General Squadron Build-Arounds
- Thread starter Jason Waddell
- Start date
But on the plus side, I'm glad you've come around on the Squadron Hawk experiment. I remember you expressing some apprehension when I changed white around to reinclude the five-pack (!) of birds. I take it you're on-board this train now!
Well cultivate isn't necessarily cultivate. It's also squadron hawk or ugh life from the loam or whatever.
I'm down with 2x3 or 3x2 packs of birds. I'm looking into more stuff. I was just excited because when you start talking about dumb hawks you also start talking about the other garbage I like about this game. Like being able to "turn on" your bulk mediocre cards. We are talking about land tax etc here. A wargear or anthem or blood painter helps out the birds a lot but that shit is obvious and dull.
I'm down with 2x3 or 3x2 packs of birds. I'm looking into more stuff. I was just excited because when you start talking about dumb hawks you also start talking about the other garbage I like about this game. Like being able to "turn on" your bulk mediocre cards. We are talking about land tax etc here. A wargear or anthem or blood painter helps out the birds a lot but that shit is obvious and dull.
CML
Contributor
I disagree, there's a lot you can do with the Hawks. You can shuffle and equip and tuck and durdle and talk shit to SF people.
Today AK was disliked by a Wizards employee who came by, I think he just cantripped into 'em and drew his deck, though he did lose a game to my dad and not enjoy the funsies draft, so I wanna do nothing for another week and see what's up. I'm not just crazy, right? Karakas isn't worth a pick? Perpetually 14th-pick cards are a bad draft dynamic? Etc.
Today AK was disliked by a Wizards employee who came by, I think he just cantripped into 'em and drew his deck, though he did lose a game to my dad and not enjoy the funsies draft, so I wanna do nothing for another week and see what's up. I'm not just crazy, right? Karakas isn't worth a pick? Perpetually 14th-pick cards are a bad draft dynamic? Etc.
Yeah I'm down with finding all the cool stuff you can do with extra dumb cards. I'm down with cubing more cards that give non-blue colours ways to use their pigeon holed card generators.
In the same breath I'll remind you there's lots you can do with your extra lands from cultivate.
I'm thinking double packs of AK might be fun but that might get out of hand pretty quickly too.
I wonder if there's a format here along the lines of FFG's Star Wars LCG, where you build decks via blocks of 7 cards.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
We should make a Pack Rat Cube! 200 copies of Pack Rat, Echoing Truth/Decay/Courage, Patron of the Nezumi, Marrow-Gnawer, Spell Snare, Detention Sphere, Mutavault, Typhoid Rats, Drainpipe Vermin, Mothdust Changeling, Mirror Entity...
CML
Contributor
Nope, you're right, I'm not sure why either, since it's not like I have to lard my Cube with unplayables and limited bombs for the "99 percent," as having someone like that over is (if you can still stand my style) more like getting an audience with Klamm than it is slumming with the innkeepers. This guy (who is nice enough that I'll keep his name on the DL) also spoke highly of another local Cube that I know to be awful (though I guess I think this of all conventional Cubes), absurdly claiming that it had undergone the process of "Magic development" when (I'm told) its colors are imbalanced and it hasn't fundamentally changed in years. The depressing conclusion I have is that when you work there you begin to actually think like the bland communiqués that get issued on DailyMTG, and this seems to be slowly happening to the other guy who just started working there and often drafts with us, though for the time being he still likes da Cube
I have the feeling that there's a company line, where they want magic to look pretty close to 'real' magic, because once everyone realises they have no power and everyone can just build cubes from proxies with custom cards and utility land drafts and what have, they're kind of out of a business.
that might be their perception but is simply not true.
look at how mods greatly helped the pc game market over the years rather than hurt it
Oh sure, but WotC corporate.
I dunno about that. EDH players have perhaps the best incentive to proxy, as the vast majority of their games aren't sanctioned. But they still go out of their way not only to acquire real cards, but to track down foil versions of them (!). I kind of hate proxies, myself, and oftentimes will delay testing a card until I can get my grubby hands on a real copy. There's just something about having the real card that's satisfying.
I'm not saying we should; I'm saying it's totally possible to play (constructed) magic without giving WotC a cent. It's also a pretty bad idea to do so! But I wouldn't be surprised if that's why the company line is 'do stuff more like the stuff we sell'.
CML
Contributor
Hahahahah yeah they actually look at it that way and are completely oblivious to this being the cause of MTG being a cult activity, if a huge cult activity
I find that EDH players have a huge anti-proxy stigma, whereas people who play cubes don't really care. Cube owners care a lot more about the "look" of their cubes, which is one of the biggest limitations against actual design and experimentation. I mean, there's a reason R&D uses ugly ass pieces of paper in the design process. If they had to commission art and wair for a card to be delivered every time they had a new idea...
The EDH group I know has been pretty lenient about proxies.But that's cuz there's one guy who proxies cuz he doesn't want to waste money (he's a cube enthusiast) and one other guy who has the cards but for some reason just proxies them. (because he's too lazy to take them out of his binders or something)
I play Commander occasionally (enough to call it Commander, I guess) and abhor most proxies. The proxies in our area are typically slips of paper with "Top" or, even worse, basics with Sharpie. No detail, just names. Not only are they always proxies of confusing cards, but they look atrocious. I refuse to respect something I can't read, particularly if you can't even tell me what it does. /rant
I wouldn't mind legible, detailed proxies, though. For the squadron picks, I would consider weak and risky build-arounds like Burning Vengeance. Otherwise, I would avoid it (except for Hawk-type cards).
I wouldn't mind legible, detailed proxies, though. For the squadron picks, I would consider weak and risky build-arounds like Burning Vengeance. Otherwise, I would avoid it (except for Hawk-type cards).