Sorry but I can only test on MWS where people have no budget. I'm sure few people on MTGO "casual" run decks with original duals and other high dollar cards. On MWS that is just the standard. I even go out of my way to try and find lower powered decks. Having said that you still run into a lot of people playing Badlands over Blood Crypt. Decks above $300 value are common place (usually 50%-70% of the deck cost is in the mana base though).
When I test these decks my thread title is "Casual Non-Broken Decks (Testing)" and my room message is "No P9". I will never count a game against a deck that I considered over the top broken. Now there is only so much I can do in a contest that has no restrictions.
Sorry but I can only test on MWS where people have no budget. I'm sure few people on MTGO "casual" run decks with original duals and other high dollar cards. On MWS that is just the standard. I even go out of my way to try and find lower powered decks. Having said that you still run into a lot of people playing Badlands over Blood Crypt. Decks above $300 value are common place (usually 50%-70% of the deck cost is in the mana base though).
When I test these decks my thread title is "Casual Non-Broken Decks (Testing)" and my room message is "No P9". I will never count a game against a deck that I considered over the top broken. Now there is only so much I can do in a contest that has no restrictions.
Thanks for your answer ChefStiX. That's more or less what I face in MODO. That's also why I'm confused with the score, since this deck has performed for me better than other decks that scored higher in that category. Nevertheless, I know there's the luck factor, and I push my land-count to the lower edge, since I hate drawing lands when I need spells. So, here's hoping Bustin and Rascals had better luck.
Due to the amount of time I had you only had 8 games tested with yours. Twice I was complete mana dry going into like the 6th turn (2-3 lands) so they were right offs. Another time I got smoked by a turn 4 combo deck. Twice I dropped to aggro fast. Twice I won (combo and control) and once I lost but came SOOO close to winning twice that game. Since I only won 2 out of 8 games I felt it deserved it's score with me. I'm dying to see how it did with the other two judges and am kinda surprised they haven't posted the results. (it is saturday where I am from now technically)
I was the only one that I saw at least that tried to play Molten Psyche during the opponent's turn, was just curious if any judge took that into consideration.
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"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
--------------------------------------
Your deck was a close one for votes for
me. I had it between you and someone else. Don't be discouraged as each judge seems to have a very unique view on what they like. Just be patient and maybe next time will be more to the feel of more of us.
After an all-nighter last night, I slept from 11am to 7:40pm. God this week was rough.
Anyway, here's my scores.
Creativity/Originality: 4.5
I loved this. Just awesome
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Frankly, anything could have been used as the kill card in here, but Molten Psyche was still pretty damn sweet
Synergy/Tuning: 4
I seemed to find what i needed a good amount of the time
Power/Capacity to win: 4
I typically could handle most problems. burn out the creatures, and shoot the dome.
Interaction/Protection: 3
No protection from direct damage or bounce to chandra and indestructible creatures were once a problem (yeah it was random). I was very lucky to never see anything shrouded.
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 3
Nothing really new
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Psyche was pretty much the only way to win
Synergy/Tuning: 3.5
Shrapnel Blast felt out of place. I never wanted to cast it. More removal or counters would have been better. Instead, I was losing card advantage as I was forced to use it as removal. Galvanic Blast almost strictly was better for this deck. Scroll rack was an all-star as always
Power/Capacity to win: 3
Sometimes I just had the tempo. I needed more answers
Interaction/Protection: 3
Tempo. and kinda shrapnel blast
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 3
I don't know, I just wasn't wowed
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
I'm at loss of how to rate this. Empirically, molten psyche was dealing a good amount of damage, but at the the same time it just felt extra, unneeded. Underworld dreams and black vise ended up just feeling more core.
Synergy/Tuning: 2.5
Black mana was really rough to find enough of to cast the dreams.
59 cards.
Power/Capacity to win: 3
Here's a joke for you, what happens when a sligh player gets access to 3 extra cards a turn?
It won a reasonable amount of times, but the howling mine effects did backfire atleast as much as they helped. Damnations were essential in most games. Control and combo were near-auto-losses. Ramp was a decent match-up.
Interaction/Protection: 3
Damnation. Damnation. Damnation. Lightning Bolt can come too. No protection from the decks that could do the most with full hands.
Format/Thematic: 0
Creativity/Originality: 3.5
I loved the temple bell. Perfect innovation on the howling mine concept that everyone else was trying
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3.5
A lot of fun interwoven synergies. Niv-mizzet was one of those cards that looked like it could steal the show, but just ended up being the perfect complement
Synergy/Tuning: 2
felt much too slow to do anything big.
Power/Capacity to win: 2
too slow. It got pretty sweet around turn 6 or 7
Interaction/Protection: 2
I liked the basilisk collar + niv miz combo, but realistically, protection was very very limited
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 4.5
Very original fun package of concepts
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
I won more game off forced fruition + tempo than off molten psyche
Synergy/Tuning: 2.5
pretty damn slow. Pyroclasm would have been better than volcanic fallout so that tutoring with muddle would have been possible. Mostly tho, this deck would topdeck horribly. It would simply had way too many cards that were bad to pull off the top.
Power/Capacity to win: 3
too slow, but it sometimes would just have them tempo and counters to push through
Interaction/Protection: 3.5
Decent amount of counters. some tempo and then the bomb and and keg. Shattering pulse combo.
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 2
Nothing New. Wheel of Fortune as a 4-of got me some flack in the casual lobbies. Gustha's scepter was sweet
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Most of the time it just felt like i was playing some weird affinity burn
Synergy/Tuning: 3
Pretty well tuned… but 4 wheel of fortune will do that. Minus points here for 4x wheel.
Power/Capacity to win: 4
I won at least as much without psyche as i did with. I still had a decent record tho.
Interaction/Protection: 2.5
you can burn creatures if you really want
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Nothing impressed me
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2
the deck was unfocused and molten psyche was ineffective
Synergy/Tuning: 2
Felt untuned. Voltaic keys were awesome, but more were needed.
Power/Capacity to win: 2
I could never keep their hands full enough for psyche to deal reasonable damage. Runeflare trap and champion were the sources of my wins with this deck
Interaction/Protection: 3
It had a little protection from everything, but could never capitalize
Format/Thematic:
Ok, I tested a little differently for this deck. I got in 3 multiplayer games but a few less 1v1. Please don't submit MP decks for this contest. they are just way too difficult to test fairly.
Also, here's a joke for you: you are hiveminded and happy with energy wheel online in a 5-player game, guy plays vindicate on wheel of sun and moon. in response someone plays wrecking ball on a land. Guess who just lost all their permanents? To be fair I had paradigm shifted them the previous game, but still.
Creativity/Originality: 4
very unique for this round
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Not sure molten psyche was needed or core, but it did some crazy things when it resolved
Synergy/Tuning: 4
Well tuned.
Power/Capacity to win: 4
REALLY strongly meta'd to multiplayer. PLEASE don't do this. I love MP, but not for CDCC testing.
Pretty effective and won a fair amount of the time. Low-powered in 1v1.
Interaction/Protection: 2.5
hivemind and the EF + WoSaM
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
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I took the deck for a spin today, and I guess I AM getting too lucky with this deck. Academy in opening hand 3 games in a row?
Well, I'm glad I added the "strategy" section in the latest round. With this one, you were supposed to stall them with Leaks and Blasts until turn 4 or 5 by when you should've had access to something close to 8 mana.
Sorry for the delay everyone. Been really busy workin 60 hour weeks and no free time when I get off either. Almost done though and will have the scores posted some time tomorrow.
[Spoiler=Peter Riviera: 11.5] Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Nothing impressed me
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2
the deck was unfocused and molten psyche was ineffective
Synergy/Tuning: 2
Felt untuned. Voltaic keys were awesome, but more were needed.
Power/Capacity to win: 2
I could never keep their hands full enough for psyche to deal reasonable damage. Runeflare trap and champion were the sources of my wins with this deck
Interaction/Protection: 3
It had a little protection from everything, but could never capitalize
Format/Thematic:
I must say I'm VERY surprised by your comments. I had no trouble winning with this deck and most of all winning through Molten Psyche. I don't think I finished a single game with Runeflare Trap or Champion. I guess you maybe tried to play the deck differently than I intended? The deck very much plays the set-up and stall at the beginning, trading damage with Etched Champion until you're ready to go off (Temple Bell/Mikokoro on the field, Vision Skeins and Psyche in hand). Anyway, I appreciate your comments, but I think the point of the deck was missed.
I was kinda surprised as well if it helps. I know we all have different experiences in testing but I gave you a 5 for synergy. When I saw the 2 I was kinda wondering how that could have happened. Just remember that anything can happen in testing. Last round with Dlink's deck I had a lot of trouble with aggro where everyone else didn't. The deck probably shouldn't have had issues from looking at what's in it. Maybe bustin had a positive experience and your overall score should be ok.
Haha, not a chef no. What actually happened is that my normal play group didn't meet the week before last so I wasn't able to do a lot of testing that night like normal, and I like to base my scores on real experience rather that just what the deck looks like on paper. Then this last week has been super busy because of the holiday weekend, which totally overloads my business. So basically it's been hard to to get test games in I have to play one more deck a few times then I'm finished, scores should be up in an hour or so.
edit: *phew*, done. Promise it won't take so long next time
scores:
Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Chandra was the most 'creative' thing about this deck IMO.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2.5
Molten Psyche was good in here but it wasn't focal. I really felt Chandra was more of the focus.
Synergy/Tuning: 3
I had problems with the mana curve more than a couple times, but I did like the madness interactions. I'm a huge fan of looter effects so the anvils were quite welcome.
Power/Capacity to win: 2.5
If this deck can survive long enough it can pull out a big win, but the trouble was getting there. The inherit card advantage of anvil/chandra + madness is good of course.
Interaction/Protection: 3
Limited to burn really, although it was interesting that you splashed green “just” for moment's peace. It did help but I don't know that it was really necessary.
Total: 13.5
Creativity/Originality: 1
Nothing spectacular, sorry
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4.5
MP was really the only way to win with this deck, although I wouldn't call it very effective.
Synergy/Tuning: 2.5
There wasn't a whole lot of synergy between the cards. Also one playset too many of the mana stones for me.
Power/Capacity to win: 1.5
This deck had trouble assembling the wheel + MP combo for the win.
Interaction/Protection: 4
All the bounce was pretty good at stalling but it didn't often lead to a win.
Total: 13.5
Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Nothing particularly creative to me, lots of removal and making your opponent draw cards - almost more of an underworld dreams deck.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
MP was "just decent" to me in this deck. Underworld Dreams and Black Vise were more effective for damage.
Synergy/Tuning: 3.5
I liked the oldschool feel with black vise, ivory tower, and holwing mine, just wish the spellbook was library of leng The cards also worked pretty well together, however 4x each of all the aforementioned cards seemed a bit excessive.
Power/Capacity to win: 4.5
This deck was real solid even if the wins came more from other cards besides MP most of the time.
Interaction/Protection: 4.5
Lots and lots of removal, and burn.
Total: 18
Creativity/Originality: 4
Although this deck felt similar to many of the others, there were still a lot of unique things going on. I liked it.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4.5
Pretty solid here.
Synergy/Tuning: 4
No real complaints although it was a bit mana intensive and could have benefited from some kind of mana accel.
Power/Capacity to win: 3.5
I liked this deck more on paper as it didn't always perform as well as I would have liked.
Interaction/Protection: 2
Not very much of either really. A set of counters and a set of burn.
Total: 18
Creativity/Originality: 4
While I do think the basic idea was creative and original (thus the good score), I don't think it turned out to be very effective. See the next two scores.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
MP was essentially the only way to win but I don't think it wasn't a very effective use of the card compared to many of the other decks. Forced fruition seemed interesting but didn't always work out that great.
Synergy/Tuning: 2
It just felt a little "clunky" to me.
Power/Capacity to win: 2.5
The control elements helped stall but it was quite difficult to win with just MP.
Interaction/Protection: 4.5
Good mix of counters, bounce, burn, removal, etc.
Total: 16
Creativity/Originality: 5
I feel like decks this round needed to accomplish two things primarily: achieve metal craft easily and early, and keep your opponents hand full to get the maximum effect from molten psyche. Saben accomplished this the best out of anyone this round IMO.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4.5
This deck definitely felt like it was based around Molten Psyche, however Runeflare Trap sometimes stole the spotlight.
Synergy/Tuning: 4
I liked the overall cheapness (mana cost) of the deck, and everything seemed to click together really well. Ocassional problems with achieving the 6 mana needed however, and also 4x legendary artifact not necessary.
Power/Capacity to win: 4.5
I lost the first few games I played but then it went on a crazy winning streak. Chaining together wheels, time spirals, runeflares, molten psyches in any combination was always fun and devastating, and usually game ending- if not, you usually had a burn spell left over to seal the deal.
Interaction/Protection: 4
Lots of burn and the brittle effigys were always welcome.
Total: 22
Creativity/Originality: 3
This deck was basically just average to me. Nothing stood out, nothing was that great, but nothing was really bad with it either. I think this was one of the only (THE only?) decks that took advantage of other cards that had metal craft. Etched Champion is definitely a champ.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4
Like Saben's deck, I liked the use of Runeflare Trap, this card just seems perfect with MP if you can keep their hand full of cards. I didn't really like vision skeins but it did help when you were ready to cast MP.
Synergy/Tuning: 3.5
Again I wasn't impressed with vision skeins but I liked the rest of the deck, and arcane denial has some great synergy with MP. The other pieces of the deck fit together reasonably well too.
Power/Capacity to win: 3.5
Etched Champions provided great defense unless your opponent was swarming, but sometimes it took a while to actually finish your opponent off.
Interaction/Protection: 3.5
Pretty decent here, if not spectacular. A few counters, a good blocker, slagstorm was nice too, but nothing put that over the top.
Total: 17.5
Creativity/Originality: 4
This was a crazy deck, haha. Hive mind is definitely nuts, and makes Molten Psyche pretty deadly (I can imagine even more so in multiplayer).
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2
As you yourself stated this is really a Hive Mind deck more than anything. MP worked OK but I feel this deck wasn't as good at keeping your opponent's hands full and really taking advantage of MP. Again, this would have been better in mutliplayer cuz of the hive mind and the draw spells, so while this is a fun deck and all, for the contest's purpose it wasn't as good as the others in this department. I hate "penalizing" you for this, but this is not a multiplayer contest unfortunately.
Synergy/Tuning: 3
It's hard to judge a card like sizzle because obviously that's got a multiplayer slant, but I do think the overall mix of cards was pretty solid.
Power/Capacity to win: 4
When you get energy field + wheel that's GG unless your opponent has enchantment removal. Sometimes took a while to win but it did win more often than it lost for me.
Interaction/Protection: 4
Gave this a high score because of the energy field + wheel combo even if it wasn't assembled every game. Hive mind also usually forces some fun interactions.
Not to sound dismissive, but I totally disagree that kingT's deck was a "budget version of Sabens". Sabens deck was miles ahead of kingT for lots of reasons. Saben had more draw 7 spells, neither of which had to be suspended for 4 turns. Saben was also the only one that used 4 time spiral which I thought was perfect with MP. Saben also had more removal, and I liked his artifact selection waaaay better. kingT had 12 mana rocks on top of 24 land... yikes! Another big difference was the runeflare trap as well. Hopefully that helps explain some of my reasoning behind the 2 scores.
Also, I voted for dlink this round for what its worth
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When I test these decks my thread title is "Casual Non-Broken Decks (Testing)" and my room message is "No P9". I will never count a game against a deck that I considered over the top broken. Now there is only so much I can do in a contest that has no restrictions.
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Thanks for your answer ChefStiX. That's more or less what I face in MODO. That's also why I'm confused with the score, since this deck has performed for me better than other decks that scored higher in that category. Nevertheless, I know there's the luck factor, and I push my land-count to the lower edge, since I hate drawing lands when I need spells. So, here's hoping Bustin and Rascals had better luck.
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Probably stuck with IRL stuff as well. I saw a post of his in a MP thread recently.
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Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
--------------------------------------
"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
--------------------------------------
me. I had it between you and someone else. Don't be discouraged as each judge seems to have a very unique view on what they like. Just be patient and maybe next time will be more to the feel of more of us.
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
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Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
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Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
At last. ^^
Anyway, here's my scores.
Creativity/Originality: 4.5
I loved this. Just awesome
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Frankly, anything could have been used as the kill card in here, but Molten Psyche was still pretty damn sweet
Synergy/Tuning: 4
I seemed to find what i needed a good amount of the time
Power/Capacity to win: 4
I typically could handle most problems. burn out the creatures, and shoot the dome.
Interaction/Protection: 3
No protection from direct damage or bounce to chandra and indestructible creatures were once a problem (yeah it was random). I was very lucky to never see anything shrouded.
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 3
Nothing really new
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Psyche was pretty much the only way to win
Synergy/Tuning: 3.5
Shrapnel Blast felt out of place. I never wanted to cast it. More removal or counters would have been better. Instead, I was losing card advantage as I was forced to use it as removal. Galvanic Blast almost strictly was better for this deck. Scroll rack was an all-star as always
Power/Capacity to win: 3
Sometimes I just had the tempo. I needed more answers
Interaction/Protection: 3
Tempo. and kinda shrapnel blast
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 3
I don't know, I just wasn't wowed
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
I'm at loss of how to rate this. Empirically, molten psyche was dealing a good amount of damage, but at the the same time it just felt extra, unneeded. Underworld dreams and black vise ended up just feeling more core.
Synergy/Tuning: 2.5
Black mana was really rough to find enough of to cast the dreams.
59 cards.
Power/Capacity to win: 3
Here's a joke for you, what happens when a sligh player gets access to 3 extra cards a turn?
It won a reasonable amount of times, but the howling mine effects did backfire atleast as much as they helped. Damnations were essential in most games. Control and combo were near-auto-losses. Ramp was a decent match-up.
Interaction/Protection: 3
Damnation. Damnation. Damnation. Lightning Bolt can come too. No protection from the decks that could do the most with full hands.
Format/Thematic: 0
Creativity/Originality: 3.5
I loved the temple bell. Perfect innovation on the howling mine concept that everyone else was trying
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3.5
A lot of fun interwoven synergies. Niv-mizzet was one of those cards that looked like it could steal the show, but just ended up being the perfect complement
Synergy/Tuning: 2
felt much too slow to do anything big.
Power/Capacity to win: 2
too slow. It got pretty sweet around turn 6 or 7
Interaction/Protection: 2
I liked the basilisk collar + niv miz combo, but realistically, protection was very very limited
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 4.5
Very original fun package of concepts
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
I won more game off forced fruition + tempo than off molten psyche
Synergy/Tuning: 2.5
pretty damn slow. Pyroclasm would have been better than volcanic fallout so that tutoring with muddle would have been possible. Mostly tho, this deck would topdeck horribly. It would simply had way too many cards that were bad to pull off the top.
Power/Capacity to win: 3
too slow, but it sometimes would just have them tempo and counters to push through
Interaction/Protection: 3.5
Decent amount of counters. some tempo and then the bomb and and keg. Shattering pulse combo.
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 2
Nothing New. Wheel of Fortune as a 4-of got me some flack in the casual lobbies. Gustha's scepter was sweet
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Most of the time it just felt like i was playing some weird affinity burn
Synergy/Tuning: 3
Pretty well tuned… but 4 wheel of fortune will do that. Minus points here for 4x wheel.
Power/Capacity to win: 4
I won at least as much without psyche as i did with. I still had a decent record tho.
Interaction/Protection: 2.5
you can burn creatures if you really want
Format/Thematic:
Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Nothing impressed me
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2
the deck was unfocused and molten psyche was ineffective
Synergy/Tuning: 2
Felt untuned. Voltaic keys were awesome, but more were needed.
Power/Capacity to win: 2
I could never keep their hands full enough for psyche to deal reasonable damage. Runeflare trap and champion were the sources of my wins with this deck
Interaction/Protection: 3
It had a little protection from everything, but could never capitalize
Format/Thematic:
Ok, I tested a little differently for this deck. I got in 3 multiplayer games but a few less 1v1. Please don't submit MP decks for this contest. they are just way too difficult to test fairly.
Also, here's a joke for you: you are hiveminded and happy with energy wheel online in a 5-player game, guy plays vindicate on wheel of sun and moon. in response someone plays wrecking ball on a land. Guess who just lost all their permanents? To be fair I had paradigm shifted them the previous game, but still.
Creativity/Originality: 4
very unique for this round
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
Not sure molten psyche was needed or core, but it did some crazy things when it resolved
Synergy/Tuning: 4
Well tuned.
Power/Capacity to win: 4
REALLY strongly meta'd to multiplayer. PLEASE don't do this. I love MP, but not for CDCC testing.
Pretty effective and won a fair amount of the time. Low-powered in 1v1.
Interaction/Protection: 2.5
hivemind and the EF + WoSaM
Format/Thematic:
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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I took the deck for a spin today, and I guess I AM getting too lucky with this deck. Academy in opening hand 3 games in a row?
Well, I'm glad I added the "strategy" section in the latest round. With this one, you were supposed to stall them with Leaks and Blasts until turn 4 or 5 by when you should've had access to something close to 8 mana.
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¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
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Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
I must say I'm VERY surprised by your comments. I had no trouble winning with this deck and most of all winning through Molten Psyche. I don't think I finished a single game with Runeflare Trap or Champion. I guess you maybe tried to play the deck differently than I intended? The deck very much plays the set-up and stall at the beginning, trading damage with Etched Champion until you're ready to go off (Temple Bell/Mikokoro on the field, Vision Skeins and Psyche in hand). Anyway, I appreciate your comments, but I think the point of the deck was missed.
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The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
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Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
Haha, not a chef no. What actually happened is that my normal play group didn't meet the week before last so I wasn't able to do a lot of testing that night like normal, and I like to base my scores on real experience rather that just what the deck looks like on paper. Then this last week has been super busy because of the holiday weekend, which totally overloads my business. So basically it's been hard to to get test games in I have to play one more deck a few times then I'm finished, scores should be up in an hour or so.
edit: *phew*, done. Promise it won't take so long next time
scores:
Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Chandra was the most 'creative' thing about this deck IMO.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2.5
Molten Psyche was good in here but it wasn't focal. I really felt Chandra was more of the focus.
Synergy/Tuning: 3
I had problems with the mana curve more than a couple times, but I did like the madness interactions. I'm a huge fan of looter effects so the anvils were quite welcome.
Power/Capacity to win: 2.5
If this deck can survive long enough it can pull out a big win, but the trouble was getting there. The inherit card advantage of anvil/chandra + madness is good of course.
Interaction/Protection: 3
Limited to burn really, although it was interesting that you splashed green “just” for moment's peace. It did help but I don't know that it was really necessary.
Total: 13.5
Creativity/Originality: 1
Nothing spectacular, sorry
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4.5
MP was really the only way to win with this deck, although I wouldn't call it very effective.
Synergy/Tuning: 2.5
There wasn't a whole lot of synergy between the cards. Also one playset too many of the mana stones for me.
Power/Capacity to win: 1.5
This deck had trouble assembling the wheel + MP combo for the win.
Interaction/Protection: 4
All the bounce was pretty good at stalling but it didn't often lead to a win.
Total: 13.5
Creativity/Originality: 2.5
Nothing particularly creative to me, lots of removal and making your opponent draw cards - almost more of an underworld dreams deck.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
MP was "just decent" to me in this deck. Underworld Dreams and Black Vise were more effective for damage.
Synergy/Tuning: 3.5
I liked the oldschool feel with black vise, ivory tower, and holwing mine, just wish the spellbook was library of leng The cards also worked pretty well together, however 4x each of all the aforementioned cards seemed a bit excessive.
Power/Capacity to win: 4.5
This deck was real solid even if the wins came more from other cards besides MP most of the time.
Interaction/Protection: 4.5
Lots and lots of removal, and burn.
Total: 18
Creativity/Originality: 4
Although this deck felt similar to many of the others, there were still a lot of unique things going on. I liked it.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4.5
Pretty solid here.
Synergy/Tuning: 4
No real complaints although it was a bit mana intensive and could have benefited from some kind of mana accel.
Power/Capacity to win: 3.5
I liked this deck more on paper as it didn't always perform as well as I would have liked.
Interaction/Protection: 2
Not very much of either really. A set of counters and a set of burn.
Total: 18
Creativity/Originality: 4
While I do think the basic idea was creative and original (thus the good score), I don't think it turned out to be very effective. See the next two scores.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 3
MP was essentially the only way to win but I don't think it wasn't a very effective use of the card compared to many of the other decks. Forced fruition seemed interesting but didn't always work out that great.
Synergy/Tuning: 2
It just felt a little "clunky" to me.
Power/Capacity to win: 2.5
The control elements helped stall but it was quite difficult to win with just MP.
Interaction/Protection: 4.5
Good mix of counters, bounce, burn, removal, etc.
Total: 16
Creativity/Originality: 5
I feel like decks this round needed to accomplish two things primarily: achieve metal craft easily and early, and keep your opponents hand full to get the maximum effect from molten psyche. Saben accomplished this the best out of anyone this round IMO.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4.5
This deck definitely felt like it was based around Molten Psyche, however Runeflare Trap sometimes stole the spotlight.
Synergy/Tuning: 4
I liked the overall cheapness (mana cost) of the deck, and everything seemed to click together really well. Ocassional problems with achieving the 6 mana needed however, and also 4x legendary artifact not necessary.
Power/Capacity to win: 4.5
I lost the first few games I played but then it went on a crazy winning streak. Chaining together wheels, time spirals, runeflares, molten psyches in any combination was always fun and devastating, and usually game ending- if not, you usually had a burn spell left over to seal the deal.
Interaction/Protection: 4
Lots of burn and the brittle effigys were always welcome.
Total: 22
Creativity/Originality: 3
This deck was basically just average to me. Nothing stood out, nothing was that great, but nothing was really bad with it either. I think this was one of the only (THE only?) decks that took advantage of other cards that had metal craft. Etched Champion is definitely a champ.
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 4
Like Saben's deck, I liked the use of Runeflare Trap, this card just seems perfect with MP if you can keep their hand full of cards. I didn't really like vision skeins but it did help when you were ready to cast MP.
Synergy/Tuning: 3.5
Again I wasn't impressed with vision skeins but I liked the rest of the deck, and arcane denial has some great synergy with MP. The other pieces of the deck fit together reasonably well too.
Power/Capacity to win: 3.5
Etched Champions provided great defense unless your opponent was swarming, but sometimes it took a while to actually finish your opponent off.
Interaction/Protection: 3.5
Pretty decent here, if not spectacular. A few counters, a good blocker, slagstorm was nice too, but nothing put that over the top.
Total: 17.5
Creativity/Originality: 4
This was a crazy deck, haha. Hive mind is definitely nuts, and makes Molten Psyche pretty deadly (I can imagine even more so in multiplayer).
Effectiveness/Card adherence: 2
As you yourself stated this is really a Hive Mind deck more than anything. MP worked OK but I feel this deck wasn't as good at keeping your opponent's hands full and really taking advantage of MP. Again, this would have been better in mutliplayer cuz of the hive mind and the draw spells, so while this is a fun deck and all, for the contest's purpose it wasn't as good as the others in this department. I hate "penalizing" you for this, but this is not a multiplayer contest unfortunately.
Synergy/Tuning: 3
It's hard to judge a card like sizzle because obviously that's got a multiplayer slant, but I do think the overall mix of cards was pretty solid.
Power/Capacity to win: 4
When you get energy field + wheel that's GG unless your opponent has enchantment removal. Sometimes took a while to win but it did win more often than it lost for me.
Interaction/Protection: 4
Gave this a high score because of the energy field + wheel combo even if it wasn't assembled every game. Hive mind also usually forces some fun interactions.
Total: 17
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Peter Riviera (17.5 + 18.5 + 19.5 + 11.5)/4 = 16.75
Hamsta (13.5 + 19.5 + 19 + 18.5)/4 = 17.63
Saben (22 + 17 + 17 + 14.5)/4 = 17.63
Killem2 (17 + 16.5 + 14.5 + 17.5)/4 = 16.38
Maserati (16 + 14 + 18.5 + 16)/4 = 16.13
Gaea's Regent (18 + 16 + 15.5 + 13)/4 = 15.63
Necroticah (18.5 + 17.5 + 14 + 14.5)/4 = 16.13
KingT (13.5 + 13.5 + 12 + 15.5)/4 = 13.63
So we have a tie between Hamsta and Saben. Ehhh congratz both?
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
The Mimeoplasm
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Rhys the Redeemed
Merieke Ri Berit
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Cromat Wurm Tribal
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Looking for Green friendly EDH players/groups in the Toronto area. PM me if this is you.
Also, I voted for dlink this round for what its worth
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Mm what a weird round for scores.
Multiplayer:
MonoBlack
Mono-Red
Cycling
Crush of Wurms
Zoo
Immortal Coil
Control
Reanimator
Mono-G
Cruel Ascension
Landfall
Esper Spirits/Tokens
Phantom Vigor
Not Explicitly Multiplayer:
Allies
Bant
Artifacts