It actually is yugioh now, sick. For those that arent familiar, in 2008 there were 8 copies of the same deck (tele-dad) in the top 8 of worlds, basically card for card. This was fueled by one card being head and shoulders above all other cards -- Dark Armed Dragon. A comparison can now be made to Jace TMS.

It's not Jace it's the deck.

pauper is nutty, and white weenie is garbage. The best decks seem to be combo type decks like faeries and frantic storm.

Teledad had a lot of other good cards that work together [hell, the name of the deck implies a combo where you get DaD out quick.] But both JaceTMS and DaD are mythics/super-ultra-bananas rares with 3 digit pricetags that are max copies of in the best and only viable deck. Also both are cards that put the deck archetype way over the top.

Nope, Stoneforge puts it over the top.

yeah its the whole package.

Jtms is great but at different points in the metagame Bloodbraid>Jace and Primeval=Jace. The being said I wouldn't mind a Jace banning because this is pretty ridiculous

prob just pick up the maruader pick 2 and just go big. seems like a big investment in white (ww cost) for a mediocre card

Relic-Warder is way better than mediocre, but I agree with the rest of what you said.

I think this was one of my worst drafts and yet I still went 3-0 with this deck. The only game I lost I was badly flooded. I guess this just goes to show how good removal and good equipment can make almost any deck playable. Your thoughts?

http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=2q0mx

Here is the deck:

1 Tel-Jilad Defiance
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Trigon of Rage
1 Wing Puncture
2 Rot Wolf
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Phyrexian Hydra
2 Fume Spitter
1 Heavy Arbalest
1 Slice in Twain
1 Viridian Emissary
1 Galvanic Blast
5 Swamp
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Corpse Cur
4 Mountain
9 Forest
1 Cystbearer
1 Withstand Death
2 Shatter
1 Scourge Servant
1 Flensermite

Sideboard
2 Melt Terrain
1 Glint Hawk
1 Choking Fumes
1 Disperse
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Mountain
1 Mountain
2 Barbed Battlegear
1 Banishment Decree
1 Rally the Forces
1 Seize the Initiative
1 Trigon of Mending
1 Blunt the Assault
1 Melira's Keepers
1 Divine Offering
1 Relic Putrescence
1 Blistergrub
1 Piston Sledge
1 Glissa's Courier
1 Sunspear Shikari
1 Rusted Slasher

ferrengi,

not gonna go pick by pick, but you drafted pretty similarly to how I would have. LSV recently mentioned it on CF and I agree that you can first pick Spine of Ish Sah and build around it. Even if you don't combo off with it it's still a colorless Desert Twister. That's playable in limited.

Looks like someone noticed infect was underdrafted and moved into it in the second pack. WTF @ how late the Arbalest went. I also think you should have taken the Vulshok Heartstokers over random unplayables since it seemed like you planned to splash red. He's a cool combo with infect. I also probably would have passed the first Barbed Battlegear because of the toughness modifier, but that pack wasn't amazing so I can see why you took it.

Your deck ended up pretty decent, I can see the potential for a win. As you say, a good removal suite goes a long way towards getting your men through and winning the game.

Thanks ***
I hate it when I draft good infect creatures in pack 1 and then get cut later. Not much you can do about it I guess. One of the things that helped me win is that the card pool in my opponent's decks also appeared to be pretty weak. It looked like there was a good white deck available but I never faced it and don't know how that person lost their match.
I didn't notice the heartstokers, I need to look at this draft again and see what I took instead of them. I guess I just looked at them and said, non-infect therefore not relevant but the +2/+0 is helpful and at least the heartstoker can block or it can be sacced using a flesh allergy.

Anyone playing GP London? Would be nice to meet some other 2p2ers.

Can't be there Day 1, but I'll probably be PTQing on Day 2.

Anyone know when the prerelease and release events for new phyrexia are taking place?
I've heard people say that the payouts for release events are better than the prerelease but last time I checked they were the same in the 6 pack swiss sealed events. Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks!

Have tried this before, now I try again. If someone could please help me I get shot a thousand errors when making a magic online account. If someone would go and make me one I will pay the 9.99 fee and give them ten dollars for their trouble, ill take 5 minutes at most just really want to play, get unable to process the order on browser signup and frc034 in the client. Please, your not doing anything right now anyway so make ten bucks, shoot me a pm and Ill give you an email to use and what not. Thanks! ( payment via paypal)

I expected this to be mentioned here by now, but I am surprised that the source of the New Phyrexia leaks was discovered (indirectly) as Guillaume Matignon, who shared it with Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, who shared it with someone dumb enough to brag online and show it off. DCI bans for everyone involved, Matignon getting 3 years as the ring leader.

I think the punishments are overly severe, but typical of WotC/DCI based on previous cases. What really shocks me is that nobody has complained bout the big leg up WotC is giving their favorite pros. This seems to indicate that a select group of players have complete access to a set a month or more before anyone else. This has big repurcussions in situations like PT Paris where the set is released very shortly before the event.

I think the crime of favoring a certain group of pros over anyone else qualified for the pro tour is far worse than leaking a set early. Who can say that Caw-Blade wasn't born out of an extra 4-6 weeks of testing? How many times has this happened in the past? While doling out hefty punishments to those that revealed their secrets, they are drawing attention away from the bigger secret they were hoping to conceal.

I read a little deeper into the blogosphere and found I'm not the only one to see this as the main problem with the leak. Matt Sperling gave a succint summary.

not to mention that you could just go buy 200+ splinter twins for .25 each and flip for $3+ instantly once the set info is out

that won't always happen but man you could make some huge money if you had the hexmage spoiler early and loaded on dark depths etc

This doesn't even need to happen on a personal level. I can see dealers having a lot more to gain from something like this, and they could also very easily be in on seeing complete spoilers ahead of time. So sleazy by Wizards. But we're all still going to keep playing. :s

According to Antoine Ruel and some people from Channel Fireball, WOTC only gives out full spoilers to people working and writing for print magazines because of the time required to write/print/distribute articles to get them out around prerelease time. Anyone working for websites isn't given the whole spoiler list early. Take that for what it's worth though.

Although this makes me wonder, how many magazines still exist that cover TCGs?

So what if they only give it to people making magazines. It still doesn't really make sense why they need the complete spoiler. Is it so they can write articles that discuss the whole set that come out around the same time as the set? That makes sense, but does not excuse allowing pro players access to the cards early. And I don't care if they are also writers; it's still unfair and taints the whole pro tour, as well as my impression of Wizards' judgement. How can spoilers be a huge deal en masse but just fine for an elite few. If I ever qualify I'll complain even harder.

These pro players only had access because they are writers.

Yes, that's why.

I'm just saying that it isn't WOTC handpicking which pros they want to help out, it's supposedly just those that write for magazines, which there can't be many of. If it wasn't for this happening, I wouldn't have even known that any of those magazines still exist. I agree that this is unfair, but if they want to help out the magazines, I don't know of a better way to do it.

You guys of obviously unaware how the system works. Its not the top pros getting their hands on the set, there is an elite group that get the cards first and as a team build decks to see how the format will play out. This is done both during development and after the set has been finalized. It happens with every set and they are very good at predicting the tier decks. Im not sure if these guys were part of that group but Im saying its the way things are.

But they are still pro players. Writers or not, this is a scame.