This exactly. Remember those terrible land tax miracle lists? They were horrible, but everyone is struggling to shove then in some deck because it's "supposed" to be broken.Originally Posted by Lord Seth
In SCG:LA, a guy running 3 copies made it to the semis with esper stoneblade:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=60418
His reasoning for choosing the deck was as follows:
"Saw variations of Esper doing well in Europe and I felt this list was the best to combat S&S. I didn't even get to play against it today though."
Alas, he lost in the semi finals to a sneak and show deck.
I don't consider Esper Stoneblade a good deck against Sneak and Show, but I think it's a good deck overall.
I think he should have named Sneak Attack in both G2 and G3 with his Meddling Mage, particularly G2 when he had Karakas in hand. I'm sure he had his reasons to name Show and Tell though.
If he name Sneak Attack, show and tell can still drop sneak attack into play. I would have named Show and Tell too. Anyway this is the reason I dislike Meddling Mage. Generic stuff like Flusterstorms, Discard and cliques do more work Imo unless you really need the clock from Meddling Mage.
Naming Sneak Attack forces him to have both enablers in order to put Sneak Attack into play, and it takes away a blue card to pitch with Force of Will, which was relevant in game 3 if not game 2. This is especially the case since he had Unexpectedly Absent in his hand both games.
I like having new and interesting cards added to the legacy pool but does it have to be yet another blue card?
I think this is fairly apt. There's not much difference between unbanning a card and having a new card see print, except the theorycrafting surrounding Land Tax is much older.
I also think that there's a little bit of parsing that needs to be done between these two examples, though. For all the talk of card advantage, card quality, etc etc that people would inject into Land Tax discussions, at the end of the day its effect didn't gel with what a lot of decks were already doing, or didn't make them any better. I'm kind of reaching a little but I would hazard a guess that Land Tax's promise is fulfilled better by Jace the Mind Sculptor, even though it costs 400% more. Granted, the scope of what people wanted to pull off with the old Tax/Rack business is much larger than Jace's, but really the format is already setup to make Jace more favorable; it pitches to Force of Will, it casts Brainstorm which has recognizable synergy with fetchlands - really "Brainstorm-like-effects"/fetchlands is something of a miniature version of the Tax/Rack engine.
That's kind of why I was surprised to see so few Stoneblade-like lists in that recent Top8. If there were an existing deck with the infrastructure to adopt True-Name Nemesis exceptionally well, it seems like it'd be that one. Also there's also not been a chance to really road-test any innovation around TNN either; none of those lists didn't exist without TNN before that tournament.
I'm still of the mindset that the card is exceptionally good, but there are lots of 'good' cards that aren't good anywhere. Like um... Land Tax, I guess. vOv
JTMS costs 4x the amount Land Tax costs, but only 300% more.
Other than that, your analysis seems sound to me.
The comparison to Land Tax is not especially apt because Land Tax is an engine card that makes such demands upon a deck that it requires the other 56 cards to be chosen specifically for it. The most visible uses of Land Tax just after its availability was to add a single copy to something for a lark or experiment. The "Land Tax" deck never showed up in top 8s. In contrast, True Name Nemesis is simply being plopped into existing decks with little else changed. There is no brewing or brainstorming on how to make it work, save perhaps some playtesting. From this vantage point, I would expect a lot of people to be trying it out compared to Land Tax. I also expect that this is a card that is excellent on some days and gets sided out often in others. It will likely be a weather bell for the format. I don't see the argument ending any time soon belittling how powerful it is, no matter what the tournament results. But a rapid adoption could make the naysayers moot.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
You know what? Fuck math. My computer says 4 = 3 because myArrayOfShit[3] = the fourth item I put in there. The fuck, right? Computers are insane.
I'm kidding. Early morning post is early. Thanks for the red pen.
this card is good only with Equipments, which calls for SFM, which calls Batterskull and Jitte
Batterskull is already good on its own. It chump blocks nearly anything and attacks too (the new merfolk doesn't).
Jitte is big on anything and GST is in colors too...
Don't know how much this card is needed right now and in which deck..
After seeing it in action a bit, I think the card is solid, abd to some decks very difficult to beat, but obviously worse vs other decks. I see it as a played card. Not super heavy play, but I think it will see a should amount of play.
yes as a 3x in a SFM based deck.. making it to weild a SoFI is definitly solid.. or better, that's where my fantasy stops
I echo others sentiments that it won't be a archetype defining creature like Stoneforge Mystic, Deathrite Shaman, etc, but it'll be a nice complement/supplement as a 1-3x of in a smattering of decks like Grim Lavamancer, Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage, etc.
I think what people keep forgetting is that this guy is a Merfork.
Merfolk is great against blue because they cant block it. Now this guy is unblockable whatever your opponent is playing.
Also, it blocks Goyfs all day. Remember the days when Merfolk splashed green for Goyf?
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I played two Nemesis in my UWr Blade list. Won me a few games. Once equipped with Jitte or Batterskull, it's GG.
I think decks which naturally support Golgari Charm like Black Maverick, The Rock, BUG and others could see more play when this guy appears more often.
Haven't you heard? The default color for cards being designed is blue. They have to remember to change the color when finishing the card.
Especially, because giving protection from something is inherently White's ability.
Just a printing/management error, now buy more packs and play Standard/Modern!
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote