This thread is for the discussion of DarkRitual's latest article, The Arena, Edition 1: Slivers. Due to technical issues the thread that is normally created when an article is published didn't occur, so I have created this thread to allow you to talk about it. As always, please keep your comments on topic.
Why would you write an article about two decks that are virtually identical? Limiting the card pool to standard essentially limits it to one set because the tribe only appears in that set. 20 of the nonland cards, and 8 of hte lands are identical between decks, in the initial list, and a whoping 25 non-land cards are identical in the final list, with the primary difference being galerider sliver versus striking and blur slivers.
Secondly, this line just confuses me: "In: 3 Mutavault
Apparently this manland is really good. I thought an ordinary 2/2 that doubled as a Sliver would be underwhelming, but just a free extra creature made a huge difference. "
Why would the best manland from legacy not be good enough for block constructed? And why is this not a four of in both decks?
As for your questions at the end of the article, pick whatever card pool you want to talk about. The only issue with standard is that playing two decks of the same archetype against each other isn't going to be very interesting because the mirror will be so similar. I would have liked to have seen this as time spiral slivers versus M14 slivers or something like that but unfortunately the mirror would be stupid with the timespiral slivers buffing the m14 slivers and not the other way around. That said, a comparison of standard decks from different blocks would be kinda cool. at my local shop there's some people that have been doing that with an eternal standard format.
Why would you write an article about two decks that are virtually identical? Limiting the card pool to standard essentially limits it to one set because the tribe only appears in that set. 20 of the nonland cards, and 8 of hte lands are identical between decks, in the initial list, and a whoping 25 non-land cards are identical in the final list, with the primary difference being galerider sliver versus striking and blur slivers.
Secondly, this line just confuses me: "In: 3 Mutavault
Apparently this manland is really good. I thought an ordinary 2/2 that doubled as a Sliver would be underwhelming, but just a free extra creature made a huge difference. "
Why would the best manland from legacy not be good enough for block constructed? And why is this not a four of in both decks?
As for your questions at the end of the article, pick whatever card pool you want to talk about. The only issue with standard is that playing two decks of the same archetype against each other isn't going to be very interesting because the mirror will be so similar. I would have liked to have seen this as time spiral slivers versus M14 slivers or something like that but unfortunately the mirror would be stupid with the timespiral slivers buffing the m14 slivers and not the other way around. That said, a comparison of standard decks from different blocks would be kinda cool. at my local shop there's some people that have been doing that with an eternal standard format.
I think that's valid criticism. I got stuck on wanting to do an article about Standard where I create a deck (or take audience submissions) and pit it against whatever won last week. And with Slivers being a theme in M14, that's what I chose to go with. I never stopped to think that maybe pitting two aggro decks that are very similar might result in basically a coin flip matchup.
So I'm learning from that mistake and the next deck I'm looking for I would like to not be the same kind of aggro. That leaves stuff like ramp, control, combo, beatdown, etc. Like I said, I'd like to turn it into a thing where I take a suggestion from a commenter on here and turn that into an article. But I do have an idea for the next deck in mind already if that doesn't work out for whatever reason.
I actually liked the subtle differences in the decks highlighting the importance of choosing one's third colour carefully. However, I think such a contrast is more useful when the decks are combatting the gauntlet of typical opposition. Although, I realize that this isn't in the nature of the article.
My only complaint is that the red variant wasn't called Sligh Slivers to combat the Sly Slivers.
Are you looking for suggestions for the next arena deck? What are the restrictions on Arena decks? It seems you were aiming for standard, but with a casual bent as well; would that be accurate?
Are you looking for suggestions for the next arena deck? What are the restrictions on Arena decks? It seems you were aiming for standard, but with a casual bent as well; would that be accurate?
Yeah, I'm open for suggestions. I'm aiming for Standard, but ideally would like suggestions from recent sets (Theros and M14), but really anything Standard legal would be fine.
On the topic of giving suggestions. All you need to do is say "build a deck around X, Y and Z cards". That's enough of a suggestion. So for example, the idea I had if the whole suggestion thing didn't pan out was to build a deck around Trading Post and Hammer of Purphoros. Feel free to post a decklist along with your idea, but really it's just that idea that matters.
I'm also open to suggestions/feedback for changing the format of the series as well. Right now it's standard themed, and there really isn't a limitation budget-wise as to what I can include (you saw 200 dollar manabases for both decks). If enough people think it's a bad idea to do either one of those thing I'm certainly open to changing the rules.
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Secondly, this line just confuses me: "In: 3 Mutavault
Apparently this manland is really good. I thought an ordinary 2/2 that doubled as a Sliver would be underwhelming, but just a free extra creature made a huge difference. "
Why would the best manland from legacy not be good enough for block constructed? And why is this not a four of in both decks?
As for your questions at the end of the article, pick whatever card pool you want to talk about. The only issue with standard is that playing two decks of the same archetype against each other isn't going to be very interesting because the mirror will be so similar. I would have liked to have seen this as time spiral slivers versus M14 slivers or something like that but unfortunately the mirror would be stupid with the timespiral slivers buffing the m14 slivers and not the other way around. That said, a comparison of standard decks from different blocks would be kinda cool. at my local shop there's some people that have been doing that with an eternal standard format.
I think that's valid criticism. I got stuck on wanting to do an article about Standard where I create a deck (or take audience submissions) and pit it against whatever won last week. And with Slivers being a theme in M14, that's what I chose to go with. I never stopped to think that maybe pitting two aggro decks that are very similar might result in basically a coin flip matchup.
So I'm learning from that mistake and the next deck I'm looking for I would like to not be the same kind of aggro. That leaves stuff like ramp, control, combo, beatdown, etc. Like I said, I'd like to turn it into a thing where I take a suggestion from a commenter on here and turn that into an article. But I do have an idea for the next deck in mind already if that doesn't work out for whatever reason.
My only complaint is that the red variant wasn't called Sligh Slivers to combat the Sly Slivers.
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Yeah, I'm open for suggestions. I'm aiming for Standard, but ideally would like suggestions from recent sets (Theros and M14), but really anything Standard legal would be fine.
On the topic of giving suggestions. All you need to do is say "build a deck around X, Y and Z cards". That's enough of a suggestion. So for example, the idea I had if the whole suggestion thing didn't pan out was to build a deck around Trading Post and Hammer of Purphoros. Feel free to post a decklist along with your idea, but really it's just that idea that matters.
I'm also open to suggestions/feedback for changing the format of the series as well. Right now it's standard themed, and there really isn't a limitation budget-wise as to what I can include (you saw 200 dollar manabases for both decks). If enough people think it's a bad idea to do either one of those thing I'm certainly open to changing the rules.