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Post by moderndaylegend on Jun 12, 2012 17:11:54 GMT -5
Hey everyone! It's been about a week since I have been playing on mtgo, and I thought I would let everyone know how it was going through this blogish post. As I read through some of the threads on this site and on the wotc site, I have noticed that pauper seems to be quite popular for players trying to get into mtgo. I am hoping that this thread will be able to help some of those that are trying to get into the format.
Just an intro before I start, I started playing about a month after dark ascension came out. I have a good grasp on the cards in the standard format, but outside of that I don't know much. I decided to play mtgo because I was finding it harder and harder to go to fnm's to play.
When I first logged on to mtgo, I was lost and wasn't sure what to do first. I tried the classifieds and tried some of the free bots out, but they didn't really have anything that struck my fancy for the deck I wanted to create. After messing around for a couple of days with the free cards they give you (not the planeswalker pack, don't open that if you don't plan on using them), I decided I was finally going to buy my first constructed deck. I checked out a bunch of the bots, but my lack of patience got the best of me and I went to mtgotraders and bought my singles there.
My initial plan was to not spend anymore than the initial $9.99 to activate the account (see episode 60 of pttp), but I really wanted to try out a mono black control build. I bought everything I needed for around $14 (about $8 of that was for 3 crypt rats). My logic was that $15 is a steal for a deck that can actually win some games in the format it is in. I spent more than that on a playset of gravecrawlers for my zombie deck, so I was very happy with the investment seeing as mtgo is probably going to be my main source of magic from here on out.
In order to prevent a massive wall of text (I'm doing good so far ;-p), I'm going to post the next part of my journey in a little bit in a separate post in a couple of hours
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Post by moderndaylegend on Jun 12, 2012 20:50:26 GMT -5
Hey everyone! I'm back to write the next piece of my mtgo journey. So I have my mono black control deck (I'll post the decklist at the end), and I head right to the tournament practice room. I'm feeling good about the deck. I like the overall theme and may be feeling slightly cocky as I start up my first match. I don't have much of the details, so a lot of the things I'm doing is going off of my memory.
First match - Mono Blue Control: I start the game on the draw, and they start with a turn one delver. I have no clue what to expect at this point because I am fresh to the format and have no clue what to expect from the meta. I try to play a ravenous rats on turn 2, but it gets countered. This is the theme for the whole match as I get pounded by the flipped delver.
Match 2 - Fairies: I don't remember most of the details, but I do remember the biggest punt I have ever had (gotta learn somehow right?). I tried to snuff out a flipped delver by paying 4 life only to get it countered. The delver beat my face pretty much for 7 free damage that turn and I couldn't recover. I did manage to win game 2 thanks to 3 corrupts however, so I scored my first win! Going into game 3 I keep a hand with a turn 1 duress so I keep (pretty good against fairies right??). I play it and all I see in the message log is "hehe duress." I look at his hand and see 4 island, 1 delver, 1 spellstutter sprite, and the other creature that lets you untap 2 land. I don't remember much more, other than I lost.
After this match, all of my other games blend together so I'll just post my overall record against other matchups I saw:
Fairies - overall 0-2: Not sure what I can do for these matchups. I board in the duresses, but still manage to struggle. Feedback is appreciated.
Goblins - overall 1-1: I feel pretty good against this deck. The one match loss I had was due to the fact that I couldn't find any removal, but sometimes that stuff happens.
Cloudpost - overall 3-2: These decks are extremely annoying. Both times I lost was due to a card called rolling thunder (or something close to that?). I had never seen these decks before and was not aware they take forever! One of my mtgo highlights so far include being down most of a game against cloudpost and coming back and winning with 4 corrupts!
Mirror match - 1-0: I got some good draws. Being the man probably also contributed a little bit.
Some things I learned this week from playing on mtgo: - Pauper is extremely fun. I love the fact that I have 4 corrupts and have had an opportunity to play it almost every game since the games actually last. - I hate cloudpost. It's not that I think the deck is overpowered, it is just the equivalent of watching paint dry. - Playing on a budget is quite easy with pauper. I just built a standard pauper deck to play in the league on this site for .33 tix! - I have a bad habit of pressing f6 and then get click happy afterwards, skipping my turn in the process. I have to fix this.
I think that that is all for now. If this is interesting to anyone let me know, and I will keep it up. If so, I will make sure to actually keep semi-detailed notes about matches I played.
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Post by moderndaylegend on Jun 12, 2012 20:55:40 GMT -5
Forgot to post the decklist:
Land: 22 Swamp
Creatures: 3 Ravenous Rats 3 Chittering Rats 3 Crypt Rats 4 Phyrexian Rager 3 Liliana's Specter 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 2 Warren Pilferers
Spells: 3 diabolic edict 3 geth's verdict 2 snuff out 4 corrupt 2 tendrils of corruption 4 Sign in Blood
Sideboard: 4 duress 3 distress 1 tendrils of corruption 2 disfigure 1 echoing decay 2 snuff out 2 victim of night
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Post by RockBass on Jun 13, 2012 0:18:30 GMT -5
This is awesome, and it's great to relive the beginner experience.
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Post by yugular on Jun 13, 2012 1:02:35 GMT -5
Good stuff! I really can't commet the decklist or matchups as I don't play MBC at all.
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Post by High_Gene on Jun 13, 2012 3:41:17 GMT -5
I have to admit that a lot has changed concerning mono-blue decks nowadays. Back then, Duress was insane. Today, it's semi-effective. Most decks are less of an instant-based (i.e. counterspells) rather than aggro-control decks that may easily win (with an opening hand) without counterspells. Therefore, Duress got a lot worse, in my opinion. I would estimate that the Cloudpost match up may be a bit in MBC's favor due to your constant card advantage (by creatures) and higher threat density. But I admit, it's a very, very, very grindy game. Other than that, I do like to hear about other people's experience with MBC. And as I mentioned before, MBC has all the tools to have at least not a bad match up against any deck but knowing the opposing deck(s) is essential.
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Post by moderndaylegend on Jun 15, 2012 10:14:11 GMT -5
It looks like some people are reading and commenting, awesome. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I plan on keeping this up for a little bit as long as there is interest. I'm going to focus a little more on financials in the next section because I think that is a big part for new players, but anyone want anything else?
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avery61
Gravy Cake
Bacon!
Posts: 283
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Post by avery61 on Jun 15, 2012 14:37:55 GMT -5
Hey Legend ~ 1st - great games today.
2nd. I love MBC - While both Okiba & Pilferer are good cards I don't think you need both in the deck. Pick one and ditch the other and move up to a full suite of Ravenous & Chittering Rats. Getting an extra turn from Chittering Rats is why this game wins so many times, at least for me, and forces your opponent to make plays they normally wouldn't. In this list I would prefer the shenanigans of Pilferer over Okiba, but that’s just preference.
Had to look up Snuff Out, I've never played it before - or at least not sine Masque. I think Doom Blade is better here, but I will get a play set of Snuff Out and give it a shot. I'd also bump Specter up to 4, maybe taking out an edict or verdict.
Keep posting & welcome to pauper, best format in magic, imo.
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Post by moderndaylegend on Jun 17, 2012 13:09:52 GMT -5
Hey Avery, thanks for the suggestions. I agree with you about the shinobi & pilferers. I prefer the shinobi over the pilferers for a couple of reasons. I've never seen ninjutsu before playing pauper (only started a month after dka came out) and it is one of my favorite mechanics. I also prefer the 4 mana cost for the curve with a 5 mana cost option if I need it. Not sure if this is a the right call or not, but I just really like the card. I will definitely put the ravenous rats and the chittering rats in that spot. Chittering spots is probably my favorite card in the deck. It's one thing to discard a card, but it's an entirely different thing to skip your draw step.
I really like snuff out. If I switched it, I think I would prefer victim of night (I usually do this sideboard switch anyway), but I'll look into it. I also gotta see if the bot I have credit with has the rats and spector. I don't want to use a whole ticket for three cards that don't cost that much.
On a side note, look for the week 2 post coming early this week!
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Post by RockBass on Jun 18, 2012 12:04:49 GMT -5
It's awesome that Snuff Out can be picked up for cheap now. That card used to be 'spensive. Like, 15 tickets 'spensive.
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Post by moderndaylegend on Jun 19, 2012 9:54:47 GMT -5
Ouch. Are we talking for a playset or each? My whole deck was less than $15
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Post by yugular on Jun 19, 2012 12:54:52 GMT -5
How much is Snuff Out atm?
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avery61
Gravy Cake
Bacon!
Posts: 283
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Post by avery61 on Jun 19, 2012 17:23:08 GMT -5
Now ~ they're down to about $1.50 each or less
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Post by High_Gene on Jun 20, 2012 2:06:28 GMT -5
I definitively have to disagree on Okiba-Gang Shinobi vs Warren Pilferers. The ninja is very situational and its power is very much depending on the match up. MBC has several more ways to empty the opponents hand. Furthermore, the opponent will also try to have no cards in hand due to the danger of being Time Walk-ed by Chittering Rats. Therefore, Okiba-Gang Shinobi is only good, when facing combo decks or if it's cheated into the game early. Moreover, its toughness of 2 makes it a very fragile creature. Warren Pilferers on the other hand is always good. I dare to use "always" since it's so rare that you don't have one of your early drops in your graveyard either due to trading or removal. Moreover it helps you to develop the board in contrast to the ninja (especially when using ninjutsu). Besides, when the game's long, a recurring 3/3 hasty creature is not to underestimate. Just a personal remark which doesn't refer to anyone specifically: I'm quite tired of talking about which cards to include in MBC. I admit there are quite some decisions to be made but it's kind of really, really tiring. Especially when people start to play 22 lands of which 8 are cycle lands and only 12 creatures (of which some are Okiba-Gang Shinobis -.-). I know the decklists reflect the play style of the pilot but man, it's really gotta be real damn luck to make it to the top 8 with a list like the aforementioned (in this paragraph, not the one posted by moderndaylegend). It also seems like that the players online have a different play style than the ones playing with paper cards and furthermore, the geographical disparity will also affect card choices. But please, please, do not have any MBC decks consisting just of discard, removal, and cycle lands (also in your interest). Last aspect of my whiny complaints: Please check out my MBC primer on wrongwaygoback.com/scienceofpauper/2012/03/05/001-what-you-do-in-the-dark/ and wrongwaygoback.com/scienceofpauper/2012/03/12/002-will-come-to-the-light/ and let me know how you feel about my train of thought. I have a paragraph dedicated to each card I've included in my list, so that you can comprehend my reasoning. End of enraged citizen (for those who are familiar with German might know what I'm referring to ^^)
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