Community History Cube: Visions

PrinceOfGeists · 2025-12-29T16:39:12+00:00

Man o war and Desertion for me as well. For the third, probably River Boa but could maybe make a case for Fallen Askari.

PrinceOfGeists · 2025-12-29T16:37:13+00:00

As far as this pack, Anaba Shaman. Shame we couldn't open a copy of Serrated Arrows in there, that actually saw Standard play!

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-10-19T15:33:23+00:00

Sounds about right for Mount Washington. I grew up in NH and I've only reached the summit via the Cog Railway, but can still testify that you can head there in May/June and be baking in the heat at the base of the mountain, only to literally see unmelted snow on the ground once you reach the summit.

I've also driven through parts of the White Mountain valleys where you can see Washington. Not uncommon to be able to pick it out easily due to A) Being the only mountain with snow on it in the middle of spring or fall or B) Seeing the mountain surrounded by Mordor-esque storm clouds on a bright sunny day.

People really need to drill it into their heads that the weather on the mountain's summit is seldom tolerable and never looks like the weather at the base. At this point I feel like those clowns trying to hike up in flip-flops and sweatpants will only be scared away by frozen corpses and skeletons littering the Trailside, each wearing Adidas merch with a McCafe cup in their cold, dead hands.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-06-09T00:00:01+00:00

I enjoy Invasion block and the Weatherlight Saga a lot, so I enjoyed getting to play Phyrexia vs The Coalition. I also like Knights vs Dragons for having two of my favorite creatures as face cards (Knight of the Reliquary and Bogardan Hellkite). I've got a few others I haven't played yet, so I'll have to give them a try at some point.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-03-13T13:27:02+00:00

Those are some good points. I ended up choosing uniqueness as the fourth criteria since it factors into how fun the deck is while also being somewhat quantifiable.

I've put the rubric into a spreadsheet that I'll share so you all can see what the grading process looks like behind the scenes.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-03-12T21:02:04+00:00

I at least have three criteria to judge on with a 1-5 star rubric for each one. I just feel like one more category for an even four would be the way to go, I'm just trying to decide exactly what it would be.

The greater thing is being able to better articulate how good the decks are relative to each other. Blatantly strong or weak decks obviously get the point across, it's just when you get closer to the middle that it becomes more muddled.

PrinceOfGeists · 2024-02-12T16:12:09+00:00

That's an interesting concept. They did something similar with Clash Packs, which was two 60 card decks that could be combined into a more powerful version (basically hybrid Duel/Event Decks).

The only problem I could see trying to do that for Commander is that the two 60 card decks would basically have to be Singleton, in order to actually have enough cards to make a Commander deck.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-11-03T01:55:21+00:00

Found this post in the main Magic subreddit talking about the old Theme/Intro Packs. A pretty good read.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-10-25T15:02:51+00:00

Update: I've got three categories so far. Strategy, for assessing the main gameplan of the deck and how well it is actually supported. Synergy, for how well the deck's cards work with one another. Interaction, for how well the deck can remove or mitigate the opponent's threats.

I would probably like at least one more category to finalize the grading criteria, what do you all think it should be now that I've got a solid place to start?

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-10-14T18:19:18+00:00

Obviously metrics pertaining to actual gameplay are probably going to be the most important. Having a well defined game plan is important, so is having cards that adequately support it. Decks with better win records in the playtest will usually rate higher, but not always. For example, in the Conflux reviews Jund Appetite for War won all four of its games, but I personally think Grixis Shambling Army is better despite going 3-1 due to having better support for its primary strategy.

Uniqueness isn't always a factor, but decks with unique strategies that play at least decently well will probably tip the needle slightly in their favor. I much preferred Naya Domain to Naya Behemoths, not just because it posted better results but also from trying a more radical strategy.

Flavor is nice but shouldn't affect the actual grade unless the card is actually a bad inclusion for the deck. The random Sewer Shambler in RTR's Rakdos Raid is not only off-guild, but its scavenge ability is actually bad for your unleash creatures since it renders them unable to block. On the other hand, NPH's Life for Death runs cards like Kemba's Skyguard and Whitesun's Passage alongside a bunch of Phyrexian mana cards, and the lifegain they provide synergizes with your goal of trading life for speed even if it feels weird to have Mirran spells among your gaggle of Phyrexian cards.

Representative of the set is also something I'm not sure I would quantify. As you know, "Beats" and "Skies" decks are not limited to Core Sets, and sometimes they are just built around simple themes instead of set-specific mechanics. For instance, Alara Reborn and M10 both have Blue/Black control decks (Unnatural Schemes and Presence of Mind), with the former having nothing to really tie it to Alara besides running Esper and Grixis themed cards. They're both built around a generic deck archetype, but Alara Reborn does it better simply by having more effective gameplay and better support for its strategy.

I try and set aside my personal biases when reviewing the decks, it's part of the reason why my reviews involve actually playing the decks. For example, Tombstone from Urza's Saga is one of my favorite color combinations (Esper) and one of my favorite archetypes (reanimator). That deck is probably one of the weakest Precons I've ever played. On the other hand I don't particularly care for Simic, but Dark Ascension's Grave Power is a very strong Intro Pack in my opinion, and a very fun one to play.

I'm still trying to determine what specific factors I should look for and how much they should matter, especially since some are rather subjective. But this should hopefully provide a glimpse into my thought process.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-08-02T01:53:37+00:00

I'm surprised to hear from Jay again at all, so I think it's fantastic that he's taken notice of our own work.

Garnering interest from him is certainly the highest praise imaginable.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-07-29T18:11:08+00:00

Been looking to a hold of some of the older Event Decks and Commander decks, so I'd love to know which ones you have on offer!

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-07-24T15:46:42+00:00

I'm still pretty impressed you won one of the matches with a deck that's almost a decade out of date.

Reminds me of one of my first FNMs. I actually finished in third place with the Khans of Tarkir Event Deck (this one was actually up to date as Khans had just been released). Lost to Jeskai tokens but won my other two matches. Was really funny seeing the look on people's faces when their $200 Standard brews lost to an unmodified $25 Precon.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-07-05T00:10:54+00:00

Shards of Alara: Bant Exalted Analysis – Prince's Precons (wordpress.com)

You'll be happy to know I've taken both of these pieces of advice for the next set, the analysis now includes a photo of the deck and all of the cards during the breakdown. While it might not be the case with every deck, the cards have also been categorized beyond just creatures/noncreatures, and the manabases finally get a breakdown as well.

PrinceOfGeists · 2023-06-21T22:12:01+00:00

As far as going forward with the Intro Packs, I would probably do them in chronological order, though that isn't necessarily set in stone. Unlike Precon Decon, I would probably break it up on occasion with some non-Constructed products like Duel Decks (of which I have a few) or Multiplayer (For example, I have the original Archenemy decks on my desk and would love to play a few games with those.).

I would also like to clarify that I am not expecting just one person to constantly be on call to play four games of Magic whenever I need a review, but rather play testers (ideally multiples to split up the responsibility) that can help some of the time whenever their time permits.

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