Quote from redeathI've built this deck and have been playing it since modern was announced, and I was pretty peeved at having to shell out $45 for a playset of verdant catacombs . Can anyone comment on to why Fulminator Mage is $25+ and sold out everywhere?
Also I run 4 of Architeicts of Will just because I feel that we need the absolute maximum number of one or 0 mana cyclers. Why aren't people running this? I really struggle to find one of my 7 cascade pieces in time without this amount of cheap cycling and don't feel we are as explosive enough without it.
Fulminator Mage isn't $25, it's only fifte- HOLY CRAP. Ummmm.... well, I guess it's expensive because it's really good. Ordinarily I would say the price increase is due to the card showing up in a lot of recent Top 8 lists, but... aside from Hemmann's recent showing, I don't believe it has. Maybe someone else knows more about it?
As for Architects of Will, people don't play it because it has 3 toughness and it's hard to cycle sometimes (most lists don't splash blue). Your manabase looks well-equipped to handle cycling AoW, so that's probably why they've been so good for you.
I've gone back and forth on them, personally. They were nice when I thought the deck was all about getting a big Living End as soon as possible, but I eventually shied away from them in favor of Pale Recluse and a more inevitable late-game plan. Speaking of which... why Valley Rannet over Pale Recluse? I feel like that's an easy switch based on the meta you expect - 5 toughness and reach are pretty big game.
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The reason affinity is so hard to pilot is the difficulty in figuring out how to deal lethal in the face of a trick and knowing all the ins and outs of the synergies of the deck. Here is an above average difficulty of a puzzle affinity must solve to figure out how to deal lethal:
Your oppnent is at 16 life and 1 Infect and you are at 2
Your Hand: Cranial Plating Mox Opal
Your Board:
1 Mox Opal
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Vault Skirge
2 Etched Champion
1 Signal Pest
3 Glimmer Void
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
Your oppnent's board:
11 2/1 Illusion tokens
1 Master of Waves
1 Lord of Atlantis
1 Merfolk Rejery
1 Aether Vial on 3
Untapped Island and Mutavault. He has one card in hand (vapor snag).
The game up to this point:
Last turn you Thoughtseized a Hurkyl's Recall over a vapor snag last turn after he tapped out to cast Master of Waves. On his turn he thinks casts another Master of Waves and gets in for beats leaving you at 2. Lucky you, you've topdecked the plating. Now how do you kill him?
Actually try to figure it out first.
Option two: he Vapor Snags Signal Pest pre-combat and you use Spring Leaf Drum to activate Blinkmoth Nexus then attach Cranial Plating to Inkmoth Nexus
Option three: He Vapor Snag's the Inkmoth nexus before damage and you simply activate Blinkmoth Nexus.
That was a real game state my friend played at a GP, he couldn't figure it out in time and went top 64 instead of 32. All of the decks in modern take some amount of skill to pilot optimally but I feel merfolk offers the least decisions to differentiate good players from great players.
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Put yourself in their shoes. This casual's games of magic usually go on for 10+ turns and they enjoy the back and forth of big creatures and the slow assembly of complex combos. You invite him to play magic and he is just starting to get up to speed after you killed some of his accelerants and next turn he is finally going to cast a big hay maker and then you armageddon. You've left yourself with plenty of mana from rocks and are ready to play spells and now he can't do anything until turns after he is dead. In his eyes you just cast a spell that read 3W -Sorcery Win the Game. Of course there are ways to play around it and interact with it but he likely doesn't have access to them or know they even exist. The same is true for fast combo, he is just starting to build and board presence and oops, he's dead. He never even saw it comming, to him nothing about that game was fun, there was no tension. Just oops, you're dead. Taking your counterspell into reanimate effect example. He never got to cast one of his favorite spells and then he is beaten ruthlessly with it. He seems a little sore for this one but it is still understandable.
My advice to try and appeal to a casual magic player while still having a competitive edge is: Build extremely obvious combo decks that players can interact with so players know what is coming turns in advance (like you're trying to build a deathstar). In EDH the rule of thumb is let players have their turn 6. Instead of counterspells use redirect effects or mind control effects; in actuality you'll get more value out of them in casual games anyway (2 for 1's ahoy) and your opponent will actually feel like he did something and there was some interaction. Plus he feels like if he can find a naturalize effect he can get his dude back. Here there is tension and interaction. Plus with the redirect effects there are far more 'holy **** that just happened' and 'that was awesome' moments that counterspell and armageddon never produce. Avoid mass land destruction like the plague (wasteland, tec edge, and encroaching wastes are okay) and use spot removal sparringly.
Remeber that if you bring to the table a deck that a casual person has no way of interacting with (storm, armageddon, flash-hulk, counterspells.dec, etc) the casual will always complain about losing.
In summary to prevent whining THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is to make sure they felt like they had a fair shake at winning the game by making the game feel close. If they feel like they were unable to do anything they are obviously going to complain.
Eric Levine from CFB wrote a really good article on this a while back here:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/raging-levine-this-is-the-end-of-your-land/
(skip to about 1/3 down)
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For serious? To name a few in modern we have:
Living End (Combo in game 1 and Control in 2&3)
JikiTwin (Combo)
Storm (Combo)
Infect (All in Aggro)
Affinity (Aggro)
Red Deck Wins (Aggro)
Pod Varients (MidRange - Combo)
ScapeShift (Control - Combo)
Jund (Midrange - Control)
RG Tron (Unique)
Eternal Command (Midrange)
UWR (Control or Tempo depending on build)
Merfolk (Tempo)
Complex Dredge (Control)
CawBlade (Tempo)
Rites Control (Control)
Soul Sisters (Control)
Control is about generating card advantage while providing efficeint ansswers. Control is different now because the most efficient card advantage and answers are no longer in the form of draw spells and counterspells. There is a healthy spread between aggro, combo, control, and midrange.
There are lots of legacy decks that do use permanents like stoneblade, rock, and aggro varients, but there also a large portion of legacy decks that simply don't. Storm, dredge, and Show and Tell. Modern has a much smaller portion of decks that do this as Living End and Storm are the only real culprits.
It has depth and strategy now just as much as ever the resources and answers have changed. Control exists but here's the thing, it usually isn't blue. Against Jund I always have to think what permanents I want to play first to bait out his Lilly and dreadbores. If I'm playing living end after they land some grave hate I have to be very particular on how I land my threats and when to cycle. I want to bait out the most creatures for my instant speed wrath. When you are playing soul sisters you have to be meticulous about when you play your spells to make sure you conserve as many resouces as possible. Complex dredge is probably the hardest to pilot control deck.
Which is exactly what modern is. Self correcting with new explosive decks popping up regularly in an extremely diverse field.
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