Is "Unlocking Legacy" relevant to tournament players?

[DoNkEyBaLLs2000]

Do competitive players benefit from these articles? It seems like there is a lot of casual content in the articles. Does starcity games have any requirements for their writers or the articles?

[Wallace]

Do competitive players benefit from these articles? It seems like there is a lot of casual content in the articles. Does starcity games have any requirements for their writers or the articles?

Ummm, Yes, and Yes. Welcome to the Source, I guess...

[Getsickanddie]

Do competitive players benefit from these articles?

Doubtful. Lately it's been a lot of look at my wacky unproven decklist.



It seems like there is a lot of casual content in the articles.

If by casual you mean unproven or introductory then yes.


Does starcity games have any requirements for their writers or the articles?

Judging by the slop Anusien has written in the past, no. That said, the quality of articles vary depending on the author.

[Tacosnape]

Do competitive players benefit from these articles? It seems like there is a lot of casual content in the articles. Does starcity games have any requirements for their writers or the articles?

Not very often, agreed, and possibly something involving suppressing the gag reflex. Although I could be confusing that last one with Adepthood on The Source.

In all seriousness though, this tends to vary from author to author and even article to article. Although some writers always write solid articles from a writing perspective, I have yet to see one of their writers consistently write something that's really helpful to me. This isn't to say that they never do so. It's just hit or miss. I consider the better writers the ones who have about as many hits as they do misses.

However, in defense of these guys, Legacy is the most experimental and chaotic format in existence due to the ridiculous number of decks and archetypes that exist within it. This makes writing perfect articles for the format incredibly difficult.

[Pinder]

Gotta love how this thread was started by a guy with the name 'Donkey Balls'. This is great.

To address the question, um...no. I skip most of the Unlocking Legacy stuff that isn't written by Bardo. I really like his writing style, but that doesn't neccesarily make his articles any more relevant to the die-hard Legacy tourney player. Of course, if I recall the articles were there to introduce newer players to Legacy. How well they do that is also up for debate, but they're not really geared for tourney regulars.

[Jak]

I read one once in a while, but the ones are really only by Nightmare, Bardo, or Hival. Most of the others aren't really worth reading. Not to be mean or anything, but I would stay away from Anusien's articles. Lots of people disagree with what he writes and most of his decks seem to have godly MUs.

[xsockmonkeyx]

Obvious troll is obvious.

[DeathwingZERO]

Theory in practice is basically always going to fall under "Beginner's Guide to Competitive Anything". Most of the UL stuff that's good will be how to take philosophy x and turn it into strategy x, or how to advance your thinking if you think you've mastered something.

The rest of it is pretty much just randomness and thinking outside the box when doing creations or tournament practice. Not really anything new or interesting, but sometimes I've seen some things that put various theories or mentalities when playing or creating in a different light.

[C.P.]

To tell the truth, I don't think the quality of the writing are very exiting. However, that does not mean that the articles are useless. Some of the ideas are great, while some of them aren't. You will have to think about what you read and decide for yourself if it is a good information or not. You can can get treasure from trash can if you are prepared with right mind, or vice versa.

Don't get me wrong, though, since I greatly appreciate the fact that there is something to read about this format. I still remember the times that all we got was a little article here and there once in a 4 month or so. Considering that, I'm very thankful to those who writes about Legacy every week.

P.S. I almost want to mention my least favorite writer in the format and exclude him from the thanks, but oh well. I wish that no writer would pretend that he knows everything about the format and he can speak for it.

[URABAHN]

Do competitive players benefit from these articles? It seems like there is a lot of casual content in the articles. Does starcity games have any requirements for their writers or the articles?

I play competitive Legacy and, no, I rarely benefit from reading Unlocking Legacy. I don't know what the guidelines are for the Unlocking Legacy Column, but I wish they were stricter.

[hi-val]

I think you'll find the one going up Monday to be very informative for tournament players. It's a look at Legacy tech from around the world.

I'm also hopefully going to be doing a metagame breakdown like what Phil Stanton did for Vintage a while ago.

Legacy is a strange format to write about because it gets played a lot and not a lot at the same time. There's a question about what people want to read and want to see. I write about what I'd like to read; this means that I avoid tournament reports as articles, especially ones that start with "Round 1: I don't remember much from this match". I also avoid B&R discussions, since they're mostly fruitless, and I don't like doing the Nth "Intro to Legacy" article. That leaves room for a lot, and I enjoy writing about new and interesting decks because Legacy has such a deep cardpool. I avoid general theory articles since they're often boring to me, but I've been kicking around an idea about cards that are maindeckable but not sideboardable, if that makes a little sense.

You've got to address a format that has both people beginning in it and experts; Standard writers choose one or the other, but with such a dearth of Legacy content, one must often make a pyrrhic choice about the audience to address, and that often makes the other side of the readership feel left out.

LOL @ thinking SCG doesn't have standards. Pete is not an idiot. He pays people to write because they make money for him. Personally, I just make like a haruspex and consult a sheep's entrails for ideas.

[troopatroop]

Obvious troll is obvious.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

Is this someone who created a second account just to ask this question(like that troll acount that complained about adepts)? Why would someone make this their first post?

[Pinder]

Is this someone who created a second account just to ask this question(like that troll acount that complained about adepts)? Why would someone make this their first post?



Obvious troll is obvious.

[Cait_Sith]

Obvious troll is obvious.

Upjeuic dnumm ec upjeuic.

[DoNkEyBaLLs2000]

Ok so it sounds like some people like reading these columns as entertainment, which is fine. But who is going to help players win the next big tournament? Wizards doesn't publish anything competitive, and no other site can support good writers. Does starcity want content that is tournament relevant?

[Nihil Credo]

Ok so it sounds like some people like reading these columns as entertainment, which is fine. But who is going to help players win the next big tournament? Wizards doesn't publish anything competitive, and no other site can support good writers. Does starcity want content that is tournament relevant?
You volunteering? Pray tell us about your awesomeness.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

And tell us who you are. Because this isn't worth listening to if you're not going to ante the fuck up.

Seriously, would the Legacy community not specifically look for stuff to bitch about? This isn't people claiming that Flash is fair in this format, or that it's normal that green shouldn't be a viable color, or that the upper tier is terrible and you should play Trix; lately people have been complaining about truly petty shit ad nauseum, and it's fucking pathetic, and it makes the Source look terrible.

[Lego]

and it makes the Source look terrible.

I had to quote this because it was my first thought upon reading this thread.

@ Obvious Troll: If you think something is broken, fix it. There are at least half a dozen ways to do that in this situation. If you don't want to, don't complain.

[Peter_Rotten]

I'll rip a comment right off the terrible WoW forums:

"Post on your main."

Do we have productive to say here? Or shall I lock this?

[Happy Gilmore]

Lock it like its hot.

[Artowis]

Do competitive players benefit from these articles? It seems like there is a lot of casual content in the articles. Does starcity games have any requirements for their writers or the articles?

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5350/funnypicturesboredcatkk3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Pinder]

Pretty much anything ever

Yeah, just lock it.

edit - But not before I get some QFT-age:



Seriously, would the Legacy community not specifically look for stuff to bitch about? This isn't people claiming that Flash is fair in this format, or that it's normal that green shouldn't be a viable color, or that the upper tier is terrible and you should play Trix; lately people have been complaining about truly petty shit ad nauseum, and it's fucking pathetic, and it makes the Source look terrible.

[Peter_Rotten]

I think it's fair to say that we're through here.