I was at the SCGSTL Legacy Open this weekend, and witnessed some very shady play from Sam Black, one of scg's pro players and writers. 2 situations occured as the time was winding down so both players were trying to maintain a quick pace of game. Sam was playing his legacy zombie deck and his opponent was playing esper blade. Game 2 Sam had bloodghast in the graveyard and his opponent surgical extracted in response to Sam's landfall trigger. Sam picked up bloodghast then set it back down in his graveyard and handed the stoneblade player his deck and revealed his hand. The stoneblade player then went through his library removing bloodghast. Now he assumed since he surgical extracted bloodghast in response to the trigger that Sam would go ahead and take that bloodghast out of his graveyard and put it in the rfg pile as well. Sam then said are you done, stoneblade player responded with yes and Sam put bloodghast into play. Later in this same match, remember time is winding down, game 3 was very tight. Stoneblade player had a batterskull on board with no germ and a stoneforge mystic with 6 mana open. Sam attacked with several creatures so the stoneblade player returned batterskull to his hand, via pay 3, and then stoneforged the batterskull back down and then swords one of the attackers, a tidehollow skuller with snapcaster exiled, and then went to set a dice on the batterskull to assign to block. Sam said no because he had skipped this. Stoneblade proceeded to lose and the lifegain would have def. kept him alive for the draw. Has anyone else witnessed these shanigans at SCG lately from their 'pro' players.
Lately? Bertoncheaty anyone?
Mistakes are always made but I feel a lot of the people that are "pros" got there because they know how to game competitive systems as a whole. Knowing when to take a risk and when not to is all a part of being a pro if you are desperate and is a huge skill to have if you leave your scrupples at the door. Which a lot of people decide to do, pro or am.
I will point out that it is not just "pros" doing some things to gain any advantage but that they are the best at it, therefore they are "pros". Pros also know they can usually rely on their reputation to win disputes with their opponents and also judges. Look at Bertoncinni, "Aw comon, I am just a sloppy player! No need to bring in a judge!"
And yes, I know not all pros do this but it seems MTG is becoming inundated with this sort of behavior.
I am not sure what WoTC is doing with their precons lately. I LOVE me some planechase and I have been looking forward to this since it was announced but I am not sure if I will buy any of this. I will probably just buy the planes and the Wanderer and maybe the Ninja deck and call it good.
People are saying this set is appealing to casual players... Well, it shouldn't be because it is really not very good.
I really did not like the theme of a "horror" block before Innistrad was spoiled but I ended up liking that set overall and even came around on transform. I mean, who wouldn't with a card like Delver of Secrets? DA wasn't too bad but was a step down but really had some solid cards.
AR just seems like bleh and the flavor seems ham handed and forced and what pisses me off is the clearly made for Commander creatures. Which is the reason I hate commander, it gives them an excuse to print terrible creatures and then over cost them more than usual. Terrible.
Watching SCG Richmond Sorin was in the esper superfriends deck and he was an absolute house. The deck placed pretty well. I think he is a good card, 50 dollars? Maybe not.
Full disclosure, I bought 2 of him for 50 dollars each. lol.
Not saying your wrong, because I realize this is an opinion. In my mind, continuity is a storyline issue and does not dwell in mechanics.
To me it makes a block feel completely disjointed. I bought a box of ROE and was so underwhelmed by it. None of the mechanics felt like they had anyting to do with the rest of the block. If one of their goals is to tell a story through the cards they design then this format is a total failure, imo.
Maro has to be told that this is some of the worst design decisions ever. Having the last set in a block be completely on it's own kills continuity and frankly completely bores me. When they did this with Rise I stopped buying sealed product (I know buying sealed product is stupid but I loved(d) cracking packs).
Doing it this way leaves the second set sort of stranded and then the third big set doesn't even feel like part of the same block.
For a company that puts a lot of stock in flavor and lore they really are screwing the pooch by doing this.
So... I preordered two Sorins and a playset of lingering Souls. I am glad I did not go for a box like I had planned on. Crap set is crap. Really loving this top down design...:rolleyes:
Mostly because it turns formats into just turn sideways and removes the fun creative decks. Yes, there are ways to deal with this card but it's existence might be enough to turn people away from playing anything remotely fun and just turning sideways all day. Great fun that.
I should have specified that these two formats (and modern) were what I was referring to. This card will most likely be in every single sideboard from now on.
Seriously, everyone is saying not to worry about this card but look at just how powerful it is. If you are running a deck and you do not have an answer pronto you auto lose. It is crazy.
Lately? Bertoncheaty anyone?
Mistakes are always made but I feel a lot of the people that are "pros" got there because they know how to game competitive systems as a whole. Knowing when to take a risk and when not to is all a part of being a pro if you are desperate and is a huge skill to have if you leave your scrupples at the door. Which a lot of people decide to do, pro or am.
I will point out that it is not just "pros" doing some things to gain any advantage but that they are the best at it, therefore they are "pros". Pros also know they can usually rely on their reputation to win disputes with their opponents and also judges. Look at Bertoncinni, "Aw comon, I am just a sloppy player! No need to bring in a judge!"
And yes, I know not all pros do this but it seems MTG is becoming inundated with this sort of behavior.
No kidding. A lot of people liked the flavor of Kamigawa block too and that was horrendous.
I am just saying Anet is not doing casuals (or anyone playing MTG) any favors by printing crappy sets that "look" cool.
I really did not like the theme of a "horror" block before Innistrad was spoiled but I ended up liking that set overall and even came around on transform. I mean, who wouldn't with a card like Delver of Secrets? DA wasn't too bad but was a step down but really had some solid cards.
AR just seems like bleh and the flavor seems ham handed and forced and what pisses me off is the clearly made for Commander creatures. Which is the reason I hate commander, it gives them an excuse to print terrible creatures and then over cost them more than usual. Terrible.
If a 40 year old man has a problem with a 16 year old kid then the character flaws are all his.
Full disclosure, I bought 2 of him for 50 dollars each. lol.
The point is Rise was not good with the rest of the block and vice versa.
To me it makes a block feel completely disjointed. I bought a box of ROE and was so underwhelmed by it. None of the mechanics felt like they had anyting to do with the rest of the block. If one of their goals is to tell a story through the cards they design then this format is a total failure, imo.
Doing it this way leaves the second set sort of stranded and then the third big set doesn't even feel like part of the same block.
For a company that puts a lot of stock in flavor and lore they really are screwing the pooch by doing this.
Mostly because it turns formats into just turn sideways and removes the fun creative decks. Yes, there are ways to deal with this card but it's existence might be enough to turn people away from playing anything remotely fun and just turning sideways all day. Great fun that.
I should have specified that these two formats (and modern) were what I was referring to. This card will most likely be in every single sideboard from now on.