The Ferrett.

[Peter_Rotten]

Did anyone read the Ferrett's article about Flash (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14188.html), or are we all sick and tired of Flash debate?

Personally, I thought it was rather reasonable.

Your thoughts?

[TheDarkshineKnight]

Yeah, I read it; and I quite liked it. It's probably the only article about Flash that I agree with.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

It's hard to say. I can see where the deck's impact at the GP was definitely interesting to watch, and certainly I had fun innovating the deck. While the deck was and is blatantly unfair, in a field of hate it was almost like watching a fair fight. On the other hand, it also effectively killed all other combo, which had been the most innovated archetype of recent months. It also drove away a number of decks that weren't Goblins from making day 2- the tables showed far less diversity than they had at Philly.


Ultimately, I think Flash's impact was better than was feared by some, but still worse than what was hoped for by others.

However, it still bears in mind how small a percentage actually played the deck. It did not post Goblins numbers, and much less if we're only counting competent builds. And even Pro players were punting games with it by comboing wrong. The deck at the GP reminds me of a baby polar bear- it's really cute to watch when it's still young and small and inexperienced. But I don't think we want to watch what it does to the format when it grows up. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_oD1IsYbE&mode=related&search=)

[Machinus]

In a regular development cycle, Flash would have crushed the GP. As it was, even the pros tested very little, and some people none at all, and it still dominated other decks.

[eternaldarkness]

It's hard to say. I can see where the deck's impact at the GP was definitely interesting to watch, and certainly I had fun innovating the deck. While the deck was and is blatantly unfair, in a field of hate it was almost like watching a fair fight. On the other hand, it also effectively killed all other combo, which had been the most innovated archetype of recent months. It also drove away a number of decks that weren't Goblins from making day 2- the tables showed far less diversity than they had at Philly.


Ultimately, I think Flash's impact was better than was feared by some, but still worse than what was hoped for by others.

However, it still bears in mind how small a percentage actually played the deck. It did not post Goblins numbers, and much less if we're only counting competent builds. And even Pro players were punting games with it by comboing wrong. The deck at the GP reminds me of a baby polar bear- it's really cute to watch when it's still young and small and inexperienced. But I don't think we want to watch what it does to the format when it grows up. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_oD1IsYbE&mode=related&search=)

Kinda like how the early versions of Affinity with Broodtsar and Override were cute, fun and kinda fair. We all know what happened to that baby polar bear.

Ferret's article was refreshing for me after endless "the sky is falling" and "Flash Hulk is destroying the format". Its a very interesting take on the effect the deck had on the Grand Prix. I just hope Hulk Flash doesn't go the same way affinity did in standard.

[frogboy]

The early versions of Affinity were arguably the best deck in Standard anyways because they always had the counter for the Vengeance. This was prior to Darksteel.

[Nihil Credo]

Except that Broodstar Affinity - an amazingly cool deck, IMO - just lacked the cards to be totally broken. Hulk Flash needed both the Future Sight additions and the time needed to develop well-tuned lists.

[Cait_Sith]

As it sits, I wouldn't mind Hulk Flash to much pre FS. It is still overpowered, but not too much so. Post-FS, the era we are in now, adds in cards that make the deck strictly better without improving their competition. That is bad. I am pretty sure that there will be some B&R changes come June 1st and with no more major tournaments coming up I think there isn't too much to worry about.

I like this Ferret article (getting back to the topic at hand) and agree with him that maybe we should calm down. Unless Hulk Flash survives June 1st. Then we can go crazy.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Yeah. Here's hoping for some banning on Flash and some unbanning of four or five other cards.

In the meantime, Here's a warning to Mr. Nightmare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLwmUbRY8Mk&mode=related&search=).

[Pale Moon FTW]

One of the better flash articles I've seen. However I think he vastly overlooks the main problem with Flash. It seems thde only thing he's concerned about is wether it's beatable. But it isn't that simple, the problem with Flash is how much it restricts deckbuilding. The whole Combo archetype is generally boiled down to Flash variant only (because it's so obviously superior why the hell run anything else? If you do you'll get spanked by Flash). Also a lot of aggro decks such as zoo-builds and generally non-blue and non-black aggro autoloses to Flash.

But anyway there's a good chance Flash will feel the power of the banstick June 1st so it's kind of a waste of time to discuss it so much, especially making hate-decks and new Flash builds seems to be pointless ATM.

The strange thing, which is also bought up in the article, is that if Flash is banned then it has helped the format more than damaged it. GP Columbus was the only major event it had effect so what it did most of all was actually just to draw more attention to Legacy than ever before (which was much needed). Of course there's always the problem that the whole incident can have damaged Legacy's reputation by making ppl who aren't very familiar with it to think that it's an unbalanced format ruled by broken combo decks.

But still Flash has been hyped a little more than it deserves like the rumors of the dreaded turn 0 kill, which in the end was extremely rare.

[Nightmare]

Much like real life, the bear has about a foot and 100lbs on the Tiger. No shit the bear wins.

[Atwa]

I thought it was one of the best articles written on flash, and I really hope it will stay that way, since it will mean the card will be banned on june 1st.

I pretty much agree with his statement that players tend to respond too quickly and too afraid. I also agree with the point of view Flash might have been the best thing which could have happened so far for the format, at least by getting attantion on it. However, would we have gotten the same attention if we didn't all cry out loud it was going to ruin the format?

The fact that it is beatable, doesn't mean it is healty, and I really hope it gets banned. Since if it won't, I will start to play it (I already got the deck build at the moment). I like the way the deck plays, and I like to play combo a lot. I just hate to play this beast in the format I love so much.