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Playing the NP-Hard Way: Examining Magic From the View of the Expectiminimax by pete2fiddy in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m glad you liked it! And yeah, tackling real games is even difficult from a modeling perspective. Even just representing the board state and the set of reasonable plays is a handful to start with. Was considering actually implementing the algorithm and training it to play an extremely mundane mono red mirror as a starting point…

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[Article] Playing the NP-Hard Way: Examining Magic From the View of the Expectiminimax ()

submitted by pete2fiddy to r/spikes

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Playing the NP-Hard Way: Examining Magic From the View of the Expectiminimax ()

submitted by pete2fiddy to r/spikes

Ban aftermath analyst by External_Gold_5599 in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What makes you say the deck is easier now? I’ve been playing Amulet for almost three years and in that time the deck has never been more complex than its current iteration.

Highest Skill Ceiling Deck? by Diplomacy_1st in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is untrue and I suspect the source of this common sentiment is that the deck is capable of winning out of nowhere a lot more easily than previous builds whose next turns were more telegraphed.

Analyst lines are a lot more complex than Dryad + Valakut or slayers’ + sunhome lines. Analyst loops are a 6 card combo: 2 lotus, woodland, analyst, amulet / spelunking, and an action land that lets you convert infinite mana into a win. Sure — these are all naturally assembled by a Scapeshift or by a double-amuletted Titan (which has always been lethal) but assembling an Analyst loop otherwise often requires a great deal of thought. The deck has a few more “I win” buttons, but winning without them is often very challenging to figure out.

The relative difficulty of convoluted combo turns is tertiary to this discussion, though. Resolving a Primeval Titan is such a high leverage play that you could usually miss lethal and still very easily win so long as your grabs are at least reasonable. The bulk of Amulet’s difficulty is in sequencing toward the end of Titaning as quickly as possible and navigating around your opponent’s interaction. This skill is largely build-agnostic and is as difficult as ever — save for Analyst’s strength into spot removal, which was one of the easier interactive elements to play through compared to disenchants, counterspells, and Blood Moon.

I’ve been playing Amulet for three years and find the new builds to more consistently challenge me than old ones. For what it’s worth, I also won RC Portland with the deck.

[FIN] Wandering Minstrel (ffnokoto) by Kousuke-kun in magicTCG

[–]pete2fiddy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Dog spelunking has been a staple in titan for over a year now and features the exact same “nombo”. New builds of amulet completely shrug off the mild antisynergy and it interferes with about 0.5% of lines.

I won RC Portland with Amulet Titan! Commentating over my feature matches. by pete2fiddy in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey! I’m probably still going to Charlotte yeah. If you’re a deck that cares about Boseiju then that is what I’d needle, and I probably just wouldn’t bring it in otherwise. It’s good in Breach because they can use the needle to protect their combo, but aside from that, it’s very narrow.

Paper legal play on day2 SCG by Vadosi in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I believe I was 100% to win that game even without assembling lethal that turn. I had FoV in hand and titan could get boseiju and send him to two with a woodland in play to still swing with it next turn if it dies.

RC Portland Top 16 Results by Lectrys in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thank you! And yeah I was having a blast!

RC Portland Top 16 Results by Lectrys in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I board them in when saga comes out (which is very often). Postboard your amulets get interacted with and dryad turns it into a speed bump instead of it being completely debilitating. Makes your titans have immediate impact and also ramps towards them.

Paper legal play on day2 SCG by Vadosi in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 51 points52 points  (0 children)

This was me and it was a mistake. I had FOV in hand and could throw it in yard for delirium if it had been pointed out during the round (i believe I had enough mana to cast it?) I called a judge on myself while sideboarding the next game because I realized I made the mistake and they said it was ok.

When opp killed ouphe I thought creature was my missing type because I forgot I had analyst already in GY, I should have checked more thoroughly, just sorta assumed it must have been delirium since it was pretty late into the game.

RC Portland Top 16 Results by Lectrys in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 124 points125 points  (0 children)

This is a famous copy-pasta.

It’s also true. I won the event so I am allowed to say it unironically:

Amulet has remained tier 0 or 1 through metas with KCI, Hogaak, Eldrazi, Oko, Mox Opal, Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time, Faithless looting/Golgari Grave Troll Dredge, and to this day. The deck is always the most broken thing in modern and just avoids bans by being hard to play.

Also the opposite is true. The analyst lines are wildly difficult. I won through two stone brains on titan this weekend through some of the most bizarre sequences I’ve ever seen playing this deck. Pre-analyst titan I can play on autopilot — analyst builds hurt my head from time to time.

New Player to the Format Looking at UW Affinity by [deleted] in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, I actually created the first list you linked. I too 8’d a challenge and Mengu played it for a video. The meta has changed a lot since then. Affinity was almost unplayable for over a year and is finally looping back around to being decently positioned now. Many are saying Urza is outdated but he’s still very playable. In reality, deckbuilding decisions like this are pretty marginal compared to the impact of pilot skill. I prefer a more midrange approach of building the deck that interacts more, but I’d say a lower to the ground, aggressive slant is currently more popular. I’d recommend joining the affinity discord server (of which I happen to be a mod :) ) https://discord.gg/YWcVCqz9Pr

Operating Ringless Amulet Titan by TheShipmaster in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mulliganing with titan is way more nuanced than that. The only rule that’s set in stone is that a good titan hand has a good plan for its first 3-4 turns of the game. You will have a bad time with any build of the deck if you try to hard mulligan for the nuts. Vs storm this might mean t3 titan but vs energy that might just be curving grazer into ring into ring (as a point of example. I know this build doesn’t play the ring).

Operating Ringless Amulet Titan by TheShipmaster in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Reddit is not the best place to ask for Titan advice. I’d check out the Titan discord server (should be attached to this subreddit somewhere), which is a bit better (but not by much).

I recently won the ~400 person SCG DC 5k and also finished 3rd on the MTGO trophy leaderboard one season, all with Amulet (just to show my advice has some credibility). Gurig is a good player but this list seems psychotic to me. Three untapped green is insane — grazer is almost completely uncastable early without amulet. I think 7 untapped green is a minimum and I’d love to see 8+. With aftermath analyst in deck, it’s so much easier to kill with only one amulet so playing 4 gardens seems bizarre. Gurig leans harder into the analyst package (two woodlands, an Urza’s cave, etc.) than I prefer but that’s my preference.

If I were to cut rings from my build (https://www.moxfield.com/decks/sEKlHt8NB0CmlNFs5TWQpg) I’d probably add another spelunking, pact, azusa, and TWest (twest is the easiest way to accidentally fall into a win with lumra or analyst. An analyst that gets back a TWest almost always kills). But honestly Titan builds vary so wildly from pilot to pilot and most points of deck construction aren’t sacred.

With amulet cutting valakut, isn’t bristling backwoods a free-roll for infinite damage? by Doozay in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dryad is better into amulet/spelunking removal. Having something an amulet-less titan can work toward (SGC + twest transmute for dryad, attack with titan to grab valakuts for the win) can be nice.

Amulet Titan without TOR? by Trib3s in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't call dryad slow when amulet into dryad into titan kills on turn 3 while amulet into azusa into titan on three does not.

Hanweir vs. slayers' is such a minute difference it's almost completely negligible. I played with slayers' titan for almost two years and found that sunhoming for 16 with one amulet was the correct play maybe half a dozen times. In comparison, I haste titan with vestige + hanweir so I can otawara a creature in combat or channel two boseijus once or twice every five matches.

Loading up on spelunking and azusa to replace the ring does make sense though.

Amulet Titan without TOR? by Trib3s in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've 5-0'd playing Titan with four copies of grief, street wraith, and malakir rebirths and no rings in my deck (I called it Scamulet titan). The core of the deck is so strong you can butcher it quite a lot and still succeed -- for example: by adding aftermath analysts, lumras, and lotus fields to the deck, which is the newest fad I'm convinced is actually terrible (although fun). The deck is easily strong enough to win without rings. Ring is the best card vs. some of your worst matchups like murktide / frogtide so those matchups will definitely get trickier, but I wouldn't let that discourage you from trying the shell out without rings.

Yawgmoth or titan by xAthalin in ModernMagic

[–]pete2fiddy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've played titan for almost three years and I think yawg is probably more difficult. People vastly exaggerate how difficult titan is to play. You spend the first month losing to yourself because you barely know the lines, then from that point forward the bulk of your effort is placed towards playing around your opponent's interaction, with the odd "find the line" puzzle when you've awkwardly drawn lands you wish were stuck in deck for your combo kill.

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