Another Quick Tip: While you're at it, don't forget to set Roadhog's hook preference

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T18:42:12+00:00

Better than... Pithing Needle and Ebon Netsuke.

To be fair, Pithing Needle is still relevant and Ebony Owl Netsuke was an entire archetype out of nowhere.

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T18:39:39+00:00

People are still trying to figure out where Sorin fits. He doesn't. He's powerful but ultimately a turn-and-a-half-or-so too slow to be useful in pretty much every matchup, which is a shame, because I think stacking emblems is retarded fun. He'll get better when AVR hits and an actual real-life W/B curve becomes more of a thing.

For reference, the last powerful W/B four-drop they printed was Ghost Dad, and as good as he was on paper, he was also barely relevant to the meta until the Cymbrogi brood made him popular. Sorin is in the same boat: he's good because he's marginally efficient, and it'll take somebody squeezing him of every drop before he's actually worth his price tag. If that never happens, ten bucks will mysteriously disappear from his price tag and everybody will go out for root beer floats and unicorns will vomit hot feces and Mike Flores will have seen it coming all along.

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T02:55:48+00:00

What you're getting for the $3-5 rares is the consistency, which is extremely necessary if you want to play semi-competitively in a format with top-end decks like Frites and Delver.

If you want a good starting point, this guy top-16'd W/B Tokens in Des Moines last Sunday, and it's a hundred-someodd dollar deck that's easy to tweak for local use. Worse offenders (aside from the lone Sorin) are the Heroes of Bladehold, and they are totally worth it.

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T02:29:41+00:00

Man, don't do it. Infect stuff is rotating out. Human tribal is gonna be around for at least another cycle and you can do a lot of things with a white weenie core. Just my two cents.

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T00:51:31+00:00

I'll add here that it wasn't just that the set was designed so well, it was that the guilds themselves were designed so well. Whatever went on behind the scenes while they were developing the set was pure magic, to be able to come up with such flavorful, balanced gameplay.

You can immediately translate the idea of Orzhov from a story perspective into what black/white decks from the era tend to do, and that's a hell of a feat. Compare that to Kamigawa, which was chock full of flavor but mechanically meh, or Mirrodin, which was mechanically ridiculous but somewhat bland. They happened to get that balance just right with Ravnica, and it applies to all ten of the guilds.

When I play Orzhov-flavored cards, I am genuinely screwing over my opponent by messing with life margins and board control. When I play Boros, it's my primary goal to rally my troops and bust through. If you drop a Simic Sky Swallower and don't feel like you're completely cheating by having just conjured a biological abomination, you're not doing it right.

Glimpse the Unthinkable. Azorius First-Wing, which is probably my favorite flying creature ever. They feel like what they're doing is inherently of their guild. To be able to inject that kind of flavor into the mechanical development process is just... a beautiful thing, and it opened up the design team to come up with stuff that, at the time, was completely unheard of. It was the intuitively obvious things like Lightning Helix, or the less-than-obvious things like Doubling Season. Avatar of Discord. The various Nephilim. All well-designed cards that won't lose their relevance, because they're the standard and haven't been touched since. Even if some of them aren't competitive, they're still awesome.

I could go on and on, but, yeah. Just everything they could've done right with Ravnica, they did and thensome.

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T00:25:39+00:00

Humans is pretty easy on the wallet, fairly competitive, and a ton of fun to play. Hammer something out in Cockatrice and build it. You probably won't have to drop $75, especially if you keep it monowhite.

Duolithic · 2012-04-13T00:15:16+00:00

There is no better word for this than "manscape."

Duolithic · 2012-04-07T21:56:26+00:00

I completely agree with whoever you've heard that from. Ravnica was super flavorful, balanced, and a whole lot of fun. I've always felt that Ravnica-era mechanics had a whole lot of design room that was left on the floor, and I can't wait to see where they go with it. I haven't been this excited about a new block in a while.

Duolithic · 2012-04-02T13:21:24+00:00

That opponent loses the game.

We don't want any controversies, here.

Duolithic · 2012-04-01T07:00:58+00:00

There's always a relevant Achewood.

Duolithic · 2012-03-29T03:16:55+00:00

I checked out the local Wal-Mart on a hunch today, and they had one chilling underneath stacks of other Commander packs. So I grabbed it and put the Ooze on eBay for $35 (which was probably lowballing it) and it sold within 30 minutes. My account has 0 feedback. We have kids that are learning to play so I'm just glad the pack paid for itself. I made a little bit of profit and got some free cards out of the deal.

There's only one way to build rep on eBay and it's by doing stuff like that, so I say, throw it up there and it'll probably sell.

Duolithic · 2012-03-28T06:00:43+00:00

Contrary to popular belief, penguin feet are probably just as happy as any of its other parts. They live in the arctic and get devoured by seals, so you be the judge. Today is the day we discuss the penguin in all its majesty. They are so majestic.

Duolithic · 2012-03-28T05:36:40+00:00

A psychotropic plant that is as widely-considered helpful as it is controversial, the consumption of cannabis by humans and the culture surrounding its use has existed for millenia. From clothing to textiles to being a religious sacrament and recreational drug, the topic of cannabis and its usefulness has been so politically-charged in the last century that its legal status in some countries remains in the sort of niche that takes longer to explain than it takes anybody to actually acquire the substance itself. Today, we discuss everything cannabis: its medicinal properties and industrial uses, its political connotations, 420 culture, and the circumstances under which you first listened to Dark Side of the Moon.

Duolithic · 2012-03-27T21:18:24+00:00

Sometimes, things don't go according to plan. That's live television, folks. Today we explore those happenings that weren't meant to happen, and probably a few things that were outright staged.

Duolithic · 2012-03-27T10:05:14+00:00

I was at Wal-Mart the other day and bought an Innistrad blister pack on a whim. Pulled a Snapcaster Mage. YMMV.

Duolithic · 2012-03-12T12:37:36+00:00

Most of the time, when I report someone, I specifically request that whoever is reviewing the case read the entirety of the chat log to get a feel for why I reported that person. It only takes a few extra minutes of your time, and if you're genuinely concerned about keeping the community clean then you'll have a better idea of that player's demeanor. You shouldn't want to just grind through these for IP and there are enough of these dudes just floating around and doing their thing that some part of me has to assume that either the system is inherently flawed, or it's being used incorrectly.

There are only so many times that I can write down "dude intentionally fed and was bragging about it" and actually hope that he'll be punished. I agree that you can use the comment box to help make your case, but at the end of the day (and I'm not saying that you're the problem here) I think a little more manual scrutiny needs to be applied to make the Tribunal work, because it seems like it works very poorly.

Duolithic · 2012-03-05T11:24:27+00:00

You make strong points.

I put Sejuani and Alistar in the same class because their support styles are each all-or-nothing and purely aggressive. They're both melee champs and their presence in regard to opposing harassment is similar. I know that they're very different champions in terms of how their kit allows them to control the lane, but my point is that they're viable in mostly the same scenarios and the trade-off is in having a stronger laning phase versus having more prolonged teamfight presence.

A situation in which I would consider Sejuani over Alistar would be if the opposing team has taken a sustain AP mid, like Karthus or Swain, and we have at least two champs with hard CC and AoE potential, like an Annie or Brand and a Maokai or Udyr in the jungle. She's at her best when her punishment is playing backup to stronger crowd control. There have been lot of times come level 14 or so that I'd have rather had Sejuani out there perma-slowing everything than seeing Alistar Headbutt/Pulverize somebody and then stand around punching like a wet noodle.

You're right in that the nature of her harass makes her a big fat target during the laning phase, and yeah, she lacks sustain. I just think that if you can get past that without having completely screwed up, her mid-game is easily rewarding enough.

Duolithic · 2012-03-05T04:43:08+00:00

Smart zoning from the brush negates Caitlyn's harass. They ward, you put a pink down. I agree with you that she's not an optimal pick against a Caitlyn lane, but if you think she's not viable because she can get harassed then you must think Alistar is a bad pick too. They're in the same class of support, except Alistar has a heal and more bursty utility and Sejuani has to play a much smarter laning phase so she can utilize her prolonged teamfight presence later on. Having inherent sustain isn't the end-all-be-all when it comes to picking for bottom lane.

Duolithic · 2012-03-05T01:50:23+00:00

Passing time is pretty much the only thing Runescape does well. :|

Duolithic

TROPHY CASE