So the prerelease is half over. Here are my thoughts so far on the format.
Its slow. I got away with my curve starting at 4 and had almost no issues wrecking aggro decks. The abundance of pillarfield oxen at common with great abilities turns the format into a massive board stall. The white one in particular that makes a 2/2 knight creates a stalled state on its own. The green one's 7 life gives you plenty of breathing room, and the red one's threaten effect will just flat out end games. Drawing a card (blue) and killing another creature (black) are nothing to scoff at either. All of them are absolutely insane and single handily hold down the fort the moment they hit play.
Seven drops are playable. Trolstani's Summoner is by far one of the biggest limited bombs of the set. Creating 10 power on the board with the ability to populate more should almost always be good game. Horncaller's chant? Maindeck. It feels like a slightly faster Rise of the Eldrazi format in this respect. Plenty of ramp, lots of good removal and big fatties.
Overall I feel like the full draft format will be one of the best limited formats we've had in years. It will be slow, methodical and skill intensive. Finally putting the power back into better players hands in a limited format. No more losing to Skullcrack kid because he curved out perfectly and you sputtered. No more, "oops I won".
I look forward to the format.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Gatecrash: A collision of bad drafting situations.
With Dragon's Maze prereleases happening this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back on triple Gatecrash as a draft format. We've had a few months of constant gatecrash, one of the most aggro formats they've printed since triple Zendikar, but issues have cropped up with the format, almost all of them controllable by WoTC.
Heavily aggro formats in general tend to be very bad for limited. When you only get 4-7 turns, the luck factor (1) rises. When you only get to play a game with your starting hand and the top 4-5 cards of your library, game factors like proper curving out and proper answers rises. If you cannot draw an answer for that Wojek Halberdiers or Steppe Lynx you'll just lose to it. This doesn't make for a very fun game in the long run. Triple Gatecrash is one of those formats. Games can play out very quickly and snowball out of control if one person curves out perfectly and the other player struggles to find their fourth land. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it tends to reward luck over play skill in the long run.
When drafting a heavy aggro format like Gatecrash and Zendikar, one of the most important things to do is figure out what color(s) you're drafting as soon as possible. Since your curve is extremely important, you may have to take that Grizzly bear (2/2 for 2) much higher than any other card just to curve out properly. That leads us into the next part.
The common print runs are heavily skewed towards a specific guild. How many times have you seen the following commons in the same pack? Slaughterhorn, Scab-Clan Charger, Crocanura, Ember Beast. More than once? How about Kingpin's Pet, Syndicate of Tithes and Basilica Screecher together? This is an issue with the print runs. These cards are all printed near each other, causing massive headaches for drafters trying to send signals. How can you signal Gruul/Simic isn't open when you take the Croc and pass Slaughterhorn, charger and Beast? Even worse is the Orzhov pack. All three of those cards are first pickable. You just sent a signal to your opponent its wide open by passing two, the traditional signal number, playable cards in that color combo.
When you combine both horrible signal sending and an aggro format you end up with a pretty bad format. Since its an aggro format and signals and curve are so important and you have packs that are so heavily geared towards a single color combination you end up with what we have now. A format where you end up drafting whatever you open (first bomb) and stick to your guns for better or worse. Sadly this just makes the format a cluster fuck from a decent drafter's stand point.
When you have either one of these, a good drafter can work around it. Heavy aggro? Draft on curve over high drops and win on combat math skills. Horrible print runs? Stick to your guns and know the format, sometimes passing a good card for a better card thats on curve and sending a bad signal is worth it.
Such is life I suppose. We'll see what happens when Dragon's Maze comes out.
Heavily aggro formats in general tend to be very bad for limited. When you only get 4-7 turns, the luck factor (1) rises. When you only get to play a game with your starting hand and the top 4-5 cards of your library, game factors like proper curving out and proper answers rises. If you cannot draw an answer for that Wojek Halberdiers or Steppe Lynx you'll just lose to it. This doesn't make for a very fun game in the long run. Triple Gatecrash is one of those formats. Games can play out very quickly and snowball out of control if one person curves out perfectly and the other player struggles to find their fourth land. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it tends to reward luck over play skill in the long run.
When drafting a heavy aggro format like Gatecrash and Zendikar, one of the most important things to do is figure out what color(s) you're drafting as soon as possible. Since your curve is extremely important, you may have to take that Grizzly bear (2/2 for 2) much higher than any other card just to curve out properly. That leads us into the next part.
The common print runs are heavily skewed towards a specific guild. How many times have you seen the following commons in the same pack? Slaughterhorn, Scab-Clan Charger, Crocanura, Ember Beast. More than once? How about Kingpin's Pet, Syndicate of Tithes and Basilica Screecher together? This is an issue with the print runs. These cards are all printed near each other, causing massive headaches for drafters trying to send signals. How can you signal Gruul/Simic isn't open when you take the Croc and pass Slaughterhorn, charger and Beast? Even worse is the Orzhov pack. All three of those cards are first pickable. You just sent a signal to your opponent its wide open by passing two, the traditional signal number, playable cards in that color combo.
When you combine both horrible signal sending and an aggro format you end up with a pretty bad format. Since its an aggro format and signals and curve are so important and you have packs that are so heavily geared towards a single color combination you end up with what we have now. A format where you end up drafting whatever you open (first bomb) and stick to your guns for better or worse. Sadly this just makes the format a cluster fuck from a decent drafter's stand point.
When you have either one of these, a good drafter can work around it. Heavy aggro? Draft on curve over high drops and win on combat math skills. Horrible print runs? Stick to your guns and know the format, sometimes passing a good card for a better card thats on curve and sending a bad signal is worth it.
Such is life I suppose. We'll see what happens when Dragon's Maze comes out.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Reddit musings: A reply about Deep Space 9 and the Prophets
I was browsing /r/startrek and came across a topic that peeked my interest. Someone had finally watched all of Deep Space 9 and enjoyed it. I've always held the notion that DS9 was one of Star Trek's best series. It dealt with the conflict between the utopian Federation and the rest of the universe. It developed characters and races further and better than any Trek prior or since. The dark overtones of the series clashed perfectly with the utopian ideals of the Federation.
In the thread, many people talked about how boring and unnecessary the Prophet episodes were to DS9, and how they seemed jammed in there with no real reason to exist. I made this reply to one person in particular.
The original post I replied to here.
The jist of his post was, "In the end, doesn't it seem like everything was predetermined by the Prophets to happen and that all the decisions by the characters meant nothing?". I disagreed.
Ever watch FlashForward? There was a scene in season 2 I think that talks about [Linchpin Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_analysis#Linchpin_analysis). Thats what I believe the Prophets did, set the ball in motion with limited information (first contact with Sisko) in order to try to make sure the event happened to expand their knowledge.
This is not collaborated with anything but this is my theory:
The Prophets never interacted with the outside prior to meeting the Sisko. They had no concept of linear time, other races or anything else but themselves. They existed only within their spacial anomaly. We know this because in the first encounter the Sisko described linear time, and the Prophets closed the wormhole because 'it damages' them. We know from later episodes people travelled through it, so why not close it then? Their only desire was to learn more about this, and thus Sisko was let go with the promise of returning.
The Prophets then decided to make sure it happened. They desperately wanted to learn about the outside universe, so using their non-linear existence set the linchpins in motion to make sure both Sisko's existence happened and that he returned due to their own lack of understanding of Linear time.
This is where I believe the Pah Wraiths come into play. They have a deep, deep hatred for all things we, the audience sees. They hate linear existence and those in it, and hate the Prophets because they want to explore this universe. In the first meeting with the Prophets, there are many more entities. Many of them are aggressive to Sisko, saying he needs to be destroyed. In subsequent visits, these angry, aggressive thoughts are no longer there. Those were the Pah Wraiths. Perhaps a 'war' of sorts happened and they were cast out, confined to Bajor's fire caves away from the Sisko's time line, or so they thought.
We know from what they've said, and how they act the Prophets are akin to the Q. Omnipresent, incredibly knowledgeable and extremely powerful beings. However since they had no concept of Linear time, they made mistakes, in the episode "The Reckoning" shows it.
There is a battle, between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths coming. We don't when, where or how but its coming. The Bajorian equivalent of armageddon. The Pah-wraiths take their revenge on the Prophets for casting them out and not listening to them about the Sisko being dangerous.
It all comes down to that first contact. Sisko interferes with a people's way of life, and thus changes the course of history, and himself along with it. Sisko violated the Prime directive inadvertently by entering the wormhole. He interfered with the Prophets development (a secluded, and non-warp capable species) and in return, nearly brought down the entire Alpha quadrant because of it.
"*The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.*"
—Jean-Luc Picard, Symbiosis
Before DS9, the prime directive only concerned itself with less developed societies, but never before or since has it touched on what happens when mankind interferes with a more advanced one. DS9's entire story arc revolves around this.
So while boring to watch, the whole Prophet-guidance thing in DS9 was essential to DS9 and Star Trek in general. Nothing was planned by the Prophets, they just set it in motion to make sure they could learn more about the outside universe and linear time, while not understanding it.
TL;DR: The Prophets fucked with time because they had no concept of it.
In the thread, many people talked about how boring and unnecessary the Prophet episodes were to DS9, and how they seemed jammed in there with no real reason to exist. I made this reply to one person in particular.
The original post I replied to here.
The jist of his post was, "In the end, doesn't it seem like everything was predetermined by the Prophets to happen and that all the decisions by the characters meant nothing?". I disagreed.
Ever watch FlashForward? There was a scene in season 2 I think that talks about [Linchpin Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_analysis#Linchpin_analysis). Thats what I believe the Prophets did, set the ball in motion with limited information (first contact with Sisko) in order to try to make sure the event happened to expand their knowledge.
This is not collaborated with anything but this is my theory:
The Prophets never interacted with the outside prior to meeting the Sisko. They had no concept of linear time, other races or anything else but themselves. They existed only within their spacial anomaly. We know this because in the first encounter the Sisko described linear time, and the Prophets closed the wormhole because 'it damages' them. We know from later episodes people travelled through it, so why not close it then? Their only desire was to learn more about this, and thus Sisko was let go with the promise of returning.
The Prophets then decided to make sure it happened. They desperately wanted to learn about the outside universe, so using their non-linear existence set the linchpins in motion to make sure both Sisko's existence happened and that he returned due to their own lack of understanding of Linear time.
This is where I believe the Pah Wraiths come into play. They have a deep, deep hatred for all things we, the audience sees. They hate linear existence and those in it, and hate the Prophets because they want to explore this universe. In the first meeting with the Prophets, there are many more entities. Many of them are aggressive to Sisko, saying he needs to be destroyed. In subsequent visits, these angry, aggressive thoughts are no longer there. Those were the Pah Wraiths. Perhaps a 'war' of sorts happened and they were cast out, confined to Bajor's fire caves away from the Sisko's time line, or so they thought.
We know from what they've said, and how they act the Prophets are akin to the Q. Omnipresent, incredibly knowledgeable and extremely powerful beings. However since they had no concept of Linear time, they made mistakes, in the episode "The Reckoning" shows it.
There is a battle, between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths coming. We don't when, where or how but its coming. The Bajorian equivalent of armageddon. The Pah-wraiths take their revenge on the Prophets for casting them out and not listening to them about the Sisko being dangerous.
It all comes down to that first contact. Sisko interferes with a people's way of life, and thus changes the course of history, and himself along with it. Sisko violated the Prime directive inadvertently by entering the wormhole. He interfered with the Prophets development (a secluded, and non-warp capable species) and in return, nearly brought down the entire Alpha quadrant because of it.
"*The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.*"
—Jean-Luc Picard, Symbiosis
Before DS9, the prime directive only concerned itself with less developed societies, but never before or since has it touched on what happens when mankind interferes with a more advanced one. DS9's entire story arc revolves around this.
So while boring to watch, the whole Prophet-guidance thing in DS9 was essential to DS9 and Star Trek in general. Nothing was planned by the Prophets, they just set it in motion to make sure they could learn more about the outside universe and linear time, while not understanding it.
TL;DR: The Prophets fucked with time because they had no concept of it.
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