Card/Deck Brainstorm as a lynchpin

ahadabans

ahadabans

CML said:
well you could try it instead of writing reams upon reams of speculative text
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Easier said than done I'm afraid. My group is really inconsistent, so gathering that type of data for me is very difficult. And so Magic these days for me is mostly theory crafting unfortunately.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Chris Taylor said:
I think the point is the other options suck, and double strike is awesome.
Or drawing cards is awesome. Pick your poison
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CML's on an anti-singleton binge these days, and I'm not saying he doesn't have a point, but I also don't think that every breaking of singleton needs to be inherently justified. Retail sets, to their benefit, are full of nonsingleton effects of all varieties.

Tangentially, last draft I got into a Scavenging Ooze v. Scavenging Ooze battle and it was super fun. Suuuper fun. You don't get that kind of stuff rocking singles. I don't have a great reason for having two without lifegain, but there it is.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
hehe anyone remember Ripple from Coldsnap?

http://magiccards.info/query?q=o:ripple&v=card&s=cname

i am cool with double Scooze because it has an activated ability and something that interacts with the graveyard is great fun. stuff like double Goblin Guide never took off here and people have been bitching about the numbers of Gravecrawlers, which might be better off at 2/450 here, and the number of Birthing Pods, which they're certainly wrong about (4/450 is perfect).

I'd worry about double Finks just because it's so strong everywhere, and there are so many other options at 3-slots for lifegain, selesnya dude, or whatever. I guess I'm vaguely interested in a theoretical framework for "when singleton tends to work," but I'm not sure how to formulate it without either being too dogmatic or specific to the point where anecdotes like "I love hella Gravecrawlers and Pods" are more descriptive.
 
Lucre

Lucre

If you want all decks to be kinda blue is the idea to increase access to blue fixing? Make it just reasonable to be in blue? Add blue duals to the land draft?
 
CML

CML

Contributor
i don't want that so much as i want Blue to be strong enough to fit into 1-5 color decks, like the other colors. when people start talking about how 'the control deck' loses to the 'zombie deck' which has trouble with the 'zoo deck' i start to worry my archetypes are too rigid. when people say 'my deck couldn't beat a birthing pod' i worry even more.
 
Changling Bob

Changling Bob

VibeBox said:
i couldn't disagree more that it's "skill testing". i feel that the arguments that were wrongly leveled against damage on the stack are pretty applicable against it. it creates the illusion of options and challenge, but in reality it quickly becomes rote motions on extracting value from it with little effort or variance.
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So magic the gathering then?
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I dunno, I think Brainstorm is legitimately skill testing. It's just the right amount of strategic complexity without being overwhelming. Watch someone cast it in cube sometime and see how often they do exactly what you would do.
 
CML

CML

Contributor
without a ton of fetches its power level is pretty spot-on, i think. the only complaint is that without a fetch it is weak and every decision amounts to the same thing. i like ponder too.
 
Changling Bob

Changling Bob

Right, so netrunner, where every click on every turn can be an agonising CBA of what's safe, do I have enough credits, can I bluff out the other playing doing something stupid, etc, compared to brainstorming where do I want these cards now, later or shuffle them to much later.
 
Dom Harvey

Dom Harvey

Contributor
I love Courser. I just love lands in general, especially anything that lets me play extra lands or lands from different (/erogenous) zones. Oracle of Mul Daya is delightful.

Halimar Depths for the land draft? Valakut with Prismatic Omen or Scapeshift in the Cube?
 
FlowerSunRain

FlowerSunRain

Contributor
I seriously considered notion thief, the card is pretty brutal. The problem I had with it is that while the combos are mean and countering a Sphinx's Revelation is hilarious, turning Preordain and Shelter into "dead cards" seemed like a feelbad thing to do. I'm considering taking out Spirit of the Labyrinth for that reason, even if it isn't as bad.
 
Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I think things tend to feel worse in EDH than other formats because
a) people have weird notions about what is "fair"
b) the games take longer, so there's a greater time-loss associated with losing there, amplifying the emotional response
 
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