Ever wonder what gears turn during the process of a card review?
Earlier this week, I was having a discussion with my friend Brian David-Marshall about card ratings. Before I go on, let me just say that BDM doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves, from me or from anybody. I’m not talking about his inventing the second biggest brand in TCGs, or his transition in to one of the fiercest drafters in the world/jet setting reporter, or even the new stuff we’re announcing over at Top8Magic (no, not now, don’t bother clicking); BDM is the catalyst for something like 95% of everything that I write… I just don’t give him the nod most of the time.
For Pro Tour: LA, BDM suggested fairly early that I look at Golgari Grave-Troll and/or Stinkweed Imp in Psychatog, but I was very closed minded, plus I was high about working with my new team. Cutting a long story short, I played an underpowered B/W deck and the best finish on my highly innovative and dangerous team was a 41st place care of Osyp’s stock Goblin deck. I have since learned to keep an open mind even when Brian seems to be suggesting something “cute” rather than good, because he has a better eye for proactive synergy than I do. Anyway, a lot of my articles are summaries of playtest sessions, phone calls, IM windows, and outlandish recommendations from Brian, Jon Becker, Steve Sadin, Josh Ravitz, especially Greg Weiss, and certainly others… even Theodore K. Cardgame! It just so happens that I don’t spread the credit as much as I should… The process, if not the writing, of this one belongs to Brian.
It’s funny that the genesis of the conversation was that I had misread Jeroen Remie rating of Angel of Despair in his Orzhov review. I mistakenly believed that Jeroen rated the Angel at *****/*****, which put me on the Magic theoretician equivalent of full on tilt. Now Jeroen — an otherwise greatly admirable player — is famous for his love of The Rock, a deck full of long game card advantage if inefficient threats, and I thought he must be smoking the said Rock if he were willing to give Angel of Despair ***** (again, it was in fact I who merely needed to get a new prescription… sorry for doubting you Jeroen). That my impetus was misplaced does not invalidate the discussion, though, so I’ll take you through my thought process.
Part of the reason that I don’t rate cards as * to *****, as most other reviewers do, is that it is basically impossible to evaluate a threat or answer outside the context of a real deck. For example you can look at a card like Shattering Pulse; when Shattering Pulse appeared, I was incensed at R&D for printing an update that was strictly better than a card I had been willing to play in a Constructed Pro Tour (Chris Pikula, playing the same deck, even made Top 4 with perfectly placed Shatter). This didn’t make any sense to me because Shatter, while unexciting, was perfectly fine for its role, and contributed quite well overall. No matter how impossibly superior it was to an original Staple, Shattering Pulse didn’t dominate sideboards while it was legal… In fact, Dave played one copy total in the sideboard of his US Nationals 1998 deck. Shattering Pulse is not the only card in the history of set design that looked too good on paper — probably got the panties of the set reviewers of the time in uncomfortable bunches — but failed to earn a lot of space in the top decks.
To put it another way, I asked Brian what card he thought was better, Angel of Despair or Gnarled Mass?
“Before your PTQ win, I would have said Angel of Despair.”
“Does that change your opinion?”
“Um… yes?”
“If I were in the business of rating cards * to *****, I would have given Gnarled Mass ** by the way, and Angel of Despair ****… but that’s why I don’t rate cards that way. I don’t think it is representative of what actually matters in Constructed Magic.”
The interesting thing about Gnarled Mass in context is that it isn’t a spectacularly overpowered card, and it certainly isn’t a better card than Angel of Despair. Angel of Despair is a remarkably powerful card. In the course of our conversation, Brian gave me all manner of reasons to buy into what I thought, at the time, was a ***** rating on the part of one of our favorite Magic players.
Angel of Despair is superb in a topdeck fight (this is about the best thing you can say to me when trying to persuade me that a card is good).
Angel of Despair might be more expensive than Yosei, the Morning Star; it might at least arguably have less effect on the outcome of the game than Yosei’s (most of the time), but you can’t argue that straight up, Angel of Despair off the top doesn’t kick the hell out of Yosei, doesn’t force the opponent to have something else off his own top, no matter how bad the best and worst Angel looks in the short term.
You certainly can’t argue that Angel of Despair won’t have a dramatic effect on the board (provided you can cast it) almost every single game. It not only takes down the opponent’s best card on the way down, it generally starts off the next turn as the best card.
Despite all those bullets in the Angel’s corner, all I had to do was pull the “Gnarled Mass” card to have Brian reverse his card valuation. Obviously the Trained Armodon is better! The difference is that, in Constructed Magic, it isn’t just about finding and playing the best cards; it’s about playing the best decks. Gnarled Mass, at its puny two stars, was the quintessential Role Player… and played one hell of a role. All by its lonesome, Gnarled Mass wouldn’t have done very much, but in the context of one particular deck, it was able to solve, if not break, the format. This card, with the two puny sideboard slots in the one narrowly played deck it filled, addressed a significant problem in the context of a real metagame. To me, the disincentive to Hokori that Gnarled Mass created not only made the underrated Spirit playable — even “good enough” — despite the fact that I would never attribute a better rating to it than Angel of Despair (no matter how good she looks on paper, the jury’s still out on that one).
Sometimes I wonder if I am the best person to do card evaluations. I’ve always considered myself a terrible “idea” person, and consistently miss proactive card synergies that seem obvious to everyone else. Regardless of any hand that I had in shaping the language they share, I don’t look at the game according to any accepted rules of deck construction. Zvi’s favorite criticism of me is that not only do I play fair, but I bend all my knowledge of the metagame and card interactions towards the singular purpose of finding more and more ways to play Magic as fairly as possible, in as many matchups as possible (distasteful). In case you were wondering — and I obviously was, having looked it up — the guy who used to do the set reviews for Star City gave Gnarled Mass ***/**** (yes that’s a four-point scale)… the same rating he gave Umezawa’s Jitte.
The reason I initially took exception to the perceived ***** rating on Angel of Despair is that I have a very specific belief of what is “best,” and how you stack things up next to best. Zvi is very pragmatic in his set reviews, limiting his **** designations to ten cards maximum (meaning he has both a lot of wiggle room and very little). To me a ***** card is Wild Mongrel, is Psychatog, is Fairy Godmother; whether I would call them Staple or Flagship, cards, perceived five stars are, to me, a small and special — and by nature, exclusive — cadre. There is no way that I would accept a seven that doesn’t say “win the game immediately,” that doesn’t contribute to other elements of the game mechanically or thematically, in that group.
For similar reasons, I get annoyed at whoever the critic is who does the movie capsules for my digital cable company; Groundhog Day and The Royal Tenenbaums — one of the most sublime films I have ever seen, and the funniest movie I have ever seen, respectively — both command **.5 according to Nameless Digital Cable Critic, but Titanic — which is the worst movie of all time (for the same cost you could produce between fifty and two hundred Pulp Fictions) — gets ****.
The whole “addressing cards in the context of real decks” / missing proactive strategies thing came up just yesterday in a conversation I had with the currently exiled Greg Weiss.
“Why so down on Mourning Thrull? I think it’s one of the best cards in the set!”
What?! This is the guy who invented Flame-Kin Elemental Bidding and Extended Burning Stax. His favorite topic of conversation is how underpowered my decks are!
“Your problem is that they tricked you into thinking he was a White card. He seems great in B/G beatdown as a way to offset Dark Confidant in Block. Shambling Shell on turn 3 should be more than enough to win a lot of matchups… And Moldervine Cloak? Forget about it.”
Mourning Thrull is Greg’s Gnarled Mass.
When I qualified with Critical Mass, Mark Schmit, a Neutral Ground regular who I road trip and test with, said that he didn’t even have Gnarled Mass in his box of playable commons (when Sadin and I busted out the Armodons, Mark went with the more accepted Tribe Scout version of U/G). If I had gone with my dismissive first instincts, I would have just passed over a card that usually qualifies as my favorite kind in Constructed — the kind everybody else misses but serves an admirable role that can twist matchups and ruin the value of the opponent’s playtesting.
On balance, the hardest part of doing set reviews is picking which cards “have” to be labelled as Constructed Unplayable. I am an extreme person by nature; I have this idea that the “correct” way to find a “correct” moderate political identity is to pick and choose polar positions from both sides of the dividing line without being fettered to one narrow ideology (while almost necessarily holding strong feelings about everything, rather than falling into apathy). As such, because I possess the need to point out why cards like Stitch in Time can have long term value, cards that most people would dismiss immediately and superficially, I feel an equal need to bash on cards that seem like they would be all right where I think the line they have to get into is too long. In the context of real decks, I usually have a very keen understanding of what is a poor deck to pick, despite common sentiment; for example, I would never have played Deep Dog at Regionals 2003 (where it was eventually the most played deck that year, where I beat it at least three times, over at least four Composts and maybe six) for want of a dual land, and I would never have played Fungus Fire at Champs 2005 because it didn’t have percentage in the matchups that I felt mattered (it did, however, have singular percentage against Boros, which was the most played deck of that format). As such, when talking about cards out of context, I’ve been wrong before… and the possibility exists that I may well be wrong again.
On the subject of being wrong before, I decided it would be fun and enlightening to go back to my Ravnica reviews and point out the places where I think I was off base.
Faith’s Fetters at Role Player
This card has already shown itself to be better (or at least more popular) than Devouring Light, which I rated Staple. Devouring Light certainly isn’t Staple now, as the jury is still out on that card… but I think Faith’s Fetters has probably earned a better spot, commanding maindeck positions in decks as disparate as Fungus Fire, Enduring Ideal, and even some versions of B/U/W and B/R/W Control.
Seed Spark at Role Player
I am not sure if Seed Spark isn’t just a Role Player, but it is telling that the World Championship deck was perfectly willing to run this over Naturalize maindeck, not to mention its ubiquitous inclusion in Sunforger decks. I’m not sure if it’s right to merely say that Seed Spark is a perfect fit where a deck wants tokens, or an appropriate card for a deck that wants White artifact and enchantment removal in a single card, or if this card is just Staple… maybe we’ll revisit come Block.
Compulsive Research at Constructed Unplayable
Considering the fact that this gets played in at least three strong decks in the current Standard (two of which are Tier One), I was just wrong on this one. Compulsive Research is arguably Staple.
Dimir House Guard at Constructed Unplayable
I am revising this to “Constructed Unplayable in decks not designed by Bennie Smith.”
Golgari Thug at Constructed Unplayable
Does minority inclusion in the best archetype in recent memory warrant the mea culpa here? It’s pretty annoying to fight the same Psychatog for the third time. Then again, not every Friggorid plays the Thug. Role Player.
Nightmare Void at Role Player
Even though most decks that include Nightmare Void only play one copy, it’s pretty clear that this card is Staple for the fact that all the Gifts Ungiven decks play one, and that many decks play more than one. I severely underrated Nightmare Void initially; it’s one of Chapin’s favorite cards.
Ribbons of Night at Role Player
This card is in the Seed Spark camp for me (interestingly, it is a member of the same cycle). I think Ribbons has an even better case than Seed Spark to move up to Staple for a couple of reasons: 1) it is the go-to card for many Control decks that need life gain after boarding, and 2) U/R and U/W decks are leaning on their Signets — Signets that might not be in their sixties a month from now, mind you — to play this. I’m pretty sure Ribbons of Night is better than Bottle Gnomes in Annex Wildfire’s sideboard. It is certainly a backbreaker in Hattori-Hanzo Tron against aggression.
Stinkweed Imp at Role Player
To say that I severely underrated the Dredge mechanic in my Ravnica review is kind of like saying that “Jaime Pressly is an attractive female.” Considering the fact that Stinkweed Imp is one of the primary engine cards driving not only the best deck in recent memory but is also included as a singleton in Legacy Psychatog in place of both Cunning Wish and Berserk and a primary driver in Elemental Bidding’s combo engine makes a case for it at Flagship; certainly this Dredge powerhouse is Staple at the least.
Woebringer Demon at Flagship
I’m trying really hard to think of something clever to say. If I stop now, can we agree that I simulated “the sound of silence?” Okay, it’s a deal.
Flame Fusillade at Role Player
I didn’t realize at the time that this card was capable of a two-card combo in Legacy. Flagship.
Chord of Calling at Flagship
I don’t think that we’ve seen the extent of this card’s potential quite yet. It’s okay for Flagships to miss the Staple rating along the way (not a lot of middle-of-the-road decks got in line to play Time Spiral). Maybe I’ll be proven right come Block… or wrong.
Fists of Ironwood at Constructed Unplayable
This card hasn’t seen any play yet… but it’s certainly not Constructed Unplayable. I think that Fists will be part of the Block Convoke deck, possibly alongside Chord of Calling. Fists is very comparable to Raise the Alarm, and quite synergistic with in-Block engine cards. I would rate Fists of Ironwood as Role Player at a minimum.
Golgari Grave-Troll at Role Player
To say that I severely underrated the Dredge mechanic in my Ravnica review is kind of like saying that “Jaime Pressly is an attractive female.” “Oprah Winfrey has appeared on television.” Considering the fact that Stinkweed Imp Golgari Grave-Troll is one of the primary engine cards driving not only the best deck in recent memory but is also included as a SINGLETON in Legacy Psychatog in place of BOTH Cunning Wish AND Berserk AND a primary driver in Elemental Bidding’s combo engine an additional threat in the recent Psychatog/Deep Dog hybrid makes a case for it at Flagship; certainly this card is Staple at the least.
Life from the Loam at Staple
I can claim I “didn’t miss” this card except for the fact that I missed that it is the most broken card drawing engine since Necropotence. Flagship if ever there was one, it is a testament to Life from the Loam that it can operate as “merely” a Staple in many decks, rather than completely dominating the card counts as a primary strategy.
Scatter the Seeds at Staple
Fists of Ironwood is better, and I had that at Constructed Unplayable.
Firemane Angel at Role Player
Besides making every Fungus Fire and generic R/W Control deck for Champs, this card is getting a lot of consideration across many disparate archetypes, even competing with the automatic inclusions of Kamigawa Dragons. Part classic Serra Angel, part bad Loxodon Hierarch, part inexorable card drawing engine, it probably says something that the best deck in recent memory can play Firemane Angel as a surgical sideboard card for bad burn matchups… and never even put her into play.
Seeds of Strength at Staple
See Woebringer Demon, above.
Thundersong Trumpeter at Constructed Unplayable
Definitely this card is playable… It is probably as good or better than Boros Swiftblade, which I had at Staple (despite the fact that I didn’t give it a separate entry, keep in mind that the Swiftblade probably isn’t).
Vulturous Zombie at Staple
Before Pro Tour: LA, we were terrified of this card. Half of my IM conversations with Josh started with “What do we do if” and then proposed a ridiculous sequence featuring a 10/10 Vulturous Zombie. My assigning the Zombie at Staple was born of this paranoia… and no one played the card at the Tour. I think this Plant Zombie might still show up for Golgari mirrors in Block or Standard, but even that is up in the air.
Shadow of Doubt at Staple
Well, I had it in all the decks I posted, didn’t I? The fact that not one of my decks survived to tournament fold with Shadow of Doubt intact probably says something; that no one else played it at all something else. Neither one of them is good for Shadow of Doubt. By the time it warrants a closer look, Gifts Ungiven won’t even be in Standard any more. Role Player.
Boros Signet at Role Player
I had no idea this would be so good off-color in Annex Wildfire (check out Kuroda’s deck from The Finals). Probably Izzet Signet will replace the Boros, but you can’t deny its overall playability at present. Staple.
Crown of Convergence at Staple
Could still prove itself Staple in Block… But I am no longer holding my breath.
Dimir Signet at Role Player
See “Boros Signet,” but apply the filter to many more decks, from Hattori-Hanzo Tron to U/W Control.
I hope this article gives you an idea of my overall thought process when evaluating decks as well as a little bit of insight as to how I develop tournament concepts from the ground up. If you didn’t like the content, send hate mail to Brian David-Marshall, but I was pretty late in submitting “DVD Extras,” so if you don’t like the cute little ‘shops, don’t blame Yawg. Next week we’re going back to Deck Fundamentals. If you liked Picking the Right Deck, hopefully you’ll cotton to the next batch.
LOVE
MIKE
[Mike is currently up for the Resident Genius vote on MagictheGathering.com, hoping to win himself a deserved place at this year’s Invitational tournament. Do the right thing, folks… pop over and vote for Mike. – Craig]