Yawgmoth’s Whimsy #309 - Number Crunchies for Breakfast

[caiomarcos]

A most recent breakdown of the SCG 5k tournaments:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/18670_Yawgmoths_Whimsy_309_Number_Crunchies_for_Breakfast.html

The regular top 8 archetypes, most played cards main/sideboard and the such.

What I like to point out is here (data from the top 8 at Dallas):

Top 20 Cards Played in Legacy (sorted by number)

Card --- Decks w/ card --- Total Copies in Maindeck
Island --- 5 --- 29
Wasteland --- 6 --- 22
Force of Will --- 4 --- 20
Daze --- 5 --- 19
Aether Vial --- 4 --- 15
Cursecatcher --- 3 --- 12
Lord of Atlantis --- 3 --- 12
Merrow Reejerey --- 3 --- 12
Mountain --- 2 --- 12
Silvergill Adept --- 3 --- 12
Standstill --- 3 --- 12
Tarmogoyf --- 3 --- 12
Mutavault --- 3 --- 11
Stifle --- 3 --- 11
Lightning Bolt --- 3 --- 10
Tropical Island --- 3 --- 10
Umezawa's Jitte --- 4 --- 9
Brainstorm --- 2 --- 8
Windswept Heath --- 3 --- 8
Misty Rainforest --- 3 --- 7


For the basic lands we have:

Basic Lands Played,
Legacy - Plains: 3, Island: 29, Swamp: 0, Mountain: 12, Forest: 2

(copy pasted straight from the article, sorry for the formating. Bold added.)

First: Windswept Heath the MOST played fetch, followed close by Misty Rainforest. Not Polluted Delta nor Flooded Strand. The cheapest, easier to get and regarded as one of the worst fetchlands was the most played one.

Second: The only dual land to feature was Tropical Island.

All this have their reasons. Tropical probably edged out other duals through the Goyfolk in the top 8 and Windswept is more played than other fecthes because of the Zoo deck, featuring it and none Misty Rainforest.

Obviously all the Fish decks and the Imperial Painter skyrocket the number of Island and Mountain, but ZERO swamps is kinda surprising for me.

What also becomes evident is how green is the colour that goes along with blue, not black anymore, which always had been. Goyf certainly is the reason for this.

(Probably most of us have noted that already, but numbers are good and I haven't seen any discussion about this yet).

Now my question is: why is U. Sea, Tundra, Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand still the hot dual/fetches? I didn't see the numbers but I guess there where more Savannas and Taigas than U. Seas. It's now very clear that THE color to splash is Tarmogoyf but still people does not give the related lands their due value. Is it Vintage that sets those prices?

[FoulQ]

Well, here is an old thread that talks a little bit about Underground Sea prices that I just dug up:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14059

Two factors I believe, the culture of legacy players tends to hold on to duals as an investment. The other factor being that the market can move slowly for older cards like this sometimes.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

Doesn't Vintage also have an effect on the price of duals/fetches? While I know next to nothing about Vintage any more, I do recall people saying that Underground Sea was the go-to land in the format relatively recently, which would certainly explain why it's that much more expensive. It might also go some way to explaining the popularity of Flooded Strand and Polluted Delta.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what the two UBG decks were? I know, I know, I'm getting my hopes up. If it's not a breach of protocol, I wouldn't mind getting a PM about them--not decklists, just a more descriptive name/title/are they UBG Intuition Aggro-Control? :tongue:

[IsThisACatInAHat?]

I can't speak for the fetchlands or Vintage's role, but duals don't really seem to lose value. Especially not USea or Tundra, which, being half blue will retain a lot of value as collector's items as well as useful game cards. Both also still feature heavily in many Legacy decks- any combo deck (except Belcher) almost always uses only USea and Tundra is a staple of Bant CBTop.

My question is about this:

Cedric Phillips: “Look, you guys can work on [it] all you want, but that deck sucks, and you are fooling yourself if you believe otherwise. ... It has no shot in hell of winning now that everyone knows about it.”
If Cedric Phillips is (supposedly) a known and respected pro, why does he insist on making himself look like an idiot all the time? Does anyone who knows him or know about him more than me seriously have an answer to this question?

He's got to have a pretty big chip on his shoulder to trash every card and every deck I've ever read him write about, across any format. What the fuck? If he explained himself every once in a while and had evidence to back his claims, fine. Even if he turned out wrong. Even if the result is actually a negative review every time. But an automatic-unjustified-immediate-negative quip about every new serious (and often successful) attempt at innovation =! depth of knowledge and understanding. They just make you sound like a myopic tool.

This is one reason I like Steve Menendian's articles so much. His articles are full of support for his theses so that even when I disagree with them, I can see where he's coming from. Even better, the guy's a regular Nostradamus when reading the metagame. Seeing him proven right and me proven wrong when the results of LA's 5k came back was awesome because it showed that people who have respect like him might actually deserve it. Please, Cedric, for the sake of all the Steves out there, just shut up...

[FoolofaTook]

The note pinned to the chest of defeated opponents of Merfolk that is splashing green for Tarmogoyf:



"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."

[dahcmai]

Ignoring Cedric Phillips is probably a good plan. The guy did well at a tournament once and isn't a bad writer, but his opinions on deck building leave something to be desired. I met him in Chicago and he's a nice enough guy, I just don't trust his ideas on Magic theory much.