deck designer here (at least for the first one, although the 2nd one at least looks like it was derivative of my build).
shining shoal gives you an x-spell for 'scape while destroying the fast aggro decks - gruul, zoo, rakdos - and ensuring vore/urtron don't get to beat you with wildfire. it also means that if you draw extra/unnecessary 'scapes/patrons you can do broken things with them like killing opposing dragons for zero mana.
meloku is an intelligent addition, and one i've been considering myself. i wouldn't recommend running chord of calling though: while it's certainly the best x-spell post-scape, it's really far too clunky pre-scape. i tested it extensively in the first build
the main problem for the basic concept of the deck at the moment is husk, which is undeniably an issue as it was the most successful deck at the regionals played thus far. this tends to be remedied out of the sideboard; big/flying fatties like yosei/meloku/kodama north/simic sky swallower along with glare/little guys to hold them back is the best plan for that matchup
lol, Kashmyr you lost ot Fungus Fires? I have been working on the deck. This is the perfect meta for it.
Yeah, Shadowlance is also great since it can turn mana flood into a massive pumpage. I don't know how Cymbrogi missed it.
we didn't miss it. we just didn't expect that there'd be so many decks in the metagame it would be good against - BWG control and BW aggro were much bigger at the PT than we expected. also, if you read my article from a week or so back you'll note that i discussed it as a sideboard option in concert with hand of honor. it's a good card
well, yeah, it's only good in a deck that can get 1rr and wants to burn out its opponent's creatures. just like arcbound ravager is only good in a deck with lots of artifacts. are you going to argue that ravager is bad just because i can't stick it into my mono-blue control deck?
It may have been in some decklists that did well at States, but it still doesn't mean that those decks wouldn't have done better without Orcish Artillery. Cards like Vetran Armorer, Goblin Cohort, or adding more copies of cards like Hearth Kami, Char, and Genju of the Spires would make the deck better IMO. I'm not saying its that bad of a card, but it just seems like its a bit slow for these types of decks. It doesn't have haste or anything, it doesn't attack well, all its really good at is blocking, and shocking your opponent and lightning bolting yourself.
I know many people dislike IBTG because he tends to disagree with a lot of people, but he is usually right.
I have no problem with IBTG; frankly I have no idea who is and I don't care. He seems to have a capable head on his shoulders, but in this case is also horribly, horribly wrong. But hey, when he's designed 3 States-winning decklists, we can talk about Standard. Until then I will just thumb my nose at his mediocrity.
Your suggestion of running guys like Veteran Armorer and (eww) Goblin Cohort indicates you're not familiar with the archetype. The deck I built that placed in the top 4 at all 3 events it was played in certainly can play as an aggro deck, but it is at its core an aggro-control deck. It's RDW, it just happens to be playing some White cards. Goblin Cohort doesn't work because you don't want to be overcommitting to the board, so having to play a creature every turn is bad times. If I considered another one drop it would be Savannah Lions, but I hate one toughness creatures in this format. Veteran Armorer was briefly considered for the mirror, but I quickly realised that you couldn't rely on it giving you an advantage in combat, because a well-placed burn spell would wreck your efforts.
Anyway, Orcish Artillery is insane in the format as it stands, although I could see a more heavily controlling format where it isn't worth it - for example, it's pretty underwhelming against the Ub control decks. It single-handedly beats BU or BUG aggro if it stays on the table, allows you to establish board superiority in the "mirror", combines with cheap burn spells to burn out big guys like Iwamori, and when you get it going in concert with Boros Guildmage you can pretty much attack into anything. My article discussing the deck on Brainburst should be up within a week or so, the deck will be explained further there.
sorry I didnt even know they had the full texas list up, and I only had the BoW list that won. but yeah needless to say, a man running artillery top 8ed the same tournament BoW won... there must have been a ton of good players.
austrailia is pretty much the same deal... sorry I didnt make it a point to see what won a random county in austrailia.
still though mortipede was played in more than 1 top 8 aggro black list....
i'm aware you're probably just trolling, but are you seriously suggesting you can dismiss a deck that top 8'd the three states tournaments it was played at? if states is such weak competition, how many states-winning decks have you designed? it's easy to do, right?
to my knowledge there was only one RW aggro deck that used artillery.... I would also like to point out though that mortipede was being run in a states top 8 decklist... because it happens to be a random top 8 decklist doesnt make the card good.
There were in fact 3 top 8 RW decks with 3 Artilleries maindeck: 1st in Queensland, Australia, 2nd in Pittsburg, 3rd in Texas. They were all identical maindecks (one card different in Texas, to be fair), and they were all designed by me.
Artillery is insane in this format. I just happened to discover this about a month ago.
I hate to disappoint you guys, but based on the title, this is likely not the preview article. "Natural Selection" is a player run event that is being organized via the MTGO boards, and is running with the Tribal Wars format.
Quote from FIRE REIGN 2 »
The Name of Smith's Article is: "Tribal Wars: Natural Selection"
Obviously, he is not previewing the card for tomorrow, because he has a picture of Red Bringer for his display.
There's no distinct line, but the separation between the two posters just looks...odd. Tinkered with. The impression I'm getting is a clear border that's been smoothed over with photoshop, but then again I'm less familiar with photoshop than yourself.
2) All four sides of the poster are perfect straight lines, but the poster is 10 pixels wider at the top than it is at the bottom despite being the same height at both sides. For the layman, that means this poster is not square.
You might want to have a discussion with these laymen about "perspective."
Quote from Jedit »
3) Take a look at the wall. There's a distinct and perfectly vertical line running up it between the two posters, almost perfectly parallel to the right hand edge of the Power 9 poster. Some attempt has been made to hide it with shading, but on one side of the line the wall is matt white and on the other it's eggshell-white. Those two posters were not on the same wall.
This, however, is a very good point. That's definitely a significant blow for people like myself wanting this to be real.
shining shoal gives you an x-spell for 'scape while destroying the fast aggro decks - gruul, zoo, rakdos - and ensuring vore/urtron don't get to beat you with wildfire. it also means that if you draw extra/unnecessary 'scapes/patrons you can do broken things with them like killing opposing dragons for zero mana.
meloku is an intelligent addition, and one i've been considering myself. i wouldn't recommend running chord of calling though: while it's certainly the best x-spell post-scape, it's really far too clunky pre-scape. i tested it extensively in the first build
the main problem for the basic concept of the deck at the moment is husk, which is undeniably an issue as it was the most successful deck at the regionals played thus far. this tends to be remedied out of the sideboard; big/flying fatties like yosei/meloku/kodama north/simic sky swallower along with glare/little guys to hold them back is the best plan for that matchup
we didn't miss it. we just didn't expect that there'd be so many decks in the metagame it would be good against - BWG control and BW aggro were much bigger at the PT than we expected. also, if you read my article from a week or so back you'll note that i discussed it as a sideboard option in concert with hand of honor. it's a good card
I have no problem with IBTG; frankly I have no idea who is and I don't care. He seems to have a capable head on his shoulders, but in this case is also horribly, horribly wrong. But hey, when he's designed 3 States-winning decklists, we can talk about Standard. Until then I will just thumb my nose at his mediocrity.
Your suggestion of running guys like Veteran Armorer and (eww) Goblin Cohort indicates you're not familiar with the archetype. The deck I built that placed in the top 4 at all 3 events it was played in certainly can play as an aggro deck, but it is at its core an aggro-control deck. It's RDW, it just happens to be playing some White cards. Goblin Cohort doesn't work because you don't want to be overcommitting to the board, so having to play a creature every turn is bad times. If I considered another one drop it would be Savannah Lions, but I hate one toughness creatures in this format. Veteran Armorer was briefly considered for the mirror, but I quickly realised that you couldn't rely on it giving you an advantage in combat, because a well-placed burn spell would wreck your efforts.
Anyway, Orcish Artillery is insane in the format as it stands, although I could see a more heavily controlling format where it isn't worth it - for example, it's pretty underwhelming against the Ub control decks. It single-handedly beats BU or BUG aggro if it stays on the table, allows you to establish board superiority in the "mirror", combines with cheap burn spells to burn out big guys like Iwamori, and when you get it going in concert with Boros Guildmage you can pretty much attack into anything. My article discussing the deck on Brainburst should be up within a week or so, the deck will be explained further there.
i'm aware you're probably just trolling, but are you seriously suggesting you can dismiss a deck that top 8'd the three states tournaments it was played at? if states is such weak competition, how many states-winning decks have you designed? it's easy to do, right?
it was piloted by Anthony Purdom (Agentis) to victory
There were in fact 3 top 8 RW decks with 3 Artilleries maindeck: 1st in Queensland, Australia, 2nd in Pittsburg, 3rd in Texas. They were all identical maindecks (one card different in Texas, to be fair), and they were all designed by me.
Artillery is insane in this format. I just happened to discover this about a month ago.
.
There's no distinct line, but the separation between the two posters just looks...odd. Tinkered with. The impression I'm getting is a clear border that's been smoothed over with photoshop, but then again I'm less familiar with photoshop than yourself.
You might want to have a discussion with these laymen about "perspective."
This, however, is a very good point. That's definitely a significant blow for people like myself wanting this to be real.