galvanic Blast range for the kill. Game two was even more depressing as his combined brainstorm/tezz +1 failed to hit anything useful for about five straight turns. Still, Tumble Magnets kept my hawks at bay until he inevitably hit some ridiculously huge artifact that i couldn't deal with. I feel like this match was pretty much unwinnable for my deck in its current state.0-2 (2-2)
Round five vs UW Control: Having managed to dodge any kind of Cawblade mirror so far, i was disappointed to see him play blue and white lands. But when he played a turn two Luminarch Ascension i was mostly just confued. Is that card even remotely playable in the current meta? If our match was anything to go by, the answer is no and he made no secret of the fact that he sided it out. When even the control decks are playing aggressive two drops, the ascension seems pretty awful. In game two he managed to resolve a Sun Titan but he nothing except Tec Edges in his yard, which was irrelevant due to my superior board-state. My manlands did a lot of work in this game, and when i killed his Titan it was on to round six. 2-0 (3-2)
Round six vs Valakut: Another Valakut. My opponent was quite the talker and this was another typically tumor-inducing match. Game one was pretty close, with both of us dropping bomb after bomb, only to see them killed by the opponent next turn. In the end i managed to topdeck removal for his Primeval Titan which allowed my Wurmcoil Engine to finish the job. Game two was quite the rape, with me frantically struggling to find removal or counters, and eventually failing. Game three was pretty excruciating for my opponent as he proceded to basically miss on two Summoning Traps - he didn't consider Lotus Cobra to be a hit, strangely. My deck was kind, and i managed to get my mill game going yet again. He was pretty pissed but that's Magic. Now i had to try and figure out the maths of qualifying, the whole thing bemuses and confuses me, since it's my first "major" tournament. 2-1 (4-2)
Round seven vs Eldrazi Ramp: As it turned out, the unexpected elf loss in round one really cost me. I would have to win my last game and just hope that the other people on 12 points all drew. Not much chance, but still worth a try. Oh, what's that? Eldrazi Temple? Oh dear... I don't seem to be able to build a deck that puts up a meaningful fight against this mindless "hurp durp lets play huge guys you can't deal with" deck. Game one has precisely zero notes in my pad, he trapped up an Emrakul on turn six... awesome. Can't wait till ROE rotates out, really. In game two i managed to draw land denial and stall him long enough to bash his face in, despite milling an Emrakul with my sword. The luck of my turn two Mystic in game two was completely balanced out by my inability to get off three lands in the vital game three. When i eventually got up to four, he tec-edged my tar pit and then acidic slime took out my own tec edge. Ironically, i managed to draw another land next turn but it wasn't enough to stop him cheating out an Ulamog via Eldrazi Temple/Eye of Ugin.
All-in-all i was pretty satisfied with my performance. For a thrown-together budget deck with no Jaces it performed pretty well. Two of my losses felt pretty unwinnable without a healthy dose of luck while the elf match was painful in nature. I really feel like i should win that matchup, and getting stuck with two uncastable wraths in-hand was fairly frustrating. As for Eldrazi green, fuck that deck. I swear you could give it to a handicapped monkey and he could win at least 50% of games - not that my opponent was a handicapped monkey, but the point stands.
I was pretty satisfied with my own performance too. I haven't played much standard in the past year, and my record isn't great (1544 constructed rating before the qualifier results go online), but i think i played fairly tightly. No glaring errors come to mind, although i have to get rid of my bad habit of playing lands before drawing a card off Jace/Preordain. It never really made a difference on Saturday, at least.
I feel pretty confident about the Huddersfield qualifier (probably the only other one i can get to, unforunately), not least because i now know i can borrow a playset of Jaces from Bob. If the meta game doesn't change drastically in the next three weeks i think i might do okay.
Oh, right, yeah... i was playing Esper CawBlade but with Sword of Vengeance and Sword of B+M due to monetary issues. I also have alternative finishers in the shape of Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine.
Round one vs Elves: As other attendees have pointed out, Patriot was pretty heavily over-capacity, but i managed to dodge having to play any games at the café over road. Indeed, round one looked pretty comfortable indeed as i got paired against Kieran who i had recently met at last weekend's Steel City and proceded to beat thanks to a blistering array of skill (top-decking three Flashfreezes in a row vs his Valakut deck ;D!). But the luck was decidedly on his side this weekend as his elf deck got off to a start so fast that i was unable to recover. Like most people, i wasn't expecting elves, so my sideboard was pretty dead to it. Never the less, i felt like i was in a pretty good spot in game two with both Black Sun's Zenith and Day of Judgment in hand as he continued to commit dudes to the board. Yep, one black or white mana source and i'm going to wreck this game... any turn now... Okay, down to eight life, no problem, just gimme a plains... Suffice to say, i lost 2-0: not the start i had hoped for. 0-2 (0-1)
Round two vs Valakut: And so it began. My epic struggle against Valakut would be the theme of the day, as i faced it three times. After beating it comfortably last week i was fairly confident but this game (like the other Valakut games later in the day) were super intense. I've never enjoyed playing against Valakut but this game was actually pretty exciting - so much so that we both got a warning for missing a wolf trigger from my sword. The milling was what really made the difference, however, as i managed to mill almost all of his threats (including mountains) in both games. In game two he killed me from 18 life when i had him down to 8. That's how Valakut rolls. Game three was pretty similar to game one, and i managed to keep him off Valakut triggers thanks to Tec Edge and Seas. 2-1 (1-1)
Round three vs Valakut: There's not really much else to say about Valakut vs this deck. Game one i controlled the game as my deck is supposed to, countering or removing any threats he played. In game two i was in a good spot but forgot to play around Avenger of Zendikar. Any topdeck for him except a fetchland would've seen me win on the next turn, to be fair as he was down to 3 at the time. Apparently game three was super one-sided, however, as i didn't even write down the life totals in my notes. I countered an early Cultivate which really set back his three-land hand. It's pretty insane when a Valakut deck can't get lands out and i proceded to win comfortably. 2-1 (2-1)
Round four vs Grixis Tezzeret: Urgh. I really wish i'd played heavier white and put Divine Offering in the sideboard. I didn't, and so this was the most crushing defeat of the day. In game one i had no chance, since roughly 50% of my non-land cards do nothing against his deck. It was so boring and uninteractive that i can't remember how he got me in Galvanic Blast range for the kill. Game two was even more depressing as his combined brainstorm/tezz +1 failed to hit anything useful for about five straight turns. Still, Tumble Magnets kept my hawks at bay until he inevitably hit some ridiculously huge artifact that i couldn't deal with. I feel like this match was pretty much unwinnable for my deck in its current state.0-2 (2-2)
Round five vs UW Control: Having managed to dodge any kind of Cawblade mirror so far, i was disappointed to see him play blue and white lands. But when he played a turn two Luminarch Ascension i was mostly just confued. Is that card even remotely playable in the current meta? If our match was anything to go by, the answer is no and he made no secret of the fact that he sided it out. When even the control decks are playing aggressive two drops, the ascension seems pretty awful. In game two he managed to resolve a Sun Titan but he nothing except Tec Edges in his yard, which was irrelevant due to my superior board-state. My manlands did a lot of work in this game, and when i killed his Titan it was on to round six. 2-0 (3-2)
Round six vs Valakut: Another Valakut. My opponent was quite the talker and this was another typically tumor-inducing match. Game one was pretty close, with both of us dropping bomb after bomb, only to see them killed by the opponent next turn. In the end i managed to topdeck removal for his Primeval Titan which allowed my Wurmcoil Engine to finish the job. Game two was quite the rape, with me frantically struggling to find removal or counters, and eventually failing. Game three was pretty excruciating for my opponent as he proceded to basically miss on two Summoning Traps - he didn't consider Lotus Cobra to be a hit, strangely. My deck was kind, and i managed to get my mill game going yet again. He was pretty pissed but that's Magic. Now i had to try and figure out the maths of qualifying, the whole thing bemuses and confuses me, since it's my first "major" tournament. 2-1 (4-2)
Round seven vs Eldrazi Ramp: As it turned out, the unexpected elf loss in round one really cost me. I would have to win my last game and just hope that the other people on 12 points all drew. Not much chance, but still worth a try. Oh, what's that? Eldrazi Temple? Oh dear... I don't seem to be able to build a deck that puts up a meaningful fight against this mindless "hurp durp lets play huge guys you can't deal with" deck. Game one has precisely zero notes in my pad, he trapped up an Emrakul on turn six... awesome. Can't wait till ROE rotates out, really. In game two i managed to draw land denial and stall him long enough to bash his face in, despite milling an Emrakul with my sword. The luck of my turn two Mystic in game two was completely balanced out by my inability to get off three lands in the vital game three. When i eventually got up to four, he tec-edged my tar pit and then acidic slime took out my own tec edge. Ironically, i managed to draw another land next turn but it wasn't enough to stop him cheating out an Ulamog via Eldrazi Temple/Eye of Ugin.
All-in-all i was pretty satisfied with my performance. For a thrown-together budget deck with no Jaces it performed pretty well. Two of my losses felt pretty unwinnable without a healthy dose of luck while the elf match was painful in nature. I really feel like i should win that matchup, and getting stuck with two uncastable wraths in-hand was fairly frustrating. As for Eldrazi green, fuck that deck. I swear you could give it to a handicapped monkey and he could win at least 50% of games - not that my opponent was a handicapped monkey, but the point stands.
I was pretty satisfied with my own performance too. I haven't played much standard in the past year, and my record isn't great (1544 constructed rating before the qualifier results go online), but i think i played fairly tightly. No glaring errors come to mind, although i have to get rid of my bad habit of playing lands before drawing a card off Jace/Preordain. It never really made a difference on Saturday, at least.
I feel pretty confident about the Huddersfield qualifier (probably the only other one i can get to, unforunately), not least because i now know i can borrow a playset of Jaces from Bob. If the meta game doesn't change drastically in the next three weeks i think i might do okay.
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