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Jason Waddell

Jason Waddell

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What is this nonsense?
 
Fulcrum

Fulcrum

Peter LaCara said:
Found this browsing through Forsyth's twitter. I don't know what's going on in this dude's cube, but I love this idea. What sort of achievements would you come up with for your cube? Maybe that's a thread...

ClkVpoVXIAAHu5F.jpg:large
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I've had thoughts about this before. I like the idea of making mission cards which are basically these achievements that would function as goofy alternate wincons. You could draft the mission cards before you draft your cube so you can have them in mind while drafting. I think you would have to have them be revealed to your opponent so they can actively work against your mission.

Alternatively you could do something like having these achievements give you some kind of in game bonuses.

Or you can make really cool stickers and hand them out or put together a scrapbook or something. Something goofy I thought of once was having players sign Door to Nothingness if you manage to win with it.

What inspired this for me was thinking about how much fun it would be to see how many times I could untap a forest enchanted with Utopia Sprawl.
 
Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

Chris Taylor said:
Cool, fun, interesting, but will DEFFINITLY make people play sub optimally.

Depends on how much you care :p
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I'm pretty sure that's the point. I'm sure most of us are pretty Spike-y, but it's not like cube is a ruthlessly competitive tournament format. We do this for fun, and as a noted Xbox Achievement Whore, achievements are pretty fun. I don't think I'd attach any in-game effects to them. They're strictly for bragging rights. Maybe have a sheet you keep in the cube box or something, and when someone completes the achievement they get to sign their name, so everyone who drafts the cube in the future gets to see what they pulled off.
 
safra

safra

So I think we know that wizards has underestimate lifegain for many year now, but Providence I think we can agree is gone too far.

Let me do the math here. Providence gains 6 life in opening hand (7/40) and then you can still cast it. Assuming you wait until 1 life (for max benefit) you are gaining an average of 31 life before blocks, and this is not counting other hidden factors.


Hidden factors:

Opponents will not be stupid enough to take you down to one if you have providence in hand, so they will only attack if they can kill you in one hit. Most players will never attack at all at this point (why waste damage that will just leave you open to attacks if you know they can gain 25?). Because they can't make a logical attack, it is as if all of their creatures have pacifism. This is why providence works so well in white to return those pacifism with the new card Ironclad Slayer, but of course this is just icing on the cake to the incredible lifegain, but I digress. The math is overwhelming so let's take a step back.

7/40 (opening hand) =6 life * 1/2(average times it shows up in game if not in opening hand) +25 * 2(this multiplier come from unwillingness of opponent to attack), and finally, some people question my math because they say "you must have 7 mana to cast providence fool*! And of course I have accounted for this as well with the final part of the equation as -7.

So to recap.

7/40 * .5 + 25 * 2 -7

=

Roughly 44 life on average, every game.

Now I know what you are saying, "but 44 life for 7 in limited is still a bad rate", but this is where it gets crazy. Remember how we calculate before average life save with 26 life gain card? Now we see that it is really 44 lifegain card, lets plug that into the equation:

7/40 * .5 + 44 * 2 -7 = ....

82 total life gained for just seven mana. Divide 82/7 and that's 12 life gain per mana. Now try and tell me you wouldn't play "1 mana, gain 12 life" Any player worth their salt would play all of them.


So now that you are concince, you must consider the implication on both small and large scale. On a small scale you must see how far ahead your opponent think when you play. Do determine this pretend to play a land and watch his eyes, see how many times they change direction and divide the eye flicks by the seconds since you played the land, and then understand he is thinking that many steps ahead (eg. 8 eye flicks over 4 seconds is 2 steps ahead, etc.). If this number is 5 or greater the opponent will immediately concede if you reveal providence in your opening hand. If the number is 5 or greater and the opponent does not concede, either you were tricked or the opponent is also playing providence. If the opponent plays a plains, concede.


Large scale implications:
You must consider if your lgs understands the power of the card. While any player worth his salt will see it's power in game, there are still social stigmas surroundling lifegain that prevent players from picking the card in drafts. As an individual, it is in your best interest to seek these stigma stores out and attempt to draft providence. If this does not happen and you do not get providence, there are still many good life gain cards in the set to play with, and it can sometimes be worth it to continue playing. But this is a tough decision to make with experience. Overall, finding these stores and attempting to draft providence will increase win percentage by up to 85%.



Disclaimer: As the meta changes and people begin to recognize (or ignore, as history dictates) the power of this card, you must adjust your strategy accordingly. But I hope I have laid a solid enough foundation to stand on.
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Peter LaCara

Peter LaCara

I feel dumber just for reading that post. Math does not work that way. And even if I accept the author's premise, I probably still wouldn't play Gain 12 life for W.
 
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