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Smmenen
01-05-2009, 06:42 PM
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/16926_So_Many_Insane_Plays_A_Next_Level_Legacy_Tournament_Report_Top_4_Split.html

This is my report from the meandeck open, explaining my card choices, with a play-by-play of every match on the day.

Enjoy!

Giles
01-05-2009, 08:14 PM
I guess I will read it in 90 days then.

Pinder
01-05-2009, 08:30 PM
I guess I will read it in 90 days then.

Artowis
01-05-2009, 08:33 PM
Yeah really, you honestly expect more than a few people to have premium here for the approximate 0 Legacy content normally on the site and well known-hatred for other formats? This is even worse than when you post the vintage premium articles on TMD.

jazzykat
01-05-2009, 08:40 PM
I guess I will read it in 90 days then.

+2

jrp
01-05-2009, 08:47 PM
Nice article Steve! Well-written as always.

Jaynel
01-05-2009, 09:47 PM
I guess I will read it in 90 days then.

Volt
01-05-2009, 10:11 PM
I guess I will read it in 90 days then.

nitewolf9
01-05-2009, 10:29 PM
It was a bit thin, honestly. I mean, it really was quite ambiguous in the opening line:

"The information you are attempting to view is only available to StarCityGames.com Premium Members."

I'm not really sure what you are trying to convey here, but it seemed a bit pretentious. Also, this quote:

"PLUS! StarCityGames.com Premium members now have unprecedented access into America's largest Magic: the Gathering sales database..."

Is this really unprecedented? Where are the tournament results to show that it is really the "largest Magic: the Gathering sales database"?

I expected the report to be a little more interesting, really.

rsaunder
01-05-2009, 10:50 PM
It was a bit thin, honestly. I mean, it really was quite ambiguous in the opening line:

"The information you are attempting to view is only available to StarCityGames.com Premium Members."

I'm not really sure what you are trying to convey here, but it seemed a bit pretentious. Also, this quote:

"PLUS! StarCityGames.com Premium members now have unprecedented access into America's largest Magic: the Gathering sales database..."

Is this really unprecedented? Where are the tournament results to show that it is really the "largest Magic: the Gathering sales database"?

I expected the report to be a little more interesting, really.This.

J.V.
01-05-2009, 11:06 PM
+100

Arkham
01-05-2009, 11:14 PM
I was there. I'm not becoming a premium member just to read about a subject I've already witnessed, if only to see that Aggro Loam was mentioned at all. :tongue:

Bardo
01-05-2009, 11:21 PM
+2

Current count +1

@ Anyone - Please bump this thread in April.

Whit3 Ghost
01-05-2009, 11:26 PM
It was a bit thin, honestly. I mean, it really was quite ambiguous in the opening line:

"The information you are attempting to view is only available to StarCityGames.com Premium Members."

I'm not really sure what you are trying to convey here, but it seemed a bit pretentious. Also, this quote:

"PLUS! StarCityGames.com Premium members now have unprecedented access into America's largest Magic: the Gathering sales database..."

Is this really unprecedented? Where are the tournament results to show that it is really the "largest Magic: the Gathering sales database"?

I expected the report to be a little more interesting, really.
The wise criticism of a triple PHD.

BKclassic
01-05-2009, 11:32 PM
Well, I actually have premium and have to say, this article was really good. No super secret tech or anything, but its really nice to read a detailed and thorough Legacy tourny report from a good player.

Props!

AngryTroll
01-05-2009, 11:58 PM
I'm not going to complain about there being Premium articles over at SCG, because that's fine and fair and all...But a premium article about Legacy? Why? The premium target audience wants to learn about draft, type two, and maybe Extended. I don't play any of those, so I don't have premium, and don't mind that I can't read the cutting edge tech on those forums.

But I do play Legacy, and it's not worth it to me to pay for Premium for one article every few months. I know that you're an excellent player, Steve, and one of the best Vintage players in the States, so I can understand paying to read your reports on those formats. But why is this article Premium? Couldn't you throw the legacy crowd a bone?


Looking at SCG, Chapin had an article that mentioned Legacy last week/early this week (maybe?). Before that...the last premium article(s) about legacy were two by Zvi back in December...of 2007. Source :http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/articlefinder.php?keyword=legacy&Search+The+Net!=Search!

Why would I pay for premium to read about Legacy?

herbig
01-06-2009, 12:13 AM
An excellent article with good analysis of your play decisions.

Edit: You're aware that Chapin's deck is named Next Level Blue right? Your article title alludes to it, but in the article you list it as "4c Counterbalance-Goyf." Maybe this was just an oversight.

Other than that good job!

Eldariel
01-06-2009, 01:08 AM
Really looking forward to reading this once it goes live for non-premium readers. I think your style of writing articles and especially play-by-plays is just friggin' awesome and I'm expecting this article to be full of that. Of course, this just increases the frustration over the fact that I have to wait a few months.

jazzykat
01-06-2009, 02:55 AM
Current count +1

@ Anyone - Please bump this thread in April.

Awww...Pinder didn't count as 1 up there :P

Anyway, I do look forward to reading this in April.

TheInfamousBearAssassin
01-06-2009, 02:37 PM
It was okay. I liked the last one better.

Steve: You desperately needs to get over the Pat Chapin hero worship. You're visibly drooling throughout the entire article.

I thought saying basically, "I'm not that worried about the Dreadstill matchup because I know how to play around Stifle on my Fetchlands" was about the most amusingly bad threat evaluation ever.

Otherwise the matchups were mostly fun to read, although there's the lawyer's problem of never using one word when ten will suffice. Heads up, advice from someone with lots of family in the business; legalese is the way it is in order to insure the necessity of hiring a lawyer, because if every case was as simple as it's merits there'd be a lot of lawyers out of work. When you're trying to sell articles, though, occasionally it pays to simplify.

Also, you sound kind of pretentious as an opponent. This is why I'm a big fan of multiplayer formats, they punish antisocial behavior. I imagined you sneering and adjusting a monocle during the Dragon Stompy matchup.

Mantis
01-06-2009, 03:21 PM
I'm not going to complain about there being Premium articles over at SCG, because that's fine and fair and all...But a premium article about Legacy? Why? The premium target audience wants to learn about draft, type two, and maybe Extended. I don't play any of those, so I don't have premium, and don't mind that I can't read the cutting edge tech on those forums.

But I do play Legacy, and it's not worth it to me to pay for Premium for one article every few months. I know that you're an excellent player, Steve, and one of the best Vintage players in the States, so I can understand paying to read your reports on those formats. But why is this article Premium? Couldn't you throw the legacy crowd a bone?


Looking at SCG, Chapin had an article that mentioned Legacy last week/early this week (maybe?). Before that...the last premium article(s) about legacy were two by Zvi back in December...of 2007. Source :http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/articlefinder.php?keyword=legacy&Search+The+Net!=Search!

Why would I pay for premium to read about Legacy?
Because SCG.com is a buisiness not a charity organization.

Article was decent but I had hoped for a good analysis of the format or something as most of the Unlocking Legacy articles just can not provide me with anything I didn't know already. That said, you are a good writer. I like your style and your thoughtful analysis of gamestates. A nice read though, and a very good tournament report. One of the better ones I've read, not a whole lot of thrash talking and just analysis, which I like.

Pulp_Fiction
01-06-2009, 03:41 PM
It was a bit thin, honestly. I mean, it really was quite ambiguous in the opening line:

"The information you are attempting to view is only available to StarCityGames.com Premium Members."

I'm not really sure what you are trying to convey here, but it seemed a bit pretentious. Also, this quote:

"PLUS! StarCityGames.com Premium members now have unprecedented access into America's largest Magic: the Gathering sales database..."

Is this really unprecedented? Where are the tournament results to show that it is really the "largest Magic: the Gathering sales database"?

I expected the report to be a little more interesting, really.

ROFL

Thats awesome, this man speaks the truth.

EDIT: +28 to reading it in 90 days.

Zach Tartell
01-06-2009, 03:54 PM
This seems kind of silly. People are paying for Vintage coverage, not Legacy reports. While, conversely, people demand free Legacy coverage, while saying that Vintage reports are terrible and not worth paying for.

I think I'm closer to.... +23? Maybe only 20.

Illissius
01-06-2009, 04:30 PM
I'll think about reading it in 90 days and then inevitably forget.

frolll
01-06-2009, 04:34 PM
This will need a bump in 90 days.

cdr
01-06-2009, 05:48 PM
The report won't even be relevant in 90 days.

Smmenen
01-06-2009, 10:05 PM
I will be writing more Legacy articles and Legacy tournament reports in the next couple of months. To be honest, I'm more interested in Legacy at the moment than Vintage.

The approach I took with this report was not simply to give a play-by-play, but to give a full analysis behind the decisions I made. I've written dozens of tournament reports, and they all use the same approach: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/16243_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_2008_Vintage_Championship_How_I_Almost_Got_There_Again.html is merely one example.

I don't think there is a "right way" to write a tournament report, but I've found this approach to be the most insightful. The problem and the reason most people don't typically adopt it is because it requires the ability to remember every opening hand and then reconstruct every play of every game. This way, it allows people to look at the lines of play and think about what they might have done differently. For that reason, it's also the most pedagogically insightful. One of the forum responses on the SCG forums was that this article was particularly interesting because of my relatively lack of experience in Legacy, so they got to see my decision trees from a "fresh" perspective.

I was also hoping that my opponents might chime in and provide more detail about what they saw, drew, and their decision trees, especially now that they can see my entire opening hand for each game.


It was okay. I liked the last one better.

Steve: You desperately needs to get over the Pat Chapin hero worship. You're visibly drooling throughout the entire article.

I thought saying basically, "I'm not that worried about the Dreadstill matchup because I know how to play around Stifle on my Fetchlands" was about the most amusingly bad threat evaluation ever.

Otherwise the matchups were mostly fun to read, although there's the lawyer's problem of never using one word when ten will suffice. Heads up, advice from someone with lots of family in the business; legalese is the way it is in order to insure the necessity of hiring a lawyer, because if every case was as simple as it's merits there'd be a lot of lawyers out of work. When you're trying to sell articles, though, occasionally it pays to simplify.

Also, you sound kind of pretentious as an opponent. This is why I'm a big fan of multiplayer formats, they punish antisocial behavior. I imagined you sneering and adjusting a monocle during the Dragon Stompy matchup.


This is very inaccurate, but very funny.

It also reminds me how very interpretive the act of reading is. I really wasn't trying to talk Patrick up at all, and I was far from "drooling" over him in any metaphorical sense. I just really liked the look of his deck, and that's mostly why I chose that one to run with.

I WISH I sat sneering with a monocle during the Dragon stompy matchup. That would have been hilarious.

Actually, I wore a muscle shirt and sweat pants to the tournament, as I do for most magic tournaments. The effect of totally deconstructing my plays and the reasons behind my plays conveyed an impression about my demeanor and playstyle. It's funny that a written analysis can do that.

Patrick
02-15-2009, 09:33 PM
Because SCG.com is a buisiness not a charity organization.


This Joe Dirt quote will not go unnoticed.

@IDon'tWantToPayForLegacyContent.statement: I totally agree. For players who are only interested in Legacy there isn't a reason to pay for premium content. With that said, there's nothing to be done about it. The guys down at SCG.com think they can sell Smenen's content and that's what they're doing. Reminding everyone that you'll read it in 90 days doesn't do much for the discussion.

@Steve: I read your report about the event at RIW and I wasn't all that impressed. I watched some of the plays you were making and they seemed bad to the point of inexperience with the game. One prime example stands out. Playing against Tony with R/W Sligh, I believe you were around 8 or 9 life. You have 1 Dark Confidant down, and you opt to play a second with no Top in play. It just seems like against a deck with burn spells the last thing you want is an uncontrollable life for cards effect times 2. I'm not trying to insult you, just suggest that your content for Legacy should be free. I'm assuming your under some sort of contract not to post the article for free. If this isn't the case, why not do it?

Giles
02-15-2009, 11:44 PM
Reminding everyone that you'll read it in 90 days doesn't do much for the discussion.

I disagree. It shows that we are willing to pay for some legacy based content. Doing so, shows the demand for it.
I am pretty sure there is an opportunity cost in their as well.

Media314r8
02-16-2009, 03:36 AM
The report won't even be relevant in 90 days.

QFT

What the hell man? A decently sized legacy event goes on WHERE I play limited, and I'm not only in Iraq so that I can't play magic, much less the nearby LEGACY GP, but I can't even read about it for 90 days. grumble grumble.

herbig
02-16-2009, 05:05 AM
grumble grumble

Support the game not the format.

Patrick
02-18-2009, 12:13 PM
Support the game not the format.

Please rephrase your post into a logical statement.

MattH
02-20-2009, 05:26 PM
I WISH I sat sneering with a monocle during the Dragon stompy matchup. That would have been hilarious.
+1, yes it would have! Reminds me of Ed Paltzik (sp?).

Omega
02-20-2009, 06:13 PM
can we get a list? :)

About the double confidant at 8-9 life. Depends. If opponent has multiple creature (that can deal lethal), having more blockers is actually a bonus. Opponent can also take a gamble and say "hes going to die to his bobs".

Another situation when playing double confidant is ok is in desperate situations (when you need CA or a specific card). Granted you might not survive, it is probably the correct play to do. Its just too easy to say it was a bad play

Robert

Giles
04-06-2009, 12:09 AM
@ Anyone - Please bump this thread in April.

It has been 90 days. It is no longer Premium.

Go and read it.